Raze pushed through the door of their room, his face still damp from scrubbing at the fountain. His team turned as one, concern etched across their features.

"What happened?" Mariabel demanded, flames flickering instinctively around her fingers. "Did they hurt you? Threaten you?"

"Sit down." Raze moved to the table, gestured for them to gather. "All of you. We need to talk."

They exchanged glances but complied, pulling chairs close while Raze remained standing. His mind was still organizing everything, sorting facts from emotions, planning from panic.

"Lord Venn," he began carefully, "is worse than we thought. The manor is a drug den and brothel combined, people everywhere in various states of consciousness, servants distributing substances like they're refreshments at a party." He paused, watching their expressions shift from concern to disgust. "The corruption isn't hidden, it's celebrated, displayed openly because he believes himself untouchable."

"Did he hurt you?" Aslan asked quietly, silver eyes sharp with concern.

"No. He wanted payment for the dungeon clearing, sixty percent of gains as tax for operating in his territory." Raze pulled out the gold pouch, set it on the table. "I offered to pay, he refused it, called it a welcome gift to the capital."

"That doesn't make sense," Kael said, ever analytical. "Why refuse payment he's legally owed?"

"Because he wants something else." Raze's jaw tightened, his hand unconsciously moving to wipe at his face again. "He's taken an interest in our group, says he collects talented people, offers them patronage and protection in exchange for occasional service."

"Service." Mariabel's voice was flat, dangerous. "What kind of service?"

"He didn't specify but the implication was clear, we accept his patronage or face consequences, accidents and misunderstandings with the guard, obscure laws we didn't know existed." Raze met each of their eyes in turn. "We're on his radar now and that means we have two options."

He let the silence stretch before continuing.

"First option, we pack up tonight and return to Thornwick. Leave the capital, leave Venn's territory, avoid whatever he has planned." Raze's voice was steady despite the tension in his shoulders. "We'd be safe but we'd lose access to everything here, the Temple sessions and alchemical supplies and training opportunities."

"And the second option?" Mariabel asked, though her expression suggested she already knew.

"We expose him. Gather evidence of his crimes, build a case so overwhelming the crown has to act, bring it all to the attention of King Aldwin himself." Raze's hands clenched on the table edge. "Take down a Lord Regent through legal channels before he can take us down through illegal ones."

"That's insane," Kael said immediately. "He's crown appointed, protected by layers of bureaucracy and bought officials, we're four young cultivators with no political connections."

"I know." Raze's voice was grim. "But the alternative is accepting his patronage or running, and I refuse to do either."

Mariabel leaned forward, her golden eyes searching his face with uncomfortable intensity. "Raze, I need you to be honest with me, completely honest." Her voice dropped lower. "Lord Venn has a reputation, rumors spread even among nobles about his preferences, he likes charming boys and girls equally, doesn't care about age or consent." She paused, letting that sink in. "How did you get out of there in one piece? What really happened?"

Raze's stomach clenched, heat flooding his face as memories of those touches tried to surface. His hand moved to his mouth, touching where Venn's thumb had brushed, where he'd bitten down hard enough to draw blood.

"It doesn't matter," he said too quickly, too sharp. "What matters is the plan, what we do next, how we approach this systematically."

"Raze—"

"I said it doesn't matter!" His voice rose before he caught himself, forced calm back into his tone. "He was interested, I deflected it with humor and paid the tax anyway despite him refusing it, I got out without incident and that's all that's relevant." The lie tasted bitter but necessary, he couldn't tell them about those touches, that predatory interest, the way Venn had looked at him like something to consume. The embarrassment burned worse than any injury.

Mariabel's expression suggested she didn't believe him but she let it drop, nodded slowly. "Alright. So what's the plan then? You seem to have thought this through already."

"I have." Raze grabbed paper and ink from Kael's supplies, began sketching a rough outline. "If we're going to do this, we can't just attack blindly, we need three specific things in place before we make any move."

They all leaned in, watching as he wrote.

"First, we need witnesses, people willing to testify about what happens in that manor, victims who'll speak despite the danger." He tapped the paper. "Second, we need documentation, hard evidence that can't be dismissed or ignored, records of transactions and shipments and connections to criminal elements." Another tap. "Third, we need a way to get all of this directly to the crown without it being intercepted or suppressed by Venn's network, someone trustworthy who has access to the right channels."

"That's three impossible tasks," Kael said flatly.

"Not impossible, difficult but doable if we know where to look." Raze's mind was already working through the game knowledge, plot points and side quests that mentioned Venn's eventual downfall. "The first two involve finding specific people and the third involves a business, a news reporting firm that operates independently of noble influence."

"You know who these people are?" Aslan asked, surprise evident in his tone.

"I have ideas based on rumors and research," Raze lied smoothly. "The first person we need is Sister Elizabeth from the Temple, she'll be vital for connecting us to someone else, someone who has direct knowledge of Venn's operations and personal reasons to see him fall."

"The nun?" Mariabel's eyebrows rose. "She seems kind but how does she connect to this?"

"She treats people beyond the Temple walls, charity work in poorer districts, she sees things and hears things that others miss." Raze's voice grew more confident as the plan solidified. "Through her we can find the second person, someone with intimate knowledge of Venn's household, someone who wants him exposed as badly as we do."

"Who?" Kael leaned forward, already calculating how this might work.

"Lord Venn's wife." The name dropped like a stone into still water. "Lady Anastasia Venn."

Silence fell heavy and complete.

"His wife," Mariabel repeated slowly. "You want us to approach the wife of the man we're trying to expose?"

"She has a son," Raze continued, ignoring the skepticism. "A sick son who's been suffering for years, the Lord wasn't always like this, he was a decent man once before something changed him, before he met certain people who introduced him to substances and opportunities." He met their eyes seriously. "Lady Anastasia would testify against him in a heartbeat if she had the right motivation, if someone could give her what she desperately needs."

"The cure for her son," Kael said, understanding dawning. "You want to trade medical treatment for testimony."

"Not just any cure, something specific that requires a rare ingredient but not impossible to acquire." Raze pulled out another sheet, began writing. "Her son suffers from mana corruption in his blood, his pathways are crystallizing slowly, eventually they'll harden completely and he'll die." He looked at Kael directly. "The cure requires liquified philosopher stone, something nearly impossible to create because philosopher stone doesn't dissolve under normal conditions."

Kael's eyes widened. "But if someone had the alchemical knowledge to distill it properly, to break down the crystalline structure and suspend it in solution..." His mind was already racing through possibilities. "That would reverse the corruption, flush the system clean, I could do that if I had access to a philosopher stone and the right equipment."

"Exactly." Raze felt relief that Kael understood immediately. "Philosopher stones aren't rare exactly, they're uncommon but available if you know where to look, much easier to obtain than Phoenix Marrow."

"So the plan is find a philosopher stone, create the cure, approach Lady Anastasia through Sister Elizabeth, trade treatment for testimony." Mariabel counted on her fingers. "That's the first part handled but you mentioned three things, what about documentation and the news firm?"

"I'll explain those after we secure the first piece," Raze said, noting the exhaustion creeping into his bones. "For now we need rest, tomorrow we start looking for the philosopher stone, once we have that and Kael can prepare the cure, we move to the next step."

"Where do we even find a philosopher stone?" Aslan asked.

"The merchant quarter, specifically the alchemical supply district." Raze stood, moved toward his bed. "They're sold for cultivation enhancement, people use them to purify their cores though it's expensive and inefficient, we'll need to visit multiple suppliers and compare prices."

"How much are we talking?" Kael's practical mind was already calculating costs.

"Anywhere from fifteen to thirty gold depending on size and quality." Raze pulled off his coat, finally allowing himself to feel the weight of everything. "We have the funds thanks to the dungeon clear, it's just a matter of finding a reputable dealer."

They talked for another hour, refining details and establishing contingencies, but eventually exhaustion claimed them all. Kael returned to his research notes, Aslan to his meditation, Mariabel to her bed with flames still flickering nervously around her hands.

Raze lay staring at the ceiling, his mind refusing to quiet despite his body's desperate need for rest. The plan was forming, solidifying from game knowledge and desperate necessity, three steps that would either expose Venn completely or get them all killed.

Find Lady Anastasia through Sister Elizabeth, trade the cure for testimony.

Find documentation through the second person he'd mention tomorrow, someone with access to Venn's records.

Deliver everything through the news firm, the independent reporters who'd made their reputation on exposing corruption without fear of noble retribution.

Simple in theory, catastrophically dangerous in execution.

But necessary because Venn wouldn't forget Raze, wouldn't leave him alone, that hungry look promised future attention that made his skin crawl.

Better to strike first than wait to be struck.

He finally drifted into uneasy sleep, his last conscious thought about tomorrow's search and how far they'd come from simple survival in Thornwick.

Morning arrived too soon, sunlight streaming through windows as the capital woke to its daily chaos. They gathered in the common room for breakfast, cheap porridge and cheaper bread, fuel for the day ahead.

"The alchemical district opens at dawn," Kael said between bites. "We should go early before supplies run low, philosopher stones move quickly when available."

"All of us?" Mariabel asked.

"Better to have numbers," Raze decided. "We're not doing anything illegal, just shopping, four people asking questions is less suspicious than one person asking too many questions."

They finished eating and headed out into morning crowds, navigating through streets that felt less threatening in daylight. The merchant quarter was already busy, vendors setting up stalls while early shoppers hunted for bargains.

The alchemical district was a subsection dedicated entirely to cultivation supplies and magical components, the air here smelled different, sharper, like chemicals and preserved herbs mixing with something indefinably strange.

Shops lined both sides of the street, each one displaying crystals and powders and dried materials behind glass. Signs advertised everything from basic mana potions to rare beast cores to enhancement pills.

They started with the largest shop, a storefront called Celestial Components that promised premium quality at fair prices.

The interior was organized chaos, shelves reaching toward the ceiling while ladders provided access to higher levels. Behind the counter stood a middle aged woman with sharp eyes and sharper business sense.

"Looking for something specific?" she asked as they entered.

"Philosopher stone," Kael said directly. "Medium grade, minimum fist sized."

Her eyebrows rose slightly. "Ambitious purchase, those don't come cheap." She moved to a locked cabinet, produced a key. "I have two in stock currently, one medium grade at eighteen gold and one high grade at twenty eight gold, both authenticated and certified pure."

She placed them on the counter, the medium stone was roughly the size of a large apple, deep red with internal facets that caught light strangely. The high grade was slightly larger and the red was almost purple, indicating higher concentration.

"The medium would suffice for most applications," she continued. "Unless you're attempting something that requires exceptional purity?"

"Medical application," Kael said carefully.

"Then you want the high grade," she said immediately. "Medium stones can fracture during aggressive alchemical processes, you'd waste time and resources if it cracked mid distillation."

Raze exchanged glances with his team, twenty eight gold was steep but necessary. "We'll take the high grade."

"Excellent choice." She began wrapping it carefully in protective cloth. "That'll be twenty eight gold even, I'll throw in a basic distillation catalyst as courtesy for such a significant purchase."

They counted out the coins, Raze's portion of the dungeon profits diminishing rapidly. The woman handed over the wrapped stone with care and a written certificate of authenticity.

"Pleasure doing business," she said warmly. "Come back if you need anything else, I always stock quality materials for serious cultivators."

They left with the philosopher stone secured in Raze's Inventory, the weight both literal and metaphorical settling across their shoulders.

"Twenty eight gold," Mariabel said once they were back on the street. "We're spending money fast."

"Necessary investment," Kael countered, already mentally working through distillation processes. "Without this the entire plan falls apart, we need Lady Anastasia's testimony and this is what buys it."

They continued through the alchemical district, not shopping anymore but observing, learning what was available and where. Raze's mind cataloged everything, noting which shops seemed reputable versus which looked questionable.

Information was as valuable as gold in situations like this, knowing where to find rare materials quickly could mean the difference between success and failure when timing mattered.

Eventually they circled back toward the Copper Rest, the morning spent but productive. They had the first piece of their plan, the philosopher stone that would become a cure that would become testimony.

One step down, two more to go before they could move against Venn.

But it was progress, real tangible progress toward something that seemed impossible yesterday.

The small crystal represented hope for a sick child and justice for countless victims and survival for his team.

No pressure at all.

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