CHAPTER 319: TWO WEEKS.

After taking a detour through Nightsun, Dante arrived at a certain abandoned neighborhood on the edge of Hollowgrid. The place had always looked eerie, and that atmosphere only got worse at night. Abandoned as it was, with the only noise echoing through it being from the highway hanging above some of the buildings.

With how dark it was, Dante had no way of seeing the Super Crunch wrappers scattered around. With Volcan’s help, however, he had no trouble spotting the traps hidden under the trash blanketing the street. Entering through the container in the back, he made his way to the basement then waited for the hidden door in the back.

"Hey, Lev..." As he walked in, Dante looked around, having notice something odd about the hideout. "You doing some new year clean up?"

For starters, the place seemed brighter than usual. The surgical tent at the center was gone, and the work benches surrounding it appeared quite organized, but crates and cardboard boxes stacked around. The low hum of the machines was gone, too, robbing the place of its usual ambiance. The only thing still operational seemed to be the screens displaying the security feed.

Lev was in the back, grabbing things and staring at them before shoving them in one of the boxes surrounding him. For once, he seemed to be organizing his stuff, which was far from a good sign. Coming to a sudden halt, the skeletal man turned around, green dots shining in the depths of his eye sockets.

"Hey, Dante." He said, his voice lacking the usual liveliness. "Nah, I’m just preparing to move."

"Moving already? Didn’t you get this place a couple of months ago?"

"Didn’t you hear the news? It won’t cut it anymore."

There was no need to ask what news the Alchemist was referring to. A Level 6 hero had just moved into town. The abandoned building’s basement might have served as a good enough hideout before, but if the police and BEO are going to start upping their efforts, it will no longer cut it.

"Guess it spooked you out, huh?" Dante asked.

"Of course it did." Lev stopped moving his hands, heaving a tired sigh. "listen, lil’ bro. I’m not really in the right place. Mentally, I mean. If it’s not something urgent, can’t you leave it for another time?"

"I’ve put it off for a while now." Dante walked over, his hands still in the pockets of his jacket. "And if anyone should be in a hurry, that would be me."

Watching him with an unusually blank expression, Lev shook his head and went back to his work.

"I will hear you out, but I can’t promise anything at the moment."

Before coming over, Dante had sent him a message, saying they needed to discuss something. As it was far from the optimal time, going by the state of the hideout, the Alchemist told him to leave it for another time. Only once he was reminded that he owed him a favor did he budge, agreeing to hear him out.

It was something he had been putting off for a while now, mainly because he kept forgetting all about it. Considering that it would have benefited from an early start, Dante regretted not getting it done before, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

Dragging a nearby stool, he sat in front of the skeletal man and looked at him for a moment.

"So?" Lev said. "Out with it already."

Not saying anything, Dante just held up his right hand. The Alchemist looked at the empty palm then up at its owner. Just as he was about to ask what he wants, something spawned out of thin air, giving him quite the scare.

It was a small pouch, black in color.

"What the-" Leaning back, Lev held up his right arm defensively. "Where did that come from."

"Neat, right?" Dante said. "It’s something I’ve picked recently."

Retracting his hand, Dante held the other one, giving the mental command to equip his weapon. A revolver appeared in his right hand then vanished a moment later. To drive the point in, he made it appear one more time, smiling at his bony friend the entire time.

"Whoa..." Lev’s eyes widened, and the green glow in their depths brightened. "That’s... insane..." Shifting his gaze from the gun, he gave Dante the same awe struck look. "Since when did you become a Genome?"

Dante raised an eyebrow.

"A Genome?"

"Huh? But you... is it Sorcery?"

"Not really." Putting away his weapon, Dante went about opening the bag. "It’s... a bit complicated. Well, I didn’t come over just to show you that."

"Oh c’mon, lil’ bro! You can’t just show me something that crazy and not explain!"

"It’ll have to wait." Taking out one of the rectangular gray cases, Dante tossed it to the alchemist.

Lev grabbed it midair, and after examining the case itself, he popped it open and looked at the contents. A second later, his eyes glowed even brighter than when he saw Dante’s Equip.

"No way..." He said, bringing the case closer to his eyes. "Is this what I think it is?"

"It is." Dante replied, the corners of his mouth pulling up.

Inside the small bag were nineteen similar cases, all of which contained the exact same object－a small blue capsule. It looked just like any normal medicine capsule, but to those in the known, it was one of the most valuable drugs in recent times.

"Catalyst..." Lev muttered. "I’ve been trying to get my hands on some, but..."

"No luck?" Dante asked.

"If that mess in the city hall didn’t happen, I would still be thinking it was a myth. Where did you get it, anyway?" Staring at the gray case, Lev then turned his eyes to the bag in Dante’s hand. "And... goddamn, lil’ bro! How much did you spend on this stuff?"

"Not a single Gold." Dante said.

He proceeded to tell the Alchemist about what happened in Factory Town and his encounter with Caligo. He didn’t go into details, of course. Not because he wanted to hide things from his bony friend, but because there was no need to say more that necessary.

"I see..." Lev muttered as he continued to study the capsule. "Guess it has yet to hit the market after all."

"These are supposed to be the finished product." Dante said. "So... what do you think?" Staring at his bony friend for a few seconds, he then asked the question he came all this way for. "Can you replicate it?"

He only got silence as an answer.

The Alchemist was a wanted criminal, one who earned the title of a villain due to all the times he managed to fight off the superheroes coming after him. That said, the main reason behind his status had nothing to do with how dangerous he was, or the drugs he pumped into the market. What made him a high priority target was something no one else was capable of－perfect drug replication.

Lev Alkimov was a chemist capable of recreating any drug he could get his hands on with perfect accuracy. He made himself an enemy of all the big pharmaceutical companies simply by taking their drugs and reverse-engineering recipes and sharing them with the world. Not only that, but he also flooded the black market with his own version of the most profitable drugs out there, which is almost an exact replica of the original.

Pharmaceutical companies create their profits by raising the price to hundreds of times what it takes to create their drugs. For such a business model, someone capable of providing a similar product with fraction of the price was a threat they couldn’t ignore. Though they put a lot of efforts into taking him down, even going as far as to have heroes hunt him down, their effort bore no fruits.

Knowing how good he was, Dante hoped that his bony friend would be able to uncover the secrets of the miracle drug called Catalyst. If they are able to reproduce it, not only would it provide them with one lucrative income stream, it would also grant them a weapon they could use against Eidolon and its Genomes in future conflict. But those were only superficial reasons. Dante had his own plan for the drug, one that goes far beyond it being just a weapon.

Of course, all of that depends on whether the Alchemist is capable of reverse-engineering the drug. Dante waited for his answer, already aware of what it will be. That said, the long silence was causing his anxiety to rise, and for a moment there, he began to lose confidence in his prediction.

Just as he began to get the urge to prob his bony friend for an answer, Lev looked away from the gray case. The next second, his unnaturally wide grin returned.

"Two weeks." He said. "Give me two weeks."

Realizing that his worries were unwarranted, Dante smiled back at him.

"That’s all I needed to hear."

Lev went back to examining the case, staring at the pill inside it with such intensity as if he could figure something out just by looking. He asked Dante for some details on the pseudo-Genomes he encountered, how the drug affected them, and what happened after the effects ran out.

Dante did his best to answer but discovered that he didn’t know a lot. The only thing he could remember that might be of use was what Epsilon mentioned about them limiting the usage time for the pills, hinting that it might be possible to increase or even remove it.

"The more I hear about it, the more insane it sounds." Lev cackled. "If we manage to pull it off, the world will never be the same."

"If we can pull it off." Dante replied. "Don’t forget, we now have a Level 6 on the lookout for things like this."

"Oh yeah... I guess this is something he would be made to handle..." Said the Alchemist. "Seriously though, I still don’t understand why they would send him here."

Casting his gaze down, Dante thought for a moment before providing his conclusion.

"Isn’t it obvious?" He said, his expression neutral. "Someone is starting to become a threat." Pausing, he looked his bony friend in the eyes. "A threat only a Level 6 could get rid of."