Festus went about his daily activities to prepare to open the flower shop, which surprise, surprise, was in Tingen. It truly seemed as though the universe wanted him gone, something he could sort of understand. Unlike the other 'transmigrators' in this novel he was truly not of this universe, and the barely conscious will of this world knew that.
Once Festus had prepared everything and set the door's sign to open he retreated behind a counter and began to plan for his future.
There was no way in hell he was going to wait for this world to consume him, but after exhausting different ideas it seemed the only way to do that was to strengthen himself. He had a few sequence 9 potion formulas but he was unsure of which one to pick, sure he had thought of being a beyonder before but not once had he thought his life would depend on it.
First he eliminated all the paths which already had a sequence 0, he wanted strength to escape being devoured he wasn't going to pick a path where it made it all to easy for some god to do just that.
Also he had to consider if he would be able to make it to a high enough sequence to resist the corruption, but when he thought of the corruption Festus stilled. The universe already wanted him dead if he took a potion would he truly promote and not die, a shiver immediately went down Festus spine. There was a chance, a highly probable one at that, that, that was exactly what was going to happen as the ones after him were not just deities but the worlds will.
The more he thought about it, it seemed he would have to advance using his own pathway that followed him here. The Usurper pathway, but... the thing was too God damned expensive, not to mention some of its advancement rituals were just insane.
Festus honestly wanted to go back in time and strangle the him who had come up with this pathway, on the plus side he already had the sefirah and he had an inkling suspicion that since this whole pathway seemingly came into existence once his soul somehow ended up here then his uniqueness might be with him *sigh* with all this he might truly have to take this pathway.
A ringing sound brought Festus out of his thoughts as he focused on the man who had just walked into his shop, "Good morning Festus, are the flowers ready?".
Taking a good look at the man Festus was able to recall who he was Thomas Alfortch an affluent gentleman who had become one of Festus' regulars once he began courting a certain someone.
"Certainly just give me a second, I assure you the lady will love these" Festus spoke with a wide smile on his face as he went behind and brought out a bundle of fresh lilies, "Lilies have predominantly been associated with love, devotion, purity and femininity. These long-stemmed bulbous flowers could be a fragrant reminder of your love and commitment to the pretty lady and I did a little something to be certain she would love them."
'Well the original Festus did but hey I'm him now so that is not exactly wrong' Festus thought to himself as he handed the flowers over to Thomas who carefully observed the flowers before gaining a wide grin, "you truly never disappoint Festus" he spoke before handing a pound over to Festus whose eyes almost popped out.
Once Thomas had left Festus thoroughly examined the pound in his hand, a pound, 1 feaking pound for some flowers, Jesus no wonder this guy could have a shop this big. Do flowers really go for that much "hehe", a sleazy grin formed on Festus face. It seems he might actually be able to afford to take the Usurper pathway.
The rest of his sales were unfortunately not as shocking with most of his deals being done with solis, but Festus was happy none the less. He even went ahead to try the Desi pies and could understand why the characters loved them so much. Soon the day drew to a close and Festus retreated back up stairs, he recalled the potion for the sequence 9 potion, 'Empath'
"Sequence 9: Empath,10 grams of Heart root Petals,50 milliliters of Tears of Compassion,100 milliliters of Pure Water, 5 drops of Lavender Oil, 3 Rose Quartz Crystals,1 pinch of Vanilla Bean Powder".
Festus wrote out the entire potion formula and read over it twice to make sure there were no mistakes, once that was done his second headache began. The whole essence of the pathway he created was in its name to Usurp, which led to him granting this pathway a... unique ability.
The beyonder could take in another beyonder potion at each sequence, basically speaking once he was done brewing the 'empath' potion he could drink the sequence nine potion of any other pathway gaining their abilities and everything with the catch being he could not drink a potion from that pathway at a higher sequence.
Meaning if he took in the seer potion now he would not be able to take the Magician potion once he reached the right sequence.
Festus would have loved for his supplementary sequence 9 potion to be 'sailor' considering his sequence 9 potion 'empath' did not grant him any physical enhancements, sadly he did not know the formula for that which meant he was now stuck with the only three sequence 9s for which he had their complete formula. The sequence 9s being the 'seer', 'bard' as well as the 'spectator', considering none of them provided considerable physical boosts except maybe the 'bard.'
However there was no way an enemy rushing you was just going to stand there and let you sing a song to buff yourself, meaning it was out.
As much as divination was useful as well, without the sefirah castle Festus highly doubted divinations were going to be as accurate, *sigh* Festus settled on the 'spectator' some of the abilities it provided overlapped with the ones provided by the 'empath' potion so it wasn't all bad. After all the option to go without the supplementary position did not exist unless he did not want to aim for the higher sequences.
*sigh* Festus let out anther sigh once he thought of how much he was going to have to spend, at that moment Festus would not mind following a god if they would allow him the opportunity to go back in time and slap his past self, just once. After preparing both formulas as well as the money needed... *sniff* his sweet, sweet, money.
Festus focused his attention on the only underground beyonder market he knew in Tingen 'Evil dragon Bar'.