How to Raise Your Regressor

"Hmm? A cat?" Victor stopped the moment he opened the door of the party hall.

There was a black cat right at his feet, staring at him in what seemed to be apprehension and curiosity.

This cat should not be here, though.

This party hosted several important guests so the security was incredibly tight, so the cat couldn't have just come here by chance. He didn't remember anyone bringing a cat with them either.

It was impossible for the cat to be here, unless…

"What is it doing here… whatever," he brushed the thought aside; he didn't have the time to be thinking about such mundane matters.

Even though the cat looked quite similar to the familiar of that infamous witch, it wasn't important. Not right now, at the very least.

He had an urgent situation at his hand.

The method to create an Artificial Elixir had been discovered.

Normally, he would have doubted such a thing even happening; that's just how absurd it was.

But the presenter had gone above and beyond to prove the authenticity of the Elixir. No other potion of this world could heal someone when their body had been chopped to pieces.

Unknown to him, of course, there were many other potions which could achieve a similar feat, but producing them in a Class 3 world was even harder than the Elixir, so he was technically right.

Anyway, They had anticipated such a development, but it was still way earlier than Their expectations. Its discovery should have taken some more centuries, yet here he was.

The fact that the Creator knew just how important the Elixir could be in saving this world and had taken appropriate measures to hide his identity wasn't any good news either.

The standard protocol was to wait a day before contacting Them, but the situation was simply too urgent.

He HAD to meet Them and tell Them that the Artificial Elixir had been discovered.

He was slightly worried about the terms of the non-disclosure agreement, but he believed in Them. With their capabilities, voiding a contract of this level should be more than easy.

And so, while making sure no one followed him, he made his way out of the castle.

"Have a good day, sir!" The guard at the Castle Gate greeted him as he exited it.

"Thanks. You too," He flashed a smile to that guard.

It was important to maintain his character as the polite, lovable Guild Master.

Victor Novakovich was the Guild Master of the Blue Orca Guild (weird name, but okay). Just like other guilds, they earned money through clearing dungeons and completing commissions, but that was on the surface.

Their main source of income was trade. Specifically, illegal trade. They dealt in everything which was forbidden by the law; from slaves to Dark weapons, and many more.

This trading business made them one of the wealthiest Guilds in this city.

However, wealth didn't matter to Victor. Gold coins were nice to look at, but they were useless when the chips were down.

All the illegal trading was in fact just a cover for moving things that no country would want moved.

The other reason was that being in the illegal trading business allowed him to form connections with the influential people and influence the politics of this country.

That was his real reason for running this illegal trading business.

Anyway, Victor got into his carriage, "To the Guild. Hurry," he commanded the stagecoach.

The stagecoach whipped the horses. They neighed and moved, dragging the carriage behind them.

'20 minutes,' he counted in his mind.

That was the time it would take to reach his Guild. From there, he'll embark on another journey.

"Haaah…" he leaned back into his seat with a heavy sigh as his nerves calmed down. "This is just crazy."

The carriage was fitted with a sound isolating barrier so no one would be able to listen to him from outside, but he still had to be careful.

Being involved with Them had taught him the masters of the art of spying could use tactics he couldn't even begin to imagine.

No matter what magic he used, he could never be sure that someone was not spying on him.

Now, he had around 20 minutes.

He decided that it's better to organise the information in his head first; the last thing he would want is to fumble in front of Them and reduce his evaluation in Their eyes.

The last thing he wants is for Them to consider him useless.

That's a lot of last things, but that was just par for the course; he had made a deal with the Devils, after all.

'Okay, so they have created the Artificial Elixir. They haven't found a way to mass produce it yet, but their production rate is good enough to give 2 Elixirs to everyone present there. There were around 50 people, so they should have 100 Elixirs at the very least.'

'They should have more in their stock, however; the man on the stage used two of them just for his demonstration. If not, then they should have a fast and efficient method of creating them.'

'The question is; who are they? Are they related to the Royal Family? The possibility is high; the Crown did organise this event. But nothing can be said for certain. For now, I have no idea what this organisation is, who runs it, how many members it has and how far their reach goes.'

'What is their motivation, however? If I were to believe the words of that man, the organisation simply wants to save this world, and they would go to all lengths to do so.'

'No, their reason does not matter right now; what matters is their way of doing things. They have taken the Elixir and turned it into a whip to keep all of us in line. They even suspect that there are those who want to go against their goal of saving the world, and that there might be some who are working with the Aggressors.'

'Every Aggressor that has been sent to this world until now has been a mindless monster, however. So how did they make that connection? Is it just a mere hypothesis, or do they have some conclusive evidence that it's possible for humans to work with the Aggressors? Hmm, I do not have enough information.'

This covered the basic points. Along with this, he will tell them all the clauses of both the contracts.

Suddenly, the carriage came to a stop, "We're here," the stagecoach told him through the small window.

"You're fast," he commented.

He didn't even notice when 20 minutes passed.

He hurriedly left the carriage and entered the Guildhouse.

"You're back? How was the meeting-"

"I'll talk to you later," he swiftly went past his secretary and entered his office.

After locking the door behind him, drawing the curtains and making sure that no one was around, he went to his desk.

He inserted his mana into a hidden magical formation. The formation recognised him from his mana signature. The next moment, he heard the click of a lock opening.

He reached below the desk and pulled up a tile from the floor. Below the tile was a small compartment; so small that it could barely fit a black box measuring 2cm on each side.

He carefully pulled that box out and lifted its lid open, revealing a red button behind it.

After glancing around to make sure that no one was watching, he pushed that red button.

A short, high-pitched beep resounded from the box.

"What the weak with strongest bias rules, is pride, the never-ending vice of fools," he muttered into the box.

The same beep resounded from the box again; the passcode had been accepted and he was being prompted to continue.

"Code: Alpha Zero Zero," he said to the box.

This time, no beep came from the box.

It was understandable; even they needed time to process something like this.

Code: Alpha Zero Zero.

The first part of the code indicated the priority level of the situation. Needless to say, Alpha was the highest priority level that he could use, and it meant that the situation needed their immediate attention.

Using the Alpha level had its risks, however; if They determined that the situation did not need their immediate attention, he would be given a classic sword in the throat.

The second part of the code told Them how severe the situation was. Once again, needless to say, zero was simply the highest level of severity. It told them that if the situation got out of Their hand, it could jeopardise their entire mission.

This too had its risks; if They determined that the situation didn't require code Zero, Victor would be immediately executed.

The final part of the code told Them how he would give them the information regarding the situation. Again, zero was the highest level allowed to him; it meant that he wanted immediate extraction and needed to have a meeting with Them.

It should be clear by now, but if it turned out that whatever information he had was not worth the effort extracting him and arranging a direct meeting, he would be executed.

'Come on,' he nervously waited for an answer.

If he was not holding the box in his hand, he would have started biting his nails by now.

Just as his nervousness was at its peak, a short beep resounded from the box, followed by two longer beeps.

'Thank God,' he sighed in relief.

His request had been accepted, and he had 2 hours to meet Them at the rendezvous point.

It was time to finally meet Them.