Ryker couldn't help but laugh earnestly at what Eke had to say.

"All right, all right, you make a good argument." he admitted.

"A cold really IS nothing compared to what you've dealt with already." he said.

"So I'll give ya that." he told him with a smile.

"So how'd you get away from that river monster, anyway?" he then asked.

"....I see." Ryker responded.

"That's an intense experience." he said.

"But hey, you got away." he went on.

"And odds are it'll be laying low, depending on where you stabbed it." he continued.

"Still... a river monster..." he went on.

"Heard those are getting rarer and rarer to find."

"We are." Ryker responded as they approached the shack again.

"All right, I'm... going to 'sleep' again." he warned Eke.

"Just... be prepared, okay?" he sighed.

"Odds are it's not going to be pleasant." he lamented further.

"But, again, we need his input."

Ryker just nodded as they stepped up to the shack.

"...right." he said.

He then lowered his head, and lifted it back up, his eyes black and red once more.

"So, then." he addressed Eke.

"You going in or staying out here?" he asked.

Ryker followed Eke inside, and what was inside was... a bit disturbing.

There were bones all over that decorated the place... small animal skeletons, portions of larger animal skeletons, as well as what were clearly human skulls.

And one dragon skull hanging from the ceiling.

The man was sitting at a table with various glassware and tubes connected, and he appeared to be still working on the black water.

"Ah." he said, looking at Eke.

"You have more vials of the water?" he asked.

"Give me another one."

The man grabbed one of the vials, and started to work with it.

"What have you learned so far?" Ryker asked him.

"It's mid-level magic." the man responded.

"....really. Mid-level." Ryker said. "Odd to find it on the surface." he commented.

"Whoever the fool was that tried to tame this, he met with a particularly nasty end." the man then said further. "A shame I missed their demise."' he added with a smile.

"Especially the eyes turning to paste and leaking out the skull." he laughed.

The man looked at Eke, and narrowed his eyes.

"Please don't sneeze in here." he said.

"Poor thing has a cold." Ryker responded in an almost condescending tone.

The man then sighed, before digging through a desk drawer and tossing a small candy-like thing to Eke.

"Eat that. I don't want you getting your cold germs in here, potentially tainting my results, so that take that to clear things up." he told him.

"As for knowing how to stop it, of course I do." he then added.

As soon as Eke ate the candy, he felt his cold symptoms become far better and a lot more tolerable. He wasn't completely cured of it, but he felt like he was in the last stretch of it, where he had a slightly runny nose and a barely scratchy throat.

"Why would we want to stop it?" the man then asked.

"In all seriousness, you know as well as I do what that much uncontrolled magic can do. Especially mid-level." Ryker chimed in.

"...this is true. My host wouldn't survive it." the man admitted.

"Well, the quick and easy way is to have one that can handle that magic take it into themselves." he then told Eke.

Both Ryker and the other male laughed at what Eke said, but it was the other man that stopped first, and then cleared his throat.

"There IS a purification process." he said.

"However, it takes a little longer, and the ingredients on the list to make said purification solution are... hard to find." he went on.

"What is it you need. What don't you already have?" Ryker asked.

"Venom Flytrap leaves, and Dragon's Blood." the man responded.

"The plant grows nearby."t he man replied.

"Several miles west." he went on.

"It's guarded by beasts though." he then warned him.

"As for how much blood..." he continued, pausing for a moment, before producing a glass container while looked like it held half a pint.

"This much."