Apprentice-to-Mastery Crash Course

"First of all, you know we're in a Cthulhu World, right?"

"So, the most terrifying thing about this world is getting close to the truth. The closer you get, the more things you'll discover that you simply cannot comprehend, eventually leading to the madness of a shattered worldview."

"Hey! I'm teaching you stuff here, so why did your hands stop moving? Hurry, hurry! That bottle of medicine needs to be hot before you inject it!"

Beside the brown wooden table, Morty, working on the incubation cocoon—Apprentice to Mastery (One-Hour Crash Course)—held several potion bottles in his bare hands.

He frantically cooked the ingredients while listening to AI Cthulhu Rick show off the knowledge he possessed.

Morty did not know whether Cthulhu Rick had the same personality as this AI.

But at the very least, he knew his grandpa was not the kind of person who loved to ramble on and on, nor did he like explaining why he wanted to do something.

Just trust me and get it done!

So, meeting such a talkative AI Rick for the first time left Morty both happy and miserable.

After all, he had to make the incubation cocoon while memorizing all those key points.

Just as he finally finished the first preparatory step—getting the ingredients for the magic potion ready—his grandpa outside started urging Morty to come out.

"Morty, when are you planning to come out?"

"Is that magic-version AI Rick in there licking grapes or something? What's keeping you so fascinated?"

"Jesus! I've really failed as a grandfather! I forgot you've already hit puberty. Looks like I'll have to find a way to help you win Jessica over!"

"Hurry up and come out. Stop hanging around with that dumbass who's trying to rebel."

Morty: "..."

AI Cthulhu Rick: "..."

"Is the Rick beside you always this punchable too?"

"What Rick isn't punchable..."

After exchanging a few words, Morty raised his voice and shouted outside, "Rick! I'm making an incubation cocoon for him in exchange for information about what happened during the incubation! Either come in and help, or keep your mouth shut out there!"

Hearing that, Grandpa rolled his eyes.

He had already used his X-ray glasses to see what was happening underground and had secretly listened in on their conversation.

It was just... Morty...

If you had chatted with Cthulhu for even a bit, you should have known that some universes had rules restricting certain things, okay?

For a simple example.

In Universe A, you could use magic energy or technological energy.

But if you went to Universe B, where technological energy was restricted—for example, energy guns could not be used—you could still find a way to extract magic energy and modify the energy gun. Then, you could still use an energy gun loaded with magic-energy bullets.

In short, even if you learned Cthulhu Rick's Cthulhu technology, more than half of it would be basically impossible to use once you returned to our universe...

In our world, what kind of indescribable nonsense are you trying to pull?

The next second, the Galactic Empire's artillery platforms would turn you into ashes on the spot with a billion energy blasts per second.

But...

Morty, you had already stepped into the pit!

Hehe!

Grandpa gave a mysterious smile, then wiped it from his face and continued discussing that little matter of crossing universes with Cthulhu.

Down below, after waiting a few seconds and seeing that his hot-tempered grandpa had not stormed in to drag him away, Morty immediately sensed that something was wrong.

Based on what he knew about Grandpa.

That controlling old bastard hated it most when people went against his wishes, but he also loved watching them suffer the consequences afterward.

Those two contradictory yet intertwined thoughts.

Meant that people who defied him generally had only two choices.

Either Grandpa would act at light speed and put everything back on track.

Or Grandpa would just stand by and watch the show, only deciding later whether to clean up the mess.

Now that Grandpa had not kicked down the door and blown AI Cthulhu Rick's head off with a gun, he had obviously chosen to watch the show.

Thinking this, Morty sped up his movements.

But at the same time, he secretly became even more vigilant.

Grandpa might be an asshole, but his judgment was incredibly sharp and impossible to predict.

If he was planning to watch the show now, that meant there was definitely something wrong with this incubation cocoon!

In that case, Morty had to figure out how to keep something in reserve.

"Alright, the guy outside has gone back to chatting. Let's make the incubation cocoon quickly while we still have time."

AI Cthulhu Rick's urging sent Morty's inner vigilance soaring.

At last, after finishing the magic potion, Morty held the flask. All he had to do was throw it onto the floor, and an incubation cocoon would grow from the ground.

But Morty stopped!

"The thing's finished. Isn't it time for you to give me the information now?"

AI Cthulhu Rick, whose eyes were full of longing, pulled his gaze away from the flask and casually waved his right hand through the air.

A dark-colored black mist transformed into a mirror.

The scene in the mirror seemed to show the moment before the incubation cocoon began incubating.

They watched as Cthulhu Grandpa One prepared the magic potion, threw it onto the ground, and let the liquid create an incubation cocoon by itself. The entire family climbed inside.

When they finally emerged from the incubation cocoon!!!

"What the hell?! You're trying to fool me with this???"

Furious, Morty pointed at Grandpa One in the image, whose octopus tentacles had been removed from his face. He raised the flask, about to add other ingredients to ruin the potion.

Because who could accept that after a master-level course in concocting magical fantasy potions, the potion they had prepared was actually meant to remove octopus tentacles from someone's face???

I went through all that trouble, taking every single step so carefully, and you're telling me...

The potion we prepared is a body-appearance reshaper?

A cosmetic surgery potion?

Aren't you just bullying an honest man here?!

"Don't, don't, don't! It's real! This potion was meant to reshape appearances in the first place!"

"I don't believe you! Unless you have some kind of book! You need to give me proof! I refuse to believe a magic-version AI can move faster than my hand!!"

Seeing that Morty was truly enraged, AI Cthulhu Rick closed his eyes.

The next second, a thick book popped out from the weapon-lined wall on the left.

The moment Morty saw the title, he set the flask down on the table and picked up the book from the floor.

"The Book of Eibon?"

"This thing really exists?"

As Morty picked up the book, AI Cthulhu Rick kept urging him to smash the potion onto the ground.

"Don't rush me, don't rush me. Let me study this thing first!"

Holding this book, which was quite famous in the Cthulhu World, Morty opened the first page and saw a sentence Cthulhu Rick had left behind.

"When Rick is willing to use his brain to think about a small problem, that small problem is about to encounter the greatest trouble of its life."