It was quite late when Abel caught up with Norman. The Sun was slightly leaned towards the west by the time they saw each other. If they didn’t go back to the Bennett Castle right away, they would’ve had to travel during the night, which was not safe at all.
Norman saw the box Abel was holding, but he didn’t say anything about it. As far as he was concerned, what mattered wasn’t how much money his young master had spent or what he had bought. He was a bodyguard, and the only thing he cared about was his master’s safety.
That being the case, Abel still didn’t want to let anyone see his box. He was going to put it in his Horadric Cube before, but there were far too few slots for him to put in his qi condensing pill. It was one bottle per slot, so the most he could store was ten. He needed two more for his Tome of Town Portal, meaning that the only way to go was to carry most of the stuff with his own hands.
Fortunately, the two got back without facing any danger on the way, and Abel picked the right time to arrive at home. Zach was just practicing horse-riding with the Knight of Bennett. No one — not his father, his mother, or his brother—no one was going to ask him what he had bought in town. This was a family of royals. They respected each other as royals. Every member, regardless of age, had rights to his or her own privacy.
Abel was loved by his parents, but the love he felt was very different from the one he experienced on Earth. During his life back on Earth, parents showed love by interfering with every aspect of their child’s life. They had to have a say in the child’s education, social life, romantic life, marriage and anything else. Any secret that a child had was considered a violation of the trust between them.
The rules were very different here. Every time there was an important choice to make, Abel’s parents would always listen to what Abel wanted, no matter how drastic the consequences were. As the second son of the family, the path ahead of Abel would be nothing but harsh for him.
Now, the Knight of Bennett knew this. He knew this all too well, but he decided to agree with his love for his son. It was a different kind of love, different from the kind that Abel experienced from his previous parents. They were equal in their weight, however. Abel knew that, and he was grateful to be so blessed in his two very long lifetimes.
After coming back to his room, Abel quickly opened his box and took out a bottle of the qi condensing potion. Whilst facing the sunset, he could see that the bottle was surrounded by arcs of white light which, in ways that were inapplicable to normal physics, kept on flashing and sparking as they swirled around. It was only a lesser potion, yes, but by appearance alone, it would be worth so much if it was found on Earth.
Speaking of Earth, Abel missed his home now. He never had a nostalgia for the whole year that he came here, but something kicked in when he saw that Tome of Portal yesterday.
Whatever. Just don’t think about it he forced himself.
Right now, the important thing was his experiment. If Abel’s hypothesis was confirmed, his training speed would be much faster than where it was currently.
Abel inserted three lesser potions into the Horadric Cube, then lightly pressed onto the transmute button. After a white light flashed by, the three bottles of the qi condensing potion emerged into just one. It was not surrounded by white arcs of light, however, but a beautiful ray of blue.
It worked. Abel had never seen a greater qi condensing potion before, but this should be it. There was no doubt about it. The Horadric Cube never got its formulas wrong.
It wasn’t like he cared too much about it, but a smirk suddenly emerged on Abel’s face. If three bottles of the lesser potion cost 30 gold coins in total, and a bottle of the greater potion costs 50 gold coins, he just made 20 coins worth of profit. It was a weird thought to have in a serious time like this, but it was kind of funny in a way.
Abel inserted three more lesser potions into his cube. For reasons he himself wasn’t sure of, he was already feeling like a potion master, or an alchemist figuring out the right proportions for his concoction.
As excited as he was, Abel’s hands never stopped. He just kept on transmuting the lesser potions into greater potions, then lined up the finished products on his table. Pretty soon, 54 bottles of the lesser qi condensing potions were turned into 18 bottles of the greater qi condensing potion.
Abel was about to scream at this point. Even if he couldn’t turn the greater potions into the greatest potion, he was pretty much guaranteed a way to afford his living now. If he wanted to, he could head into the potion-brewing business at any time he wanted. He could become a renowned potion master by selling large quantities of the greater qi condensing potion. Becoming a knight was his topmost preference, of course, but it was always good to have some sort of back-up plan.
Abel calmed himself once more. Then, he inserted three bottles of the greater potion into his Horadric Cube. Without any failure this time, the three greater potions were mixed into one.
It was a bottle surrounded with golden arcs of light. Inside was a potion that could only be produced by an expert. It was the greatest potion which, although makeable given the right amount of experience, was not something that could be sold as a regular item. The greatest potion was inferior to a master’s potion, but the creation of both required the brewer to be in the right “zone.”
There was something special about this potion. Abel didn’t know how much it was worth exactly, but his guess was just as good as anybody else’s. Well, there wasn’t a lot of potion masters in the Duchy, he knew at least that much.
Soon, 18 greater potions were turned into 6 bottles of “greatest” potions. Abel was right. It was the right choice for him to spend all his money on potions.
He put the three bottles of the greatest potion into the cube, and just like all the times before, everything in the slots vanished when a white light flashed out. What came out was a bottle of a master’s qi condensing potion. It was surrounded by arcs of dark, golden light, and there was a thick texture to the liquid that was inside. The liquid itself was amber in color. Strangely, though, it was not translucent like all the other potions. With a gentle shake of its container, Abel would see that it was a little bit sticky.
One more time. At the end of the day, Abel produced two bottles of the master’s qi condensing potion. He produced two bottles of the ultimate potion, which would bear no effects whatsoever to its user.
Now, what should he do about these potions? He could consume it right here, but that would expose the existence of the Horadric Cube. He couldn’t allow that to happen if he was to survive in this world. The better option was to store it somewhere safe. Whatever Abel was planning to do next, safety always came first.
The more Abel knew about this world, the less safe he began to feel. While everything could be explained by science on Earth, the logic seemed to work very differently here. The injury on Norman’s leg should take a few months to recover, but a lesser divine act was enough to treat it on the spot. Knowing something like this was actually more worrisome than relieving, the more you think about it.
With that in mind, if Fort Lee was just a small town, what kind of unexplainable, unthinkable things could Abel see if he went to a bigger town? A bigger city, maybe?
Comments