Chapter 218: Storm
Translator: Udong Editor: EbonyFrost/Udong
The young mages quickly left, and Xander frowned and shook his head as he said: "Eh, you guys. How can I say it? You guys are my elders, but you have to use your brain! Where is Oakland? A bunch of b.u.mpkins live there. How can they create such potions? How much did you pay?"
"One..." The elder mages blushed and murmured, "One gold coin."
"One?" Xander smiled helplessly. "One gold coins? If a potion that is worth a gold coin can help you to advance, then I will let you guys use my head as a soccer ball!"
Xander turned around and went up the stairs furiously. The four elder mages looked at each other and then returned to their rooms to drink the potion to try to advance.
After a minute... One of the elder mages rubbed his stomach as he quickly rushed to the washroom. A female mage who was in charge of reception saw this and sneered, "You will get a stomach-ache when you drink unknown potions."
After ten minutes, another elder mage opened the door. When the female mage saw him shaking, she asked, "Are you having a stomach-ache as well? Don’t be mad because you were scammed... look at you shaking angrily."
"Advanced...I advanced!" The elder mages suddenly kneeled on the ground and shouted as tears slid down his wrinkled face. "I advanced! I finally broke through the spirit barrier, and I’m now a level 4 mage! Thank you, G.o.d of Magic..."
The female mage’s mouth opened, but she forgot to speak. "This old mage actually advanced? Everyone thought he is done for..." She thought as the feather pen in her hand fell to the table.
Suddenly, the other two elder mages also opened their doors. Tears slid down their faces as they all kneeled and shouted, "Thank you G.o.d of Magic...I advanced! I’m level 4 mage now..."
Other mages who lived on this floor all walked out when they heard the shouted, and they were stunned when they saw the three elder mages who just advanced.
"How... how? If one of them advanced, it would be luck.... But three out four? Then... it must have been the potion!"
The few young mages who mocked these elder mages didn’t even congratulate the elder mages. They all rushed out of the Magic Tower at the same time.
Spirit Advancement Potion! It must be the Spirit Advancement Potions! Excitement appeared in the young mages’ eyes. "I didn’t expect the potion to be this cheap... it actually works! If the elder mages can advance, we can too..." they thought.
When they rushed to the small shop that the merchants from the Roll Family rented, they were informed that there were only four bottles of the potions, and the person who had more inventory just left.
"When would you guys get new stock? I will pay two gold coins..."
"I will pay ten!"
"I will pay twenty!"
"I will pay a hundred!"
The mages who arrived soon after started to shout at the clerk. Some of them even took out a gold bar and put it on the counter.
Spirit barrier! It was a nightmare to all mages! If they can advance up to one level, they would get a lot more respect!
"I’m sorry, the potion is produced by us, the Roll Family, we are only a distributor." The clerk at this shop said, "That person who makes this potion said he will put all of his stocks up for auction later this month."
All the mages there looked at each other with hostile expressions; they were all rivals.
After a day, the four elder mages who purchased the potions became the center of attention for all powerhouses at Yulee.
"I didn’t believe it at first as well, I only wanted to try it out since it was cheap."
"Yeah, my spirit barrier had been here for many years, and I didn’t advance after I tried many methods. I had already given up. I only bought the potions with the intent of just trying it out."
"Yeah, I didn’t expect it to work! After I took the potion, I advanced!"
All the forces at Yulee were stimulated when they heard the news. The shop that the Roll Family just set up had a ton of traffic despite not having many items stocked.
"That’s about the news." A young man in clean clothes said to Rosella respectfully. "Do you have any other orders?"
"It’s fine, you can go do you work." Rosella looked at the accounting book on the table as she rubbed her sore eyes. "There is a bigger market than I expected. Spirit Advancement Potion is a great product, but..."
Rosella looked at the drawer under the table. The 30 bottles in there were all the stock that she had. All the materials that were required for this potion were bought out in Oakland and other two closest cities, and the 30 bottles were all that Qian Jin can produce.
There were materials for 100 bottles, but 66 sets of materials were ruined during the process, and 34 bottles were all they got.
"Where did Qian Jin learn all of this?" Rosella thought as she waved her feather pen. "Qian Jin has been locking himself in the bas.e.m.e.nt lately, and he won’t see any of us except during meal times."
"Player Qian Jin, you time for today is almost up, please be prepared to go offline."
The world in front of Qian Jin twisted, then darkness approached. Qian Jin took the hat off of his face and breathed heavily as he continued to lie on the bed.
Exhaustion! He had never been this tired! Qian Jin didn’t even want to move his fingers! Even when he was in Four Seasons Valley training Wind and Cloud Warrior Power, he wasn’t this tired.
24 hours a day, except the time he had to take out for eating and going to the washroom, he spent the rest of them in the Endless World. Technically, he would spend around 47 hours in there.
That was all he did in the last 10 days, and it was a 20 days training camp for him. The blood of a Flame Demon isn’t that easy to mimic. Although the process wasn’t even considered actual potion making in Mystic Pharmaceuticals since the blood of Flame Demon was only another ingredient, but was harder to make than the level 1 Spirit Advancement Potions.
Level 1 Spirit Advancement Potion was an elementary potion, and Qian Jin only had the success rate of 34%. Although the Roaring Flame Demon Tiger had more blood which meant more ingredients, it was harder to succeed, so Qian Jin had to practice a lot more!
Runes were even harder! Although Qian Jin had never engraved any Rune Characters or made any Magic Conductors yet, it would be easier if he can try to make one compared to Fabreidis looking for a legit Rune Artist.
On top of that, he also hadn’t tried to start forging a Soul Weapon yet. Therefore, although Qian Jin’s day turned from 24 hours to 48 hours, he still felt like there wasn’t enough time for everything.
Most importantly, there weren’t many ingredients at the shops in the Endless World. In order for him to practice, there was only one place to go, the West Mountains! He had to kill all the Demon Beasts who were in the West Mountains to get to either ores, herbs, or other ingredients.
Any single task to Qian Jin was beyond a technical challenge, it required both technique and stamina.
He had spent a majority of his last 20 days in the West Mountains. He engaged in more than a hundred death battles, and there were more than a hundred wounds on his body. If he wasn’t in the Endless World or if he didn’t have the potions and mystic potions from Adams and Eulalia, he would die three times over.
Qian Jin pushed opened the gate of the bas.e.m.e.nt and dragged his body to the living room. He saw that everyone was waiting for him, and Cech Flet, Duren Burg, and Fanta Kunge looked very tired as well. Qian Jin smiled at them and smashed his b.u.t.t against the chair.
"This tired?" Duren Burg said after he observed Qian Jin for a moment: "We have been training harder for the last few days, but we are not as tired as you."
Qian Jin looked up tiredly, but every single hair on Duren Burg’s body straightened! Like a cat that got stepped on its tail, he jumped into the air. At the same time, Cech Flet and Fanta Kunge who were sitting beside Duren Burg jumped up as well. Fanta Kunge even unleashed his Demon Fighter warrior power.
When Fabreidis saw Qian Jin’s eyes, the wine cup in his hand shook a little. "I didn’t notice when he just came into the room, but I was surprised when I saw his eyes. Those are eyes that only soldiers who had been fighting on the battlefield would have! The bloodthirstiness! The ferociousness!" He thought.
The thick murderous spirit mixed with bloodl.u.s.t would scare any warrior. Duren Burg’s reaction was normal, and Fanta Kunge’s reaction wasn’t extreme.
Qian Jin, however, didn’t know what was going on. "What’s going on?" He asked. Duren Burg sat back down and said, "What is going on? Don’t you feel it? You"re like a monster who just walked out of a blood pool. There is only murderous intent and bloodl.u.s.t in your eyes. How did you do it?"
"Really?" Qian Jin blinked.
"I’m in a completely different stage! If I’m not ferocious and aware in the West Mountains, I would be torn into pieces by the Demon Beasts in the ambush." He thought.
The only way to survive in the West Mountains was to be crazier, more vicious, and more violent than the insane amount of Demon Beasts. It would hard to not have this level of murderous spirit and bloodl.u.s.t.
"Uh... I’m going through my special training." Qian Jin took a bite of a piece of steak as he said tiredly. He didn’t waste his time and energy. Numerous life and death battles were a way to increase warrior power, and his mastery level for his fighting techniques had also increased.
His Wind and Cloud Golden Body was about to advance through his current Iron Body phase; his Land Tearing Chop increased to level 5, and its damage had doubled. However, the experience points required for the next level up was much larger. It was more than ten times the experience points required for the level 5 level up.
His other fighting techniques improved as well, and the volume of his warrior power also increased significantly. Although he was still a bit away from level 2 Demon Capturer, he had more warrior power comparing to when he just advanced.
Although only 10 days had pa.s.sed, Qian Jin felt like it had been 10 years. After the meal, Qian Jin went down to the bas.e.m.e.nt again.
He looked down at the hat, and for the first time, he felt like he didn’t want to go in there. The last 10 days had been too exhausting, both physically and mentally.
"Let me absorb the energy from this Energy Stone and follow up with some not-so-aggressive training methods." Qian Jin thought as he sat on the bed. He took out one of the three pieces of Energy Core that he had in his Warrior Dimension and started to absorb the energy in it.
108 reservoirs started to rotate, the energy inside the Energy Core flooded into Qian Jin’s arms like a tsunami.
"This?" Qian Jin was scared by the speed. The absorption speed had tripled! The speed in which the energy was turned to warrior power increased by five times!
"Uh... other level 1 Demon Capturers probably don’t have this level of speed..." Qian Jin thought. He guessed that his 10,000 cycle speed resulted in a much greater pull force, and his higher quality warrior power sped up the energy-warrior power conversion process.
"No wonder when warriors required more warrior energy to advance to the next level, some warriors were able to maintain their impressive advancement speed. Although more warrior power is required, the speed of absorption and conversion also increased."
After three hours, the Energy Core in Qian Jin’s hands wasn’t as s.h.i.+ny.
"Ok, I can fix up Burg’s spear first." Qian Jin stretched his body and murmured. "We got a lot of metals, I can probably also make a Warrior Weapon each for Cech Flet and Fanta Kunge."
Five days after the first 4 bottles of Spirit Advancement Potions were sold at Yulee, the monthly auction received 30 bottles!
All the mages at Yulee were excited. They were all trying to get more information even though some of them already level 4 mages.
Mages had families and relatives as well. The fact that they advanced didn’t mean that all of the mages in their family advanced. The youngest son of Xander was stuck at the spirit barrier and couldn’t advance to level 4 spirit power, and Xander who was already a Supreme Mage couldn’t anything about it.
Now, since there were these potions that were proven to be effective, Vice-President Xander of Crystal Magic Tower even had the impulse of killing one of the mages who drank the potion and see if their blood would be any use to his son for breaking through the spirit barrier.
"Did you get anything? Do you know who is selling the potions?"
Xander asked a mage beside as he focused on polis.h.i.+ng his wand.
"No….." The mage carefully looked at Xander who was frowning and said, "The auction house didn’t want to disclose that."
"Really? Les Latta, are you sure?" Xander rubbed his blonde eyebrows as he stared at the young mage who had blue hair and said with a disappointed tone. "Did you tell them that I was asking for this information? Although they should keep this information confidential, they can at least tell me something."
"I said that..." Les Latta backed off a little as he gave Xander the room to stand up and walk around. He lowered his head and continued. "The auction house that the person told them to keep his ident.i.ty confidential. If they leak the information, the person said that he doesn’t mind going to other auction houses in other cities."
"Huh, this person is careful." Xander opened the window and looked at the sky. "Yeah, 30 bottles of Spirit Advancement Potions! It’s obvious that this person mastered the production process. If other people knew about him, he might be kidnapped by some huge force... Too bad, this person is too careful. Looks like I can’t kidnap him and force him to produce the potions for me to increase the overall strength of our Crystal Magic Tower."
The young Les Latta lowered his head even more. He knew that this vice-president was very ambitious. He wasn’t satisfied with the position of vice-president, and he was satisfied with Crystal Magic Tower only been a level 3 Magic Tower in the Mage Union.
"This is a great opportunity..." Xander turned around as he looked at a beautiful female mage pus.h.i.+ng open the door to his room. "Am I right? Dear Vice-President Mariana?"
"Yes, powerful Vice-President Xander." Mariana was wearing a loose white elegant mage robe, but the loose mage robe wasn’t enough to hide her s.e.xy figure. From looking at her face, no one can tell that she had already given birth to two kids. "If you can capture this mystic pharmacist, you can increase the strength of the low-level mages in the tower. The ranking of Crystal Magic Tower would increase in the union, and you will probably be able to become the president of the tower with that achievement."
Les Latta peaked at the woman who just walked in and wondered, "How can she maintain such a face and body after giving birth to two? I heard that for some reason, the two vice-presidents got divorced at the central Mage Union, but then how are they still able be this friendly to one another?"
"Yeah, too bad." Xander sighed without hesitation. "I didn’t expect this person to be this careful. What is this person’s connection with the Roll Family? Maybe I should investigate. I heard the leader of Roll Family is quite a beauty..."
"What? Vice-President Xander, you are interested? Mariana smiled. "You probably don’t know, the Roll Family is like a piece of iron board. I heard that the Cae Family and the Falker Family lost their primary guardian and family leaders when they targeted the Roll Family, and they ended up giving up a ton of business to the Roll Family to settle this."
"Cae Family?" Xander raised his eyebrows. "What? A small family that I never heard before. Falker Family? They had lost it already! Their most glorious times was 300 years ago when they were one of the eight super-powers of Yulee. Now? Even Torrent Battle Fort can crush them."
"Xander, a level 7 Supreme Mage, is strong of course." Mariana giggled. "I heard that the Roll Family is backed by Fabreidis."
Xander’s expression tanked immediately. He squeezed his wand, and the veins in his arms bulged. "So? My master is already a top-tier Ultimate Mage; he is only one step away from the rank of Legendary Mage, and he is not weaker than Fabreidis. If I want to get to that girl, I only need to make it a conflict between two forces. Even if he wants to help, he is only a city guardian." He said.
"You can chill and put that girl aside." Mariana got close to the window, and the sunlight shone on her beautiful face. "Investigate into that mysterious mystic pharmacist first and see if he or she actually has a deep connection with the Roll Family. I believe all other forces at Yulee are on this as well."
"Of course! I sent people to investigate already."
Xander looked at his ex-wife’s body and swallowed of drools. The woman he slept with many years looked very attractive when she was no longer with him.
"What?" Mariana straightened her back and said, "You want some? You no longer have the opportunity to."
"Humph..." Xander pulled back his strong desire and asked, "Don’t you want some? Did you find any young men lately?"
"That’s my personal issue." Mariana walked out. "If you have time, investigate into that mystic pharmacist more!"
...
"I really don’t know that person who can make the potion." Rosella stood up and sent away the fourth group of people from Yulee. Now, she really admired Fabreidis’ far sight. It didn’t matter if these people had good or bad intentions, if she had to introduce them to Qian Jin, Qian Jin would have no time to train.
"Rosella... Rosella." Duren Burg pointed his spear at the back of a warrior and walked him into the yard. "This is the third of the day, he tried to get over the wall and sneak in, but I caught him easily."