Blademaster Ascension

9- Isa's secret

Two days had passed by since the last monster attack. A shadow of grief and horror still hung over sand town as those who had died were buried one by one. The process took quite some time, because the council had doubled the security all around the town.
Even Rowan had patrol duty for the  three days in a row.

Sneaking out at night had become almost impossible. Rowan was also aware of how dangerous it would be for him. If he met a ranked monster in the marsh, there was no way he would be able to escape, not even with Chip's help.
He would lay low for a few days, he decided. Since he HAD to hunt monsters, he needed an effective strategy that would take the least amount of time.

"Chip, would sedatives work on monsters?"

[ Negative.  Monsters usually have a stronger physique and most medicine or potion used on humans are barely effective on them unless they are of stronger and revised versions. At this moment, host lacks the skills to concoct advanced potions like this. Moreover, potions like sedatives work quite slowly when we're considering the situation in a battlefield where every second counts . But, there are a few exceptions where the ingredients are universally effective and doesn't rely on the subject's stats.  ]

After consulting with Chip for a few more minutes, he did manage to come up with a way. That evening, after his patrol had ended, Rowan appeared in front of the hospital and asked the old guard where the person in charge of medicine was.

The old man, perhaps sympathizing with him thinking that he was collecting medicine out of fear or caution, enthusiastically took him to a backroom to see the person in charge. However, he ran into an impasse there.

"There is no way I'm giving you the formula to concoct paralyzing medicine! Are you crazy? That sort of things are strictly watched over by the council. Who knows what you might do with it?!"

The woman in charge of the stocks adamantly refused his request.

"Wait, look. Who could I possibly harm with that medicine? I'm just a kid, dammit! I want to learn the formula because I think it'd be useful in hunting monsters."

"What kind of an idiot do you think I am? Hunting monsters? Yeah, right! Nobody's gonna believe you! You think the herbs necessary for the formula are something you can find in your backyard?! Some of them don't even grow in sand town's soil. We have to buy them from other towns! Get outta here."

"Alright, look. If I wanted to harm anyone with that medicine, I'd have tried to do it low-key, not announce it to the whole town! The fact that I'm asking for it here means I really am not going to harm anybody using it."

Seeing that the woman remained unconvinced, Rowan finally pulled out his trump card.

"Here, I know a place where rare herbs grow sometimes. These are the haul I managed to gather there. If you want we can hit a deal; you give me the formula, I give you some herbs from my occasional hauls for free."

The woman studied the herbs in front of her intently. Seconds later, her eyes widened. She shifted has glance toward Rowan and saw his confident expression. Her lips twitched.

"Do you recognise these herbs?"

"...uhh, yes?"

".... Fine, a deal it is! But keep in mind, if I hear any rumours about this medicine in the town, you're in big trouble."

With a shake of her head, she took the herb pouch from Rowan and gestured at him to follow her.

It seemed that the hospital guarded the medicine formulas heavily. The woman had him stand outside on a corridor while she opened a bunch of locks inside a nondescript room full of shelves containing numerous scrolls, presumably formulas for many sort of medicine.