Blademaster Ascension

20- Potion Bandit

The ingredients and the formula was delivered to him that evening while he was practicing the sword techniques from the diary. The girl came herself with them. After reassuring her again and again that he could deliver the required amount of potions within time, Rowan finally sent her on her way. There was one odd thing that made Rowan alert. When handing him the papers containing the formula, she refused to give him any information about the potion's effects or what it would be used for. Neither did she say why she needed so much of it. But there wasn't anything he could do to make her speak, so he let the issue rest.

Entering his bedroom where everything was piled up in a heap, he studied the formula. It was much more complex than he had imagined. Each batch of the potion required over twenty different types of ingredients, most of which he couldn't identify without the labels and Chip's help. The previous potions that he had practiced concocting took two to three hours at most but a single batch of this potion took up six to seven hours. That meant, producing one litre would take half a day. He had to produce at least five litres to convince her.
In short, he'd have to work hard for the rest of the week to meet her demands.

Toiling wasn't something Rowan was afraid of. He wasn't a lazy person. But he couldn't really afford to make mistakes here. She gave him enough ingredients for ten litres and expected at least seventy percent of them back as a part of the potion.

"Chip, start analysing the formula."

[ proceeding with task...
  Progress: 1% ]

Rowan decided not to start before it reaches completion. Meanwhile, he started cooking the monster meat from last night. There were three different monsters. A iron-beak hawk, an electric boa and a mutated variation of cyan frogs that he had never seen before in the marsh. All three of these monsters had their primary stats near the peak of normal creatures, which is to say, around  8-9. Rowan and Isa were quite familiar with each other's style and they didn't face much difficulty hunting them together.

With many thoughts clouding his mind, Rowan cooked the meat and started his sumptuous monster flavoured dinner. It wasn't very tasty, to tell the truth. He tried his best not to remeber the appearance of the monsters when they were alive and kicking. They were anything but appetizing. Rowan also noticed a change in himself recently. His appetite had gotten larger. Initially, just one monster would last him a day or two, but now, he could eat multiple smaller sized monsters like snacks. Perhaps it had something to do with his physical enhancements. After all, he did become twice the stronger, faster and capable compared to before. Logically, his consumption of food should be large too. It wasn't something to be alarmed about.

After finishing all three monsters with some effort in the end, Rowan felt like he was going to turn into a miniature version of Isa as he looked down and noticed his inflated stomach.
"All for the sake of enhancements," he consoled himself, and asked Chip to recheck his current stats.

[ Host stats:
  Strength: 6.3
  Speed: 7
  Physique: 6.5
  Innate ability: none awakened
  Elemental affinity: earth (level 2) fire (level 1)
  Mutation compatibility:63.25%
  Constitutional limit: rank two (evolvable) ]

[ alert. The normal sword technique 'shadow of the blade' is now available for use. ]

A few minutes after his command, Chip sent the report and let him see his new stats. Rowan felt the pleasure of the new accomplishment again after a long time. He quickly asked Chip to let him see the optimized and understandable version of the sword technique.

[  technique: shadow of the blade

   Description: this could be called the result of multiple different sword techniques converted seamlessly into one to produce a newer and better result. When the wielder uses the technique in a duel or a battle, the sword gives off the impression of having two blades attached to the hilt , one belonging to the sword itself and the other, its shadow. However, unlike an incorporeal shadow, this extra shadow of the blade can cause the same amount of injury to the enemy. Furthermore, once the wielder gains mastery over this technique, he can manipulate the shadow to bend and move according to his will and slip past the enemy's defense to deal fatal damage. To use this sword technique, host must practice these ten postures and moves depicted below. ]