Chapter 88: Couldn’t Think of a Title

Who knows! Anyway, that sort of thing is none of our concern!” Xius had no interest in whether Professor Matt had been chosen. His own mentor was not even at the academy.

“By the way, I can help with the refining, but remember to send the materials over. If I have to gather them myself, it will take far too long,” Xius reminded Billy. He had no intention of helping Billy prepare the potions while also hunting down the ingredients on his own.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of that!” Billy agreed at once.

After the matter was settled, Billy did not linger any longer at Xius’s place. He went straight back to his family to tell his father that Xius had agreed to help, and to urge them to hurry the delivery of the needed ingredients.

“These wizard families must know something,” Xius murmured, watching Billy’s retreating back. He felt that the families of mages must all know that the Shadow Ring was at war with other mage organizations, or else they would not all have begun stockpiling potions.

“I need to hurry as well.”

The sooner he left, the better. If matters dragged on and the Shadow Ring was sealed off again as it had been before, escaping would only become troublesome.

“Speed things up,” Xius thought. He would deal with the academy as quickly as possible and leave at the earliest opportunity.

Billy, too, returned to his family after reaching an understanding with Xius and told his father about it.

Billy’s father was the head of the family. As a fellow wizarding house, he had heard that other families had sought Xius out to refine potions, only to be turned away.

He knew his son and Xius were on good terms, but large-scale potion refining was no easy task. It consumed time and effort, and he had no idea whether Xius would be willing to agree for the sake of his son’s face.

“My lord! Young Master has returned!” A guard reported cautiously to the increasingly anxious Patriarch Diger.

“He’s back? Come on, then!” Diger could not wait another moment. Hearing that his son had returned, he hurried outside, eager to ask how things had gone.

“Pack this, and this too. Everything. Bring it with me to the academy in a moment!” Billy instructed the guards as they sorted through a selection of medicinal herbs.

“How did it go, Billy? Is Xius willing to help?” Diger had not even stepped inside before he saw his son selecting items and came over at once to ask.

“Don’t worry, Father. Xius has already agreed,” Billy said hurriedly when he saw his father approaching.

“Good, good!” Diger’s face lit up with relief.

“You’re preparing the herbs?” he asked, looking at the items Billy had chosen. They were all medicinal materials.

“Yes, Father. I want to send them to Xius as soon as possible. Didn’t you say it was urgent?” Billy watched the guards sort the herbs, making sure nothing went wrong.

“Good, good. Then send them over quickly. If there isn’t enough, I’ll have people gather more. Do you know how many potions Xius is planning to refine for me?” Diger cared deeply about the quantity. At a critical time, every vial of potion could make a great difference.

“Don’t even bring it up, Father. You never told me the number of potions, so I had no way to speak to Xius about it. Now that he’s agreed, a small amount is one thing, but if it’s too much, I couldn’t possibly bring it up,” Billy said, a little frustrated that his father had not given him the details.

“I, uh...” Diger thought it over carefully and realized he really had never told Billy how many potions he wanted.

“Then what do we do? What if the number isn’t enough?” Diger grew anxious, regretting that he had not made things clear at the start.

“Wait a moment!” Billy interrupted abruptly when his messenger bracelet reacted.

“How is it? What did he say?” Diger asked curiously.

Ever since Billy had taken those messenger bracelets out of the storehouse, Diger had known about them. When he first learned that Billy intended to give one away, he had been somewhat reluctant.

Though the messenger bracelet was merely a trinket among enchanted items, it was still rare enough and, after all, a tool for communication.

But later, as Xius’s fame grew and Diger learned that the recipient was Xius himself, he praised Billy to no end. In his eyes, while messenger bracelets were not easy to find, a capable potion master was far more precious. Such a trade was immensely worthwhile.

“Xius said I should prepare as many herbs as possible. As for the potions he’ll make for us: twenty Nature Potions, forty Stamina Potions, and forty Hemostatic Potions. That’s all of them. What do you think, Father?” Billy said. The number was already astonishing to him, though he was not sure whether it matched his father’s expectations.

“Enough, enough!” Diger said at once, especially relieved at the mention of the twenty Nature Potions.

“That’s good,” Billy said, relaxing as well. If his father was satisfied, then it was fine; if not, he truly would not know how to bring it up with Xius.

“Then I’ll take this batch of herbs over first. You should have people gather more as quickly as possible,” Billy said, seeing that the sorting was nearly complete.

“All right, go ahead and send them. I’ll have the rest sent over as soon as possible,” Diger replied, already eager to get his hands on the potions.

Billy and I carried the herbs back to the Shadow Ring together, and by evening Billy had delivered the materials to Xius’s residence.

Xius looked at the herbs Billy had brought and knew he had already agreed to this. He could hardly go back on his word, so he might as well refine them slowly and carefully.

Knock, knock.

“Come in,” Xius said directly when he heard the knock, still occupied with potion refining.

“Busy, are you?” Lindsay stepped inside and looked at Xius, who was working at the experiment table.

“What brings you here? Aren’t you staying at your shop?” Xius asked without looking up, focused on the potion in his hands. In his memory, this was the first time Lindsay had come to him; usually, it was Xius who went to see him.

“Well, it’s still about potions. Another family has asked you to refine some for them,” Lindsay said softly, not daring to speak too loudly while Xius was busy.

“Didn’t I ask you to refuse for me?” Xius lifted his head and looked at Lindsay.

“Yes. I originally meant to turn them down for you as well, but they made a promise: if you’re willing to refine it, they’ll offer up a potion formula. I couldn’t decide, so I thought it best to let you make the call,” Lindsay said slowly.

“A potion formula? Do you know what kind?” Xius was intrigued. No potion master would ever pass something like that up.

“This formula is a little unusual. Take a look,” Lindsay said, seeing Xius’s interest and knowing how important potion formulas were to a potioneer. He produced a sheet of paper and handed it over.

“See for yourself. I don’t know either,” Lindsay admitted. When he had asked what potion it was, the other party had simply handed him this and left.

“How mysterious,” Xius muttered as he took the paper and unfolded it to read the contents.

Explosive Potion...

His expression shifted slightly.

This potion was not for drinking, but an offensive kind of concoction. It did not mention its exact power.

“Is this basically the equivalent of explosives in the wizarding world?” Xius could already imagine the effect from the name alone.

“I’ve never seen a potion of this type before,” he said, then explained the contents of the page to Lindsay, wanting to know whether Lindsay was familiar with it.

“Explosive Potion? Actually, I do know a bit about that,” Lindsay said after a moment’s thought, suddenly remembering.

“Really? Tell me about it.”

Xius felt that his decision to cooperate with Lindsay had been excellent indeed.

“This Explosive Potion is a relatively rare offensive potion in the field of potioncraft. Its power is probably around eight or nine degrees, about on par with a spell cast by a third-tier apprentice,” Lindsay said, telling Xius everything he knew.

“Eight to nine degrees, huh...” Xius was fairly satisfied with that level of power. If he succeeded in refining it, it would be a valuable aid to him.

“The refinement difficulty is very high, and it’s dangerous throughout the process,” Lindsay said, seeing Xius’s expression and guessing that he was likely to accept the request.