Mage And Wolf
Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Chapter 123

"Is that even possible?" They both cry out "Grade 1 pills have to come from a grade 1 recipe don’t they?"

"Not at all. At least not for every recipe. Qi Gathering, Clear Mind, and regeneration effects all have pills at every rank up to 3. Higher too, but that’s not the point today. If you make the rank 3 recipe, but focus on condensing it into smaller pills, you will get lower grade results, but in large quantity."

I show them with the grade 3 Qi Gathering recipe that is the basis for the grade 5 Core Forming Cursed pill. Where the recipe usually produces 10 pills or 6 cursed pills with my skill, it produces 50 grade 1 pills in its hour long process.

"We don’t have grade 3 recipes though Highness. We’re just acolyte Priestesses."

How did they recognize me so quickly? Oh, I am wearing a lace shouldered shirt with my combat gear, they’ve literally stared down at the Death God’s mark for an hour. They’d be idiots not to know who I was.

"Come, sit on a cushion and bring out your supplies. If you need a recipe I will provide one for your training. I will supply the materials, enough got turned in today to keep you busy here for a while."

The ratios coming in might be off, but they’ll likely even out over the course of the week. Each attempt takes about 2 kilos of total materials, most of them a very common grass we got nearly a hay bale worth of today. It’s still worth more to me than the pills I traded, so no loss to me.

"Here are the recipes, with my additional notes. I will watch this first attempt in its entirety and guide you both."

Teaching them how to split the pills into more grade 2 pills will be the hard part. Once they have the basic split down we can work on getting many grade 1 results from their work. That takes much more fine energy control.

The first attempt is barely a success, making 20 grade 2 pills, the desired result, but with a purity that barely reaches 75 percent on average and a few that need to be discarded as failures in the batch.

"Not bad, 35 usable pills in two batches. Now, here is where you went wrong" I give them a short lecture on the mistakes in processing and energy control that they add to their recipes before trying again.

successes, average purity 78 percent in the second attempt. That’s good enough to trade out tomorrow for bounties.

"That’s enough for the night ladies, meditate on your difficulties and return here at first light for more supplies to take you through the day. With the Mark of the Death God on this tent, nobody should dare bother you while we’re gone."

I trade out with Karl for the second shift, getting the girls bright and early with the breakfast of music cooking oatmeal, fruit and toast that I’ve gotten so good at. Even Karl gets up early, and that’s rare if bacon isn’t involved.

"Where did you learn this?" The girls ask. "We need this in our lives"

Karl cracks up "Secret Sect technique for Evil Cultivators. It draws good wholesome girls into a never ending cycle of pleasure."

"He’s joking of course. Though it is a secret technique, not taught to many. Call it a job benefit if you like."

With 8 sets of materials each set out and quality checked, they should be good all day.

Now for the morning turn in. There’s a lot waiting today, many wanted to see the quality and grade of the pills to ensure they weren’t getting scammed. But now that a whole night of teams have collected rewards, their fears have been allayed.

"So, look for more portals today? Close what we can and see if we can determine what’s causing the respawn? Even dungeons are only one a day, this seems to be faster."

I think for a moment "Yeah, and let’s head through yesterday’s area, make sure portals aren’t returning daily."

Today we go on foot, making it easier to sense anything out of the ordinary. No hints before noon, but we did find a portal full of category 2 milk cows and we’ve called in a dairy farmer to come collect them. Free of charge, but with a trade agreement that Arcana gets first option on at least 50 percent of his output.

Every bakery in town will be happy to hear that. It’s no harder to work with than regular milk, and can be directly substituted with amazing results. Five hundred head in all are loaded and shipped to him, taking up most of our day supervising before closing the portal.

"What a waste of a day" Karl sighs. "One single portal closed, a few dozen small beasts killed and no closer to knowing what causes this phenomenon."

"Not entirely wasted. We obtained a large amount of food supply for the city, found out that the respawn happens to a portion of dead monsters every hour on the fifteen, and that closed portals don’t return. That’s not bad for day 2."

Many more of the groups gathered herbs today, getting everything they can out of the bounty while it’s up. We’re going to need to call a merchant truck if one doesn’t come tonight, no way can my storage hold this all.

Karl decides to build a small warehouse tent for the alchemy materials, Teams are bringing in items not on the pill list, using the logic they might be needed for specific requests. They’re not wrong, so we’re giving credit for anything useful. Even elemental crystals and rare crafting materials from monsters.

Why not? Someone will need it.

Mary sent us a merchant just before sundown, with requested items for the adventurers here and lots of room to bring supplies back. He also brought us two of the black robed acolytes who were a bit heartbroken to be abandoned, as the church assigned them as Karl’s personal assistants.

"Can you do alchemy?" I ask the two teenagers in the upper Foundation Realm.

"Yes Highness. We took the mandatory training and can create essential grade 1 pills" says the young Fox Woman.

We all try not to chuckle at that. She’s in for quite a day today.

"Karl, dear, can you give me a learning spell scroll? The disciples require some extra knowledge."

"I’m very good with inscription, I can make grade 3 talismans" she says quickly, clearly worried about what I’m going to do to her.

"And you?" I ask the burly Dragonkin beside her.

"I’m a trained accountant, clerk and inventory auditor Highness" his deep voice clips out. He’s a math wonk? Didn’t expect that, he must be the one that took over much of Lala’s paperwork.

"In that case, we’ve got work for both of you."

The most popular talismans are the 30 percent speed and strength enhancement grade 1 inscriptions and the grade 3 lesser invisibility Talisman that works a lot like my Shadow Meld.

Elder Song taught me up to grade 5 in his transfer on inscription, anything more takes an immortal to create. We can have the inscriptions made to order for the teams. Since they’re hard to buy, with limited supply, free with proof of kills is a great price.

"Young Miss" a cultivator calls from near the tent "Did I hear you’ve got an inscriptionist here now? If they’re the same price as pills, my team needs 5 lesser invisibility talismans. There’s a treasure in a portal we really want, but the traps are motion activated"

"Coming right up" I call back "Acolyte, 5 lesser invisibility talismans please"

She quickly gets to work. Talismans don’t take long, just skill and special ink.

"I’ve taken 50 grade 3 counts from your account" I tell him, handing the papers over and he runs off with a whoop of glee.

"Highness, might I ask what your specialty is? Civilians seem very comfortable calling you by many names, are you perhaps a public relations officer?" The big Dragonkin asks.

"Not exactly" Karl laughs "Though we did meet as part of a public relations Task Force."

"As you likely know, Karl is an Arcane mage" They both nod acknowledgement, having worked with Karl for a while now.

"I on the other hand specialize in melee combat" I finish, but they don’t look any more enlightened.

"What she’s saying is that Alchemy is just her hobby. Young Miss is her formal title as an Assassin of the Shadowed Blade, that’s why nobody but her closest friends speaks her actual name in public".

Karl just loves messing with the acolytes. But all the clergy present, even the Green robed acolytes, go pale.

"The Shadowed Blade? The Council’s black ops force?" The big man whispers.

The duplicate names are definitely going to create a misunderstanding today. But it should be alright. Maybe.

"So it’s true they were the ones that called the Council’s wrath down on the Houston cathedral" one of the Green robed alchemists shudders.

"What do you know about Houston?" I ask, interested because I left before things were settled.

"The green Avatar sent a message that the Shadowed Blade intervened and all but 3 had been executed for incompetence with their heads to be left on pikes for a period of one week"

Did I accidentally nominate myself as a personal Assassin and scapegoat for the Council?