Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 351 - 149: Planning

Chapter 351: Chapter 149: Planning

"A bottle of ’Weakness II,’ a bottle of ’Visual II,’ a bottle of ’Tactics II,’ and two bottles of ’Intuition II,’" Aske received this compensation list from the Weisbach family after he accepted the task to assist southward.

He had originally anticipated that the Weisbach family could provide three to four bottles of Magic Potion, making up the remainder with equivalent cash, but unexpectedly, the family actually provided all the requested Magic Potions.

It seemed he had underestimated the financial power of the Eleanor family.

Five bottles of Grade II Magic Potions represented a huge fortune to an ordinary Transcendent.

However, for The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps at that time, it was still considered a fair exchange.

After all, everyone had been on the battlefield for months, directly blocking the Wolf Family’s northern invasion, sufficient to annihilate lesser mercenary groups several times over.

Moreover, since they ultimately achieved their strategic goal and ensured the Weisbach’s direct territories suffered immeasurable less damage, it was only natural to take these Magic Potions.

"Weakness II," a common potion among swordsmen; "Visual II," a common potion among snipers; "Intuition II," a common potion among rangers/thieves; these three were among the more popular and common sequences within the Empire’s extraordinary professionals. Even if the Weisbach family couldn’t provide them, spending a lot of money at some secret gatherings to purchase them was also an option, if given enough time.

"Tactics II," on the other hand, was a more niche sequence, only held within certain continental organizations or old noble families.

Therefore, acquiring these five bottles of Magic Potion indeed saved Aske considerable time and energy.

The whole team was then just one bottle away from graduating from Grade II Magic Potions with Sigrdrifa’s "Giant II." As for Grade III Magic Potions...

It was impossible to obtain them through trading, as some well-researched players explained on forums that the majority of Grade III Magic Potions, once concocted by NPCs, were almost immediately consumed, and no one spared them to sit in a storage.

Thus, the most efficient method for players at this stage remained only one...

Slaughter.

Finding the corresponding Transcendent, killing them, taking their properties for breakdown, and then extracting the formula through special methods like Mind, Spiritual Body, Death Spirit, from either living or deceased victims’ memories, became the best strategy for acquiring Grade III Magic Potions.

Of course, there were also fools who preferred to buy the recipes and honestly gather the materials.

Such as those mainstream players who diligently achieved Lv.18-19 from the start, while still leisurely collecting materials to advance from Lv.8 to Lv.9, indifferent to the fact that the Magic Tide’s limit had already reached Lv.20, and they couldn’t handle the monsters and NPCs roaming everywhere.

These folks were generally known as "laid-back players."

Or perhaps as the disengaged group.

Regardless, Aske definitely did not consider himself part of the disengaged. Having spent over half a year here, his hometown on Earth probably plastered missing person notices on every lamppost.

After agreeing to Meyer’s request, he then took the opportunity to propose purchasing the Magic Potion Recipes for "Weakness III" and "Weakness IV" from Meyer, as well as inquiring if he had any enemies who were part of the high-tier "Weakness" sequence.

"I truly don’t have the Magic Potion Recipes," Meyer said apologetically, "As for extraordinary properties, all I can say is that, to my knowledge, the vast majority of swordsmen possessing the high-tier Weakness sequence are members of the Saint Mark Brotherhood."

"The only reason I obtained the finished Magic Potion was due to a Duke’s generous financial support, a situation you likely can’t replicate. Joining the Saint Mark Brotherhood is currently the fastest way to obtain Magic Potions through official channels."

Aske pondered this. He had, of course, heard of the Saint Mark Brotherhood before, roughly akin to Freemasonry, a large transnational monastic organization dedicated to assisting the poor and studying theology/serving God.

Like the gatherings of the impoverished in "Song of Ice and Fire," the Saint Mark Brotherhood also had its military organization, composed of professionally trained full-time soldiers, and even had a swordsmanship school dedicated to training these soldiers.

The lords within the Empire were somewhat embarrassed about their attitude towards the Brotherhood; on one hand, they appreciated their help in maintaining order and aiding the poor within their territories, but on the other hand, they were worried about the Brotherhood’s potential to become uncontrollable, especially now that His Majesty the Emperor was openly opposing the Church Court...

In any case, sending Aske to join the Saint Mark Brotherhood to trade for "Weakness III" or even "Weakness IV" materials, or to directly apply for Magic Potion within the organization, was simply too troublesome.

Just accumulating enough experience to qualify for a Magic Potion slot was an unknown length of time.

On the other hand, assassinating a warrior from the Saint Mark Brotherhood was also troublesome; this was not some trash humanitarian organization but a large brotherhood registered under the Church Court, with investigative methods and all.

If it were lawless players who could resurrect, then perhaps it would be worth risking death. However, Aske was now a man with a family and business to protect; it was not worth taking the risk of making needless enemies.

After saying goodbye to Meyer, Aske walked towards the potion shop in the city, continuing to ponder along the way.

If it wasn’t feasible to start with the Saint Mark Brotherhood, then the other two possible choices were the local Thief Guild or the Ilanian Assassin Organization.

The former was obviously unreliable because you might not be able to find them; even if you did, they might not have the advanced formula for the Weakness Sequence; and even if they did, they might not be willing to trade it...

The latter definitely had it, but the problem was how to contact them. Since their last meeting in Olympia City, Rasul had provided some contacts for assassin organizations in the west, with the nearest being in the neighboring Duchy of Bohemia.

Would he really need to make a trip there?

If it were any other time, he could just go, as why would a Mercenary Group fear a long journey?

But it was now during a civil war, and he had just received a mission from the Duke of Bavaria to go to the Swabian Duchy to turn the Sorren Family, with the reward thought out—a "Will III" Magic Potion, slated for his darling daughter Eleanor; it wouldn’t do to be stingy as a Weisbach.

Where was the time to run off to Bohemia? Comrade Rasul, couldn’t you learn from Agrippina of the Pure Blood Monastery and provide some convenient instant communication tool?

After visiting several potion shops, Aske finally managed to acquire a Phantom Shell. For this phase of The Azure Longsword, most problems that could be solved with money were hardly considered problems at all.

It was those that required time and effort that were more troublesome...

If it really wouldn’t work, they’d just have to split the forces! This idea suddenly popped into his head: he would lead one team to the Swabian Duchy while Thira and Medea would take another team to Bohemia.

If Thira and Medea worked together, they could match his own tactical and strategic level, yes.

Aske thought uncertainly, but then he reconsidered the dangers they might encounter on the road, like encountering novice killers such as snipers or the Revenge Sequence, which could easily lead to disaster. Without him, they might not be able to cope.

It wasn’t that the girls couldn’t fight; he feared that a sudden ambush might disorient them and lead to unnecessary casualties.

After all, they still lacked the experience to deal with various situations, having trained under him for less than half a year—a duration that, in most workplaces, would just mark the end of a probationary period.

Not to mention the training camps for professional circles, which would require sitting on the bench for at least a year.

As Aske walked back, his mood weighed down by such contemplative thoughts, it seemed strengthening their intensive training was necessary.

When in doubt, increase the training.