Roran City
On the wide road, a horse carriage rapidly sped by. In the driver's seat sat two large guys wearing metallic armour and long swords. One look and people got the message that they were not to be messed with. Farmers in the vicinity scurried out of their way.
Inside the carriage, the smell of wood and lacquer mixed together and was somewhat unpleasant.
Leylin's nose wrinkled as he caught a whiff of perfume. Seeing that Anna was blushing beside him, Leylin smiled and beckoned, "Come here!"
When she drew near, Leylin made her recline halfway, then lay his head on her chest.
His hands conveniently roved around Anna's thighs. The thin cotton fabric could not hide her beauty. Leylin felt as if both his hands were touching a piece of warm and soft jade.
Savouring the softness he was leaning on, and hearing Anna's panting, made Leylin feel extremely content. He sighed, closed both his eyes and stayed still.
He had had been feeling on edge lately, as he had to exercise prudence after every trade. This occupied a lot of Leylin's thoughts. Now that he did not have to do so anymore, Leylin could finally take a break, and obtain ample time to rest. He even had two Knights to take care of the trouble.
Naturally, the two Knights would be sleeping outside, leaving the interior of the carriage to their master and the maid. Leylin was no gentleman. Moreover, Anna was also quite a beauty and excelled in that area. Idling away in the carriage, he naturally had already bedded her. There was even a faint trace of dark red blood on the cabin's floor.
As a maid bought by Leylin, how could Anna resist her master? All along the journey, she served him wholeheartedly and tried various positions with him, which also satisfied a few of his fetishes.
"Thankfully I am a magician. I can use magical herbs and undergo meditation to continuously recover and increase my vitality. With the previous Leylin's sad physique, I would most likely have aged prematurely......"
Leylin ordered mentally, "A.I. Chip, show me my stats!"
[Leylin Farlier, level 2 acolyte. Strength: 2.7, Agility: 2.8, Vitality: 3.0, Spiritual force: 4.6, Magical Power: 4.0. Status: Healthy]
"Four to five months have passed, and I persisted in meditation everyday. To think that there was only an increase of 0.2......" Leylin's expression was a little unsightly, "I have to hurry to my destination and settle down to try brewing the ancient potions. Who knows when I will meet the requirements for advancing?"
All acolytes encounter a bottleneck when advancing to level 3. Even a fifth-grade acolyte like Jayden still requires years of training in order to breakthrough.
After analysing the conditions needed to advance, mastering the spells and brewing reactive elixirs became trivial. Only getting past the 7 spiritual force bottleneck remained baffling for countless genius acolytes. Even official Magi did not have good solutions to address this aspect of spiritual force cultivation. Only constant painstaking meditation had any effectiveness or maybe the use potions and the sort could be an alternative. The cost of these, unfortunately, could not be borne by the typical acolyte.
Right now Leylin too was stuck on the same spiritual force bottleneck.
"A.I. Chip! How is the analysis of the two potions? And what is the progress in deciphering Lowian's Teachings?"
[Beep! Azure Potion analysis progress: 100%, Tears of Mary analysis progress: 78%, Lowian's Teachings analysis progress: 63.7%] The A.I. Chip's voice intoned.
"The Azure Potion has been fully analysed long ago. Unfortunately, the main ingredients are now completely extinct. Finding substitutes requires countless experiments. As for the Tears of Mary, it has been at 78% for 3 months now with no signs of progress at all. Could some crucial procedures be missing?
Leylin's brows furrowed; the A.I. Chip's processing ability was extremely powerful. The progress in analysing the ancient potion Tears of Mary analysis stagnated at 78%, which made Leylin rather surprised.
"These formulas that Professor Kroft gave me should be correct. If the A.I. Chip could not analyse them after all this time, it might have met with some difficult question that was beyond the parameters of the databank......Tears of Mary! Tears!" Leylin guessed.
"Could it be......That this ancient potion formula has something to do with a soul?"
After all hearing the name of this potion, one will easily associate it with some ill-fated event.
As for Lowian's Teachings, the progress was rather good. Although the creator used extremely complicated coding to ensure secrecy, the A.I. Chip was least daunted by the complicated computations.
Leylin roughly knew the general contents of this scroll through reading the previous portions that have been analysed.
"Unfortunately, though this item is not bad, I can only make use of it when I become a level 3 acolyte!"
Leylin shook his head and got rid of these distracting thoughts.
Suddenly, the horse carriage stopped.
Leylin's brows furrowed as he asked, "Did something happen?"
"Young Master please be at ease, it is merely a group of bandits who have blocked the path!" Fraser has already gone over to take care of it!" Greem's voice travelled through the wooden wall.
* Ping Pang! Bang! *
As expected, moments later it seemed that negotiations failed. The sound of various weapons clashing could be heard. After a few profanities and continuous wailing, Fraser's voice was heard saying "It's settled." The horse carriage once again resumed the journey.
This kind of an outcome made Leylin feel very satisfied.
The reason why he bought two Knights and a maid was so that all the trifling matters would be handled by them, allowing him more time to focus on researching spells and doing more experiments.
These matters along the way were trivial. Leylin had the faint outline of a plan that would require the participation of many people to accomplish. And these 3 people were at the core of it.
"Young......Young Master!" Anna who was behind him, let off a low pant.
Only then did Leylin realise that his hand slipped. While he was deep in thought, his hand had unknowingly touched Anna's private part.
Leylin smiled and withdrew his hand.
Seeing that Anna's face was still flushed, he said, "Right now Young Master is occupied with something! I'll have time tonight to play with you......"
These intimate words made Anna somewhat shy as she lowered her head.
Pretending not to see the temptation right in front of him, he said "A.I. Chip! Transmit the fully analysed Azure Potion formula!"
Leylin always drew a clear line between entertainment and research. At the most crucial moment, he would definitely not be infatuated and lose the will to improve.
......
Seeing Leylin had already closed both his eyes, Anna's eyes dulled. She then rearranged her clothes back to its former neatness and tried her best to adjust her body so that Leylin could rest more comfortably......"
Night fell after what felt like a moment.
Leylin regained consciousness after meditation.
"Young Master! There is a city not far from here!" Greem's voice travelled over.
"Where are we now?"
"According to the markings on the map, we should have already entered Eastwoods Province. This is Roran City, which is situated at the provincial borders!"
The crashing sounds of things being rummaged sounded, as Fraser spoke.
"Roran City huh?" Leylin muttered to himself and adjusted the map stored in the A.I. Chip.
On the faint blue map, a red coloured line was linked with many cities. Roran City was towards the west of Extreme Night City, only several days' journey.
"After half a year of travelling, we are finally arriving huh?" Leylin felt a little rueful.
The reason why he chose this place earlier was its distance from Abyssal Bone Forest Academy- he wouldn't be affected by the conflicts taking place over there. Another consideration was that only by being far away from the academy, would he be able to conduct a few prohibited experiments.
After all, he had the A.I. Chip in his body and also the process for many of the experiments were very unusual. If he had experimented at the academy, using the remnants or rubbish, the possibility of being discovered was inevitable.
However, Leylin felt less restrained ever since he had left- like a caged canary that was set free and soared into the sky.
Leylin opened the carriage door, and a gust of cold wind blew in.
"The feeling of freedom!" Leylin looked at the city, which seemed a little desolate, and the nearby farmers. He could not help but smile.
"First, find us a place to lodge in We'll set off tomorrow morning!"
Leylin gave the orders. In the wild, it was natural to either stay in the horse carriage or inside a tent. However, since they had reached human habitation, Leylin naturally did not want to deprive himself of this chance.
The black-coloured horse carriage entered the city under the respectful gaze of the guard.
To the people in Eastwoods Province, having a horse carriage, guards, and a maid, elevated Leylin to the level of idle nobility.
In fact, Leylin was indeed a descendant of nobility. It was just that it was not this continent's nobility.
Leylin never considered using the dukedom title from Chernobyl Islands here. However, the status of a noble could indeed greatly reduce problems.
After finding a place at a local inn for lodging, Leylin called an attendant over.
"Do you know where I can hire people here?" Leylin played with a gold coin in his hands.
Seeing Anna behind Leylin, and staring intently at the gold coin in Leylin's hands, the attendant could not help but to gulp down a mouthful of saliva.
"Most respected Sire! If you require attendants, the employment marketplace beside the city lord's Manor would be your best choice. There, you can hire strong warriors, proficient housekeepers, and even various maids and stable hands......"
"Very good! Bring me there tomorrow and this gold coin will be yours!" Leylin smiled.
This time, he could stay in Extreme Night City for a long period. Leylin naturally wanted peace and quiet. He required people who could carry out his bidding. Since he did not want to be controlled by others, he would not be able to avoid wielding his own influence.
With Anna and the two Knights as his core retainers, and hiring a few more from Roran City, his retinue would be more or less complete.
Although he could hire more people in Extreme Night City, they will definitely be infiltrated. As for Roran City, although it could not be avoided, it was good to reduce the numbers and influences to a minimum.
Dinner was white bread with vegetable soup. Although the shop owner had already taken out the best items to serve Leylin, it was still somewhat lacking compared to the academy's cafeteria.
As Leylin was eating, many customers in the shop hid in the corner. They wore grey or brown coarse robes. Their gazes carried respect and fear.
Looking at the empty space around him, Leylin smiled bitterly.