Abe the Wizard

Wizard Hutton found it hard to laugh. There were one hundred portal bags he had to carry with him. When he tried to pack them everywhere he could, he quickly found his whole body covered in those bags. It was a bizarre thing to look at, the way he was trying to hold all these bags by himself.

Druid Joseph tried to help, “Do you need help, Wizard Hutton?”

Wizard Hutton refused, “Thanks, but no. There will be dwarves helping me out once I head to Iron Furnace Fort.”

Druid Joseph then looked towards the barrels on the ground, “Wait, did Master Bennett finish brewing the grandmaster’s wine?”

From what he could, the 500 barrels of wine were already gone. Now it was just different barrels containing the grandmaster’s wine. Druid Joseph felt that it was strange. He would come every day to check on what was happening inside the warehouse. He needed Master Bennett’s order to follow the steps for securing that there was enough in store. That was the part that worried him. He saw that there were 500 barrels yesterday, but today he could see 55 barrels of the grandmaster’s wine. He figured that these barrels were not brewed but prepared with the same methods as what one would do to craft potions. It’s the only way to make sure the production was just as fast.

Wizard Hutton heard what was said and stopped, “Is this the new stock, Druid Joseph?”

He thought about using the wine for meditation. Since it was meant for Bernie, he did think about refusing the offer before saying that Master Bennett was willing to offer more. For the wine flask, that was another story. He never thought about returning it to Bernie because he figured that it would be a while before they would need another one from Master Bennett.

Druid Joseph was certain, “This has to be the new stock, yes.”

Wizard Hutton tried not to sound surprised, “Does, well, Druid Joseph, apart from Bernie, who else does Master Bennett give this out to? I mean, does he just save it up from himself?”

So far, Wizard Hutton and Bernie were drinking the grandmaster’s wine once per day. They were doing everything they could to save it up.

Druid Joseph was very honest about it, “Master Bennett never drinks. Apart from Bernie and you, Master Hutton, he doesn’t give this grandmaster’s wine out to anyone else.”

Wizard Hutton widened his eyes, “You mean, I’m supposed to take all of this back with me?”

Druid Joseph smiled, “Sure! If you can’t take it now, I’ll make sure to send them over to Iron Furnace Castle in a few days.”

Druid Joseph then threw the portal bag on the ground. The bag didn’t seem to be as attractive as the grandmaster’s wine. After connecting it with his “telekinesis” spell, he began to put the barrels away into his own space.

Druid Joseph was starting to remember, “Make sure to give a portion to Bernie, Master Hutton.”

Wizard Hutton couldn’t hide his laughter, “Ha! Whay do you take me for? No worries, I’ll just give it back to Bernie once I’m back.”

By this point, Wizard Hutton had given up on saving up the wine. He might as well just return the flask to Bernie, actually. They could hold a drinking party whenever they wanted now. They already agreed to keep this a secret, so Master Bennett could literally make whatever amount of this wine as they pleased. From Druid Joseph’s perspective, he was just worried that Wizard Hutton wasn’t keeping it all to himself this time. He might just deliver the wine himself next time to make sure that Bernie was getting his share.

With that, Wizard Hutton had one hundred portal bags and 55 barrels of the grandmaster’s wine on him as he left. As for Druid Joseph, he went ahead to contact his family and restock the wine that was inside the warehouse. Meanwhile, Abel sat on top of the Iron Fort platform as he sipped on the fruit juice he made on what was harvested from Blood Moor.

He suddenly thought, “What if I synthesize the juice again?”

With that thought in mind, he immediately placed the water spirit fruit juice into all of the potion beakers the Potionmaster Guild gave him. These beakers were made by the finest jewelers, by the way. The best crystals would be used to create the finest potion beakers, which would then be distributed to four potion masters. Abel was one of these four, and because of how much he had to produce, he was receiving more beakers than anyone else.

For experimental purposes, Abel stuffed the three beakers into the Horadric Cube. He used his power of the Will to control the synthesizing process. Under the flash of white light, the three bottles disappeared and produced a brand new juice at the bottom right corner. He took the juice out of the cube, then poured a bit into his own mouth. Immediately, he could sense two streams of energy bursting out of his tongue.

One went towards his soul. It was cold energy that, strangely, didn’t feel dangerous to himself. He decided not to resist it, and the energy would burst inside him and wash away his spirit. He could feel that his cognitive ability, sensitivity, and calculating ability were elevated to the next level. It wasn’t exactly a breakthrough moment he was experiencing, but he could see how if he was training in this state, the outcome would be much better than what he was doing normally.

On the other hand, the other energy was bursting from inside his body. An endless stream of warm energy made his body feel like it was being soaked in warm water. He could feel his body being slowly changed at the moment.

Abel couldn’t help but feel somewhat focused, “Is this a training material I’m sensing?”

He then experimented by taking out some juices that were not produced from Blood Moor. He was pouring them into the beakers for synthesizing. He needed to know that all the juices would produce the same effect.

Once the fruit juices were synthesized, the special effect would make it so that the person drinking it would have a clearer head. Still, it was far from enough from the one he made first.

“What a shame,” he shook his head, then proceeded to throw the juice away. If the juices produced from the continent were the same as the training materials, he could make it so that the special potions would consistently have the same effect as the better juices he synthesized. Of course, he would not tell anyone else about this technology, so most likely, he would probably just use it on himself or those with whom he was closely associated.

During this time, since he wasn’t busy doing anything else, he synthesized all the juice produced from Blood Moor. He saved a few bottles for himself, then sent a few others over to the warehouse with the short-distance teleportation circle.

He sent a command to the research spirit, “Send the word over if you can, research spirit. Joseph, Poly and Gunter will receive one bottle of the water spirit fruit juice every day.”

“Yes, master,” the research spirit replied.

Abel squinted his eyes as he thought about the effect, “That hould be enough to reward them for their hard work, I suppose.”

Meanwhile, Druid Joseph was just done sending Wizard Hutton away when he heard the notification. He was more shocked than happy to see the message, actually. He didn’t think that Master Bennett would send the juice over to him, not when the holy continent had a desperate shortage of water spirit fruits. It was almost like Master Bennett was the only one who was not affected by this.

So if Master Bennett was only giving away to three followers, they would have enough every day no matter how much they wanted. As his closest associates, Druid Joseph could sense the difference. He was a royal before choosing to become a follower, but honestly, he was doing much better now when he submitted himself to follow Master Bennett’s orders. Even the most prestigious people in the land would be extremely polite to him when they saw him.

“Is there anything special about this juice?” he thought to himself, then walked towards the warehouse.

He met up with Druid Poly at the door, who had been busy trying to secure her own training progress. The two smiled at each other when they looked each other in the eyes. It seemed like both of them were curious as to what the water spirit fruit juice could do.

After stepping into the warehouse, they could see that a refreshing circle was already switched on at one of the spots. Tens of the beakers were placed on it. It was every bit like what they remembered an ordinary juice looked like, but they could tell that there was something to it too that would make Master Bennett store them inside a potion beaker. It was much more valuable than juice, essentially.

Whether it was the “light recovery potion,” “mana potion,” “life prolonging potion,” “skin lotion,” “facial cream,” “hair conditioner,” every one of Master Bennett’s works would sell at an extraordinarily high price here on the central continent.

Druid Joseph smiled and tried to be humble, “Go ahead first, Poly.”

“Thanks!” Druid Poly said and smiled. She went ahead and took one bottle out. She opened the lid, and instantly, she smelled something strange which, as unfamiliar as it felt, still made her want to drink the juice as quickly as she could. She was reserved outside, but here in Master Bennett’s residence, she felt safe enough to take a big sip as quickly as she could.

Her face got sterner after taking the drink. Without saying a word, she immediately sat on the ground and took out two bottles of potions. Druid Joseph watched her the whole time. He started to understand that this was a special training material. They were extremely lucky in this sense because their master understood how difficult it was for them, big druids, to receive training materials that were sufficient for what they required. This was about as good as they could get, really.

Druid Joseph thought that the smartest decision in his life was when he chose to become a follower. He did have a Judson family as his financial benefactors, but even that was not enough to back him up with the needed training materials. For now, Master Bennett prepared another type of training material for him, and they could rotate it with the other two training materials. This meant that they could continue to train without any pause in between.

The more time they would save, the more lifespan they would have to learn about taking things more progressively. Druid Joseph was convinced that he needed this juice. Slow and carefully, he took a bottle of the water fruit juice out of the circle. He didn’t use it immediately since he needed to combine it with the other two training potions he had in his own training room. He wanted to make the most out of this, and he was going to use whatever small advantages he had saved up every day.

Instead of interrupting Druid Poly as she continued with her mediation, Druid Joseph walked out of the warehouse with light steps. He was starting to see a bright future ahead of him regarding his goals, career, and pretty much everything and anything.