The Moon Thief

Chapter 99: Puppets

"After resting at the academy for a few days, Heinald decided to leave. Meanwhile, some Potion Brewing Division officials there insisted that he retake the tests.

However, Heinald flatly rejected them.

He wasn't thinking of joining the academy yet. He wanted to return to Grandmaster Albin at the first opportunity and continue his experiments with him. Moreover, before joining the academy, there were some issues that he had to deal with and some questions that he needed to find answers to.

Heinald thought that maybe Alveron Highsworn could reward him for getting his wish, but that thought never happened.

He did not understand how Alveron was aware of what had happened and was able to execute his plan perfectly. A Level 4 Ainsar's knowledge was something he could not understand. But he understood why he had sent Tisha and her crew there in the first place. The reason for this was to get Eneel out of his hiding place. Sending two Level 2 Ainsars there that he could use was purely to lure him.

Before Alveron had yet ascended to a Level 4 Ainsar, he did not want to go after the sunstone possessed Eneel. That's why Ruthas Academy sent a team to the Starlight Realm every five hundred years and asked them to gather information about Eneel. However, Eneel had not revealed himself before, and had secretly hunted down most of the Ainsar in the incoming teams.

However, this time, he thought himself almost invincible thanks to some fire principles that he had managed to grasp as a result of his long time with the sunstone, and he acted more courageously. He believed that Alveron would act as cowardly again as he had done in previous years, and if he did not, he would be able to repulse him. However, he did not know that he had managed to become a Level 4 Ainsar.

After all, Alveron had seized the sunstone himself. So he didn't have to reward anyone, but he still used everyone who went there, including Heinald.

***

Heinald made the long trip to Saylam City in an airship. During this journey, he conducted experiments on the plant species he had stolen from the Deph Enerun organization and obtained results that fascinated him. He understood that the leaves of this plant species had a very special effect.

He used this leaf on a mixture containing a lot of harmful particles and observed that the movement of harmful particles and reactions stopped for a while. Moreover, this leaf itself did not contain harmful particles on it.

He thought it must be used in Albin's potion experiments.

When Heinald reached Saylam City, he quickly made his way to Redsand Mansion. When he got there, he quickly went to talk to his master.

In front of the door of Albin's room, as usual, two priests stood guard.

When Albin saw his apprentice enter his room, he smiled slightly and said, "So you're finally back..."

"Master!" Heinald Bowed.

Heinald told Albin everything that had happened, except what he had done at Deph Enerun headquarters. But what he especially wanted to tell Albin was the new plant species he had acquired.

"I discovered a very interesting plant species there." Heinald excitedly took one of the plants he had gathered from the dimensional pocket of his robe.

"Oh?" Albin began to examine the plant with interest.

Heinald said, "As a result of my experiments, I have observed that the leaf of this plant stops the reactions for very a short time."

"Really? So it must be similar in characteristics to the Zepin Mushroom" Albin slowly.

What had excited Heinald so much didn't seem to affect him much.

Heinald said, "Perhaps this feature of this plant can help you in your experiments."

"What do you mean? How?" Albin asked.

"Stopping the reactions that occur for a while can give us important insights." Heinald could not explain that he saw clearly everything he was looking at in detail. So he decided to offer a sensible suggestion.

"Maybe..." Albin shrugged, giving his apprentice a furtive glance, "According to what you've told me, you've accomplished the task I gave you."

"I complied with your brother's request and assisted Lady Tisha with the potions." Heinald nodded.

Albin stroked his beard for a while and said, "As a reward, I'll lend you a book with some high-level information on Spirit Potions."

Hearing this, Heinald's heart started to beat faster. The higher level knowledge he would gain about Spirit Potions would undoubtedly increase his knowledge of potions.

"I'm grateful, master!" Heinald Bowed.

"Mm. We'll be experimenting often in the coming days. So try not to leave the mansion too long." A thick book appeared in Albin's hand. The binding of this book was made of solid animal skin and was very heavy.

"Understood!"

After Heinald left his master's room, he quickly walked to his room. He spent the rest of the day reading the book and analyzing the information in it. It was easy for him to memorize the contents of a book at a glance and never forget it, but the learning process did not end there. The important thing was to analyze the content of the book or any source well and to draw inferences.

"The first and most important requirement to be able to create a Spirit Potion formula was to find a material with Spirit Particles. It is known that only human spirits, some special crystals, and some plants had Spirit Particles. The reaction of materials with Spirit Particles with other materials resulted in Liquefied Spirit Extract, It was the second biggest requirement. Other ingredients to be added to the potion formula would determine the severity of the effect."

This was the most fundamental analysis Heinald did.

This book also contained brief conclusions and suggestions about many of the experiments conducted. Without a doubt, everything written in this book would be of great use to him. However, learning the basics of a Spirit Potion would allow him to clearly determine the path to follow in his experiments.

"This book mentions that human spirits and some crystals also have Spirit Particles, but how can Spirit Particles in a human spirit be retrieved? Or how can Spirit Particles in a crystal be revealed?" The information Heinald had learned caused new questions to arise in his mind.

Heinald hoped to learn the answers to these questions from his master. Of course, in order to get answers to these questions, he had to please him. He understood that his master was not an angel who did a good deed.

"Hmm?" Heinald's brows furrowed at something he noticed. He immediately took out the two mirrors that he had obtained in the Starlight Realm from his dimensional pocket. Under normal circumstances, both of these mirrors should have emitted an intense Dark Energy, but these mirrors were no different from an ordinary mirror.

As he probed the dimensional pocket of his robe inside his mind, he realized something. The intense Dark Energy emanating from the mysterious egg he possessed was intensified even more. This meant that the mysterious egg was absorbing the Dark Energy from the two mirrors!

Heinald took the mystery egg out and examined it closely. Some changes in the egg in front of him immediately caught his eye. The first detail he noticed was that the gray spots on it were getting bigger. He also noticed that there were many small cracks on the underside of the egg.

He had studied many sources since obtaining this mysterious egg, but he still could not lift the veil of mystery on this egg. There was no description of an egg like him in any of the books he read.

After Heinald stopped thinking about this mysterious egg, he decided to go to Saylam City's Market Area. All the potion ingredients he had stocked up were gone, and he needed new ones. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough Arkana Stones to buy a lot of materials. So at first he would have to brew a small number of potions and sell them.

In the days that followed, it seemed that his only preoccupation would be to help Albin with the experiments and brew potions. He wanted more Arkana Stones than ever before, especially after his time with Lord Fredor and what he had learned from him.

His first goal was to purchase High-Rank Attack Spells owned by Lord Fredor. If he obtained those spells, his combat power would undoubtedly increase greatly. Having more spell types always gave the advantage of having different ways of solving and attacking in a fight.

Afterwards, his goal would be to collect the Arkana Stones for the valuable materials he would buy for his Spirit Potion formula experiments. He could predict that the price of the materials he would determine as a result of his various researches and analyzes would not be less. In particular, the amount of Arkana Stone that must be spent to create a Spirit Potion formula would probably still only be possessed by a potion master.

Most of the Ainsars who were dealing with other branches could not afford that much Arkana Stone. Of course, some magic formation masters also had a lot of wealth, but a potions master was usually the ones who were always at the top of the wealth.