After Soren ordered the carriages to move towards the northern gate at their maximum speed, he used his <Shadow Steps> and rushed ahead of them. To be able to leave the town without any hassle, he first needed to take care of the security at the northern gate. Of course, there were only Rank 0 Initiators stationed at every gate, so it wasn’t a problem for Soren. In fact, even if they were able to somehow alert the Rank 1 Initiators, it wouldn’t be a big problem for Soren. After all, the Rank 1 Initiators in the town right now were all busy with the situation at the southern gate.

…….

Using two Forsaken Knights, a dozen of Skeleton Soldiers, and the numerous Skeleton Spiders that he had already created before, Soren was able to take care of the security at the northern gate in just a matter of seconds. In fact, his Skeleton Soldiers and his Skeleton Spiders were more than enough to handle the situation. But to save more time, Soren had also created the Forsaken Knights.

With every Initiator stationed at the southern gate now dead, Soren ordered his undeads to open the gate.

…….

The temperature dropped down sharply in the jungle area as the sun stopped shedding its warmth over the world and went down the horizon to rest for the night; letting the cold and silver moon take its place.

After getting out of Bellfalls, Soren had ordered the group of merchants to move back towards the town that they had visited before this; Kilguard. According to the information that Smiley had sent him, this ‘Pillar of Paradise’ that was on the verge of activation was actually on the other side of Bellfalls; deep in the jungle. To get to the next town using this route, they would’ve had to cross the area where this pillar was. Taking their maximum speed into account, it was highly possible that if they had chosen to move to the next town using that route, they would have remained inside the zone that was going to be affected by the shockwave soon.

Furthermore, moving away from the source of the irregular Mana Waves had also helped them with the Beast Tide; the farther they got from the pillar, the less the frenzied Beasts they encountered. As for the ones that they did encounter, they were going to become the group’s dinner for the night. Of course, Soren had to move personally to deal with these Beasts as leaving them to the small amount of Rank 0 Initiators in the group would have taken too long. After what had happened in Bellfalls, most of the Initiators that were hired by this group had decided to leave them. Especially after Alrule, who had been the backbone of this group for a long time, had also decided to sign the strict contract with Captain Hans. At this point, only those few Initiators who had been with this group for a very long time had stayed with them.

……..

Stopping by the side of the dirt road, Hamish and his people first created a temporary fenced area and then started preparing for dinner; using the meat of the Beasts that Soren had killed today. The tense atmosphere that had surrounded the group ever since Soren had come to them this afternoon was also slowly easing up now as the maids created a campfire and started roasting the meat for their dinner. As they had decided to not get any food supplies or ration back in the town, they now had to rely on these Beasts for filling their stomachs. Evidently, the meat of these Beasts who naturally used Mana to cultivate was much more nourishing and tastier than general ration. The only downside to that, though, was the amount of effort spent on killing them; it was not feasible for the Rank 0 Initiators to make such Beasts their regular food.

Knowing Argus’s taste preference, the maids carefully prepared and cooked some bland roasted meat, especially for him; as they had always done before moving to Bellfalls. After staying together for so long, every single member of the group was now well aware of how much that scary Rank 1 Initiator with the white eye-patch cared for this little fox. For them, this small fox was just like their lord; even more so after seeing what Soren had done with his Skeleton Spiders this afternoon. The image of those two stable owners dying like that was something that these people could not forget even if they wanted to. The Rank 0 Initiators were still able to at least cope with it as they had seen lots of combat and deaths. The ones who were the most affected by this were the weak-minded maids; many of them were probably going to have nightmares about it for nights to come.

As for Argus himself, being the spoiled brat that he was, this kind of royal treatment was obviously quite fun for him. But still, regardless of how good he was treated by the members of the group, he never left Soren’s side for long; always snuggling inside his warm jacket.

He was only a few months old right now and had a very immature soul and physique. Because of that, even though Soren had every intention of making Argus his Soul Pet, he hadn’t done so yet. Although he now had the means to initiate a Soul Merging Contract, he was going to wait for Argus to grow up a little. Of course, in the meantime, he was planning on looking for a method that could allow him to bear all the burden of the Soul Contract; he needed this for his Crystal Albarose too, so it was a priority for him. The reason why the Rank 0 Initiators and the immature young Beasts couldn’t go through this Soul Merging Contract was that their soul wasn’t strong enough to handle the burden it put on them. And as the burden of the Soul Contract was shared equally by the Beasts and the Initiators, it was very important for both the parties to have a strong soul; at least, strong enough to survive the contract.

With how young Argus was, it was definitely not possible for him to bear the burden of the contract. But if Soren could find a way to alter this, then there was a chance that Argus could become his Soul Pet even with his weak and immature soul. As for how Soren knew that such a method existed, he had come to that conclusion after taking some facts into account; most of which were related to the Crystal Albarose. The thick brown book actually had multiple accounts about this, mentioning how several Magic Insects’ species, including Crystal Albaroses, needed to go through the Soul Merging Contract right before they were about to hatch. And given that the soul of such young Magic Insects could not bear the burden, an alternative method was obviously used by the Initiators who wanted to go through such contracts; based on that, Soren had concluded that such a method existed.

Of course, the reason why Soren was willing to bear the burden twice was not that he was dying to have a Soul Pet right now, or that he immediately wanted to use Argus in combat. It was actually because he wanted to use the Contract Stigma to provide a safe space for Argus when he was in combat situations.

Having to put Argus away from his body whenever he had to fight someone strong was definitely not an option that Soren wanted to consider for the long term. And given the special feature of the Contract Stigma, it could certainly help him with this. Not only that but with the Soul Merging Contract, Argus would also have a possibility of evolving into a stronger species after coming into contact with Soren’s Mana; naturally, there were also several items that could help with this and increase the Soul Pet’s chances.

……..

A few days went by as the group of merchants traveled towards Kilguard without getting much rest. Soren had already made things very clear to them; if they dared to delay their journey without his permission, he would skin them alive and leave them to become the Beasts’ food. No one was an exception to this, and they knew this very well. Given the fear they all had towards him, no one dared to oppose his words. 

As for Soren himself, he had finally started practicing Potioneering during this time; though, he only met with failures in the beginning. Of course, he didn’t neglect other things just because of this and divided his time well.

Using his Mana to imitate some common effects; simulating the spell formations for his Defense Spell; integrating the new data from the two cultivation techniques into his own creation; practicing his spells and skills; and finally, getting used to all the tools for Potioneering; this was his current routine for the day. Apart from this, he also took some time out to do his regular meditation.

On the sixth day after leaving Bellfalls, Soren had finally succeeded in creating his first potion. Although it was only a Rank 0 potion of the Lowest-Grade quality, it was still something that he had created with his own hands. And as to prove that he was not dreaming, he had also received a notification related to the skill.

“Innate Skill Learned. Potioneering [Rank 0] – Level 1/15”

From what Soren knew, the Rank 0 in this ‘Potioneering’ skill meant that the Initiator only had the ability to create Rank 0 potions. As for the quality of the potions, it depended on the mastery level of the skill. Also, this skill was mostly unrelated to the Initiators’ cultivation level. Technically, it was possible for a Rank 1 Initiator to have this skill at Rank 3 or even Rank 4 and create a potion of that Rank. But, in reality, the cultivation level, or more like the quality and the quantity of Mana, played a huge role in this. Without having a sufficient cultivation level, it would become very hard for the Initiators to complete all the processes. Apart from that, having the ‘Mana Manipulation’ skill was also a necessity in creating potions; obviously, for Soren, this was not an issue.

Now, with the notification as additional motivation, Soren began practicing Potioneering with all the ingredients that he had bought from the ‘Myriad Items’ shop. To start with, he only practiced creating the common Rank 0 potions whose ingredients were easily available in the open market; Food Replacement Potion, Water Replacement Potion, Breath Replacement Potion, Blood Supplement Potion, Healing Potion, Mana Recovery Potion, and Stamina Recovery Potion. His aim right now was not to earn crystals or to create potions for personal use; it was to increase the mastery level of his skill.

….

On the tenth day of their journey, Soren finally ended up using up all the ingredients that he had bought in Bellfalls; increasing his skill level in the process. With his success rate of around ten percent for these common recipes, Soren had created twenty-eight potions in total; though, they all were of the Lowest-Grade quality.

About the quality grades of the potions, after combining his own experience with the information given in the books that he had, Soren had made a conjecture for this:

Potions that were created with the skill level of 1 to 3 resulted in the Lowest-Grade quality; regardless of the rank. The potions of this quality level did not only waste most of the ingredients’ efficacy, but they also harmed the user upon ingestion. Usually, because of this reason, this kind of potion was only bought by someone who was really desperate; as it was very cheap in comparison and was also readily available in the market.

After the Lowest-Grade potions, there was the Low-Grade mark; this needed the skill level of 4 to 6. With this kind of potions, although there was no danger of any harm to the user, the majority of the ingredients’ efficacy would still be wasted. The Soul Recovery Rank 1 Potion that Soren had ingested before to heal his damaged soul was of this quality level.

Next was the Middle-Grade quality potions; this needed the skill level of 7 to 9. The major difference that this quality grade had with the previous two was the proper transformation of the ingredients’ properties into the potions. Only after reaching this quality grade mark could a potion be called proper and effective. And although the Low-Grade potions were also effective up to a certain degree, they ultimately paled in comparison to the Middle-Grade ones; resultantly, its price was also much higher.

Finally, the last two quality grades were High-Grade and Top-Grade; these two grades needed the skill level of 10 to 12 and 13 to 15, respectively. After going past the Middle-Grade mark, the quality of the potions would become only about combining and transforming the ingredients’ properties into the potions; the higher the conversion rate, the better the quality. With these two quality grades, it was all about the efficacy of the ingredients being utilized properly, nothing else. Naturally, the potions of these two grades were extremely rare in the market and were generally sold only in the auctions.

Lowest-Grade, Low-Grade, Middle-Grade, High-Grade, and Top-Grade; these were the five quality grade marks that divided the potions. Of course, going from all the information he had, Soren guessed that this division was probably true for the pills too.

As for the success rate of creating a potion, it depended purely on practice. This meant that even if Soren attained the highest level of ‘Potioneering [Rank 0]’ skill, he would still have relatively lower success rates with new recipes; compared to the ones he was already familiar with. Only after creating potions based on those new recipes multiple times would Soren be able to increase his success rates with them.

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