One piece of good news, one piece of bad news.
The good news: the skill could be unlocked.
The bad news: no money!!!
Ailin nearly lost control of his expression.
He counted several times before confirming that there really were four zeros.
10,000 Lesser Experience Orbs!
Based on the Main Quest rewards, he would have to kill at least 1,000 drowners.
System, you might as well just tell me I can't learn it and make me give up! Ailin cursed inwardly.
"What is it? Is there something you don't understand?"
A gentle voice came from beside him.
Vera seemed to have noticed something unusual about Ailin.
"Nothing."
Ailin quickly cleared his mind and refocused on the text.
"Then let's continue. Rare Magical Materials, complex potion-brewing rituals, exceptional magic-control techniques..."
"...Chaos Magic runs through the entire potion-brewing process..."
Due to the limitations of papermaking technology and the monopoly on knowledge held by every social class,
books in this world could contain very limited information.
Although the textbook Vesemir had used that morning, Drowners and Swamp Hags, looked very thick, it actually only covered two monsters.
The book Vera was teaching from now, Alchemy and potions, was the same.
Its black leather front and back covers accounted for half its thickness, while the pages containing precious knowledge made up only the other half.
Even among those few pages, each one had elaborate gilded borders that took up a great deal of space.
It was the sort of book with little content, yet one glance told you it had to be extremely expensive.
Ailin did not even dare touch it.
There was very little content in the book.
Vera spent less than two hours covering the entire thing, and that was with her adding plenty of supplementary knowledge and personal experience.
Snap.
With a snap of her fingers,
the black leather book closed and slowly floated back to its original place on the shelf.
Vera looked into Ailin's eyes and said,
"Alchemy is a discipline that requires a lifetime of study. Even the potion-brewing portion alone takes at least half a year to get started in."
Ailin froze for a moment.
Of course, he understood the value of alchemy.
Just obtaining the skill was worth 1,000 drowners. That understanding could not have been deeper.
Not knowing what the Sorceress was trying to say, Ailin could only nod.
Vera paused for a few seconds, as though organizing her words.
"What I mean is... if you want to brew potions for the Trial of the Mountains, it is already too late to start learning now."
"If you don't mind, you can give me the recipe, and I'll brew a few bottles for you."
"If it is a recipe I have never seen before, not only can I waive the brewing fee, I can even compensate you with Oren or Magic Items depending on its value."
Ailin fell silent.
The cost of unlocking the skill had been decreasing throughout Vera's lesson.
The decrease only stopped when the lesson ended.
Ailin glanced at the corner of his vision.
Unlock skill for 9,950 Lesser Experience Orbs?
But the Sorceress was right. Even if he could use Lesser Experience Orbs to unlock it, he did not have enough time.
Two hours of lessons had only reduced the cost by fifty Lesser Experience Orbs. Ailin would need to attend nearly four hundred hours of lessons.
If every class went like this from now on, it would be almost impossible for him to learn it before the Trial of the Mountains.
But Vera's proposal was not feasible either.
It was not that Ailin did not want to give her the recipe. He simply could not.
Although the Killer Whale Potion Recipe lay quietly in his inventory, without Alchemy LV2, Ailin had no way to view the detailed brewing process.
The Sorceress was still waiting for an answer.
After choosing his words carefully, Ailin realized that he could not think of any tactful way to phrase it in the short term.
So he could only apologize. "Sorry, I want to brew it myself."
"Fine. Then you may leave."
Ailin silently rose to his feet. After a brief pause, he sincerely thanked the Sorceress before walking toward the door.
The terms Vera had offered were very fair.
So it was only natural that she would refuse to continue teaching him after being turned down.
Even Ailin himself felt that he had been somewhat rude.
Looks like I'll need to find another way to unlock the skill.
At that moment, a woman's clear, sweet voice came from behind him.
"Tomorrow afternoon, at the same time."
Ailin abruptly turned around.
He saw Mary glaring at him with puffed cheeks.
Meanwhile, the Sorceress sat upright in her chair, looking at him as though waiting for his response.
After a moment of silence, Ailin said seriously,
"Thank you. I'll be here on time tomorrow."
When the Sorceress nodded, Ailin opened the door and left the Alchemy Room, then headed toward the apprentice dormitories.
"Chief."
At the corner of the floor where the Alchemy Room was located, Ailin encountered the Chief of the School of the Wolf.
The Chief seemed surprised to see him as well, but he said nothing. He merely nodded in greeting before leaving.
He was heading in the direction of the Alchemy Room Ailin had just left.
Alchemy Room.
"Mentor, that apprentice is so ungrateful. Why are you still helping him?"
As soon as Ailin left, Mary began standing up for the Sorceress.
"This has nothing to do with you. Grind properly and don't get distracted."
The Sorceress did not look at Mary. Her gaze remained on the wooden door of the Alchemy Room.
Mary felt somewhat wronged. She opened her mouth to say something, but under her mentor's authority, she did not even dare complain in her own mind. She lowered her head and continued grinding medicinal charcoal in the mortar.
For some reason, her mentor had been unusually kind to that witcher apprentice, but Mary did not dare act presumptuously because of it.
Vera of Toussaint's illustrious reputation throughout the Continent did not rest solely on her profound knowledge of alchemy.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the Alchemy Room door.
Mary was about to open it when she heard a snap of fingers, and the door immediately opened.
Standing outside was the Chief of the School of the Wolf.
The Chief walked in and was just about to speak.
Snap.
Another snap of fingers rang out.
It was followed by the thud, thud of a forehead hitting the table.
There were two thuds because that head was remarkably bouncy.
After the first impact, it rebounded once.
"What is it, Vera?"
The Chief watched in surprise as Mary was knocked out by a snap of the Sorceress's fingers. Then Vera lowered her head and walked over.
Her slender, smooth arms wrapped around the waist clad in Cotton Armor.
The Sorceress buried her face deeply in the Chief's broad chest.
The witcher froze for a moment, then somewhat awkwardly embraced the Sorceress without saying a word.
His keen Witcher Senses caught the scent of tears.
The two embraced like that for who knew how long.
"You saw him."
It was a statement, not a question.
After a moment of silence, the man said,
"Yes, I saw him."
"Right at the corner outside the door."
"He... he has grown up. I almost didn't recognize him at first." The woman's voice trembled as it passed through the Cotton Armor and shirt, reaching straight into the man's heart.
It seemed to make even a witcher's hardened heart produce an inexplicable disturbance.
After another moment of silence, the man comforted her.
"It has been nearly ten years since you last saw him. That's normal."
"I was surprised too that you would come here at this time."
At the mention of ten years, the witcher felt the soft body in his arms tremble.
Then came another long silence.
It lasted until the sunlight streaming through the window turned red, then dim, before it was replaced by a long sigh.
"Of course I had to come..."
"After all."
"I need to see him gain his freedom with my own eyes."
"Or else..."
"Collect his body myself."
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