Exquisite Black Iron

Piscis returned to the infirmary looking as composed as ever. Seeing Rein waiting obediently, he finally relaxed.

When the door opened, Rein stepped forward eagerly to greet him.

"Mr. Piscis, you're back."

"Mm."

The old man nodded and said directly, "I've already spoken to Quinn. From now on, you'll follow me and start by doing odd jobs in the laboratory. If you truly have talent as a doctor, I'll teach you Potionry."

"Really?!"

Hearing that, Rein put on an expression of immense delight. "Thank you, Mr. Piscis."

The two men, each harboring their own schemes, began competing in acting.

"Since you've become my disciple, I'll give you a gift to mark the occasion."

What surprised Rein was that Piscis did not immediately ask about what had happened in the sewers. Instead, the old man took the initiative to show goodwill and handed him a pitch-black potion!

Rein asked, "A gift? This is...?"

"I can see that you've reached the threshold of awakening as a Transcendent. As it happens, I've just finished refining a Gene Potion."

As he spoke, Piscis proudly introduced his work. "This potion is called Ghost Walker. It's a Gene Potion from the Assassin Sequence, and it provides a high agility boost. I dare say that the entire Weasel Gang couldn't find another First Tier Gene Potion better than this one."

Going along with the topic, Rein feigned astonishment. "Huh? Is this potion even better than Divine Thief?"

"Divine Thief? Heh heh."

Piscis looked disdainful as he pointed at the test tube. "This Ghost Walker isn't an ordinary Black Iron Quality potion. It's an 'Exquisite Black Iron Grade' potion! Even at a large auction house, this potion would be considered a rare commodity, worth no less than three hundred thousand Lisos. And it's rare for anyone to be willing to put one up for auction."

Rein was also shocked by the price. "Th-three hundred thousand Lisos? It's that expensive?!"

(Currency exchange: 10,000 Copper Lisos = 100 Silver Nars = 1 Gold Kron)

After all, even as bandits, they only received ten or twenty thousand Lisos for an ordinary robbery job. In this world, fifty thousand Lisos was enough to cover a commoner's living expenses for an entire year.

And if an Exquisite Black Iron Potion was already worth that much, what about the Exquisite Gold Grade Corpse Stitcher in his possession?

Faintly, Rein felt that he had discovered a path to getting rich in this other world.

So Potionry was this profitable?

"Of course! The higher the quality of a Gene Potion, the more expensive it is."

Piscis was very satisfied by Rein's stunned, worldly-inexperienced expression. He arrogantly added, "Ghost Walker's agility enhancement is even stronger than that of ordinary Silver Potions, and its future advancement options are broad. It's one of the most ideal choices for awakening as a Transcendent of the Agile Assassin Sequence!"

"Oh, heavens, an Exquisite Black Iron Quality potion?! Mr. Piscis, are you giving this to me?"

Rein looked overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude.

If he had not obtained Baron Morin's belongings, he might truly have been tempted by this excellent Black Iron Potion. Just as the old man had said, advancing with this potion would allow him to overwhelmingly surpass newcomers of the same tier immediately.

But in truth, nine words scrolled through his mind like barrage comments: No favor comes without a price.

For this old bastard to be willing to use such generous bait, could it be that he knew something?

Still, this potion had come at just the right time. The changes caused by advancing as a Transcendent would be significant, making it perfect for concealing the fact that he intended to awaken by consuming Corpse Stitcher.

"Mm."

Piscis shot Rein a meaningful glance. "Since I agreed to accept you as my disciple, this potion is naturally for you."

A scheming old fox like him naturally understood that one could not catch a wolf without sacrificing bait.

Since he had guessed that Rein was hiding some great secret, he intended to let the boy taste some sweetness and seize the initiative.

Before the old man could bring it up himself, Rein tactfully took the lead.

With the excited expression of someone unable to repay such great kindness, he said directly, "Oh, Teacher, I need to report what happened in that small sewer!"

They had finally reached the main topic.

This was exactly the moment Piscis had been waiting for. A sharp glint flashed through his eyes, so subtle it was almost impossible to notice.

Yet his face remained perfectly calm. "Oh? Let's hear it."

"Well... back in the sewers, Captain Tiger and the others were on guard..."

Then, Rein began telling the story he had fabricated.

He said that after the explosion rang out, he had somehow been poisoned. In his dazed state, someone seemed to have injected him with an Antidote Potion. Then, whether it had been an illusion or something that had really happened, fragmented memories had appeared in his mind.

With that dramatic expression, he looked exactly like someone trying desperately to recall events after blacking out from a hangover in his previous life.

In short, it all came down to one sentence: he remembered a little, but not the details.

As for why Baron Morin had done such a thing, who knew?

One flaw required ten lies to patch up, and the more one said, the more flaws appeared.

On the contrary, saying "I can't remember clearly" made it easy to brush things off.

This was a Transcendent world to begin with. It was perfectly normal for strange and unusual abilities to exist.

Perhaps Morin had been muddled before his death and mistaken Rein for someone else? Or perhaps there had been some other reason...

But none of that mattered.

The dead could not testify.

"From what this boy described, it should have been Mind Transmission. Morin was a potion master, so it's normal that he knew such a method. But why would he do that?"

After hearing Rein's fragmented tale, Piscis indeed filled in many of the details on his own.

Though he did not understand Morin's motives in the story, he cared more about the treasure. He asked, "You're saying that Baron Morin had a secret property at 88 Maple Street in Blazing Steel Fortress, and that he hid something he left behind there?"

"Yes!"

Rein nodded with a sincere expression.

Half-truths were the most convincing lies.

After all, it was not entirely fabricated. Baron Morin's diary truly recorded the existence of such a property.

Of course, it only stored some relatively unimportant things.

Other than Rein himself, no one had seen that diary. No one knew what astonishing treasure Morin had actually left behind, so it was enough to deceive them for now.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Piscis repeatedly muttered the address under his breath. "88 Maple Street."

He had thought he would learn directly what that "great secret" was, but this was the result he got instead.

If he wanted to verify whether Rein was telling the truth, he would have to travel to Blazing Steel Fortress and check for himself.

But doing so would take at least several days.

Piscis's intuition told him that the boy before him had not told the truth, or at least, that he was still concealing something.

But he could not force him.

Yet Rein did not give the old man a chance to ask further. He continued, "Teacher, my memories are a little muddled after being poisoned. It feels as though Baron Morin also told me some other information, but I can't remember it clearly. Perhaps after resting for a few days, I'll recall more."

Naturally, he said this because he feared the old man might suddenly turn on him and kill him to silence him.

It also gave Piscis the hint that Rein was trying to be clever.

As a reincarnator, Rein understood very well that only those with something to offer had value in staying alive.

"Oh?"

As Piscis listened, an amused glint passed through his cloudy eyes. Unhurriedly, he said, "Then if you remember anything else later, make sure to tell me."

After all, he held a trump card of his own.

The antidote to the Zombie Potion was his greatest bargaining chip.

The initiative would always remain in his hands!