This swordsmanship was famed for its "complex, elegant, difficult to learn, and difficult to master" forms. Though in many people's hands it was less swordsmanship than a distinctive dance, if mastered, it was an exceptionally brilliant superior sword art.
It could even serve as a stepping stone to advancement, earning the favor of a big shot within the royal family.
Thus, much like a symbol of high society, this swordsmanship was eagerly sought after by court nobles and even young ladies from prestigious families. Its circulation was limited to the upper ranks of the powerful and wealthy.
Even Gell, a Navy Colonel, had been unable to provide Evan with the complete inheritance when explaining swordsmanship to him. He had only given a general overview of its characteristics and ways to counter it.
In Evan's view,
a thief of distinguished origins who was proficient in "Court Swordsmanship" had come to a Navy Supply Ship to steal something. There was no need to think hard to know that it would involve troublesome matters. Catching the fellow would only make things even more troublesome!
So Evan simply chose to let sleeping dogs lie.
"Let's see what this guy actually stole." Unable to suppress his curiosity, Evan knew that anything worth Zorro personally stealing could not be ordinary.
When he opened the black cloth bundle,
he found that the package, which looked fairly large on the outside, did not contain the precious cultivation resources or valuables Evan had expected. Instead, it held layer after layer of tightly wrapped cloth.
"What the hell? He needed this many layers of wrapping just to steal something?"
Only after Evan removed layer upon layer of black cloth, then tore open the tough kraft-paper wrapping inside, did he finally discover a flat wooden box at the very center.
After breaking the small lock on the wooden box, Evan finally got to see the true face of this mysterious stolen item.
It was a book with a black leather cover, yet its appearance was rather disappointing. The plain, old cover was even stained with colorful dyes, as though it had been picked out of a garbage heap.
"A broken book?"
Evan found Zorro increasingly impossible to understand.
He had personally taken an enormous risk to sneak onto a Navy Supply Ship. Rather than stealing the valuable magic potions in the warehouse, the high-end pocket watches allotted to officers, or the military payroll, he had stolen this inexplicable broken book. Either Zorro had something wrong with his head, or there was something wrong with this book!
Evan therefore felt that there had to be some secret behind it. He decided to keep the book for now, see how the Supply Ship reacted tomorrow, and then decide how to deal with it.
He threw away all the miscellaneous "packaging" and wrapped the book in a single piece of black cloth before tucking it into his chest.
"Boss, how was it? Did you catch that thief?" As soon as he returned to the naval port, the sailors who had still been waiting there gathered around him. Gary, now mostly sobered by the cold wind, was the first to ask.
"He got away." Evan shook his head. That was not exactly a lie.
At that moment, he noticed that the Supply Ship was brightly lit. It seemed that the sailors on duty aboard had also realized something was wrong.
"Boss, some people from the Supply Ship came down just now. They should be back up there taking inventory of the warehouse. I'll tell them we failed to catch the thief. This can't be blamed on us." Noticing Evan's gaze, Gary explained.
"All right. Cooperate with them here. If they find that anything is missing, don't forget to let me know too."
"Don't worry, Boss." Gary merely assumed Evan was curious, just like him, and gave it no further thought.
After returning to the house he rented, Evan could not fall asleep for a while. He simply lit the oil lamp, took the book from his chest, and sat at his desk to read it.
After gently turning two pages, Evan discovered that it was actually a notebook on Apothecary Arts. Back in Leopold, when he had been running the potion shop, Evan had already studied Apothecary Arts under Grandpa Leo and had even earned an apothecary's certification. Combined with the medical knowledge from his previous life, Evan was no novice in Apothecary Arts.
"Improved painkillers, diarrhea medicine, hemostatic ointment..."
Judging by his experience, while most of the potions were quite good, they merely treated minor ailments among ordinary people. They were about on the same level as the Live Fish Potion invented by Grandpa Leo.
They had some value, but they were absolutely not valuable enough for a gentleman like Zorro, who came from an extraordinary background, to go to such lengths to steal them.
Finding nothing special for the moment, Evan began reading the improved potion formulas at the front with great interest. As a registered apothecary, he was equally fascinated by the ingenious ideas revealed in those improved formulas.
After all, Apothecary Arts were also highly useful knowledge in this era. Evan and Steward Leo had once lived quite well in Leopold thanks to this skill, and he had no intention of abandoning it completely.
What was more, the three great foundations of the Knight's Path—"Breathing Method, swordsmanship, and magic potions"—were all closely related to Apothecary Arts. He had even gathered most of the raw materials for the Black Sea Magic Potion needed for advancement and was preparing to formulate the finished product himself.
At a time like this, he could not afford to neglect Apothecary Arts.
Rustle—
Rustle—
As the pages turned and Evan became absorbed in his reading, the flame of the oil lamp on the desk gradually weakened. Then it suddenly vanished altogether, plunging the room into darkness.
"Damn it, the oil lamp ran out of fuel at a time like this. Forget it, I'll sleep first and continue tomorrow." The minor mishap interrupted Evan's interest in reading. Seeing that it was already very late, he knew that even though the Silver Wing had no missions for the next few days, he still needed to rise early for training.
He set the apothecary notebook back on the desk and was just about to stand up and draw the curtains beside him when he suddenly noticed that, beneath the moonlight shining in through the window, one page of the notebook was likewise reflecting a faint, cold glow.
Thump! Evan's heart gave a violent leap. He felt that he might have discovered the book's hidden secret.
He carefully opened the glowing page. In the blank space that had originally contained a potion formula, several lines of pale blue writing quietly emerged.
However, these small words were not written in the Tulip Alliance's Common Tongue, but in the Extraordinary script known as "Spirit Language" or "Catha Language."
It was an ancient language that had existed ever since Extraordinary knowledge began spreading through the world. Some claimed it was the language of the gods, while others said it was the language of an ancient civilization from the previous era.
Even the most learned scholars could not determine its true origin, but the strange power contained within this writing was undeniably real.
For this reason, it was also the common script used throughout the Extraordinary world of every nation on the continent to record Extraordinary Power, and it had been passed down for ages.
As someone born into an orthodox Extraordinary Knight family, Evan had naturally received relevant education. It was also one of the reasons he possessed proficient-level grammar on his skill panel.
"A new potion? A Developing Potion?"
Although the formula recorded in Catha Language was still a potion formula, Evan did not dare underestimate it at all. After all, anything recorded in an Extraordinary Language could not be simple, even if it was not of the Extraordinary Level.
Thinking of the notebook's strange transformation under moonlight, Evan guessed that as long as he could formulate the Developing Potion, he would have the key to uncovering this book's deeper secrets.
"What a pity!"
The formula was not complicated, and the raw materials it required were all fairly common. Unfortunately, Evan did not have a single one on hand right now.
He could only carefully put away the notebook and go to bed with anticipation in his heart. He decided that first thing tomorrow morning, he would go to the potion shop to buy the raw materials and make the potion. Otherwise, he would not be in the mood to do anything else.
Before you continue