Wizard

Before dawn had broken, Evan, who had barely slept at all the night before, was already up. He splashed some water on his face, greeted Gary, who knew when had returned last night, and rushed out.

He had no time to worry about that booklet now. It might already have been registered as stolen goods by the Supply Ship.

Ding-ding-ding...

"Good morning, Mister Christopher!"

He walked into one of Gabreid's top three private apothecary shops and greeted the owner, who was already busy behind the counter.

"Good morning, Mister Evan! Ah, you're already a captain. What an honor for my humble shop. Starting such a wonderful day with such good news is simply marvelous!"

The elegant, curly-haired shop owner noticed the change in Evan's epaulets at first glance and immediately congratulated him with a smile, even adding a touch of theatrical flourish.

A customer's rise in status naturally meant greater purchasing power. Christopher's congratulations were entirely sincere.

"Mister Evan, your timing is perfect. The last herb you asked me to acquire has arrived. Please wait a moment while I fetch it for you."

He suddenly seemed to remember something.

After searching for a while, Christopher took a box from behind the counter and handed it to Evan as he introduced it.

"Please have a look. Iron Reef Moss whose roots have turned purplish-black after at least thirty years of growth! This stuff is truly hard to find. If I did not have quite a few supply channels, no one would even know such an obscure medicinal herb existed."

When Evan opened the wooden box and saw what was inside, delight flashed through his eyes. He had only intended to gather the ingredients for Developing Potion, yet he had unexpectedly obtained the last supplementary ingredient needed for brewing Black Sea Magic Potion as well.

Moreover, the Iron Reef Moss in the box was of exceptional quality, far exceeding even the minimum requirements for Black Sea Magic Potion. Evan was extremely satisfied.

"Not bad. It's exactly what I wanted. Manager Christopher truly inspires confidence."

After putting away the wooden box, Evan casually handed him another list of ingredients. "I'll have to trouble you with these as well, Manager."

"These are all common medicinal ingredients. We have them in stock." Christopher accepted the list with a smile, glanced over it, and quickly assembled everything Evan needed before handing it over.

A short while later, Evan settled the remaining balance with the shop owner and walked out of the apothecary carrying a cloth bag.

"Scholarship impoverishes, martial pursuits enrich. The ancients truly did not deceive me!"

Evan weighed the bag in his hand. The inexpensive ingredients for Developing Potion, together with all the supplementary ingredients for Black Sea Magic Potion, had cost him a full hundred Gold Lions—nearly equivalent to a common sailor's income for ten years!

Although Evan had accumulated quite a few gold coins by now, his heart still ached at the expense.

And these were only ordinary materials with nothing to do with the Extraordinary. Just thinking about the value of Extraordinary main ingredients made Evan pity the coin purse that was destined to grow much thinner.

He planned to ask Gell about sources for the main ingredient of Black Sea Magic Potion as soon as he returned, then begin procuring it.

No matter how much wealth he had, it existed to serve his Extraordinary path. He had not forgotten why he had joined the navy in the first place. When it was time to spend money, he would not hesitate in the slightest.

When he returned to his small courtyard, Gary was still training by the shore. Evan did not join him; he had something more important to do now.

After putting away the Iron Reef Moss, he eagerly went to the separate little attic on the top floor, took out the full set of potion-brewing tools he had prepared long ago, and began making Developing Potion.

Thanks to the lack of Extraordinary materials involved and Evan's solid foundation in Apothecary Arts, the process went very smoothly.

Half an hour later.

Evan stared intently at the notebook, which began changing rapidly after being submerged in a basin full of Developing Potion. He held his breath nervously.

Amid a faint rustling like tiny insects skittering about, the changes began.

First, the multicolored dyes staining it peeled away and dissolved into the water. Then, the original writing on the pages gradually vanished, while new illustrations and text slowly emerged.

As expected, all the newly appearing text was Catha Language imbued with Extraordinary Power!

Two minutes later, when the final changes were complete, every word in the booklet had been replaced by Catha Language written in dark green ink. The writing was also much more compact now, and the contents had at least doubled from before.

He took it out to dry. The special paper had not been damaged at all by the soaking. Instead, it looked as though it had been restored by a master craftsman, becoming an entirely new booklet.

"Whew—"

He let out a long breath.

Instinctively unwilling to let anyone discover his secret, Evan figured Gary would not return anytime soon. Only after closing the door did he gently open the book.

The new words instantly drew Evan in, and he could no longer spare attention for anything else.

Rustle—

Rustle—

He read for more than half the day. Even when Gary knocked on his door several times, Evan brushed him off. It was not until the setting sun slanted westward that Evan finally let out a soft breath and slowly closed the booklet.

Resting his chin on both hands, Evan stared blankly at the sunset beyond the window and the shimmering sea in the distance for a long time.

"So it really hid a great secret. I just don't know whether that's good or bad for me."

This was the diary of an apothecary named Leon from roughly a century ago. It contained both records of his daily life and the results of his research, but what left Evan most stunned was Leon's identity... a true wizard!

Not an evil, bizarre native witch doctor like Gagon aboard One-Eyed Beck's ship, twisted beyond recognition. He had been a rational—no, a wise—medical scholar, an apothecary, and a tireless seeker of truth.

To be honest, thanks to memories from his previous life, Evan held no prejudice against wizards themselves.

But this was still his first time encountering an orthodox wizard—or rather, traces of one—at such close range.

After all, the mainstream Extraordinary path within the civilized nations on the continent was the Knight's Path. Whether it was his father Forman and Grandpa Leo, who had been by his side day and night as a child, Viscount Andrea later on, Major Eugene, his instructor after joining the military, or Uncle Gell, they were all Extraordinary Knights who had reached the formal rank on the Knight's Path.

Even Evan himself had cultivated since childhood and now stood before the threshold of becoming a Formal Knight.

Yet regarding those mysterious wizards, Evan could only learn scattered fragments from legends and stories. Only by combining them with settings from all sorts of fantasy works from his previous life could he form a very vague image in his mind.

Unfortunately, that image was far from pleasant.

The terrifying childhood tales that made children stop crying, the church's Witch Hunt Order, the risks of losing control outside the Knight's Path mentioned by Grandpa Leo and Uncle Gell, and the native witch doctors he had seen with his own eyes.

All of it had branded the image of wizards in Evan's mind with a negative label.

Therefore, before today, although he had been deeply curious about the wondrous profession of wizardry because of his previous life, Evan had never dared investigate it too deeply.

Excessive curiosity was no good thing in the Extraordinary world. Especially without anyone to guide him, rashly probing profound secrets carried risks too great for Evan to bear!

But the diary of the apothecary Leon had lifted a corner of the veil over the mysterious world of wizards for Evan. Though he still could not glimpse the whole picture, it had shown him what an orthodox wizard ought to be like.

"Explore the secrets of the human body like a surgeon, study the uses of every herb like a botanist, summarize and classify with the mindset of a statistician, and see through appearances to the essence!"

Evan gently clenched his fist, as though he had grasped the entire world.

Wasn't this a scientist from another world?

Only, the tools of research had changed from modern instruments to convenient and wondrous witchcraft. Some of their ideas might clash with this still-backward era, but Evan, with his experiences from a previous life, felt a profound sense of kinship with them.

What distinguished humans from animals was wisdom: the ability to constantly learn from the Natural World, pass down and apply knowledge, and use knowledge to leverage power rather than wave their claws and fight savage beasts.

And it was precisely this path, which valued both power and wisdom, that captivated Evan so deeply!