Simple Activation

Gagnor pointed to a few bottles of blue potion and asked, "What are these?"

"Troll Rage Potion, twenty silver coins a bottle," the stall owner explained. "It can stimulate strength and fighting spirit in a short period, but its effects are much more intense than a Rage Potion. It can help you turn defeat into victory at a critical moment."

"What about the side effects?"

"Also more intense than a Rage Potion."

"Is it a restricted potion?"

"It's an unclassified potion, improved from a voodoo Troll recipe."

This specialist's stall was basically full of enhanced combat potions. Gagnor asked a few more questions, then changed the subject. "Did you acquire these potions from other places?"

The specialist didn't answer, but instead asked, "Do you want to become my supplier?"

"Maybe," Gagnor said noncommittally.

The specialist glanced at his apothecary's robes, then said, "The rule is, if you supply me under your real name, you can get two-thirds of the final selling price. If you supply me anonymously, you can get at most half."

"The difference between the two lies in the different risk sharing," she added. "Also, if the potion is addictive, I may refuse to buy it."

"Are you often here?"

The specialist said, "I usually set up shop for two consecutive days, then rest for two consecutive days. During my rest days, like tomorrow, this stall will be used by a grocer. We share the annual rent for this stall."

Gagnor liked this way of speaking; a few words gave him all the information worth caring about.

He nodded, said nothing more, and turned to browse other stalls.

He came to a stall called "Forbidden Books Collection."

Gagnor had no interest in religious forbidden books. In his opinion, whether it was Mosaism or Yemen, their religious texts were nothing more than clichés and dogmatism under different rhetoric.

What interested him was that, in addition to religious forbidden books, this stall also sold magical forbidden books and spell scrolls.

He couldn't afford magical forbidden books; they were more expensive than proper magic books.

Spell scrolls, on the other hand, were worth considering.

So-called spell scrolls were scrolls of spells forbidden by the Church, mainly Black Magic, as well as divine spells that were not of Mosaism, especially Yemen divine magic.

Yemen also had priests.

Moreover, the duties of Mosa and Yemen overlapped to a high degree, both being about light, mercy, and the like. This led to the spells used by the priests of both sides being highly similar as well. They often accused each other of stealing, fraud, blasphemy, and the like, and it was only natural that they would list each other as forbidden scrolls.

Unlike other forbidden scrolls, these types of scrolls were often cheaper than those from regular channels.

Because these forbidden scrolls were often obtained from the corpses of enemies, if the acquirer didn't dare or didn't want to use them themselves, they could only sell them through the black market, and the price was naturally lower than that of regular channels.

In fact, there was another option, which was to hand over the obtained forbidden scrolls to the Church for destruction, which could be exchanged for fifty copper coins and a written commendation, but except for a few fanatics, no one would do this.

Gagnor scrutinized the "Forbidden Books Collection" stall for a while, quite tempted, but ultimately didn't buy anything.

On the one hand, he was still short of money, and on the other hand, he felt that this kind of transaction was best done anonymously.

If he bought forbidden scrolls under his real name, and someone reported him, and the Church came to investigate, and the forbidden scrolls were searched out along with the Blood Magic Notes, wouldn't he be finished immediately?

He'd buy them next time.

Gagnor said goodbye to Ryan, and then prepared to leave the Thieves' Guild.

Of course, before leaving, he had one more thing to do—exchange the transaction certificate for a black gold voucher.

Attaching a five-silver-coin handling fee and handing the transaction certificate to the guild deacon, Gagnor then obtained an anonymous black gold voucher similar in shape to the Thieves' Guild badge, plus a Thieves' Guild Handbook.

"There will be an auction here the day after tomorrow. Do you have anything you want to sell or buy?" the deacon asked at the same time.

Gagnor thought for a while, "What is the auction commission here?"

"Three tenths."

Hearing this commission rate, Gagnor shook his head inwardly, "Not for now."

With that, he left the Thieves' Guild and went all the way to The Eagle and Whistle Inn, where he ordered a big meal to reward himself.

Recently, due to being short of money, Gagnor hadn't had a good meal for several days. For him, who was in a state of "Return to Youth," this was tantamount to a waste.

Although the natural laws of the Falaro world were very different from those of Earth, some basic common sense was still the same—people who don't eat meat can't become strong and powerful.

Gagnor hadn't eaten much meat in the countryside and in the Church. Even though he had tried his best to improve his diet, he had only barely grown into a medium build.

If you look at the panel's attributes, his body seemed to be slightly worse than average.

Now that he had the opportunity to grow again, Gagnor would never let himself eat chaff and swallow vegetables again.

At least for the next year, he had to eat well every meal!

Having good food was not enough. In order to make full use of the blessing of "Return to Youth," various studies and exercises were also essential.

The spells in the Blood Magic Notes, Blood Elf language, Arcane Wisdom, Swordsmanship, Archery, Feign Death, Herbalism... all of these had to be arranged.

Three months later.

After three months of study, Gagnor successfully mastered three cantrips: Blood Collection, Dismemberment, and Pseudo-Cooking, as well as two first-circle spells: Simple Activation and Blood Disguise.

At the same time, he also decided to make some pseudo-potions to try.

He decided to make four types of pseudo-potions used to enhance basic attributes. The materials were easy to find, and the risks were relatively less terrible—only the shortening of lifespan.

In fact, not to mention those radical adventurers, even Gagnor himself didn't think shortening his lifespan was a serious consequence.

After all, in the world of Falaro, dying of old age was an ending only a lucky few could enjoy. For most people, a small reduction in lifespan didn't matter much.

The four pseudo-potions enhanced Constitution, Strength, Intelligence, and Agility, respectively, and the corresponding magical beast blood was Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind.

In addition to magical beast blood, two herbs were also needed: Silverleaf and Whisperwood.

During the Blood Elf era, Whisperwood was a common and frequently used herb, while Silverleaf was relatively scarce.

Now, the situation was exactly the opposite. Silverleaf had become very common, so common that it was almost like a weed. Whisperwood had become relatively scarce and wasn't used often, which led to large price fluctuations. Sometimes it couldn't be bought, sometimes it couldn't be sold, and the common price was around two silver coins.

Fortunately, the amount of materials used in the pseudo-potion wasn't large. Including the magical beast blood, Gagnor spent a total of more than ten silver coins on his first batch of materials.

In a room filled with a faint herbal scent, Gagnor began his attempt to create the pseudo-potion.

In a way, this was also an attempt to create a potion.

After all, according to some alchemists, the only criterion for judging a potion was that "the production process includes a magical synthesis step." Although pseudo-potions were low-grade, since the production process included a magical synthesis step, it was only natural to consider them potions.

Gagnor processed the Silverleaf and Whisperwood into powder, adjusted the ratio, and mixed them with the magical beast blood.

Then, he placed the thin glass bottle containing the mixed liquid between his hands and began to chant the incantation for the first-circle spell, "Simple Activation"