Leaving the Tower

Early the next morning, Lottie arrived as promised. She gently knocked on Li Ang's door, looking somewhat ill at ease.

Hearing the knock, Li Ang set down his feather quill and got up to open the door. Lottie, standing outside, seemed not to have slept well all night, with faint dark circles beneath her eyes.

"Good morning, Mr. Li Ang." Even with dark circles under her eyes, the girl's manners remained impeccable.

"Morning, Lottie. Let's get something to eat first." Li Ang nodded and led her toward the dining hall.

After breakfast, Li Ang said directly, "Lottie, we're leaving the tower today to buy a few things."

"Leaving the tower?" Lottie was a little surprised, but she obediently followed without asking any further questions.

Relying on their memories from their arrival, the two crossed several streets and reached a public carriage stop.

Several carriages drawn by ordinary horses were waiting there. Li Ang chose one marked with the Wizard Tower–Port Commercial Street route and paid one copper coin each for the fare.

There were already several passengers inside when they boarded. The carriage's interior was far more rudimentary than the one from the Wizard Tower that had picked up the new apprentices, and its jolting was much more pronounced.

Li Ang was not wearing the gray robe that symbolized a wizard apprentice today, while Lottie had no choice but to wear her own clothes.

Lottie sat in the carriage looking preoccupied, while Li Ang chatted with her now and then...

No one knew how much time passed. Just as Li Ang was being jolted so badly that heaven and earth spun around him and he felt like vomiting—

"We're here! Port Commercial Street, get off!" the driver shouted gruffly.

Forcing down the urge to vomit, Li Ang leaped from the carriage in a single stride and braced himself against a wall, gasping heavily. The violent breaths tugged at his lungs, causing the stabbing pain to flare again. Lottie anxiously kept stroking his back, hoping to ease his suffering.

After resting for quite a while, Li Ang finally shook off the nausea and recovered. Before them was the street lined with shops that they had seen upon arriving.

After searching around for a while, Li Ang avoided Verdant Whisper Herbs, whose conspicuous sign suggested that it had countless threads tying it to the Wizard Tower.

In the end, he chose a small-looking shop with a sign that read Old Peter's Herb Shop.

Upon entering, they found quite a few medicinal ingredients sorted into different categories. Li Ang went straight to the counter and said to the elderly man dozing behind it,

"Boss, I need ingredients for two doses of Calming Potion."

The old man opened his bleary eyes, glanced at Li Ang, then rose and began slowly gathering the goods.

In the end, Li Ang spent two silver coins and received two sets of ingredients far inferior in quality to those supplied by the workshop.

The quality was poor, yet the price was much higher. Li Ang felt somewhat irritated, but for the sake of safety, he could only accept it.

"Mr. Li Ang, i-is this... for helping me brew Calming Potion?" Lottie asked uncertainly.

After receiving Li Ang's affirmative reply, she said excitedly, her voice trembling slightly,

"Thank you, truly, thank you. I'll definitely pay you back someday."

Li Ang nodded and said to the visibly excited Lottie, "We still need to go somewhere else. I want to buy a lamp. The oil lamp in my room is too hard on the eyes."

Lottie's eyes lit up when she heard that, her expression seeming to say, Leave it to me.

Li Ang carried the herbs and followed behind Lottie as they wandered into a prop shop called "Morning Light."

All sorts of everyday wizarding supplies were sold there. As expected of someone from a wizard Lineage, although Lottie's talent was lacking, she had far broader knowledge than Li Ang.

She browsed from left to right, comparing prices and functions, while Li Ang's gaze was drawn to all manner of strange little things in the shop.

Brooms that cleaned automatically, jars that could influence emotions, feather quills that never ran out of ink... They all had one thing in common: they were expensive.

In the end, Lottie selected a compactly designed Magelight Lamp for Li Ang. It used elementary light-element runes to emit light continuously.

"Although this kind of Magelight Lamp isn't very bright, it consumes very little energy. One inferior magic crystal can last for a month," Lottie explained softly, looking earnest.

Li Ang looked at the price. It was only sixty copper coins, and it even came with an inferior magic crystal if purchased now. He nodded. "Then we'll take this one."

Once they had finished shopping, it was nearly noon. Li Ang caught the scent of roasted meat drifting through the air, and it immediately stirred his appetite. He pointed at the Giant Pincer Restaurant that had attracted everyone when they first entered the city. "Let's settle lunch here."

The restaurant's business was booming, and the two had to wait a while before finding seats.

Li Ang took the menu and ordered two servings of the signature dish, charcoal-roasted giant pincers, at only five copper coins per serving. The two ate until their mouths gleamed with grease, temporarily forgetting their worries.

After returning to Li Ang's dormitory in the tower, Li Ang first shared, without holding anything back, the insights he had gained when condensing Astral Stars.

"Don't rush for quick success. Feel the flow of magic power as if you were feeling running water and a gentle breeze. Find that feeling of being 'drawn.'"

As Li Ang spoke, he began brewing the Calming Potion. Once he had finished explaining his experiences, he told Lottie to contemplate on her own first while he hurried to finish the potion.

Limited by the ingredients and equipment, he ultimately produced one dose of excellent-quality Calming Potion.

Since she was about to drink it immediately, Li Ang did not pour it into a crystal bottle. Instead, he poured it into a cup and handed it to Lottie.

"Drink it, then begin meditating. Don't put pressure on yourself. Just do your best to feel it."

Lottie held the warm cup of potion in both hands, which trembled slightly.

The golden liquid swayed gently in the cup. The motes of magical light within it circulated like stars filling the sky without end—an attribute found only in excellent-quality Calming Potion.

She raised her head, her eyes fixed on Li Ang with stunned disbelief.

"Mr. Li Ang... you... you used these ordinary ingredients bought outside... and this..."

Her gaze swept over the rough ceramic practice cauldron on the table.

"...and brewed an excellent-quality potion?"

This completely overturned everything she knew.

In the Lineage knowledge she had absorbed since childhood, a potion's quality depended heavily on the quality of its ingredients and the precision of its brewing tools.

Even her grandfather, the pride of the Lineage who had turned the Polk Lineage into a wizarding family, needed the crystal cauldron purchased at the cost of the family's entire fortune and high-quality herbs whenever he brewed potions. Even then, there was no guarantee that he could produce an excellent-quality potion.

Yet Li Ang had succeeded with a practice cauldron and ordinary materials bought from the market? This was no longer merely a matter of skill. It was practically a kind of... magic-born talent.

Li Ang merely smiled faintly at her words. "Good luck, plus a little technique, that's all. All right, don't waste time. Drink it and start meditating."

Hearing this, Lottie forcefully suppressed the stormy waves in her heart and nodded solemnly. Holding the cup in both hands, she drained the potion in one gulp.

She then sat cross-legged on Li Ang's bed and began meditating.

Seeing Lottie's breathing gradually steady and a focused, tranquil expression appear on her face, Li Ang knew the potion had begun to take effect.

He softly let out a breath, walked over to the desk, and picked up the old notebook Lottie had left behind.

There were no words on the notebook's cover, only worn marks left by frequent turning.

He opened the first page. The yellowed paper bore neat handwriting in dark brown ink, recording comparative data on the efficiency with which Tranquility Flower Stamen released its medicinal properties at different water temperatures.

They truly were valuable insights. Li Ang nodded as he read.

He took out the [Inferior Gray Feather Quill] that had already been upgraded to Lv2, spread out a fresh sheet of parchment, dipped the quill in ink, and began copying.