The assignment

He now delivered goods to the merchant on a regular weekly schedule. To be honest, after his success rate in brewing had improved greatly, he had thought the merchant would be unable to take so much stock. To his surprise, the merchant still bought everything he had, just as before.

When Allen arrived at the merchant's place, he saw him chatting with a man in his fifties who was as round as a ball. The merchant treated the fat man with great respect, his expression somewhat fawning. Just then, the merchant noticed Allen approaching and immediately greeted him. "Allen, you're finally here. Let me introduce you. This is my mother's distant cousin. He's a major businessman. Most of the goods you supply me go to him." The merchant introduced the fat man beside him, who gave Allen a noble's salute. "Good day, sir. I am Buck Herif, head steward of the Herif Family."

Allen looked at the merchant in surprise. "Buck is your relative? Does that mean you're a noble too?" The merchant scratched his head awkwardly and explained, "I'm not a noble. At most, I'm a retainer to a noble family, and my uncle and I are very distant relations." Only then did Allen realize that not just anyone could be called a noble.

The merchant then said to Allen, "I don't think I ever told you my full name. It's George Herif. I hadn't been recognized by the family before, so I didn't dare use the family name in public. Thanks to you, I formally joined the family a few days ago."

Allen had no interest in his family. After handing over the goods, he changed the subject. "What were you discussing just now?" The fat man answered him. "Haven't you heard, sir? Something major has happened in Dalaran. Lord Delandon Archersman has publicly declared his support for the Chris Family. All of Dalaran will undergo enormous changes."

The Chris Family and Delandon—Allen caught those two key names. He knew Delandon was one of the six leaders of the Kirin Tor Council. His strength was beyond question, and with his powerful family background, Delandon could be considered one of the most important figures in Dalaran.

The Chris Family reminded him of what had happened in that shop last time. He was certain that incident had to be connected to this. Perhaps the Chris Family had offered the Water Elemental Heart to Delandon in exchange for his support. As for what they intended to do, he thought of the upcoming election for the Council of Six. It was probably an effort to gain a seat on the Council of Six.

The Council of Six here had actually emerged from Dalaran's decision-making body, the Kirin Tor Council. Its members were all leaders among the Kirin Tor councilors, representing the interests of different factions and families. This was the most common state of affairs under Dalaran's council system, much like the struggles between political parties in his previous life.

Of course, a change in the leaders at the top had nothing to do with Allen. All he wanted now was to finish reading the books in the second-floor library. After half a month of study, he had roughly figured out what magic was.

There was no doubt that magic existed in this world, but where did it come from? Most mages believed magic was everywhere, commonly present in every corner of the world. Some disagreed, however, because long ago, magic had not existed in this world, so it had not been universally present from the beginning. What had caused magic to come into being remained a subject of research for mages.

Magic was completely different from other forms of energy in nature. It could not even be regarded simply as a form of energy, because it could accomplish things other forms of energy could not. It could create and destroy; it was essentially capable of anything. Most importantly, people could control it, which set it completely apart from other forms of natural energy. A fire, for instance, could be produced by burning dry wood without relying on magic at all, so mages could not control such a fire, which contained no magical power. But if the fire was created through magical power, mages could make its flames larger or smaller at will.

People often saw mages conjure powerful, dazzling magic as though performing tricks, yet that magic looked exactly like substances found in nature. Take water, for example. According to the knowledge Allen had from his previous life, water was made up of water molecules, H2O, gathered together. But what was water created through magic made up of? If it was also composed of water molecules, as above, that raised a problem: even gathering all the moisture in the air would not be enough.

He had also come across another claim: magic was actually an illusion, and this world was an illusion. Mages were a group of people who used illusions to deceive others. Of course, like everyone else, he considered this claim absurd. Magic was definitely not an illusion. It was something that truly existed.

For now, the magical theories on the second floor had only allowed him to reach a vague conclusion: magic was a special substance or form of energy, or even something between the two. It had many different manifestations, such as water, fire, wind, and so on. It could be controlled, and this was related to people's mental power. Mental power, in turn, could be strengthened through the accumulation of magical power, so magic had an extraordinary, interactive relationship with the human soul.

Finally, magic did not have the tangible existence of matter. No one had ever seen a physical manifestation of pure magical power without a trace of impurities. Magical power always attached itself to other substances or displayed their properties. Many mages were studying what an accumulation of pure magical power would look like. Some believed it would be colorless and waterlike, while others said it would be golden. There were all sorts of claims. Magic was like an elusive, intangible concept, impossible to see or touch. Mental power alone could perceive its existence.

Mental power was even more of an unknown. Even now, practically no one knew what mental power or the soul actually was. He knew his soul was very unusual, which was why he could not absorb magical power. But he did not know exactly how it differed from other people's.

Aside from that, he had discovered some problems in the mages' theories and research. Their theories were not comprehensive enough and could not explain many phenomena. Second, their thinking was too narrow. They only studied magic and cared nothing for anything else, including other supernatural powers, such as the power within a Warrior's body.

Most importantly, this world was not made up entirely of magic. It also contained a vast amount of matter, yet mages cared only about magic. They were indifferent to substances without magic and to certain laws of nature.

They did not even know about gravity, yet still intended to explain it through magic. Naturally, such theories were full of holes. Mages had too much faith in their magical power and actually knew nothing about the forces of nature. Only he understood that the power of nature could sometimes be even greater than magic.

Allen realized that mages were not as perfect as he had imagined. They could perhaps be called scholars only when it came to magic. In other respects, they were no different from the medieval people here. Alongside his disappointment, he also felt somewhat fortunate. He was not a native of this world. His soul and his thinking both came from another world.

Back to the matter at hand, after returning from the merchant's place, he was about to go to the library when he suddenly realized it was the beginning of the month. He had to pick up an assignment. Mage apprentices like him generally had to accept an assignment once a month. They varied in duration and came in every kind. Exceptions were only permitted if an assignment took too long.

Allen arrived at the association. This time, the attendant who had received him before was not there; instead, there was a very pretty young woman. Since Allen was new, the beautiful attendant showed him the way. Once they arrived, Allen handed over his identification. A mage sat inside, examining Allen's identification carefully through a pair of reading glasses. "Your name is Allen, then. Here's your assignment."

The mage handed him a sheet of parchment with the details of the assignment written out carefully. It turned out he was to brew healing potions. This was the most common assignment for alchemy apprentices, so it was no surprise that he had received it. The parchment required him to make fifteen healing potions of inferior grade or better this month, with a payment of four hundred silver coins per potion. The pay really was pitifully low. The association certainly knew how to squeeze its apprentices.

Still, Allen thought it was not bad. At least he was not being sent somewhere dangerous on an assignment. After learning the specifics, he did not linger and went straight back to brew potions. If he had not just sold all those inferior-grade potions, he could have handed them in right away.

Now it was merely a little more trouble. Allen quickly got everything ready and prepared to begin brewing. From his first encounter with healing potions until now, he had produced at least one or two hundred finished potions, so he was naturally thoroughly familiar with how to brew them. As usual, he completed all the steps, leaving only the final infusion of magical power. He had originally intended to use the Water Elemental Heart immediately afterward, but then he remembered the magical theories he had read.

In the end, he changed his mind. This time, he would test his conjecture: could he gather magical power directly through mental power alone? As everyone knew, all mages first absorbed magical power into their bodies, then used the magical power within them to construct magical runes and form spells. He had never heard of anyone casting magic through mental power alone. But in theory, mental power could control magical power, so it should be able to gather magical power from the surroundings, then construct magical runes to form a spell.

So he decided to try gathering magical power directly from his surroundings and infusing it into the healing potion. Naturally, he failed. Allen encountered a major problem at the very first step of gathering magical power directly from the outside. The magical power scattered through the air was formless and intangible. Even though his mental power could perceive it, trying to bring it together was like trying to scoop water out of a river with his hands: it accomplished very little.

But he had not gained nothing. At least he had confirmed one thing: mental power really could gather magical power, even if it was very difficult. Did that mean he could use mental power directly to construct magic outside his body and then release it? After that, he was in no hurry to brew potions. He needed to calm down and think it through carefully.