Seeing the guy's expression, as if he'd burst into tears if he said any more, the young master couldn't bear it. "All right, buddy, say no more. Let's drink to that!"
"Brother... cheers!"
"Speaking of which, I trained in leatherworking too. Later I found out it was a complete trap! At first, I naively thought that with skinning to support it, leatherworking would be a breeze. I'd get to wear leather armor I made myself. How nice would that be?"
"Isn't that how it works?"
"Damn! Do you know how annoying and expensive leatherworking is? Never mind how hard recipes are to get-even if you get a slightly better one, can you believe the recipe for some piece of junk actually asks for pearls? If I had pearls, why the hell would I make your crap?" The tough guy was already in tears...
"After going through that a few times, I made some pieces of junk and found out that, never mind making money, I'd lost a fortune. In a fit of anger, I switched to herbalism. At least I could auction off some raw herbs to help make ends meet! I gathered a few herbs on this trip. I'll be going to Stormwind City later, and I'll put some up at the auction house for a low price."
"I don't know if all the alchemists got eaten by dogs or what. I haven't seen more than a couple of decent ones; they're all fucking apprentices. There are so many herbs at the auction house, so why isn't anyone buying them? I've got no choice but to compete with everyone else on price! But damn it, even the most basic potion costs more than 10 silver..."
The man sighed, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it with the fire from the stove. A faint smoke ring drifted out, carrying a faint trace of sorrow...
"Check!" Aige quietly called the waiter over, unwilling to disturb the man's thoughts...
"Sir, the Kodot Beech you're looking for is staying in room 207 on the second floor. I'll take you to him right away. This way, please!"
A one-copper tip delighted the waiter, who immediately dropped his work and led Aige off to find him...
"Who are you?"
A middle-aged man answered the door. Like the previous man, he always seemed to carry a faint air of sorrow. His niece's assessment of him was "a lousy wandering alchemist"... a very fair assessment! At least, judging by the bubbling beaker in the room that was about to explode...
"Never mind who I am. Quick, turn off that damned alcohol lamp of yours..." Aige hurriedly warned him, but it was clearly too late...
This damned lousy wandering alchemist really wasn't professional enough! Who would casually open the door and chat while brewing a potion? Seeing that an explosion was unavoidable, Aige sensibly slipped away from the doorway and hid in a blind spot outside...
Bang! After the muffled explosion, Aige turned to look again. The man who had previously been only faintly sorrowful was now badly hurt...
Using linen bandages, Aige managed to wrap up the idiot's badly injured head. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Huh! There was an explosion, and nobody came to check?"
The man gave a bitter smile. "Maybe they're... used to it?"
"I came from Beech Farm. Your niece Sally asked me to give you a letter. Take a look!" Aige handed Sally's letter to the master, then waited quietly...
"So my niece wants to resolve the feud between Hall and the Beech family? That makes sense. It was a mistake my cowardly brother made to save himself. I gave him a good scolding for it before, but knowing him, he doesn't have the courage to admit he was wrong. My niece, on the other hand, takes after me. She's brave and resourceful..."
Damn! He's got some nerve. No wonder they're used to the explosions... Aige thought to himself.
"I do support her, but I don't have any of the invisibility potions she needs on hand right now. Money's been tight lately, so I just sold a few bottles, and the rest got used up under various circumstances..." The guy suddenly flushed for no apparent reason...
Aige knew that look. He wore the same expression himself after doing certain naughty things. "Don't tell me you drank an invisibility potion and went into the women's bathhouse?"
"Huh? How did you kno-" The man was startled...
"Tell me, what ingredients do you need to brew the potion? Make some extra this time and give me a couple of bottles too!" Damn! I knew that was it! Hurry up and give me two bottles so I can have some fun at the bathhouse too...
"All right! Since we're fellow enthusiasts, say no more. Once the task is done, I'll give you two extra bottles!"
The lousy alchemist gave him a knowing, lecherous grin. "I have the other herbs, but I need you to collect four Crystal Kelp for me! No, if you want two extra bottles, I'll need at least six! But don't bring too many, because I only have enough of the remaining herbs to make six bottles: three for my niece, two for you, and one left over for myself. It's settled, then!"
"Where can I collect the Crystal Kelp you need, you sleazy master?"
"What kind of way is that to address a master? Forget it, I won't hold it against a youngster like you. Follow the road east of town for a while, then head north into the forest. After a bit, you'll come to a small lake. You can gather Crystal Kelp from the bottom of the lake! But you certainly can't dive down there without a water-breathing potion. That potion is even more valuable than an invisibility potion, though, so it would be a waste. You can kill some Murlocs in the lake instead. They're omnivores, and they like to dive to the bottom and gather Crystal Kelp to eat. Understand?"
As far as quest hints went, this lousy alchemist was reliable enough. Aige followed his directions and did indeed find some Murlocs. He knew them well, having killed a few when he rescued the soldier Ryan. Beforehand, he had cautiously assessed the situation: with his strength as a level-nine mage and the support of two Wisps, clearing out some Murlocs shouldn't be difficult. As long as he didn't let them bunch up or give them a chance to bring the whole family running, he'd be fine. There was no need to waste any extra cards!
As someone who liked to think things through, Aige carefully observed the area and worked out his objectives and rules of engagement...
He had to kill them solo, since there was no one to party with. He didn't want to waste card minions, so his combat strength was relatively limited. He had to avoid drawing the attention of most of the Murlocs and, above all, keep them from escaping...
The most important point was to kill Murlocs that had just come up from diving to the bottom of the lake whenever possible...
Aige didn't believe these Murlocs were that frugal. Unless they had just successfully gathered food from the lake bed, expecting them to spend a long time on land without touching it was less plausible than expecting a drug addict not to take drugs... highly unreliable!
With that in mind, Aige first carefully cleared out several Murlocs patrolling alone. Killing them one by one wasn't difficult; against the power of his Fireball and Frostbolt, they struggled to get close to the mage. After that, he kept watch over a section of the lake. Whenever a Murloc surfaced, he hit it with a Frostbolt, then used fireballs to kill it on the water before swimming out to collect the loot...
Aige's positioning and awareness, honed by years of experience, were no joke. He toyed with the Murlocs so thoroughly that they never had a chance to call for help and obediently became his loot. Nothing unexpected happened during the fighting, and after some time, Aige obtained all six bundles of Crystal Kelp, along with a pile of assorted fresh fish and heaps of clam shells...
As mentioned before, Murlocs had an extremely varied diet! It really was extremely varied; there was nothing they couldn't eat. Pork, wolf meat, bear meat, human flesh, big fish, small fish, shrimp, loaches, seaweed, seagrass-they could eat anything, and once they ate, they could grow and reproduce... They were a hardy race, though not a particularly respectable one!
Opening the clam shells was quite enjoyable. The Murlocs didn't dive just to gather seaweed; compared to plants, they considered meat more nutritious. Human flesh wasn't something they could eat whenever they wanted-they had to put in the effort and be capable of killing a person first. Lake clams and fish weren't so dangerous, though; they could be caught by diving down. Murlocs were born experts at catching seafood and had a knack for gathering fishy things...
Aige found quite a bit of clam meat in the shells. If he'd had the corresponding cooking recipe, he could have used it to raise his cooking proficiency. It didn't matter, though. He simply tossed it into the Hero Space he carried with him; it would come in handy someday. In one of the shells, he was lucky enough to find a small pearl. As he recalled, a few professional recipes used these, so if he put it up at the auction house, he shouldn't have trouble selling it... On the other hand, a low-level small pearl was unlikely to fetch a high price.
After his earlier conversation with the brooding thief, Young Master Ai had more or less decided on his other main profession. After learning enchanting, he had the urge to learn alchemy... especially after hearing what the thief had to say.
One part of the thief's complaints was important: he had complained that alchemists were few and far between and hadn't amounted to much, and that the herbs at auction weren't being bought up, keeping prices from rising. The most important information was that even basic alchemical products-that is, basic potions-sold for more than 10 silver... That gave Aige enough theoretical support: raw materials were plentiful and cheap, but alchemical products were very expensive. The profit margin was enormous, yet very few people possessed the craft.
Even so, he still had doubts about taking up alchemy right away. The main reason was that alchemy needed herbalism to support it; otherwise, without a supply of raw materials, things could easily fall apart. Although the thief had painted an optimistic picture of the large quantities of raw herbs available at the auction house, it could very well have been just the old man's side of the story, exaggerated out of resentment. Until he saw them at the auction house himself, it was better to be cautious... In that respect, a trip to Stormwind City was unavoidable.
If he could investigate the auction house himself and find that there really were large quantities of cheap raw herbs, then he would basically meet the conditions for studying alchemy. But there was another problem Aige hadn't considered, or rather, didn't want to dwell on: would the auction house sell truly rare herbs, such as Black Lotus, which were scarce to begin with and required a high herbalism level to gather?
Higher prices didn't matter; higher raw-material costs would simply be made back in the price of the finished products. The key was that Aige seriously doubted whether the continent had enough raw materials to support him all the way to grandmaster alchemy...
That would largely determine the ultimate achievement he could reach by choosing this profession.