"Idiot."
Sam scolded himself as he stood at the beach. He looked at the vast sea and scolded himself again.
"I am really an idiot."
Why is he calling himself an idiot again and again? Because, he felt that he limited his thoughts completely for the past two weeks.
These past two weeks, he was filled with confusion on what type of herb that gave the drug those effects, he limited his thoughts completely to the herbs and searched the woods frantically.
So, he is a little bit angry at himself.
Because, the herbs aren't the only ones which can be used in the pills and the woods aren't the only source for the ingredients in the red coral city.
The red coral city is a coastal city and there are number of resources in the sea. That might include some of the fish or any water bound creature which produce certain toxins.
Now, he has to find out what kind of creatures are there in the nearby waters and he can find out what he can do with it.
So, he went to the most prosperous sea creature's business in the city. There, he took a look at the catalogue of the creatures they can catch in the nearby waters, when he saw the list, he couldn't help but smile.
Just from a glance he could see which are these can be used to produce the effects of the drugs. There are no more than three possibilities and it is not even that difficult to find out which of it is.
Sam ordered some fish that will be good to eat and some other creatures to act as decoy along with the creatures he suspected to be a part of it.
That is because, he has suspicions that this business is related to the Black water and he might leave some clues like before.
Next day, the creatures came and Sam took the parcel to the inn and immediately entered the divine dimension.
In the second floor, he and the ape sat side by side and he started keeping the herbs inside the cauldron and took out the first beast he is suspicious of, the Emerald jelly fish. The tentacles of this jelly fish have some kind of toxin that will give some illusions to the victim.
He heated them all together, even though he didn't have the recipe for the drug and don't know the right amount he has to use, he doesn't need the pill anyway, all he need is the confirmation on which ingredients they are using and the ape can smell if the composition is nearer to the drug.
And soon, Sam performed some experiments and finally got the answer he wanted.
Two creatures are responsible for the affects. One of them is the emerald jelly fish and Purple ink squid. Of the two, the first one is responsible for the illusions and the second one is for knocking them out.
They are controlling the dosage and the proportions of the two toxins in order to function like that.
Sam now went into a deep thought. He wants to create a large-scale conflict between the two gangs so that they will be more active and the lower rank members will be at each other's throats, before the upper-echelons could intervene.
By the time they intervene, Sam can easily find out the two officials and after they are in the bag, he will use his authority and use the Count to take the gangs down without raising the suspicions of the Black water that he is involved.
He can seal off the info that he is here with his authority, But the info will be leaked if the two officials are still in duty.
So, Sam is now thinking on how to use these drugs, so he went into the tower's library to search on the info on the toxins.
After more than a day, he found out something interesting.
That night, Sam stealthily moved towards the sea and took out his hover board and surfed over the waters. With the thrust capacity, floating over water is not a problem at all.
Sam went along the coast line and when he reached a more secluded area filled with reefs, he took out some type of special herbal powder and dropped it over the still water, soon a fish similar to koi, floated as it gobbled on the small amounts of herbal powder that it even ignored Sam.
So, an easy catch.
After catching some, he went to another spot and caught another batch of fish.
Sam caught a bunch of fish and went back to the inn.
He entered the second floor of the tower without delay and started making some preparations. Today, Sam caught two types of fish, first one is to make an antidote for the drug addiction and the second one is to change the effects to his liking.
After spending more than three days in tower, Sam was finally with a powder and a bottle of special liquid.
Now, he has to find a way to get the constant supply of the drugs and this problem is left to Jack.
Jack took the small packets of powder and went to the first contact point where the drug is sold. Just like Sam he also waited for a customer. Coincidentally, the customer is the same young man Sam followed and Jack followed the guy.
After reaching the home, when that guy is about to feed the pill, Jack suddenly spoke from behind.
"Do you really want to feed him that?" Jack said in a low voice.
The young man was startled and immediately grew vigilant, he released his aura and when he was about to attack, Jack caught him and held him down. The young man was only an acolyte after all, how can be match for Jack who is a Novice?
"Do you want to talk now?" Jack said as he subdued the man. After the other party realised that he is no match for Jack at all, he immediately stopped struggling.
"I am here to make a deal, I have a cure for the drug addiction, but I need you to do something for me." Jack directly came to the point.
"Why should I believe you?" The young man asked a bit resentfully.
Jack threw a packet of powder and said. "Mix it with some water and feed him." The young man hesitated a bit, but at the end he decided anyway as he looked at his weak and feeble brother who is under the attack of drug addiction.
But after feeding the glass of liquid, his brother calmed down and fell asleep, but this time, he isn't like before becoming unconscious.
Now, he fell asleep and his breathing and complexion turned somewhat normal, he started sweating and some kind of purplish green substance started getting out of his pores.
"One dose is not enough to completely clean his system and get him out of his addiction, you need nine more of it, but if you want it, you have to do something for me." Jack said from the side.
"What should I do?" The young man was excited. He never wanted to feed his brother these drugs, he tried many ways to make quit, but none of them worked at all. So, all he can do is continue on feeding him by spending all his hard- earned money.
"Simple, all you have to do is exchange a dosage of drugs with this antidote. You can just buy it regularly like you did before and exchange. After ten doses, you have to buy for two more days and give me those drugs."
"Is that it?" The young man asked.
"Yes, that's it. I will come and collect the drugs myself."
"But why are you doing this?" The young man agreed but asked Jack, even the Count was unable to do anything, even when some dealers were arrested, they always found a way to escape and get away. What can a Novice do about it?
Jack didn't reply and left with the drugs. He went back to the contact point and waited for the next customer.
In this way, Jack made deal with several customers who bought the drugs and he brought back the drugs to Sam.
For the next ten days or so, this is his only duty.
Meanwhile, the fourth report from the shadow mice, Sam got his hands on some doc.u.ments from the arena and one of them is some rules on how Black water should operate and one of the rules made him amused.
'The reports, the rewards and the income which should be submitted annually to the higher ups, all of them shouldn't be in the hands of the branch in-charge and they should be stored in the secret locker of the establishment they made.'
When Sam read this, he wanted to thank the higher-ups of the Black water, they would have never guessed that there is a creature called shadow mouse and that could even ransack their whole vault.
Maybe they only thought of the scenario where the branch in charge might be killed and the other party will not be getting any of the above-mentioned things.
If not for the fact that the great mage will go berserk if the spatial rings containing the meteorite sands and the rewards and the income went missing, Sam would have got his hands on them and ran away.
There might even be a chance of him being linked to the incident due to the previous suspicions.
But since, his main aim is to eliminate them, he has to wait until he is dealt with and take the loot after that.
