Levine’s potion lab in White Raven’s headquarters.
Levine and Eren were seen sitting on either side of her work desk.
“So you brought her here, huh?”
Levine sighed when she checked the spectral screen that showed White Raven’s upcoming plans and the assigned personnel. The spectral screen was displaying Marie and the tasks assigned under her name.
“Hm. Despite being a halfling that can’t use any school of potioning, she is indeed a capable potioner. Because her capability lies not in her talent but in the amount of work she puts into her craft.”
Eren said while tapping his fingers on the desk. He and Levine were discussing the finer details of their plans to dominate the kingdom’s market with their top-of-the-line products.
Levine shook her head before killing the spectral screen. She leaned back in her chair before commenting.
“I never doubted her commitment to work. But she wasn’t able to use any of the known schools of potioning. What was I supposed to do?
That kind of handicap was bound to make her unsuccessful the further she climbed the ranks. At least that’s what I had thought at the time.”
“That is if she had stuck to the conventional schools despite knowing she was going to fail. But things are different now. She is on her way to creating her school of potioning.”
Eren responded to Levine’s remark about Marie. He didn’t have to defend Marie’s position in the assignments to Levine. But he thought that he should reduce the friction between the two ladies to its minimum before he left the city. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about problems on the production line arising due to personal conflict.
“Eternal Solution. It’s kind of a pompous name for a raw ingredient.”
Levine had read about the missing ingredient’s properties in the report submitted to her. It was the so-called roadblock-lifter for Marie. Something that was supposed to pave the way for groundbreaking potioning products.
She had also been supplied with a small batch of the liquid to conduct her experiments on it. Eren had prepared a stock of vials of Eternal Solution and given them to Agatha. In turn, she would distribute the precious raw ingredient to Marie and Levine’s research projects as needed.
“Hehe. I didn’t come up with it, teacher. The name doesn’t matter anyway. The solution is real, and we are only beginning to see what kind of effects it can have in various potioning processes.
We still need to research the product thoroughly before commercializing the products based on it. I have shared Marie’s research papers with you once. I’ll humbly suggest you read through them once before starting your experiments.”
Eternal Solution would act as the stabilizer in most potioning experiments. But it was also capable of acting as a catalyst depending upon when it was introduced in the process.
In both cases, only a drop or two of the solution was needed. So Eren was confident that the stock he had created and saved in the potion bank would last for a very long time. This was true even when two potioners used it for experiments.
Eren had created a separate stock of Eternal Solution for the manufacturing line. It would only get used when the manufacturing setup was completed.
“A master potioner using their apprentice’s research papers. Hehe. it seems I have grown old.”
Levine chuckled and sighed with a different kind of exhaustion. The butcher looked like he had taken offense to her statement.
“This could not be further from the truth, teacher Levine. You are one of the prettiest potioners the continent of Anfang has ever seen. I refuse to believe that…”
Eren would have used his glib tongue for longer. And Levine would have let him. But she could see that the man was in a bit of a hurry. So she waved her hand and decided to cut to the chase.
“Alright. Alright. I hate to interrupt you when you are just firing your compliments at me. But you wouldn’t stay chatting with me this long unless you want something from me apart from the tasks I have been officially assigned. What is it?”
Eren’s words of compliments were stuck in his mouth when he heard Levine’s statement. He pursed his lips and adjusted his posture before asking what he wanted to ask her.
“Teacher Levine, I wanted to know if there was any potion that dealt with soul-related injuries.”
Eren asked and waited eagerly for Levine’s response. The latter was caught off guard when she was asked about soul-related potions. Thus. She took a while to answer.
“There’s a potion called Golden Soul Heal that can be used when a ranker’s soul is damaged inside a soul-related array. Then there’s Azure Soul Cure that can be used when soul-related artifacts have dealt damage to the ranker’s soul.
You can also use…”
Levine talked briefly about various soul-related potions she was aware of and recall right off the bat. She also explained their effects and how they could be maximized.
Of course, she also told her student that these kinds of potions were too high-class for the current him. And he shouldn’t experiment on them just yet.
Eren chuckled before asking Levine to obtain or concoct a certain potion for him. Money was not the issue. She was allowed to use any resources the White Raven guild had at its disposal to get that potion for him.
Levine didn’t understand what Eren was planning to do with high-tier potions like these. The potions that affected the souls weren’t something an Adept ranker should involve themselves with. Even Expert rankers are barely qualified to handle them in controlled environments inside the potion labs.
However, she had come to know that Eren was very serious about getting the potion. By this point, she had stopped asking him intrusive questions. It was clear to her that the guy had his secrets.
After all, he was the only one who had gotten his hands on the so-called revolutionary missing ingredient. She would be an idiot if she doubted her student’s ability to plan things, given the kind of achievements he had made for himself.
After Eren received assurance from Levine that she would try her best to obtain the potion he wanted, he breathed a sigh of relief.
