Chapter 13 The Alchemist

A group of people passed through the attached town, following the city-bound procession through the guards' inspection, and entered the outer city of the royal capital.

Jason had been an Imperial Hunter for several months and was qualified to enter the city. Zhou Jing had already explored the terrain of the royal capital.

With Jason's identity as a guarantee, Zhou Jing smoothly entered the outer city. The main streets were relatively wide, extending in all directions, and quite lively with people coming and going.

However, the houses were too dense. Turning from the streets into side roads revealed lanes separated by houses, like a spider web, with complex routes, crowded and narrow, like capillaries of the entire city.

The landmarks of the outer city were several guard castles, where some soldiers were stationed as constables to control the city. The royal capital was essentially a fortress city. The guard castles served as boundaries, dividing the outer city into several districts, to some extent distinguished by function, but all able to guarantee the normal life of ordinary people.

Zhou Jing led Jason through the streets and alleys, passing through the dirty slums, crossing the bustling market district, and soon arrived at the district where many craftsmen lived together… its proper name was the Furnace District.

Each district had complete basic facilities, such as potion shops, blacksmith shops, tailor shops, etc., making it convenient for residents to live nearby. However, many shopkeepers in these stores were ordinary craftsmen from the Furnace District who crossed the city to work every morning and returned to their residences to rest in the evening.

High-quality products could generally only be bought in the Furnace District, so many well-off residents of the royal capital preferred to cross the city to shop, and the wish of many ordinary residents was to move to the Furnace District… but they couldn't afford the housing.

After all, people gathered in groups, and these craftsmen were the intellectual class of the Otherworld. Those living in the Furnace District were generally high-income groups, and many senior craftsmen who worked for the Imperial workshops also lived here, so public security was good.

Street loafers from the slums and market districts would be driven away by constables if they casually strolled around the Furnace District.

Zhou Jing walked around the Furnace District for a while and was noticed by constables patrolling the streets, and was questioned.

Apostle No. 3, Bill, was a "foreigner" who had arrived in the royal capital for the first time and was not supposed to come to the Furnace District casually, but Jason, a legitimate Imperial Hunter, was standing next to him, so the constables allowed the two to stroll around, but warned them not to approach the inner wall.

"It's still better to have Jason's identity right now."

Zhou Jing watched the constables leave and couldn't help but look towards the city center.

The high inner wall blocked the view, and only the towering palace castle could be vaguely seen.

Inside was the inner city, the power core of the Terra Empire. The inner wall was heavily guarded. In addition to the garrison, many royal city guardians were stationed on sections of the city wall—all of them were Otherblood Warriors.

It was quite difficult to sneak in silently.

"Speaking of which, why do I subconsciously think of sneaking in as soon as I see a heavily guarded place? Is this a sequela of White Plains City…"

Zhou Jing calmed himself down, searched along the road for a while, found a potion shop, and immediately walked in.

After a while, he came out again. The alchemist of this shop already had quite a few apprentices and had no plans to take in any more.

He tried each shop along the street, but none of them were looking for apprentices. The royal capital was not like a small place, there were plenty of hunters, and even if Jason showed his face, if they didn't want to take apprentices, they just didn't.

Zhou Jing tried patiently and only saw a change after visiting the thirteenth shop.

This was a small potion shop. The shelves were deserted, with only potion labels and prices placed in obvious places, but not a single bottle of potion could be seen.

There was only one middle-aged man in the house, thin, wearing a robe, with a long beard, sitting behind the counter reading a book.

Hearing someone come in, the middle-aged man slowly raised his eyes and said unhurriedly, "Take a look around, what do you want to buy?"

"Are you taking in alchemist apprentices here?" Zhou Jing asked bluntly.

The middle-aged man looked Zhou Jing up and down, his eyes lighting up: "From out of town? Do you have money?"

Hearing this, Zhou Jing perked up, took out a heavy money bag and flipped it, the silver coins jingling and colliding, making a pleasant sound.

The middle-aged man's attitude suddenly became enthusiastic, stroking his long beard and smiling:

"It's easy to talk if you have money. I am an alchemist, you can call me Marry. As long as you pay, you can be my apprentice…"

Zhou Jing blinked.

Normal craftsmen usually examine character and ability when choosing apprentices, to see if the other person has talent in this area, and to be responsible for them. But this alchemist only looked at money, accepting anyone who came, as if he wasn't very reliable.

But he didn't care, as long as he could teach him the basics, he could quickly master it with his own learning advantages.

At this time, Jason also walked in, striding like a dragon and stepping like a tiger, his strong body seemed to have its own aura.

Marry's face changed slightly when he saw Jason's Imperial Hunter outfit, and he asked, "Is this hunter your friend?"

"Yes, I saved him once…"

Zhou Jing told the previous story again, and by the way, introduced himself.

"Okay, I got it." Marry seemed a little unhappy, his tone becoming lighter, and said, "If you want to be my apprentice, it's fifty silver coins every ten days."

Zhou Jing was stunned.

Good heavens, you might as well go rob a bank!

Fifty silver coins, a peasant family might not be able to earn that much in a year of farming. Even for a high-income hunter, it was a considerable sum, enough to buy a set of equipment… and this was just the price of being an apprentice for ten days?!

Who would buy it if it were an ordinary person! Knowledge is very expensive in this world, but it's not to this extent, otherwise how would there be so many alchemists.

Zhou Jing strongly suspected that this person was deliberately making things difficult for him because of Jason's presence. This was the first time he had encountered a situation where the identity of a hunter was not useful.

Because he knew a high-income friend, so he wanted to rip him off? No, this was unreasonable, he could just go find another alchemist to learn from.

If it wasn't personal feelings… did this person want to scare him away with a high price?

Thinking about Marry's completely different attitude before and after Jason appeared…

Zhou Jing's eyes turned and he suddenly understood what was going on.

Wonderful, this is the place!

"It's a bit expensive, can you make it cheaper? How about twenty silver coins?"

"No, fifty is fifty." Marry didn't change his mind.

Zhou Jing kept haggling and spent a lot of effort, finally grinding the price down to forty silver coins for ten days. Marry agreed with a stinky face.

"Forty is forty, pay and you can learn." Marry glanced at Jason, who had a powerful aura, and his face twitched slightly.

"Then if I pay, will you teach me well? This is a lot of money!" Zhou Jing pretended to be hesitant, rubbing his hands together with a grin.

Marry's face turned even uglier, and he said unhappily, "Of course!"

Seeing this, Zhou Jing stopped teasing.

Haggling was just deliberately playing the characteristics of an apostle, he didn't really care about the money.

Of course, the tuition was still too expensive, but he didn't want to waste time asking each shop one by one. Since he could learn here, then this was it.

Marry's attitude change either meant he was exploiting apprentices, or he was cutting corners in teaching, squeezing people's wallets, bullying helpless out-of-towners, and was not a good person.

But Jason's presence was a guarantee. If this person didn't teach well, and still charged so much money, he had someone to back him up!

This world didn't have a consumer protection association. Only people with power or fists could protect their rights.

That's why Marry's attitude changed so drastically.

—An out-of-towner with a backer was not easy to swindle!

But Zhou Jing thought this place was suitable for him. Compared to finding a conscientious teacher, he now preferred a monetary transaction.

He was just looking for a place to learn the basics, to get started, and it wouldn't take too long.

In this way, the money and goods were clear, the relationship was simple, and he didn't have to owe favors like he did when facing Barron.

Moreover, since the other person wasn't a good person, he would have no psychological pressure to do anything.

After finalizing the agreement, Zhou Jing first paid for ten days, then rented a house nearby at a high price, and then immediately returned to the potion shop, demanding to start learning immediately.

Having just received the money, and with Jason's deterrence, Marry didn't dare to put it off until the next day with an excuse like resting for the night, as he usually did. He could only take out two rough books with a stinky face, namely an Herbal Compendium and a General Theory of Potion Basics, and began teaching.

[Learning [Herbal Knowledge]]

[Cultivation Acceleration Cost: 20 Star Realm Points]

[Learning [Potionology]]

[Cultivation Acceleration Cost: 50 Star Realm Points]

"Activate all."

Zhou Jing did not hesitate, listening attentively to Marry's explanation of potion knowledge, and once again entered a learning state that was even more efficient than the Heart-Sinking Flow.

…

A month passed in a flash.

In front of the medicine-making table behind the potion shop, Zhou Jing was busy, and Marry was watching beside him.

Zhou Jing skillfully processed various medicinal materials, using various instruments to prepare the herbs into the required forms, and boiled and mixed them in order. Finally, he poured the finished potion into a bottle.

The yellow potion, like beer, was still bubbling.

"Come, try it."

Zhou Jing kicked Little Black No. 1, who was lying at his feet, forcibly pried open its mouth, and poured all the potion in.

"Woof woof woof—"

Little Black No. 1 struggled violently, but it was useless.

After the potion entered its mouth, Little Black No. 1, who had been sick, suddenly became energetic, jumping around and running around the room, getting high.

This month, it was Zhou Jing's main test subject, drinking countless potions. Its previous injuries had long healed, and the main problem now was endocrine imbalance.

Zhou Jing didn't ask much of it, as long as it lived. He had been concentrating on studying potionology and hadn't had time to tame beasts for the time being.

It was just a coincidence that he discovered that the Cultivation Degree of the spotted hyena, which had drunk a lot of potions, had actually increased.

After the proxy-fighting stream of beast taming, he had developed a drug-fueled stream of beast taming… Although the style was unorthodox, it was really useful.

"It seems that this energy potion works well."

Zhou Jing observed the experimental subject and revealed a satisfied smile.

Marry's mouth twitched beside him, his expression tangled and complicated.

How… how did this person learn so fast?

Under normal circumstances, he would hide something when teaching apprentices, perfunctorily teaching, but because of Jason, Marry didn't plan to cheat people too much this time.

But cutting corners was still no problem. Marry deliberately slowed down the teaching progress, planning to make Zhou Jing spend more money.

Even if he couldn't cheat people, the deliberately raised tuition was still very attractive. Marry didn't expect that someone would really be willing to be a sucker, so he wanted to earn as much as he could.

However, he didn't expect that even though he had deliberately slowed down the speed, this person was learning so fast, his progress almost changing every day!

Marry had spent three months learning the basics back then before he really made the first effective potion… but this out-of-towner named Bill had only learned for twenty days before he got started.

After another ten days, he made potions whose quality was comparable to his own.

Looking at the remaining high-efficiency potion in the pot, Marry's stomach was full of sour water, and his heart was full of regret.

If he had known that this person would learn so fast, he should have doubled the price several times back then, he had lost money!

Fortunately… he had only taught this person two potion formulas, namely the most common healing potion and the energy potion, and nothing else.

At this time, Zhou Jing turned his head to look at Marry, smiling and asked, "How was my potion this time? Can I learn a new formula?"

Marry came back to his senses, coughed, "Not bad, you've improved quickly, it's all because I taught well, but you still need to practice more, it's too early for you to learn a new formula."

After saying that, Marry, afraid that Zhou Jing would continue to ask, walked out of the room with a stinky face.

Zhou Jing looked at his back and curled his lips sarcastically.

He had long noticed that this person was cutting corners, but in the face of Cultivation Acceleration, as long as he got his foot in the door, self-study was lightning fast.

Moreover, potionology was not like those abilities that required physical exercise. Most of it was mental work, and the increase in proficiency was very fast. With the addition of his own talent and aptitude, the learning efficiency was simply flying.

In just one month, both [Herbal Knowledge] and [Potionology] had climbed to the level of Lv4 Mastery, which was no less than Marry.

This person was just an ordinary alchemist, a person who took the wrong path and cheated out-of-towners, so his level was naturally not too high.

In a month, Marry only taught him two potion formulas, and he guarded the other formulas like a thief, making it clear that he wanted to earn more of his money in this way.

Of course, it was also possible that he was afraid that teaching his apprentice would starve the master. Not all industries had the custom of enthusiastic education of newcomers like the Otherworld hunters.

"Dream on."

Zhou Jing muttered inwardly.

If it was normal teaching, he would pay the tuition, but he was clearly being cheated, so he didn't want to continue being a sucker, and he could save some time.

"Apart from the formulas, Marry has nothing else to teach me… it seems that it's time for some barbaric primitive accumulation."

Zhou Jing stroked his chin, lost in thought.

Speaking of which, the apostle with the Gluttony trait shouldn't obediently pay.

It really was an effortless synchronization… He was really good at reading people!