[True indeed] I paused, thinking about this puzzle. Why every time I tried to get near that bastard, I ended up having lots of mysteries and hard to understand puzzles?
Sigh! Dealing with this enemy was really a nightmare to me!
[What Alex thinks?] Everything started with her vision and ability. So I had to ask about what she was thinking about.
[She says there are more places yet to visit. Boss, she said these tunnel openings are arranged in a big circle around our lands]
[A big circle? Interesting!] I thought about this for a moment, [Go and see what you can discover at these places. I want a map, a detailed one of all the places you found. Be cautious and don’t get discovered. And keep me posted of your place all the time]
[Ok boss!]
I closed the chat with him after confirming their current location. They were high north, inside what Canada lands were before.
From what I got, they were at Niagara falls. And now they were heading slightly south and to the west.-.
As he kept informing me of their location regularly, I watched in silence Lily working in such effort to decipher this recipe.
The writings here were so much! And there were many drawings as well. I got from the drawings that they were steps meant for making some sort of potions or pills.
I saw cauldrons and fire, items thrown into it and a step process of how to make a fluid in the end.
This was repeated several times in the entire recipe, but I couldn’t get anything else from it. Aside from the potions or pills formed, I had no idea of what was thrown in the cauldron, the way of cooking them, and what was the use of the final product.
Everything depended upon Lily now. If she failed to decipher the whole thing, then this recipe would be meaningless to me.
If this recipe was missing something, I’d have to hope it wasn’t something big or critical. Or else I’d end up with a good for nothing old piece of paper.
I wasn’t worried about the price I paid. That meant absolutely nothing to me. I was just concerned about the great benefits and chances I’d lose by this.
But I had nothing else but to wait and hope she would crack this mystery in the end.
She kept moving around before she finally stopped, closed her eyes, took a deep and long breath before saying the magical words: “I did it!”
“Really? Are you sure it’s complete?” I jumped the next moment and stood by her side.
And as I watched her nod, I heaved a deep sigh of relief, releasing all the pressure inside me that welled up all this time of wait.
“And?” I asked, urging her to speak and tell me what she got from this paper.
“This recipe… It’s so damn complicated…” yet she gave me such a deep sigh, ending up in letting me feel more nervous again.
“But it’s doable… With spending time and effort, preparing many resources first, we can do it!”
“Damn girl! You got me just now!” I punched her at the shoulder, slapping her few steps to the side.
“Damn Hye! Your hand is so damn heavy!”
“I used my weak hand,” I rolled my eyes. And this was true. I didn’t use my right hand but my left. What if I used my right?
But wait a sec, I did use my left hand, and that ended up with me pushing her like this. Did it mean I got stronger? Just from the short time of training? Damn cool!
“Tell me now, what is this recipe all about?”
“It’s about making nine potions,” she said in a serious way while touching her shoulder as if she was feeling pain. “These potions will unlock a great deal of power in any race, borrowing power from an already existing force here that we know nothing about.”
“Hmm… So it’s describing how to make these potions?”
“In great detail and also it’s not all… We need to do a virtual at the end, building some sort of an altar and let anyone use the potions over them.”
“Them?”
“You don’t think building a single altar will be enough, right?” she rolled her eyes, before adding, “we have to build as many as possible, to fasten the process. But first we have to find a way to gather up the needed resources, train alchemists to do the task in extreme precision.”
“Cool,” I nodded, “so we need alchemists, how many?”
“Alchemists are a rare breed that you won’t find easily!”
“Girl, I can get anything I want,” I said in such dominance, “just let me know how many, and I’ll try to get close to that number.”
“Then get the most you can!”
“Just give me a number! I’m seriously speaking here.”
“Ten, ten of highly trained alchemists, reaching the grade of a grandmaster or something like a hegemony at alchemy will work.”
“Ten… Ok,” I took note of that number. Of course with the presence of the Bringold impact, I could just get anything I wanted.
“What about the resources?” I asked, needing to know what exactly she wanted to ask for them.
“I’ll prepare a list,” she said in such a tiring tone, “There are a lot of resources needed. I’ll write them down to you and try to get as many as you can.”
“Cool,” I turned to the next point, “what about the place needed to do the ritual? And that altar? Any specific requirements?”
“There are indeed,” she nodded, “but leave this task over to me. Only Hector can do it.”
“I see,” I touched the recipe and took it away, “did you memorise it?”
“To the heart and soul,” she said, but her eyes showed a reluctance for missing the recipe. “Can’t I…”
“Just forget it,” I shook my head, “it stays with me. I also want you to write down everything you got from it, down to the single letter. Do you get it?”