After presenting himself to the cashier to pay for his chosen pills, Lothur came across a small group of young people watching him intently.
There were boys and girls there, all about Elke's age, that is, close to adulthood in this cultivation world.
Each of them had their eyes focused on him. At the same time, some murmured among themselves, surprised to see this talented fellow shopping in this place.
That was a great store, but usually, prodigies like Lothur had people to do this kind of shopping for them, or they did not even need to buy anything. Often young talents like him would get resources equal to or better than what he had on hand from allies, family, or friends.
So for some young people who did not know much about Lothur, seeing him make purchases was somewhat unexpected, especially considering that talented people had their own arrogance.
But he was also famous, hated by many, feared by young people, and adored by the more superficial girls who only saw his refined appearance.
So there was no way those low-level young nobles did not watch Lothur as if he were a celebrity.
"Look at that. He's going to pay 200,000 silver coins for two pills!" One young man muttered to his friend.
"The way he spends is on another level..." A black-haired young man said while making an ugly expression. "But it's not for nothing that he is so talented. Spending like that, anyone can get there."
"Hmm, he's fortunate."
Pills, potions, or any resources capable of permanently improving a cultivator's powers were not 100% guaranteed. That is, they could affect the power of the one ingesting them by limited fractions, but that was only a chance of what could happen. But there were no guarantees!
For example, the two pills that Lothur was paying for right now could affect his attributes by 10% to 20%. But that was only if the pills affected him!
It could happen that a cultivator would take a pill with the same effects as those in Lothur's hands, and nothing would happen. That was as if his body would reject it or the absorption of the medicinal power would fail.
That, too, was connected to the purity of the pill. That is, a pill with 10% purity had a high chance of not affecting the body of the person who ingested it. On the other hand, a resource with 100% purity was certain to affect the given cultivator within its limits.
So the comments of those young men were somewhat unfair to Lothur, and one of the fans of that fellow there could not help but defend him.
"Humph!"
"As if pills could make people stronger whenever used..." A young woman with blond hair, 1.5 meters tall, said this while looking with disgust at those two. "If it were that simple, people Viktoria's age and her resources would already be at the 3rd stage."
The two realized their judgment error due to their resentment because Lothur was so much better than them and bowed their heads in shame.
Another person then said. "But that's not much for him. I heard that the winners of the Province Conference took 100,000 silver coins for each profession they won the 1st place..."
"Lothur came first in 3 different professions." Someone commented in the surrounding area.
On the other hand, some women were paying attention to how Lothur was with Elke, not with Viktoria or even Annaliese, who was part of his wife's family.
"What is he doing with Young Miss Becker?" A young brunette asked in doubt, not understanding the relationship between those two.
"They seem a bit intimate.... Look at the way she looks at him."
Meanwhile, Lothur had already paid for the two pills, and one of the store employees was finishing removing the formations from the vials containing those precise resources.
"Do you think spending that much on pills is a good idea?" Elke asked as she considered the matter further, remembering that the Frost family did not fund Lothur.
It was customary for a noble family to invest in resources as he did. But for a family, it was no big deal to spend those amounts and run the risk of the resources not being effective, as could and did happen in many cases.
But Lothur had a very limited portfolio, so investing in something that was not 100% guaranteed had high risks for him. Thus, this red-headed woman could not help but worry for him as she thought more about it.
He chuckled at her but said nothing.
The same was valid for poisons. Not every poison or poisonous training would have the expected effect. There were chances that such substances would fail.
But even when the efficiency of the poisons he used was less than 15%, Lothur had experienced the effects of those resources he had obtained from plundering.
Because of this, he had concluded that the system helped him whenever his body absorbed some substance, resulting in the resources always generating the expected effects in his body.
So he was comfortable making the present investment, not worrying a bit about the remote possibility of failure!
'Tomorrow, Viktoria will take me to the Frost family treasury. Then I will probably get something else of relevance...' He considered this in silence, already planning to ingest at that place the pill in which he would go through hibernation.
If he were unprotected for a few hours, he would do it in the most protected place possible!
"Don't worry, Elke. I'll be fine." He commented with a smile on his lips when he finally received those vials and decided to leave from there.
"Sigh..."
"I hope so." She commented as she walked him to the exit of that place, trying to ignore the comments of the people in the surrounding area. "Anyway, are we going to the Alchemy Guild now?"
"Yes, I'm curious to learn about that place and that profession," Lothur said, already putting in his plans to mix his professions to achieve the best possible result.
'I will use my medicine, alchemy, and poison art to help my women elevate their characteristics...' He pondered as he walked beside Elke, feeling that he already had a good grasp on his poison art to use on these people.
But he wanted to finish learning the basics of medicine and becoming a 1-star alchemist before he tried anything.
Improving at something was not always good. Sometimes raising one characteristic without considering others could create a problem that would be difficult to solve in a second moment.
For example, having a Strength higher than Constitution would be a high risk to the cultivator's life since they could get hurt by their own powers.
Making the Strength higher than the Constitution was impossible to do naturally. But with the help of external items, a person could achieve this problem!
That was also true for many other characteristics that went beyond attributes, so Lothur wanted to have more knowledge before he tried to manipulate the physical conditions of his women.
...