The Lone Wanderer

Percy felt much better come morning, even though he didn’t get as much sleep as he would’ve liked. His headache hadn’t subsided completely just yet: he’d likely have to put everything he’d learned on Felmara into practice before he could knock the last kinks off. That said, he’d improved enough to resume working.

Before diving back into alchemy, he did spend some time sending out a new clone though. Taking advantage of his bloodline was always among his highest priorities.

He hadn’t sent the new guy out empty-handed either, equipping him with one of his spatial seals. Not the original: only a quarter, since he didn’t want to risk losing the whole thing if something went wrong. The storage space was only about two-and-a-half metres across, but that would probably be enough to bring back anything important.

Percy also confirmed that he could seamlessly transfer objects from one seal to another: as long as both seals resided within the same soul. This meant he could freely allocate whatever resources he wanted to his clones before deploying them, without having to take his stuff out of the internal storage.

But there was one thing he hadn’t tested yet.

He didn’t know what would happen if he tried to split the seal when it was already full. Would the smaller seals break due to being unable to contain the objects? Or would the shrinking space crush its contents?

‘Nah, Metatron wouldn’t have made such a rookie mistake…’

More likely, either the seal would refuse to split until it was emptied, or it would automatically eject the excess objects to make space. Either way, Percy planned to be careful with it, unwilling to damage the precious artifact out of carelessness.

Regardless, he hadn’t kept in touch with the clone. It didn’t seem like the clone had travelled far, so Percy could have probably kept Soul Resonance active if he’d wanted. But he didn’t have time for that, opting to focus on alchemy instead.

The sky was already dark by the time he exhausted the recent batch of deattunement ingredients. He had yet to brew any Aurora Dew, but that was not to say that he hadn’t made progress. In fact, he’d almost succeeded with one of the reagents, giving him a few ideas on what to try next, and on how he could further optimize the second deattunement. All in all, Percy felt confident he’d get the recipe down within the next couple of batches!

Alas, something else took precedence.

Leaving the inn, Percy did something he would have preferred to avoid. He walked to the neighbouring 116th district: a black one: finding Nesha and Elaine sitting together at a bar. This was their private meeting spot, which he wasn’t supposed to ever visit.

Suffice to say, the girls flashed him questioning looks. After all, using separate meeting spots had been his idea in the first place.

Gesturing at them to follow him, he told them about his meeting with Clarity, explaining the need to move to a different district. He still didn’t think the woman had recognized him. Even if she had, she hadn’t given him any indication that she meant him any harm.

Not that a brief meeting like that was enough to get a feel for one’s character, but Percy had a few additional reasons not to suspect her. To start, she hadn’t really needed to trick him. Without his armour or his companions, Percy would have been hard-pressed to hold his own against a Green. Certainly not without raising a commotion and drawing unnecessary attention to himself. The fact that a full day had passed without anyone knocking on his door further corroborated that the woman hadn’t snitched on him.

Regardless, the trio still chose to err on the side of caution. Packing their stuff, they abandoned the 115th district, moving all the way to the 11th. It was another white one, located at the other end of the city. Walking there took them a couple hours, and they’d even made sure to split up this time, unlike before, to avoid being spotted together by half the city.

Sadly, the inns there were significantly worse than the ones they’d left behind. They weren’t any cheaper, but their rooms were much smaller. Even the enchantments were in poor condition. Percy didn’t know about the others, but the heating runes in his bathroom barely worked, forcing him to take a shower in lukewarm water.

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If the steep decline in their living standards wasn’t enough, the girls would now have to walk a lot farther every day, to reach all the places they needed to get to, making the whole situation even more inconvenient.

‘Oh well… Better safe than sorry…’

Strictly speaking, the safest option would have been to abandon the city completely. But that was tantamount to leaving Micky in the Holy Child’s mercy. Something that none of them was willing to consider.

Besides, even if they ignored the crow’s safety, it wasn’t like they had much of a choice. They all understood there was an invisible sword hanging over their heads, about to fall at any moment. Reaching the next grade a decade sooner was something they needed to do, regardless. In fact, not entering the Thirsty Valley was arguably riskier than staying in the city.

‘At least, it’s not all bad.’

Everything considered, there was one upside to living in the 11th district. It was located along the northernmost edge of the city, bordering the Valley directly. It would make it easier for them to investigate the Valley’s perimeter from here, allowing them to better prepare to infiltrate it. They’d also be able to ask the residents of the nearby districts questions about the Valley, without it coming off as too strange. After all, it was only reasonable to be curious about a place that was just around the corner.

Beyond that, Percy also got a chance to talk to Nesha about his recent gains. Hearing about the restructuring principle, she exhaled in relief, explaining that this would make her job easier. They weren’t going to abandon the healing potions entirely but, according to her, they’d earn money faster by selling both products.

They would be targeting two entirely different markets. The healing potions would be aimed at poor families with low-born children, who wanted to have a few doses at home, in case of an emergency. Percy’s lower price point would only make them more enticing.

As for the healing tattoos, they were a more premium product, aimed at richer folk: or those who got in trouble often. For them, money wasn’t necessarily an object. They’d be more likely to splurge, to get their hands on all the advantages the tattoos provided them with.

On top of that, Nesha suggested that he got some practice brewing magic potions if he had the time. There was a lot of demand for those, thanks to the city’s water manifestation companies. Percy wasn’t opposed to the idea, since learning to brew a simple potion like that was relatively trivial for him: compared to all his other ventures, at least.

This way, they’d be selling three products at once, maximizing their revenue.

Admittedly, the thought of selling trollsfury potions did cross his mind, though he quickly shot the idea down. Naturally, he’d brew some for his own use, but most people on Remior didn’t fight with their bodies. A physical enhancement riddled with drawbacks wouldn’t be very popular.

“Any leads on potential partners yet?” he asked, leaning on a wall by Nesha’s side.

“A couple.” she nodded, lowering her voice. “Most notably, the Radiant Lord of the 44th district seems like a good candidate.”

“Why him?”

When it came to this sort of stuff, Percy trusted her way more than he trusted himself. Still, he was curious.

“Many reasons.” she shrugged. “He’s involved in the city’s food industry, so he shouldn’t have much trouble getting us the spoilt meat you need for your mushrooms. He’s involved in the alchemy market too. Not as much as others, but he should be able to get us some secondary ingredients. Even better, he’s got a reputation for treating his partners fairly. Unlike the other managers, he hasn’t stabbed anyone in the back, as far as I can tell.”

“Good.” Percy nodded, liking what he was hearing. “How safe is it though?”

Nesha grinned.

“That’s the best part! This guy hates the Order with a passion. Apparently, his sister was a Green-born. His parents tried to hide her from the gods, only to end up executed. Even if he somehow learned who we are, I bet he wouldn’t snitch on us. And if that wasn’t enough, I’ve heard rumours that he got injured by a mind mage a few centuries ago. Supposedly, he hasn’t been able to deploy his domain since!”

Percy raised an eyebrow. A domain was a Blue’s sharpest weapon. Not to mention, the most debilitating one when used against the lower grades. Without it, the man would still be a tough opponent, but not necessarily an insurmountable one. Should he betray them, it might be possible for him and Elaine to take him out with a well-prepared trap.

Once again, Nesha had outdone herself. There was always the chance that something would go wrong, of course, much like what had happened in the Guild. Still, Percy knew he couldn’t have done better than this.

“How long do you need to set everything up?” he asked.

“Depends. When will you need the supplies? I can move as quickly as we want. Just keep in mind that the slower I move, the safer it’ll be.”

“The recipe will be complete in a couple of days. We’ll resume drinking the… you-know-what. But we can manage that much by ourselves.”

The handful of ingredients Elaine brought him were more than enough to cover their daily needs. It was only for the bulk purchases that they’d need help from the Radiant Lord.

“What about mass-production?” she asked again.

“I’ll need another month: give or take. Ideally, I’d like to plant the mushrooms sooner though.”

Getting them to grow on Baldy’s clones had been near instant. Explosively so, in fact. But they had Violet bodies, swimming in life mana of the same grade. Percy had no idea how much slower it would be when he planted them on some mundane meat.

“Alright. I’ll make my move by the end of the week.”