Zhou Jing suspected this person was making things difficult for him because of Jason’s existence. This was the first time he had encountered a situation where having a hunter around was useless.
Because he knew a high-income friend, he wanted to cheat him? No, this did not make sense. He could have gone to another pharmacist to learn.
If it wasn’t personal… Maybe he wants to scare me away with a high price.
Thinking about how different Marley’s attitude had been before and after Jason appeared…
Zhou Jing rolled his eyes and suddenly understood what was going on.
Wonderful, this was the place!
“It’s a little expensive. Can it be cheaper? How about 20 silver coins?”
“No, 50 means 50.” Marley didn’t backtrack.
Zhou Jing refused to give up. After much persuasion, he finally reduced the price to 40 silver coins for 10 days. Marley agreed with a dark expression.
“So be it. Pay up and learn.” Marley glanced at Jason, who stood there with a powerful aura, and his face twitched slightly.
“Then you’ll teach me well after I pay, right? This is a huge sum of money!” Zhou Jing pretended to be hesitant and rubbed his hands together.
Marley’s expression darkened even more. “Of course!” he said unhappily.
Seeing this, Zhou Jing stopped teasing him.
Bargaining was just a characteristic of deliberately behaving according to his apostle. He actually did not care about money.
Of course, the tuition fees were still too expensive, but he did not want to waste time asking around. Since he could learn here, he would take what he could get.
Marley’s change in attitude was either because he was squeezing his apprentices dry or because he was teaching and cutting corners typically. He was squeezing others’ wallets dry and bullying outsiders who had no one to rely on. This was not a good person at all.
However, Jason’s existence served as a guarantee. If Marley did not teach him well and still charged him much money, Zhou Jing would have someone backing him!
There was no consumer protection association in this world. Only those with power and influence could protect their rights.
That was why Marley’s attitude became completely different.
A foreigner with a backer was not easy to deal with!
However, Zhou Jing felt that this place was suitable for him. Instead of finding a responsible teacher, he would rather engage in monetary trade.
He was just looking for a place to learn the basics and begin his studies. It would not take long.
In this way, the relationship between money and goods was simple. Therefore, he did not have to owe Barong a favor like he did in the past.
Moreover, he was not a good person. There was no psychological pressure for him if he went overboard.
After finalizing the agreement, Zhou Jing first paid for 10 days. Then, he rented a house nearby at a high price. After that, he returned to the apothecary and requested to start learning immediately.
He had just received the money, and with Jason’s deterrence, Marley did not dare to use a night off to push it to the next day like he usually did. He could only take out two rough books with a sullen expression. They were the Herbal Illustrated Handbook and the Basic Theory of Pharmacology, and he used these two books to start teaching.
[Learning [Herbal Knowledge] ]
[Minimum Cost for Accelerated Learning: 20 Astral Points]
[Learning [Pharmacology] ]
[Minimum Cost for Accelerated Learning: 50 Astral Points]
“Activate them all.”
Zhou Jing did not hesitate at all. He listened attentively to Marley’s explanation of the art of potion-making and entered a learning state that was even more efficient than the zone.
…
A month passed in a flash.
In front of the pharmaceutical table at the back of the pharmacy, Zhou Jing was busying himself while Marley watched from the side.
Zhou Jing skillfully handled the various herbs and used various tools to prepare the herbs into the required form. He boiled them in order, mixed them, and finally poured the formed medicine into a bottle.
The final yellow potion was like beer, even bubbling from time to time.
“Come and try.”
Zhou Jing kicked Little Black #1, who was lying by his feet and forcefully opened its mouth to pour the potion in.
“Wuwuwu—”
Little Black #1 struggled violently, but it was useless.
After the potion entered its mouth, the originally sickly Little Black #1 suddenly became full of energy. It suddenly became very lively, and the room was filled with joy.
It had been Zhou Jing’s main test subject in the past month. It had drunk countless potions, and his previous injuries had long recovered. The main problem now was its endocrine imbalance.
Zhou Jing did not have high expectations of it. It was fine as long as it was alive. He had been focused on studying pharmacology and did not have the time to tame beasts for the time being.
Coincidentally, he realized that the cultivation progress of this Black Spotted Hyena, which had drunk a lot of potions, had increased.
After physically taming a beast, he had now developed the drug-taking method to cultivate the beast… Although it was unorthodox, it was really useful.
“Looks like the energy potion is quite effective this time.”
Zhou Jing observed the experimental subject and revealed a satisfied smile.
Beside him, the corners of Marley’s mouth twitched, and his expression conflicted.
How did this guy… learn so quickly?
Under normal circumstances, he would hold back when teaching his apprentices and teach them perfunctorily. However, because of Jason, Marley did not plan to try and trick him too much this time.
However, it was not a problem to dawdle. Marley deliberately slowed down the teaching progress, planning to let Zhou Jing spend more money.
Even if he couldn’t cheat others, the tuition fees that he deliberately raised this time were still very good. Marley didn’t expect him to really be willing to pay. In that case, he would fleece him as much as he could.
However, he did not expect this guy to learn so quickly. His progress was even increasing day by day!
It took Marley three months to learn the basics to make his first effective potion… but this foreigner named Bill only took 20 days to achieve the same results.
And in another 10 days, he could already make a potion with a quality comparable to his.
Looking at the remaining high-efficiency medicine in the pot, Marley’s stomach was filled with regret.
If he had known that this person would learn so quickly, he would have increased the price by a few times. He had lost out!
Fortunately… he only taught this person two potion formulas. They were also the most commonly known healing potion and energy potions. He did not teach him anything else.
At this moment, Zhou Jing turned to look at Marley and asked with a smile, “How’s my potion this time? Can I learn the new formula yet?”
Marley came back to his senses and coughed. “Not bad. You’re improving quickly. It’s all because I taught you well, but you still have to practice more. Learning a new formula is too early for you.”
With that, Marley was afraid that Zhou Jing would continue asking, so he quickly walked out of the room with a long face.
Zhou Jing looked at his back and curled his lips playfully.
He had long sensed that this person was dawdling. However, in the face of Accelerated Learning, as long as he stepped past the threshold of learning, he could master everything at lightning speed.
Furthermore, pharmacology was not like those abilities that required physical training. Most of them required brain work, and the proficiency increased very quickly. With the addition of his own talent and aptitude, his learning efficiency was simply akin to flying.
In just a month, [Herbal Knowledge] and [Pharmacology] had both reached Lv4 (Proficient), which was not inferior to Marley.
This person was just an ordinary pharmacist, who took the crooked path to cheat outsiders, so his level was naturally not too high.
In a month, Marley had only taught him these two potion formulas. He guarded the other formulas that he knew, like guarding against thieves. Obviously, he wanted to earn more money from him in this way.
Of course, it was also possible that he was afraid that his disciple would starve himself to death if he passed on all his skills. Not every industry had the tradition of beast hunters enthusiastically educating newcomers.
“Practice more? In your dreams.”
Zhou Jing secretly curled his lips.
If it was truly a normal method of teaching, he would have paid the tuition fees readily. However, it was obvious that this guy was scamming others. He did not want to continue being a fool. He might as well save time and money.
“There’s nothing else Marley can teach me except the formulas… Looks like I’m going to have to do some barbaric, primitive accumulation.”
Zhou Jing stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Speaking of which, as a greedy apostle, he should not have handed over the money obediently.
It was indeed a synchronization without any difficulty… The system was really good at judging people!