“Eren, you don’t look surprised after seeing that rapid regeneration.”
Almera couldn’t help but ask the butcher this question because of the lack of enthusiasm on his face. Eren already had his answer ready:
“My aunt Nina had told me about the heretic path of cultists before. So even though it’s my first time seeing something like this, I’m not that shocked. More importantly, should we save the girl? Even with her rapid regeneration, she is going to die if healing potions are not administered on time.”
The terrorist who terrorized his victim now had started caring about her. Almera wanted to point out the complete his complete flip but was overshadowed by Marla’s next words:
“You are right, Eren. Without a healing potion or spell, she isn’t going to make it. For now, let’s save her and see if she could be of any use. Here, take these vials and use them on her. Meanwhile, I’ll tie up the E-Ranker. Ken and Almera, you do the same for those two young lads.”
Marla handed a couple of vials to Eren before issuing her next set of orders. Her team members obliged and got to work. Soon the four cultists with their 13 limbs were safely secured. Marla had used rune-engraved chains to tie these menaces to a large tree.
“By the way, Eren, you didn’t answer my question. Where did you get these potion bombs?”
Marla asked with curiosity. The potion bombs were technically not readily available for purchase and sale. So their distribution and use was a rare event. A LA student with a mediocre background getting their hands on such an item was surprising.
“Oh, the potion bomb! But it’s…”
“Fret not, Eren. Let’s just say I want these products too for research purposes.”
Marla gave a meaningful smile to the butcher at which he replied with a cunning grin of his own before answering:
“Oh. Yes, research. I also got these for research purposes. I’m certainly not maintaining a good stock of them. If you also want to research them, I can give them some for you from my stock at the same price I bought them.
My roommate Jake’s father maintains a limited supply of them so that he can give these items to various researchers. He runs a small shop in the city of Lionhearts. You can directly get things from him if you want to do more thorough research. Here, I’ll send you the shop’s details.”
Eren sent Marla’s Jack’s shop details through his spectral screen. He knew the potion bombs would create a buzz sooner or later. What he was doing now was just some early publicity.
Even the normal rankers had to agree with some of the cultists’ belief that the kingdom’s restrictions were too overbearing sometimes. They wouldn’t outrightly come in the support of these cultists by saying these things openly. But they agreed with these points nonetheless.
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This was the reason Nina couldn’t teach Eren ranked technique even when he was perfectly capable to learn from her. The kingdom’s restrictions prevented them from entering a proper student disciple relationship. All she could teach him were some basics of potion-making along with the concoctions of some elementary potions.
Anything related to magic was extremely expensive to learn no matter which kingdom one lived in. Plus, only high-ranked entities were allowed to pass a few things to their family members privately after taking the kingdom’s permission. Rankless mortals didn’t have such easy access to ranking techniques, spells, and anything that described anything about magic.
And exorbitant money or someone high-ranked in your family could only give you access to an introduction. Anything beyond that was a well-guarded knowledge that only the elite members of a kingdom-sanctioned organization could have access to.
Nina could have covered the real basics of ranking-related potion-making herself without having to send Eren off to LA. But the Edinburgh kingdom, like most other governments, had placed a few written and unwritten rules about teaching magic.
Only a licensed ranker appointed or approved by the kingdom had the right to teach magic to their students, apprentices, and disciples. The process to get such a license wasn’t easy of course. And one had to serve the kingdom for a substantial period to get issued the said license.
What’s more, learning introduction to magic and ranking journeys was expensive in the kingdom when bought through legal channels only because it would discourage a large populace from ever taking steps in their ranking journey. A significant number of poor people stayed rankless their whole lives without ever knowing whether they were good rankers or not.
For example, the rankless Edinburgh Standard Technique that Eren was practising was easily available through legal channels yet was extremely expensive at the same time. Most normal rankless people could not hope to buy it with ease.
On one hand, these rules and restrictions were put in place to prevent or limit criminal-minded rankers from causing mass destruction with magic. On the other hand, they helped the kingdoms in employing the rankers in their fold.
Therefore, teaching about ranking journeys even to your family members without the kingdom-approved license or paying the handsome charge was considered a huge taboo. No Sane ranker would do that. Only cultists indulged in this form of knowledge exchange.
Even if Nina could secretly teach things about potioneering to Eren, the fact that the latter obtained the knowledge through a non-official channel would ruin his prospects. That’s why Eren had to join LA, which would serve as his legal source of knowing about his ranking techniques and spells.
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Eren saved Agatha’s life by making her drink the healing potions he had been given by Marla. This little feisty cultist was saved thanks to the Adapt ranker’s generosity. If it was left to Eren, the scrooge would have let her die than wasting potions on her.
The butcher emptied the second vial on Agatha’s naked body to stabilize her condition. The girl quickly started recovering after the potions worked on dual fronts, from inside and outside.
It took a few minutes for Agatha to look normal again. She was naked of course as all her clothes were long burnt away. He was about to touch the girl to make her awake but was interrupted by Almera’s voice:
“Hey, Eren. I think I can take it up from here. Why don’t you help Ken with his work?”
‘Oh! She thinks I’m interested in this lass’s body. I’m not. But should I play around with her? Hehe!’
“Oh… but… but I want to finish the work I’ve been given by my Master Marla first. I can’t let things remain half-finished. Certainly not this.”
Eren talked in a daydreaming voice. His eyes were staring at Agatha’s body and his face carried the look of fascination.