The second floor of the manor consisted of four luxurious bedrooms. The trio had taken one each for themselves, and the fourth one was converted by Adam into his very own temporary lab.
On this day, while the others were still asleep, Adam was relentlessly trying to brew a potion in the lab. He'd been up for two hours and had been trying very hard to succeed at this new potion recipe.
The potion he was brewing was called Potion of Aqua Breathing!
Since Adam was by the seaside, he thought he might as well try his hand at this potion recipe that he had acquired from the first memory. As the name indicated, the potion allowed one to breathe underwater for a limited time.
But he didn't think brewing it would turn out to be so difficult. Fortunately, he had all the ingredients required to brew it.
Adam carefully crushed the Illy Fish's lungs in a marble mortar with a pestle. After gathering the lung extract, he poured it into the cauldron beside him. When the extract came in contact with the white liquid already inside the cauldron, it began to change color.
So far so good! Adam's eyes shone with hope. This was the furthest he had progressed today. He carefully grabbed a metal ladle and gently swirled the liquid inside the cauldron. At the same time, he continued to release his mana into the liquid through the ladle.
After a few minutes, the liquid in the cauldron began to shimmer with a silvery glow and finally, it started transforming into a bright blue liquid. Seeing this, Adam was incomparably excited. Almost there!
But right on the verge of success, the liquid suddenly turned a murky green and began releasing a pungent aroma. Witnessing yet another failure, Adam was momentarily stunned.
Then, his shoulders slouched and he shook his head in disappointment. He lifted the ladle and threw it at the wall in a fit of anger.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Damn it!" He spat through gritted teeth.
Adam walked to the wooden rocking chair by the window and silently sat down. The sun was about to rise on the horizon, the sky had already been dyed a bright orange. The youth looked at the bright sky, his fists clenching and unclenching repeatedly.
In the end, he sighed and slowly slumped in the chair. So what if I managed to acquire the white lotus? So what if I absorbed the memories of that powerhouse? Without hard work, all of it means nothing in the end.
Although he tried to encourage himself in his mind, he still felt shitty about failing so many times. But more than that, he felt extremely bad about having wasted those precious magical ingredients.
"Hah… it can't be helped." He cheered himself up and grabbed the wine gourd that was placed on the window ledge.
Adam popped open the cork and downed a large mouthful of wine in one go. "Puahh!"
His cheeks flushed a little as he savored the taste of the wine that he'd brewed himself. He took another swig from the bottle, placed his legs on the window ledge, and enjoyed the view of the sunrise.
At the same time, he started reviewing his last brewing failure and tried to understand what exactly went wrong and how he could fix those mistakes.
"Drinking so early in the morning? You really are a lost cause." A displeased voice entered Adam's ear, causing him to stop in his actions.
He turned his head towards the entrance of the room and lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh? It's you, Lisa. How come you're up so early?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Lisa entered the room and looked at Adam's messy temporary lab. She looked at the discarded ingredients and the other apparatuses on the table, and then at the pile of mushy substance at the corner of the room.
When her gaze landed on that gooey pile, her eyebrows furrowed into a tight knot. "So that's where the stench was coming from."
"Hmm?" Adam followed her gaze and his lips twitched. "Ah, I didn't think about that. Haha, my bad!"
He had completely overlooked the fact that his failed product would wake his teammates up. Most likely, everyone in the manor would have been woken up by the foul stench.
Adam got to his feet and walked toward the corner of the room. He took out a crystal vial from his Holding Pouch and poured its contents on the gooey pile.
The pile began to dissolve at a fast rate as it came in contact with the liquid. And soon, it had completely evaporated! Even the stench that was pervading the room had begun to slowly dissipate.
Adam turned around at looked at Lisa with a bright smile. "There, done!"
Lisa rolled her eyes and then turned around and exited the room. "Let's go down. Breakfast should be ready soon."
…
The trio left the manor after having breakfast. Although it was still early in the morning, the city was bustling as if it were peak hours. In hindsight, this made sense as Hannes City was a port city.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Under Adam's lead, the trio made their way to the Bazaar District, the most happening place in the city. Unlike other districts, the Bazaar District consisted of just one long and broad street that stretched from the west end of the city all the way to the east end.
As the trio walked toward the Bazaar District, Edward asked in confusion, "Weren't we going to investigate for our mission? Why are we going to the bazaar?"
Suddenly he thought of something and looked at Adam with suspicion. "Don't tell me! You drunkard, you're planning to buy wine, aren't you?"
Hannes City was a major exporter of wine, perfume, and pottery. The wine it produced was famous even across the Misty Sea, in the Nahua Continent. So it was natural for Edward to assume why Adam had brought them here. He knew how much his roommate liked wine.
Adam put on a straight face and spoke in disappointment, "Edward, do you think so little of me? Of course, we've come here to investigate. Do you think we'd be able to get information if we went to the city guards or merchants? How do you think they'd treat outsiders like us?"
Listening to Adam's explanation, Edward fell into deep thought. He began rubbing his chubby chin in contemplation as the suspicion in his eyes gradually vanished. He thought that it made sense.
Adam continued, "That's why our best bet to gather intel would be at taverns where every Tom, Dick, and Harry gather! The majority of the taverns are in the Bazaar District. Hmph, you never thought about that, did ya?"
Listening to Adam's tone like he were some pure saint, Edward's eyebrows twitched. In the end, he nodded. "You're right, I didn't think about that. Let's do as you say."
Adam nodded his head and made an expression as if he were satisfied with Edward's reply. "Good! I knew you'd come around. Now, let's go to one of these famous taverns!"
"Alright!" Edward was very excited as this was the beginning of their first mission.
Seeing Edward follow after Adam enthusiastically, Lisa looked at him and facepalmed. You dummy! You think taverns don't serve wine?
