Chapter 122: The Potion-Guzzling Build

After leaving the Discipline Office, Andy and Fura did not part ways. They shared a common destination: the Royal Capital’s Law Enforcement Bureau, where they needed to negotiate for the release of Stein’s remains.

While Andy was relatively unfamiliar with the capital, Fura was quite adept at navigating such matters. She quickly located the official in charge, explained their situation, and was courteously invited inside.

Stein’s body was in a gruesome state. They had to hire a professional mortician to suture, reconstruct, and apply cosmetics to the corpse before it could be placed in a coffin for burial. Furthermore, given the lessons learned in Dallas City, Andy could not simply bury Stein anywhere; they needed to secure a plot in one of the capital's cemeteries.

These specialized cemeteries in the capital were guarded by professional tomb keepers, primarily to prevent grave robbing or other forms of desecration. Most of these keepers were practitioners themselves. Naturally, the cost of such burial grounds was exorbitant—several times the price of local housing. With Jarvis still at large, the nobles and merchants of the capital felt threatened, driving the price of burial plots up by hundreds of magic stones in a single day.

Andy insisted on paying for the mortician, which slightly improved Fura’s perception of him. However, when it came time to purchase the burial plot, Andy paid thousands of magic stones without even blinking, leaving Fura truly impressed. She still remembered her early days at Grimm Academy, when she had to stretch a single magic stone to cover the cost of two. If it weren't for those incredibly difficult times, she would not have turned into the person she was today.

As far as she knew, Stein had spent a fortune trying to suppress his injuries and had been unable to provide Andy with any financial or resource support when he moved to the capital, which was why he had written to her to ask for assistance. It seemed, then, that Andy had earned all these magic stones on his own. Fura speculated that Andy must possess a specialized skill, much like his mentor. If that were the case, even with his poor natural talent, he might actually have a chance to emulate Stein and achieve the rank of Bronze Wizard.

After Stein was laid to rest, Fura, now viewing Andy in a more favorable light, began to converse with him on the way back to the academy. Having seen Fura weep for Stein at the Discipline Office, Andy was no longer so repulsed by her. As she shared more stories of Stein’s past, Andy listened patiently. Naturally, their conversation revolved around Stein—Fura spoke of his time at the academy, and Andy recounted Stein’s later years in Dallas City and his apprentices. Naturally, Andy kept the details of the conflict with the Colin family to himself. Fura also touched upon Stein’s growth at Grimm Academy, though she pointedly avoided mentioning the nature of their past relationship.

Through Fura’s accounts, Andy gained a deeper understanding of his "convenient" mentor. In truth, having transmigrated, Andy had not inherited the original soul's emotional attachments, allowing him to view matters concerning Stein with relative detachment. Yet, while he lacked the personal sentiment, he remembered the debt of gratitude. It was Stein who had provided the "Nobeisu Potion" that allowed Andy to repair the mental trauma from his transmigration and embark on his path of sorcery. Moreover, Stein had recommended him to Grimm Academy, opening his eyes to a much broader world of magic.

Contemplating Stein’s tragic end, Andy resolved to kill the bastard who had desecrated his body: Jarvis. Of course, there were many who wanted Jarvis dead, but he seemed to have vanished into thin air, evading every search by the Discipline Office and the Royal Capital’s Law Enforcement Bureau.

Andy was not overly worried about finding Jarvis; he still had the Magic Mirror at his disposal. He only hoped the cost of tracking the man wouldn't be too absurd. Recalling Dana’s description, Andy realized that Jarvis had been among those who participated in the assassination attempt on Peter. The chain of corpse explosions at the start of the battle had been his handiwork. Furthermore, the wanted poster mentioned that Jarvis possessed several Bronze-level corpse puppets.

Andy silently compared his strength against Jarvis’s. He felt he had a fighting chance if he remained a kilometer away, but if he were pulled into close quarters, he would likely be finished. Had Andy known that Jarvis possessed a spell like the "Corpse Puppet Substitute," he might not have been so optimistic. Still, Andy realized the inadequacy of his own strength. If he were a Bronze Wizard, he was confident he could crush Jarvis in minutes with his infinite firepower and Level 3 spells.

Unfortunately, with his current Third-Grade spiritual talent, it would take decades of disciplined meditation to reach the spiritual standards of a Bronze Wizard—by which time, the opportunity would have long since passed. Andy had realized this early on and had even tried purchasing clarity potions to assist his meditation with some success. However, after hearing Fura describe Stein’s training process, Andy realized his own efforts were merely child’s play compared to his mentor.

Fura explained that because Stein had achieved excellence in potion-making, he had rarely lacked magic stones. Furthermore, he could buy raw materials and refine his own potions, saving a significant portion of the costs.

For every meditation session, Stein had used more than three different types of potions. Because the body builds a tolerance to repeated use of the same substance, causing the effectiveness to diminish, Stein had cycled through hundreds of different potions before finally reaching the spiritual threshold of a Bronze Wizard.

Andy, who had initially thought he might emulate such a method, was rendered speechless when Fura calculated the cost: Stein had consumed nearly a million magic stones worth of potions—a level of resource consumption sufficient to raise a dozen Second-Grade apprentices to the rank of Bronze Wizard.

Andy, who had felt like a bit of a "whale" after earning a little money, felt utterly deflated. It seemed his path to wealth was a long and arduous one, and selling secret manuals at a street stall would never sustain a "potion-spamming" cultivation style. He would need to find other ways.

Before they parted, Fura offered some advice, telling him that in addition to using potions to boost meditation efficiency, he could rent the academy’s "Astral Meditation Chamber." It could simulate an astral environment and significantly enhance progress. However, the chamber could not be rented with magic stones; it required "Contribution Points."

Andy thanked Fura and said goodbye. Her tone at the end left him baffled; she had enunciated the term "Contribution Points" with such heavy emphasis that it felt as if she were trying to highlight something specific, though Andy remained clueless as to what.

When Andy returned to his quarters, he saw Catherine propped up against a pillow, clutching a potion bottle with her small paws and drinking something. Andy asked out of curiosity, and Catherine replied, "It's a good treasure I snatched today! It tastes delicious; do you want a taste, Andy?" She held the bottle out toward him with both paws.

As Andy took the bottle and brought it closer, he felt a surge of rich, concentrated life force.