Travel always seems to begin between anticipation and unease, and before you are prepared, you find yourself amidst it.
The Tower Clan has a saying, "The hardships of travel can obliterate all ambitions." This tribe, fond of wandering and known for producing rchants and adventurers, has deep insights into travel.
In the blink of an eye, Brand and his team had been in the Black Forest for a week already —
Although Kulan had suggested that Brand camp on the outskirts of the forest and set off after one night; Brand thought they had no ti to waste, and besides, he had more experience with the Black Forest than Kulan, making it unnecessary to waste ti.
The depths of the Black Forest looked like layers of jade-colored clouds, densely layered above supported by the distant and near black tree trunks.
Light filtered through the gaps between the clouds, dyeing everything new green, while the shadowed areas were almost ink black. Beams of light pierced through the darkness, dust drifting up and down within the light, with light spots falling on the gnarled tree roots —
Beneath the tree roots, the erald green ponds in the forest remained still, occasionally disturbed by a water spider skimming across, creating ripples.
The interplay of light and dark sketched a serene yet fantastical scene, but it was already nearing evening. Brand held a notebook, recording various things in it with glowing ink:
Black Mage, Moonlight, Four-leaf Clover, Witch's Bitterness...
In the secret language of witches, Black Mage symbolizes mystery, used to extract a ditative state. With 3rd level alchemy, one could obtain the Breath of Calm, which is the main ingredient in ditation Incense.
ditation Incense is a sought-after item in the Amber Sword, enhancing the cultivation of Mysterious professions, making it easier to perceive the mysterious existences in the misty surroundings of a quiet room.
This is especially evident in Spirit Summoning Spells.
In-ga, it translates to a 5% increase in experience gain rate.
With 7th level alchemy, one could extract the lowest level of 2nd level materials in the Amber Sword, a product called Mysterious Essence. This can be consud directly to increase one's bloodline by one point but is effective only once.
Moonlight is the Mage's Flower, nurturing mana, and can be chewed directly to restore about 1 point of mana. However, through 5th level alchemy extraction, one can obtain pure Magic Water — adding a bottle equals a Basic Mana Potion.
Four-leaf Clover represents luck, rare in the wild, but not uncommon in the Black Forest. This plant can be used in almost all potion making to increase the success rate.
However, Brand knew a unique thod that, with 8th level alchemy, could extract the essence of luck from it. That essence could be used in all alchemy, even including forging and array making.
Witch's Bitterness is probably a material for so kind of poison, nad Suffering Poison. This pungent poison is deed lowly and worthless by the nobles, adept at intrigues.
However, this is not its true usage. Cultists use it as a dual elent of 'suffering and poison' to summon beings from the Lower World.
Burning Hell Demon's Lord of Suffering, or the Evil Queen.
Witch's Bitterness is strictly forbidden to be carried according to the regulations of the Fla Temple. But these regulations can't stop those who truly know the plant's value — Black Fire Sect followers, Sheep-headed Sect followers, who gladly resort to high prices or murder to seize it.
Of course, Brand was not afraid, so he tucked it away.
These items were the harvest of the forty young n under his command over the past week. In fact, the first three days after entering the Black Forest, these lads found nothing and complained incessantly. But Brand certainly did not bring them here for a picnic — anyone who slackened or shirked their duties would be harshly driven forward by rcenaries with whips.
Every dawn, the young n were awakened by the rcenaries — so of them tossed and turned, unable to sleep in the damp and cold forest environnt, possibly just falling asleep. But the training schedule did not care about that; even if dragging their weary bodies, they had to complete the daily 'howork'.
The training content was not complicated, aside from the necessary travel, there were group confrontations, along with so swordsmanship and fighting skills.
Then, before camping every evening, they had to collect materials for Tama — of course, under the guise of cooperation and survival training, which was also an important part.
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