Whispering Poems

Chapter 3207 "Potion Merchant"

Mr. Mortis did not deny Shade's guess:

"That guy is missing, someone has to go look for him. Although I have sold a lot of information, I will only tell you the most detailed information for a high-level warlock like you.

I can tell you anything you want to know. If you can really find him, he, as a famous local potion merchant, will definitely give you a generous reward, and I can also give you an additional reward."

So Xia De suddenly changed from being an "information buyer" to "accepting a commission to find someone", but since this matter was related to the so-called "magic sword", and he should have taken on more tasks to experience the local ring magician ecology when he first arrived in a new city, so he did not refuse:
"I am indeed a high-level sorcerer, but I must warn you in advance that the price of hiring me is very high."

Mr. Mortis pushed the box containing two [Lucky Coins] to Shade:
"I heard that you have a long-term commission to purchase coin-type relics in the Clock Tower? These two coins you want to buy happen to be mine. In addition, I can also get you two other types of relic coins from other places.

If you can find my friend, the extra two coins will be a reward."

Xia De then held the box in his hand:
"No problem, but I have to emphasize again that I am really expensive."

Mr. Mortis did not tell Shad the name of the missing Central Ring potion merchant, but only said that local ring warlocks generally called him "potion merchant", which was simple, straightforward and highly specific.

The other person was a thin man who looked to be in his forties. He loved to smoke cigarettes that he rolled himself, so he had a strong smell of cigarettes on him.

Mr. Mortis provided Shade with information about the "potion merchants" whose activities were spread all over the island, and some were even on the other side of the island far away from the Wheel of Time. Because Shade admitted that he was a high-level warlock, Mr. Mortis provided him with more detailed information than he did to others, and some of the information was known only to him:

"The bartender at the Clock Tower said that you are a new guest introduced by a family of millennium ring sorcerers who have deep roots in the establishment of this black market. Someone guarantees that you are completely trustworthy, so I will tell you some of his secret hiding places. Please try not to destroy my friend's property casually."

The "Millennium Ring Warlock Family" should be the inheritance of the Great Space Witch. Even if Sylvia doesn't come here often, the local area still has stories about the witches.

It must be troublesome to visit and search for the marked areas one by one, but Shad did not get bored. He regarded it as himself in a new area and used the "missing mission" to familiarize himself with the map of the new area.

His first stop was the black market shop of the "Potion Merchant" located on the dock. Shade didn't know whether the most dangerous place was the safest, but he didn't want to investigate all the other locations and not find anyone, only to find out in the end that the other party had been hiding in his shop.

The Cold Water Port in the North and the "City of Fortune" Moon Bay are both typical port cities. The former has the best ice-free port in the northwest of the Old World. Shade's impression of it is that it is cold, damp and old, which may be brought by the fish people; and his impression of Moon Bay Port is that there is a constant stream of ships during the day, and the crescent-shaped bay is illuminated by the starry sky and city lights at night.

As for this port located on an island city in the southern bay of the old continent, Shade's initial impression was that it was full of fishy smell.

Because the north-south span of Fatumonster City was not large, he continued to walk after leaving the black market. After entering the dock area according to the map, he found that after walking down a slope and turning left, he actually entered the vegetable market in front of the dock.

Although there are vegetable vendors, blacksmiths and butchers in the open market in the mud flats, there are more fishmongers who can be seen almost everywhere.

The live fish were packed in an iron bucket full of ice, squeezing each other and flapping their tails desperately. Fish scales and blood were everywhere on the ground. The whistling sea breeze, with its salty smell, passed through the stalls covered with worn wooden boards. The fishy smell mixed with other smells in the air, even Xia De felt very nauseous.

It was not the time to buy, so although the vendors were setting up their stalls, no one was shouting loudly. Xia De noticed that the fishmongers all looked similar. There were several curved scale scrapers on the stalls, with residual mucus and fish scales sticking to the blades. On the winter afternoon, they were wearing worn-out cotton coats, black aprons covered with dirt on their lower bodies, and rough towels on their shoulders. In some stalls, you could see badly worn black leather gloves.

Even though Xia De held his breath and quickly left the market and arrived near the port dock, the fishy smell did not dissipate from the surroundings.

Under the gloomy sky, most of the boats unloading at the port were fishing boats. Although Fatumunster City was the largest island in the "Falling Star Bay", the scale of the port and dock here was far from comparable to the Coldwater Port and Moon Bay facing the New World. The only difference was that there were silver-white snow-capped mountains as a backdrop behind the city, so the scenery here was still pretty good.

When Sylvia brought Shad to the snow mountain for the first time, she said that the economic pillar here before the steam age was the traditional fishing industry. In the morning, Shad saw the many local watch shops in the city that symbolized the new era. In the afternoon, he also saw the traces of the fishing industry that remained from the old era.

"It's a good thing I didn't bring Little Mia with me. She must hate the fishy smell."

The "Potion Merchant" ran a small fishing tackle shop on the dock. When Shade found the shop between a local freight company and a warehouse rental company, the door was indeed closed. Although he felt embarrassed to break into someone else's house on his first day in the local area, Shade walked around the area twice and finally went into an empty alley.

After closing his eyes and sensing the space, he took a step forward and directly entered the fishing tackle shop.

Compared to the fishy smell outside, the smell in the deserted store was normal. The store was just a single-story building, and the metal shelves were filled with fishing rods, nets, oars and other goods that could be seen at a glance. Xia De did not rummage through other people's things. He closed his eyes again to confirm the underground structure of the store, and then stepped into the locked basement.

The lock of the door leading to the underground was reinforced by the owner's magic, but unfortunately Shade didn't need to unlock it. The basement of the fishing tackle shop was larger than the ground part. At first glance, it was just an ordinary storage room, but Mr. Mortis had just told him that there was a space hidden by illusion at the back of the basement.

"The crystal of truth."

He raised his right hand and held up the glowing white transparent crystal. The light emitted by the rotating crystal illuminated the wall, causing the wall to "melt" and reveal the potion workshop hidden in the back half.

The shelves along the wall were filled with bottles and cans, and the artificial ice room in the corner was freezing the materials that were not durable to storage. The stove with red flames was still heating the potion in the cauldron, but this did not mean that the owner of the store was here. It was not uncommon for the potion to take weeks or even months to cook.

Shade still did not rummage through other people's things. He just looked around, hoping to find a letter for help or other clues left by the "potion merchant".

The pot was boiling with a magic potion for transformation, and the labeled glass tubes on the table were all potions for treatment. Shade even saw a bottle of pure Holy Water No. 3 on the shelf. Although the four members of the team could buy it from the Augustus priest, the pure Holy Water No. 3 rarely appeared on the market:

"Has he assisted the church in completing its mission? Iluna said that such things can only appear through this channel."

There are only alchemical notes and experimental records in the notebook on the laboratory table. The Principality of Lagsen has never been conquered by Carsenric. It has its own language and writing, but Carsenric is also a common language, and the text on the notebook is "Lagsen".

This language is actually very similar to Kasenrik, and both are classified as southern languages.

After careful investigation, the only valuable clue was a piece of cotton cloth with black stains found in the trash can. At first, Shade thought it was just a dirty rag that he was going to throw away, until he finally turned on the "Blood Echo" to look for bloodstains, and found that the black stains were actually blood.

But apart from the red halo that the eyes saw at this moment, the stuff did not look like blood at all, whether in terms of smell, texture after drying or color.

Finally, Xia De endured the nausea and touched it with his fingers, and actually felt a very, very slight whispering element:
"Could this be what the potion merchant left behind after treating the wound? What kind of relic could contaminate blood like this?"

Even if the enemy gets the blood that has been polluted like this, they can't use it to curse the owner of the blood. However, although the blood itself has deteriorated, it is not toxic or polluting.

Xia De took some and put them into a small bottle, planning to ask someone to help take a look after him after leaving here in the evening.

There were no other clues in the store, so Shade confirmed it again and left. It seemed that he was the first person to break in here, or the previous intruders were as "civilized" as him.

After the fishing port, the second location Mr. Mortis provided was a steam bath in the west of the city. However, it was not because the "potion merchant" liked to take a bath in the steam bath, but because he had a small warehouse in the nearby warehouse area.

Mr. Mortis didn't know the exact location of the warehouse, but he gave Shade a rough range. Shade went around the warehouse area, and left after finding no clues.

The third location required Shade to continue westward until he left the city. The southern coastal area of ​​Fatumonster Island was relatively flat. Apart from the snow-capped mountains in the north of the city, the iron ore area in the northwest, and the real coastal fishing villages, most of the other areas were rural farms, orchards, or continuous woods.

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