Chapter 11: Making Healing Potion

I told Ace and Violet not to attack anyone unless they were harmless or I could handle the enemy. The problem is I just remembered that I had to tell them not to attack in front of people as it would gather attention not only to me but to them too. 

Since Hel acted on her own, she smiled at me with a wicked smile. 

"I tried to restrain my strength," she told me with her oddly slit eye pupils. She blinked and changed it to normal human eye pupils. 

On the other hand, the drunkard got a broken arm while limping toward me. He held his broken arm with his non-broken hand and cried in pain. 

Everyone who saw this was in awe. I didn't want to cause a scene, but look what happened. So much for low-key defensive magic users, huh?

Although Fenrir didn't do anything, I heard grunting and saw he was holding his wound. I need to check on it before things get worse. 

I dragged my bodyguards away from the scene to the nearest Inn and ordered a room. The receptionist offered us class A, probably an executive room to accommodate us three. Once we were alone, I told Fenrir to take his shirt off and sat on the floor while I took out my first aid kit inside my storage box. 

Once I gathered all that I needed, I looked at the wound and saw the flesh becoming rotten. I saw some black purplish surrounding the rotten flesh as it started to get an unpleasant odor. 

"It must be from one of the bird's talon scratches. I was busy fighting their boss and didn't pay attention to whoever dared to inflict this on me," he said. 

"This is not just a normal scratch, Fen. It looks like that claw must have some venom or something," I told him as I cleaned the wounds. 

"Ah, yeah, I forgot. Sykes has a potent venom on their claws," he said. 

"What the heck is a Skye?" 

"A Skye is a species of Class B birds that usually hunt in groups and are led by an evolved Boss named Dyke. Although hunting in a group, these birds have a potent venom that can be dangerous to any normal person. If not cured properly, death is inevitable. The affected areas will soon decay as the venom starts to work, infecting the uninfected areas. Once the venom reaches the healthy cells, it will not stop. The venom can be effectively controlled with appropriate treatment before it progresses to a more serious stage. However, there is a cure for that," Terissa explained. 

"What is the cure?" I asked her. 

"A healing potion."

"Healing potion? Where can I buy it?" 

"You can't buy it since it's unavailable here or anywhere. No one had made anti-venom here unless you decided to create it considering the ability of your extra skill," Terissa suggested. 

"Sounds good. So where can I buy the ingredients?"

"You find it all here." 

"Can I just replicate them?" I asked her, feeling lazy. 

"You cannot replicate anything if you haven't seen them, don't you?" she asked me, annoyed. 

"Alright, alright," I said, giving up. 

I dismissed her and applied a first aid kit to Fenrir's shoulder. 

"You need to rest. I'll go and find something to treat you," I told him as I grabbed my coat and headed to the door. 

"Do you want me to come with you?" Hel asked. 

"No. I want you to stay with Fen," I replied before opening and closing the door. 

"So where can I find the ingredient?" 

"First, we need to find a loach," Terissa said. "You can mostly find a loach in a swamp."

"How do I know if I find a loach? Should I grab it whole?" 

"Loach is like a frog in the first stage of a cycle. It has four legs and a fin with pale pink to reddish-orange in color. We don't need the loach, but we only need its pearl," she answered. 

"Pearl?" 

"Yes. The shiny pearl spat out by a loach has mystical medicinal properties. The minerals and elemental particles the loach ingest condenses into a magical bead. We can have this shiny pearl when we threaten it. Loach usually spits these pearls out to confuse its predator and escape with its life," Terissa answered. 

"Let's go and find a swamp," I said as I started to walk away from the Inn. 

I was given directions to the nearest swamp in Redhorn. When I arrived there, there were a couple of loaches in any color, and when they felt my presence, all of them spat some pearls that glittered under the moon before escaping despite mating. 

"Oh, great," I told Terissa. "How will I know which pearls came from the pink loach?"

"Use your sorting eyes. You will be able to see which one is the right one." 

"Miss Terissa," I said, sighing. "What in heaven are these sorting eyes? You always say something new to me that I don't even know exists."

"A sorting sight is like an elemental sight. You can see which one you need just by looking at it. All you have to do is pay attention and tell which one is the right one. If you focus, the glowing one is the right one you need."

"Okay. So uh, you didn't mention those black loaches," I told her while I focused on the pearls that scattered on the swamp's bed. Right away, four pearls from a pink loach glowed, and I immediately picked them up. 

"The black loaches are something you can call poison producers. Unlike pink loaches, they eat dead creatures and pollution everywhere. Their pearls absorb them; thus, their pearls contain toxins. Well, if you decide to create a poison potion."

Despite what Terissa said, I picked up a few and stored them in my storage box for emergency use. 

"Is that all?"

"Yes, for now." 

Walking back to the Inn, I noticed someone was following me. I stopped and turned around, but I didn't find anyone. I know someone was following me even before I left the Inn.