Chapter 102: Blood

Luxy’s surprise lasted all of 2 seconds before her eyes moved over Jaxir properly, and what she saw made her mouth fall open. She looked from him to the cave around them, then back to him again before her expression twisted into outright disbelief.

"You succeeded?"

Jaxir smiled. "Good morning to you too."

"It has been one day." Luxy stared at him as though saying it aloud might make the problem easier to understand. "One day! I thought you might accomplish it, child, but I was preparing myself to wait weeks, perhaps months—"

Her voice cut off as she dropped to her knees.

"Oh, Radiant Mother, your sight has not abandoned us. You have chosen well. Better than this old woman could have hoped—"

Jaxir’s smile faded. "Ah. We’re doing this again."

Getting Luxy back onto her feet took considerably longer than calling her had. Every time Jaxir thought the prayer was finished, she found another reason to thank the Goddess of Light, praise her wisdom or apologize for apparently ever doubting whatever plan she believed had led Jaxir to her.

By the time she finally stood, Jaxir was beginning to understand why gods liked worshippers. It had to be great for the ego.

Luxy dusted off her knees, and the solemn old woman who had spent the last several minutes praying disappeared almost immediately. Her eyes sharpened, her smile became suspiciously merchant-like, and Jaxir knew the version of Luxy he was more familiar with had returned.

"Now then, young man. Your reward."

"Actually, hold that thought." Jaxir pulled the Grand Mana Potion Formula from his Inventory before Luxy could produce anything. "I need help with this first."

Her annoyance lasted until she saw the parchment.

Luxy’s eyes widened.

"Where did you get that?"

"Sparkle Village Head."

"Give it here."

Jaxir laughed and handed it over, watching as her fingers moved across the old page without touching the circulation pattern drawn along its lower half. The longer she studied it, the brighter her expression became.

"This is excellent." Luxy glanced up at him. "The Manaheart Berry and Silvervein Herb are relatively inexpensive, particularly for an Epic formula, and both are readily cultivated. More importantly, neither leaves many impurities behind."

"So I won’t poison myself."

"Not unless you become creative."

"Never a good start to an explanation..." Jaxir muttered.

Luxy ignored him. "The blood is the dangerous component, but this formula protects you there as well. If the blood has not been refined properly, the circulation will fail rather than producing an unstable potion, so you shouldn’t suffer any lasting harm unless you somehow force the process beyond its intended limits."

Luxy stared at him in warning.

"I won’t force it."

"You sounded almost sincere." Luxy said, unconvinced. This guy never followed the rules. How much danger did he put himself in doing everything in a day?

"Thank you."

She chuckled before handing the page back. "Your actual difficulty will be producing the Condensed Blood Drop. Turning the complete blood essence of a beast into a single stable drop requires another circulation method from the Mage Alchemic God’s Tome."

Jaxir’s brows rose. "Another page?"

"Or a copy."

"Copies?"

Luxy nodded. "You’re rather fortunate. What you have there is an original page, which means the circulation is perfectly preserved. Copies become less precise depending on the skill of whoever produced them, and even a good copy deteriorates whenever someone meditates on the pattern."

Jaxir looked down at his formula again, noticing the clean lines differently now.

"The circle fades?"

"The impression does. Eventually the Mana inside the copy becomes too weak to sense, even if the drawing remains visible, and at that point you’re studying a picture rather than the actual circulation." Luxy’s smile softened as she looked at his page. "An original doesn’t suffer from that problem, and understanding its circulation should be much easier."

That only made Jaxir more interested.

"Do you know where the original blood-condensing page is?"

Luxy gave him a knowing look. "Already becoming greedy."

"I prefer ambitious."

"There are only 12 original pages from the Mage Alchemic God’s Tome known to still circulate in this part of the world. Yours makes 13."

Jaxir’s grip tightened slightly around the parchment.

Luxy continued, "The blood-condensing page was discovered long ago, and the String Quintet Guild currently possesses it. You have almost no chance of obtaining the original from them, but they produce a limited number of copies and auction one every month."

"When’s the next one?"

"Three days, if their schedule has not changed."

That was close enough to become a real option, though Jaxir immediately saw another problem. He couldn’t use the province’s teleportation arrays, and even without Gravity’s ban, he was still inside what had originally been a Tutorial region.

Luxy seemed to read the question off his face. "Normally, you would remain restricted until Level 10, but the current regional misalignment has loosened those boundaries. You can leave whenever you wish, provided you cross the border yourself rather than using a teleportation platform."

"And what’s between me and the border?"

"Beasts mostly ranging from the high teens into the mid-20s."

Jaxir smiled. "So, cardio."

Luxy’s eyes narrowed. "That was not the part I expected to worry you. Money will be the real problem."

Jaxir groaned inwardly.

Luxy tapped the formula. "Only one copy is sold each month, and the blood-condensing circulation has uses far beyond this potion. Blacksmiths use condensed beast blood in certain quenching methods, alchemists need it for countless formulas, and several crafting professions value blood essence precisely because concentrating it preserves traits that ordinary blood loses."

Jaxir frowned. "So why would String Quintet sell copies at all?"

"We don’t know, but it is why your province has unusually strong secondary professions." Luxy smiled. "Most guilds would hoard such knowledge for themselves. String Quintet decided that controlling a steady supply of temporary copies was more profitable than locking the method away entirely. It’s likely because they are a small guild. Just six people."

Jaxir ignored the fact a quintet was supposed to mean five. There had to be another way, no?

Jaxir rubbed the back of his head. "There’s really no other way?"

"You could pay someone to condense the blood for you, or simply buy prepared drops."

"That sounds easier."

"It is also expensive, and storage degrades the essence over time unless you use specialized containers. Even properly stored blood loses some potency, which would weaken the final potion."

Jaxir exhaled through his nose, then did the calculation he actually cared about. "Alright. I want to make 10 of these. How much would everything cost, and can I afford it?"

The boss kills had given him a few tens of thousands of copper each, which would’ve sounded fantastic when he’d first entered Divinity. Now they barely made a dent in the amount of money he’d already accumulated and spent.

Luxy shook her head before he even finished hoping.

"You could purchase enough Manaheart Berries and Silvervein Herbs without noticing the expense. The blood is another matter."

"How bad?"

"The weakest condensed drops normally sold come from Level-10 beasts, since almost nobody bothers spending the effort on anything weaker." Luxy held up one finger. "Expect at least 1 million copper per drop, and that is before competition, storage quality or unusual beast traits increase the price."

Jaxir stared at her.

"So 10 million."

"At minimum."

"For blood."

"Very concentrated blood."

Jaxir sighed and put the formula away. "Fine, fine. Just give me my rewards, then."

Luxy’s grin returned immediately.

"Much better."

She reached inside her robes with enough care that Jaxir’s amusement faded, then slowly withdrew an ancient scroll wrapped around a dark wooden spindle. The parchment had yellowed almost to brown, its edges cracked and flaking, and the entire thing looked frail enough that breathing on it too hard might turn it to dust.

Luxy held it out with both hands.

Jaxir’s eyes settled on the scroll.