"Where did you find so many apothecaries?"
Celine asked in surprise, looking at the twenty-six bottles of energy potion on the table.
And Elan slowly replied:
"Maybe the apothecary I hired is really showing her strength. Although she told me she has many friends asking her to help sell them, I keep thinking there might be another possibility."
"That is, the apothecary I hired is a once-in-a-century genius who can achieve a fifty percent success rate with energy potions, which is why she gave me so many potions in such a short time."
"Just to keep a low profile, she deliberately claimed to have many friends and was helping them sell..."
Celine said with a face full of black lines:
"What are you talking about? How could such a thing happen? If it were true, the Chief of the Alchemy School would surely get on his knees and beg that Apothecary to join."
"Such a success rate is simply a fantasy. If you ask me, your previous guess about her working part-time as a middleman is more reasonable."
Elan chuckled twice, took a sip of water, and continued:
"Alright, enough small talk. How are things with the Association? Are they still holding on?"
Celine also took a sip of fruit wine before answering:
"I can only say the situation isn't optimistic—at least, not for the Association."
"Recently, another conflict broke out between them and the apothecaries brewing energy potions. Several apothecaries simply stopped brewing, causing the production of energy potions to drop again."
"Oh? What happened this time?"
"The special commissioner sent to contact them was quite greedy. He privately withheld the collected energy potions, disguising them as failed batches."
"He secretly sold these potions to High-level Apprentices he knew to make a profit..."
Elan stopped smiling and tapped the table, saying:
"The Association is still the same. When I was preparing for the Assessment, I also looked for those special commissioners who sold things privately."
"Back then, for every Assessment, the Apothecary Association would prepare a massive amount of materials, claiming they would ensure the potions wouldn't go out of stock."
"But it was the same every time. My junior fellow apprentice took the Assessment three times to be promoted to a Formal Mage. He said it was out of stock every single time, and he had to search everywhere to buy them. It disgusted him."
Elan continued:
"By the way, there's one more thing. A special commissioner from the Association managed to get a large batch of materials from somewhere."
Celine's eyes lit up, and she spoke:
"Oh, another batch of materials? It seems the Association isn't destined to die yet!"
Elan shook his head.
"It's not that they aren't destined to die; it's that they've bled the Association a bit more."
"Tell me about it."
"You and I both know that the Association's previous material suppliers have been cutting the quotas sent to Lordris. It's because of the major incident the Association had; they don't have high hopes for its future."
"Now the Association can hardly buy materials in bulk, making this batch particularly precious."
"That special commissioner was thinking of selling this batch of materials back to the Association to turn a profit."
Celine reached the critical point and perked up her ears, asking again:
"Then how did the Association find out?"
"The Association only discovered issues with that batch of materials. It's said that during inspection, they found material identification plates unique to the Association's internal warehouse."
"The seller ran off quickly, only leaving behind a batch of inspection samples, while most of the goods remained."
"But these goods still need to be sold; if they rot in his hands, they'll just be a pile of weeds."
"So, he came to me, and I contacted my apothecary. It just so happened she was complaining about the rising prices of materials at the Association. In the end, she bought over a hundred sets..."
Celine finished her glass of fruit wine and took a new one, asking:
"What about the Association? Did they find out which warehouse that batch of goods came from?"
"No. The Association wanted to audit all the warehouses. The newly appointed Association President even claimed that if they cleared out the warehouses, they would surely find another thousand sets of materials..."
Celine couldn't help but laugh out loud and said:
"I bet he won't be able to clear out even a single warehouse in the end. You have to realize that over all these years, many things have become bad debt..."
"Right. His attempt to push for a warehouse audit was completely rejected by the Committee members, so the matter was just dropped."
Celine sighed with emotion at this point:
"Maybe even if we didn't act, the Association would still die..."
"But the Association isn't dead yet..."
The two looked at each other, a hint of helplessness flashing in their eyes. There was no helping it; energy potions were just too profitable.
No, it was that those High-level Apprentices were too wealthy. Despite the Association being so dysfunctional, the money from these apprentices still propped up the entire organization.
If the Association's troubles had happened two months earlier, it probably would have died long ago.
---
"What do I want your materials for? I'm not an Apothecary!" Richter said dissatisfiedly to the richly dressed man.
"Hey, Richter, don't be like that. This batch of goods is high quality. You know energy potions are a necessity for you apprentices."
"Imagine you're holding a scalpel and come up with a brilliant idea—it might even be the prototype for a new Spell—but at that moment, you're very sleepy."
"You know, if you go to sleep like that, your inspiration might just slip away. At a time like that, a bottle of energy potion..."
"Enough. I didn't come to talk about this. If you keep going, I'll..."
The man immediately fell silent. He had heard of Richter's reputation—he was known as a lunatic among the High-level Apprentices. Since becoming one, he had not only secretly killed several apprentices but also taken at least a hundred lives. If it weren't for the protection of the Modification School and the potential he displayed, he likely would have been sanctioned long ago... "Alright, then what do you want? Let's get this straight first: I can't help you smuggle any more bodies in. You'll either have to leave Cuilan Academy..."
Richter's face darkened as he interrupted the man.
"I can't leave Cuilan Academy before the Assessment, and I'm not asking you to do that..."
The man was somewhat confused. If it wasn't about smuggling bodies, then why did Richter seek him out?
His dealings with Richter had only ever been about smuggling bodies. The reason he said that just now was because he wanted Richter to pay more so he could bring them... He knew Richter's situation; he was practically a pariah. If he went out now and was discovered, he likely wouldn't be coming back... Furthermore, if Richter couldn't secure a good ranking in this Assessment—merely passing wasn't enough—the Modification School would no longer protect him.
"What I want to talk about is what happens after the Assessment. I'm interested in an apprentice, and I need a safer environment."
The man was a bit puzzled but understood. He inquired:
"But if you don't make it back from the Assessment..."
He didn't say the rest: what if there was no money to pay him?
"I'll pay you in full right now. Just do as I say."
Since there was full payment, there was no problem.
"On the night your Assessment ends, that wasteland south of Cuilan Academy will be claimed by the—possibly still existing—Apothecary Association. The next day, Magic Craftsmen will turn all the earth into slurry to build foundations, and everything will be buried underneath..."