Eva Snow
Alfred was also observing Eva now that she was standing in front of him.
Her luxurious sky-blue hair, which almost looked white from certain angles, was tied up in a single long braid that reached her waist. Her pale white skin appeared almost sickly. Her oval face with an angular jawline gave her a mature yet youthful charm.
She was dressed in a loose-fitting white Mage robe which covered most of her body. On her left breast was a crest of a five-leaf clover sewn in platinum — the crest of New Hope City. The overall garment indicated that she was a member of the White Tower and based in New Hope City.
Alfred looked at her eyes, which were covered by large round-rimmed glasses, giving her a scholarly air. Looking deeper, her dark eyes glimmered in red under the sunlight.
Alfred was mesmerized by her beauty. But what shocked him the most was the sheer presence she radiated. She was a Rank 5 Mage, but her mana capacity appeared to be more than double the amount of her peers. She was almost invincible in her rank and maybe even among newly advanced Rank 6s. Even Alfred, who could generate limitless mana through Vita Fons, felt a slight threat — raw capacity meant nothing if the person wielding it was this refined.
But that was not all. Alfred felt something else from her. It was a form of mental pressure specific to a certain race. He had experienced it before when he attended the series of high-level conferences at the end of the Hundred Years War.
“A pure-blooded Blue Dragon,” Alfred concluded.
Similarly, Eva stared straight at Alfred’s eyes with an impressed but competitive face. The temperature dropped further. Literal sparks flew between the two.
The round noble was almost hit by one of them. He used all of his energy to run away.
But then suddenly, as if some switch had been turned off, everything disappeared like an illusion.
Both Alfred and Eva’s lips curled up in a warm smile.
“I am sure you will be here for some time. We will meet again.” Leaving behind those words, she left towards the center of the university.
Though, after taking a few steps, she turned around and asked, “How do I address you?”
“Call me Alfred. You can find me at Milo’s Potions on Oak Lane, Old District,” he answered.
“That sounds new,” she thought out loud.
“I am opening a potions shop.”
“Oh! I may be visiting you sooner.” She smiled and then went on her way. After a few steps, she disappeared with an afterimage.
Alfred stood there for some time looking in her direction. He remembered what Milo had told him earlier. “She is a master of a Nature Spirit.” It was because of this that their confrontation from earlier had broken into warm greetings. Maybe her Nature Spirit had reminded her as well.
“I should have expected this.” Alfred walked out of the gate with a smile. Boarding a carriage, he returned to the inn he was staying at.
He didn’t have dinner and locked himself inside his room. Fishing in his storage bag, he pulled out an old diary and started going through it.
Milo, who was sleeping lazily on the bed, opened an eye and thought out loud, “Look at him — picking up Body Tempering again after almost a hundred years. A good competition does help.”
The next day, Alfred had his breakfast at the inn and rode a carriage to the Town Square.
“The weather is cloudy today as well,” he spoke of the weather after dropping off from the carriage.
“The sun hardly ever comes out in Elysion,” Milo replied.
“Very British,” Alfred thought.
First, he collected the keys to the shop from the office of the Blue Tower.
Then he visited a blacksmith’s shop nearby and bought a hanging store sign for a potions shop. The sign contained a symbol of a fancy potion vial. Apparently, it was the norm in Elysion.
He found paints in the same store and bought some black and gold paints.
Following that, he went to a clothing store and bought bedsheets, pillows, towels, and other personal items.
He put everything on delivery to his new address.
“I will need some cleaners as well.” Alfred visited the office of the Blue Tower again and hired some workers. A team of Goblins followed him to his new shop.
Entering the shop, he was shocked to find all the books and other personal belongings of the previous owner still lying around. “Either he was very rich or was in a hurry to leave. Hmm… maybe not rich.” Alfred pondered, looking around at the valuable antique furniture and decorations.
He asked the Goblins to clean the interior while he went outside with the paints and the hanging sign.
He replaced the previous bookstore sign with the potions shop sign. Following that, he meticulously repainted the signboard to say “Milo’s Potions” with a black background and gold fonts.
By noon, both Alfred and the Goblins were done with their respective jobs. Alfred paid them and they left.
He entered inside again and started rearranging the furniture.
The ground floor was unpartitioned and looked like a large hallway with bookshelves at the sides. There were tables and chairs in the center for the customers to sit down and read.
At the end of the hallway, there were the counter and the stairs, and behind were the bathrooms.
Alfred put a bookshelf in the center laterally and divided the hall into two rooms — the customer receiving room and his potions lab. He brought the counter to the receiving room and put stools in front.
After that, he sorted out some books related to Potioneering from Old Ren’s collection. Together with some glass jars full of common dried herbs from his own collection, he decorated the shelves.
Now, when a customer enters the shop, he sees two benches on either side of the door, a counter with stools in front of him, and three shelves on his left, right, and behind the counter.
“It is already evening. I will set up the lab tomorrow.” Alfred decided and went upstairs.
The first floor had two bedrooms, a dining area, and a kitchen. Alfred kept the arrangement and only replaced the bedsheets, pillows, and other personal items with the ones he had bought earlier.
Entering the kitchen, he was surprised to find Magic Artifacts. The stove, oven, and refrigerator all were equipped with Magic Arrays and could be powered with crystal coins or personal mana.
The Goblins had already cleaned everything before, so he could directly start cooking.
But he had no ingredients. So he went outside for some shopping.
Coming out of Oak Lane, he entered the Town Square. It was the golden hour and the square was bustling with activity. A lot of vendors had set up street stalls selling their goods.
Alfred did not buy any cooked food and instead scoured for ingredients. He bought a lot of items and put them on delivery to his shop.
By the time he reached home, a cart full of items was waiting at his doorstep. He brought them inside and filled up his refrigerator. Putting a crystal coin in it, he turned it on.
Next, he pulled out a large piece of Rock Crab meat he had bought earlier and stewed it with some fresh vegetables and herbs over his stove.
He served the stew with freshly baked bread and poured himself a glass of old wine from his collection.
Milo licked the stew from her own bowl. “You should cook more.” Although a Spirit doesn’t need food, Alfred serves for two whenever he cooks.
He slowly twirled the wine in his glass and took a sip. “Alright.”
After dinner, he created some gift boxes for visiting his new neighbors.
He pulled out a log of Elven Oak which he had kept alive by channeling his overflowing vitality into it over the years. He grew it again now, letting his life force seep into the wood until it sprouted fresh growth, and then harvested it. Using his carving skills, he created some pretty boxes out of it.
He pulled out a log of another tree called Goblin Rubber, which he had kept alive in the same way. He used the sap of the tree to paint the boxes. It gave the boxes resistance to almost all elements and Destruction Spells up to Rank 4.
Lastly, he filled the boxes with Vitality and Mana potion vials he had brewed some time back, along with some herbs that can be used to make aromatic tea.
After creating three boxes, he went to sleep.
The next morning, after drinking some herb tea, he went to visit another potions shop to understand the prices.
He walked south of the Town Square and entered Silver Street, the busiest commercial hub of New Hope City.
He visited a potions shop affiliated with the Ravenrose Guild, the largest Potioneering Guild in Elysion.
It was morning and most of the shops were still closed. But Ravenrose’s shop was bustling with activity.
The building itself was a large five-story granite building. The ground floor had a large sitting area filled with injured Mages and common people. On one side there was a long counter. Beautiful female elves were running back and forth behind the counter to tend to the customers. Seemingly, the upper floors were for patients undergoing longer treatments.
Alfred walked to a free counter and bought a lot of potions from different categories. The elf behind the counter was shocked, but she maintained a business face and cooperated well.
On his return journey, inside the carriage, Alfred drank all the potions one by one. He had bought potions of up to Rank 3, so they had little to no effect on him. His inexhaustible vitality broke down and expelled whatever residual harm lingered in his system within moments. He couldn’t buy Rank 4 and above potions, as they are order-made only.
“The quality of potions has declined a lot since the Warring Age,” he mulled. “I can sell my potions at a higher rate.”
Back in his new shop, Alfred set up his potions lab. First, he set up several Magic Arrays to block any and all toxic fumes from escaping. Next, he took out all of his equipment and cleaned them one by one. Following that, he placed all the handy ingredients on the shelves and arranged his equipment on the central island-table.
By the time he was done, it was already evening.
He picked up the gift boxes next and visited his neighbors.