"Are the servants in your palace trustworthy?" Arkhen asked with a grin.
"They… should be. The servants come and go, but every time we accept new servants, they are thoroughly screened before we let them in the mansion," Meya said. "Moreover, all servants are very weak. At best, at the peak of the 1st class."
"Well, the culprit who informed our location and appearance to the enemy is a maid in the palace. She saw us changing our appearance and informed our enemy, who sneakily tailed us before setting up the ambush," Arkhen said.
"If they saw us going in this direction, then the enemy wouldn't even need to tail us for long," Meya wryly smiled. "The only thing here is the southern region and the only reason people come here is to hunt the dire beast and collect resources."
Arkhen and the shadow guards nodded. Moreover, this was the usual path of returning to the capital, so it was easy to set up an ambush here after knowing that Arkhen and others went to the southern snowy region.
"Let's go and get that maid. Take information from her about the enemy and solve this matter once and for all," Arkhen said before he commanded Ruan to start moving.
Meya moved her position to the front of Arkhen so that she could tease him with her butt cheeks pressing against his crotch and said, "Today is a hectic day because House of Melioth will officially step down. I am sure the ones who targeted us is some hidden faction working under Raoth, that bastard."
…
After returning to the Duke's palace, they found the maid. The shadow guards took her to the underground basement of the palace to cough out information from her while Arkhen and Meya went out to an Alchemy workshop.
In this Alchemy building, Farin there who was working as a junior Alchemist under her master.
After walking to Farin's Alchemy workshop, Meya knocked on the door.
Soon, Farin opened the door and was surprised to see them. Smiling, she said, "Welcome, Arkhen. What brings you here?"
"Not welcoming me?" Meya said with a pout.
"No," Farin rolled her eyes before chuckling and rubbing Meya's head. "So, what brings you two here?"
"This," Arkhen said as he took out all kinds of ores, plants, flowers, and two fruits. There were only two pieces of ores while the rest were plants, flowers, and two fruits.
Seeing all the items Arkhen laid out on the table, Farin was surprised, "That's some good things you got there."
"I want to turn these items into possible potions or pills. Add more ingredients if needed, I'll pay the additional cost," Arkhen said.
"These ores are kinda useless here, so take them. As for the rest of the items…" Farin said as he looked at all ingredients and fell into thought while mumbling inaudible words.
Arkhen took back the ores and thought. 'I thought Alchemy could be used on ores too… I mean, I have watched an animated series called Fullmetal Alchemist, so...'
[It is indeed possible to use Alchemy on the ores. However, the Alchemy of this 1st realm is not that advanced. All life-class occupations like Alchemy, Smithing, Mystic Cooking, and such becomes higher level when you ascend to higher realms].
'I kind of want to learn one of such occupations too. But that is after I become a bit more powerful,' Arkhen replied. He was indeed looking forward to making some cool shit with either Alchemy or Smithing. But his priority was his overall power for now.
[Worry not. You will learn it as you unlock the regions in Mystic Wonderland].
'I see. It has those kinds of things too… 'Arkhen was surprised.
"So… with an additional cost of 38 high-grade essence stones, you can get a Tier-3 Body refining pill, a Tier-4 body refining pill, a Tier-4 Ice Coffin potion, and a Tier-4 Empowering Frost potion.
"Cool. Get them ready. Also, how long will it take to turn these beast cores into pills?" Arkhen said as he took out sixty-eight beast cores. The majority were 2nd-grade beast cores but there were also many 3rd-grade beast cores.
"Come here after one and a half hours, the beast cores will be processed into pills by then," Farin said with a nod.
"Alright."
…
Afterward, Arkhen and Meya went to sell the dire beast bodies and got 68,759 low-grade energy stones.
Right when they were returning after selling the dire beast bodies, Gereld called Arkhen via the comm crystal that Arkhen had gotten from Gereld before.
Gereld—, "Arkhen, the essence stones are ready. I've sent them to the palace."
Arkhen—, "Perfect. Thanks."
"Who was it?" Meya asked.
"Gereld called to tell me that the essence stones I gave him are exchanged and delivered to the palace," Arkhen said with a grin. "Now I will truly reach the peak of the 1st-class and breakthrough soon."
"Good luck in your skill creation, hehe. I will also breakthrough today," Meya said with an excited chuckle. "I hope I can create an Ex-rank skill. That would be so awesome."
"With your perverted brain, you will probably create a trash skill," Arkhen said with a mocking smile.
"No, you will create a perverted skill, not me!" Meya said, giggling happily before thinking of something. "Alright, let's see who creates a higher rank skill. If I win, then you can give me any command, and I will obey it. But if you win, then I will give you a command, then you will have to obey it."
"Alright," Arkhen said with a grin before he realized something, causing a dumbfounded expression to appear on his face. "Wait, what did you say?"
"Hahaha, no more going back! You agreed," Meya said as she stuck out her tongue playfully.
The carriage driver was listening to them while controlling the horses and was speechless.
"Damn…" Arkhen was truly speechless. Meya spoke fast, and also he expected it to be the usual wish-filling bet. Alas, this brat actually reversed the condition regarding wish-filling and he agreed without listening carefully.
…
After getting the body-strengthening beast pills from Farin, Arkhen and Meya returned to the castle.
He wanted to defeat the guardian boss, but he decided to refine his ponds before that since he got the high-grade Chi essence crystals and high-grade Mana essence crystals.
As the official tail of Arkhen, Meya also followed him to his room and sat down on the balcony garden before saying with a grin, "I will break through now while you refine your ponds. Hehe, despite the bet, I really want to create an Ex-rank or higher skill."
"That's good. Try your best," Arkhen said with a smile as he nodded before he also sat down and absorbed all essence from the 1000 Chi essence stones and 1000 Mana essence stones into his inner spaces before he used the essence in his inner space to refine his ponds.
With this, he would finally refine his Chi and Mana pond to the maximum refinement limit of the 1st class!
After roughly half an hour, Arkhen finished refining his ponds and opened his eyes.
On the other hand, Meya was in deep meditation with mystical motes surrounding her.
[My lord. She is in an enlightened state right now. Her consciousness is in a mystical place related to her Star of Endowment, creating a skill right now].
'Nice… Alright, I'll also reach the limit in basic stats now before defeating the Guardian boss,' Arkhen said as he took out the body-strengthening beast pills. The pills he had were more than enough for him to reach the limit.
After eating five pills at once, Arkhen started controlling their energy and began refining his body.
Alas… Some crazy shit was going to happen soon. A crazy thing mixed with the bad luck of Arkhen's curse.
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