Chapter 46: Later

"Stir it carefully and be sure not to leave any clumps without creating any pockets of air," Lia instructed.

I nodded and did as she asked, intently stirring the thick, simmering, bluish liquid inside a beaker glass that laid above. Beads of sweat forming on my forehead. I maintained the meticulous action of stirring the liquid to prevent the top layer from crusting over whilst breaking the congealed clumps without creating any air pockets. Sheesh, potion brewing is such a pain in the ass. Just the preparation itself took hours. Not to mention the effort we put into finding and processing each ingredient individually. We had to venture out of the city and scour around the wilderness for the sake of procuring them. Now I get why potions are expensive as hell.

Sure, we could've went to Jerome's Apothecary shop where we could get discounts on sorts of ingredients. But hell, that would defeat the purposes of us doing all that in the first place. Those are to save money, learn more about the local terrain and biota, and for me to improve my skills in recognizing flora necessary for potions. As for the venue, we had decided to take it outdoors. Not because of the risk of explosion (Lia told me it's fine. I asked). But for the simple reason that it smells unpleasant and would probably leave a layer of gunk on the surface of the ceiling. Wouldn't want ourselves to be kicked out by Waldo for stinking up the place. The potion I'm brewing right now is simple painkiller potion, the kind that requires no magic to brew, which is probably the only kind I can brew. The same kind Lia fed to me after a certain cross-dressing Elf woman dislocated my shoulders on the corner the street. She had left without any word not long after we returned to the inn back in Canta Town. Between the potioneering practice and ingredient huntings, we had occasionally drop by at the Guild to check out any suitable request.

Whilst we were there, I asked Jenny a favor to check out whether Sigrid had taken her reward. She did. A few days after we returned. That means she might still be in the city. Meaning that I still can find her. Not that I intended to.

The potion eventually coalesce into homogeneity, relieving my sore wrist of its misery. I snubbed the flames and let the beaker cool for awhile before passing it to Lia for her to appraise. She swirled the container, noting the density and coloration. I held my breath. That was the last batch of ingredients we had. The rest I had used on my previous practice run. All which ended in failure. Having done judging the quality of the potion, she beamed and gave me a thumbs up. I sucked the air sharply and smiled. Pride welled inside my chest as I received the beaker from her with both hands as if receiving a royal treasure. She gave an approving nod, and I triumphantly poured the entire thing into a glass container and corked it.

I had successfully crafted my first potion.

It was about two hours past lunch time. We were caught up so intently in the process we didn't even realize how hungry we are until we finished cleaning up. That, and the smell worked extremely well as an appetite suppressant.

"Wanna head to the Guild for lunch?" I suggested.

"Sure. I always feel extra hungry after focussing so much," Lia said.

"Well, that's to be expected. After all, the brain is the hungriest organ, consuming about 20% of our energy intake."

"Really?!" Lia responded excitedly, blue eyes gleaming with anticipation. She always has this kind reaction upon learning something new. Especially relating to science, specifically Biology. As such, as my way of repaying her for the knowledge she unreservedly shared with, I decided to do the same. Though it's mostly because she looks absolutely adorable reacting that way and I just can't get enough of it.

"Yep." Then I went on recalling and vocalizing as much disorganized bits of information I possibly could recall regarding the organ as we made our way to the Guild.

"Did you know that the brain is the only organ that named itself?

"We humans have significantly larger brain to body ratio compared to most species-

"Though the female brain is slightly smaller than the male brain, they make up for it in density and have roughly as much brain cells as their male counterparts-

"Alcohol actually doesn't make you forget, it just impedes your ability to create memories-

"There are no pain receptors in the brain-

I went on rambling randomly about anything relating to the brain with Lia completely silent but bobbing her head with every fact I mentioned until we arrived at the Guild.

I'm starving. We went to the mess hall and had our lunch. Today's Gallagher's special had cost 6 Coppers. But that didn't decrease the amount of people lining up for it.

Our turn eventually arrived. As usual, he eyed me intently and said, "Fight. Later."

And as usual, I shook my head intently saying, "No thanks, man," and nimbly stalked away from his vicinity as soon as I received my meal. If it weren't for the cheap, tasty, balanced, and filling meal, I would've never wanted to even be in the same building as him, let alone face to face. But apparently good food does has its way to inhibit fear.

Me and Lia finished our meals and we went to the main hall to browse the request boards, hoping to find a suitable request. There aren't always plenty of request for Iron-Rankers. But when they do, they mostly suck. Either paying too low or being plain unreasonable. I should really try to make an effort to get promoted. However, that would mean taking on those crappy requests to rack up some credibility. Believe or not, despite being the lowest rank of Adventurers, Iron-Rankers aren't even a quarter in quantity compared to Copper-Rankers. The reason being that they either got promoted to Copper-Rankers, or quit. That's just how it works. Not many people are willing to spend coins on newbie Adventurers whose capabilities are unable to be guaranteed. They'd rather spend more coins than having the request done sloppily or sluggishly. It's like the willingness to pay out higher salaries to better educated employees - in this case, better ranked Adventurers.

I sighed, not finding anything decent request to take on.

It seems I would have to follow the standard career plan for every Iron-Rank Adventurers: Taking on requests until I get promoted even if it costs more money than I received from the job itself.

I was about to take on a random request that's nearby the city until I heard a man bellowed, "YOU B*TCH!"