Potion Recipe

While Darkscale was struggling with his inner feelings, Spike was left completely dumbfounded by the serpent's revelations. He couldn't believe that something like that had happened to his client.

A treacherous MAID? An artificial Intelligence that could be controlled? Impossible!

All the things that the serpent described were absolutely impossible. Not only because it was something that Spike didn't ever hear about, but also because he knew a thing or two about how MAIDS worked. From a very technical point of view, the story of the snake made no sense: MAIDS didn't have consciousness, even the most complicated ones that used very expensive Matrix as their core were only glorified automatic secretaries with a couple more functions than normal.

The only thing that they could do was to silently obey the orders that they were programmed to execute. If someone didn't program them to do something, they wouldn't improvise, they will simply not do it.

While the Artificial Intelligences could change their behavior and adapt to a certain extent in time to better suit their owner, that couldn't explain what the snake was revealing.

So what was happening here?

'Is he lying?' thought the merchant, looking towards the creature before him.

Yes, the first theory the merchant could think of was that the whole thing was a lie. It was the simplest solution, and the most logical one. However, why would he lie to him? There was no reason at all of doing so.

'Even if he was lying, how did he deactivate the Black Hand Orbital Trader?'

One of the mysteries that had plagued Spike in the last year was how did the snake had been able to deactivate the online mode of his Orbital Trader. The closed black fist on a small altar in the Blue Cave was a very precious item that was sold at an incredible price only to the most powerful or noble people in the Fiore Empire. There was no chance that a random pseudo cultivator with some introductory skills in runes could modify the profound formation that made it work.

That wasn't the feat that someone with his cultivation base could pull off, not even someone so incredibly gifted in the Dao of Matrixes. Letting alone the fact that the reserve of energy to do something like that was way past even what a common rank 2 cultivator had access to, even a Grandmaster in Formations would have needed a couple of days to write down an array that could mess with the Black Hand Trader Orbiter.

Yet, Spike remembered it clear as yesterday: a short period of time after his first encounter with the snake, the Black Hand had been compromised.

At first, the horned merchant thought that the reincarnator had finally recovered his memories and was making sure that no one could disturb him while cultivating to recover his cultivation base.

That made him depressed beyond any explanation. If you recovered your memories, why you wouldn't come and say some nice words? Even if he hadn't the money needed to repay the debt, just a word from a reincarnator could open plenty of doors for him. He wouldn't have to work as a slave to pay the credit at least.

Spike had thought that the serpent had just decided to not care about the thing that he did for him. Maybe he didn't even consider them enough for him to give him his recognition now that he had his memories back.

However now that he had met the serpent again, Spike realized that the reality wasn't so simple.

While there was some difference between the curious and childish snake that he first met and the pocket faced cold voiced creature that he had before him now, it was evident that the snake had not awakened his memories. At least not the full set.

Which made the merchant's eyes shine: more difficult was the recovery, stronger was the reincarnator! The Heavens didn't abandon him in the end!

"Young Master, please give me more information on the problem that you are having with the MAID" asked the merchant, trying to gather more clues. "It really would be best if you recount to me what happened to you since last time we met" he added.

The snake snapped out of his daze only when he heard the request of the skinny figure on the screen talk.

After thinking about it a bit, he decided that he had to do it. Although the trust on the horned creature had been seriously compromised after all the things he had suffered at the hand of Carelia, he was his last chance to get rid of her.

He started to narrate his adventures, however he wasn't inexpert as in their first meeting. He kept some things to himself, first of all, the Heavenly Battleground Technique. There was no need to let people know all his secrets. Even those that were friendly to him.

He spoke for a half hour, recounting his first interaction with Carelia, the problem of the energy that was never enough, the battle for the Blood Woods and the damnable blue individual that attacked him while the MAID refused to communicate with him or let him enter his own Blue Cave. He even talked about how she had given his techniques to Star Leaf, but he didn't specify what techniques.

The eyes of the merchant widened and narrowed countless time during his speech, as his thin face became more stunned as the reptile continued with his account of the event.

When the seroent finally ended, it took some moments before Spike broke the tense silence between them.

"I will make some inquiries, young master rest assured!" said the horned creature, with a strange light shining in his eyes.

"What that's supposed to mean? You don't have any solutions at all? What bullshit shop is this Black Hand?" answered snickering the snake. He didn't expect a magic fix to the problem, but at least an explanation on why he had been given such a bugged Artificial Intelligence.

He had spent so much time and effort building this array in secret, he couldn't end up empty-handed.

"Rest assured, young master, we will immediately send someone to your location to give a look at the MAID. If the product is as you described it, not only we will refund it but also pay you reparation on the problems it caused you! The Black Hand is known across the Empire for the care that we take of our customers " explained Spike.

"If it is as I describe it?" a displeased voice came out of the serpent mouth together with a splash of silver energy. "Are you calling me a liar?" the serpent didn't change his expression, but his tone alone revealed his annoyance.

"No, never! Hahaha, young master, it's business practice to control before giving a refund..." Spike tried to salvage the situation. He realized that he slipped up, probably because the things that the serpent had said where very difficult to believe. However, considering all the other things that he knew about him and the time-frame of the events, he could not say that his story didn't add up.

"It is hard for me to believe that you take care of your customers if the first thing that you do when you receive a complaint is to refuse to believe me" continued Darkscale, beating down the horned merchant with his own words.

"Hahaha young master, I really need to follow protocol on this one. If a unit coming out from our contractors is malfunctioning so bad, we need to take all the precaution possible... let me see, I will make it up to you giving you something else, ok?" continued nervously the horned creature. He still didn't want to lose his future golden goose. Not after all the pain that he had endured for it.

"Hm?" The snake finally stopped talking, looking at the black screen with a curious eye. Although they gave him Carelia, the Black Hand also gave him two technique that proved themselves pretty useful. If he managed to squeeze something else of value from them, it would be great.

"From what you say you have a problem with a human, a link between your two cultivation bases that don't allow you to hurt her or to try to dominate her with the Slave Mark Technique or any other mean... it seems some kind of support technique for dual cultivator...I will give you something that you can use to help you to get rid of it" explained Spike, smiling.

Darkscale's eyes widened, his heart starting to beat loudly.

"There are many ways to destroy a link like that... I will give you the receipt for a Cleaning Potion. It is a very basic concoction that will make you eject all the energy hidden inside your body."