Chapter 79 – Fishman’s Magic

“I was going to ask for some potion recipes.” Jace says, “Are there any recipes for mana potions that are cheap and easy to make?”

“That’s a potion that’s not easy to make.” Ursula wiped the beads of sweat off her head with her arm and stood up, asking, “Are you going to use it yourself, or are you going to sell it for money, give it to someone else to use or something?”

“Self-use.” Jace admitted.

Ursula nodded and stood there in thought for a moment, and Jace found it hard to restrain himself from stealing glances at the bulge in her chest that was covered with a thin tank top.

She wasn’t exactly pretty, and she was at least ten years older than Jace, and if she’d been put in a pre-crossing situation, Jace probably wouldn’t have thought anything else at all.

But now he was a seventeen year old, and no matter what he had been, this body was now everything it should be, and even if his soul was older, it would be difficult to forcibly suppress the young urges of his physiology.

Sometimes, he even felt that his thoughts, his desires were being turned back on him by this body.

Not to mention the fact that Ursula Deering was surrounded by steam and her moist skin instead looked like that of a teenage girl, coupled with her lean and somewhat muscular figure, and standing there with her waist pressed so uncovered ……

After all, this wasn’t an online world where you could just find all sorts of strange resources. Still, Jace tried his best not to think about such things; after all, he was here to ask for help, and it would be bad for the other side to detect the sight and think of himself as some kind of hooligan.

Ursula pondered for a moment and said, “Magic Emperor Grass, Thorn Grass, Silver Leaf Grass, these are the necessary materials, these three materials can be used to make different effects of mental power replenishment potions through different ratios, that is, the mana potion you are talking about. If you can help me collect the materials, I can help you make it, after all, you are also one of us here, so it’s free, or are you planning to make it yourself?”

Jace said, “It’s better if I find the materials and delegate you to help me, I don’t know alchemy.”

“Ha, no need to be modest.” Ursula said, “When we first met, I smelled the scent of transformed Shadow Power on you, you were worried that the people here would turn against you and drank a Shadow Protection Potion in advance, right? There’s no one in this city besides me making Shadow Protection Potion right now, so I’m guessing you made it yourself.”

Jace gave an awkward laugh and said, “But I really haven’t made any potions, and that medicine …… can only be considered practicing and very unskilled, so I still have to ask you.”

“I can teach you some alchemy skills.” Ursula said, “Currently we only have one person here, that is, I’m busy, it’s really a bit busy, these warlocks need quite a lot of potions, whether it’s for experiments or to mitigate the negative effects of the Shadow spell, antidotes or ……”

“Great, I’d like to learn more about alchemy too.”

Looking at this alchemist who was able to recite the recipe for a mana potion off the top of his head, Jace suddenly remembered a question.

“By the way, Ms. Ursula Deering, is there a potion that can cure bat poison?” Jess asked.

“Bat poison?” Ursula multiplied a bit of the potion with a spoon, tasted the flavor gently, turned down the heat a bit, sat down in a nearby chair and looked over, and asked, “What kind of batbane? The poisonous mist bats of South Elwyn?”

Jace says, “The riding bat of the Amani Forest Trolls, of Cintron, do you know anything about that poison?”

“I know.” Ursula said, “The poison of that bat is similar to that of a cobra in the Valley of Thorns, which causes paralysis when poisoned and is very lethal to one’s senses and motor skills.”

Jace nodded and said, “I have a friend who was poisoned like that, but the toxicity has passed, and now the aftereffects left behind have caused him to lose sight in one eye, and he often shakes his hand uncontrollably, is there any medication that can cure such aftereffects?”

“In that case, it’s an entirely different problem, Jace.” Ursula said, “There aren’t many ways to do it, and each is hard to get, because what you need is to restore your body’s normal mechanisms, and relying on the normal medications for poisonings just doesn’t cut it at all.”

“I’ll tell you the best place to go.” She added, “Go to the elves and ask, Quel’thalas has been fighting Amani trolls for thousands of years, I think they have far more experience fighting troll riding bats than we do, and elven alchemy is inherited from the ancient elven lands of legend, it’s a lot different from humans.”

“Elves.” Jace muttered, was that the easiest of the few ways?

Nowadays, let alone going to Quetzalcoatl, it was extremely difficult to see a real elf in Stormwind since the expedition left.

The guys who occasionally came across that looked like elves were all half-elves who had been abandoned by Quel’thalas and had no choice but to survive in human society, and there was no difference at all from ordinary humans except for the fact that they didn’t look quite the same.

But Ursula’s words did give him a little hope that Grid’s disability might actually be cured by the elf.

“It seems like we still need to think long and hard, or talk about mana potions.”

Ursula nodded and said, ”I have two more versatile formulas here now, a primary mana potion commonly used by introductory mages, and a secondary potion commonly used by advanced skilled mages, which one do you intend to have? For us warlocks, we don’t use magic as often as those tricksters from the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary, I think we can go for the primary potion, because the Thorn Algae needed for the secondary potion grows in the sea, it’s really hard to collect for ordinary people, and the price isn’t cheap either.”

Jess said, “Then let’s prepare the beginner’s first.”

Ursula took out a piece of water spinach paper and read as she wrote, “0.5 pounds of Magic Emperor Grass, 3 pounds of Silver Leaf Grass, and one plant of Stonecrop Grass, this will make about 4 bottles of the potion, you just need to take enough ingredients and bring the appropriate number of bottles to me, I can make it for you.”

“Where is the Devil Emperor Grass more plentiful? Are you planning on picking the Demon Emperor Grass yourself?”

“Sure, I can’t afford to go and buy it outright.”

Ursula scratched her neck and said, “Northwest of Sentinel Ridge there is an old mine that is now unoccupied called the Jangolod Pit. The direction of that pit towards the coast, that is, to the west will take you up a very large high slope, which faces the sea breeze and has quite a lot of magic royal grass growing there. But the problem lies in the fact that since I know that it is suitable for Magic Imperial Grass to grow there, everyone knows …… to watch out for Jackals. The jackals have been rampant as hell lately, and there are rumors that there are jackal clans over at the Jangorod Pit, and they also harvest herbs to boil potions.”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

Jace finished and was just about to leave when Ursula called out to him and said, “By the way, Jace, if you’re going to the Wild West …… I’ve got a message about the fish people of the Wild West.”

Jess asked, “What news?”

Ursula explained, “Patrols from the Western Springs have found fishmen on the northern coast who have mastered dark magic and can manipulate shadows …… to attack passersby, including soldiers. My guess is that those fishmen most likely learned their magic from orc warlocks, perhaps they have books with spells written in them, have mastered the art of casting spells, or at least have heard of incantations and the like from the orcs.”

“I had wanted to go and see what these fish people knew, maybe we could enrich our spell collection. But as you know I have a lot of medicine to brew and never got a chance to go. Could you go and scout out the situation, and if it’s some new spell, maybe we could get a few willing companions to go along and see how they learned it.”

“Yes, but a spellbook?” Jace asked, “Do we still have that sort of thing?”

“Of course.” Ursula said, “Our group is one that focuses on sharing, and everyone can go through that spellbook. But most of what’s on it is invalid spells, and a lot of it is just guesswork, hearsay, or unclear stuff recorded by ear, kept by Galdus. Don’t expect to find anything good on there by yourself; Garkin sometimes calls us together just to test whether the spells on there work, including the ones you started with ……”

From listening to Marin’s explanation of spellcasting techniques, Jace realized how much harm these inaccurate spells and spellcasting techniques could do, and these collected ambiguities didn’t appeal to him as much.

Ursula says, “Whatever you find, be sure to show it to me first when you get back, Western Springs Fortress doesn’t want the denizens over here to know that the fishmen have learned this kind of magic just yet, after all, it’s still kind of scary news that there are fishmen who have learned orcish magic, so it was only under heavy blockade that I inquired.”

Jace asks, “Are you so sure that the fishmen must be in possession of some kind of grimoire or something? Can fishmen read orcish as well?”

Ursula says, “You underestimate the intelligence of the fishmen, Jace, even if they didn’t have the spellbook they got from the orcs, they must have their own way of noting things down. By the way, don’t go alone, at least have a helper, the individual fishmen may be weak, but they know their weaknesses well enough to never go alone.”

“I see.” Jace thought, this is the kind of thing you should never call on Grid, there’s no intuitive payoff, the goal is to find the warlock’s magic, and the one he’s dealing with is a fishman warlock, who is literally poking him in the lung tubes in every way.

But did he have any other friends besides Grid who could help? Find another warlock?

There isn’t a willing partner for Jace in this basement, Gagin, Galders …… he would never put his safety in the hands of these people.

By the way, isn’t Sarno a partner?

If you do bring someone other than a warlock along, it means that Saeuno can never show up.

But Saënor’s loyalty, his abilities, were far better than whatever help he could find in a few taverns in Stormwind.

And it won’t divide the spoils, it won’t fight, it won’t start a conflict ……