Chapter 23: The Blue Cloak Shop

    At Waldecian market

    A medicine shop that was once a small, unnoticed place, had now become the most popular medicine store in the city, or even the whole realm.

    Powerful, respectable people visited this place all the time.

    What attracted them was a potion that could be produced here only.

    They were made by a skillful alphabet user. Even a high-rank alchemist or alphabet user could not produce these potions.

    Its name was “Magical-Power-Restoring Potion.” They were no ordinary potions because of a latent property shortening the spell-casting time, this had taken the world by storm; even the Church of Light was interested.

    This place was called “The Blue Cloak Shop.” But before, it was “Matin’s medicine store.” He just came up with the new name recently; nobody knew its hidden meaning. They assumed that it was the name honoring the person behind the shop’s success.

    The Blue Cloak Shop had a strange selling logic. Even though the magical-power-restoring-potions with a latent property were very high in demand, they only sold a few bottles at the time. Each day, the numbers were limited; and they did not have a policy doing trade monopoly with anyone, even the Church of Light, the ruler of the city.

    This thing made The Blue Cloak Shop highly respectable; be it small or great kingdoms or the Church of Light, they all sent their people here to purchase the goods every day.

    This potion was very well-known for its terrific property; therefore, its price jumped to two diamonds, which was insanely expensive for a power-restoring potion.

    On top of that, people still predicted that it would be even higher in the future, especially in wartime. This potion would definitely be useful for that cause; it would help both high and low-rank soldiers.

    No wonder The Blue Cloak Shop was widely known throughout this realm.

    Matin, the owner of the old shop, in fact, renamed his place “Blue Cloak” after “Elen” the alphabet user that supported him.

    Seeing Elen the first time, he noticed that the boy was wearing a ragged blue cloak; so he was rude to him. However, Elen let it go and became his support. For he was grateful, Matin named this place to commemorate Elen.

    Elen disappeared without leaving any traces; it had been years that Matin could not reach the boy. He did not know how long the stored potions would last. His business had great feedback because of Elen’s advice so he still had the potions in storage to this day.

    Matin thought that if Elen was not going to appear soon, he would have to sell these potions at auction to quickly cope with the problems while finding Elen.

    The Blue Cloak Shop was so famous that lords and noblemen from all over the world always stopped by.

    So was today, this grand shop always welcomed their respectable guests in the morning because they only sell their potions precisely at noon. It was their policy.

    The shop would only sell limited numbers of potions to each customer; they also made people bid their cue cards. And surely, that interested a lot of people. The cue cards received extremely high bids each day; they probably cost even higher than the potions. So, the shop made a lot of profit out of this.

    But this morning was different because something strange happened. A boy in a blue old, shabby cloak walked in.

    Among the noble guests who had been waiting to bid the cue cards, the boy was a black sheep catching a lot of people’s attention.

    The well-trained employees rushed to intercept the boy.

    “Get out, you filthy rat. This is not a place for you to run around!” One of them yelled out loudly. He was afraid that the boy’s appearance would upset the other respectable guests and defame this luxurious place. So, he quickly ran out to drive the little one away.

    The other staff followed closely and surrounded the boy.

    However, no matter how harsh or how foul the scold was, he stayed calm and his eyes were cold. The small guy did not seem to be a bit scared.

    In addition to that, with careless manners, he walked on without even glaring at those staff.

    “You bastard! How dare you! Boys, get rid of him!” A guy, presumably the boss, ordered his subordinates to handle the boy.

    An employee quickly charged at the little one, wishing to give him some lessons. He grabbed the boy’s shoulder and was going to throw him out of the place.

    WHOOOOSH!

    The boy did not move, but that employee’s body was bounced out as if he was electrified. That surprised the crowd.

    This action got people interested in the ragged-cloak boy even more. Countless eyes were all staring at him.

    “Did you see! The boy did not even move, and that guy already sprang off.” Said a guy sitting in the shop.

    “That is no ordinary boy; he is probably a high-ranking wizard. Look, he’s even hiding his face. There must be something about his identity.” Another guy supported.

    The child looked indifferent. He did not care about anything walking to the center of the shop.

    The other employees surrounding him were suddenly scared of the boy; the thing that just happened showed that this boy was not ordinary.

    He had been silent. But arriving at the center, he stopped and said,

    “Go get Matin.” The youthful voice came out monotonously.

    People were stunned. From his earlier actions, they thought that he might be a skillful person from a gnome tribe or a hobbit. But hearing the voice uttered, they were sure that that was just a child.

    How could a child be a high-rank wizard? That made his identity even more mysterious.

    Although this boy was a high-rank wizard, it did not mean that he could do anything arbitrarily in this shop. Among these honorable guests, some of them were also high-profile wizards.

    Even though his actions had made quite a scene, they did not humble the heads of the employees.

    “Your request is too high. The shop owner had never accepted any guests recently. Left alone you who seem to have some skills; city governors do not even dare to force him out.”

    The chief spoke to him arrogantly. It was true that although this shop welcomed a lot of powerful, noblemen with vicious skills; none of them could force Matin to do anything.

    People who agitated Matin barely had a place left in this route. Whether cities or kingdoms, nobody dared upset him because the potions Matin sold were very important to them. It could be said that they were the things that would indicate the fate of wars.

    A lot of cities and kingdoms wanted to store these potions.

    Therefore, making the shop owner mad was not a good choice for them.

    Huh!

    Only a few words coming out of the boy’s mouth could make people burst out laughing. His arrogant manners made him an overreacher. People smiled and laughed at him insultingly.

    The commotion went on for a short while then a man walked out of the back. The way he dressed along with his conduct said that he was an important person in the shop. As he walked past, all the staff meekly showed him respect.

    The guy entered with a listless countenance and looked at the chief of staff.

    Seeing this guy walking in, the chief walked to him. There appeared a smile on his face; he spoke in an obsequious voice.

    “Mister Reiry, it is a small problem. I can handle it.”

    He politely told that to the guy. After all, it was the loud noise causing the chaos in the shop that made the man named Reiry come out.

    However, when Reiry saw the troublemaker, his hands trembled, and so did his whole body. He was shocked and anxiously said something.

    “Sir…sir…you came back.” Reiry’s voice was full of excitement and shock. Seeing the boy, he could not believe his eyes.

    The child, on the other hand, stayed calm and cold. He glared at Reiry. Seeing the new guy’s face, with his excellent memory, he remembered that he was one of Matin’s men. The one who used to be his minion when he made these potions.

    “Hm…” The little one groaned.

    And Reiry could no longer compose himself because of that. His heart was filled with thrill and exhilaration.

    “I apologize for the uncivil welcome, I will bring you to Mister Matin now sir.”

    Reiry said it politely; he treated the boy as if he was an aristocrat which confused a lot of people.

    “Who is this kid? Why is Reiry treating him so nicely?” Said a customer.

    After the boy and Reiry were gone, another guy then said,

    “Did you see that kid’s cloak? Although it looked so shabby, it was still blue. Don’t you feel like that boy had something to do with the shop’s name?”

    “Ah…that’s right! Maybe…that kid was the shop’s alphabet user.” A bald man answered amazedly.

    “Maybe what you said is true. From the way he fought earlier, he was not even moving but he could bounce that guy off. Probably, the way I could not sense his magical power when he did that was because he is an alphabet user.” Said a warrior wizard.

    His words blew people’s minds; maybe they had just met the unknown alphabet user of The Blue Cloak Shop.

    Shortly, Reiry got Merlin to Matin’s office.

    Reiry did not even have a chance to open the door when Merlin used his power to do so first.

    BANG!

    His action did not frighten Reiry even slightly. He knew how strong and proud this alphabet user was. But no matter how arrogant the boy was, because of his skills, he earned all the right to be so.

    That loud door-knocking agitated Matin.

    “Are you out of your mind, opening my door so obnoxiously loud!”

    Matin shouted without looking up from the files and papers.

    After a while, after all, he received was silence, he looked up.

    As soon as he looked up, his eyes opened up widely. They showed how obviously happy he felt.

    “Sir…Elen…it’s really you sir. You are back.”

    Matin stood up from the chair and rushed to Merlin; he mindlessly cried. He had been so miserable because he was running out of the potions.

    Merlin had vanished for four years; that problem tore Matin’s heart. So, Merlin’s appearance now was like a god appearing in front of Matin. He was no longer worried about all these problems.

    Merlin was still quiet; he barely showed any emotions. This coldness really suited his identity.

    Merlin did not care about Matin crying like a child. He walked to the chair in the center of the room which was the same one that Matin just got up from. He stopped and sat down.

    And of course, nobody was against it. At the moment, nobody else was as worthy of this chair as Merlin.

    The chief of staff who just got here watched the scene with his mouth wide open. The boy in the dirty cloak was sitting on the chair of The Blue Clock Shop’s owner.

    Staring at Matin and Reiry, he saw that the two were standing quietly; their manners were really polite.

    “How could this be? Who is this kid?” He thought.

    With everything right now, the chief’s face turned as pale as paper when he realized that that dirty child before him was this powerful.

    And with his manners right now, it seemed like he was the real shop owner. Even Matin and Reiry were treating him nicely.

    So, what was going to happen with the head of employees? He had stepped on the feet of someone he should not have bothered. And that was a huge mistake.

    His face was filled with concern; he looked really anxious.

    “Do not worry, just go back and do your job. I will consider this never happened.” Merlin said calmly and coldly as if his words could freeze a person.

    Hearing that, the head of staff felt like his burden was lifted up.

    “Thank you so much, sir. I will not make any mistakes again.” He answered with relief.

    Understanding the situation, Matin and Reiry said nothing. They just turned around to look at the head of employees standing at the door.

    These things make it even clearer for the chief that this boy was really an important person in the shop. Maybe, this little guy was the alphabet user everyone was guessing.

    “You guys may go right now. I have something to talk to Matin.” His monotonous voice was uttered powerfully.

    As soon as they heard that, they hurried out of the room.

    Now there were only Matin and Merlin left in the room.

    He asked Matin a lot of things and he realized that he had been stuck in that strange hole’s dimension for four years. And as seen, The Blue Cloak Shop had become very popular when he was not here.

    During these four years, there had been wars now and then between kingdoms. And unbelievably, the sides with the power-restoring potions could often turn the situations around and win their fights. It was considered one of the war’s variables.

    Not only that, even the high-level adventurers who used these potions also succeeded in hunting lots of level-five beasts.

    The power of level-five beasts was comparable to that at the top margin of wizard-warrior level. There were not so many brave men who were brave enough to challenge them. But when they used the potions, their hunts were easier.

    For these reasons, this specific potion had become so popular, and it was every wizard’s desire.

    Because Merlin had been gone for four years, that made him thirteen and a few months old now. But his appearance looked like that of a twelve-year-old boy. It was the result of him reaching the stem-building stage of Qi cultivation.

    The practice could turn an ordinary person into an extraordinary one. Each time one penetrated through a level, his or her body changed. Basically, if he or she reached the stem-building stage, his or her body’s growth would slow down a fifth of the normal rate.

    That meant every five years the body would get only one year older. And if that person could drill even higher levels, his or her body would get older three times slower than the previous rate. That being said, being in the zone of the budding stage, he or she would get older fifteen years slower, and forty-five years slower in the blooming stage.

    Defying one’s fate, therefore, was the path of all practitioners. That was why the practitioners in high-stages zones got old slower than normal people and could live longer than any ordinary people.

    After that, Merlin asked about Arthur. And surely, with his position right now, Matin could find all the information Merlin wanted to know easily. Aside from that, Merlin also wanted to know about the situations of all kingdoms.

    Arthur’s news was related to the Aragon kingdom’s politics.

    That was because Duke Cowe, Arthur’s father, was appointed heir to the throne, to succeed the present king of Aragon. The reason was that the current king had no heir; so, Duke Cowe, his beloved brother was appointed as the heir.

    Not long after, Arthur was called back to Aragon. He had to leave his education at Waldecian Academy behind to assist Duke Cowe and learn about administration. If nothing went wrong, Arthur would become the next heir in the future.

    Furthermore, there was also news saying Arthur became a disciple of the Aragon kingdom’s hero. That guy had refused the position as an honorable Knight of the Round Table several times; he said no every single time. His name was “Dragon S. Eric;” he was entitled the strongest guy in the Aragon kingdom.

    His magical power was in the zone of archwizard level. People knew him as the best swordsman in the kingdom. Almost half of the Knights of the Round Table were his students.

    Being Eric’s student guaranteed that Arthur’s future would be glorious.

    Merlin was interested in Arthur because he remembered the time before he fell down the mysterious hole. He sensed familiar energy in Arthur’s body after he had pulled the sword out. From his guess, it was possible that that sword was another one of Solomon’s possessions.

    But when he heard Arthur was Eric’s student, he got worried. It meant that if that sword was really Solomon’s possession, it would not be so easy for him to seize it. Arthur’s powerful teacher would probably become his obstacle.

    He had to think carefully about everything relating to his life. Now he was only at the first level of the stem-building stage.

    Xian vital essence and magical power were different. Merlin had not had a chance to fight in this realm. But from what he had observed in Waldecian Academy, with the first level of the stem-building stage, he could surely fight the sorcerers. But for the wizard warriors, he was not so sure.

    In the future, he planned to get close to Arthur again, to test if that sword was really Solomon’s possession. If it was, he would have to find a way to take it. And if the situation went that far, he would have to think thoroughly again.

    Another thing that Merlin was thinking about was how to use his magical power.

    Merlin asked Matin more questions regarding obtaining the magical cloak.

    The magical cloak was an important thing for every wizard. It made one superior to other wizards. Without it, that person might be at a disadvantage which could get oneself into great difficulty.

    Before this, Merlin had limited knowledge about the magical cloaks due to his low servant position; he did not benefit much from it.

    But everything was different now. Being at the stem-building stage made him now worriless about building Taoist Qi pillars. He could now practice magic as he wanted.

    He no longer needed to live with a low status.

    Even though the existence of a practitioner at the blooming stage still troubled him, he could probably avoid it being a stem builder.

    When he became a wizard, his wizard identity would conceal his real identity.

    From the information he got from Matin, he learned that the magical cloaks were not restricted to Waldecian Academy’s students only.

    The Church of Light being the center of the world allowed outsiders to participate in their test.

    But the attendees had to pay ten diamonds as the fees. With Merlin’s position right now, it was not a problem for him.

    The next examination would start a month from now. So, Merlin decided to stay at The Blue Cloak Shop for one month to produce more potions before attending the magical-cloak-seizing test that was about to happen.