Edgar drew in a deep breath, hiding his anticipation. "Can you teach me more about Potions?"

Hera puffed out her chest proudly, making his gaze wander. "Of course."

She answered as though Edgar had asked whether water was wet.

"My father made sure I learned alchemy from a young age. It’s one of the few things that are essential for survival."

Edgar’s eyes lit up, as he asked again. "Can you teach me?"

Hera looked at him for a moment before narrowing her emerald eyes suspiciously.

"You’re trying to make me work for free, aren’t you?"

"...No."

"You are!" She replied, pointing at him. "Stop lying to me, stoopid."

Edgar’s lips twitched, though he didn’t take her words to heart.

"So, what do you need in return?" Edgar asked, glancing back at the old man pouring the Three-Legged Raven’s blood into a container.

"Hmm, there isn’t anything that you can give me right now." The lady replied. "But I will take your word, if I ever need something later."

The lady picked up the few blood samples that were placed at the front of the counter.

She raised them on either side of her face to show them to him.

"There are two types of blood in Nightmare monsters." She replied, showing the blood. "A positive blood and a negative blood."

She put the negative one down and picked up another sample.

"If you add two positive bloods together, it will create an even stronger positive blood."

Putting all the samples down, she continued,"The vice versa is also true."

Edgar took the raven blood and passed it to the soldier following them once again.

"But how do you create potions out of it?" Edgar asked curiously.

"I am getting to the topic." The lady clicked her tongue in a mischievous way. "You are a bad student, Edgar."

Edgar looked at her in stunned silence before looking away.

’Is she not aware of her own charms?’

He grumbled inwardly, hiding his frustration beneath his calm expression.

Hera, to say the least, was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid his eyes upon.

Even her unintentional teasing was landing heavy attacks on him.

’Wait... how old is she?’ Edgar felt a chill run down his spine. ’No, what exactly are the norms of this world anyway?’

Completely oblivious to his inner dilemma, the young lady continued in a soft tone.

"Positive blood creates a healing effect, while negative blood creates a decaying effect."

Hera placed the two vials side by side on the wooden counter.

"Positive blood is mostly used for healing potions, vitality tonics, and medicines that strengthen the body."

She tapped the darker vial with her finger.

"Negative blood is used for poisons, corrosion potions, weakening agents, and certain ritual mixtures."

Edgar nodded thoughtfully.

"So simply mixing positive blood with herbs creates a healing potion?"

Hera immediately shook her head."If only it were that easy."

She picked up a dried leaf from a basket behind the counter.

"Every ingredient has an affinity. While some lean toward life, others lean toward decay, and some are completely neutral."

She placed the leaf between the two blood samples.

"If you randomly mix ingredients together..."

She made a small exploding gesture with her hands.

"...the best outcome is a useless liquid."

Edgar nodded his head, rubbing the back of his neck.

He picked up all the samples and asked the old man to pack them all.

’The more blood I have for the body reconstruction, the better.’

He took the items he had just bought and passed them back to the soldier, who was getting annoyed with him.

Edgar then looked back at the girl, who was staring at him. "What?"

"You are not expecting us to pay for all those things, right?"

Edgar replied with a bright smile. "Subtract the money from what I owe your clan."

"You haven’t even started working yet!"

He ignored the girl and began walking around once again.

The girl was pouting behind her veil, but she kept walking by his side.

"I still don’t understand many things." Edgar asked her. "Like, am I supposed to create potions from just positive and negative blood?"

"You still have a long way to go, student." Hera replied, patting his back. "Those are just the basics. You need to understand the more complex stuff to create potions."

Edgar looked at her speechlessly.

’I guess creating potions is like mixing different chemicals.’

It was a rather crude way to sum it up, but Edgar was sure it was more or less the same.

’Urgh, I don’t want to study everything once again.’

At such a time, Edgar was really grateful to have a system to guide him on his path as a builder.

Otherwise, the trial-and-error method would have been the death of him.

"Don’t worry, my first student." Noticing his complicated gaze, she said soothingly. "You will be a regular from here on. We will have plenty of time together."

At first, Edgar didn’t understand, but after a while he did.

’The builders of this world take a lot of time to create a building.’

Not everyone was like him, creating something in a matter of minutes.

Edgar smiled and looked at the girl.

"Sure."

’I wonder how she would react if she ever got to know about my specialty.’

Though, Edgar wasn’t going to show his true skills to anyone anytime soon.

---

After walking around with the young lady of the clan, Edgar finally returned to the main gate.

Hera returned to her castle, as she wasn’t allowed to roam around the Fortress Wall.

Elder Roland was waiting for him with a carriage and the Nightmare Stones.

He smiled when he saw Edgar and Andrew holding all the items they had bought.

"I hope we will have a pleasant business." He said, extending his hand. "The stones are inside the carriage."

Edgar shook his hand and looked at the carriage, which didn’t have any driver.

"The carriage is a gift from us." Roland said quickly. "It’s a token of our appreciation."

Edgar smiled.

"Thank you."

He gestured for Andrew to put down all the items while he checked the stones.

’Hmm, how should I spend all these stones?’ Edgar thought delightedly.