A Sorcerer's Journey Chapter 24
Having committed to manufacturing the perfumes for two consecutive days even while keeping his library cleaning work, Ge Lin still looked quite enthusiastic despite being exhausted physically. He was dashing for the trading market in the Black Tower with his 30 vials of newly-made aphrodisiacs.
"Will you please sell these 30 vials of perfumes for me? You can sell them at one magic stone per vial," Ge Lin politely asked a fat boy who was reading a sorcery book at the time.
"Perfumes? What kind of perfume？Come on, I've got all the nectars in the world and they smell great." The boy raised his head quickly. His eyes could barely be seen because they were partly covered by the dewlaps around his eye sockets.
"It's a little creation of mine. It stimulates s.e.x desire when sprayed on. And there are vials for both females and males, too."
"Aphrodisiac!" The boy suddenly sounded interested and was about to try one.
"Be careful! It backfires if you pick the wrong one."
Following Ge Lin's instruction, the boy sniffed at the one for males and indulged himself in the scent for a while. He then opened his eyes and exclaimed:
"Wow, this is fantastic!" The boy continued. "What do you call it? Have you got a name for it yet? It did remind me of the ecstatic first love. It's fabulous!"
"Well, the name..." Ge Lin stuttered for he had never thought that the perfumes should be named.
"How about we call it the Love Vial?" The boy became feverish at the name.
"Love Vial, brilliant！Let's name it that! "
"But it is worth more than one stone per vial, don't you think? Let's make it two," said the boy.
"Two? I don't think the pupils can afford that much!"
"Oh, my boy, there's no way that you think that I'm selling it to only to those pupils, do you?"
"What? The sorcerers, too?!" Ge Lin inquired.
"Exactly! We all have our desires, the sorcerers included."
"Okay, then. We price it at two stones per vial and I will knock ten percent off the sales to you."
"Then we have a deal."
Ge Lin woke up early the next day. He then gobbled up something and got ready to go to the trading market. He needed the stones for another reason. He had a Soul Sorcery cla.s.s that afternoon and the lecturer was a well-reputed sorcerer, who would introduce the basics of Soul Sorcery, which would help you lay the groundwork for raising Symbiotic Insects and Soul Slaves. But one magic stone was needed for admission.
But now Ge Lin did not have a penny. The one and a half stones had been consumed on buying the necessary ingredients for manufacturing the aphrodisiacs.
"Oh, My dear! Here you are! The inventor of the Love Vial!" The fat boy was so swift in welcoming Ge Lin.
"It sold well?" Ge Lin asked keenly while wondering how a person as fat as him could manage such an agility.
"You have no idea how well it went! I introduced one vial to a sorcerer. He loved it and bought all the vials. He even paid me an intermediate magic stone[1] and left without asking for the change! Do you have more of these? I am planning to expand the market a little bit and sell it to other schools!" The boy rambled on as he handed Ge Lin a bag of magical stones.
"Well, I don't know. I mean, I can't make it now because I'm busy preparing for the imminent First-years Sorcery Test. But still, I will make some when I am low on magic stones." Ge Lin declined the offer as he counted the stones in the bag.
"Okay, then. But please give me the information of your crystal ball. We'll be in touch! I'm d.i.c.kens, by the way."
Ge Lin left the trading market quietly. He was now worried that someone might become jealous of his wealth and cast a curse on him.
Ge Lin then scrambled towards the seventh floor to get the high-resolution microscope.
"Oh, Here you are! You've got the stones, I guess?" Varro remembered Ge Lin for he didn't have many customers.
"Yeah, 20 stones, not a nickel less."
"Nice. But my mentor is using that microscope you asked, now you give me your crystal ball information and I will contact you immediately when it is available."
Although Ge Lin was doubtful, he decided to take a risk and handed over the 20 stones to Varro.
Ge Lin then galloped to Soul Sorcery cla.s.sroom and managed to get there in time.
"Does anyone of you have any idea how people from Foreign Lands call us sorcerers? The Lord of Slaves! This demonstrates their grave fear of soul-slave control."
The cla.s.s lasted for two hourgla.s.ses and most of the time the teacher was eulogizing the greatness of sorcerers. But he was indeed a great sorcerer and it seemed that he was so addicted to his sorceries. Ge Lin was immersed in listening to him whenever he was talking about Symbiotic Insects.
After the cla.s.s was dismissed, Ge Lin went back to his testing table. He knew the olfactory enhancement experiment on the rats couldn't carry on without the high-resolution microscope, so he decided to prioritize the cultivation of the Symbiotic Insect.
Theoretically, any insects in nature could be used as a Symbiotic Insect which was able to protect its host from being mentally controlled because of some of the features of the insect's soul. But every raiser of the insect wanted their insect have unique properties. Ge Lin had collected seven sorts of insects and had ruled out four. Now he had three options:
The first one was the Corpse-Eating Insect, which, as its name implied, fed on dead bodies. Ge Lin had collected some from a cursed dead body.
The second one was called Gadfly, a rarely known parasite. They would experience a strange circle of life. They were born in dung produced by cranes. When crane-dung-eating mollusks ate the dung, the Gadflies entered the mollusk's' body and lived in their intestines. One thing we needed to pay heed to was the fact that the Gadflies caused the mollusks' genes to mutate which, as a result, grew extra legs or feet and the mollusks were then made lumbering in movement, which made them more likely to be eaten by the crane. Finally, the Gadflies came to the cranes.
The third one was Diaphania, a much-preferred Symbiotic Insect by the sorcerers. Although they had little ability to attack but they could prolong the nurturer's longevity, in some cases, by even 100 years.
After weighing the cons and pros of the above-said three Symbiotic Insects, Ge Lin concluded that Corpse-Eating Insects were too cruel for him so he ditched them.
Now Ge Lin was stuck between Gadfly and Diaphania. Ge Lin believed that Diaphania had been favored for a good reason. But he was more interested in Gadfly because of the mutations involved, albeit not good ones.
"Mutation was basically an evolution and when the Gadfly caused a mutation in its hosts' genes, and it was clearly not through the Hematology Sorcery. So did it have something to do with olfactory enhancement?" Ge Lin kept thinking.
Then Ge Lin decided to experiment the Gadfly on a live frog.
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Footnote:
1. One intermediate magical stone can be converted to 100 magical stones on the Sorcery Continent.