Leaving Vibia behind in the abandoned building she claimed as her home Arthur returned to his home to prepare the artificial blood for the golems. Opening up the book in his secured bedroom Arthur placed it upon a temporary table conjured from earth. The recipe of the artificial blood was on the fourth page after the material list for the golems as a whole.
The first thing that was needed was fresh blood, with the rats he wouldn’t need to worry about that. Next up was something called phantom membrane, based on the brief description Brexius included; it was harvested from the corpses of something called a wraith. “I will need to consult Georgius on this and find where I can either buy it or find it.’
The final thing that was needed was at the bare minimum a lesser mana stone to properly imbue the necessary amounts of mana. ‘I will need to ask Georgius about this as well, I don’t know anything about mana stones, their prices, or their gradings.’
There were still several hours of sunlight left in the day leaving Arthur with some time to visit and ask his former master about both the phantom membrane and mana stones. But Arthur wanted to look over the rest of the instructions before he left.
The next important part was a runic ink that is used to inscribe runes to enchant objects. The only problem was that Brexius did not include a recipe on how to make it, leaving another thing to ask his former master.
‘Just my luck, but I still have time to go and ask him.’
Arthur quickly returned the journal to his bag and returned his home to somewhat normal looking before heading out back to the western district to speak with his former master in the art of alchemy. As he left it was about three o’clock in the afternoon leaving the streets sparse compared to earlier in the morning. When he finally reached the Elder Nymph he noticed the building and was surprised to see that most of the few people that were walking by were avoiding the store. And when Arthur started walking towards the store several people gave him dirty looks.
The front door opened with a little ding as the bell above the door was triggered, an older voice shouted out from further inside “I’ll just be a second.” While he waited Arthur walked around the store to take a look at how things have changed. The thing that stuck out the most was the reduced number of shelves and by extension the amount of product available. There was maybe two thirds of what was there when he and Aurelio left.
Soon footsteps could be heard as Georgius popped out from behind the counter and smiled upon seeing Arthur. “Arthur, welcome back. What can I do for you?”
“I have a couple things I need to discuss with you regarding our mutual research. Do you have a moment for that?” Arthur spoke vaguely just in case someone was overhearing their conversation.
At the mention of their shared research Georgius lost the happy smile for just a second before he answered. “I have quite a bit of time now with business being quite slow. But I should stay open for at least another 2 hours, if you want to stay here for that time you can, but I won't blame you if you chose just to come back later.”
Georgius looked quite sad at the mention of slow business, clearly business was more than just a ‘bit slow.’ “Business is slow? Why? Did something happen?”
“You haven’t heard? Apparently there have been a few fights between mages and the city guard, the mages in question are convinced that they are far more capable than the guards and have elected to use violence to prove that point.” Georgius sounded quite sad as he got to the end of his explanation.
“I've encountered a supposed mage that was fighting with a group of guards. I called him out and caught him, then I handed him over to the guild. From what I expect the guild is looking into the situation and rooting out everyone who is using their arcane might real or otherwise for such reasons.” Arthur’s recount of the event of the fake mage helped Georgius calm down a bit.
But before he could speak Arthur continued. “Seeing as you are so busy I’ll just come back in two hours. I’ll bring some food for us to enjoy, just like when I was still your apprentice.”
**********
Arthur walked around the area a bit and found a food vendor ran by an older man selling these sticks with an assortment of fruits, vegetables, and cooked meats. Arthur bought four for two copper coins each, they weren't exactly the best thing he had ever eaten but given the price they were half decent. Arthur ate one and kept the other three for when he and Georgius would sit down together.
After what felt like an eternity two hours had passed and it was five o’clock, most of the people working were returning to their homes by this point and stopped by at food vendors or one of the various stores to pick up something for dinner.
Arthur quickly returned to the Elder Nymph and found Georgius sweeping up some dirt and dust that had accumulated near the door. “Oh, hello again Arthur. I was just closing up, if you help me with that we can continue our conversation that much sooner.”
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“Sure thing, just let me find a broom.” Arthur walked over to the downstairs spare room and fetched a broom, along with Georgius the two made quick work of the dirt and dust that was scattered throughout the room from the customers throughout the day.
Once everything was clean the two locked the front door and walked upstairs to finish the conversation they were having. When they were both properly seated Arthur retrieved the three sticks with food and placed them on a plate for the both of them to share. Georgius picked one up and upon taking a bite it was clear he enjoyed it.
“This is wonderful food you have brought, did you by any chance buy it from one of those food vendors close to the market?”
“I did, I already ate one so you can have two of them.” A short laugh from Georgius was filled by him saying “Don’t mind if I do.” before he quickly chewed through both that were left for him. Arthur slowly munched away instead.
Once they were both done with their food Arthur spoke up. “Now with the food out of the way we should return to the conversation at hand. I have been looking into golemancy with little luck on my part, but I did stumble across a journal of a mage from almost eight hundred years ago.” To prove his point Arthur showed Georgius the journal and flipped to the page with the diagram of the rat flesh golem.
Georgius picked up the journal and inspected the diagram, as he looked it over he gave a few “Hmm”s for about a minute. When he was finished with it he returned it to Arthur and gave his opinion. “Well I wouldn't call it incredible by any means, but this will be far easier than going through the normal process of attaining the rank of evoker and receiving the authority to learn proper enchanting normally.”
“How long does it take to become an evoker?” Arthur asked as he returned the journal to his bag.
“Well, it took me about a year to do that. But you are a special case, for you I would say if you keep up the good work only in about half a year.” Arthur frowned, that wasn’t the answer he was hoping to hear. “Even with that book and its knowledge I wouldn't expect you to get more than a handful or working prototypes by then. You will of course still have an edge over the others, but you still would benefit more with proper guidance.”
The rest of the conversation consisted of Arthur asking questions about some of the recipes and or the ingredients that were needed. In doing so he learned that phantom membrane could just be bought from the mages guild as it was a somewhat common ingredient. The ink on the other hand was a bit more difficult to acquire. He could either buy it from the guild, but given the nature of who Arthur was and his skill level that would be suspicious, he could buy it from someone who knows how to make it like Georgius did when he was experimenting, or he could make it himself. And finally they mana stone, of course the guild sells them, but like before with the ink that would be suspicious. Leaving the only option to buy them from either one of the mines or someone else, of which Georgius knew someone.
Of course Arthur pressed for the name of this mysterious seller and eventually Georgius relented. “The man’s name is Osvald, he's a Northman and deals in some of the more… questionable markets. But he is reliable and discreet enough to not tell anyone about his clients, when I was studying the flesh golem diagrams I went to him for what I needed. Here, I will give you his address. Just tell him I sent you to him.”
Now with a possible supplier for all the exotic goods Arthur might need for his experiments he soon excused himself and left the store after bidding his former teacher goodbye. ‘No I actually have a source for all the things I need to actually build my first prototype. But I’ll talk to this Osvald sometime tomorrow, it's getting a bit late to be doing business with someone and it might drag on longer than I expect.’
As such Arthur immediately returned to his home to have something to eat and do a little bit of studying with the other two books he borrowed from the library before going to sleep. But as he was walking down the street his home was on he noticed a group of five scruffy looking men standing by his door, and they weren't exactly very friendly looking.
Just in case Arthur retrieved his staff from his dimensional bag before they could see him and channeled the mana through the staff to conjure the force armor spell on himself. The clear translucent armor covered him from head to toe giving him a sense of security and safety.
With his safety more or less assured Arthur continued walking towards his home with his staff still in his left hand, he needed to keep it out to keep any spells it has casted active. As he got close one of the men whispered something to the tallest amongst them who then turned to look at Arthur.
The five of them simply stood there until Arthur was at the end of the short walkway spanning across the small front lawn and his front porch. “Well look who finally showed up, we've been waiting here for hours now. You're lucky we didn’t just let ourselves in.” The other four men chuckled at the last comment.
“What do you want?” Arthur asked in a flat tone as he looked over the five standing on his porch. They were all fully clothed albeit tattered and poor looking, but they could be hiding weapons anywhere under their clothes. Arthur also noticed that a few were missing a tooth or two showing they weren't exactly healthy.
“Well you see we are in charge around here.” The leader who Arthur noticed was a bit better off with slightly damaged clothes and all his teeth. “And we are expecting you to start paying your dues, starting today you owe us one silver coin a day for protecting your operations here. Oh yeah, we know you are an alchemist and we know how much money you bring in.”
Arthur nearly laughed out loud at that proclamation, that was daylight robbery, and these five poor fools were supposed to protect him and his home. Yeah, not happening. “I’m sorry to disappoint you five but I don’t need your protection. So you can go back to whatever hole you all crawled out of.” Arthur smirked as he insulted the criminals.
“What did you just say!?” The leader said as he reached into his torn coat and pulled out a meat cleaver and was followed by his subordinates but with knives and one with a dagger. “This is not negotiable little man, and if you think you can wiggle out of this then think again, it is five against one with you being the one. To put it simply you are outnumbered by us.”