"By the way, Clau-"

"Mr. Rayforth!" Claude corrected Edward with an annoying look on his face as they both walked towards the basement of his medicine shop, where the illegal drugs were being kept. "Did you forget what I told you a few minutes ago?"

"Of course, of course! Forgive me for calling you by your first name. How could I forget that? Ha ha ha ha..." Edward let out a loud laughter as he finished speaking, and it only increased Claude's annoyance.

"Anyways, Mr. Rayforth.." Edward cleared his throat and spoke with a smile on his face, and continued. "I was about to tell you that I saw you at Josenheim, standing next to our new king, and fighting those hooded figures. I have to say, I didn't know my customer was a brave hero who fought to protect our kingdom. Ha ha ha!"

He didn't show it, but Claude imagined himself rolling his eyes. He knew that his connection with the Prince was the reason for Edward being so nice and friendly with him. He wasn't behaving like this when he first met him, only treating him as just another customer. 

'Now I feel like I shouldn't have shown my identity to him…' Claude let out a sigh as he folded his arms. He thought that because he would most likely visit the medicine shop more than once, it would be beneficial for him to get close to the owner. And the medicine shop being a small business rather than a shop run by a hidden corporation made his choice a bit more easy. 

But now, it seemed like Claude was rethinking his decision.

"Anyways, so I was thinking...." After a lot of blabbering, Edward cleared his throat once again and said. "As my dear customer is so friendly with the king, maybe Mr. Rayforth could help me fend off the Royal Guards from ambushing my storage facilities? I almost lost all my supplies just last week, and they aren't giving up!"

"Look, Edward..." Claude massaged his temples, trying his very best to not sound annoyed, and said. "I'm not as close to the new king as you might think, alright? Just because I fought with him once doesn't mean that we're friends. It was a dangerous situation, and I felt like I had to help. That's all! Now can I please get my drugs?"

"Ugh, fine… follow me," Edward clicked his tongue and his indifferent expression returned, and Claude shook his head in response, following him close behind. They walked into a small room, where cupboards were filled with all kinds of medicines and drugs and pills. 

"Now.... where the hell did I keep it?" Edward began murmuring as he walked towards the pile of boxes that had been stacked in an uneven manner, as if someone was too busy to organize them in order, and started rummaging through them, looking for something.

Claude stayed behind him, and stared at Edward who was throwing stuff around, moving them in order to find what he was looking for. 

"Aha! Found it!" Claude watched as Edward took out two bottles from one of the boxes that had been lying on the ground, and yelled out excitedly before handing them over to Claude, who inspected them as soon as he received them in his hands.

"Are these Erythrimum and Dioserum?" Claude asked as he held one of the bottles up to his eye and Edward nodded his head excitedly. 

"Yup! I told you right? It's Mr. Rayforth's lucky day. I had a few bottles of both Erythrimum and Dioserum left, and these two are the only ones remaining." Edward said as he walked up to Claude. 

"Well then..." said Claude as he placed the two bottles inside his pockets and turned back to leave. "It was nice doing business with you, but it seems that it's time for me to leave!"

"Oh! Wait, Mr. Rayforth! I have something for you," Right when Claude was about to start moving forward, Edward exclaimed loudly and he turned around.

Whoosh!

Edward turned and walked towards one of the cupboards, grabbed a small purple vial and threw it over to Claude, who stretched out his hand and grabbed it.

"What's this?" Claude asked and Edward walked over to him.

"Tracking potion," Edward said. "It's on the house, so it's free of charge."

Claude looked at the vial with a suspicious look and then turned to Edward, who began speaking, "You don't have to pressure the king or anything. Just mentioning the issue is enough. That's all I'm asking!"

Claude sighed. After a few seconds of thinking, Claude looked at Edward, and lied to his face. 

"I'll try to ask him."

**********************

Puff!

The bottle opened with a small sound, and a white vapour escaped out from the bottle as soon as he did so, leaving behind a pungent smell.

He flipped the medicine bottle onto the piece of worm skin, and a purple coloured jelly like substance dripped down onto the skin, and as the jelly like substance touched the piece of skin, it suddenly became enveloped in flames!

Claude didn't seem to mind the flames and instead stared at the smoke that it was emitting. The flames were emitting a purple coloured smoke that was more thick and dense than any normal smoke, and it wasn't moving in the direction of the wind either.

"Come on, show me the way...." Claude scratched his chin and waited, as the tip of the purple smoke suddenly bent like a solid object and slowly started flowing deep into the wilderness.

The smoke initially began to move slowly, but it soon picked up the pace, and Claude had a smile on his face as he spoke, "That's what I'm talking about!" 

BOOM!

Claude shot forward at lightning speed as he followed the smoke trail, and began remembering what Edward had told him about the tracking potion.

"The tracking potion will emit a purple coloured smoke as you apply it to any object. Once it's applied to whatever object you are using for tracking, it will cause the object to light up in flames. Although this isn't dangerous as it is not a normal fire." 

Claude could remember his words, and he looked at his hands, which was carrying the worm skin that was lit up in flames just a few seconds ago. Right before shooting forward and following the smoke trail, he had grabbed the worm skin with him. Like Edward had told him, although the worm skin was still burning in his hands, it wasn't hurting him or burning his skin.

"Once the object gets lit up in flames,it will emit a purple coloured smoke, which will move towards whatever or whoever it is that you're trying to track by retracing its scent and spiritual energy."

Claude muttered Edwards words once again as he zoomed through the dense forest, leaping on the branches, following the purple smoke as it moved towards Kiliharo mountain, which was located north of the Gryfino forest.

"Where is the hole?" Claude saw that the purple smoke was getting more and more straight and thin and moving downwards, which meant that the hole was somewhere close. He narrowed his eyes and used his enhanced senses to try and figure out where the hole was, and after a few minutes of surveying the area, his eyes widened with surprise, and a grin appeared on his face.

"Found it!"

Right on the base of the Kiliharo mountain, beneath a giant tree, Claude could see a tiny hole in the ground, and Claude zoomed towards it.

BAM!

Claude landed comfortably right next to the giant tree, and waited for the smoke to follow just to make sure that he was standing next to the right hole.

"Come on, come on..." Claude waited patiently, and just a few seconds afterwards, the purple smoke reached the giant tree and entered the hole, confirming that the Callarus worm was inside of it.

"Now, let's see if I can get you out of the hole..." Claude kneeled on one leg in front of the hole and took out a bottle. He had already combined the two drugs into a single compound and poured it into another bottle, instead of combining it at the site itself.

Plop!

He opened the bottle and poured the liquid mixture into the small hole on the ground, and then he immediately leapt back and sat down on one of the tree branches, waiting for the compound to take effect.

BZZZ!

In just a few seconds, the ground began to shake uncontrollably, causing Claude to become alert and he stared at the small hole with great interest.

BOOM!

Right then, the ground in front of the giant tree was split into many pieces as a huge crevice opened up in the middle, and a worm like creature that was the size of two tigerwolves burst out from the earth, roaring loudly.

"Senior Beldon," Claude muttered to himself as he stared at the monster worm in front of him with awe. "You really shouldn't call this thing a worm..."

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