Moon Witch, embark on the journey!

59. Planning

Gardener Kit got up early in the morning and prepared to take care of the flowers and plants as usual. He went to the backyard with scissors and a kettle. As a result, his originally sleepy spirit was suddenly refreshed.

"Why, why are they all gone!?"

He subconsciously touched the moustache on his face and almost pulled out a few strands without realizing it.

Because all the precious flowers and plants in the courtyard were uprooted and piled in the corners like weeds, the flower beds were bare with only small pits in the soil.

He soon saw a servant coming and using the hoe in his hand to remove the remaining flowers.

"Hey! Are you crazy? This was purchased by the Lord at a cost of hundreds of gold coins..."

The man didn't answer, but pointed his finger upwards.

Gardener Kit looked up and found a silver-haired girl enjoying breakfast on the balcony on the second floor of the mansion. She looked down absentmindedly.

"Miss? This is——"

"Jit, you're here? Help me transplant the herbs over there."

When Kit found out that it was his master who gave the order, he felt helpless.

When he followed his previous master, these were his lifeblood, but now he has to plant some strange herbs in the garden!

"How about it? Can you do it?"

"Yes! Miss, I will do my best to deal with it."

Kit felt that work was more important than hobbies. And although the new master rarely showed up, the servants' occasional complaints would disappear completely when they saw her beautiful and delicate face.

The servants below were doing the transplanting work, and Luna would occasionally remind them of some precautions.

Luna sat on a chair on the balcony and watched. She had purchased a batch of herbs a few days ago. Although they were mostly common types, the raw materials used in the apprenticeship stage were not too expensive.

"Then we can start the experiment, but this batch may not be enough. This is really a big project..."

Whether it was potions or alchemy, they were just a secondary profession attached to the wizard himself. What really mattered was always the growth of one's own strength.

When she felt that her fighting power was insufficient, she would study alchemical puppets. When her mental power grew slower, she would naturally start studying potions.

"The dark spirit potion cannot be wasted, but it should be no problem to extract some of it for research."

This was her plan. To create a replica by studying the potion she had.

The main reason is that any potion formula involving mental power is too expensive!

Luna currently only has a basic mental power recovery potion, which is the kind of potion that apprentices often use to restore mental power in a short period of time. She tasted it once before when she was hunting frost wolves.

Now the price of this kind of potion has risen to more than thirty magic stones per bottle, and there is still no demand for it.

The formula price didn't increase much, and even dropped a little. But when she bought it, it cost her nearly two hundred magic stones.

As for the potions that directly improve mental strength, the price is even more outrageous, going up one or two levels. Luna simply can't afford it.

"The price of the Dark Spirit Potion is about 500 magic stones, and the price of the formula is at least ten times that..."

If there were five thousand magic stones, that would be enough to turn an apprentice into a monster second only to a formal wizard. Why would one need to buy a potion formula separately?

Magical potions that increase mental strength have always been a luxury item, with the formula and refining process basically circulated among official wizards, and occasionally a few finished products would fall into the hands of apprentices.

Even though it was difficult to refine, Luna was still confident that she could do it as long as she didn't exceed the apprentice level. The biggest challenge now was to analyze the formula and find a substitute for the material.

Needless to say, the cost of the Dark Spirit Potion alone could be as high as 200 magic stones, and if she wanted to make it, she definitely couldn't just prepare one batch. Now even if she was given the formula, she couldn't afford the ingredients, unless she sold all her belongings.

"We can only give it a try. Even if it turns out to be a knock-off with only one or two successes, it's a very worthwhile investment if we can make it."

Luna arranged the alchemical and alchemy equipment, and then set up some simple warning magic arrays in the house and finished the job.

She might stay in this mansion for a long time.

"Luna? Are we leaving now?"

After noon today, just after lunch, Senna came running to her.

"Why do we have to disperse? It's so troublesome to set up a base by ourselves, when the Sale family obviously has a ready-made base."

Luna was speechless. It was not easy for this child to live to this age.

"The Sale family's mansion is of course safer, but we are not defending against the vampires..."

The apprentices in their team tacitly lived separately and did not accept the invitation from the Sale family. The main reason was to prevent the old wizard from taking desperate measures.

These people are not ordinary apprentices, and their wealth is far greater than that of ordinary apprentices. Theoretically, if all five of them were captured, it would be enough to equal the entire property of a formal wizard. But if one of them was missed, the price would be too much for the other party to bear.

Therefore, they cannot be too close to the Sarah family, and they cannot leave directly because of the organization's mission. The five people try not to stay together for a long time, but they cannot completely cut off contact with each other.

It's a delicate balance.

"Let's go and check out the gathering place outside the city."

This Dark Cliff City is entirely the territory of the Sale family. Although there should be some other wizard apprentices in the city, they basically rely on the formal wizard families for survival.

And around this city, there is a 'Dark Cliff' area.

It is not a secret place, but it is also a place with certain special resources. It attracts many wild wizard apprentices, and it is also under the control of the Sale family. It can be said that this place is favored by the families of formal wizards because of this special advantage.

If you want to know whether the nobles in the kingdom inside the Dusk Forest are powerful, you just need to look at the map to see if there are any special resource areas or wizard gathering points nearby.

Although both are barons of the duchy, the former may be established by a formal wizard family, while the latter may only be supported by a few apprentices.

Even Jie Li was also the daughter of a baron, but she was classified as a civilian apprentice.

Luna put on her cloak, took her backpack, and went with Senna to the wizard gathering place not far from the city.

If they need anything, they can actually go directly to the Sale family, but the problem still remains, she doesn't want to get too deeply involved with them.

"I need to buy a batch of apprentice-level materials and potions. I hope I can find them there."

But after the two girls went there, they found that something seemed a little uneasy there.

60. Commission

Unlike the one in the Dusk Forest Passage and the gathering place in the capital of the eastern province of the Principality, the wizard gathering place near Dark Cliff City is the most shabby one Luna has seen so far.

It is basically equivalent to a small village. Among the people visible to the naked eye, most are mortals, and the rest are junior and intermediate apprentices.

At the entrance, it seemed that something had happened not long ago. Several apprentices gathered together to discuss and argue fiercely.

"Go and have a look."

Luna suddenly noticed something and took the initiative to move closer.

"Who are you!"

An apprentice wizard noticed them and immediately came over to stop them. He stared at Luna, who was completely covered by the cloak, and looked a little nervous.

"We are apprentices from the Dark Ring headquarters! We are guests of the Sale family. What's the matter with coming here?"

Senna immediately introduced herself. But Luna did not stop her. This place was too small, and there were probably only a few dozen apprentices. She couldn't hide even if she wanted to.

The apprentice's expression softened a little until the two of them took out the badge of the Dark Ring, and then he relaxed immediately. He looked at them and smiled apologetically:

"I apologize for the offense just now, my lords."

The apprentices from the Dark Ring Headquarters alone were considered big shots among the wild wizards out there. At least high-level apprentices in their twenties or thirties were not uncommon there.

At this time, another senior apprentice who was nearby and the only one present heard the noise and came over.

"I am the head of the camp, Tur Sale. I met the two ladies at the banquet the day before yesterday."

This high-level apprentice of the Sale family was relatively young, probably less than 40 years old, and still had a little hope of becoming a formal wizard.

He glanced at the two girls, especially Luna - she had briefly revealed her face at the party, which was very impressive.

"What happened here... Never mind, I can probably guess it."

Luna had already seen what they were surrounding just now, it was a corpse lying on the ground.

It was a male apprentice who had been dead for some time. There were traces of witchcraft on his body, so it was very likely that he was killed by the people present.

There were always a few cases where apprentices violated the rules of the gathering point and were killed by the organizers behind the scenes. But this guy on the ground was obviously different.

His face was as hideous as a monster, his eyes were bloodshot, sharp claws grew on his hands and feet, and his wizard robe was tattered, but many of his wounds had healed, leaving only faint scars.

His chest had been completely pierced by a powerful sorcery, and now he was silent.

"Blood servant."

A natural ability possessed by vampires that allows them to transform creatures bitten by them into slaves under their control.

Luna had seen it more than half a year ago, but that blood servant was not a human, but a frost wolf king.

"I saw this guy a few days ago. He was quite normal then. But today, he suddenly went crazy after coming to the camp and almost hurt someone. Luckily, I was nearby."

Tour, a senior apprentice and supervisor of the camp, explained to them.

"Have you figured out his origins? Are there any other companions?"

Luna asked. Now that we have met, there is no way to avoid it, so why not learn more about it?

"That's exactly what we were talking about, old Jack, tell me yourself!"

Tur pointed at an elderly mid-level apprentice present and gave instructions in a less polite manner.

This old apprentice is still only at the middle level at his age, and even gives people the impression that his mental strength is quite weak, which makes people doubt whether he can still cast witchcraft.

Old Jack was surrounded by several apprentices, staring blankly. Suddenly, his body trembled, and he was obviously a little collapsed:

"I still can't escape... I still can't escape! Little Kohler, you followed me all the way here... but in the end, you still..."

He seemed to have thought of something, tears welled up in his old, cloudy eyes. Suddenly he yelled in a somewhat crazy voice:

"Damn vampire! Come out now if you have the guts! Come on! Come and kill me!"

"Hold him down."

Tur frowned and ordered. He turned to Luna and the others and said:

"They came to us about a week ago. We have checked every outsider. So he must have been converted by the vampires recently."

He looked heavy-hearted, and it was obvious what this meant. There were already vampires nearby, and they might have been lying in ambush for them, treating them as prey.

"That damn guy didn't even tell me that the Dongxi Town where they were was destroyed by the vampires! Only these two apprentices escaped!"

"Just now! I just learned it from him!"

Tur gnashed his teeth. It was because of this that they were so tense before.

"If I had told you at that time, you would definitely not have accepted them so easily."

At least from the perspective of the Sale family, they were undoubtedly disgusted with this kind of guy who was trying to divert trouble. Now that they didn't kill old Jack on the spot, they were considered generous.

"So, how do you plan to deal with this matter now?"

Tour took a deep breath and calmed down a lot:

"There are only three high-level apprentices in our family now. One is stationed in the camp here and Dark Cliff. There is also one in the family in Dark Cliff City... In other words, we really can't spare any more manpower."

"Two respected ladies, please help us investigate this matter. We can provide some rewards, and the old ancestor will be grateful to you."

Senna suddenly became unhappy, she muttered:

"We are just here for a visit today. We didn't say we were going to do this before!"

In fact, Luna didn't intend to refuse, but at this time she also helped out:

"Although the organization asked us to help defend, this is not Dark Cliff City."

Knowing that they would not release the eagle until they saw the rabbit, Tur thought about it and promised through gritted teeth:

"As long as you find some clues, I can give you two some magic stones as a reward. If you can directly kill the vampire behind this, I can reward you with 200 magic stones."

Usually, high-level apprentices would be in danger of their lives, and the magic stones worth of the mission would exceed three digits. So this price was fair.

As for how the two mid-level apprentices would deal with the vampires who were suspected to be high-level apprentices, that was their own business.