NOVEL NEXT Chapter 86: Plan C
Afterward, Wulf did return to his room. He wasn't about to anger a Silver-tier guard, not as a Copper. The only way forward was through rigorous preparation.
"We need to talk," he said as they climbed the stairway up to their dorm level. "Act natural, and join me in my dorm room. There shouldn't be anyone around, and they shouldn't notice me bringing some extra friends to my room if we don't cause a fuss." Besides, his and Irmond's room was conveniently close to the stairs. Easy to sneak into quickly.
Others might not find it convenient, what with the footsteps thundering through the halls at all hours, but Wulf was used to sleeping with loud sounds in the background. Or, simply, lots of sound all around.
When they reached the right floor, he leaned into the hallway first to make sure it was empty, then motioned for the others to follow. They made a quick dash to his and Irmond's dorm room, then ducked inside. Once all four of them were in, he kicked the door shut behind them and locked it.
"This is going to cause some problems if we want to get close to the king," Kalee said. "Or…prince."
"My thoughts exactly," Wulf replied.
"Do we like…need to get close to the prince?" Irmond asked.
Wulf crossed his arms for a moment, genuinely considering the proposal. Then, finally, he nodded. "The current king is very sick. He'll die soon, no matter what we do. And when that happens, the prince will replace him. He'll be the most politically powerful person in the world, and that's something we need more than ever."
Kalee nodded. "If we just keep scrambling around, trying to respond to demon attacks, we're not going to stop anything. We can't make a real difference without some actual power behind us."
"I thought that was the point of going to the academies and working our way up through the ranks," Seith said. "Power."
"Actual power," Wulf said, "doesn't come from being an Orichalcum-tier Ascendant. Not nowadays. There are other Orichalcums, and those with thousands of years more experience. By the time they realized that they should respect our strength, it'd be too late to stop the demons. Sure, times are changing, but not fast enough."
"So the prince…has enough political power?" Irmond asked. "I dunno, you've heard of the guild 'advising' groups, haven't you? Like, every guild worth their salt has them. You pay for an audience with the king, then advocate in your best interest."
Wulf nodded. He knew well enough about the guilds' abilities to whisper in the ears of their rulers, and though anyone could technically pay for an audience with the king, the price was prohibitively expensive for average people, and there was no guarantee he'd actually listen.
That said, rulers seemed to almost always do what the guilds asked.
As they spoke, Wulf was already developing a backup plan. Perhaps they could find an heir to an important guild, befriend him, and use that position to influence matters. It wouldn't be as direct, but…
Wulf crossed his arms, and shook his head, stopping his backup plan in its tracks. "My plan is simple. We'll need to convince the prince to only act in the best interests of guilds when it's also in the best interests of the average people. Which…means going after the demons, and working to stop them. Even if it might require him to take action that would bankrupt a guild, and so on."
Seith scratched the back of her head. "I don't see that happening."
"Which is why we need to convince the prince that we're on the right side of things," Wulf said. "That we have knowledge of the future, and that his kingdom is going to fall apart without our help." He glanced at Kalee. "I'm not exactly sure what kind of person he is, but it's our best shot."
"So, like, how are we going to get close to him?" Irmond asked. "We've gotta go through a royal guard, who's much more powerful than any of us. And this guard, on whoever's orders, doesn't want us getting close to the king."
"Not to mention the Lions, Wulf," Seith added. "They're literally reema dealers."
"We need to observe and act. It's simple," he said. "Once we get the guard out of the way, all we need to do is befriend the Lions and join them."
"You make it sound so simple," Irmond grumbled. "They're a bunch of extremely wealthy guild kids and lordlings who're looking for a way to get their kick, and you think we can just infiltrate them?"
"Yeah." Wulf nodded. "That's why we need to observe, first, and do some espionage. Then we get in, become part of their gang. Perhaps shut it down from the inside—we could find their supplier. Then, we get close to the prince, start whispering ideas in his ear, and once the king dies? Suddenly, we have the best ally ever."
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Kalee nodded. "I agree with him on this one. It sounds like our best shot."
"But what about the guard?" Seith questioned. "We can't go snooping with him still in the way."
"I've got a plan for that, too," Wulf replied. "But it's going to take a few potions."
~ ~ ~
Admittedly, Wulf's plan would hinge on what sorts of potions he got lucky with. He had a few ideas, but he wasn't sure which ones he could actually execute. The plan had to be flexible. Of course, he still had his transmutation slips, which he could reverse to maintain the original effect of the potion, but it would be a tier lower than otherwise.
He needed his potions as strong as possible if they were going up against a Silver.
But for the moment, he was glad [By Your Will] still functioned to create positive effects when he fed it stronger materials. At some point, he might have to choose to focus on poisons, but that wasn't a problem for today.
The others left the dorm, and Irmond went to the common room to relax, giving Wulf plenty of time to work on potions.
First, he ventured into the storage pendant where he kept his plants. Now, there was more than enough room for his pots—he lined a single edge of the bed of clouds with the terracotta pots, each with a plant inside.
All of them grew his enhanced fescue grasses. Over the summer, he'd been watering them with mana-water, if they found any, but otherwise, with lower-tier potions. Most of the plants registered as:
Pendant Fescue Grass (Middle-Bronze Quality)
For some reason, someone has taken to growing grass within a storage pendant. No effect.
'No effect' on their own, Wulf reminded himself. It was still an arcane ingredient that could function in a potion, given the right conditions.
He carefully trimmed the grass, so it would regrow still, taking a little from each pot, until he had enough to fill all ten of his empty vials on the potion holding rack. There wasn't much time to make a tincture out of each, and he was running out of vinegar (he'd gotten some over summer break from an inland village, but that was months ago).
He distributed all his vinegar throughout the vials, then pressed the grass down and stirred it.
That said, there was one strategy he could use to help the vinegar extract the medicinal, helpful, active components of the grass faster. He hoisted up his scissors, which still contained a little chaos.
Chaos, being an agent of reactions and making stuff happen, would make the vinegar slightly more active in the short term. He couldn't apply an entire unit of chaos—he didn't want to prematurely transmute it—but just enough to catalyze the process.
Opening the scissors slightly, he tapped the tip to the mouth of the vials and released a tiny wisp of chaos into each of the vials. The vinegar bubbled and swirled, and quickly, it took on the vibrant green hue of the grass he'd placed in.
When the vinegar stopped bubbling, the tincture registered as Low-Iron. He repeated the process, until he'd created a tincture in each of the vials, then filled them up to the top with the last of his mana-water, a supply which he'd been saving from the Istalis Academy. It didn't water down the tincture's tier at all.
Finally, he boiled each potion, concentrating them down into a deep green, and fished out the chunks of grass and fibre that didn't contribute to the potion. He followed the Field and listened to the potion itself, concentrating on what the potion actually wanted. Perhaps, since he was focussing on luck, Fate itself had something planned for the potions.
It left him, finally, with a Low-Silver mixture. Almost a potion, but he just needed to complete it. Silently, he hoped that the prince's guard hadn't developed a high resistance to potions and poisons, because this potion was still going to be a tier below the High-Silver guard.
With a push of mana from his enormous storage core, Wulf activated all the potions, and [By Your Will] triggered. All at once, the potions began glowing, and most transmuted to a different colour. Only two stayed the same shade of green.
As soon as he finished, his burn-box sputtered out. The phoenix powder within the little mesh box finally went dim. There just wasn't enough of it to sustain another flame. Wulf cursed under his breath. But he'd finished the potions. Dealing with ingredients could come later.
Finally, he assessed the quality of his results. Ten potions. All were Middle-Silver tier. There were two basic poison potions, very offense-oriented. One caused extreme nerve damage and paralysis, and the other began shutting down your internal organs. Both would be deadly to anyone without a resistance to them.
He set those potions aside. They could either be ingredients, or he could save them for an absolutely necessary moment. But he didn't want to kill the prince's guard.
There was also a luck potion, two strength potions, a potion with a combined nausea and speed effect, and a healing potion. He set those aside. Useful, but not immediately useful, finally, the three potions he deemed useful to his current project:
Interrogation Potion (Middle-Silver Quality)
Inflicts the user with a poison that forces them to speak the truth for the next ten minutes.
Somnia Potion (Middle-Silver Quality)
Inflicts the user with a poison that makes them extremely tired. Under this effect, a non-ascendant will sleep for a week without waking.
Amnesia Potion (Middle-Silver Quality)
Inflicts the user with a mind-poison that causes them to forget the events of the past hour.
[By crafting potions, you have increased your mana. Advancement progress: 97.3%]
Wulf nodded to himself, partially admiring the effects of the potion, and coming up with a plan. They couldn't go with 'Plan A', which had been to use physical force and restrain the guard, but with this? He could use…his third plan.
With a grin, he stoppered the vials and tucked them into his haversack.