The Deceitful One

Sunday, 1st May 1581.

It was yet another bright sunny day in Damascus City. The sun shone relentlessly as the white fluffy clouds drifted lazily across the bright blue sky.

A gentle breeze blew by as the lush green leaves of the different trees planted across the street swayed ever so slightly. In the blink of an eye, winter had already passed and spring was almost at its end.

In the northeastern part of the city, close to Augustus Street, was an area that was home to a bustling market full of shops of different kinds.

This was Richard's Market, a place where people could buy almost anything. From fruits and vegetables to high-end furniture and garments, and even herbs and medicine.

Towards the east end of the market was shop number 43, Hemlock's Garden. This was the apothecary store that Livia had suggested to Bryan, the place where he could get all the supplementary ingredients for his potion recipe.

The door to the shop opened as Bryan exited, carrying a brown paper bag full of goods in his arm. He was wearing a black suit jacket, black trousers, and a white shirt. And behind him, Benny followed along.

With a faint smile on his face, Bryan looked at the bustling crowd and the people going about their day, buying and selling all sorts of different things at the market.

Benny circled around Bryan a couple of times and then nuzzled against his calf as he mentally asked, 'Bryan, are you finally going to do it today?'

Bryan looked down at Benny with a bright smile and replied, 'That's right!'

"Meow!" Benny jumped off the ground and nimbly climbed onto Bryan's shoulder as he comfortably took a seating position.

He then began to lick his right paw as he said, 'Good! I will protect you then.'

Bryan couldn't help but warmly smile, 'I'll be in your care, Benny.'

Last night, Bryan had already carved the 54th mind rune and just now he had gathered all the supplementary ingredients required for his advancement from Hemlock's Garden.

He had already bought both the main ingredients. Tonight, he was finally going to advance!

Bryan walked towards the main street and called for a public carriage and then instructed the driver to head to 7 Robinson Street.

Inside the carriage, Benny lay lazily on Bryan's lap as he asked, 'Are you nervous?'

Bryan smiled faintly as he nodded his head, 'A little.'

Benny looked up at Bryan and replied, 'You will be all right, trust me. With the help of that flower, your spiritual force has already been purified to a great extent. So, your transition to a Transcendent will be much easier.'

Bryan nodded his head and replied mentally, 'Yes, you're right!'

He then thought for a moment and looked at Benny with a puzzled expression, 'How do you know about such stuff anyway?'

Benny raised his chin as he replied smugly, 'How can I, the great Benjamin Lombardi, not know of such trivial and mundane matters? Hmph!'

Bryan simply rolled his eyes as he thought, 'This little brat… Just where is he learning all this from?'

About fifteen minutes later, the public carriage soon arrived at the destination. Bryan and Benny alighted from the carriage as the former paid the driver and thanked him.

The duo then entered the apartment as Bryan locked the door behind him. He had already informed Robert that he was going to advance today and had hence taken the entire day off.

However, it was very tough for Bryan to prevent his teacher, Detective Watson, to accompany him during his advancement to a Transcendent. There was no way that Detective Watson wouldn't guide Bryan through such an important ordeal.

It would spell trouble if Detective Watson found out that the potion he was concocting actually belonged to the Theft Path!

Thus, Bryan had to blatantly lie to him and tell him that he was going to advance tomorrow instead of today.

Now, he could only pray that Detective Watson didn't find out from his captain, Robert, that he had in fact taken the day off today in order to advance.

Once he successfully advanced, he could easily come up with an excuse to explain it to Detective Watson tomorrow, anyways. If the latter did question him, Bryan would just say that he wanted to give him a surprise.

Bryan went straight to the bathroom to take a shower. He had to clear his head of all the excitement as well as nervousness. And a cold bath would do just the trick.

About five minutes later, he exited the bathroom with a white towel tied around his waist. He then went to his wardrobe in the bedroom and changed into a comfortable pair of pajamas.

After that, he headed to the kitchen and grabbed a large ceramic bow along with a spoon, and brought them to the study table in his bedroom.

Bryan carefully emptied the contents of the brown bag that he had just brought from Hemlock's Garden and neatly kept them on the table.

60 ml of distilled water kept inside a transparent plastic bottle, 10 grams of hibiscus grass powder, 60 ml of orikonta fruit pulp, and last but not least, 10 drops of dawn agave extracts that were stored in a crystal vial.

These were all the supplementary ingredients that were required to concoct the potion!

Bryan then grabbed the silver pocket watch and took out a small black box as well as a red box from within. These boxes contained the main ingredients: Sea Kolag's blood and Dusk Crab's crystal.

He then took out the Book of Medici from the pocket watch as well. He flipped open the book and turned a few pages. Finally, he came to the page that described the correct method to prepare the potion for Rank 1 Transcendent in detail.

Bryan read it a few times and thoroughly memorized it in order to understand how to proceed with the concoction. He then took a few deep breaths and finally began to concoct the potion required for his advancement to Rank 1 Transcendent!