Chapter 263

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Chapter 263: Progress of the Spell

Humans and Dark Iron Dwarves have not reached a level of never-ending conflict, but overall their relationship is cold to hostile. It’s not good to be found hiding things from Dark Iron Dwarves.

When Jesse arrived at The Slaughtered Lamb, Gakin was sitting at a table, searching for something. He had grown quite a beard during this time, making him look ten years older.

There was a large pile of various books on the table, even some strange items that Jesse had never seen before, like branches and bird claws. They were probably ritual supplies and spell materials gathered from unknown sources.

The items were neatly organized, and Gakin seemed to be selecting something from them.

Hearing footsteps, he looked up and saw Jesse, immediately saying, "Jesse Seso… Sorry I haven’t come to find you these past few days. Even though we’ve known each other for so long, I don’t even know where you live. You should share your address with Jarel, so if something happens, we can’t reach you."

"Okay, I’ll tell him when I leave later," Jesse replied.

Gakin mentioned, "Zardeth told me he shared that spell with you. Did you try it when you went back? I’ve been quite obsessed with it lately… I feel like it’s extraordinary."

"I’ve made progress," Jesse said. "I’ll first give the items to Ursula and then come back to talk to you."

"Great… I knew it, I just knew it," Gakin exclaimed. "I’ll be waiting here for you." Jesse planned to share part of the spell with him, but decided to keep the soul sacrifice aspect hidden for now. He would reveal it later on to avoid drawing suspicion by achieving success too quickly.

Explaining things too clearly all at once and achieving such success in a short time might raise doubts.

Before arriving at the Alchemy Room, Ursula was busy organizing books. The Alchemy Room looked very clean and bright, which was rare.

Jesse coughed at the door. Ursula looked up and immediately became excited when she saw Jesse’s expression.

"I can tell just by looking at you… Jesse Seso, you must have found something good!"

Jesse showed the box and said, "Dark Iron Dwarves bullets. Ursula, you have to figure out how to dismantle the bullets and make gunpowder yourself. I won’t waste my time helping you with this."

"Are these really Dark Iron Dwarves bullets?" Ursula opened the box in surprise, took out a bullet, sniffed it, and said, "I’m not completely sure… but it does have a different smell from the bullets in the Dwarven District. Are you sure you found Dark Iron Dwarves’ supplies?"

"I didn’t find it," Jesse raised an eyebrow and said, "I took it from a living Dark Iron Dwarves."

"Really? You encountered Dark Iron Dwarves?" Ursula asked.

"It was a very dangerous encounter," Jesse sat on the nearby stool and said, "I almost lost my life, Ursula… His gun was right against my waist. I proposed to negotiate with him and then subdued him while he was off guard. His hunting rifle is still at my house, do you want to see it?"

"No need… I believe you, I don’t know anything about guns," Ursula whispered as she held the box, "You have no idea how much this box can help me… Tell me what reward you want, young man."

"Huh?" Jesse caught up with her and said, "Are we talking about rewards now? What about the promise of free potions in the future?"

"Oh." Ursula placed the box on the shelf, sighed, and said, "I didn’t expect you to get results so fast. I thought it would take a few months. You’re not asking me to give you free potions for life, are you? If you ever ask me to make you a potion of wisdom or giant strength, do I have to give it to you for free? Sacrificing everything for a box of bullets…"

"Of course not." Jesse said, "Okay, it’s a bit unrealistic. I just want to be able to get a few bottles of Mana Potion from you when I need them."

"That can be arranged." Ursula said, "Whenever you need them, I can give you a few bottles of Mana Potion, plenty of basic Healing Potions, and for the rest, we’ll see. You can always ask if you need something, but you’ll have to continue helping me out in return."

"We’ll see." Jesse mimicked Ursula’s tone.

Ursula gave him a stern look, took out two bottles of basic Mana Potion and one Healing Potion from the cupboard, and handed them directly to Jesse, saying, "Here you go, as an extra reward for today. How’s that?"

"Thank you very much." Jesse neatly packed the potions into his bag.

Ursula then asked, "By the way, when do you plan to come to learn potion-making?"

"This afternoon?" Jesse said, "Maybe on the weekend or Monday."

"It’s evening," Ursula said. "I usually stay here in the evenings. In the afternoons, I prefer taking a nap or something."

"Then it’s settled," Jesse said.

"Speaking of which, Jesse," Ursula leaned against the cabinet behind her. "I sense a unique scent coming from you."

Jesse smelled his clothes and said, "Sorry, I might have rushed here earlier."

"No, there’s a scent on you that I can’t quite place," Ursula said. "It seems like a fragrance, are you wearing perfume?"

"Well…" Jesse thought for a moment. "It might be from passing by those female mages over there. They seem to like using spices and such on themselves."

"I see," Ursula thoughtfully remarked. "But this scent is not very pleasant, it reminds me of a poisonous plant from the northern Lordaeron called the Bloodthistle. Your mages have quite peculiar tastes."

"I’m no mage, though…"

Hearing Jesse’s words, Ursula chuckled, saying, "I know."

Even though it was hard to notice in the Mage Quarter, Ursula managed to smell a certain scent in the room filled with medicinal odors.

Honestly, he only started to notice it a little after Ursula reminded him to sniff carefully.

It looks like he’s going to have to wash his clothes more thoroughly in the future, maybe even use some special detergent.

"By the way, do you have any deodorizing medicine?"

Ursula looked him up and down, asking, "Are you going out on a date?"

"No," Jesse said. "Helping you out in the future, going into caves, crossing swamps, especially when we come across corpses, the smell lingers for a long time."

"Oh, I see. Here, take this," Ursula said, handing him a bottle of clear liquid from the top of the cabinet. "Try this."

"What’s this stuff?"

"It’s a purification potion, great for getting rid of corpse smells. They say it can also remove the stench of foul magic from demons, but I haven’t had a chance to try it. Use it sparingly, it’s not as expensive as canal water, but it’s not cheap either."

"Just wipe on the clothes?"

"Focus on wiping, if you end up soaked in the corpse water, might as well give yourself a stab, nothing can save you then…"

"Understood." Jesse returned to the hall, and Gakin stood up almost as soon as he heard footsteps.

"Zardeth and I are currently intensively researching too, Jesse. We are discussing trying out some new spell materials to see if there could be any changes, so we are very much looking forward to any progress."

"I feel like there is still some way to go before casting the spell successfully, but I discovered that the incantation itself seems to have a problem," Jesse said.

"Come in and chat with me." Gakin brought Jesse into his room, took out a bound book, turned to a page with a spell, and handed it to Jesse, saying, "Where do you think the problem lies?"

"I have made several attempts, and also read several books on studying Demonic languages in the Wizard’s Sanctum library," Jesse pointed to the first half of the incantation and said, "This sentence seems to be a common introduction, indicating that the following sentence is a spell, but this passage itself is not part of the incantation."

"Damn it," Gakin said, "I couldn’t find any relevant information in the university library. These mages really guard themselves well against us common folks."

"Perhaps because magic isn’t as difficult to master as ordinary people imagine," Jesse said.

"You’re absolutely right," Gakin said. "Those mages are just trying to keep their high status by raising the walls. Do you think one day we can build a warlock tower like the Wizard’s Sanctum in Stormwind too?"

"Maybe," Jesse said. "Once we find a way to control the shadows, the Alliance will surely accept us new members with these powers quickly."

"Control the shadows?" Gakin shook his head with a bitter smile. "You can’t control the shadows, Jesse."

Jesse thought to himself, with Gakin’s idea, forget about the warlock tower.

Gakin looked at the other parts of the spell and said, "What about the next few lines? Since this overly long spell has some issues, I think other parts might be off too, I’ve always felt this way, especially these last two lines…"

"While not as certain as the previous line," Jesse said. "But indeed, maybe the last line is not a part of the spell, because when I tried casting it, I only focused on this section… It feels more like guiding the mana."

"Should we try it here?" Gakin asked.

"Try it?" Jesse said. "I haven’t succeeded before either."

"I haven’t even seen you try casting this spell, Jesse, maybe your casting process will give me some inspiration or something."

Jesse nodded and walked into the practice room with Gakin.

The magic circle on the ground seemed to have changed again, but at least it wasn’t a sacrifice circle. Otherwise, if he stood in the middle and cast a spell, he might end up sending himself away.

He glanced at Gakin, walked into the magic circle, and began chanting.

During the chanting, he felt a similar sensation to when he summoned Molofeel at home, a connection to the void. Gakin’s face also changed. Of course, without the lamb, without sacrificing a soul, he felt that his spellcasting was lacking in power, and also because he didn’t have the dark shadow magic wand, the strength of the spell was much weaker.

After casting the spell, he instinctively looked back to make sure he hadn’t accidentally summoned a succubus.

He took a few breaths, pretending to be exhausted from casting the spell, and Gakin helped him sit down on a nearby wooden chair.

"That’s about it." Jesse swallowed and said.

Gakin said, "It was tough, right? But I can tell, Jesse… you’re on the right path. I will make notes on the modifications to the spell in my journal with Zardeth. Damn, I feel like we wasted so much time. Without you, it’s like a fly without a head, just buzzing around."

"I couldn’t have gotten this spell without you and the others, Gakin. I wish you both success in testing it, and I’m looking forward to the final results," Jesse said.

"Once I have results, I will be the first to inform you," Gakin said, clutching the paper with the spell on it.