While heading toward the beast marked where the beasts brought by explorers and hunters from the outside the island, a youthful and familiar voice rang out in his ears.
"Bro! Big bro Roderick!" A fourteen year old boy leaped at his arms and Roderick caught him with a smile.
"Little Ru, it's good to see you. How's uncle Jin?" Roderick patted the boy's hair. Little Ru was a friend, he made after the awakening ceremony. Despite not being as serious as his, little Ru could not become an elemental master as well, mainly because his family could not pay any of the schools in the sector and law forbidden people of one sector studying another sector. Everybody wants to become an elemental master as it is the best job you can have and learn lots of money, but in the end only those with money can invest in their elemental masters.
"Dad is fine, he went to the medical market to sell some of his potions. He will be back before dinner." As little Ru said, his dad was an alchemist. He gathered herbs and ingredients from the woods and refined a lot of low ranked potions to sell everyday on the medical market.
"Oh, I'm going to the beast part market right now. There are some things I wish to buy, do you want to come with me?"
"Yes! I will follow big bro! You may need help to carry your things." Seeing friendly boy staring at him with his innocent eyes made Roderick feel warm in his heart that not everyone treated him like trash since that day. Reaching the Northern sector marked, a huge building divided into many different areas, beast market, medicine market, weapon marked, tool market and many others. Stepping into the beast marked he saw a lot of different things.
"Come closer! We have a stage two elemental beast's core of the fire element! Perfect for those who wish for a good weapon. There only has two left! It is just ten thousand credits." Looking at his money, he only had ten thousand credits and those were in the blood and the alchemy cauldron. Walking to a shop owner, he asked.
"Do you have beast blood?"
"Of course which do you want? Stage one fire beast blood, stage two water beast blood. There is also a stage two grand mantis blood, a rare type of wind beast. Stage one is a hundred credits for ten drops and stage two is a thousand credits for ten drops. The grand mantis is one and a half thousand for ten drops."
"Fifteen drops of Grand Mantis blood and another fifteen drops of stage two water beast blood."
"It will be 3.750 credits." Roderick paid the owner and when he was about to leave, he felt a shock in his body before he turned to a bottle of a red-bluish fluid. For some reason, he felt it was calling for him.
"Mister, what about this bottle over there, how much?" The owner stared at the bottle left in the corner of his store, Roderick was looking at it and his eyes shone when he saw it.
"Oh, that is a bottle a client left here three days ago. I left there thinking the client would be back for it, but it didn't happen. With all these years selling the best products, I never saw this type of blood. There are at least thirty drops in there, I can sell it for five three hundred credits."
"I will take it anyway." Roderick paid another five hundred the owner and left to tool market where he bought an ordinary alchemy cauldron for four thousand credits. When he was about to leave the market, he noticed little Ru was not by his side at the same time he heard a commotion at the entrance.
"Don't block our young master's path your piece of trash." A bald youth kicked a skinny boy on the left and threw him away when Roderick noticed it was little Ru who was kicked by the youth. Holding little Ru, he stared at the bald youth with flames in his eyes before he saw the person standing behind him. It was Lian Blaze, the first stage Fire Element Master of the Eden College and the young master of the Blaze family. He snorted and walked away when the bald youth saw his movement and sent a kick at his back.
Whoosh! Dodging his kick without even looking, Roderick was like lightning as he appeared behind the youth and smashed his feet against the head of the latter.
"I may have lost an arm, but my reflexes is as fast as ever." He spoke this while staring at the floor, but the person he wanted to hear clenched his fists. Lian knew about Roderick's background and was sure he would do exactly what Roderick wanted if he left his anger took the better of him and he struggled to control himself as he left the entrance.
"Enjoy the time you have left. You won't be breathing for long." Liam murmured to himself. Roderick helped little Ru get up and followed him home before parting. Inside his apartment, he put out everything he bought and took the alchemy book to check it out again.
Pour fifteen drops of the three types of blood on the cauldron and heat it for ten minutes, then let it rest for twelve hours before drinking. Betraying his expectations, this potion was something very easy to do. He left the strange bottle of blood beside the cauldron as he followed the instruction given by the book.
Fifteen drops of his blood, fifteen drops of a second stage water beast and another fifteen drops of a second stage grand mantis. After heating up for ten minutes, he left to rest and went to sleep. In the middle of the night, the three types of blood released faint lights as something strange happening. The blood on the strange bottle turned fully blue and released a lot of blue sparks as the thirty drops broken the glass which vanished like it never existed. The blood floated to the cauldron slowly mixed with the blood already there.