Chapter 76.1: There's one more bottle (1)
Since more than ten days ago, the little second commander of the King's Guards was promoted by the young King Alexander to the number one seat in Chambord's Military. Brook now had control over all the military power in Chambord and was called one of the [Two Gurus] in Chambord along with the new Head Minister Bast. One star warrior Brook's future skyrocketed and became one of the most influential figures in Chambord, above everyone else except for one person. Even the richest merchants who didn't even bother to acknowledge him before would now put on a big smile on their faces, invite Brook to their parties frequently, and send him gifts and cute maids. People visited his place from morning till night everyday. The hinges on his door were almost worn out because of it.
If it was anyone else, this huge change in status would probably make them dizzy and get them carried away. However, this warrior born in a poor family had finally shown his integrity, boldness and flexibility. To anyone who was trying to network and befriend him purposely, his principle was quiet surprising – he would neither accept or coldly reject them. He would mildly satisfy everyone that came to his door.
He used painstaking effort in order to achieve this – Chambord was currently greatly weakened after the war and needed to recover. Moreover, in half a year Chambord would have to take on another life and death challenge in Zenit's Military Practice. King Alexander said that the goal in front of them was to unite all the powers and strength they could and build up Chambord quickly with the least amount of resources. Therefore, Brook didn't want to stimulate any hidden conflicts between the young king and the old school nobles. He had to at least maintain a superficial friendliness.
Except for burying his head into rectifying military affairs, Brook spent a lot of his time on reforming the military planning. It was his main objective for the next thirty days. King Alexander had mentioned a few requirements and also vaguely expressed some stunning ideas. Brook carefully studied and thought about these ideas; the more he thought about it, the more excited he got. There were many things that he never considered. He was even confused and didn't understand when the king mentioned them for the first time. But slowly, he felt that those ideas and plans were impeccable. After tailoring those ideas to fit them into Chambord's current situation, Chambord would experience an enormous change for the better.
Of course, as the power in his hands grew heavier and heavier, Brook also felt huge unprecedented pressure.
After King Alexander returned to normal, his strength and long-term vision both increased at an astonishing rate. Recently, during a chat in their free time at Chambord's Civil and Military Academy, the number one warrior Lampard actually implicitly admitted that the King's strength had increase to a level that he couldn't even estimate. He probably couldn't even defeat Alexander.
That left people such as Brook and Pierce a ton of pressure.
They knew that if they wanted to follow the king and battle and bleed for Chambord, they had to improve their strength; that was essential. If they couldn't keep up with their majestic king, they would be gradually left behind and eventually become useless men.
During this time, the strongmen such as Pierce and Drogba "got" a set of strange training methods from the King and started to excessively train themselves everyday. Brook on the other hand was busy with military affairs and had limited time to train. He gradually felt that he was falling more and more behind and there was nothing that he could do.
When he was struggling one day, Fei sent his guard Fernando-Torres to Brook along with a king's command – "Mr. Brook, His Majesty has asked you to head to his palace right away. There is something very important that His Majesty wants to talk to you about."
Brook was lost; he didn't remember Fei previously telling him that he wanted to discuss an important matter today. He followed Torres to the main palace.
After he stepped into the palace, he was surprised to find out that the First Commander of King's Guards Peter-Cech was sitting down on a chair and having a conversation with King Alexander. Except for the two of them, no one else was in the palace.
"Haha Brook, you got here just in time. I have something very important for you two to see."
After seeing Brook's arrival, Fei laughed as he walked down from his throne that was surrounded by two lion-like monster statues. He tapped Brook's shoulder and suddenly opened up his palm. Cech and Brook both felt something flash in front of their eyes as a small green bottle appeared in Fei's palm. A green liquid was stored in the elongated crystal bottle...It had a light touch of magic power.
"This is..." Both Cech and Brook were surprised.
"Hehe, this is a violent energy potion that I recently put together..." Fei explained with his nonsense. He spoke proudly, "But I prefer calling it [Hulk Potion]. Hehehe, this is a very magical potion...." Fei paused a little bit to create more suspense.
"[Hulk Potion]? That name is very strange..." Brook could feel the light magic power hiding within the potion. He subconsciously asked, "Your Majesty, what's the special effect of this potion?"
"Of course, Hehehehe, it has the effect of instantly increasing one's strength by a few times..." Fei wanted to show off. "It sounds like the [Mad Potion] that magic pharmacists put together, but the difference between the [Hulk Potion] and those low class [Mad Potions] is that the strength enhancing effect is permanent!"
"Permanent improvement?" Cech and Brook were both flabbergasted. They stared at the potion in Fei's hand and gasped involuntarily, "How is that possible? Could this be one of the epic potions from the legends?"
Under the mage classifications on Azeroth Continent, there was a branch of magic pharmacists. These magic pharmacists could create a lot of strange potions. The potions all had different effects, and due to the differences in effects and materials required for each potion, there were many ranks from low to high. The epic potions from legends were one of the highly ranked potions. They all had incredible effects and there were a few recorded epic potions that could permanently enhance one's strength...
But those were all items from the legends. Epic potions could only be created by epic leveled magic pharmacists, they also need a lot of rare and precious raw materials. These raw materials would even be considered rare by the level 8 and 9 super powerful Empires on the continent. Fei casually took out a potion that he claimed to have the same effect as epic potions, so Cech and Brook naturally had a hard time believing their eyes and ears.
"Ah? Epic Potion? How is that possible, I don't have any of those precious raw materials to make such a potion..." Fei read a ton of books in the Royal Library, so he knew what the epic potions that the two were talking about was. He rolled his eyes and rejected that idea while smiling, "Hehe, although the [Hulk Potion] has such a powerful effect, it has a terrifying side effect... that's why I hesitated for a long time before telling you guys about it. If you guys can endure through the side effect, the real effect would definitely be satisfying. The potion is here, if you wish, you guys can decide among yourselves who wants to give it a try."
"Terrifying side effect?"
Brook and Cech looked at each other in unison. The shock in their eyes quieted down a bit. They believed this explanation a lot more. If the potion didn't have any side effects and could enhance one's strength permanently and flawlessly, then this [Hulk Potion] would definitely be ranked as one of the epic potions; it would be too precious.
Brook hesitated for a few seconds, and suddenly raised his head and said, "Let me try it out!"
The date of Zenit's Imperial Military Practice was getting closer and closer. There was nowhere that Chambord could back off to. If Chambord lost in this event, their kingdom would be gone. Even though Chambord had two trump cards – Lampard and King Alexander, the military practice was based on the total score for the ten matches. There was no way that the Kingdom could depend on just the two of them. If Chambord wanted an overall win, other people's strength had to improve as well. Time was tight, and to Gordon-Brook who was single-mindedly focusing on increasing his strength and fighting alongside the king, the potion in front of him might've been dangerous, but perhaps it could be his last and only opportunity.
Brook made up his mind and reached out for the bottle of green potion.