The Moon Thief

When Heinald had successfully brewed the potion, he had less than an hour left in his time limit. After detoxicating the plants using his Spirit Flame, all he had to do was make the plants release the Humutren secretion, and he had successfully overcome it.

"Congratulations! You passed the test successfully." Albin suddenly appeared next to Heinald.

Heinald suppressed his excitement and smiled faintly.

"It's time for you to come back." Albin snapped his finger, and the world of illusion began to fall apart. Heinald's vision darkened completely, and when he began to see again, he found himself sitting on the mat again. Again, he was where he was before he went to the world of illusion.

"Sir, how did I craft a potion in the illusion world?" asked Heinald.

This question was in the back of his mind, he wanted to know the answer.

"Actually, it was all just a dream. The point I paid attention to when testing you was your approach to brewing the potion. For example, if it were real, you wouldn't be able to brew the potion you brewed successfully in the second test, but your way of thinking managed to impress me." Albin smiled faintly and continued, "So you qualified to pass the test, but you would actually have to solve a lot more problems in real."

"Oh, so you deliberately wanted to successfully show me the potions I've been working on?" Heinald scratched his chin.

"For the second challenge, yes, but your success in the first challenge is entirely up to you, I have carefully considered your use of your Spirit Flame and I can honestly say that I am quite impressed. It is impressive that you can truly use your Spirit Flame with such control at such a young age."

Heinald had really managed to impress Albin. Actually, this was perfectly normal because the tests were really challenging. In the first trial, he didn't have much difficulty, thanks to his knowledge and the advantage his eyes gave him in Spirit Flame use. However, it was too hard for him to keep his focus strong as needles pricked all over his body. In the second test, if he did not have the information and theories he could keep in his memory, he would probably have failed.

"Thank you sir." Heinald bowed his head respectfully.

"I've decided to take you on as an apprentice." Albin nodded and stood up, "I will try to help you with important matters and allow you access to some of the resources I have, but I will expect the same from you in return. As in any master-apprentice relationship, I will give you some obligations, but there is only one very important obligation I ask of you.

"What is it, sir?" Heinald asked excitedly.

"Help me complete the Nitrius Potion that I call my life's work!" Albin had a serious expression.

"Nitrius Potion?" A curious expression appeared on Heinald's face.

"A multi-effect potion I've been working on for many years, even after decades of analysis and experimentation, I couldn't complete the potion." Albin exhaled loudly.

"Multi-effect...But how?" Heinald's eyes widened.

"A potion that will simultaneously increase the impact of Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Poison elements by at least 30%." Albin nodded and looked at Heinald, clearly seeing the shocked expression of the young man standing before him.

"But something like that would be too unstable!" Heinald spoke in surprise. He had a hard time believing what he was hearing. A potion that will create a 30% increase in the impact of all four elements at once.

A potion that would increase the effects of Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Poison would have to contain four different factors, making that potion quite unstable. In unstable potions, the different factors and substances in the potion would have difficulty in adapting to each other and would begin to destroy each other.

This was the problem Albin faced and wanted to overcome!

"True! I've been looking for ways to solve this problem for years, but I couldn't get over it no matter how much I theorized and experimented. I needed help to overcome this problem, but the Potions Masters around me were all useless idiots, I needed a young talent like you because I want to complete this potion's formula and your young mind can benefit me immensely, so if you want to be my apprentice, accept my offer once you are sure you want to take this responsibility.

Albin's words made Heinald fall into deep thought. Being an apprentice to a master like Albin Redsand was indeed a great blessing, but the responsibility was too great, and great responsibility greatly restricted freedom.

"If I accept to be Albin Redsand's apprentice, I will gain access to many resources. However, I will also bear the burden of great responsibility. However, the resources I can access will undoubtedly improve me a lot, I can't afford to miss this opportunity!" Heinald considered the thoughts in his mind.

"I intend to be your apprentice!" Heinald resolutely announced his decision.

"Very well! I won't do it as any blood deal or ritual doesn't suit my style. If I accept you as my master and I accept you as my apprentice, there's no need to prolong it!"

Although Albin Redsand spoke casually, the look in his eyes was different from what he said. If he broke the deal, he would be punished by Albin.

Heinald felt these gazes in his soul, would he dare to break his word?

Albin's message was clear; if betrayal was involved, his end would be death.

Albin summoned one of the servants to his room. After ordering him to prepare a nice room and laboratory for Heinald, he gestured to his new apprentice to follow him.

When Heinald saw Albin's hand signal, he immediately started following him. Since his new master was also a very powerful Ainsar, he was very careful not to show any disrespect; he followed Albin about ten paces behind to avoid any disrespect.

After the two of them passed a long corridor, they stepped out onto a rather large balcony. Part of the city could be seen easily from this balcony. Albin looked ahead for a moment with a cloudy expression on his face, then turned his gaze to Heinald next to him.

"First of all, I would like to state that it is not my intention to force you. I will not give you intense working conditions or duties." Albin took a deep breath and continued, "As I mentioned earlier, after all, now that you're my apprentice, I'll assign you some quests and I'd like to see these quests handled successfully. Apart from that, with the resources I've given you, aside from brewing potion, be a strong Ainsar. But remember! No matter how talented and smart you are, if you relax after achieving a certain success and follow a lazy life routine, you will sink into the ground just as quickly as you rise."

"I will always keep your words in mind, master!" Heinald respectfully nodded.

"Good!" Albin smiled contentedly and nodded.

"What about…Nitrius Potion…" Heinald didn't know how to form the sentence, but Albin understood what he was trying to say.

"Don't worry, you'll have to practice a little more before you start helping me." Albin raised his hand, after a short silence, he continued, "Unfortunately I can't just give you all my books, but since you're my apprentice, depending on your performance, I will sometimes lend you some of my books for a while that contain some very valuable information, if you can take advantage of these opportunities, these books will be quite valuable for you. But if I think that you are not taking advantage of these opportunities, I will stop giving you books."

"Understood." Heinald nodded.

After talking some more with his new master, Heinald went to the room that was prepared for him. His new room was on the second floor of the mansion and overlooked a spacious terrace. The room had large and large windows all over the place, and there was also a large laboratory prepared for him, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a sitting room.

"I'm pretty lucky! Thanks to Master Kunes, I've truly become a Potions Master's apprentice. If I'm going to please him, he'll give me some pretty valuable resources. My first goal should be to gather as much information as possible about Spirit Potions."

Heinald began to assess his situation with contentment. During his stay in this place, he had to seize every opportunity that came his way, to the last. Thus, his knowledge, skills, and experience on Potion Branch would surely be more than he's ever had.

After his room was prepared, he asked his master Albin for permission to wander around to get to know the city, and left the mansion and wandered freely around the city. He learned about the shops he could visit when he needed to, and the location of the Ainsar Markets located in various parts of the city. According to his observation, the materials and items in these shops were not much more or more valuable than those sold in the shops and market areas he had previously visited. However, the market he was already looking for was a place known as the 'Secret Market', where more valuable and special materials were sold.