“I might have to go on an expedition with my tutor next week for a week,” said Angelina to Locke in the laboratory.

“Oh. Is something the matter?” Locke asked as he hammered the alchemy table, trying to fasten it in place.

“Yeah, it has something to do with my advancement to mid-rank Lehrling.” Angelina nodded in the midst of reading. She was fully immersed in her book, so he stopped disturbing her and continued to install the shelf onto the table. It was probably made of a strong material as it took him much effort to just chip off one of its corners. It was no surprise she’d asked him for help.

He finally managed to affix the shelf in place. He then inserted the test tubes into the racks. Before he could take a breather, Angelina pointed at an oval black bottle next to her without bothering to look up from her book and ordered, “Install that burner too.”

“Okay!” He wiped his sweat off with his sleeves and continued to work. He couldn’t figure out how she’d noticed that he was done with his previous task when she was so focused on reading, though he dared not complain, knowing that she was venting on him.

When she returned home exhaustedly from the academy last night, he was having the time of his life in Glace’s room. Though accommodating she was, she still wanted to teach him a lesson. Otherwise, she could’ve just asked a shadow guard to help her with the installation.

The advancement of a caster couldn’t be treated lightly. She’d just advanced to a low-rank Lehrling less than half a year ago, but she was already preparing for her next advancement solely because she already had a very solid foundation. Plus, with her extraordinary mental power and intelligence, her abilities and talents were far above other casters'.

Locke knew that her grandmaster was the reason behind all her hard work. He’d only met her grandmaster, an old and stern lady, once when he first arrived in Princeton last year. She was initially not interested in Angelina, but she’d changed her mind when she noticed her talent.

She’d already given Angelina a lot of advice and guidance in private. It was all thanks to her that Angelina could turn from a Lehrling who only had basic knowledge about spells to someone who could operate an alchemy table all by herself in just half a year’s time. She’d even lowered her standards for Angelina and she would send her to the Sanctum to study once she had the potential to advance to a high-rank Lehrling.

Locke couldn’t figure out why the casters would want to study in the Sanctum so badly, but he could feel her desperate desire to do so. Of course, he was fully supportive of her choices.

It took him an entire day to install everything in her alchemy lab. He laid down on the floor as soon as he was done with the last piece, and Angelina gave him a kiss as a reward, seemingly not to be bothered by the sweat on his face.

“Oh, yeah. Have a look at this.” Locke seemed to have remembered something as he sat up and took the three red herbs out from his spatial ring.

Angelina tidied her hair and examined the items in the wooden box carefully. “Ember grass?” She asked in surprise.

“So, are they useful to you?” asked Locke impatiently. He would always collect some magic plants and materials during his missions and show them to her before selling them off, just in case they were useful to her.

“Kind of. I’ll take them.”

“Alright.”

Apart from being a caster, Angelina was also interested in alchemy. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have spent so much effort in building an alchemy lab with such an expensive alchemy table.

Ember grass was a good material for scorch potions and blaze potions, which could help to increase fire resistance and increase affinity with the fire element respectively. Plus, these two potions weren’t difficult to make despite their value, so Angelina could take this opportunity to practise her skills.

“What about both of these?” He took out the crocodile’s crystal core and the test tubes that were filled with light blue blood. The spoils from his missions would always surprise Angelina, but she was already very pleased with the ember grass that she’d gotten today, so she didn’t want those two items.

“You can give the ice crystal core and test tubes to Daenie and ask her to hire someone to make potions that can increase affinity with the water element,” suggested Angelina. Daenie was her best friend, and she would always look out for her.

“Okay. I’ll pass them to her tomorrow.” He knew that the shy Daenie had just advanced to a low-rank Lehrling a month ago. Among the members in the squad that took on the mission to exterminate the spirits a few months ago, only Mina and the two knights hadn’t broken through yet. Billie had advanced to a low-rank Lehrling two months ago.

The next evening, he made his way to Daenie’s house.

“Thank you, Locke!” She was extremely surprised by the unexpected gift. The crystal core was just what she needed for her wand; while her parents had already gotten a mid-level water crystal core for her, it definitely couldn’t compare to the ice crystal core Locke had brought. Wands that were made out of ice crystal cores were much better than those made out of water crystal cores in terms of their attack and defensive capabilities, so they were often sought after by casters who specialised in water spells like her.

Since Aomar was located in a tropical region, ice crystal cores were rarely seen on the market. Even if they were, the major nobles and people with connections were always the first ones to buy all of them. The test tubes which contained the crocodile’s blood were the icing on the cake. Based on the power that Daenie’s family had, it would be very easy to get an alchemist to make a few potions with the blood.

Locke didn’t want to take any money for those items, but of course, she wouldn’t accept that. In the end, he had no choice but to accept her fifty gold moores when he saw her face turned red with anger. This had also improved his impression of her.