The ingredients and the formula was delivered to him that evening while he was practicing the sword techniques from the diary. The girl came herself with them. After reassuring her again and again that he could deliver the required amount of potions within time, Rowan finally sent her on her way. There was one odd thing that made Rowan alert. When handing him the papers containing the formula, she refused to give him any information about the potion's effects or what it would be used for. Neither did she say why she needed so much of it. But there wasn't anything he could do to make her speak, so he let the issue rest.

Entering his bedroom where everything was piled up in a heap, he studied the formula. It was much more complex than he had imagined. Each batch of the potion required over twenty different types of ingredients, most of which he couldn't identify without the labels and Chip's help. The previous potions that he had practiced concocting took two to three hours at most but a single batch of this potion took up six to seven hours. That meant, producing one litre would take half a day. He had to produce at least five litres to convince her.
In short, he'd have to work hard for the rest of the week to meet her demands.

Toiling wasn't something Rowan was afraid of. He wasn't a lazy person. But he couldn't really afford to make mistakes here. She gave him enough ingredients for ten litres and expected at least seventy percent of them back as a part of the potion.

"Chip, start analysing the formula."

[ proceeding with task...
  Progress: 1% ]

Rowan decided not to start before it reaches completion. Meanwhile, he started cooking the monster meat from last night. There were three different monsters. A iron-beak hawk, an electric boa and a mutated variation of cyan frogs that he had never seen before in the marsh. All three of these monsters had their primary stats near the peak of normal creatures, which is to say, around  8-9. Rowan and Isa were quite familiar with each other's style and they didn't face much difficulty hunting them together.

With many thoughts clouding his mind, Rowan cooked the meat and started his sumptuous monster flavoured dinner. It wasn't very tasty, to tell the truth. He tried his best not to remeber the appearance of the monsters when they were alive and kicking. They were anything but appetizing. Rowan also noticed a change in himself recently. His appetite had gotten larger. Initially, just one monster would last him a day or two, but now, he could eat multiple smaller sized monsters like snacks. Perhaps it had something to do with his physical enhancements. After all, he did become twice the stronger, faster and capable compared to before. Logically, his consumption of food should be large too. It wasn't something to be alarmed about.

After finishing all three monsters with some effort in the end, Rowan felt like he was going to turn into a miniature version of Isa as he looked down and noticed his inflated stomach.
"All for the sake of enhancements," he consoled himself, and asked Chip to recheck his current stats.

[ Host stats:
  Strength: 6.3
  Speed: 7
  Physique: 6.5
  Innate ability: none awakened
  Elemental affinity: earth (level 2) fire (level 1)
  Mutation compatibility:63.25%
  Constitutional limit: rank two (evolvable) ]

[ alert. The normal sword technique 'shadow of the blade' is now available for use. ]

A few minutes after his command, Chip sent the report and let him see his new stats. Rowan felt the pleasure of the new accomplishment again after a long time. He quickly asked Chip to let him see the optimized and understandable version of the sword technique.

[  technique: shadow of the blade

   Description: this could be called the result of multiple different sword techniques converted seamlessly into one to produce a newer and better result. When the wielder uses the technique in a duel or a battle, the sword gives off the impression of having two blades attached to the hilt , one belonging to the sword itself and the other, its shadow. However, unlike an incorporeal shadow, this extra shadow of the blade can cause the same amount of injury to the enemy. Furthermore, once the wielder gains mastery over this technique, he can manipulate the shadow to bend and move according to his will and slip past the enemy's defense to deal fatal damage. To use this sword technique, host must practice these ten postures and moves depicted below. ]

Beneath the the description were glowing forms of a man holding a sword and moving methodically. Each move seemed more strenuous and demanding than the previous, and the last one where the sword in his hand showed two different blades, one black and one silver, seemed almost impossible to do.

Rowan had of course tried to practice it before he had acquired Chip and knew nothing about the legacy. But he had never even come close to achieving the intended result. Since the postures were so painful to do, he had abandoned it for other easier techniques.

But now that he compared the optimised version from Chip with the original from the diary, he realized that many moves have been omitted and changed slightly in the new version. It looked more practical and less flashy, as well as seeming easier than before. Rowan also felt that his enhanced stats would be able to play a factor here. Otherwise, Chip wouldn't have placed such a restriction over him regarding the availability of each sword technique. Rowan reviewed the progress bar for the analysis of the formula.

[   formula analysis progress : 11.5 %  ]

Rowan nodded expectantly. He knew how complex the formula was. He guessed that it would take Chip three to four hours to completely analyze it and give him an advantage while concocting the potion.

Meanwhile, he should get used to using this technique. Thinking this, he went to the backyard and started practicing. His assumptions were not wrong, it seemed. The postures and difficult muscle movements were actually now easier to do. He completed the first five moves without any problems and only ran into a hassle on the sixth where he pulled a muscle that he didn't even know existed. By the time he completed the while set of moves, his whole body was aching and sweating. He also failed to conjure the shadow formed blade. However, it was only his first try and failure was expected. He had failed dozens of times in the past while trying this technique. So it hardly deterred him. Despite his body protesting against the decision, he continued to practice the moves, again and again. His speed was becoming slower by the time he finished three sessions. Even moving his hands felt like torture. Each limb was throbbing in dozens of places. But when he remembered Isa's explanation about sand town and what his future held if he wasn't strong enough, his determination to continue only strengthened.

After seven sessions where he completed the set of moves seven times in total, he was completely spent and lay down on the ground, almost unable to move from the pressure emanating from his bones and muscles. He couldn't even conjure the shadow of the blade once in these seven times. But his high physique made it possible for him to recover quickly and before ten minutes had passed, he was back on his feet, his sword in hand, fluidly moving it through the air as if he were a dancer in a stage, performing the role of a legendary hero in his last battle, exhausted, gasping, yet unstoppable.

Time passed by like a comfortable breeze and before he knew it, Chip notified him that the analysis was complete. Rowan stopped and bent down, gasping for breath. Slowly, he went back inside while studying the analyzed version. It wasn't much different, except containing some more explanations for him to understand how the details worked here and there.
After reading the whole thing, he understood that this wasn't a potion that would be good for the consumer. There were many toxic ingredients that would become corrosive in nature if mixed. However, he couldn't understand what it could be used for just from this clue.

Is she going to use this potion to fight monsters like me?
That's highly unlikely. The total cost of the potion is way too high compared to monster corpses.
There were still many parts in the formula he couldn't comprehend, but neither could Chip provide any explanation because of insufficient data. He needed to make sure that he would succeed. Since he needed more information about how potions worked, there was only another choice left for him now. The woman in charge of the medicine formulas from the hospital.

Rowan rested for a while before going out again, this time with the intention to visit her. It had been a while since their previous exchange. He had promised her further supply of herbs occasionally at that time. Right now, he didn't have much except the extra ones he had collected last night while looking for herbs for Isa as well as a portion of the healing potion. He put them together in a pouch and went to the hospital. It was dark outside, the suns having set a few hours ago. Most people were already starting to close down their business and returning home for dinner, except for the patrolling teams that were active all the time.

The hospital was also open twenty four hours a day. So he didn't have to worry about bad timing. Just as before, he followed the old guard to the back of the hospital where the woman could be found taking care of the medicine most of the time. Her eye lit up as soon as she saw him. Shooing of the old guard, she gestured at him to follow her. They went in front of the heavily secured room where he had 'looted' formulas last time.

"Well, what have you got this time?"

Rowan pulled out the herbs from the pouch and offered them up for her inspection. She seemed to recognize them after taking a close look. But her expression remained stoic.

"Thay isn't enough for me to take such risks and let you learn formulas."

Rowan shrugged and pulled his arm back. Wordlessly, he turned around and walked back toward the entrance. Inwardly, he was actually relaxed. All of these herbs contained healing properties and should be very much in demand these days. Even if they were not precious before the eclipse, he had no doubt about their worth right now. And just as he had assumed, she called back when he showed no sign of hesitation.

"Those herbs are useless to you if you don't sell them to me. There aren't many others in Sand town who would recognize their worth."

Rowan gave no sign of listening to her words and just as he was about to exit the corridor she relented.

"Fine...come here. I'll take them. But I'll decide what formula you get this time."

"I want a formula related to healing, like something that works against burns and corrosive elements," Rowan said while remembering the potion he would be concocting in near future. One could never be too careful.

Seeing her nod, Rowan chuckled lightly and walked back with the same gait. She took the herbs from him and opened the room reluctantly. Then she looked back and saw Rowan smiling wolfishly at the formulas in the room while clutching a bag his waist. He looked exactly like a bandit who had discovered a king's treasures. Then she noticed the sharp looking sword hanging from his waist and became pale with fright.

"Put your sword and bag outside at the entrance or l won't let you in!" She whimpered, clutching her keys tightly.

Rowan's grin widened. It worked. His acting skills must've been very impressive. Clicking his tongue while wondering why he was so talented at acting like a bandit, Rowan went to the back entrance of the hospital and put the bag and the sword there.

Upon returning, he found that the woman had already opened a shelf and had a formula and a piece of paper already prepared in her hand. Realizing that his old trick wouldn't work again, he took them from her and started copying it down. This time, he noticed that there was a number one written on the back of the scroll that contained the formula. Perhaps this was what the archmage's disciple was talking about. A grade one potion?

"You know, these herbs aren't really much if we compare their prices with the formula," the woman said off-handedly while he wrote.

A shadow of a smile appeared in his face as he answered lazily.

"Oh! It's not just those herbs! I even brought a potion made from similar ingredients. Where was it...oh right, in my bag!"

The woman looked at him in disbelief before walking out hurriedly to look for his bag. She was a bit too excited by the prospect and didn't think he would be able to steal anything without a bag. And she would be returning within moments. Even if he tried something suspicious, she would be able to tell as long as there was any inconsistency inside the open shelf.

Rowan's hands blurred into motion as soon as she left. One after one, the potion formulas inside were scanned by Chip and returned back to their original spot. He didn't know how they were graded, but he definitely got a few valuable ones in the process.

The woman returned soon after, a vial in her hand and a delighted look on her face. Rowan put the piece of paper containing the formula she gave him and saw himself out. Both parties seemed immensely satisfied with themselves. It was just like their previous deal, except only more valuable one than before.