Chapter 67

After finishing washing the barley, Ludger soaks it in water before draining it and steaming it for about forty minutes. As he was steaming it, he told Favian to make a few magic items that will work like an incubator. When the steaming finished, he put it in a few different containers and put it in different places.

"Won't molds will start to grow on the barley if you do that, Teacher?" Favian ask.

"I am intentionally let it grow molds and use it in the next processes. If the correct type of molds is growing, then I will be able to create a lot of new dishes or ingredients. This is something that I want to teach you. Something that can be made without magic." Ludger calmly said.

"Then, Master Ludger, will you let me sell it later when you have been finished making it?" Hugo asked with shining eyes and there was also a bit of greed in his eyes.

"I haven't decided what to do with those things because I haven't made it. I'm thinking to get some information about the benefits of becoming a member of the merchant guild. Ah right, Favian, I also need you to tell me about the benefit of becoming a member of the alchemy guild too. I need it to compare it with the benefit that the mercenary guild had given to me." Ludger casually said.

"It means that you are getting an invitation from the five great guilds in this city in less than a week. Then did you tell them to wait until you decide which guild you will join" Hugo asks with a surprised and respectful expression.

"But I think I won't accept the magic tower invitation because I have a bad feeling about how they act. You can say that I dislike how they use magic and almost harm other people." Ludger said with an angry tone.

Ludger is still angry at the magic tower's unreasonable act that reminds him of how the servant in Ruach's mansion treated Renneshia before. Of course, it was because as Renneshia she had endured such unreasonable treatment for more than five years and was finally able to get her freedom as Ludger. But the mage from the magic tower makes Ludger remember that hellish day.

Currently, Ludger has a lot of thought while acting normal and put a fake smile on his face to make the other people have a good impression of him. The first one is the thought of learning all kinds of medical knowledge in this world. Ludger has been asking around about medicine and medication method with the person he meets on his journey until now when he interacted with some customers. Especially with some frequent customers.

The second one is about intermediate or advanced knowledge of curses. Something bugging Ludger after he heard about the truth of the seer race from his mother. But he couldn't get any information about it because it is something forbidden by the rule of the Draconia Empire. And it was also something that relate to the game plot that might be happen in the future.

The last one is to find a way to protect his mother and the owner of the Red Dawn so he could leave without feeling worried. It was what Ludger currently considered when he chose the future job that he want to take. If the people in Red Dawn were safe, Ludger will be able to do some short journeys as a merchant or an adventurer when he was able to get his apprenticeship.

How those mages from the magic tower act before make Ludger have a bad feeling. Ludger feels that they will try to harm his mother and Caron if they want to force him to join the magic tower. They might also put something like a curse because they have the knowledge about it. Ludger could only hope that it was his timid mind's wild imagination and they would never do something like that.

"Teacher, is it safe to eat stale food? If the barley has grown molds, won't we have a stomachache if we eat it?" Favian asks with a confused expression.

"You won't have to worry about it. I will check which one will be safe for consumption. It was similar to the mushrooms, some of it is dangerous while the other is edible." Ludger explain.

"Sorry to interrupt your explanation, but did you just say that we can eat mushrooms?! Won't it be dangerous? I heard that someone died after accidentally consuming it before from the people who often went on a journey." Hugo asks with a disbelief expression.

"Mushrooms are edible but even if it was edible, it might be dangerous if you didn't understand how to prepare it with the correct method. Although the mushrooms might cause allergic reactions for some people or contain a dangerous substance but it was safe if you put them in moderate heat when cooking. And of course, you need the knowledge to differentiate between the edible and poisonous one." Ludger explain about what he remembers

"Did you mean it could be used as food or poison depending on how we prepared it?"Favian asked.

"It also could be used as medicine if we are able to do some research about it." Ludger add.

"Master Ludger, I never thought it was so useful. Hmm, but how could you know so much about it?" Hugo suddenly found Ludger's knowledge was strange.

"Oh my, what time it is? I need to go back or my mom will get worried again." Ludger said with a panicked tone as he remembered the time.

"Then I will accompany you because I promised to Lady Katarina." Hugo said.

"Can I also go with both of you? I want to discuss something about the things you write in those papers and how to create the invisible ink that you create." Favian ask.

"Let's quickly go, I suddenly have a bad feeling." Ludger said and quickly go out of the laboratory.

As they are on the way back to Red Dawn, suddenly Ludger feels a magic flying to the carriage that they are riding. Ludger quickly create similar size earth bullets to neutralise the attack magic without chanting because no one could see the inside of the carriage. And they were currently riding Hugo's private carriage that have curtains to make no one unable to look inside the carriage.

It was different from public carriages that didn't have any curtains or sometimes it didn't even have a roof. The public carriages were similar to public transportation on Earth but they often lack the comfort of their passenger.

Bang!

The magic clashed and cause smoke and dust.

Neigh!

The horses that pulling the carriage were surprised by the clash of the two magic. It causes the carriage to shake terribly because the horses start to rampage.

'Should I teach them about suspension systems?' Ludger thought and try to sense if there are any other attacks that flying at them.

"Is there something wrong, Master Ludger?" Hugo timidly asks as he doesn't understand what happen and is afraid that something terrible is happening because Ludger seems to feel disappointed or something seems to bother him.

After a few minutes, the driver was finally able to calm the horse down. The people around are also surprised by the sudden ruckus and look at the carriage that causes it.

"What happen?!" Hugo and Favian don't know what happened so they are confused by what happened and surprised by Ludger who open the carriage door and look around the surrounding.

"Tsk. They have run away." Ludger said with a displeased tone.

'They seem to have run away and hide themselves. Did they go outside my range?' Ludger is unable to sense the magic anymore after he senses the attack and focuses to neutralise the attack.

Ludger's magic sense is only able to sense correctly around the diameter of sixty meters range. But he needs to put all his focus to sense it or be in a calm condition. Ludger never learn how to use it while fighting and there are no change to do it before so he didn't know how to do it correctly as when he tried it before he felt a terrible headache.

Ludger learns a lot as Renneshia in Ruach's mansion but he never learns about the determination to fight and experience in life and death fights. As Ludger was quite lucky in his current life, there was nothing that really push him to his limit. This attack makes Ludger able to realize how lucky his current life was if he didn't have to face the horrible future that has not happened.

'I think I need to train myself to fight against others if I want to survive in this world.' Ludger set a new decision for his plan.

"I need to do more training or it would be more dangerous for me in the future." Ludger unconsciously mutters what he was thinking out loud as if reminding himself.

Hugo and Favian who accidentally heard his words widen their eyes and have a dumbfounded face as they were speechless to respond to Ludger's words. Ludger could be categorized as a genius at fighting if he was compared to the other children around his age in this world. But he just said that his skills are lacking and he needs to train himself more than before.

'What kind of monster you will become in the future?' Hugo and Favian thought.

Because of the ruckus, the city guards come and question them about what happened. Ludger pretend to not know what is happening and the guards could only get the information from the driver and the people in the surroundings that saw what happened.

After spending about an hour, they were finally able to arrive at the Red Dawn. Ludger feel chills on his back as he entered the Red Dawn door.