Cauis actually received a Post from his family a few days ago. They were half-worried for him due to the disease.
After all, though people of his level would be difficult to affect, they were still not completely immune. They probably would not die, but the side effect was still very real.
Another reason was that they were looking for this old man!
He had already sent his mercenaries to investigate, though there had been no news so far.
Look at this now?
And then he found out what the visit was about. This old man must’ve known he was here but did not show himself, and now he was here.
Cauis hadn’t planned on heading back at this time (he quite liked the quarantine situation here), but if it had to bring back the alchemist, he wouldn’t have much of a choice, now would he?
Unexpectedly, the old man replied very quickly when he was making the trip. "I am not going back for now."
"What?"
"I’m approaching you for something else."
Zenno then told him what it was about, and the scholarly man could only gape.
They were selling the formulas and methodologies for such a low cost? Sure, ten thousand gold might seem big, but they were a City and the price they could sell these would not be low.
Although they couldn’t put excessively high markups, they were still allowed to have a bit, and it would still be highly profitable.
Such a good thing?? So kind?
Not to mention, it seemed like the Research Center didn’t want to deal with anyone else, so it would be through him, which was an honor.
So Cauis vowed not to disappoint them!
...
The potential cure the Research Center was exploring would comprise three components: the binder, the active ingredients, and the enhancers.
They studied the medicine Hoffen and Zenno made together. There were four of them in this task force, providing different perspectives and insight.
Hoffen’s approach was the prevention of its spread, Zenno’s was the stoppage of its development in the body, Cheman’s was more on detection, while Althea would bring in modern perspectives.
The three of them had worked on these medications for years in the past, and they inevitably caused biases, so fresh and valid perspectives were invaluable.
There were even plenty of instances where they fought, and Alterra had to offer them desserts and tea time to calm things down.
Of course, the fights, er, debates were all scholarly, even if they got a bit too passionate. Through arguments, new conclusions were borne, which ultimately helped all of them.
"This is like what our future guild would look like," Althea said with a smile, and the older alchemists nodded in agreement, also quite curious.
Anyway, after days of trial and error and nearly sleepless nights, the top alchemists studied each others’ works, interpreted them, and slowly formed a single medicine to have the effects of all three. An actual cure was still some ways, but progress was progress.
Cauis actually mobilized quite a few people to gather ’new’ resources. He had deep vested interest in the franchise program as well as the new seeds and how they were planted.
Alterra had no problem distributing a few seeds for goodwill and a solidified partnership with a proper city. This way, the shortage could be met, especially since cities had deep foundations and could really handle a lot more orders.
According to Zenno, the farms of Holt City had a special array that allowed even raw ingredients to serve as aether food. Only a small portion of the farms were like this, of course, but their existence was fascinating.
Althea wanted to visit it someday.
Someday.
Moving on to the next ingredients, there were papra plant and sagada plant, the minty plants found and explored a long time ago. They served to build upon the main effect as enhancers.
Their part in the medicine was to open airways. They also had a cooling sensation and could improve the absorption of the medicine.
Waul tree sap, which they used for its resin before, could also be used as a binder and preservative when dissolved in small amounts.
Interestingly, honey found its use here. It was a great binder and had natural anti-microbial properties.
Honey was something that had just recently become commercially available, with one of the new farms in the outer walls serving as a massive honey farm.
It took about a week before they mastered the existing formulas, and then started to expand and experiment on them.
As they said, master the trade first if one wanted to be creative with it.

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