The Receptionist handed the organized notebook to the man. The man spread the notebook open on the table and began to flip through it.
"Number of energy potion materials sold: 216 portions,
Furan: 110 portions"
He saw this number, which significantly surpassed others in purchases, and became interested. His main objective for this trip was to identify all Apothecaries who made energy potions.
If their success rate was high, he would try to recruit them and sign new contracts.
Of course, if the success rate was low, it wouldn't work; they wouldn't be offered contracts for too low a success rate.
He directly flipped to the section on the number of energy potions recovered and saw Furan's recovery count.
"Only 21 portions. Is the success rate really that bad?"
He calculated it, and the success rate was less than one-fifth, so naturally, no contract could be offered. But this success rate was really too poor.
How could someone buy over a hundred portions of materials, yet their overall success rate still fell below the one-bottle-per-five-attempts mark? It was truly terrible.
However, her persistent buying of materials was truly helping the association clear its inventory. He flipped through and saw that Furan had bought materials for many Potions, but the returned Potions were less than one-fifth. He then dismissed her name from his mind.
Afterward, another Apothecary had bought 40 portions of energy potion materials and made eight bottles, which was exactly on the one-fifth line.
Still not meeting his requirements, he shook his head. It seemed there were no Apothecaries to pay attention to here at the Cuilan Association.
He finally checked the association's energy potion material inventory. His eyes widened, and he took the document to the Receptionist:
"How do you still have five hundred portions of energy potion materials here? Why wasn't this reported?"
Currently, it would be good if other associations outside had a total of 1000 portions, so why did this place have 500?
"This is the annual accumulation of energy potion materials. Three months ago, the materials were very cheap, so the President specifically bought more."
Every year, approaching the Assessment, the association would stockpile energy potion materials for the production of energy potions.
It's just that they stockpiled a bit more this year, and the President, who knows where he went, hasn't been seen for two months, the Receptionist thought.
The man suddenly paused. He knew why it hadn't been reported. He seemed to have received materials with a corresponding description, but he had forgotten about it because he was going to the neighboring Tolov City to buy Rune Sword decorations.
He then became ecstatic. He had a lot of room for maneuver with this matter; the association didn't know about it.
"Pack up half of the inventory, leave the other half here. Also, double the price of that half of the inventory."
He issued the order and took out his badge. According to regulations, they had to obey him now.
Unless the President was here, but the President had probably run away to avoid being a scapegoat. Now, only he was here.
---
Furan, gripping a wooden sword, was engaged in a rapid exchange with Bella.
They went back and forth, the clashing sounds of their wooden swords rising and falling, showing no sign of stopping.
Bella retreated after barely blocking a chop. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, still breathing heavily.
She had to trade space for some time to recover her stamina. She had been sparring with Furan for a long time, and her stamina couldn't keep up.
Furan also seemed not to be in good condition. Seeing Bella retreat, she tried to seize the opportunity but swung empty, missing her target.
Furan stood in place, also breathing heavily. If she rushed forward rashly now, she might be attacked.
Bella also tacitly chose not to attack, opting for them to recover their stamina together before continuing.
Suddenly, Furan thought of something and placed her other hand on the sword hilt, fumbling for a moment.
Before Bella could react, Furan lunged forward with all her might, thrusting her sword.
Bella was first startled, then overjoyed; Furan had still made a mistake.
Bella was confident that if she parried this strike, Furan would essentially lose.
Both sides were low on stamina, and Furan making such a large, seemingly forceful move was an attempt to catch her off guard and end the fight quickly.
Bella barely managed to block the sword in front of her chest. She was confident she could block this attack and then, as Furan's stamina was depleted, launch a finishing strike to end the match.
However, the reality was not as she expected. When Furan's wooden sword touched hers, she only felt an unstoppable immense force.
Afterward, she was thrown off balance by this immense force, her wooden sword slipped from her hand, and she lay on the ground.
"Take my hand, get up."
Furan extended her hand and pulled Bella up from the ground. Bella shook her head before speaking.
"No, what was that? How could there be such immense power?"
Furan didn't tell the truth, instead telling a small lie.
"This is a new Combat Skill I learned. How about it, pretty covert, right? You didn't feel any fluctuations at all."
Generally, when a Combat Skill is released, unless the opponent is blind, they can tell from various changes that you've unleashed a Combat Skill and know to make a decision, not just blindly attack.
Bella thought for a moment, feeling like something was off. Why would she put her hand on the sword when releasing a Combat Skill?
"Is that... so?"
Moreover, she had never heard of anyone whose Combat Skill could be released so silently.
When she was a child, she had heard a story about an assassin who tried to assassinate a noble. It was because the assassin chose to release a Combat Skill during the attack, and the change in the Combat Skill's aura alerted the noble, who then successfully counter-killed.
The person who told her this story specifically warned them not to overuse Combat Skills. Even though Combat Skills could unleash power unmatched by normal means, their usage depended on the situation.
"That's right. This move requires a long preparation time. If it weren't for the situation just now, I wouldn't have been able to defeat you."
Seeing Furan's confident demeanor, Bella eventually chose to believe her.
"Alright then, let's continue after I rest."
Seeing that Bella believed her, Furan breathed a sigh of relief. She could now continue to fulfill the Rune Warrior achievement conditions using Bella.
Unfortunately, the Rune Warrior achievement condition required using runes to achieve a critical victory opportunity in battle.
Actually, she had secretly used it twice before, and Bella hadn't noticed. This time, her technique was a bit rougher, and Bella discovered it.
If you ask why she didn't find others to complete it, Furan could only say she tried, but it was completely useless.
It seemed that the criterion for a 'battle' required enemies of at least equal strength, and the people she had found before were all weaker than her.
And now, only Bella could spar with her; others were completely out of the question.
However, she couldn't use the 'Impact' rune anymore. If she used it again, it would be hard to guarantee Bella wouldn't figure it out, and then she wouldn't practice with her.
"Why do I feel a tingling sensation? My sword feels a bit unresponsive..."
"You probably haven't rested enough. Let's rest a bit more before fighting again."