Given this perilous encounter, Aiven is increasingly anticipating the corporeal transformation that comes with ascending to the Official Knight Tier.
"Sigh, wouldn't it be great to have a magic potion to complement the White Sail Swordsmanship?" Even now, Aiven can't help but scratch his head over the original scarcity of resources — a great cook can't work without ingredients, after all.
After organizing the inventory in the pharmacy, Aiven locked up and walked out, finding it already evening. The streetlights along the streets near the city center were lit, and the bell tower in the city center chimed six melodious times, reminding the residents of the small town that it was now six o'clock in the afternoon.
Aiven walked through street after street.
On the roadside, he occasionally saw well-dressed gentlemen elegantly pulling out well-crafted gold and silver pocket watches from their pockets, leisurely adjusting the time under the envious gazes of passersby.
Small pocket watches haven't been invented for very long, and for most of the general populace, exquisitely small and portable pocket watches are a luxury item.
In any social situation, taking out a pocket watch can add significantly to one's prestige, making pocket watches highly sought after by the well-dressed middle and upper-middle-income classes since their inception.
Seeing this scene, Aiven found it slightly amusing, as if he had found the feeling of showing off the latest model of a popular smartphone to friends in his previous life. But isn't a moderate desire to compete and vanity one of the driving forces of human progress?
Ten minutes later, Aiven was already sitting in Old York's small restaurant, enjoying a large portion of cheese steak and mushroom soup. The warm-toned lighting shone on the windows, casting long shadows of pedestrians outside.
Fathers returning home after a hard day's work, housewives rushing to the market to buy cheap vegetables after the market ends, children running home in a hurry after playing too long... all filled with the scent of life, something Aiven had always longed for.
Unfortunately, now he's left alone again.
"What are you looking at, my dapper young man?" A gentle voice whispered in Aiven's ear as a girl dressed as a waitress placed a large mug of butter beer in front of him.
"Sister Lina!!" The girl leaned a little too close, the fullness in front of her slightly pressing against Aiven's shoulder, her fiery red hair hanging down, tickling Aiven's cheeks slightly red, seeming a bit flustered at resisting the girl's teasing.
"Hehe..."
Having achieved the desired effect, the red-haired girl named Lina covered her mouth with a little laugh, like a victorious little hen, strutting proudly away.
Similar experiences abounded in the original memories, with not only the tavern owner's daughter Lina, but also any self-assumed charming, eligible young girls living within two streets.
Aiven's current body has an excellent foundation — tall, handsome, fair-skinned. Sword training and a noble-like upbringing from a young age gave him a unique aura unlike that of most of his peers in this era.
Moreover, with the awakening of memories from a time beyond his own, this aura becomes more distinct. Combined with owning a pharmacy, he is considered typical of a property-owning class.
All these conditions naturally made him quite attractive to the lovestruck young hearts nearby. However, most of them did not want anything with Aiven; they merely used him to showcase their charms.
Now Aiven simply continued the original's usual style, to avoid exposing himself. Theoretically seasoned, he claimed not to be nervous at all! Probably...
"Ding ding ding, ding ding ding..."
"Welcome! What would the customer like to eat today?" After taking the order efficiently from the new guests, Lina returned to the kitchen, winking at Aiven as she passed by him.
However, Aiven wasn't paying attention to the girl's little gesture, his interest piqued by two newly arrived guests who had a slight fishy smell about them.
"Are there really such big fish near the coast?"
"Is there any doubt about that?! Everyone on the same boat as me saw it. Many huge, strange fish chased the migrating red-bellied sturgeons all over the place; it's terrifying — they look just like demons.
Their tails even have a long red spike; if we're not talking about their body, just that spike alone is longer than the sheriff's sword."
A middle-aged sailor missing a front tooth was a fluent speaker, recounting his adventure tale nonstop. He even elaborated on the time, place, and other witnesses to add credibility, making it clear to his companion.
It's uncertain whether his companion believed him, but Aiven, who listened intently, heard every word.
"What they're describing sounds like a Devil Fish? Could it be that a deep-sea school wandered into the waters near Leopold?
Hmm... it must be true, if he hadn't seen it himself, he couldn't have described the Devil Fish's characteristics so precisely.
If I could obtain a Devil Fish spike to concoct a potion, the growth of my Apprentice Knight physical attributes would surely accelerate greatly, giving me more time to prepare for the knightly ascension. It's like getting a pillow when you're sleepy!"
The Devil Fish's spike is a crucial ingredient for a type of apprentice knight supplementary potion, but due to its unique lifestyle, it's tough to acquire through trade. Ever since fleeing to Leopold, even when Grandpa Leo was alive, Aiven had never seen it firsthand.
Unless specifically hunting for it, even if someone caught Devil Fish in the open sea, no one would purposely preserve certain specific parts of such a fish. Much like dried lizard tails, it belongs to certain specific groups lingering in the shadows.
Upon unexpectedly hearing such good news, Aiven was elated, taking a big gulp of the butter beer on the table. Aiven felt today was his lucky day indeed, and his frustration from being cooped up in the pharmacy for several days without going anywhere had long vanished!
Early the next morning.
Having made all necessary preparations, Aiven didn't even go to the pharmacy, leaving Leopold and heading directly to the site where the sailor encountered the spiked Devil Fish the previous day. To Aiven, compared to his path as a knight, a day's revenue was trivial.
Walking on the road, information related to the spiked Devil Fish continually surfaced in Aiven's mind.
This unique fish species mostly resides in the open sea, with a large and peculiar appearance but not aggressive by nature, even considered somewhat timid. Its diet consists only of small fish and shrimp, and humans are not even considered as they're large land creatures to the fish.
The spike on its tail isn't used for attack but will turn red on its own while escaping, attracting the enemy's attention, and it will fall off like a lizard's tail, creating an opportunity for the fish.
This time, Aiven planned to exploit its "flee-drop spike" trait to obtain a spike. After all, although the fish is large and gentle by nature, it's undeniably large, and only a fool would go diving barehanded to fight it.
Arriving at the coast where the Devil Fish appeared, the sky was just beginning to brighten.
Due to news of the giant strange fish spreading widely among fishermen, no one lingered here today, offering Aiven the convenience for his hunt.
But concerned that the school of Devil Fish may have fled, Aiven had no time to borrow even a small boat for coastal operations from acquaintances. Looking around, there were no fishing boats left behind by a kind soul to temporarily borrow.
This, however, was no obstacle for Aiven. Using the ax he carried, he chopped down two suitably sized dead trees on the shore, tied them together with rope, creating an extremely rudimentary one-man "raft."
"Haha, perfect!"
Of course, only someone as audacious and skilled as Aiven dared to venture out on such a "raft," even if only in coastal waters visible from the shore.
Taking some rope and a few appropriately sized stones, Aiven paddled out with a paddle carved from a sword.
Splash, splash —
By comparing the sailor's description with the distance from the shore and the location of reference objects, Aiven quickly reached the place where the fisherman encountered the Devil Fish yesterday.
Taking off his clothes, tying a long rope with one end attached to the raft around his waist, and strapping a dagger to his calf, he leapt into the water.
The water here wasn't too deep. With sunlight penetrating through, he could just barely see. Aiven activated Data Visualization to assist in finding the spiked Devil Fishs that like to lurk waiting on the seabed.
Finding nothing at one spot, he returned to the surface and shifted to another location to continue diving.
Patient as he was, Aiven repeatedly submerged to scout, return to the surface, relocate, then submerge again, and on the fourth attempt, Data Visualization finally captured something unusual on the seabed.