"Honored Mr. Peppercorn, I'm elated to be serving you today. Might I ask what services I may render for you?"

Zhang Lie was able to contact the Thousand-Treasure Pavilion without much effort. Perhaps because he was a million-class customer, he was afforded significant respect. The customer representative serving him today was, once again, Daffodil.

"I'd like to ask about the order I placed with you around a week ago. How many of the herbs have you managed to acquire?"

Daffodil's tone was regretful. "I apologize, Mr. Peppercorn, but we haven't been able to complete your order despite prioritizing it."

Zhang Lie couldn't help frowning. "You haven't? In that case, how much progress have you made?"

Daffodil was silent for a moment, as though she were pulling up the relevant file. "At the moment, we're still missing the bear's-heart grass, electroblade leaf, jadeconch flower, and amethyst starfruit, Mr. Peppercorn."

"Only these four ingredients?!" Zhang Lie was flabbergasted. After all, he had handed Daffodil a list of over a hundred ingredients. Most were herbs used for Potion #2, as well as a few supplementary ones for Potion #3. To think that Daffodil had managed to acquire all but four in just a week!

"Yes, Mr. Peppercorn! Of the four remaining ingredients, we expect to be able to acquire the jadeconch flower and amethyst starfruit relatively quickly, but there's currently a shortage of bear's-heart grass and electroblade leaf with our suppliers at the moment. Once again, I apolog—"

"It's fine, it's fine. I'm already quite amazed by your efficacy so far. Send me what you have now, and I'll try to obtain the last two ingredients on my own."

Zhang Lie had sent Daffodil this list of ingredients just to chance his luck, and while he had anticipated some success, he hadn't imagined how effective delegating this task had been.

In hindsight, however, it wasn't unexpected. At present, herblore was largely a neglected field, and had hardly developed into the enterprise it had been for the past Zhang Lie.

Now was, without a doubt, the best time to acquire rare herbs and resources whose uses were yet unknown.

Zhang Lie immediately sent points over for the gathered ingredients, then passed another list of ingredients to Daffodil to be sourced and purchased, with herbs even rarer and of higher- quality than those in the previous list.

The Thousand-Treasure Pavilion was happy to receive such bulk requests from as direct and easygoing a customer as Zhang Lie, and Daffodil replied that she would do her best to acquire as many ingredients on the list as she could. After all, the Pavilion stood to make quite a significant profit from the sale, even excluding the fee that Zhang Lie had to pay for such requests.

Zhang Lie knew about this, but he didn't mind at all. As long as he had all the necessary ingredients, he would be able to increase their value hundredfold, even thousandfold.

Within five minutes, three black sock-like sacks were teleported to Zhang Lie's room. These socks served a similar purpose as Zhang Lie's potbellied-toad pouch. They didn't look very impressive from the outside, but from the inside, each was a pocket of expanded space.

Zhang Lie inspected each sock and found them all stuffed to the brim with box after box of herbs, a dizzying sight to behold.

"Haha, I'm rich!" He couldn't help whooping in joy before calming himself down and carefully sorting through the herbs.

He dumped out the herbs in the three socks, then returned the socks to the teleportation device. Because of the unexpected haul, he was just one ingredient away from Potion #2: all he was missing was bear's-heart grass.

Most importantly, this grass wasn't a precious ingredient, just one that wasn't too common in the dimensional world, and one that was easily mixed up with a more common herb, which led to shortages from time to time.

As an accomplished pillmaster in his own right, Zhang Lie essentially had an invaluable compendium of herbs stored in his mind. In fact, he knew of five locations in the first realm in which bear's-heart grass grew, and none of them were particularly dangerous.

He immediately left the inn, but rather than heading outside, he turned toward the settlement's forge. It was true that he was impatient to concoct Potion #2, but that didn't mean he couldn't marshal his emotions and keep them in check. A lifetime of experience told him that it was precisely in such situations that he would have to be most patient and careful.

It was already evening, and nighttime in the dimensional world was dangerous indeed. It wasn't as though the bear's-heart grass wouldn't be there in the morning, and he could spend the night preparing to brew the concoction before gathering the grass tomorrow instead.

The reason he was venturing out into the settlement now was to have his superior-grade armor made. He was filled with anticipation for the armor that would result from combining the superior-grade venombane scorpion's carapace and the superior-grade blood ant chitin. After all, he had a relatively complete set of the two superior-grade lifeforms' exoskeletons.

The settlement was extremely lively at night. There were all sorts of robots in the settlement that provided unique services that every hunter made use of. 

Zhang Lie headed to the S-ranked robotic forge. This was the most expensive forge in the settlement, with the costliest fee but also the best service. It exclusively accepted custom-made requests using superior-grade ingredients.

After having his identity verified, a robotic voice said, "Welcome, Mr. Zhang Lie. What may I help you with today?"

"I'd like to craft a superior-grade armor."

"Very good. What materials will you be supplying, and in what proportion?"

"60% superior-grade blood ant chitin, 30% S-gold alloy, and 10% superior-grade venombane-scorpion carapace."

"Please hand over the materials." 

The lid of a large chest in the room slid open, and Zhang Lie quickly deposited his materials inside. He added, "There's S-gold alloy here, isn't there? I'll pay the standard price in points for its use."

As the lid of the box retracted, the robotic voice sounded again, "I understand. Please confirm your selection.

Equipment: superior-grade armor.

Materials: superior-grade blood ant chitin, superior-grade venombane-scorpion carapace, S-gold alloy.

Cost: 800,000 points.

Duration: 12 hours.

Once you confirm the order, you will be asked to select a design for the piece of equipment you wish to forge."

A screen appeared before Zhang Lie's eyes, detailing the choices he had made.

Zhang Lie glanced over the contents of the screen briefly, then confirmed the order.