Chapter 145 - More Potions For Sale As soon as Liam put up the next batch of fire resistance potions, another uproar erupted in front of all the auction houses in the Gresh Kingdom. The various guilds went into a frenzy once again and players scrambled to purchase these potions. Everyone had been eagerly waiting for this to happen ever since the shutdown and restart of the game but the seller of the potion did not reappear. Some had even concluded that this was a drop that was being sold. But now finally the potions were back on sale and once again by the anonymous alchemist! All the guilds that wanted to find out the person's identity and recruit him or make some sort of direct dealings with him were disappointed because of this. Did this guy not want to earn money or join the big guilds? What was his motive here? Unfortunately, they could only wait and see. While everyone else was thrown into disarray, Liam alone casually walked over to a shop and made some purchases, refilling some of his staples. This time he did not hang back to watch the show in front of the auction house. Time was something he was short on and he had far too many important things to accomplish rather than spend time on these silly things. After finishing his purchases, he directly started walking out of the royal city. He didn't mind patiently mentoring his sister and Shen Yue but when it came to paying attention to the auction house shenanigans, it was just a waste of time. As he neared the gates of the city, Liam whistled. Fwoosh. Talon immediately dove out of the sky like an arrow slicing through the air and landed in front of him. The bird was slowly becoming bigger in size with every level it gained. It could now easily support even two fully grown human beings. Liam hopped on the back of the bird along with the fox and the three of them disappeared into the forests again, blasting forward with tremendous speed. This was the advantage of having a flying mount. Liam casually flew above the swarm of players outside of the royal city and covered acres and acres of forests with ease without having to deal with all the beasts that crawled below him. He also didn't have to worry about the rough terrain, the bandits, and also the speed of the bird was boosted with a skill that overall almost doubled his travel speed across the kingdom lands. As the bird flew relatively high up in the sky, Liam carefully paid attention to the scenery below. This time he ventured towards the eastern parts of the Gresh Kingdom, almost near its boundaries. This was also the area where the Javi village was located, the village the beast trainer had told him about that worshipped the eternal flame. However, Liam did not come here for this reason today. Instead of traveling all the way to the eastern borders of the Kingdom, he leaned forward and patted Talon as soon as they approached a mountain. When the bird circled around, lowering further down, he could see more clearly. "There. Go to that swamp." Besides the mountains, there was a vast swamp area filled with brownish green fungus, moss, stagnant water, densely packed trees, and their unruly wild vines which entwined everything in sight. The whole place was a mess, but that was not the issue here. As soon as they entered the vicinity of the swamp, almost instantly a suffocating nauseous smell hit everyone's noses. The bird screeched in agony and, the fox puffed its cheeks, not wanting to breathe the disgusting air anymore. However, Liam did not care about the smell. He patted the fox and gave the two pets a few instructions. "In a second, I will be bringing monsters over. Be ready to attack. Luna, stay on Talon's back and attack from the air. Do not get down. I am counting on you both for this fight." He whispered and then quietly jumped down onto a tree that sprawled around in the swamp waters. Promptly, he received a couple of notifications. [Ding. You have been poisoned by the swamp air] [Ding. Your level is temporarily reduced by half] [Ding. Your vision is blurred] [Ding. You feel weak] [Ding. Your stats are reduced by half] Liam wryly chuckled and ignored these notifications. He already knew about these debuffs so there weren't any surprises. This was also why he had asked Luna and Talon to stay in the air. His stats were reduced but theirs would still be the same. So they could potentially do a lot more damage than he could. However, this trick alone was nowhere enough to clear this place. Liam cautiously looked around, his sharp eyes searching for the creatures that ruled this swamp. But before he could spot one, it looked like the enemy beat him to it. Meeerrrrrr! Meeeerrrrrr!!!! A screeching voice suddenly sounded from behind him and as Liam turned around, a long spear hurled towards him, just narrowly missing his head. "Fuck! It already started!" He cursed as he gazed at the creature behind him. [Merfin] (Level 38) It was not intimidating per se as the creature was nothing other than a walking fish. But the body of the fish was bigger, its fins sharper and more elongated and its teeth protruding out. More importantly, it had a pair of legs, using which it scurried behind him making loud screeching noises. Liam instantly moved from the spot he was squatting on and dodged another spear that shortly came afterward. The tree branch trembled and his body sprang forward, jumping from one branch to another, running across the swamp like a lithe monkey. However, the thing that had screeched behind him was not too far away. To make matters worse, the creature that was standing alone had now multiplied somehow and suddenly an entire horde of walking fishes was chasing the intruder in the swamp.