"So you are the newest student my husband has decided to teach. I have heard quite a few interesting things about you." she said as she eyed me critically.
"I AM a rather impressive individual all things considered." I said proudly.
"Oh ho? Proud little lad too it seems. Well as you could likely guess I am Perenelle Flammel, the wife of this one. A lesser known fact however is that I am likely the single most skilled herbologist in the world." she said with a smile.
"Makes sense. I saw that room that was filled with plants earlier. He said it was a project of yours." I said nodding to Nicolas.
"My attempt at recreating the garden of Eden from myth. That room has been carefully adjusted over the past four centuries to contain every species of plant in the world. At least the ones that could be found that is. It would be no exaggeration to say that that room could be considered the closest replica of the mythological garden as you could find. Still not perfect however, never perfect." she said with a sigh.
"You are probably referring to plants that went extinct before your time right?" I asked with a smirk.
"That's right, why?" she asked confused.
"I can get you seeds for them. Ask him, he's seen a taste of what I can acquire." I said once more nodding towards Nicolas.
She looked at the man in question and he nodded.
"How?" she asked curiously.
"I have contacts that can get things that would leave the world gasping in awe or terror. One such contact happens to specialize in prehistoric things. Creatures, plants, minerals, the works. All for a price of course. " I said with a grin.
"Anything money can buy is no problem." she said calmly.
I shook my head "My deals rarely involve money actually. It would be more accurate to say that they are trades than actual transactions. Wealth is the easiest thing for me to obtain. It's knowledge, artifacts and other resources that mostly interest me. For example your husband here has already agreed to a trade with me. A certain collection of creatures in exchange for access to the book of Abraham at a later date." I explained frankly.
"Bartering then? Besides wealth I don't believe I have anything I could offer you really. It might seem odd given my age but my focus has been quite singular this whole time." she said with a frown.
"Ah well that's unfortunate. I suppose I could settle for merely wealth this time but the price will be incredibly high." I said slightly disappointed but not really surprised.
Honestly the more I get from other worlds the less things from this world interested me. The only exception was magic itself and rare or unique knowledge. The first of which I couldn't ask for without tipping my hand and revealing that I could in fact copy the ability and give it to someone who didn't have it originally. -
As for knowledge Perenelle Flammel had made it abundantly clear that she hadn't bothered collecting knowledge outside of her chosen field. And while her expertise with plants was no doubt worth something, it wasn't of much interest to me. I knew what sort of plants existed on Earth and while there were some interesting ones among the lot, taking care of them tended not to be overly complicated. Don't get me wrong there was a degree of meticulousness to it but compared to even something like charms it was slightly easier.-
I was frankly not super willing to trade for money but chose to accept it in this case just to earn some good will. A fact that the duo picked up on easily but chose not to poke. I ate and refined my physique before turning in for the night after that. In the morning I spent the fifty coins needed to contact Rockwell. He looked at me calmly without his hands even twitching out of place and ruining his experiment. On the table in front of him he had the corpse of a young wyvern that he was in the midst of disecting.-
"Bad time?" I asked as I eyed the bloody hands of his.
"Just finishing." he said calmly.
"I've got a large order for you this time. A few dangerous acquisitions in there as well." I said getting right to business while sending him the list I made.
He adjusted his glasses without care for the blood on his hands and read the contents over.
"This will take a considerable amount of time and effort. The price will be rather high this time." he said seriously.
I nodded "I know. What do you want in exchange?" I asked since by this point I knew Rockwell very well.
He was dedicated to understanding. A very focused person who could be devious and scheming if he wanted to be but genuinely preferred straightforward conversation.
"The knowledge you've tempted me with from the start. The absolute full insight about what the Arks are for and what Element is. I want the entire story." he said firmly.
I considered this demand for a moment. It wasn't terribly unreasonable as even with the information he would still have reason to keep trading with me.
"Agreed. You'll get the full story in a book I'll personally pen down once you deliver the goods. Not a moment sooner." I said with a dead serious tone.