Three Galleons for a bottle of blood?
Adrian's words echoed throughout the hall. The werewolf wizards, whose eyes had been filled with doubt, were now intrigued.
Three Galleons might not seem like much, but it was still considerable for them.
Very few wizards in Knockturn Alley were willing to hire werewolves. Even if they were recruited, the wages were pitifully low, only a few Galleons per month.
Now, by simply giving a little blood, they could earn more than half a month's salary, which naturally tempted them greatly. Even Fren began to hesitate.
Seeing Adrian, the young wizard who'd just defeated him, about to buy their blood with a few Galleons, Walker was furious. He felt the dignity of werewolf wizards had been offended.
"Enough! Nobody here will sell their blood to you!" Walker stood up and pointed his wand at Adrian.
Adrian completely ignored him and spoke loudly instead. "Four Galleons a bottle!"
As Adrian spoke, the werewolf wizards in the hall became even more excited, but none of them chose to speak up.
Walker, noticing this, breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Adrian with a smug look, wanting to tell the young wizard that although they were poor, they still had dignity!
However, Walker was unaware no one spoke up because they were simply hoping Adrian would raise the price further.
Their dignity and fighting spirit had long been worn away by years of exclusion and discrimination. At most, they still had some bottom lines that couldn't be crossed.
Adrian was also aware of this, so instead of raising the price further, he added a restriction. "I only need five bottles of blood!"
The werewolf wizards, who'd been silent, couldn't sit still any longer. They put down their bread and porridge and moved closer.
"Five bottles of blood, the agreed-upon twenty Galleons, I can give them to you!"
"Use my blood! They're too old. Mine is more vibrant!"
"Only five bottles? That's far too few. Are you sure that's enough for research? Don't you need more? We could extract a hundred or two hundred bottles."
Walker stared blankly as the werewolf wizards rolled up their sleeves, ready to bleed themselves. Something inside him seemed to shatter.
Walker turned abruptly to look at Adrian, expecting him to meet his gaze with mockery or even say something sarcastic.
However, Adrian didn't even glance at him. Instead, he advised the eager werewolf wizards, "Don't worry, everyone. There's a bottle for each person, so everyone will get some!"
Feeling ignored, Walker's face flushed red, then turned pale, before he finally stormed into the yard in anger.
Adrian completely ignored him. This lad just needed a beating from society. He'd behave himself after a few days of hunger.
With a wave of his wand, the cups on the table began to twist and deform, turning into several large beakers. Adrian handled them precisely, each beaker holding about six hundred millilitres of werewolf blood.
This amount of bloodletting wouldn't affect their daily work. Any more might cause some discomfort.
After all, Adrian wasn't some kind of devil. He still cared about these blood banks, he meant, he was very understanding of these werewolf wizards. If they didn't have enough, he could just come back later.
According to Adrian's estimate, this blood was enough to make over thirty bottles of Wolfsbane Potion, which was sufficient for both sample distribution and initial sales.
Such a big bottle? The werewolf wizards looked at the large beaker on the table. Suddenly no one said they'd take care of it all by themselves. Apart from Walker, there were exactly five werewolf wizards present, and they all obediently began to bleed.
At first, Adrian planned to conjure up a few syringes to help draw blood, but these werewolf wizards were all impatient and started cutting their wrists to bleed!
Seeing this, Fren sighed, rolled up his sleeves, and joined the bloodletting. Four Galleons were quite a lot.
Crimson blood flowed down from his wrist into the beaker.
Adrian once again witnessed the werewolf wizards' outstanding regenerative abilities, especially Fren's. After cutting his wrist, the blood hadn't even filled the beaker before the wound stopped bleeding, forcing Fren to frown and cut it again.
Adrian suddenly realized he might have underestimated the werewolves' regeneration speed. He should have gotten a bigger bottle.
Before long, the five beakers were filled with blood. The group of werewolf wizards stared at Adrian expectantly, waiting for him to pay the agreed-upon Galleons. They even asked if he wanted more wolf blood!
Adrian didn't disappoint them. He took out twenty Galleons from his robes, placed them on the table, and gave them a reminder.
"After the blood draw, you should eat more nutritious food during this period. Bread and porridge won't fill you up and won't help you recover. If possible, buy some inexpensive tonics, or you can buy some red dates at the Muggle market to eat."
Having accepted the Galleons, the werewolf wizards, who'd initially been disgusted by the idea of selling blood, were somewhat moved upon hearing Adrian's sincere words of concern.
Because of their special status, almost no normal wizards were willing to approach them, let alone care about them. They could usually only huddle together for warmth.
After his mood turned positive, Adrian's friendly nature gradually began to take effect. By the time he left, the relationship between them had eased considerably.
At least they weren't as wary and guarded as at the beginning.
Adrian was very satisfied with this. Once the Wolfsbane Potion needed to be produced in large quantities, these werewolf wizards would be an excellent blood bank, so the relationship naturally couldn't be too strained.
By evening, Adrian, carrying five large bottles of werewolf blood, finally departed.
On the way, Adrian suddenly stopped as they passed through an abandoned street. Dougt, wand in hand, looked on with amusement.
As far as the eye could see, at the end of the street stood a thin figure, it was Walker, who'd run away in a huff earlier.
"Is there something you need? Or are you planning to challenge me again?" Adrian asked, puzzled.
"If you two hadn't attacked me together, I wouldn't have lost!" Walker said angrily. His memory was still stuck at the moment he'd transformed into a wolf, so he didn't know Adrian had blown up an entire stone wall with a spell.
Adrian raised an eyebrow noncommittally. Then he was surprised to find Walker's condition wasn't right. His face was frighteningly pale, and his lips were completely bloodless.
'Could he be trying to scam me?'
A thousand thoughts raced through Adrian's mind. Just as he was wondering what was going on, Walker suddenly tossed him two bottle-like objects. Adrian instinctively caught them and discovered the bottles contained blood. He stared at Walker in astonishment.