The first attempt at apothecary ended in failure, for a simple reason: the gray mud pomegranate was not properly processed.
“The gray mud pomegranate grows deep within swamp mud, tens of meters below the surface, and the marsh’s essence penetrates every inch of the fruit’s flesh. Thoroughly stripping it clean is truly not easy,” Ivan summarized his successes and failures, identifying the problem.
A sorcerer must remove the chaotic essences from the ingredients with greater precision; in his previous potion-making, he had not encountered these troubles, likely because the gray mud pomegranate grows in a region with a high concentration of particles and is accompanied by particles and force fields during its growth.
He was not discouraged and continued to process the gray mud pomegranate, with more caution than the first time.
The second attempt failed too, as the beast blood jello reacted too violently, turning all the potion into a tangled mess and losing control.
Time passed by the minute, and failure followed failure, with the count reaching fourteen.
“Huff—-“
Ivan let out a long breath; having had the experience of making the Ocean Blue Potion, he wasn’t under much stress about the current failures.
In his field of vision, the Academic Prodigy panel emerged, and without him realizing it, his Experience Points had grown by about thirty. His gaze then settled on the Light of Wisdom, one 1st Class, one 2nd Class, and two 3rd Class.
The 1st Class Light of Wisdom was activated.
After two minutes of deep thought and reflection, his eyes sparkled with a different luster.
“There are so many minute oversights; no wonder errors always occur in unexpected places.”
Given time, he would certainly find these small issues and gradually correct them, but for now, he could only expend one Light of Wisdom.
Ivan chose to meditate instead of resting, waiting for his mental power to recover, and then he began the fifteenth attempt at apothecary.
Half an hour later, he held a potion in his hand.
Within the small glass vial, bright yellow particles floated in the potion, each one round and distinct, with a red seed inside each particle like the seed of the grain.
“Success.”
Compared to the nutrition potion, which was also a Mountain Monster Potion, this potion was clearly more exquisite and vital; it could be directly used as a decoration on the table.
Striking while the iron was hot, the sixteenth and seventeenth attempts were successful.
He simply made three batches at once, all of which were successful.
“The nutrition potion is not as valuable as the Ocean Blue Potion and is not as difficult to make as the latter.”
Ivan wasn’t complacent about this; he noticed that the room’s lights had been lit by his hand at some point, and he realized that it was already night, and the sky had darkened without him noticing.
Outside the laboratory, the little green winged snake listlessly stood on the eave, overseeing the entire castle.
“Failed, huh?” A figure emerged from the laboratory, the little green winged snake’s expression brightened, and it quickly flew to the figure.
“This is a nutrition potion,” Ivan said, spreading his hand to display three small glass vials standing in his palm.
The little green winged snake fluttered its white wings, and one of the potions fell into its mouth. Crunch—a sound echoed as it swallowed the potion, vial and all.
This action stunned Ivan; it was the first time he’d seen such a barbaric method of consuming a potion.
The little green winged snake said with a straight face, “Still a bit earthy, the taste isn’t quite there. Biting down doesn’t have that bursting feeling, nowhere near one percent of what Sorcerer Toyennes can make.”
“I’ll try to correct it,” Ivan responded readily. If he hadn’t just drunk one and experienced the sensation of the particles bursting, he might have believed Lahr.
The little green winged snake added, “Remember the secret word for these three days: ‘Lahr’s feathers are the softest.'”
A huge question mark appeared in Ivan’s mind as he looked at it with doubt. Toyennes definitely wouldn’t set such an absurd password; it wasn’t trying to deceive him, was it?
The little green winged snake didn’t bother with him any further, a few flaps of its wings taking it ten meters away before flying off.
“Lahr’s feathers are the softest,” Ivan muttered as he glanced around and returned to the lab’s entrance. Softly repeating the phrase, a membrane of light appeared and rippled, and with his copper badge, he passed through smoothly.
The little green winged snake hadn’t tricked him, and he guessed that Toyennes probably didn’t need a password to enter or leave, which is why he let Lahr do as he pleased.
As Toyennes’s magic pet, Lahr effectively acted as the castle’s steward, with a high position and significant power. For the affairs Toyennes didn’t want to manage, Lahr stepped in. That was the reason Ivan didn’t want to offend Lahr.
He was a 2nd Class apprentice and could actually contract a magic pet.
Magic pets are equivalent to a sorcerer’s second life, and the death of a magic pet would cause backlash. Ivan had no understanding of how to contract or what the backlash entailed, so he would not act rashly.
Ivan walked to the bookshelf and started looking for answers to the questions he was most concerned about.
‘Curse of Demon’s Resentment’
The four characters caught his eye.
‘Danaila World’, ‘alien world’, ‘Curse Power Derivation’, ‘Aberrating Body’, ‘Life Withering’, and so on.
Various keywords flashed before his eyes, and as he read deeper, his expression grew increasingly grim.
The curse they were afflicted with was known as ‘Curse of Demon’s Resentment’, an extremely troublesome curse. They were in the ‘Danaila World’, yet the source of the Curse of Demon’s Resentment lay in another world outside of Danaila World.
Such an issue that spanned two worlds was like an ant trying to comprehend the sky for an apprentice who had just stepped onto the path of sorcery.
Even for an official sorcerer, it must be a tricky problem, which explained why Toyennes went through great efforts to train apprentices, then used their power to gradually erode the curse’s strength.
The bookshelf contained a vast amount of information, which seemed to be Toyennes’s research data.
He would definitely not be able to finish reading it all today, so Ivan decided to take a break and continue once he had collected his thoughts.
…
A new day
When he woke up, Ivan checked the data on the membrane of light immediately.
[Apothecary Skill: lv3(77/300)]
[Energy Particle Skill: Lv1(49/100)]
After a whole day of apothecary work yesterday, his Apothecary Skill had increased by 71 Experience Points and Energy Particle Skill by 8. This indirectly demonstrated the considerable value of the nutrition potion.
“Almost forgot, I drank a nutrition potion last night and now I don’t feel hungry at all,” he halted his thought of going to the dining hall. Compared to the Mountain Monster Potion he had taken before, the current nutrition potion was unquestionably superior. Your next chapter is on M V L
On his attribute panel, his body constitution had unaccountably increased by 0.2 graduated degrees, which made him frown.
After a thorough check, he indeed made a discovery.
In just one night, his fingernails and toenails had grown four to five millimeters, a very bad sign that indicated that the curse’s power within him was showing signs of losing control. It was surely the effect of the second wave of curse power bestowed by Toyennes.
The Curse of Demon’s Resentment truly was a fatal problem.
Thinking that Toyennes was still troubled by the Curse of Demon’s Resentment made Ivan’s scalp chill, to say nothing of the fact that Toyennes could continue to transfer the curse’s power to them.
“Ivan, come out.”
He was pondering when the voice of the little green winged snake rang out again.
Ivan opened the door and saw the little green winged snake floating outside.
“Good morning, Lahr.”
“Got some good news, grab all your stuff and come with me,” said Lahr.
Ivan looked at him with confusion, “What’s happening?”
The little green winged snake aired the purpose quite casually, “You’re getting a bigger room and a servant assigned to you. That’s the treatment Eckerz gets.”
Moving?
Having heard Pearney’s words before, staying in his current room had always felt a bit awkward for Ivan, so he naturally was willing to change dorms.
After greeting Justine, who came out upon hearing the noise, and with her reluctant gaze on him, Ivan followed the little green winged snake from the left side to the right. His new quarters were next to Eckerz’s, with a distance between the houses.
That must be surveillance.
Ivan knew there wouldn’t be anything good coming from this. They probably didn’t want him interacting too much with the other apprentices, to prevent leaks of secrets.