Seeing Elgar so delighted—like a child gazing at so mysterious substance—Noan frowned, feeling bewildered.
Elgar ignored both Noan and Khorvath, imdiately rushing over to the sphere of Assassin Bee larva extract.
"Wow! This thing has been preserved perfectly." Elgar murmured as he reached out toward the yellow sphere.
However, he didn’t dare to touch it, as if afraid his hands weren’t clean enough for such a substance.
"Lathel... how... how were you able to do this?" Elgar asked, his mouth trembling, voice stuttering from excitent. "Where did you get this?"
Noan replied, "I saw so stone statues. After breaking them apart, I found Assassin Bee larvae inside."
"Once I shattered the statues, the larvae quickly died and spat out this yellow liquid."
"At first, I didn’t pay attention to it, but the dicinal aroma was so strong that I brought it back for you to examine. I wanted to know what it was."
"What?!" Elgar was shocked, his eyes filled with disbelief and dread as he looked at Noan. "You... you’re saying you killed an Assassin Bee larva?"
"That’s right," Noan nodded.
"How many? How many did you kill?" Elgar asked hastily.
"Just one," Noan answered truthfully.
Elgar let out a long, relieved sigh and nodded, "Only one? You’re lucky... very lucky, just one."
"If you’d killed too many, I’m afraid... the Assassin Bee Queen would have co for you."
"You know about the Bee Queen?" Noan frowned.
Elgar nodded. He wanted to keep this to himself, but seeing Noan’s expression, he knew that if he didn’t explain, Noan wouldn’t let it go.
He sighed deeply, then said, "Let’s go inside first."
Noan glanced at Khorvath, then followed Elgar into the cave.
Without a word, Elgar hurried to a small wooden jar wedged in a crevice in the cave wall.
He poured out a viscous green liquid from the jar and tossed it into the fire in the center of the cave.
The flas t the green liquid, dimd montarily, then blazed up even fiercer than before.
A heavy dicinal scent flooded the air, making Noan uncomfortable. It not only filled the entire cave but also drifted out, spreading across a vast distance.
"Don’t worry," Elgar said. "This kind of dicinal herb has a calming effect, and no side effects at all."
"Besides, its biggest effect is that its scent can neutralize the aroma of that yellow extract."
Hearing that, Noan nodded slightly, while Khorvath sat quietly beside him.
Elgar took a large leaf, fanned the smoke out of the cave, then sat down facing Noan.
"Hm... I don’t know too much," Elgar said gently, "but I’ll tell you everything I know."
"It started with this place—this used to be a vast herb forest filled with all sorts of rare dicinal plants."
"There were also countless strange monsters here, so of which I’d never even seen before."
"Everything was peaceful because the forest was overflowing with herbs. Even the bloodthirstiest monsters here only ate plants—they didn’t hunt other creatures."
"But everything changed a year after I arrived here."
"Back then, I was just a young man full of passion, searching for a new path, looking for a way to refine the perfect dicinal pill."
"After coming here, I no longer wanted to leave. I just wanted to stay here forever."
"However, when everything seed peaceful, a swarm of insects appeared, accompanied by a terrifying monster that awoke as well."
Noan frowned at that, then asked, "Was that monster... the dragon?"
"That’s right." Elgar sighed and nodded. "When I arrived, I didn’t even know about that dragon’s existence."
"I only saw it awaken when the insects appeared."
"After that, the two fought a ferocious battle. I still don’t know why they fought, but that battle destroyed the entire Herb Forest."
"I was terrified, took what rare herbs I could carry, and fled to this place, never daring to climb back up again."
"I don’t know much about what happened after that. I only know that those insects were led by a swarm of Assassin Bees."
"Maybe that dragon wanted to wipe out all the Assassin Bees, so it burned down the whole Herb Forest."
"But the strange thing is, all these years, that dragon has never co here."
"With its power, it could easily burn this place to the ground, but it hasn’t co, nor has it caused any trouble for this place."
Noan stroked his chin, reviewing the information Elgar had just shared.
Then Noan asked, "When you ca here, did you receive any kind of mission?"
Elgar nodded. "Of course I did. I had two main missions: to refine the Perfect dicine, and to eliminate the Queen Assassin Bee."
"I’ve been working on the first quest. As for the second... well..."
Noan felt sothing was odd, so he kept pressing, "How did you intend to eliminate the Assassin Bee?"
Elgar shook his head. "I don’t know. I just wanted to find the formula to refine the Perfect dicine. As for killing the Queen Bee, I suppose I’ll never accomplish it."
"That’s why I gave up on ever returning to my old world. Besides, I’m used to living here. Occasionally, soone else cos along, but..."
Noan could tell from the way Elgar sighed and fell silent that the fate of those people was probably not pleasant.
Perhaps... the statues he’d seen back there were the people who’d once co to this place.
"I’ve explored the entire canyon before," Elgar continued, "and discovered the area where the Assassin Bees raise their larvae."
"They use the bodies of other creatures as cocoons for shelter."
"The Assassin Bees continuously supply their larvae with herbs from the forest. That’s why the yellow fluid you obtained is a crystallization of all the herbs those larvae have consud."
"It’s one of the key ingredients in creating Perfect dicine."
"That’s all I know."
Elgar sighed, and both Noan and Khorvath fell silent, unsure what to say next.
At this mont, Noan glanced at Elgar, a strange expression flickering across his eyes before disappearing.
He smiled and asked, "How much of this fluid do you need to refine the Perfect dicine?"
"Huh? What do you an?" Elgar was startled, his face full of confusion.
"As I said, I’ll go find more ingredients and help you refine the Perfect dicine," Noan smiled. "I think... I’ve found a way to leave this world."
"Ah!" Elgar opened his mouth in surprise, then laughed. "Good! If you’re not afraid to die, I’ll help you."
"I call that fluid the Perfect Extract. Of course, I need as much as possible, since crafting Perfect dicine doesn’t guarantee imdiate success."
"As for the other herbs, Khorvath and I will gather them later."
Noan nodded lightly, then smiled, "Alright! I’ll go collect more."
With that, he stood up. As he left, Khorvath suddenly heard sothing, her eyes widened, glancing toward Noan before quickly looking away.
Of course, Elgar didn’t notice this little action from Khorvath—he was completely focused on the Perfect Extract that Noan had given him.
"Hahaha... With this extract, I might finally get closer to the Perfect dicine."
At that mont, Khorvath suddenly asked, "Elgar, what kind of Perfect dicine are you planning to refine?"
Elgar smiled and said, "Anything at all, as long as we have enough ingredients. But the simplest and easiest to find ingredients would be for a Recovery dicine."
"Khorvath, help gather ingredients to refine a Recovery dicine—collect as much as you can. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the sa type of dicine."
Khorvath nodded lightly, "I understand."
She stood up and, before leaving, cast a strange glance at Elgar, then walked out of the cave.
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