"What happened?" Khorvath, who was outside, heard Elgar’s anguished scream and imdiately rushed into the cave.
But the air inside was thick with smoke, and the overwhelming stench shocked her.
Tears and snot stread from her face like rivers; unable to bear it, Khorvath retreated from the cave and backed away.
From a distance, she couldn’t see what was happening inside, but she didn’t dare approach either.
It was too much—she felt as if she were standing on a battlefield littered with corpses after a grueso war.
"What on earth is happening in there?" Khorvath muttered anxiously, her face filled with worry as she looked toward the cave.
After a while, a coughing fit echoed out.
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Elgar suddenly burst from the cave, flailing his arms in an effort to clear the smoke from around his face.
At this point, there was nothing unusual about his body or his face; he looked the sa as before.
The only difference was that he, too, was streaming tears and snot, just like Khorvath.
"Damn it!" Elgar cursed. "Failed again!"
"Failed?" Khorvath pressed a cloth over her nose and mouth, frowning as she asked, "Hey! Elgar, what are you talking about? And what was that horrible sll in there?"
Elgar didn’t answer. He rushed straight to a nearby pond, plunged his face into the water, and drank deeply.
Khorvath followed after him, frowning but remaining silent, simply watching.
After a while, Elgar lifted his head, panting and muttering curses under his breath. "Damn it! Another failure."
Khorvath spoke up: "You mixed together all kinds of poisons—if it hadn’t failed, that would be the real surprise."
"What do you know?" Elgar snapped, his expression a mix of anger and disdain. "That’s the shortest path to creating the Perfect Elixir."
"What?!" Khorvath exclaid in disbelief, frowning. "What are you talking about? Those are all deadly poisons—how could you possibly use them to make a perfect potion?"
"Huh!" Elgar snorted in disdain, clearly unwilling to explain further, and dusted himself off.
Khorvath frowned, but she knew very well that, despite his oddities, Elgar was truly a genius.
"So what are you using the poisons for? I’ve never heard of that thod." Khorvath tried a different approach.
Elgar grinned. "Of course you’ve never heard of it. That’s because I’m the only one who’s ever thought of it."
"Heh?! Really? Or did you learn that from soone else?" Khorvath asked.
"Huh! You think I need to learn that from those humans?"
"Humans?" Khorvath frowned at the word.
"Ah! Of course... what I ant is... my knowledge has already surpassed the limits of humanity." Elgar hurriedly corrected himself.
"Since coming here, I realized that healing herbs always contain toxins; trying to separate those toxins from the herbs is nearly impossible."
"However, I also realized one thing... What if we do the opposite?"
"That’s even more impossible," Khorvath interrupted. "There’s too much toxin—we can’t possibly neutralize all of it."
"Exactly. But you’re forgetting sothing..." Elgar smiled. "Between a person who appears completely healthy, showing no signs of illness, and a person who clearly exhibits symptoms of a specific disease... Who do you think is easier to treat?"
"Well..." Khorvath hesitated.
That’s right—if a person shows obvious symptoms of their disease, treating them is much simpler.
But on the other hand, if soone appears healthy, the symptoms are vague or even mimic many other illnesses, making treatnt much more difficult.
"So you an..." Khorvath seed to understand, and imdiately said, "It’s easier to remove toxins from a poison than from a so-called ’good’ dicine, right?"
"Exactly." Elgar smiled. "If I already know exactly what kind of toxin I’m dealing with, neutralizing or removing it is actually quite simple."
"On the contrary, in ordinary dicines, the amount of toxin is too little, and those toxins are often synthesized from various herbs."
"Distinguishing them is nearly impossible, so resolving them is out of the question."
At this mont, Khorvath felt as if a new door had opened in her mind. She quickly said, "You’re right—doing the opposite of what we’ve always done might actually be the key to creating a Perfect Elixir."
"Elgar, I’ll do my best to help you. What do you need?"
Elgar grinned, "Of course, I need a lot of help. First—clean up this cave for ."
Khorvath: "..."
...
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of tal clashing rang out continuously.
Everywhere was covered in snow—so much snow that the world itself had turned white.
A group of feeble Skeletons, and yet, strangely enough, they were able to hold back hundreds of attacking monsters.
In fact, they even seed to be overwhelming the monsters assaulting them.
"Damn it!" In the distance, a Lord of rank D, seeing the scene before him, muttered a curse.
"They’re just Skeletons—how are they this strong?"
"Maybe those Skeletons aren’t your average Skeletons," another person chid in.
"And besides, with this harsh weather, our monsters are already exhausted. Skeletons are different—they never get tired, they don’t feel fear, or cold, or fatigue."
"That’s right," a man sighed. "Even if our monsters are rank D, their combat ability has dropped a lot because of this terrible cold."
"Achoo!" Another man sneezed, his body shaking violently, and then—
"Hey! Hey!" The group shouted in alarm as the man slowly knelt down on the snow, then fainted.
A man rushed over to the one who had collapsed, placing his hand on the man’s forehead.
"This isn’t good, his fever is really high!" the man said with a frown.
"It’s bad! The monsters he brought are losing control—they’re starting to run away!"
"Damn it! These monsters are already starving, their loyalty is at rock bottom. The mont the link between them and their summoner breaks, they’ll imdiately turn traitor."
"Hurry up! Let’s retreat—we can’t hold out any longer. Those Skeletons never get tired, they don’t fear death, and their strength is overwhelming. We can’t beat them."
"What about him? He’s burning up with fever. Shouldn’t we—?"
"Leave him! Damn it! The weak die, that’s how it is. If we stay here any longer, we’ll all be in danger."
The Lords, hearing this, hurriedly ran off. The monsters that had been fighting also turned and fled imdiately at the order.
From a distance, Caleb frowned as he watched the scene unfold.
Austin urgently shouted, "Quick! Chase after those monsters—don’t let them escape!"
"No!" Caleb called out. "Let them go."
"Why?" Austin asked, puzzled.
Caleb shook his head and sighed. "You’re too reckless. We don’t know how many people the other side has, or what kind of traps they might have laid."
"...That’s..."
Caleb’s eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the large chest.
Austin stepped forward, reaching out cautiously to lift the lid. As the chest opened, a wave of warmth imdiately spread out, dispelling the biting cold in the air around them.
Inside the chest were countless items—thick fur cloaks, enchanted heat stones, preserved rations, several potions, and a large number of high-grade energy crystals. Everything was perfectly organized.
"Amazing... These are all supplies!" Austin exclaid in astonishnt.
Caleb, still stunned, murmured, "All of this... Was this prepared by the Master?"
Austin grinned, his hands already reaching for a fur cloak and tossing another one to Caleb. "Looks like the Master has been watching us. I bet he knew we’d run into trouble with the cold and hunger."
Caleb wrapped himself in the warm cloak, relief flooding his features as the chill faded. "If it wasn’t for these supplies, I don’t know how long we could have lasted. We might have won against the enemy, but the cold would have finished us off."
Austin chuckled, "Well, now we just need to focus on maintaining our advantage. With these supplies, our Skeleton army can hold this place as long as we need."
Caleb nodded, glancing up at the sky where Zhisse had vanished. "Tell the others to equip themselves and recover. We’ll rotate shifts for patrols and defense. The enemy will have to freeze before they can even think about attacking us again."
Austin nodded with a confident smile, "Understood!"
The two imdiately began distributing supplies to the other Lords and their armies. With the bitter cold no longer a threat, morale quickly rose. The Skeletons continued to patrol tirelessly, while the humans found themselves able to rest and recover, confident that they would be ready for whatever the coming battle would bring.
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