In a dark room of Star Lake Castle.
The bubbling sound of vapor, accompanied by the hissing of evaporating sli and the crisp clinking of glass bottles against tal sheets, all these sounds combined to sketch the current scene in the dark room —
A large number of experintal tools, the strange brewing liquids, the peculiar pungent slls, and Dangross, placed on a heat-resistant platform to release its residual heat... along with Angel, who had a Defense Spell active.
A ding-dong sound rang, and Angel took out his pocket watch to check the ti. He nodded and said, "It should be ready."
Having said that, Angel turned to the bewildered Dangross and said, "You can co down from the platform now. Pay attention to the environntal changes and restrain the flas around you. Don’t let it be like last ti when you almost burned down the room."
Dangross nodded obediently, retracted the little red lights surrounding him, and then jumped down from the heat-resistant platform.
After landing, Dangross shook off the dust that had accidentally settled on him while burning Demonic Materials, and under Angel’s guidance, went into a special experintal glass box beside him for steam isolation.
"Not bad, not bad, you’ve behaved a lot these past two days. After we finish here, I’ll let Toby play with you for half a day. Also, the quenching agent is placed in the corner, you can help yourself after you co out." Angel praised Dangross for a few words and quickly turned his attention back to the laboratory table.
He poured out half a glass of gray liquid, resembling a gel-like paste, from the condensation container.
Angel shook the transparent cup, and the liquid inside swayed like a non-Newtonian fluid.
"This is... Rockborn Sol-Gel."
This was a subsidiary material envisioned by Fritz, which he never managed to successfully refine. But with Angel’s improvents and purchasing many corresponding materials for replacents from the Ashen Ti Trade Caravan in Roydes, it was finally successfully refined.
Its essence is a buoyant gel that can lock in the impact during high-temperature bursts and also precipitate the external high heat into the interior. Most importantly, it can be decomposed by energy and dissolved into the bloodstream.
One can say that it is the best partner of Boiling Blood Red Water.
Of course, it can also be used in potions that require Purification of Bloodline, but the efficiency might not be high, serving as a substitute.
But in Boiling Blood Red Water, Rockborn Sol-Gel is an absolute necessity.
Having refined Rockborn Sol-Gel, Angel didn’t idle, beginning the fourth concoction of Boiling Blood Red Water this week.
Since returning from Roydes, it’s been almost two weeks, and he has attempted to concoct Boiling Blood Red Water at least twenty tis, but failures kept resulting from various issues.
This ti, Angel had modified all the previously identified issues and re-matched the proportions.
The thick stack of handbooks used for calculations on the table attested to the effort Angel had put in.
"Hope no new flaws erge this ti." Angel took a deep breath and entered the concoction process.
Ti passed continuously. During this period, Dangross completed his fla purification and stepped out from the glass box, indulging in the quenching agent fashioned into a half-hourglass shape placed in the corner.
The outside dimd from dusk to night, and then the inky night continued to dilute, eventually turning the horizon into a fish-belly white.
Angel, engrossed in concoction for half a day, finally returned to his senses.
Watching the red liquid tumbling inside the glass vessel before him, a slow smile crept across Angel’s pale face.
"It succeeded." Angel sighed in relief, his entire being relaxed significantly.
However, at this mont, the red liquid in the glass vessel started surging upwards incessantly, seeming like a fla illusion erging outward. It felt like in the next mont, the liquid would beco an erupting volcano, bursting in all directions.
Angel, upon seeing this, startled for a mont before realizing: "Potion degradation!"
"Oh no, I nearly forgot the closing steps of the potion!"
Angel frantically rummaged through the pile of boxes nearby, extracting a light-colored glass potion bottle shaped sowhat like a cone. Then, he extended his finger above the red liquid, performing a gentle twist, accompanied by so ritualistic Pharmacist’s murmurs, which were more for psychological comfort rather than actual significance.
The about-to-erupt red liquid transford into a red Fire Serpent, being sealed into the cone-shaped potion bottle.
He inserted an original color wooden stopper, then tightened the cap engraved with Magic Patterns, which finally allowed Angel to breathe a sigh of relief.
Looking at the potion bottle, where the liquid beca slightly purple due to the refractive index, Angel muttered to himself: "Still lacking experience. I nearly ignored the bottling closing work. Next ti, next ti I must be careful."
Earlier, the anomaly in the potion referred to as "degradation" here is different from undead degradation; it refers to the phenonon where the potion, not bottled promptly, interacts with microorganisms in the outside air, causing the efficacy to decline or even deteriorate.
Angel didn’t really forget the bottling step. The potion bottle placed aside indicated he was fully prepared. It’s just that he failed so many tis in recent days, Angel hadn’t fully recovered, thinking today would be another failure. Unexpectedly succeeding, the inertia of the past few days prevented him from bottling imdiately.
Fortunately, Angel reacted promptly and managed to redy the situation.
However, based on the feedback from the Alchemy Eye, the effect of the Boiling Blood Red Water had diminished sowhat. But at least it’s still within usable range and hasn’t completely deteriorated.
After briefly admiring the Boiling Blood Red Water, Angel casually set it aside.
The Boiling Blood Red Water itself isn’t of great value, what Angel cares about is not the potion itself, but the formula he has repeatedly modified.
After tidying up the remaining items on the table, Angel took out a fresh piece of parchnt and copied the potion formula organized from the last page of the handbook onto the new parchnt.
He planned to give this formula copied onto new parchnt along with the bottle of Boiling Blood Red Water to Fritz.
Although this formula now greatly differs from Fritz’s original version, and Angel could rightfully claim it as his own creation, Angel is not one to shalessly claim credit. The new formula still follows Fritz’s principles, the core is similar, so Angel considers himself just a "repairman", fixing the flawed formula to make it usable, while the potion’s ownership still belongs to Fritz.
After copying the formula, Angel stretched lazily.
Twelve days, nearly two weeks, spent every day either in the mirrored space or in the darkroom concocting potions, even soone as resilient as Angel felt a bit fatigued.
Nevertheless, it was all worth it.
Although the effect of Boiling Blood Red Water isn’t very useful to him, it is a lucrative tool, and can be useful to his brother Rhein. Most importantly, using this innovative potion as a starting point, Angel has officially stepped into the field of Potionology.
Whether it’s modifying formulas, resolving flaws during refining, or acquiring refining experience over this period, all of this has beco an invaluable treasure. It lays a solid foundation for him to refine other potions or create potions in the future.
Angel is naturally pleased.
However, the ntal and spiritual relaxation allowed fatigue to catch up with him.
In the past few days, Angel has been ignoring the encroaching fatigue, but today he decided not to shield against it anymore, yawning and then leaning directly onto the chair, he fell asleep.
When he woke, it was already three in the afternoon.
Waking naturally after a long ti made Angel feel refreshed.
He glanced around and found Dangross lying in the corner, seemingly asleep... or perhaps it was overly enthusiastic. Beside it, a once-full bottle of quenching agent was now completely empty.
Watching Dangross’s intoxicated expression, Angel shook his head and sighed, "It’s not good to get too addicted, the Magu Sage won’t be pleased. Next ti, I’ll have to reduce the supply of quenching agent, and this intoxicated state... tsk tsk, why does it look so unscrupulous?"
"However..." Angel observed the wrist of Dangross, "Is it my illusion, I feel like Dangross’s wrist looks a bit longer?"
Is this growth?
Angel had no research on changes in elental life forms’ physique, so he didn’t think deeply about it, shook his head and tossed the thought aside.
Originally, Angel intended to wake Dangross, but since Dangross had been helping him with alchemy for the past days, saving him much effort, letting it sleep a while longer was no harm.
"Actually, Dangross’s fla isn’t bad, slightly inferior to Kelonkcro." Angel muttered as he left the darkroom.
Normally, at this ti, he would go tease Mirror Grudge, but today he planned to pause that. First, he intended to head to Saint Sem City to hand over the Boiling Blood Red Water formula to Fritz, then after returning, he planned to design a blueprint to test the Mad Hat’s coronation.
Giving Mirror Grudge more ti to rest might just lead it to discover new abilities, offering him a pleasant surprise in the mirrored space?
With these optimistic hopes, Angel left Star Lake Castle.
Following his plan, he intended to go to Saint Sem City, but plans often encounter changes. Just as Angel took off, he sensed disturbances within his bracelet’s space.
His spirit dived into the bracelet, quickly locating the disturbance—positioned at the Dead’s Church where Tullas was.
After so inquiries, Tullas inford Angel that Nis had sothing to discuss with him.
It’s not about bringing a slate, just a matter to discuss, and Ironclad Granny was present too.
Although Nis didn’t ntion what the matter was, judging by the ti, the task teams should have returned with news. If they traveled at full speed, whether heading to Nirvana Continent or West Sidro Mist Isle, they should have arrived by now.
If it were just Nis summoning Angel, Angel could easily head to Saint Sem City first and return to et Nis. But with Ironclad Granny also present, Angel dared not keep her waiting.
He imdiately decided to return to Star Lake Castle, found Frode practicing Soul Trick with Shanni, and handed over the potion formula and the bottle of Boiling Blood Red Water, asking him to deliver them to Fritz.
After accomplishing this, Angel directly used Nightmare Illusion, Enter Dream, and stepped into the Wilderness of Dreams.
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