Chapter 39
Silverleaf Awakening Potion
Buzz~
[Accepted as Wizard Fernando's disciple, you underwent two tests.]
[However, realizing that your current progress would surely disappoint your mentor, you sought a new path to enhance your mental strength through potion-making.]
[In the library, you found the only remaining copy of the mental strength enhancement potion "Silverleaf Awakening Potion" preserved in the Tower of the Four Sages. Unfortunately, due to poor preservation, the brewing instructions were lost. Fortunately, the herb illustration and dosage information remained intact.]
[Relying on your knowledge, you began attempting to reconstruct the brewing process.]
[On your tenth attempt, you successfully extracted the first herbal essence.]
[On your one-hundredth attempt, you successfully extracted all the herbal essences.]
[On your two hundred fiftieth attempt, you successfully determined the first herb to be added into the cauldron.]
[On your seven hundredth attempt, the potion in the cauldron began to emit magical energy fluctuations.]
...
[On your one thousand nine hundred twentieth attempt, the yellowish-brown potion emitted a captivating aroma. You realized you had successfully reconstructed the brewing process of the "Silverleaf Awakening Potion."]
[Silverleaf Awakening Potion (Incomplete) (Uninitiated) → Silverleaf Awakening Potion (Uninitiated)]
[Academic Points: 20]
This simulation once again confirmed Lucy's suspicion. This type of simulation, which relied on sheer quantity, did not consume many academic points; it only cost 5 points to complete the brewing process.
"Then let’s continue."
Buzz~
[Having reconstructed the brewing process, you devoted yourself wholeheartedly to potionology.]
[Perhaps because of completing the potionology notes, you successfully brewed the first bottle of "Silverleaf Awakening Potion" without expending much knowledge, achieving a 10% success rate.]
[Silverleaf Awakening Potion (Uninitiated) → (Basic)]
[Academic Points: 20 → 16]
Lucy nodded with satisfaction and did not pause the simulation.
[You were not satisfied with a 10% success rate in refining, so you began investing more Academic Points into deduction.]
[Days and nights of refining brought a slight improvement to your understanding of potionology. You could even distinguish the decoction state of the herbs in the cauldron by smell.]
[Heaven rewards diligence. Your attainments in potionology improved.]
[The success rate of Silverleaf Awakening Potion reached 20%, with a 0.5% chance of refining a master-level potion.]
[Silverleaf Awakening Potion (Basic) → (Intermediate)]
[Academic Points: 16 → 8]
A flood of memories surged into her mind, and Lu Xi let out a soft moan instinctively.
"Done!"
Although the level-jumping mechanism was not triggered, a 20% success rate was sufficient.
After all, the Mental Strength Enhancement Potion itself could not be taken in large quantities.
Lu Xi wished she could start refining potions immediately, but unfortunately, she and Talia usually met at six o'clock in the apprentice cafeteria, and it was still too early.
She could only stay in her room studying the High Elvish Introductory Dictionary until the sun tilted west before heading downstairs.
Apprentice cafeteria
She reached out and pulled open Talia's wizard robe. On her smooth forearm, symbiotic spores similar to moss were still growing.
But unlike last time, they were no longer embedded into the blood vessels.
Now the spores clung to the skin like a green caul, docile like ivy twining around a laurel tree.
Lu Xi: "How do you feel? What is your Contamination Value?"
"Contamination Value is 39%. I have completely controlled all the symbiotic spores on my left arm. The seeds produced by these plants are the best feed for nurturing symbiotic plants. Once my Mental Strength breaks through ten points, I can start transplanting mutation plants to create my first witchcraft model."
Lu Xi did not have much research on Symbiotic Mutation Studies, but judging by Talia's appearance, things seemed fine.
She took out the required ingredient list, magic stone, and a bottle of Devouring Contamination Potion from her wizard robe.
"I can't help you much with academic matters, but as long as I’m here, there’s no shortage of resistance potions."
Talia did not refuse. Only with enough resistance potions to suppress the Contamination Value could she fully devote herself to studying the secrets of mutation.
"Lu Xi, I won’t ask how you transformed yourself."
Talia looked seriously at the silver-haired girl sitting across the table. "But from the moment you gave me the first resistance potion, my life has belonged to you. When you become a great wizard, please reserve a place for me in your tower. I will be your assistant I swear by the Sea of Knowledge."
...
After nightfall, a gloomy atmosphere permeated everywhere in the West Tower.
This was Lu Xi's first time setting foot here after sunset.
During the day, she had been delayed by matters related to the Mental Strength Enhancement Potion, and in the evening, she simply could not enter a meditative state while staying in her dormitory. Her mind was filled with the image of the dragon heart soaked in preservative fluid.
In the end, her thirst for knowledge overcame her routine.
She got up, put on thickened gray stockings, a base-layer sweater, and her apprentice robe prepared for autumn and winter, and lightly leapt up the staircases one after another to reach the abandoned courtyard outside the West Tower.
With the badge symbolizing the disciple of a great wizard pressed against her chest, the tightly closed gate of the West Tower slowly opened.
The flesh construct raised its head slightly in response. After smelling Lu Xi’s scent, it buried its face back into its elbow.
Although no third person yet knew that Lu Xi had already been accepted as a disciple by Wizard Fernando,
these creations that obeyed the wizard’s will had already engraved it into their minds.
It was Lu Xi’s first time observing these living constructs so closely. She couldn’t help but reach out and stroke the coarse stitches on the giant’s arm with her index finger.
The fleshy buds wriggled like maggots in the gaps beneath the stitches.
Even after being stitched together for hundreds of years, the two chunks of flesh from entirely different creatures had not fused.
She ascended along the spiral staircase.
The structure of the second floor of the West Tower was largely similar to the first floor, also composed of individual morgue rooms.
However, while the ground floor had three hundred morgue rooms, the second floor had only one hundred and fifty.
By the time she reached the third floor, the number of morgue rooms had dwindled to twenty, accessible only to senior apprentices there were very few such individuals in the entire West Tower.
Higher up, Lu Xi saw the pipe entrances leading to each morgue room and a large sorting platform, which was likely where dissection tasks for each floor were distributed.
As for the main warehouse of the West Tower, it was arranged on the fifth floor.
Countless organ specimens preserved in glass jars were categorized and piled up in storage rooms. At the entrance of each room squatted a slightly smaller flesh construct.
Lu Xi entered one of the warehouses.
Inside were nothing but left arms.
Lizard claws, boar humeri, severed human limbs, and even deep-sea tentacles it resembled a parts warehouse. Whenever wizards needed them, they could immediately retrieve the components to assemble a new living construct.
This was no laboratory at all. It was simply a production line for war machines.
Such scenes confirmed Lu Xi’s previous speculation the wizards were preparing for war.
But who exactly was the enemy?
Other wizard factions? Some powerful enchanted beasts? Or an even more terrifying existence?
Lu Xi planned to ask Mentor Fernando directly the next time she saw him.
After finishing her tour of the "factory," Lu Xi activated the badge on her chest.
With a surge of magical energy, her figure appeared in that familiar laboratory. The furnishings were exactly as she had left them.
The crimson degenerated dragonkin heart still lay quietly on the bottom shelf.