Chapter 522 - Divine Potion (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“How stupid must you be to put the Heaven Three Leaf Gra.s.s and Dark Shadow Flower together! The Heaven Three Leaf Gra.s.s contains the purest light energy, while the Dark Shadow Flower is formed from the purest darkness energy. To put these two together is sure to cause death!”

With shaking hands, William took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead, yet just after he did, he began to sweat again. Although he didn’t know the two herbs Heaven Three Leafed Gra.s.s and Dark Shadow Flower, the conflicting characters of light and darkness were common knowledge for even people with no pharmaceutics background.

Water and fire were conflicting energy forms commonly known by people. However, anyone with a slightly better understanding of magic would know that these two were not always conflicting, but rather initiated change and integration. In contrast, light and darkness were always conflicting forms of energy, with no chance of any integration or peaceful interaction.

Wilkinson learned not only pharmaceutics knowledge from his teacher Lin Li, but also his way of teaching. One needed to know that Lin Li’s pedagogical methods were scolding and punishment. Though he had never beaten Wilkinson before, scolding was also part and parcel of it during those days. Now he could be considered applying what he had learned. Since he was also angry at William in the first place, Wilkinson’s words were incredibly savage.

“n.o.body can concoct the potion? Indeed, n.o.body can. Do you think that a bunch of random herbs written together can be considered a formula? You are not a kid, how can you do such a thing? Do you really think that a random stone you’ve picked up is a gem?”

Wilkinson’s scolding was merciless. Though William laughed bitterly upon hearing the scolding, he didn’t have any intention to defend himself. Meanwhile, as the only one who could stop Wilkinson, Lin Li didn’t say a word after hearing that the formula required 47 herbs.

Lin Li, who appeared to be calm on the outside, was actually very shocked. This formula that William was talking about was very similar to the one he had seen back in the Endless World, and was likely to be the same one.

Back in the Endless World, Lin Li had once met a pharmaceutics Guru who lived in seclusion during a mission. As the smurf account was specially for developing an avatar with every profession maxed out, he had purposely interacted with that pharmaceutics Guru. He used many ways to fill up the ‘relations.h.i.+p bar’ of the Guru, and frequently got lots of goodies from him.

After they became friends when the relations.h.i.+p bar filled up, the pharmaceutics Guru spoke of a potion called Divine Potion. However, he wasn’t sure of the specifics of the formula, either, and only told him a few characteristics of this formula such as the number of herbs needed.

A true formula was not only listing of all the ingredients, but—more importantly—specified the amount of each ingredient used, the preparation method for each ingredient, the special techniques used during concoction, etcetera. The making of a potion was a very serious process where a slight mistake could result in immeasurable outcome. The less serious would be wastage of precious ingredients, while the more serious threatened the life of the pharmacist. Therefore, only knowing the ingredients needed for a potion was of no value in regards to the concoction of that potion.

If it was only a half-finished formula, that pharmaceutics Guru didn’t have to tell Lin Li about it only after the relations.h.i.+p bar had filled up. The truly important thing was that the last potion that a certain Divine Smith had concocted before he rose to become a Divine Smith was the Divine Potion.

Though Lin Li’s Hunter account didn’t have pharmaceutics as a sub-occupation, he still had quite some knowledge about pharmaceutics—at least more than William. Upon hearing the pharmaceutics Guru’s description of the formula, he had exactly the same thoughts as Wilkinson now, thinking that such a formula was impossible.

Yet, Lin Li witnessed the true power of the Divine Potion not long after that conversation.

It was a Level-B mission issued by the system. The goal was to escort an important personage from a certain kingdom, and they needed to travel through what was known as the untraversable land—the Rift Valley of h.e.l.l. Everyone who saw this mission thought that it was too difficult for a Level-B mission since any mission that was related to the Rift Valley of h.e.l.l was generally a Level-S mission. Even Lin Li dared to go to the Rift Valley of h.e.l.l twice only after obtaining the Stars of Fury.

Lin Li had obtained neither the Stars of Fury nor the seven debris of the stars at that time, and could only be considered a high-level Hunter with pretty good equipment. He had accepted this likely bugged¹ mission only for the sake of escaping the pursuit of other players who wanted to kill him.

When the escort team had reached the Rift Valley of h.e.l.l, a large number of h.e.l.l creatures swarmed out, and instantly surrounded the 1000-man team. Out of those h.e.l.l creatures, the most terrifying were the dozen-plus three-headed h.e.l.l dogs guarding the Gate of h.e.l.l that even a Legendary powerhouse wouldn’t provoke easily. The team with close to 1,000 people couldn’t even defend themselves for 15 minutes. Even Lin Li had prepared to give up.

Just then, a court mage beside that important personage suddenly drank a tube of light golden potion. A golden light beam pierced through the night sky and landed on that court mage, and powerful aura emerged from the body of that court mage.