Chapter 78 (1/2)

Randidly had spent the past hour carefully separating out the four different colored crystals he had refined, creating 13 different recipes. Ultimately, Randidly had admitted to himself that he simply didn’t have enough of either the purple crystal or the green one to mix them with each other, trying out all the possible combinations.

The first 12 recipes were two groups of 6. First the purple with red, 25/75, 50/50, and 75/25. Then the same, purple with blue.

The second group of 6 was the green crystal, rather than the purple one, but otherwise the same.

The final recipe, the one that he would save for last, was equal parts of all four crystals, ground down and mixed.

Randidly started with purple, because honestly, although he understood what the poison was generally, he wasn’t sure what this crystal refined from the blood of monster would do, and was more curious about its effects.

His hands moved to the 50/50 mixture, purple and red. Careful to get every small ground up crystal, he dumped them into a glass container. The potion mixed, and turned a dark maroon color. Curious, Randidly examined it.

Lesser Potion of Health Lvl 18: Increases your maximum health by 180 for 20 minutes. If, after the time runs out, your health is below 180, your health will be reduced to 1 and you will obtain the status effect Overdrawn, which reduces regeneration by 90% for an hour.

Randidly nodded slowly. At his level, it might not quite be worth it. But as his potion level increases, and he could raise the bonus…

Curious, Randidly did the same thing, between purple and blue, obtaining a Lvl 23 Potion of Mana, increasing the mana pool by 230 for 10 minutes, but otherwise largely the same.

The current boost was about the same as his highest tier potions, but they were made with the least refined ingredients. After a bit of experimentation, if he could obtain a Potion of Mana that increased his Mana pool by 460 for 10 minutes… The increased spell casting burst would be highly effective.

But the night was long, and there were still more recipes to try.

****

Derek straightened abruptly. The change had come to the ants about an hour ago, around 3 hours after the squad had trundled on down and into the ant warren. Suddenly the ants began wandering away, the once directed swarm lost and… leaderless.

Without a concerted attack, the ants were quickly beaten back; after all, they were quite weak individually. Even the volunteers, let alone the Freedom Fighters regulars, could handle a lone ant.

But still, for a long time, there was no sign of the squad. Had they perished in the attempt…?

Yet here they were, walking casually back, continually slaughtering any monsters that stepped in front of them like this was just another day at the office.

When the group reached him, for a long time, Derek Quinn didn’t know what to say. He had thought he had worked hard, and found strength, but…

In his heart, he knew that this was partially because of the classes, that they had this advantages, but at the same time…

He had watched them. They moved cleanly, with a proficiency and professionalism that made him helpless. It made him realize something.

While Franksburg had tried to keep back the outside world, maintaining the status quo, these men and woman had gone out into the outside world and changed themselves to thrive in it. They had forsaken their previous humanity, and found a new strength, through the new world was ruled by the system.

Alana cleared her throat. “So, take us to Anthony. We’d like to talk conditions.”

****

Randidly considered the potions in front of him.

The purple 25%, red or blue with 75% created another intriguing potion.

Lesser Mana Regeneration Potion Lvl 25: Increases Mana Regeneration by 250% for the next 5 minutes.

This potion was actually one where Randidly preferred the non-mana option. Mana regeneration, even with a build like Randidly’s, with a lot put into it, was still so slow… He would only receive an extra 200 Mana per hour with that. Taken down to a 5 minute time period, that was only an extra 15 mana.

Health potions were more impressive, but still slightly lackluster. It would restore on Randidly 40 some odd health, which was still pretty insignificant.

What his focus was really was on was the stamina potion, and whether a regeneration variant could be made for that. Unlimited stamina for a short period of time… not only would it hurry training speed at certain key intervals, it could be used to make individuals unstoppable for a short period of time.

In addition, there had been talk from the potion makers that they had found a method to delay the time a normal health potion would heal you over. If that same method could be used to extend the time the regeneration was increased, even if it lowered the bonus…

Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough materials on hand to experiment with that for now. That would have to wait until he returned to Donnyton. Although helping the town had been slightly a hassle at first, they were swiftly growing into something that was useful to him; they could be used to effectively gather the materials he needed for both the green and purple crystals. Otherwise he would need to drain dozens of mushrooms or ants every time…