Seer Potion

Perhaps his improvised performance had failed to win everyone's approval, and the cold reception had extinguished his creative passion. Old Neil's subsequent movements were impeccably standard, his words precise but devoid of humor, like a silent accusation directed at Angel and the others.

"Miss Granger, please turn on all the gas lamps and set them to maximum brightness. Mr. Moretti, use the brush beside the iron pot to scrub it, and bring me the third glass bottle from the left on the table. Dunn..."

Old Neil swiftly assigned the tasks. When it came to Dunn Smith, he shrugged, took two steps back, and stood by the Alchemy Room's door, making it clear that he would not interfere with the Potion brewing.

"...Fine, I'll handle the rest myself."

Placing the small silver box beside the iron pot, Old Neil took out a yellowish-brown sheet of parchment. Angel saw several lines of Hermes Script written on it in blood-red ink, looking dangerous and mysterious beneath the flickering gaslight.

"First, 100 milliliters of Pure Water. Thank you, Mr. Moretti." Old Neil took the glass bottle Klein handed over and casually poured some into the freshly scrubbed iron pot.

Angel frowned as she watched. She wanted to remind Old Neil that there was a graduated measuring cup right beside him, but she did not dare interrupt.

Klein across from her seemed to have had the same thought. Their gazes met, then both shifted back to the busy Old Neil.

"Then, thirteen drops of Night-Scented Herb juice. Just one drop of this stuff in perfume and it..." Old Neil took a small brown bottle from the box, used a dropper to draw out the liquid, and added it to the iron pot. A faint fragrance spread through the Alchemy Room.

Halfway through his introduction, he remembered that he was still giving everyone the cold shoulder and closed his mouth again.

"Seven Golden Mint Leaves, three drops of Poison Hemlock Juice, and finally, nine grams of Dragonblood Grass powder." He glanced at the formula on the parchment while taking out the various materials from the box and adding them to the iron pot one by one.

"These are all Auxiliary Materials. Deviations in the order and amount added won't affect the final result. Of course, generally speaking, we won't let them differ too much." After weighing the Dragonblood Grass powder, black as charcoal dust, pouring it into the pot, and stirring it a few times with a wooden spoon, Old Neil finally explained again.

"The Main Materials are what matter. They're all Beyonder Ingredients. Their amounts absolutely cannot be too high, though they can be slightly low—but not too low. Either situation can lead to advancement failure, or even immediate death."

Finally, the crucial part...

Angel perked up and carefully watched Old Neil's next movements. He took an opaque glass bottle with a soot-blackened surface from the box, fetched a brand-new test tube, and used a dropper to draw out a tube of azure liquid.

"Ten milliliters of Lava Octopus blood. It rapidly decomposes under sunlight and loses its effect, so it must be stored in an opaque container."

After carefully checking the markings on the test tube to ensure the dosage was accurate, Old Neil poured the bubbling Lava Octopus blood into the iron pot. As a series of splashing sounds rang out, the dim light shrouding the Alchemy Room took on a faint blue tint.

"Lastly, Star Crystal. Fifty grams. Heh, we happen to have exactly one hundred grams in stock. You two little ones are dividing it all up today, leaving nothing behind."

Old Neil took out the second Beyonder Ingredient. It was a crystal of utter purity, reflecting specks of starlight beneath the illumination, as though an entire starry sky was mirrored within it.

After confirming the Star Crystal's weight on the scale once more, Old Neil used a small knife to cut off a piece the size of a fingernail to avoid using too much material, then tossed the entire crystal into the pot.

Like cold water falling into hot oil, it gave a sharp "sizzle—" as mist rose from the pot and filled the entire Alchemy Room. Angel, who had stepped closer to observe it carefully, could not dodge in time and was engulfed by the mist. Her eyes widened, as if she could see the starry sky inside the Star Crystal through the fog.

She almost thought the Potion brewing had failed, but Old Neil calmly used the wooden spoon to ladle the now-viscous dark-blue liquid from the pot into a cup and handed it to the equally stunned Klein beside him.

"Drink. Your Seer Potion is complete."

Klein took the cup, hesitantly glanced at its rim, then looked at Old Neil.

"Do I just drink it directly?"

"You can add some Olmir Wine. It'll taste a little better that way."

Seeing Klein still standing there in a daze, Old Neil added with a smile, "If you don't care about the taste, just drink it. This is only a Low Sequence Potion; it doesn't require any additional ritual."

"In fact, the hardest things for ordinary people to obtain are the Potion formula and the Beyonder Ingredients within it, also known as the Main Materials. As you just saw, the whole brewing process isn't complicated. It even allows for minor mistakes. Once the Potion is finished and placed before you, all you need to do is..."

He loosely clenched his right hand as if holding an invisible wineglass, raised it to his lips, and made a drinking gesture.

"...Cheers."

Apparently infected by Old Neil's returning humor, Klein's tense expression relaxed. He raised the cup to his lips, took a deep breath, lifted his head, and drank the Potion in one gulp.

It was Angel's first time observing someone's advancement through drinking a Potion from the perspective of a bystander, and she watched Klein's next movements intently.

Klein's hand holding the cup suddenly went rigid. His entire body tensed as though he were having an epileptic seizure, his eyes wide open, before his limbs began to convulse. Just as his stiff leg joints made him sway as though he were about to collapse, it was as if his soul had returned to his body, and the convulsions stopped.

He frowned, his gaze refocused, and he shook his head a few times. A low groan escaped his mouth, like a drunkard waking from a hangover.

That's it?

Angel looked at Old Neil beside her. He seemed long accustomed to the reactions following Potion consumption and watched Klein gradually regain his senses with a calm expression.

Dunn Smith by the door was even less interested in it. Leaning against the doorframe, he narrowed his eyes at Angel.

Their gazes met, and Angel hurriedly looked away.

Is he watching me?

Come to think of it, her request to observe the Potion brewing and consumption process had indeed been rather strange. To people who had already become Beyonders, this knowledge was nothing new—unless someone wanted to collect Potion formulas or seize an opportunity to disrupt the brewing and prevent the Potion from being made.

Seen that way, her behavior really was suspicious...

The concern Angel had buried deep in her heart after killing Mrs. Sharon surfaced again. She looked toward Dunn once more, only to find that he had already shifted his gaze to Klein and Old Neil, as if that scrutinizing look earlier had merely been her imagination.

Am I overthinking this? Or because I obediently watched the entire process without doing anything I shouldn't have, have I temporarily cleared myself of suspicion?

Beside them, with Old Neil's help, Klein was entering a meditative state by conjuring non-existent objects out of thin air in order to master the power of the newly consumed Potion; all of this foundational knowledge could be found in Cole Granger's memories, and combined with the scare Dunn Smith had just given Angel, she felt there was no need for her to stay here any longer.

Seeing one of them focused on teaching and the other carefully learning, Angel carried her own materials box to the door. Dunn's gaze returned to her, and he raised an eyebrow as if asking a question.

"Captain, if there's nothing else, I'll head back first. These materials need to be dealt with as soon as possible."

Angel shook the wooden box in her hand, finding an excuse that sounded reasonable enough.

The interrogation she had expected never came. Dunn merely nodded lightly in agreement.

Angel secretly breathed a sigh of relief, swallowing back the words she had prepared for further questioning, then turned to leave.

"Wait." The call from behind made her back stiffen. "I forgot something."

"What is it, Captain?"

Angel turned around and forced out a smile.

Dunn smiled. "I forgot to tell you that even if you work from home, you still need to report to the company once a day. Of course, you don't need to on your day off."

So that was it... Angel relaxed. "Alright, Captain."

Seeing that Dunn did not seem to have anything else to say, she stepped back onto the stone-paved underground passage and walked toward the crossroads connecting the various areas.

She had only taken a few steps when Dunn's voice came from behind her again.

"Wait, there's one more thing."

Huh? What's going on?

Angel turned back with a puzzled expression. This time, she was certain Dunn was not deliberately making things difficult for her. He really was... a little forgetful.

"I forgot to mention it upstairs. Go to Old Neil and collect one of our badges, so you can prove your identity to the police. And collect a new gun too." He glanced back toward the Alchemy Room, where Old Neil and Klein's conversation could faintly be heard. "Come back another time. Things won't be finished here anytime soon."

Thinking of her old revolver, poorly maintained and with rifling nearly worn smooth, Angel nodded.

That should be everything this time, right...? She turned and left again, listening carefully for any sounds behind her.

Fortunately, this time she was not called back before reaching the crossroads.

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