The Seer Potion

Perhaps because his impromptu performance failed to win everyone's approval and the passion for creation was quenched by the cold reception, Old Neil's subsequent actions were utterly standard, his language precise yet lacking in humor, as though a silent accusation against Angel and the others.

"Miss Granger, please help turn on all the gas lamps and adjust the brightness to the maximum. Mr. Moretti, please use the brush next to the iron pot to scrub the pot, and by the way, help me get the third glass bottle from the left on the table. Dunn..."

Old Neil quickly assigned tasks. When it came to Dunn Smith, the latter shrugged, took two steps back, and stood before the alchemy room door, signaling that he would not interfere with the potion brewing.

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

Placing the small silver box next to the iron pot, Old Neil took out a yellowish-brown piece of parchment. Angel noticed it had a few lines of Hermes Script written in blood-like ink, appearing dangerous and mysterious in the flickering light of the gas lamp.

"First is 100 milliliters of pure water. Thank you, Mr. Moretti." Old Neil took the glass bottle handed over by Klein and casually poured some into the newly scrubbed iron pot.

Angel watched with a tight frown. She desperately wanted to remind Old Neil that a graduated measuring cup was right there, but she didn't dare speak up to interrupt.

Klein opposite her seemed to have the same thought; their gazes met, then both shifted back to the busy Old Neil.

"Then 13 drops of night-scented herb juice. You only need to add a single drop of this stuff to perfume, and it..." Old Neil took out a small brown bottle from the box, used a dropper to extract liquid from it, and dripped it into the iron pot. A faint fragrance spread through the alchemy room.

Halfway through his explanation, he remembered he was still in a "cold war" with everyone and closed his mouth again.

"7 pieces of golden mint leaf, 3 drops of poison hemlock juice, and finally, 9 grams of dragonblood grass powder." Glancing at the formula on the parchment, he took various materials from the box one by one and gradually added them to the iron pot.

"These are all auxiliary materials for the potion. Deviations in the addition sequence and dosage won't affect the final result. Of course, generally speaking, we don't let it deviate too much either." After weighing the carbon-black dragonblood grass powder on the scale, pouring it into the iron pot, and stirring a few times with a wooden spoon, Old Neil spoke up to explain again.

"The main materials are the key. They are all Beyonder ingredients. The amount absolutely cannot be more, but it can be slightly less—though not too much less, as both will lead to failure in advancement or even direct death."

It's finally getting to the key part...

Angel gathered her spirits, carefully observing Old Neil's next move. The latter retrieved an opaque glass bottle with a smoke-blackened surface from the box, fetched a brand-new test tube, and used a dropper to extract a tube of azure liquid from the glass bottle.

"10 milliliters of lava octopus blood. They will rapidly decompose in sunlight and lose their effect, so they need to be stored in an opaque container."

Carefully checking the graduation on the test tube to ensure the accuracy of the dosage, Old Neil poured the bubbling lava octopus blood into the iron pot. Accompanied by a rustling sound, the dim light shrouding the alchemy room was also tinged with a hint of blue.

"Lastly, 50 grams of star crystal. Hehe, we happen to have a stock of exactly 100 grams here, and today it's all been divided up by you two little fellows, leaving not a bit behind."

Old Neil took out the second Beyonder ingredient. It was a crystal pure to the extreme, reflecting specks of starlight under the illumination of the light as though mirroring the entire starry sky.

Re-verifying the weight of the star crystal on the scale, Old Neil used a small knife to cut off a fingernail-sized piece to avoid over-material, then dropped the entire piece of star crystal into the pot.

Like cold water dropping into an oil pan, with a sizzling sound, vapor rose from the pot, filling the entire alchemy room. Angel, who had stepped closer for a careful look, failed to dodge in time and was enveloped by the vapor. Her eyes widened wide, as if she saw that starry sky from within the star crystal through the mist.

She almost thought the potion-making had failed, but Old Neil unhurriedly used a wooden spoon to ladle the deep blue liquid—now thick and viscous inside the pot—into a cup, handing it to the equally dumbfounded Klein beside him.

"Drink it. Your Seer Potion is finished."

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

"Just drink it directly like this?"

"You can add some Olmir Wine; it will taste a bit better that way."

Seeing Klein still standing frozen in place, Old Neil smiled and added, "If you don't care about the taste, just drink it straight down. This is only a low-sequence potion; no extra ritual is required."

"In fact, what's hardest for ordinary people to acquire is the potion formula and the Beyonder ingredients, also called the main materials part. As you just saw, the whole preparation process is not complicated and even allows for minor mistakes. Once the potion is made and placed in front of you, all you need to do is..."

His right hand made a hollow grasping gesture, as though holding a nonexistent wine glass, and he raised his hand to his lips, making the posture of drinking.

"...Cheers."

Seemingly infected by Old Neil's recovered humor, Klein's tense expression relaxed. He raised the cup to his lips, took a deep breath, raised his head, and drank the potion in the cup.

Observing the advancement of consuming a potion from the perspective of a bystander for the first time, Angel stared closely at Klein's subsequent actions.

She saw Klein's hand holding the cup suddenly stiffen. His entire body's muscles tightened as though having an epileptic seizure, his eyes bulged wide, and then his limbs began to twitch. Just as he was about to sway and fall to the ground due to the stiffness in his ankle joints, as if his soul had returned from outside his body, the twitching stopped.

He frowned, his vision refocusing, shook his head a few times, and let out a low groan from his mouth like a drunkard newly awakened from a severe hangover.

Just that?

Angel looked at Old Neil beside her. The latter seemed long accustomed to the reaction after consuming a potion, looking with a calm expression at Klein as he gradually came to his senses.

Dunn Smith by the door showed even less interest in this; instead, leaning against the door frame, he narrowed his eyes and stared at Angel.

Their gazes met, and Angel hurriedly looked elsewhere.

Is he monitoring me?

Come to think of it, her request to observe the potion brewing and consumption process was indeed somewhat strange. To those who had already become Beyonders, such knowledge was nothing new, unless it was for the purpose of collecting potion formulas or waiting for a chance to cause trouble and disrupt the potion's preparation.

Viewed this way, her behavior was indeed very suspicious...

That worry of Angel's—which she had hidden deep in her heart after killing Mrs. Sharon—floated to the surface once more. She looked back toward Dunn, only to find that the other had already shifted his gaze away, looking at Klein and Old Neil beside him, as if that scrutinizing gaze just now had been her imagination.

Could it be that she was overthinking it? Or was it because she had obediently watched the whole process without doing anything inappropriate that she had temporarily shed suspicion?

Beside them, under Old Neil's help, Klein was entering a meditative state by imagining nonexistent objects out of thin air in order to grasp the power of the newly consumed potion. All these basic knowledge items could be found in Cole Granger's memories. Coupled 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 wholeheartedly teaching and the other carefully learning, Angel picked up her own material box and walked to the door. Dunn's gaze returned to her, and he raised his eyebrows as if expressing a question.

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

Angel shook the wooden box in her hand, finding a plausible excuse.

The expected interrogation did not arrive. Dunn merely nodded slightly, indicating his consent.

Angel secretly breathed a sigh of relief, swallowed back the words she had prepared to cope with follow-up questioning, and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute," the call coming from behind made her spine stiffen. "I forgot something."

"What is it, Captain?"

Angel turned her head back and squeezed out a smile as she asked.

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

So it was about this... Angel set her mind at ease. "Alright, Captain."

Seeing that Dunn seemed to have nothing else to say, she stepped back onto the flagstone-paved underground corridor and walked toward the crossroads connecting various areas.

Before she had taken many steps, Dunn's voice came from behind her again.

"Wait a minute, there's one more thing."

Hm, what's the situation?

Angel turned her head back with a puzzled look. This time she confirmed that Dunn wasn't intentionally making things difficult for her, but truly... a bit forgetful.

"I forgot to mention it upstairs just now. Go to Old Neil to collect one of our badges, which will be convenient for proving your identity to the police, and also pick up a new gun." He glanced back at the Alchemy Room, from which the faint sounds of conversation between Old Neil and Klein drifted out. "Come by when you have time, things won't wrap up over here for a while."

Thinking of her own old revolver, which suffered from a lack of maintenance and had its rifling almost worn smooth, Angel nodded.

This time he should be done speaking... She turned and left once more, carefully listening for any sounds behind her at the same time.

She was in luck; this time, until she walked all the way to the crossroads, she wasn't called back again.

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