Around the same time.
Main Continent, a remote castle.
"Glug glug..."
In the castle's hall, a light-gray pot simmered over a fire. The liquid inside boiled as a pile of medicinal ingredients continuously bobbed up and down.
The ingredients included not only common things resembling tree branches, but also all manner of strange objects, such as translucent crystal caterpillars, half a black bone, sticky clumps of gel, grass-green bird eggs, and a strand of grayish-brown hair...
These things had been boiled in the pot for a long time. By the time the pot glowed red, they had all melted into the water, turning it into a large pot of pitch-black liquid. It gave off a fishy stench like rotten fish and shrimp, enough to make one think of sewage flowing through a harbor drain and feel nauseated.
A pair of hands reached out, their palms wrapped in thick compressed air with a vacuum layer in between, like a perfect pair of insulated gloves. Female Wizard Su easily lifted the scalding pot off the fire, limped over to Hulk, and said bluntly, "Drink."
Hulk looked at Su, then at the liquid in the pot.
After looking at it, he looked at Su again, swallowed, forced a stiff smile onto his face, and pleaded somewhat ingratiatingly, "This... isn't it a little too hot? How about we let it sit for a while and drink it after it cools down?"
"Too hot?" Su raised an eyebrow, turned toward the side, and called out a nickname, "Ice Block!"
"Okay." A voice answered. Ice Block, in the corner, waved a hand, and diamond-shaped ice shards formed in the air. With another wave, the newly formed ice blocks moved like fish in the sea, swiftly "swimming" to the edge of the pot before diving into it