No one objected to leaving, but Shade still consulted the tiny puppet on his right shoulder. Miss Puppet, with her beautiful golden hair, gestured for Shade to hold out his hand. She hugged his finger and gently kissed the tip.
"Look at the bottle on the lowest shelf in the corner to your front right."
It was the most inconspicuous bottle in the entire room, one that had to be examined closely while crouching down. Everyone gathered around and discovered a slender red snake, two fingers long, inside. Upon closer inspection, the front half and back half of the snake's body were noticeably different in color.
Shade examined it carefully and said uncertainly:
"The Philosopher's Stone?"
"No, it seems more like the Philosopher's Stone was mixed with the Blood Essence of All Things, then fused with the snake's original body."
Miss Feliana swung her legs as she explained:
"This should be some sort of biological fusion experiment. They tried to use the Blood Essence of All Things to shape a body for certain special purposes, while the Philosopher's Stone likely served to promote the fusion. The specimen in this bottle was obviously a failure. That snake is completely dead, but both the Philosopher's Stone and the Blood Essence of All Things can still be used."
Though he knew greed was bad, Shade still asked the Witches:
"What will happen if we take something from this room?"
Gina answered:
"We'll be hunted down, even across rooms. A shadow will emerge from the door we entered through and pursue us. Though it also has to use doors, it ignores spatial distortions. Even if we close a door, it can still pass through it and find us.
"But it stops after pursuing us through three rooms. So if we take the bottle, we'll