Potions X Usage

Near Sky Arena, at Kevin's home.

In the basement that had been converted into a warehouse and Pharmaceutical Room, Kevin was carrying out his daily research.

"Is the quantity too high?" Kevin looked at the information displayed on the base of the Alchemy Table.

[Corrosive]

This was clearly a poison.

At that moment, different items rested on each of the three scale pans.

On the silver pan lay a thumb-sized piece of Special Protein Opal, an extremely expensive medicinal mineral. That tiny piece alone had cost Kevin one million.

Since the item on the silver pan was already so expensive, the one on the gold pan was naturally even more valuable.

It was the Shedding Horn that the Two-headed wolf had given him on the day Kevin had first crossed over.

It was a rarity with a market value of fifty million, and its numbers were now extremely scarce. Its price was still rising year by year.

Most importantly, Kevin only had this one Shedding Horn.

He now completely understood why he had felt a faint sense of longing when he had first held it.

It turned out that some powerful and exceptionally precious alchemy materials could make him feel longing. The more valuable and powerful the material, the more obvious that longing became.

However, expensive materials were not the only things that could trigger this feeling. Like the opal before him, which was worth one million on the market, it had also stirred a trace of longing when he touched it.

Kevin had another precious material, one he had bought at an online auction for over six million and had specially shipped to him by private plane some time ago.

Yet strangely, that material had not made him feel the slightest bit of longing.

At present, the materials on the gold and silver pans were the only two things that could make him feel longing.

The copper pan held a Fusion Agent. Based on the knowledge in his mind and his recent studies, Kevin had tried quite a few Fusion Agents capable of combining the Traits of these two materials.

But that was precisely where the problem lay: none of the Fusion Agents had achieved results that satisfied him.

The base showed that the best result so far was:

[Subtle Malice Detection]

At first glance, the effect seemed rather miraculous. But for the current Kevin, even without taking a potion, he could react to targets harboring malice toward him.

Of course, he had no idea how precise that reaction was.

The reason the horns of Two-headed wolves were so expensive was because of a certain legend.

Two-headed wolves had always been few in number and difficult to breed. Over the long course of their evolution, they had learned to distinguish emotions and discern good from evil.

It was said that the source of this ability lay in the horns on their heads.

People believed that medicine made from their horns could ease mental problems. The stuff really worked, which was why its price remained so high.

That was also why Two-headed wolves were on the brink of extinction.

The Special Protein Opal, which happened to stir a trace of longing in Kevin, likewise had the effect of sharpening the mind and quickening thought. The properties of these two materials were compatible; they merely lacked a suitable Fusion Agent.

After another failure, Kevin crossed out the effect of the new material in his Notebook.

"There aren't many suitable Fusion Agents left that I can think of..." Kevin muttered as he looked over the records in his Notebook.

He shook his head helplessly. "Forget it. I'll continue the experiments tomorrow. First, I'll turn the materials that arrived today into potions."

After processing the materials that had been flown in that day, Kevin began making potions.

Based roughly on his own memories, the previous owner's research records, and the results of his studies over the past few months, Kevin had classified the potions he made.

D-class potions: Made from ordinary, common materials, their effects resembled medicines sold in regular pharmacies, except they worked better and took effect faster. Treatment could be completed within the duration of a single dose.

They could treat ordinary fevers, colds, influenza, and all kinds of allergic problems. There were many such formulas, most of them recorded in the previous owner's experiment logs.

C-class potions: Made with relatively expensive materials that were harder to obtain. Their effects were comparable to high-end medicine or even surgical treatment, and they were no longer limited to simple healing effects. These were the potions Kevin kept on hand.

Two of them had already been made by the previous owner. Two more were possible formulas the previous owner had left behind due to insufficient strength, which Kevin had completed. The last was independently developed by Kevin over the past few months.

[Truth Serum: As its name suggests, those with weak willpower will answer whatever they are asked after drinking it.]

[Bone Setting Potion: Likewise, as its name suggests, after a fracture has been set and secured, an ordinary fracture can be healed within the duration of one dose.]

The previous owner had mainly relied on these two potions to make money.

[Power Potion: Increases muscle strength and boosts manifested Aura capacity, but accelerates the consumption of stamina and Aura.]

[Healing Potion: Accelerates the healing of internal and external wounds while consuming stamina and Aura.]

These two potions had been obtained by combining the formulas in the experiment records with the memories in his mind, then making certain adjustments. They could be considered the joint achievement of the current Kevin and his former self.

[Digestion Potion: Continuously consumes Aura, accelerates the breakdown and digestion of food, and stores energy and nutrients.]

This was a potion Kevin had developed himself. Its effects were extremely significant, and it was mainly used to accelerate the results of physical training.

The specific method was to first gorge oneself, eating until full or even vomiting, choosing high-calorie, high-nutrition foods—the sort of "carb bomb" foods.

Then, within fifteen minutes of drinking the potion, the food would be digested at an extreme rate. After that, one had to undergo intense training so that the energy could feed back into the body.

However, eating and using the potion this way placed a certain burden on the body, so it could not be used frequently.

After making his assessment, Kevin believed that using it once every eight to ten days was about right. Of course, depending on one's physique, the interval could be shortened somewhat.

For example, at first, Kevin needed to wait fifteen days before using it again, but now he could continue after around ten days.

Thanks to this potion, Kevin's physical fitness had improved dramatically in just three months. At the same time, a great deal of money had been spent on the materials needed to make it, and now he was going to make another batch.

Soon, after using materials worth one million, a pale green potion with slightly cloudy liquid was complete.

"This time took forty minutes and consumed about forty percent of my Aura. That's another improvement over before." Kevin was very satisfied. This was another use of the Alchemy Table he had discovered: by making the same potion and judging by the time spent and Aura consumed, he could gauge his own growth.

Kevin opened the box beside him. It was stuffed with individually wrapped energy bars.

"Whew. Don't try to taste it. Just take a bite and swallow." Kevin muttered a warning to himself.

After all, to fully bring out the potion's effect, he had to eat food with an extremely high energy density. Aside from the meat of high-level Demonic Beasts, only these specially made energy bars would do. As for the taste, it could only be described as indescribable.

"I'm eating! I'm eating! I... blegh... keep eating!"

Kevin wolfed down a whole box of energy bars like a whirlwind, his face turning red from the strain.

"This is the suffering necessary for taking a shortcut. Keep going!"

Kevin swallowed the prepared potion in one gulp.

In an instant, the Aura around his body erupted and surged without end. The Aura began consuming itself automatically, rapidly strengthening his body's digestive ability. Kevin's entire body began to redden and heat up.

"Is this, in essence, also an Enhancement Type Nen ability?" Kevin could not help but ponder.

From a certain perspective, the potion's effect resembled using Enhancement Type Nen to strengthen the body's digestive functions and organs.

Following that line of thought, if someone who was not an Enhancement Type used this potion, would its effects be worse than they were for him?

He was not entirely sure. To this day, he had never given his potions to anyone else.

Fifteen minutes passed quickly. Kevin let out a long breath, and his body temperature began to drop as his color gradually returned to normal.

But then his stomach began rumbling loudly.

"It's here!"

Kevin was already standing beside the bathroom, and he rushed inside without hesitation.

Accompanied by a thunderous series of noises, it took Kevin half an hour to resolve the problem.

"This is also... a necessary price!"

What awaited Kevin next was an entire day of high-intensity training.