Karen Returns

Time passed day after day, and in the blink of an eye, another half year had gone by.

Drew had been here for a year since arriving through the teleportation array.

During this time, Drew's alchemy had improved day by day. Since he had advanced to master alchemist, and the first class of students had performed exceptionally well, the academy—

The second training class began amid everyone's anticipation. Drew left everything to Joseph to handle, and Joseph selected several students from the first group of noble children to join the academy's administrative staff.

They needed more staff because a lot more people had signed up this time. However, taking the academy's current teaching capacity into account, Joseph had acted within his means and opened just one class, with fifty spots.

Drew spent each day studying new Concoction recipes, making True Perfect Healing Potions, and working through the long order list Nelson had given him.

Drew also took great care in teaching Nelson what he knew.

Nelson had been a herb merchant for over a decade and was very knowledgeable about herbs. His experience starting out as a shop assistant had given him a keen eye for precise measurements.

He made all his potions using Drew's improved recipes.

Nelson was progressing rapidly and had already begun brewing intermediate Healing Potions.

Nelson had opened a shop in Stormwind City. He brewed the potions himself and left everything else, including purchasing and sales, to his son, Josh Eddie.

With the high-end potions Drew occasionally sold there, along with the various promotions he taught them—such as five percent off when you bought two items, ten percent off for three, one silver off purchases over twenty silver, and three silver off purchases over fifty silver—the new little shop had established itself in Stormwind City's vast potion market and even made a bit of a name for itself.

Another thing was that Drew's True Perfect Healing Potion really did have miraculous effects. It had healed a friend of Archmage Aegwynn's husband.

As a result, Archmage Aegwynn's husband became a regular at Drew's place, and the two often visited each other.

One day, while Drew was brewing a potion, he suddenly felt a tremor. For a moment, his body seemed to slip beyond his control.

The potion in Drew's hand failed because of it. Fortunately, he had only been brewing an ordinary potion, not a Concoction, so there was no magical explosion.

Drew was extremely attentive to his body's condition and immediately ran a full diagnostic.

Drip... A sound he had not heard in a long time rang in his mind.

Drip, system scan in progress...

Database continuously updating...

System personalization program integrity: 20%

Scanning System integrity: 30%

Analysis and processing center integrity: 30%

The database had been continuously updating ever since the system arrived in this brand-new world. It was expected to keep updating indefinitely, unless he became an omniscient and omnipotent god.

The Scanning System and analysis and processing center had been partially repaired through long-term use and the supply of energy.

The biggest change was in the integrity of the system's personalization program.

In the original technological world, the system, as an ultimate system, had possessed its own personality.

It had its own thoughts and its own quirks.

But in that accident, the system had been severely damaged. Somehow, it had gone from a physical state to its current form.

It had lost most of its functions, but now it seemed that they were gradually recovering.

The system's personalization program was also continuously improving as it interacted with people.

It had gone from just two percent, when it barely interacted with anyone, to twenty percent now that it was even making friends. The change was tremendous.

The diagnostic results showed that the system was steadily recovering, but he still had no idea what had caused that momentary loss of control.

After checking for a long time, Drew found no problems or flaws in the system.

It probably isn't a problem with the system. Drew thought of one possible explanation: Karen's soul fusion had changed. Perhaps it was about to finish, or perhaps something had gone wrong during the process. Drew had no way of knowing.

Whatever the case, Drew realized he couldn't do anything else right now. He needed to keep a close eye on the state of the soul fusion.

So he called his apprentice, Nelson, and asked him to inform the others that he was going into seclusion to cultivate.

Drew went to the Alchemist Association's cultivation chamber, which was specially set aside for members to cultivate in seclusion—one of the association's benefits—and activated the array inside.

Countless magical runes appeared, surrounding the entire chamber and cutting it off from the outside world.

Only one small area allowed one-way communication between the two. Whenever it was in contact with the outside, it disconnected from the cultivation chamber.

Whenever it was connected to the cultivation chamber, it disconnected from the outside world. This was a passage specifically meant for transferring things between the two, such as meals.

After all, he was still mortal and needed to eat.

When President Pierre received Nelson's message and rushed over, he found that Drew had already activated the array.

Seeing that Drew had gone into seclusion without explaining anything, President Pierre knew something must have happened—something unexpected. But all he could do now was wait anxiously outside.

Fortunately, Drew had recently been focused on alchemy and had brewed many potions that he had yet to deliver. He also had some in reserve.

Those who urgently needed True Perfect Healing Potions could wait a little. Drew had already arranged everything else. The only thing left was teaching Nelson.

But he had already taught him everything he could. Nelson could practice and consolidate what he had learned for now.

After entering seclusion, Drew did nothing at all. He sat motionless in the cultivation chamber.

He quietly waited for the soul fusion to finish, or for something else to happen.

Three days passed like that.

Drew felt his body slipping further and further beyond his control, the loss of control growing stronger by the moment.

But he did nothing. Aside from eating, drinking, and taking care of his bodily needs, he simply waited.

At last, the loss of control reached its limit. Drew lost all control of his body and collapsed instantly. Fortunately, he had been prepared and was sitting on the bed, so he didn't hurt himself when he fell.

After losing control, Drew did not panic. He continued running the Scanning System, keeping watch over his body's condition.

If anything started to go wrong, he would forcibly seize control of his body, even though doing so carried risks and could cause damage.

Fortunately, his body simply lay there, as if asleep, without any other changes.

Only his eyes showed any movement. Though they were closed, his eyeballs could be seen darting about.

Suddenly, those eyes opened. The confusion in them showed that Karen was back and the soul fusion had succeeded.

Karen looked around, then clumsily climbed off the bed. It was clear he had not been in contact with his body for a long time and was still unaccustomed to it.

Suddenly, a powerful aura surged from Karen's body, knocking him down and pinning him to the bed, unable to move.

But the aura came and went in a flash. It dissipated moments later, and thanks to the magic array, no one outside knew what had happened.

Karen climbed off the bed and began getting used to his body and examining it. He also searched his memories to see what had happened during all that time.