Druidic Alchemist

A Stone-skinned Boar was leisurely grinding its tusks, which were half the size of its body, against a tree trunk. After a long while, it finally felt they were sharp enough.

Then, feeling an itch on its rear, it turned around, preparing to rub its backside against the tree as well.

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness washed over it, and its entire body went limp as it collapsed to the ground. Though not yet fully unconscious, it could only watch as a High Elf stood there, sinisterly grinning while holding two empty bottles.

"These Shadow Potion and Dizziness Potion, while not technically elixirs, are certainly quite useful."

This High Elf was none other than Karen. To test the efficacy of his Healing Potion, he had sought out a thick-skinned beast as a test subject, and this Stone-skinned Boar was his prey.

One Shadow Potion allowed him to use the tree's shade to approach the Stone-skinned Boar undetected, and the other, a Dizziness Potion, rendered the sturdy beast weak-limbed and helpless, leaving it at his mercy.

Watching Karen grin so deviously, Sathis, standing behind him, was speechless.

He was, after all, a Master-level professional; being quietly summoned by Karen to act as a bodyguard just to catch a Stone-skinned Boar was absurd.

Moreover, he wasn't even asked to do the catching; he just had to watch Karen use two potions to take down a beast that didn't even qualify as a low-level magical creature, and in the end, he would be the one expected to drag it back.

Sathis began to doubt his life choices. Am I, a Master-level Spellbreaker, reduced to being a laborer?

Couldn't you have just hired a farmer? Why drag me along? Have you no shame?

Karen didn't care what Sathis was thinking; as long as it worked, that was all that mattered. What if someone dared to risk the wrath of the entire High Elf race just to assassinate him?

It was safer to keep a powerhouse like Sathis by his side when venturing out.

Karen excitedly prepared a large cage in his laboratory for the Stone-skinned Boar.

Subsequently, the Stone-skinned Boar was subjected to various inhumane tortures.

Karen experimented with various types of wounds, starting with lacerations. He applied different, precise amounts of the Healing Potion to see if the recovery speed remained consistent for wounds of the same size.

Then, he observed how much of the Healing Potion was required for lacerations of varying sizes.

He sought to determine the optimal dosage that would yield the fastest recovery without being excessive.

After that, he had to experiment with different types of wounds to see if the dosage requirements differed.

Just as Karen was preparing to test whether the Healing Potion could facilitate limb regeneration, Antonidas walked into his laboratory.

Antonidas glanced at the Stone-skinned Boar in the cage in the corner of the lab, which looked dull-eyed and utterly listless, and his mouth twitched.

"Hey, buddy, stop moping around in the lab doing experiments.

Our adventure group recently encountered a map while on a quest. It marks the laboratory of an ancient Night Elf druid alchemist. Any interest in checking it out?"

"Oh? What's the situation?"

"We were out hunting a Loji Bird and found a map in its nest.

It was identified as ancient Night Elf script, and after having a mage who studies Night Elf language translate it, we learned it's a map to the laboratory of a druid alchemist from the ancient Night Elf race.

Druidic alchemy systems are quite different from our current mage alchemy systems. How about it? Interested?"

"That's a must. What are your current plans?"

"Everything is arranged. We've already scouted the location and determined the general area. We're just waiting for you."

"Alright, no problem. Notify me when you're ready to depart."

"Will do. Remember to prepare plenty of potions."

"And I'll be bringing Sathis along."

"That's even better. There definitely won't be any risks then."

Deep in a primeval forest over a thousand kilometers away from Dalaran, Karen and his party were struggling to make their way forward.

"Damn it, this is the location you confirmed? How are we supposed to find anything in this vast sea of trees?" Karen and the others had been walking through this forest for over ten days.

"Time changes everything. It has been thousands of years, after all.

With the passage of time, I didn't expect this either.

Besides, druids are naturally close to nature, so they built their laboratories right inside the forest.

And the forest has expanded over the years; the laboratory is now deep within it. There's nothing I can do about that. According to the map, we're almost there," Antonidas explained.

"I don't believe a word of it. I could have been in my comfortable lab, but instead, I'm here in the forest feeding mosquitoes..."

"Look ahead, is that it?" Antonidas interrupted Karen's complaints. Not far away stood a small wooden cabin, overgrown with weeds and wrapped in countless vines.

"I find that hard to believe. How could such a small cabin be used as a laboratory? And look, there are so many weeds around; I bet there isn't a single defensive measure," Karen retorted.

"Not necessarily. Look, this is the only man-made structure in this desolate area.

According to the map, it has to be here.

Thousands of years have passed; any defensive measures have likely ceased to exist.

Why don't we go take a look first?" Antonidas suggested. The group cleared away the weeds and arrived in front of the cabin.

"This cabin doesn't seem simple either. It does have a sense of millennial age. But after thousands of years, for it to be so well-preserved without a trace of decay... it's definitely not simple. Sathis, you go check it out first."

"As you command, Your Highness." Sathis stepped forward alone and carefully inspected the area. "Your Highness, there are indeed no defensive measures."

"Good, let's go in."

Pushing open the wooden door and entering the cabin, everyone was stunned by the sight before them.

It turned out that despite the small wooden cabin looking modest from the outside, the interior space was vast—at least ten times the size of Karen's own crude laboratory.

As it happened, this cabin had been enchanted with spatial magic, expanding its interior dozens of times over.

The space inside was partitioned by vines into five rooms; the outermost was a living room, presumably a place to entertain guests.

Since this cabin existed in its own pocket dimension, inaccessible to the outside world, the tea sets on the living room table were free of dust.

However, the moment one reached out to touch these vessels, they crumbled into powder.

Though external elements could not intrude, they still could not withstand the erosion of time.

Moving further in was the dining room, where a table sat in the center, still holding food—or at least, what the blackened, shriveled remains had once been.

The fact that the food remained on the table suggested the owner had left in a sudden hurry, never to return.

The middle room was an alchemy laboratory; the workbench held no potions in progress, and the materials atop it had long since lost their potency. It seemed the owner had not practiced alchemy for a very long time, leaving the room entirely barren.

The place Karen had anticipated most turned out to be devoid of anything of value.

Yet, Karen was not disappointed, for in the bedroom that followed, he discovered a wealth of data in the form of books made from leaves.

Fearing they might turn to ash like the tea sets, Karen carefully stabilized them with magic and recorded their images to study in detail when he had more time.

The final room was a storage room, which also contained nothing of value—at least, not to Karen.

Still, there were some items throughout the cabin that had been preserved, which Antonidas and his companions carefully packed away as antiques to take with them.