Brewing Potions

"Eno! I know you must be angry with me. I, Jack, swear by the Lord of Dawn that once I rise to wealth and rank, I will repay today's kindness."

Jack knew full well that while Adams Arthur had partly appreciated his courage in making him an apprentice knight of the Golden Mane Knights, the true reason was still the Hemostatic Powder.

Silverleaf Grass was merely a weed found everywhere.

The Hemostatic Powder's effects were average, but its cost was extraordinarily low.

On the battlefield, there were never enough wound medicines. No medicine was better suited for battlefields than Hemostatic Powder.

"You don't have to wait until later to repay me. If it doesn't violate the rules, could you give me a knight cultivation method?"

Adams Hank possessed wizard talent and had been strictly forbidden from practicing knight body-tempering methods.

As a transfer student who had merely slipped into the classes, Yin Ming naturally had not learned any knight cultivation methods either.

Jack froze.

He had not expected Yin Ming to make such a request.

He had refused to become an apprentice knight, yet he was interested in knight cultivation methods.

"Just a casual question! Forget it if it puts you in a difficult position!"

As an extraordinary wizard, Yin Ming would not practice a semi-extraordinary knight cultivation method.

A 0-ring spell, Flesh Strengthening, could improve physical fitness in a month as much as knights needed years, even over a decade, to achieve.

Knowledge and principles were what interested Yin Ming. Skills never weighed one down; learning a little more might come in handy someday.

"It isn't difficult. Knight cultivation methods are just simple breathing methods. Without Life Essence brewed from Magic Beast blood, they won't have any training effect at all."

Jack briefly demonstrated the breathing method, called the Golden Lion Breathing Method.

It was even simpler than the Ancient Qi Cultivation Method. It merely drew elemental energy into the body, lacking the part where qi was refined into mana and the elements made one's own.

Just as Jack had said, without drinking Life Essence, the breathing method would not produce the slightest training effect.

"Apprentice knights can receive three bottles of Life Essence for free."

"If you still can't become a knight after drinking three bottles, you'll be kicked out of the Golden Mane Knights. Two bottles are enough for me." Jack gritted his teeth and pulled a bottle of thick amber-colored potion from his clothes.

"One drop is enough for me!"

Yin Ming poured out a drop of Life Essence, caught it with his mouth and tasted it, then secretly stored it in the Scavenger Gourd for analysis.

[Name: Life Essence.]

[Ingredients: Unknown Magic Beast blood, Blood-Melding Vine, Frost Grass, Groundcover Fruit...]

[Note: Consuming this potion may alter genes, causing partial beastification of organs toward leopard-type Magic Beasts. Consume with caution!!]

[Extractable: Life Essence Extract: 0.001.]

As long as the potion did not involve too many chemical reactions.

If substance A and substance B formed an unknown substance C, and substance C then underwent a chain reaction with substance D.

The yellow-skinned gourd could use the finished product to reverse-engineer the raw materials and the method for brewing the potion.

"Alter genes! Beastification!"

Magic Beasts were born with the ability to absorb elemental energy.

Life Essence actually granted Magic Beast genes through a potion, allowing the fleshly body to absorb elemental energy.

The unknown Magic Beast blood in this potion was probably from the intermediate Magic Beast Adams Hank had hunted: a Shadow Leopard.

"Wait! I have a drop of Quasit blood. Isn't a 1-ring Demonic Beast far stronger than a Magic Beast?"

After the Quasit blood had been purified by the gourd, its purity was even higher than that of the original Quasit from which the bloodline came.

If it were brewed into Life Essence, wouldn't it be possible to cultivate a Quasit hatchling?

"..."

Early the next morning.

Jack packed his belongings and left.

Now that he had become an apprentice knight, he would no longer live in Blackstone House.

He would follow the Golden Mane Knights and be stationed at a camp far from the manor. After the count's grandmother's birthday celebration, he would also follow Adams Arthur to guard the border in the western Landon Duchy.

Compared to serfs with an average lifespan of thirty, becoming a poor and dangerous border knight was still a decent path forward.

"He's gone! That guy is the first serf to leave Tulip Manor alive." Randy watched Jack's departing back and sighed.

When it came to friendship, Randy and Jack had actually been closer.

Yin Ming always seemed somewhat out of place. Though his words and actions were no different from those of a serf, and he too was trapped within the tiny manor, he felt no psychological shackles or stifling oppression at all.

"This opportunity should have belonged to you. Do you really not regret it at all?"

Randy could not find the slightest trace of disappointment or remorse on Yin Ming's face.

It was completely different from the emotion he had imagined—being forced to accept reality after realizing the situation could not be salvaged.

"What about you? You know the Hemostatic Powder formula too. This opportunity could have been yours as well."

On the surface, Randy cursed Jack as a shameless thief.

But openly and in secret, he was urging Yin Ming to accept reality, telling him that even if he found Adams Arthur, it would only be a lose-lose outcome.

Yin Ming did not care. In this world, no one was merely someone else's backdrop. Every person had their own pursuits.

Trading a crude Hemostatic Powder formula for a knight breathing method and the Life Essence formula was not a loss for him.

"Between being an apprentice knight and a serf, I would definitely choose apprentice knight."

Randy pondered seriously for a moment, then paused before saying, "But I don't have Jack's ruthlessness. Even becoming an apprentice knight would mean nine deaths for every chance of survival, and it would be hard to make a name for myself. If I really had to choose, I'd rather be a commoner, marry a wife, have children, and live out an ordinary life."

"When he rises high and achieves fame and success, perhaps he'll come back to help you across."

Yin Ming smiled faintly, patted Randy's shoulder, and comforted him.

He stepped forward to collect his black bread for the day, shouldered his farming tools, and headed toward the land at the edge of the Magic Beast Forest.

"If you become rich and noble, don't forget each other!" Hearing that, Randy lowered his head in shame.

He repeated Yin Ming's words, no longer regretted his choice, and his gaze became incomparably resolute once more, two sharp lights bursting from his eyes.

"..."

Magic Beast Forest!

A forbidden zone of life in most people's eyes.

Once Yin Ming stepped inside, he was as free as if he had returned home, knowing everything within ten miles like the back of his hand.

The plants and fungi, their growth patterns and distribution; the activity zones of animals and Magic Beasts—he knew them all inside out.

Several medicinal ingredients used to brew Life Essence.

Only the Blood-Melding Vine was relatively rare, growing on cliff faces deep within the forest.

Frost Grass, raspberries, and several other medicinal ingredients could easily be gathered in the outer regions. Once Yin Ming had collected them, he headed deeper into the Magic Beast Forest.

"Found it!"

In a crevice on a steep cliff.

Yin Ming found a section of withered yellow vine. When he snapped it, crimson juice like blood seeped out, and he stored it in the Scavenger Gourd.

"There is only one drop of Quasit blood. I'll find a Magic Beast to practice on first."

[Wizard's Hand!]

Yin Ming condensed a transparent Wizard's Hand.

It reached into a cave and dragged out a robust wild bull with red eyes and black horns.

A low-level Magic Beast: Red-Eyed Fire Bull.

He twisted the Red-Eyed Fire Bull's neck. The Magic Beast, stripped of its life aura, was taken whole—blood and flesh alike—into the Scavenger Gourd.

"Fuse..."

The materials had all been gathered!

Unlike pill refinement, where true fire was needed to trigger a qualitative change, brewing potions merely involved extracting the active ingredients from the materials and mixing them according to the original proportions of Life Essence. The Life Essence was brewed inside the Scavenger Gourd.