The fourth bottle of Doxy Repellent was a melancholy bottle of Doxy Repellent. Even after Brian cast three improved Cheering Charms in succession, it retained its air of "I suppose I shall never be happy again." Not only did it refuse to be as lively as its predecessors, it had given up so completely that it would not produce even the slightest ripple on its surface.
Only when Brian used his enhanced sense of smell to analyze the potion's ingredients carefully did he discover the cause: the potioneer who brewed it had become distracted at work and accidentally added a large variant of the healing mushroom-a gloom mushroom.
If anyone used this bottle of Doxy Repellent against Doxies, the affected Doxies would most likely pull long faces after becoming paralyzed. Their wings, originally as shiny as beetle shells, would turn as black as their bodies, and even the eggs they laid would be too melancholy to hatch.
From that perspective, this accidentally created bottle of Doxy Repellent was undoubtedly more effective than the original-but healing mushrooms were rare, precious magical plants. People were generally willing to spend the price of a few meals on pest control, not an entire month's living expenses at once.
Next came the fifth and sixth bottles-because Brian altered his procedure for these two attempts, choosing to add the charm in three batches and two batches respectively,
The charms in both bottles became rather insatiable, shouting things like "Give me a little more, just a little!" and "Don't give it any! Give it all to me! I need happiness more than it does!" With an air of wanting nothing more than to crawl out of their potion jars, they exploded simultaneously.
After spending some time cleaning the sticky, foul-smelling liquid off the floor, Brian realized something: