"Lilith, what are you doing? Spit it out, now."
Leo was furious. Gavarci had allowed him to conduct experiments and even supplied the ingredients. Leo had been delighted, or rather, thrilled. Being able to conduct experiments meant he had gone from an odd-job worker to a researcher, a major step forward in his wizarding career.
Gavarci had even sent his pet companion Lilith over, giving Leo even more confidence in his potion brewing. Perhaps he could follow the protagonists of other novels, using this as a stepping stone to the pinnacle of life, with all sorts of powerhouses bowing before him.
But when the experiments actually began, Leo found himself full of theory with no idea where to start. He could only consult the book and feel his way through.
Throughout this arduous process, Lilith not only failed to help but kept causing trouble.
Leo had put up with it once or twice, but when Lilith repeatedly ate the half-finished products he had prepared, he finally lost his temper.
Xianlita was a mineral that actively stimulated the body and one of the main ingredients in healing potions. Small doses could stimulate the body's potential, but large doses were moderately toxic.
While Leo turned away to prepare other ingredients, Lilith shot out her tongue and ate half the Xianlita in one go. Leo had spent an entire day painstakingly preparing it.
Lilith's troublemaking was one issue, but Xianlita's toxicity was another. Even an ordinary Wizard Apprentice could not withstand the toxicity of eating 200 grams at once.
Leo dared not imagine what Gavarci would do to him if something happened to this frog in his care.
"Ribbit, ribbit."
As Leo tried to pry open her mouth and dig out the Xianlita, Lilith stared at him with her bulging frog eyes and croaked loudly. She had never met such a rude man with so little sense of boundaries.
Before Leo's hand could touch Lilith, a slender black shadow flashed past. Leo felt as though a sledgehammer had struck his chest, and his body went flying.
"Ribbit."
Ignoring Leo, who had slammed into the wall and could not get up for a long while, Lilith hopped onto the workbench and brazenly picked through the ingredients he had painstakingly prepared, eating a third of them.
"I..."
Leo's body was already terribly weak. Most of the toxins inside him were still taking effect, and his strength and stamina attributes had both fallen below 15 points. He had been completely unprepared for Lilith's sudden strike.
He wanted to curse, but swallowed the words as soon as he opened his mouth. Lilith was someone he could not afford to offend. Forget eating a few ingredients-even if she ate the entire laboratory, Leo would not dare say anything. It all belonged to them anyway.
Fortunately, Lilith had not struck to kill. After gasping for a while, Leo stood up.
But when Leo got up and looked toward the workbench and Lilith atop it, he froze in astonishment!
For a moment, he even wondered whether his eyes were playing tricks on him or he was dreaming!
He saw a frog the size of a human head deftly using various test tubes and crucibles, even activating all sorts of runic arrays with practiced ease.
Her tongue danced so fast it left afterimages. All the ingredients vanished at a visible rate, replaced by batches of half-finished products.
Before Leo could close his gaping mouth and hide the little uvula trembling at the back of his throat, freshly brewed healing potions were already lined up neatly.
Their quality was exactly the same as those Leo had previously taken from the storeroom!
"Ribbit."
Thirty healing potions stood neatly in two rows. Lilith even had time to tidy the workbench, washing and putting away the various pieces of equipment before turning her bulging frog eyes toward Leo, who stood dumbstruck in the corner.
Those emotionless eyes were clearly saying things that made Leo blush and lower his head in shame.
Leo: "..."
Lilith was clearly a master potion brewer herself, yet he had actually underestimated her.
"Master Lilith, you like eating bugs, don't you? I can buy you the latest bug platter."
Leo could not see his own ingratiating expression, but he knew perfectly well that "flattery" was written across his left cheek, "bootlicker" across his right, and "please let me cling to your thigh" across his forehead.
"Ribbit."
At the mention of the latest bug platter, Leo saw a gleam appear in those bulging frog eyes, which had shown no other expression throughout their years of acquaintance.
Seeing this, Leo chuckled inwardly. He had not spent these past few years in vain. At least he knew a thing or two about Gavarci's and Lilith's preferences.
Bugs from myriad worlds were Lilith's favorite.
"Then how about teaching me to brew potions, Master Lilith? For every kind you teach me, I'll buy you ten platters."
Leo rubbed his hands together, looking every bit the shady middle-aged man tempting a little girl with a lollipop.
Leo had no choice. If he fumbled along without anyone teaching him, who knew when he would successfully brew his first potion? But with someone guiding him step by step, it would be like strapping rockets to his progress bar and sending it soaring!
Lilith nodded in a very human manner. "Ribbit."
"Then it's a deal."
Grinning, Leo walked over to the workbench, gently picked Lilith up, and placed her on his head.
His cheat was officially online!
Amid Lilith's croaks, he began his first attempt at brewing a potion.
Everything was moving in a good direction, but what Leo did not know was that just as he struck his bargain with Lilith, trading ten of the latest bug platters for the method of brewing one potion,
On the tower's fourth floor, Gavarci paused his work and narrowed his eyes, as though watching a wonderful stage play.
"Decent talent, and a strong thirst for the unknown. He's better suited to the path of an Elemental Wizard. What a pity."
Gavarci shook his head and sighed. There were many things beyond his control. He could only continue his work, carefully dripping a tube of blood into a culture dish and adding various high-grade materials.
On the fourth floor, where Leo had never been allowed to go, more than a hundred waist-high culture vessels could be seen, each containing a pulsating mass of blood.
At that moment, Gavarci tended these masses of blood with the same care he would give a newborn infant.
"Manager Skye, here are two hundred healing potions. Please take a look at their quality."
Only half a month had passed since Skye's last visit to the tower, yet Leo had already arrived at the Purple Golden Flower Store with two hundred potions.
"Brother Leo, the moment I first met you, I knew you were extraordinary. I've never seen an apprentice who's just started studying potioneering brew so many potions in a mere half month."
Skye made no effort to hide his surprise. Regardless of when Leo had begun brewing potions, the two hundred before him were unquestionably of above-average quality. These were not something an ordinary apprentice could brew.
"To support and encourage your success, Brother Leo, I'll add ten Wizard Coins to the purchase price of each potion. Don't call me stingy. This is the highest price I can offer."
"Of course not. Even a single Wizard Coin is support from you, Manager."
The corners of Leo's mouth kept twitching as he struggled to suppress a toothy grin.
I'm rich. I'm really rich.
"Two hundred healing potions comes to 82,000 Wizard Coins. Here you are."
Faced with the pile of Wizard Coins Skye handed over, Leo's heart betrayed him with several extra beats, and his breathing grew heavier.
The ingredients for two hundred healing potions cost only 30,000 Wizard Coins, or just 35,000 including wastage. The net profit had reached 47,000. Even after splitting it fifty-fifty with Master Gavarci, he would receive 23,500 Wizard Coins.
Earning 23,500 in half a month-what a windfall!
Although much of the credit belonged to Lilith. Without her, never mind profits-the cost of wasted ingredients alone would have far exceeded 82,000.
Not a single one of these two hundred potions had been completed by Leo alone.
Leo had talent, but not as much as he had imagined. His success depended entirely on the help of his cheat, Lilith.
For those ten bug platters, Lilith had spared no effort.
Ordinary Wizard Apprentices did not have such conditions when brewing their first potions: unlimited ingredients and hands-on instruction from a master-level teacher.
So Leo's success was merely a case of luck far outweighing ability.
But Leo happened to have those things: Gavarci's supplies and Lilith's dedicated instruction.
Leo firmly agreed that luck was also a form of strength.
23,500 Wizard Coins,
His first pot of gold,
True to his word, Leo first spent 10,000 Wizard Coins buying Lilith ten of the latest bug platters. Then, unsure what else to buy, he stuffed the remaining Wizard Coins into his Shadow Space and returned to Gavarci Tower, grinning foolishly the whole way.
"Lilith, look what I bought you!"
The moment he took out the ten latest bug platters, a black shadow swept past like the wind. In the blink of an eye, only ten plates polished to a shine remained before Leo, while sounds of swallowing continued to fill the laboratory.
"..."
Leo had intended to repeat Skye's sales pitch for the bug platters to make his own contribution sound more impressive. He had not expected Lilith to deny him even that opportunity, finishing all ten platters in one gulp.
"All right, then what potion are we brewing next?"
Opportunities to have a good teacher were rare. Especially after Leo had realized the principle of exchange underlying wizard civilization, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He would be doing himself a disservice if he did not squeeze every last skill out of Lilith.
Lilith: "Ribbit."
As Leo spent more and more time at the workbench, Lilith intervened less and less. Though the number of potions he brought to Skye's store was inconsistent, their quality varied, and the Wizard Coins in his Shadow Space accumulated more slowly, Leo felt deeply fulfilled and happy.
Because he had brewed all of these himself, without the slightest help from Lilith. This meant that even apart from Gavarci, he had the ability to brew potions independently.
Even if they were only a few of the simplest potions, Leo was still tremendously excited. Only from this moment on had he finally gained a foothold in the Wizard World. Even without anyone else's help, he would not starve.
Only what he had learned was truly his own.
Standing at the workbench, Leo felt that his future was bright!