There was a lot of content in the manual. The first thing Heath wanted to achieve was one of the potions: Pure White Potion.

This kind of potion belonged to the advanced Apprentice level, which was higher than Heath's current level.

However, potions were the same as defensive spells and magic arrays. What was important was the knowledge and foundation. As for strength, it was enough as long as they were at the same level.

As for knowledge, Heath was already more than enough.

...

Sizzle! Sizzle!

The suet candle was sizzling and burning. The flickering flame illuminated the scene in the dark cellar.

In front of the long wooden table, Heath was busy.

At one end of the wooden table, there was a strange creature that looked like a human. It was the Forest Banshee.

On the other side were beakers, alcohol lamps, test tubes, and other glassware, iron cages that contained small animals, and a black pot with an iron rack. From time to time, some strange substances such as lizard legs and eyeballs would roll in the boiling water.

In front of the black pot, Heath held the magic notes he had written in one hand and continued to add materials into the pot.

"Two lizard legs... an old tree root... and a gray mouse..."

Heath opened an iron cage and caught a gray mouse from inside. He lifted the tail and placed it on the top of the boiling black pot. The gray mouse fell into the boiling water and disappeared with a splash.

"Finally, it's time for the incantation..."

Putting down the notebook, Heath picked up a long wooden spoon with one hand and put it into the black pot to stir. He placed the other hand on top of the black pot and chanted the incantation.

As the incantation was chanted, the boiling water in the black pot suddenly changed color, from white to blue, and then to green.

A thick white mist rose above the liquid, like evaporated dry ice.

This continued for a while...

Bang!

The flame under the black pot was suddenly extinguished.

At this time, the pile of things in the black pot had disappeared, leaving only a small, sticky, silver-gray liquid. It had a metallic texture, like mercury.

Heath grabbed a beaker and poured the liquid inside. Then, he took a few test tubes containing various liquids from the wooden shelf next to him, poured the liquid into it, and shook it gently.

A strange scene appeared as the beaker shook.

A human face appeared on the surface of the liquid. It looked like it had encountered something terrible. It was howling with its mouth open. Its face was very distorted and its voice was extremely mournful.

This continued for a while before the medicinal liquid returned to its calm state.

Heath shook it slightly again. The originally mercury-colored medicinal liquid suddenly began to turn pure white. Soon, it became like milk.

At the same time, a trace of joy flashed across Heath's face.

"Pure White Potion, success!"

It wasn't over yet, he still needed to verify it.

Then, he grabbed a white mouse from the cage, fed it a bit of the potion, and then put it back into the cage to quietly observe.

After drinking the potion, the white mouse seemed to have been injected with chicken blood, jumping and running in the cage, full of vitality.

However, not long after, suddenly...

"Squeak!"

A shrill squeak sounded.

The little white mouse's body actually aged at an extremely fast speed. Its fur fell off, and its skin dried up. Soon, it died of old age in the cage.

Heath opened his mouth, feeling goosebumps all over his body.

If it had been him who drank the potion and not the white mouse, then the consequences would be self-evident.

"The path of Wizards is indeed dangerous..."

Heath took a deep breath.

Then, he took out the dead mouse, took out a pen and paper, and began to analyze what the problem was...

In the next few days, Heath stayed in the laboratory and worked hard for the Pure White Potion.

Failure, analysis, conclusion, preparation, failure, re-analysis, re-conclusion, re-preparation... This process was repeated continuously.

The preparation of potions was a very complicated project. There was no saying that it could be completed in one go. Even if the system could help heath quickly grasp the knowledge in it, he still needed to accumulate and explore the digestion and experience by himself.

In the process of failure again and again, Heath gradually eliminated one mistake after another and gradually approached success.

Finally, after a week of failure, success finally came.

Looking at the little white mouse in the cage that was obviously more energetic after drinking the potion without any side effects, Heath let out a long sigh of relief in his heart.

"It's really not easy..."

For this potion, Heath did not know how many times he had failed, and a lot of the Forest Banshee had been used up.

Yes, the main ingredient of the Pure White Potion was the Forest Banshee. This was also the main reason why Heath had been so persistent about it.

It was also worth mentioning that using the heart of a pure girl could replace the Forest Banshee. Viscount Leicester had murdered a girl for this potion.

However, the effect of the heart of a virgin girl was not good. Moreover, out of a disagreement with his worldview, Heath had subconsciously ruled out this kind of material.

He was not sure if he would become like other Wizards in the future, but for now, he still retained his human nature... It was too strong and he could not accept it for the time being.

Ding!

The glass test tube hit the metal rack.

Heath picked up the Pure White Potion and drank it.

[Beep, vitality increased.]

[Beep, vitality increased.]

[Beep, vitality increased...]

The system notifications kept ringing in his ears. Heath could clearly feel waves of strange energy surging into his body. His body was unprecedentedly full of vitality.

After the energy calmed down, Heath looked at the data panel.

[Vitality: 73.]

Previously, it was 68. Now, it was 73. It had increased by 5 points, which meant that it had increased its lifespan by 5 years.

73 years...

As a human, this could be considered a long life. However, as a Wizard, this little lifespan was nothing. For those powerful beings, even one meditation, solving a formula, or one experiment was not enough.

Not to mention the sky, land, and sea. They traveled all over the world and saw countless sceneries.

"Take it slow. At least this is a good start."

Heath silently encouraged himself.

Then, he picked up the quill and notebook and began to organize the next spell on the Life Refining Guide.

The Pure White Potion was only one kind of potion on the Life Refining Guide. Its content occupied less than 1% of the entire guide, and even the Apprentice chapter's content was less than 5%.

Heath planned to study all the contents of the Apprentice chapters in this half a year, and dig his life force to the limit during his Apprentice period.

Since he had already started, there was no reason to stop...

...

More than a month later, at Heath Manor.

At noon, Heath had just finished an experiment.

The progress of studying the Life Refining Guide was much faster than Heath had expected. In just over a month's time, Heath had already figured out the above-mentioned potions and spells that could increase life force.

His life force had also experienced a significant increase:

[Vitality: 128.]

There were still a few bottles of potions that would only be effective after long-term consumption. Heath calculated that he could reach the limit of 150 years before returning to the Shadow Tower.

The life refining had temporarily come to an end. Next, he planned to start the next project: spell model.

That day, he had obtained the complete set of knowledge of the Hardening spell model in the forest. Although the other party had left behind a spell model in the forest, the core was still the combination and arrangement of runes, formulas, and elements.

Heath wanted to see if he could use them to combine with the spells he had learned so far to create a new spell model. That way, he would be able to greatly increase his own strength.

After all, this was a genuine intermediate Apprentice-level spell. It was a level higher than the spells he had mastered so far.

Although there was only a word difference between intermediate and low-level, the amount of energy that could be mobilized between the two and the amount of elements involved was extremely huge.

Just look at that day in the forest. After taking Heath's sword head-on, the oak tree did not move at all. Not even a trace was left behind.

One had to know that Heath was now a peak Knight with a strength coefficient of more than 15. With one sword strike, he could blast a big hole in the city wall, but the oak tree that had been hardened was unharmed. This showed how powerful this spell was.

'Let's start after two days of rest.' Rubbing his temples, Heath silently decided.

He had been conducting high-intensity experiments for the past two days and was indeed a little tired.

At this moment, the maid, Aisha, walked over. "My Lord, the Count has sent a letter. He wants to invite you for afternoon tea. May I know when you are free recently?"

In the past month, the Count had sent people to meet Heath several times, but they were all rejected by Heath because he was busy with his experiments.

Now that the experiment had come to an end, Heath was about to relax. He nodded and said, "Sure, let's do it this afternoon."

According to the protocol, the meeting time should be the day after the invitation was issued. It was very rude to make such an agreement on the same day.

However, the Count still came, so he declined all the arrangements for that day.

Afternoon, in the garden.

When the Count arrived, Heath was practicing his sword in the garden. Seeing this, he did not disturb him, but sat down in front of the round wooden table at the side.

Heath did not notice the Count's arrival until the servant reminded him, so he stopped the training. He took out a towel to wipe the sweat on his body and walked over with his collar open.

"Long time no see, Count."

"Long time no see, Sir Wizard."

After a simple greeting, Count Kroya laughed. "I didn't expect you to master such excellent swordsmanship at such a young age, Sir Wizard. I think you have the strength of an intermediate-rank Knight!"

Count Kroya was actually complimenting Heath.

After all, in theory, for Heath to be able to have the strength of a Knight at his age was already a genuine talent. Deliberately saying that he was one rank higher was a happy thing no matter how one looked at it.

But what he did not know was...

[Attributes: Strength 15.8, Agility 16.6, Vitality 15.1]

If the three attributes exceeded 12, he would be considered an advanced Knight, and if he reached 15, he would be considered a peak Knight!

Heath had now reached the level of a peak Knight and was not far away from becoming a Grand Knight...