Chapter 102

Brewing an Ancient Potion

"Ancient Medicine: Tears of Mary formula. Begin the 1,312,933rd drug simulation!"

Leylin had received 2 sheets of medicinal formulas from Professor Kroft. One of them was about the Azure Potion, for which he had found substitute ingredients that had helped him reach his current level.

The other one, Tears of Mary, involved the concepts from his soul research. This had left Leylin at a loss as to how he should proceed.

Afterwards, with the observations from the bulk experiments at Extreme Night City, Leylin had gathered vast amounts of data regarding souls, and was thus pushing for the analysis of the formula of the ancient drug, Tears of Mary.

Finally, after having obtained the Grine Water, the A.I. Chip had performed reverse engineering to find out the refining process of the Grine Water, and had eventually overcome the last obstacle in concocting the Tears of Mary.

However, to Leylin's dismay, he found that some of the steps in the formula for the Tears of Mary could only be completed by an official Magus!

Moreover, many of the processes required huge reserves of spiritual force that was at least at the level of an official Magus.

This situation proved that Leylin's prior guess was correct — the Tears of Mary was definitely the secret formula for the ancient Magi to increase their spiritual force!

Thus, Leylin's eagerness to successfully configure the Tears of Mary was reinforced.

His spiritual force had not increased over a long period of time.

His body had developed a complete resistance to the modified Azure Potion, so even if he were to drink more of the potion, his spiritual force would not increase even a little bit.

Also, after having increased his spiritual force using medicine, trying to increase it using his regular meditation technique was something he couldn't endure because the rate of increase was similar to a tortoise's pace.

His current spiritual force was just not quite enough to be able to break through the boundary to become an official Magus.

According to the A.I. Chip's calculations and his own estimation, with his regular meditation, it would take him several years to become an official Magus!

Leylin could not wait that long, hence he brewed a new type of potion. Apart from that, he had been collecting other formulas all the while.

Other ancient potion formulas were mostly controlled by the official Magi. Leylin did not have many treasured ingredients with him that he could exchange for, and did not wish to draw too much attention to himself..

Moreover, compared to simulating and brewing an entire new formula, more than half of the formula for the Tears of Mary was solved so it was the better choice.

Leylin boldly replaced a few brewing processes that could only be executed by an official Magus into one that was suited for a level 3 acolyte to brew with.

After tens of thousands of modifications, together with the A.I. Chip's millions of simulations, Leylin's experiment now was very close to succeeding.

"First of all, I need the basic material for the formula, a female vengeful spirit!."

From the corner of his experiment desk, Leylin picked up a brand new Confining Spirit Sphere. Within it was a woman wearing a red gown, and looking at Leylin with an expression of fright.

The energy waves emitted from this female vengeful spirit which was not even close to those of Roman, who was only a level 1 acolyte.

After most of the acolytes in the academy had perished, it was the golden age of self-development for the surviving acolytes.

Originally, the resources for the acolytes in the academy had been for a thousand acolytes, but now, they had all been released for these 50 remaining acolytes.

Furthermore, the prices of all ingredients and spell models had been marked down drastically compared to the time before the bloodbath.

For example, a vengeful spirit was originally a rare commodity in the market. Once they had been seen on the market, they would have been bought immediately by acolytes, and the prices could have been up to 500 magic crystals.

As for now, Leylin went to the counter to look at the price, and bought it immediately. His expenditure did not even amount to 100 magic crystals!

Of course, this was a disguised reward from the academy to the survivors!

This situation continued all the way until the next batch of recruits.

However, in this discounted sale, Leylin quickly threw away the notion of reselling at a high price outside. The academy had long since forbidden this. If they were caught, the circumstances would be severe.

Leylin made use of this opportunity, and spent half of his magic crystals savings, buying a large amount of resources and strange spell models.

The female vengeful spirit in the Confining Spirit Sphere had long, silver hair; dark blue eyes; and soft, moistened lips. She also had a slender waist and long legs. When she was alive, she would have definitely been an outstanding woman who drove men crazy!

"What a pity!"

Leylin sighed, yet his hand continued to move and dropped a silver liquid onto the Confining Spirit Sphere.

This was the "Dissolving Spirit Potion". Back when Leylin had specially prepared it for Roman, with only a few drops, Roman would have definitely been shrieking for half a day, and even sustain a severe injury.

As of now, the remainder was used by Leylin here.

"Ah... It hurts! Please... I beg you! No...!"

The vengeful spirit continued to wail from within the crystal ball. Towards such an extraordinary woman, any man would have at least hesitated deep down within their heart.

However, Leylin's brows had not furrowed the slightest as he continued the movement with his hands.

As more of the Dissolving Spirit Potion was used, the pleading of the female vengeful spirit was becoming more and more muffled. Even her red robes were slowly dissolving, revealing an illusory, and yet alluring glowing skin.

"You want to entice me?" Looking at this scene, Leylin's lips curled up in ridicule.

"Vengeful spirit! Reveal your original ugly form!" Leylin raised a finger with a large, black needle protruding from the nail.

* Sssii! *

The black long needle pierced through the crystal ball, and directly into the chest of the female vengeful spirit.

"Argh!" The female vengeful spirit let off a hair-raising scream, and her body became blurry. Once she could be seen again, the vengeful spirit that was in front of Leylin's eyes had taken on a completely different form.

The face was filled with scales and wrinkles, and the orifices seemed to be misaligned, as though someone had casually attached them to her face. There were a few strands of green hair on the sides of her bald head.

The mouth opened and closed, and razor sharp teeth could be seen. From time to time, a disgusting, viscous liquid could be seen dripping from her scarlet tongue.

"Ao!"

The female vengeful spirit's eyes contained a greed that could rip people apart. She stared intently at Leylin as if wanting to gobble him down immediately.

"Your outer appearance and inner self are ugly throughout!"

......

Leylin mocked her and laughed, before drawing another mysterious magic rune...

The experiment lasted for over a dozen hours and continued the way until the second day before the end was near.

Inside the experiment lab.

Inside a scarlet pentagonal formation, a naked body with bumps through could be seen. The beautiful face of the female vengeful spirit had been tied down by a metal chain, trapped within the spell formation.

At this moment, although the female vengeful spirit looked to be phantom, as if disappearing in the next moment, her face no longer had the craze and hate from before. Instead, there was a shy expression on it.

Combining with the binding of the metal chains, it even creates a sadomasochistic desire!

Leylin looked at the naked woman in front of him, his face revealing a satisfied expression. "After a long day, I have finally removed all of the grievances from it!"

"Thank you! Young man! However, could you release me and give me some clothes to wear?"

The woman spoke within the formation, her voice as delightful as a black-naped oriole bird.

"Are you joking? I spent so much effort to release you from your grievance, not for some gratification!"

After hearing Leylin's words, the female vengeful spirit suddenly felt that a calamity was looming over her.

Disturbed, crazed and pondering expressions flashed through Leylin's face. Finally, they all uniformed into only one expression—Apathy! Indifference towards everything!

......

A few hours passed.

At this moment, there was a chill permeating the experiment lab.

One could almost hear the wails of vengeful spirits within these four walls.

As for the female vengeful spirit in front of Leylin, it had almost lost its human appearance.

"The last step!" Leylin picked up a silver fork and pierced the female vengeful spirit's head through the eyes.

"Pu!"

As if made from some special materials, the silver fork directly pierced through the female vengeful spirit's eyeball.

"Hehe!" The female vengeful spirit squirmed and screamed like a wild beast, as if without a tongue.

After the fork had pierced the eyeball, the face of the female vengeful spirit could barely be made out. Two trickles of blood tears flowed down.

"This is the ancient potion—Tears of Mary?"

Leylin raised his hand, dripping a few drops of blood in his hands.

An icy cold and viscous sensation was felt.

"The spirit is an illusory thing. As for me, I could actually come in contact with a spirit's tears, what a wonder...."

Leylin muttered as he smeared the red potion on his eyes.

* Bang! *

An extremely spicy sensation travelled from Leylin's eyes, causing immense pain.

Red! His vision could only see the colour red!"

There seemed to be a woman's voice sounding inside his brain as if narrating something. The voice gradually grew louder and louder.

Finally, Leylin could only grab his head and head-butt viciously against the wall, to ease this symptom.

The A.I. Chip's indicator appeared in front of Leylin.

[Subject underwent an unknown effect. spiritual force increased. Currently, it is 14.3....]

The data that represented Leylin's spiritual force continuously increased.

14.8

15.3

15.8

16.1

The number which represented the spiritual force continuously rose, finally stopping at the number 16.1.

"Hu... It has finally passed!"

Leylin rubbed his temples firmly, as he inhaled a lungful of cold air.

"Although it's very painful, the side effects are not too much..."

Before he could finish speaking, Leylin discovered that there was a thin layer of mist in the surroundings.

A flash of red colour robes streaked past in the room.

Leylin wanted to move, yet the air seemed to be extremely muddy like starch paste. Any movement would be difficult to execute!

Finally, the owner of the red robes appeared in front of Leylin — the vengeful spirit!

At this moment, more than half of the vengeful spirit's head had dissolved.

"If it was another time! Such an attack!"

Leylin was extremely unwilling, but he was still struck in the chest by that claw.

An icy cold chill started to spread from his chest.

Chapter 103

A Meeting

The vengeful spirit wearing red robes continuously attacked, clawing strips of flesh off of Leylin's body.

Leylin's expression of anger turned into indifference.

A few minutes later, he opened his mouth with difficulty, "Gurisasi ~ duoluxian!"

A dark-green flame burned on Leylin's body, setting everything in the experiment lab ablaze....

"Hu..."

After the dark-green flame was extinguished, Leylin recovered his mobility.

At this moment, he finally had enough strength to look around at his surroundings.

The experiment lab was the same as before, all apparatus lying neatly in their original position.

As for the pentagon formation, it had lost all of its light, and the vengeful spirit was nowhere to be found.

On Leylin, there were no traces of injuries, yet his expression did not seem well.

It was because different indicators flashed from the A.I. Chip:

[Host has suffered from an unknown forcefield attack, determined from the database to be caused by a vengeful spirit! vitality decreased by 0.1]

[Host has suffered from an unknown forcefield attack, determined from the database to be caused by a vengeful spirit! vitality decreased by 0.1]

[Host has suffered from an unknown forcefield attack, determined from the database to be caused by a vengeful spirit! vitality decreased by 0.1]

After 3 indications, Leylin's face looked even more awful, "A.I. Chip, show me my current status!"

[Beep! Leylin Farlier. Level 3 acolyte, Knight. Strength: 3.1, Agility: 3.3, Vitality: 3.4, Spiritual force: 16.1, Magic power: 16 (magic power is in synchronisation with Spiritual Force). Status: Healthy]

After the upgrade from using Tears of Mary, Leylin's Spiritual Force reached 16.1. However, his vitality decreased by 0.3. Clearly, this was caused by the attack of the vengeful spirit.

"As expected, an ancient potion's formulary cannot be modified so easily!"

Leylin sighed. He acted on his own initiative, changing many processes of the formulary, thus causing such an outcome.

"However, this decrease in vitality, compared to the increase in Spiritual Force, shows the value of this potion!"

Leylin was certain of his modified formulary for the ancient potion, Tears of Mary.

"Ancient potion - Tears of Mary modification successful, Host to give a name!"

The A.I. Chip's voice intoned.

"Blood Vengeance Potion!" Leylin thought of the final, flash of red, blurting out the name.

Although this potion requires a vengeful spirit as an ingredient, which was somewhat cruel, it was a potion that was hard to come by!

A single use could raise Spiritual Force by 3 points! The only minor backlash was : it was on the same level as the Azure Potion that Leylin had modified before.

As for the formulation process of this potion, it was somewhat ruthless. However, Leylin did not bother about it.

For Leylin, carrying out ruthless actions and even killing people, was well within reason when in the face of benefits!

People who only kill for joy were mental and inhumane.

In his previous world, the environment was peaceful, so naturally he had also advocated peace then.

However, in the Magus World, war was everywhere. Deaths occurred daily. The plebeians who faced dawn did not know if they would be alive to see the sun set.

The law of the jungle and survival of the fittest were proclaimed explicitly by various powerful guilds and organisations.

After coming to this world, Leylin followed 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do' and this became a completely egotistical person.

As long as this potion was beneficial and did not cause him much hassle, he would not hesitate to create more of it!

"This is the feeling of achieving 16 Spiritual Force, huh? How amazing!"

Leylin shut his eyes, feeling the difference this increase brought him.

Under his control, the Spiritual Force seemed to be a silver thread as it swept past every item in the room. Moreover, each of the item's physical shape was perceived within Leylin's mind.

For regular acolytes, this was an extremely fresh feeling. However, Leylin saw that after a certain standard was achieved in Spiritual Force, it had a scanning effect similar to that of the A.I. Chip!

"This effect, if mastered properly, could discover a majority of ambushes, never having to fear for another sneak attack!"

Leylin appreciated the wondrous use of the Spiritual Force.

"It's a pity, however. For me, this is not as useful as the A.I. Chip!"

In his sea of consciousness, waves of Spiritual Force constantly surged at the borders, continuously expanding the area of the sea.

"Only that this external change is too obvious!"

Leylin picked up a bronze mirror. On the screen of the bronze mirror, a brown-haired youthful countenance was reflected. However, a pair of gleaming eyes flashed like diamonds in the night.

Normally, the upper limits of Spiritual Force for level 3 acolytes were 15, yet Leylin far exceeded this figure.

Moreover, when level 3 acolytes were about to breakthrough into an official Magus, their eyes would often show unusual signs of attraction.

That was the result of the boundless expansion in their massive sea of consciousness.

However, for Leylin, this was not good news. To others, he was just a newly advanced level 3 acolyte, yet now he exceeded those limits, this would bring about curiosity and suspicion from others.

If it was some regular acolyte, Leylin wasn't too afraid. But if an official Magus required him to cooperate for questioning, then Leylin would meet with some trouble.

After all, Leylin had no confidence against official Magus since the A.I. Chip could not detect them.

"I can only conceal this for the time being!"

Leylin chanted a short incantation.

Creaking and cracking noises resounded on his face and his eyes dimmed, no longer radiating light.

This was a simple use of the Shapeshifting spell—the ability to modify facial features.

Many female official Magus would obtain such a spell and cast it on their faces, achieving a beautification effect.

"I hope this can conceal my presence for the time being!" Leylin was not confident.

After several modifications of the Shapeshifting spell by the A.I. Chip, level 3 acolytes would not be able to discover this.

However, Leylin was completely unsure if he could face an official Magus

If they just walked past him, they may not notice his concealment. As long as they did not use any detection spells, he should be able to mask it.

Deep down in his heart, Leylin had already decided. After travelling around the Poolfield Kingdom and discovering the vestige traces, he would set off to Zither Moon Mountain Plains in search of the remnants of the great Magus Serholm.

In any case, Leylin had expressed his interest to Kroft for wanting to travel, so suggesting it not did not seem too abrupt.

After making some arrangements, Leylin rubbed his rumbling stomach, giving a wry smile. His experiment had already extended over a day's worth of time.

No matter how high his vitality was, he was still a mortal, unable to escape from the laws of nature. Hence, there were symptoms of hunger.

Although he could replenish his strength with potions, Leylin still felt nauseous. Moreover, if the circumstances allowed for a better option, he would not mistreat himself.

Since the academy had a restaurant, why waste a potion?

Leylin cleaned up and opened his dorm's door.