"What if you...drink...it?" Mad Brewer Bawu's bulged out. "What if you drink it?!" she repeated in a stronger voice, almost shrieking towards the end. She stood taller, pulling her shoulders back, straightening her trembling legs and hunched spine.

Evil Grandma Bawu was front and center.

Technically, both Bawus were evil.

I'd even say Good Grandma Bawu was the more unhinged persona with her delusions of spreading happiness through her very questionable experiments. However, this Bawu talking to me sounded like a generic villain, not a gentle old lady who was coincidentally a psychopath, so she was the Evil Grandma.

She twirled her hands in apparent exasperation. "Are you serious with your idiotic question, youngling? Perhaps you want to reconsider it?"

"I’m serious. I was wondering what would happen if I drank it," I repeated. Let’s see how this goes.

SpartanDonkey's instructions on obtaining Bawu's Ocadules started with intentionally drinking a specific bottle at Healer Gula's shop—one of Bawu’s concoctions. After that, Gula would want to return all the dangerous potions Bawu left at her place to avoid any more mishaps.

I'd volunteer to deliver them to Bawu along with Gula's letter telling her that she should keep her stuff because some dumbass youngling might get ahold of them again. Then Bawu would take an interest in me after learning I drank one of her experimental brews. Her competitive side with her sister would show, and she'd make me a student after I proved myself worthy.

“Just follow the chain quest,” was what SpartanDonkey said. He assured me it would be straightforward after that. Unfortunately, or perhaps, fortunately, that wasn't what ended up happening.

It wasn't that SpartanDonkey tricked me. He didn't know about my Aritu Ocadule and Healer Gula's reaction to it. While I did fail to meet Bawu then, it confirmed that my secret was valuable—it had an impact on NPCs that even the Expeditionary Legion did not know of.

However, meeting Bawu because of this zombie outbreak incident drastically differed from SpartanDonkey's instructions. He didn't even mention the two personalities of Bawu. Did the Good and Evil Grandma Bawu appear only in this questline?

Swimming in uncharted territories, I was trying to find a way to obtain Bawu’s Ocadules while also doing this zombie outbreak chain quest.

My original plan was to play dumb about poisons. Good Grandma Bawu would pity my ignorance and teach me about them. If it worked out, I’d become her student, not a test subject. But even if I was no longer talking to Good Grandma Bawu, I decided to stick with my plan.

Evil Grandma Bawu’s default attitude was to look down on people, the village chief, and even her sister. And so, I was giving her someone to look down upon—me. A necessary sacrifice to keep her satisfied and feed her superiority complex. That was the path recommended by Herald Stone, the Superior Superiority Complex Expert.

"Have you no use for those ears on the sides of your head?” Bawu berated me. “I told you that if you forced others to drink the contents of that bottle, then they'd be poisoned. If you did the same yourself, you'd be poisoned as well. Why did you think a different outcome would happen to you?"

She knew what the other Bawu told me moments ago? It was interesting that they shared memories. But only to some extent was my hunch.

When I talked to Evil Bawu after I had awoken from getting knocked out by sleeping gas, she seemed to know what caused the outbreak. On the other hand, Good Grandma Bawu, who took over shortly afterward, had no clue what was happening. I could picture how the Blighted monsters escaped with the two personas not knowing what the other was doing and perhaps forgetting to lock a cage or the like.

I should be mindful of how I interacted with the two sides of Bawu. There might be different paths each provided.

"And if I get poisoned," I said, "I'd need an antidote, right?"

"That is your concern? Are you worried someone might poison you?" Bawu tutted at me while shaking her head. "Such trivialities pollute your meager mind. Youngling, no one is going to poison you. You're not important enough to be poisoned."

“No one is important enough to poison me,” I said. Only Herald Stone was worthy of poisoning Herald Stone.

"If someone wanted to eliminate a frivolous individual such as yourself,” continued Bawu. “I wouldn't recommend wasting a bottle of Nam-Go poison. It takes an inordinate amount of time to make. In an hour, I can concoct a brew from plants found only a fair stroll from the village gates that can make your muscles seize. With your body frozen, your chest and diaphragm paralyzed, you'll die from suffocation far quicker than ingesting Nam-Go poison."

I blinked several times before answering. "Wow...I did not expect the conversation to go this way. But that sounds like I should learn how to make antidotes. Who knows, I might accidentally drink the contents of this bottle you gave me?”

“And how would that come about?”

“Spill it on my sandwich, maybe? After all, I'm a...what was that again? A frivolous individual, something about trivialities polluting my mind."

“If that happens, you’d have accidentally found your death,” she said with an amused smile. “A foolish youngling, indeed.”

"It's not the first time I've drunk something I shouldn't have." It was time to deploy my hook. I narrated to her how I downed the unknown contents of a particular bottle stored by her sister and was poisoned as a result. I was trying to swerve back to the questline SpartanDonkey told me about. “I was lucky that Healer Gula was there to give me an antidote.”

“Antidote? Ignorant youngling, you are mistaken. My sister neither brews nor stores poisons. An overdose of her healing concoctions is a likelier case, oh careless youngling. She gave you the appropriate medication—not an antidote.”

I was sure it was poison because the notification back then told me so. But I couldn’t say that to Bawu. I didn’t have that bottle with me either. Gula immediately sent me off to warn her sister about the havoc her experiments caused and forgot to give me Bawu’s left-behind potions to bring along.

Well, that was my fault for not bringing them up. They sort of slipped my mind in my excitement of finding a way to meet Bawu. I’d offer to retrieve them later to show my trustworthiness.

To prove that I drank poison at Healer Gula’s shop, I described what the bottle looked like. I’m sure Bawu will recognize it.

“A bottle in the shape of a Mardukryon skull…familiar, familiar. But I have seen many bottles in my lifetime,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Perchance, did my little sister say where she got it from?”

“I think she mentioned that you made it,” I slowly replied, hoping this would work.

“Perhaps that is so. My memory isn’t what it used to be,” she said with a nonchalant shrug. “The ancestors must’ve been watching over you that day. If not for my sister giving you the antidote, you would’ve died right there. I cannot believe I'm relying on the help of such an incautious youngling. But I must if I were to clean my laboratories and set everything in order quickly. Complete the next tasks I give, and generous rewards will be yours if you’re thorough with your work."

[ Quest: Clearing Operations II ]

Mad Brewer Bawu is beginning to recognize the value of your help. For your next task, eliminate the Blighted along the tunnels leading to the main paths used by the villagers. Make haste before innocent Mardukryons fall prey to them.

“Make haste?” I said as I read the quest that popped up. I didn’t accept it just yet. “Is this a time-bound quest? Or is that last line for dramatic effect? It doesn’t say—wait a moment, Brewer Bawu! I wasn’t done talking about that time I got poisoned.”

“You must also assist me in collecting samples,” Bawu commanded. “The Blight I engineered is evolving at a rapid pace, and I must study it as soon as possible!”

[ Quest: Scraping for Samples I ]

Assist Mad Brewer Bawu in progressing her experiments by collecting the materials she requires. Collect two hundred (200) [Toxic Goop] and bring them to her as soon as possible. Take care of the Blight when gathering dangerous samples.

“But the poison you left with your sister…” I started to say, ignoring the notifications in front of my face. Did I need to bring those bottles back from Gula’s store to trigger the quest? Did I need a different letter from Gula? The one I had now only talked about Bawu’s experiments.

Or was this a hopeless cause? Bawu wouldn’t care about her concoctions from, perhaps, years ago. The Blighted monster outbreak was her focus. If this didn’t happen, she’d have paid more attention to lesser matters like her old brews poisoning me.

“Do my bidding,” she boomed, stretching her arm out over my head, “and you will be rewarded handsomely! If not…you are aware I have poisons at my disposal. Tread carefully and let not failure be an outcome. My sister is not here to feed you an antidote and snatch you away from the jaws of death again.”

“Death?” A spark of inspiration hit me. “You’re mistaken, Brewer Bawu. I’m thankful for Healer Gula’s assistance, but I would've been fine even if she didn’t give me an antidote.”

“What is this nonsense you speak?” Bawu angrily demanded. The Carrion Golem and Chimera Borpillar uneasily shifted, responding to her agitation.

“I’m saying I wouldn’t have died from that poison inside the Mardukryon skull bottle. The one you made?” Holding up the Nam-Go poison bottle, I added, “And I don’t think I’d die from this either.”

“Preposterous! Ignorant bravado caused by the recklessness of youth. Be grateful I have need of your help. Otherwise, I would’ve—”

“There’s an easy way to test my claim.” I pulled the cork lodged in the mouth of the snake-shaped bottle. A small puff of smoke rose as I opened it.

The system prompted me to choose the equipment to coat with it. Pieces of my armor and shield were valid choices; retribution might actually work in applying it to enemies. I didn’t choose any of them. Instead, I drank the bottle.

“Youngling! Have you gone insane?”

[ Status | Nam-Go Poisoning: Lose 2% of Max Health every second, Reduced Armor and Health Regeneration by 10% for 10 minutes ]

“Nope. Just having a nice refreshing drink of death.”

She placed her palm on her face and groaned. “Saving you is more trouble than it’s worth. I can’t be bothered to rummage through my stores to find the antidote.”

“Don’t worry about it, Brewer Bawu.” I waved my arms and pranced a little. “Healthy as a horse, or a bull…or a Mardukryon. The poison barely has any effect on me.” Percentage damage tickled me because I had very low base health while my health regeneration was monstrous in proportion. Bawu would consider this a challenge, maybe even an insult to her.

Her hand on her face suddenly balled into a fist. It shook in rage as she narrowed her eyes. “How dare you say that my poisons are ineffective!”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all. They are very effective. I’m just resistant to them. I bet if I also drink that poison inside the Mardukryon skull bottle, it wouldn’t do anything.” Which was true. The other poison dealt damage only as a percentage of current health—I’d never die from it.

“We’ll test your claims.” Furiously, she turned her back on me and stormed to the exit. “I will return with more poisons.”

“What happened to the clearing of the tunnels and collecting samples?”

“More poisons!”