Chapter 29 | Survival for All: The Tower Witch with E-Rank Talent

That was right—an alchemist's own method of differentiation was to look at the ingredients.

If anything other than plants was added during the brewing process—be it insects, other living organisms, or even the blood of magic beasts...

Have no doubt, my friend: that is one hundred percent a magic potion.

Lan Qingyou had collected these earthworms while out gathering herbs over the past few days.

Besides centipedes, she had collected quite a few other good things, such as green-eyed frogs, amplification bats, red-stone rats, withered-wood snakes, stone-niter leeches, fire ants, and saw-grass bugs.

To be honest, Lan Qingyou had found it disgusting at first.

But as a novice alchemist who was desperately short on materials, she didn't have the luxury of being picky. If she encountered it, it was fate, and she had to collect it.

Leaving them behind would be an insult to the great Master Albert and a desecration of alchemy itself.

These items were currently drying on the second-floor terrace. In another two days, they would be dry enough to be ground into powder for storage.

Because of the 'Supreme Rules,' she had been collecting them stealthily and hadn't put them out in the open.

But now that she needed to craft a magic potion, she had no choice but to bring them out.

There were two ways to use centipedes in alchemy: one was to add them whole, as she was doing now, and the other was to grind them into powder after they died.

The two methods had different effects and uses, and the resulting magic potions would differ accordingly.

This time, Lan Qingyou was focused on lowering the target's attributes.

Pay attention, class; this will be on the test—Master Albert's orders.

She kept busy like this until the afternoon, when Lan Qingyou finally finished crafting today's batch of potions.

Because she wasn't using those enamel mugs anymore, she wasn't quite as frantic as she had been yesterday.

After letting the mixture cool and settle, Lan Qingyou began bottling them.

【Apprentice-level Magic Potion: Slow (E)】

【Effect: Upon hitting an enemy, the magic potion bursts into a mist that adheres to the enemy's skin, reducing their agility by 3 points for 10 seconds.】

【Description: 3 points of agility isn't a little, and 6 points isn't a lot. Let your enemies taste the sensation of an instant brake!】

Lan Qingyou nodded in satisfaction as she looked at the stats of the Slow Potion.

With this magic potion, she at least had a chance of escaping in a dire situation.

Don't be fooled by the fact that a standard apprentice-level Slow Potion only reduced agility by 3 points, making it seem insignificant.

You had to realize that the limit for a human from Blue Star was only 10 points of agility.

Even if she was unlucky enough to encounter a superhuman with maxed-out agility, a 3-point reduction would be enough to make them pull a literal face-plant.

Think about it.

Someone accustomed to moving at high speeds would always need a moment to adjust if their speed was suddenly and uncontrollably reduced. Even if it was only for a few short seconds.

And those few seconds of adjustment would be the perfect moment for her to flee or counterattack.

Of course, all of this was predicated on Lan Qingyou actually being able to hit the target.

However, she wasn't worried about that part.

With a pot yielding 200 doses, if she threw them all at once, one was bound to hit. And she wouldn't even feel the sting of the loss.

After all, this was for survival. Why worry about the cost when your life was on the line? Her bros in the chat would have done the same.

As for whether the person using the magic potion would be in danger...

She didn't know about others, but Lan Qingyou knew for certain that she would be fine.

Honestly, Lan Qingyou felt she still had too few materials.

Each of the snakes, insects, rats, and ants she had mentioned earlier could actually be used to make magic potions that were even more useful to her than earthworms—or rather, the Slow Potion.

Unfortunately, she didn't have enough of them to brew a whole pot.

Brewing small, individual doses was impossible without the right tools and would be quite wasteful.

That was why Lan Qingyou chose the Slow Potion, something she could mass-produce all at once.

These were all decisions she had made after deep deliberation.

She was self-aware; she knew her own limits and didn't expect more from herself. Therefore, she had to—and could only—win through sheer quantity.

After bottling all the life-saving magic potions, Lan Qingyou began cleaning her tools.

Once that was done, she started filtering and bottling the Healing Potions.

【Crude Healing Potion (E-)】

【Effect: Restores 3 health points per second for 10 seconds.】

【Description: A barely usable healing potion. Does anyone actually need this kind of thing?】

"Yes, they do! Why wouldn't they? Plenty of people will want it!"

Lan Qingyou talked back to the appraisal description.

Even though it only restored 30+ health points over ten seconds—which was 20+ less than the apprentice-level version—Lan Qingyou guaranteed that many people would need it.

After all, some people had complained that they had no use for a +50 mana potion earlier. A +50 health potion would surely be less popular than a +30 one for people like her, who only had 20 health points in total; using a +30 one was already a bit wasteful.

So, even if they were +30 health potions made in a stockpot, Lan Qingyou wasn't worried about them selling.

Two hundred bottles of +30 health Crude Healing Potions and two hundred bottles of +30 mana Crude Mana Potions. Lan Qingyou only kept 10 healing potions for herself before contacting Shang Chuan.

It was past five in the afternoon, which was roughly the time when everyone out hunting and gathering returned to their shelters. It was also Shang Chuan's busiest time.

While people did return occasionally during the noon hour, most chose to fight outside all day. Or, if they had too many materials, they would return once to drop them off and then head back out. Very few people stopped to browse the Regional Exchange.

Unless, of course, they had found something good.

He wasn't sure about other districts, but in District 666, because Lan Qingyou had tied the price of base materials to mana, prices had remained relatively stable—even the black market prices were steady.

For a merchant, this was a godsend. It allowed him to predict his business environment more accurately and reduce risks.

However, Shang Chuan was a bit restless today.

He sat at his magic desk, his hands operating the Regional Exchange interface on the screen. Everything looked normal, but the way his eyes frequently darted to his friends list and his leg tapped under the desk showed that he was far from calm.

It was almost six o'clock, and there was still no word from Lan Qingyou.

While he didn't think Lan Qingyou would run off, several thousand units of materials were at stake, plus the hundred-potion commission. As time passed, his anxiety only grew.