Chapter 82: Materials Complete

Chapter Eighty-Two
Materials Complete

In Audrey’s mind, there had always been a latent understanding:

Seven-Colored Lizard Dragon = the pituitary gland of a Seven-Colored Lizard Dragon = a palm-sized Beyonder material with a soft, ridged surface, constantly shifting colors.

So what did that have to do with the gigantic creatures before her, each three meters long and nearly knee-high?

For a moment, she was somewhat dazed. Only after hearing Susie’s bark did she come back to herself. Pretending to be satisfied, she said to the butler, “These are precisely the animal specimens I need.

“Hm… They are merely a little larger than I imagined. Just a little.

“Lead the servants and move them to the warehouse. I will study them when I have free time.”

“Yes, Miss!”

The butler immediately instructed the surrounding male servants, who were secretly glancing at their mistress, to work.

Audrey looked around once, said nothing more, and led Susie into the study of the estate’s main house. Using the excuse that she needed to focus on writing a reply to her brother, she left all the maids she had brought outside.

Once they are dissected, they will become two pituitary glands from Seven-Colored Lizard Dragons… One can be exchanged for Farsman Rabbit spinal fluid, which will be just enough to brew a bottle of Telepathist potion…

Audrey gradually shook off the astonishment and confusion from moments earlier and began thinking about how to help Susie advance.

At that moment, she remembered a serious problem.

She did not know whether Susie had fully digested the potion!

If she has not completely digested it, then drinking the Telepathist potion can easily cause loss of control… She is not like a human. She cannot forcibly endure it. Wait—she did force herself through it the first time! And her intelligence now should not be worse than a child of around ten. She is already learning Loen words. She says she wants to read newspapers, magazines, and books…

Audrey was silent for several seconds, then glanced at the golden retriever crouching beside her with no idea what was going on.

“Susie, have you completely digested the potion?”

“Digested?”

Susie asked back in perfectly articulated confusion.

Audrey had already told her that what she had taken before was a potion, and had instructed her not to tell anyone, nor any other intelligent animals such as woofs or meows.

Audrey nodded gravely and slowly.

“It is a very strange, very unique feeling. It is as if some illusory thing inside your body has shattered and fused with your own mind. You can vaguely see one illusory star after another, and you yourself belong to one of them. These stars attract one another, as though wishing to gather into a whole.”

Susie listened quietly, then answered cheerfully, “Then I should have already completely digested it. I had a similar feeling before.”

Ah? Susie completely digested the Spectator potion? But—but no one taught her the acting method! At most, I only occasionally reminded her to observe more and keep her state of mind calm…

Audrey asked in astonishment, “When did you digest it?”

“Last month, the month before last, or perhaps earlier…”

Susie tried hard to recall for a while. Seeing her mistress’s expression grow stranger and stranger, she hurriedly wagged her tail and added timidly, “I cannot remember clearly… I am only a dog. I do not deliberately remember these things. Woof.”

Only a dog… But your digestion progress was only a little slower than mine… Do I have to say in future exchanges with other Beyonders that when it comes to digesting potions, I am a little stronger than a dog? Bah, Audrey, what are you thinking!

Maintaining an elegant smile, Audrey praised her politely.

“Very good. I mean, you did very well in the matter of digesting the potion.”

…

After returning from Leppard’s place, Klein leisurely took an afternoon nap.

But not long after, he was awakened by the illusory, layered, irritating sound of prayer.

Male? Mr. Hanged Man, or little Sun? Has one of the main ingredients for my potion finally arrived?

Klein carefully distinguished it for a few seconds, swiftly forgot his anger at being disturbed, got out of bed at once, and walked four steps counterclockwise, entering above the gray fog.

He discovered that the crimson star symbolizing The Hanged Man was contracting and expanding. He extended a hand, spread his spirituality, and touched it.

After the customary honorific name of The Fool, The Hanged Man prayed, “…I have already gathered all spinal fluid from an Evil-patterned Black Panther and pith crystals from the Elven Spring. Please allow me to hold a sacrificial ritual, and please pass them on to Mr. World.”

Quite fast… The Hanged Man said there would soon be a grand gathering among pirates. It seems it is not soon, but now… He always speaks with some concealment, not fully truthful…

Klein gave an almost imperceptible nod.

“You may.”

After a simple sacrificial ritual, Alger suppressed the impulse inside him and did not ask Mr. Fool whether the astrolabe beside Admiral of Stars Cattleya had anything to do with Him.

By then, however, Klein had already thrown him to the back of his mind. He was admiring the two Beyonder materials laid out on the surface of the bronze long table.

The Evil-patterned Black Panther’s spinal fluid was a tube of liquid that seemed transparent. Yet if one observed carefully, one would find that even its clarity had layers: the lower it went, the more transparent it became, perfectly divided section by section, completely satisfying an obsessive person’s preferences.

The pith crystals from the Elven Spring resembled faded eggs. Their shells seemed very thin, as though they might break at the slightest touch. Even without shaking them, one could hear the sound of flowing water splashing inside.

“I should be able to exchange these with the Apothecary for three hundred pounds in cash and a clue to the formula… My Magician potion now lacks only the Mist Treant’s true root and sap. I wonder when little Sun will be able to complete his task…”

Klein thought with great anticipation.

As for the supplementary ingredients, he had already bought them all from different shops. For example, a water-form gem had to be purchased from a jewelry shop and ground into powder himself. A piece weighing around five grams cost about two and a half pounds.

The Sun, Derrick, did not make Klein wait too long. On Wednesday evening, he prayed softly and told Mr. Fool that he had prepared the Mist Treant’s true root and sap, asking Him to pass them on to The World.

The Mist Treant’s true root was heart-shaped, brown, and palm-sized. The front was wrinkled like an old person’s skin, while the back was smooth and delicate like a gemstone. It was faintly expanding and contracting, as though it still possessed a certain degree of vitality.

Its sap was pale-green and crystalline, looking delicious at a glance.

Klein looked at them and, for some reason, felt his ambitions swell.

In the present era, Sequence 7 was the threshold of the mid Sequences.

This meant Beyonders finally bid farewell to the state of being only somewhat stronger than ordinary people in certain aspects, and would possess comparatively rich supernatural abilities!

Hoo…

Klein exhaled slowly and returned to the bedroom. Through the method of summoning himself, he brought the Beyonder materials into the real world.

He did not make additional preparations for containers. After scrubbing the kitchen’s iron stew pot several times, he began preparing the potion in the order of supplementary ingredients first, main ingredients afterward.

With the Clown’s control over his body, he quickly completed the preliminary steps. One after another, he placed the Evil-patterned Black Panther spinal fluid and the Mist Treant’s true root inside.

Sizzle!

Amid a tooth-aching sound, a wave of pale-white mist suddenly rose, only to be forcibly pulled back into the iron pot by an invisible force.

Once everything had calmed, Klein hurriedly poured the liquid inside out, not leaving a single drop, into the transparent glass bottle he had prepared earlier.

That liquid was extremely special. It was like fireworks constantly blooming inside it, with red, orange, yellow, green, and other colors continuously spreading outward, vanishing, and appearing again.

This was the Magician potion!

Klein placed a one-pound gold coin between the nail of his left thumb and his index finger. With a clang, he flicked it upward, then spread his palm and caught it.

He was using divination to confirm whether the potion he had prepared had succeeded.

Pa!

The gold coin fell. The portrait faced upward, indicating affirmation.

Klein no longer hesitated. He put away the coin, lifted the potion, and left the kitchen.

By then, the sky outside had grown deep. The gas lamps in the room had not yet been lit. All around was darkness. Only near the bow window was there a faint amount of light from outside, forming a muddled, dim scene.

Klein sat on the sofa and used meditation to calm the throbbing inside his heart, temporarily distancing himself from all emotion.

After finishing this, he raised the glass bottle, tilted his neck back, and drank the Magician potion.

Gulp! Gulp!

The cold potion slid all the way down his throat, countless bubbles bursting at every moment.

Klein was still experiencing that stimulation when, within his mind, a vast flood of information suddenly surged in, turning into blooming fireworks one after another.

The veins on his forehead bulged. His head felt as though it were about to be stretched open, about to burst apart!

However, to Klein, this was not a state too difficult to endure. The terrifying ravings he had heard before entering the gray fog, and the evil roar of the True Creator, had been far more frightening than this.

“Hornacis… Flegrea… Hornacis… Flegrea… Hornacis… Flegrea…”

That ethereal, illusory temptation echoed once again. Klein’s head expanded and contracted, contracted and expanded. Gradually, he recovered his thoughts and began consciously restraining them, outlining a ball of light and approaching the meditative state bit by bit.

After an unknown length of time, his vision recovered. At the same time, he felt his entire body itching, especially his arms.

Klein hurriedly rolled up his sleeves and stared in astonishment. The skin on one arm was deeply wrinkled, like that of a hundred-year-old man. The other arm had lost its color and turned transparent, revealing the blood vessels, muscles, and green veins inside.

This… Was there still a little loss of control? No, probably not. This should be a residual influence…

Klein sat in the darkness, on the sofa, leaning forward, warily watching the abnormalities in his arms as though monsters were gestating there.

He heard pedestrians passing on the street outside. He heard Madam Stelyn welcoming her husband, who had returned more than half an hour late. He heard Mr. Sammer complain that there were too many carriages on the street and that the roads were too narrow, causing a traffic jam.

And all of that had nothing to do with Klein. He sat quietly on the sofa deep in the darkness, watching the wrinkled skin and transparent state of his arms recover bit by bit.

Five or six minutes later, everything finally returned to normal. Klein sighed silently.

“Good thing no one knocked or rang the bell just now… I only chose to advance after fully digesting the Sequence 8 potion, and there were still such serious residual effects. For Beyonders who rely on the passage of time to grind things down, crossing this barrier must be very difficult.

“No wonder Captain took nine years…

“No wonder Swain, the owner of Evil Dragon Bar and a former Mandated Punisher captain, never dared to take the Sequence 7 Seafarer potion…”

After sitting quietly for another dozen or so seconds, Klein slowly stood.

At this moment, he was already a mid-Sequence Beyonder.

At this moment, he was already a Magician.