During the day, the red-robed men had already memorized the steps of the potion-making. Now, they were doing it with their own hands.
He picked up a heart first, then placed the stomach of the Stoneback Bear into a alchemy container. He used a metal rod to crush it into mush.
"Can we move on to the next step?" The red-robed man showed Kael the tool and asked.
Kael's face twitched. He had no idea.
He just said, "It has to be crushed into mush."
Felix frowned and muttered, "Both the heart and the stomach have membranes. It's not easy to crush them into mush."
Saying that, he kept working hard anyway.
A heart and the stomach of the Stoneback Bear, after ten minutes of crushing, gave off a smell-like fermentation. It was far worse than when they were whole.
Kael covered his nose and cursed, "Can you clean this up after making the potion? Do you even know what this smell is?"
Elton kept a cold face and said bluntly, "You pray now, or you pray later."
"..." Kael was speechless. That made sense.
Elton sneered and gave a quick look to one of the white-robed men. The man understood and slowly stepped back into the shadows.
Felix was focused on the potion and didn't notice.
"Is it ready now?" Felix tilted the alchemy container and showed it to Kael again.
Kael rubbed his chin and nodded. "Maybe."
"Add the Ashmoss," Felix said excitedly.
Elton did as told and dropped a pinch of dark red moss into the container.
As soon as the moss was added, the rough, grainy meat mush melted instantly, turning into a liquid. It was really strange.
Felix narrowed his eyes and muttered, "That cursed moss can actually melt flesh? I've never heard of that before. But I'll know next time-don't crush the meat too much. It'll just melt anyway."
Kael watched closely and felt a bit amazed.
But he still had a question in his mind: Felix clearly had magic, so why was he making this potion? And it was only a low-level one at that.
Felix was extremely excited. His red eyes shone with energy as he shouted, "Add the alcohol."
The Rien Dall Kingdom had a ban on alcohol. After all, there wasn't enough food to go around, and using grain to make wine was a waste. But the more it was banned, the more people wanted it. Black markets and underground workshops in every city had it.
Elton did as told and poured 500 milliliters of high-concentration alcohol into the container.
"Hiss-"
The two ingredients met, and it sounded like water pouring over hot charcoal.
A white smoke rose from the container.
Felix waved the smoke away and took a sniff, then laughed, "It's done. Now it actually smells like a potion."
Elton's eyes flashed with a hint of joy. After all this trouble, the path to [The God of Endless Hunger] finally had some clues.
He was about to step forward when Kael Silverlight got there first. He said, "Priest, let me smell it."
Kael was really curious too.
Elton was furious inside. A test subject acting this way? He'd clearly forgotten who he was. He snapped, "Kid, you're just a test subject."
"Ah?" Kael looked confused. wasn't he supposed to be the one to test the potion first?
You old fool, you're talking out of both sides of your mouth.
Elton pushed past Kael and said with a fake smile, "Priest, let me watch the work of the great god."
Felix was happy and didn't say anything about the small detail. He just said, "What's the rush? Everyone gets a chance." Then he put the alchemy container in front of Kael.
Kael sniffed lightly. The old sour, rotten smell was gone. All that was left was a fresh, pleasant smell-almost like hawthorn. It was so appetizing that just sniffing it made Kael feel hungry.
"How does it feel?" Felix asked with a smile.
Kael Silverlight frowned slightly and said quietly, "It's pretty appetizing."
Felix found that funny and laughed loudly.
Elton stood beside them, looking dark and unhappy.
Fool.
The two of them laughed like old friends they hadn't seen in days. But Elton, the one who actually worked for Felix, was being ignored.
Damn it.
Felix didn't forget Elton. He put the alchemy container in front of him and asked, "Do you want to smell it?"
Elton forced a smile and said, "No, I'm fine. I've wasted enough time."
"You understand the big picture." Felix nodded and said loudly, "Keep working."
Under his white robe, Elton's fist clenched tight. His eyes grew colder and colder. If Felix didn't treat them like people, then they didn't need to follow him anymore.
Felix was completely focused on the potion. At that moment, a dark red glow flowed up his arm, gathering in his palm. Then, with a "Puff," a magical flame appeared.
Felix heated it while slowly stirring, and at the same time, he recited a prayer to [The God of Endless Hunger].
Kael Silverlight watched, thinking to himself: "This potion must be real. It doesn't feel evil at all."
The thought came to him, and the strange scene from last night popped into his mind. During the ritual, [The God of Endless Hunger] poured red light, which wasn't evil, but the actions were primitive and violent.
Now he was about to drink the potion, and Kael felt a little headache. What should he do?
The mixture in the alchemy container became thicker and thicker, with more tiny bubbles forming. Felix said seriously, "Is it ready now?"
Kael Silverlight swallowed hard and said, "I think it is."
"Come on, drop your blood into it. Get ready to take the potion." Felix said.
Kael laughed dryly, "I only saw the rough steps in the Potion Recipe. Some details are unclear. Shouldn't we test it a few more times?"
He was trying to buy time.
Felix coldly said, "I see now. You really don't know your place. What right do you have to talk back to me?"
Kael Silverlight sighed and held out his hand. Felix sneered and pulled out a silver needle, pricking Kael's finger and drawing three drops of blood.
In the dark red liquid, the three drops of fresh blood stood out clearly. Felix quickly stirred. At the moment the blood started to separate from the liquid, he suddenly grabbed Kael's mouth open and poured the potion in.
Kael Silverlight's eyes widened. He felt a cool hawthorn-like liquid flow down his throat. Besides a little sourness, there was nothing else.
Felix watched as the liquid in the alchemy container entered Kael's mouth, then let him go and asked, "How do you feel?"
Kael Silverlight rubbed his lips and said, "Nothing much. It's kind of tasty."
"?!" Felix was stunned. Was that even possible?
But the next second, he saw Kael's face twist in pain. Kael dropped to his knees and hugged his stomach tightly.
Felix got excited and crouched down. "How is it?"
Kael Silverlight's eyes were wide. He could only make gasping sounds and couldn't speak.
Felix grabbed Kael by the shoulders and looked at his twisted face. The more he saw, the more excited he got. "Come on, tell me, what's it feel like?"
"A fireball exploded in my stomach. It hurts so bad." Kael gritted his teeth and kept hitting his stomach to try to ease the pain.
As the potion worked deeper in his body, Kael Silverlight's skin started to change. Red lines spread across it, similar to stretch marks.
Elton swallowed hard. This wasn't a potion.
It was a deadly poison.
He couldn't help but remember what Felix had done before. He had used his guessed potion recipe on test subjects. Those subjects either exploded or died the moment they drank it. Kael Silverlight's fate was probably the same.
Kael felt his consciousness fading. It was like a little spirit inside his stomach was completely reworking his body, but that spirit didn't care if he lived or died. It just acted on its own, causing chaos. Worse still, he heard a bunch of mumbled words in his ears-unintelligible, like the ramblings of a madman. But there was something strange about them, as if they could pull his soul right out of his body.