Chapter 1594: Effects of the Trial Potions
A top alchemist, a plant expert, and a toolmaker? She was even an array expert!?
This made everyone look at Althea differently. She was not only a beauty..., but she was also a talent unheard of.
"The Lady is also a toolmaker and a pharmacist?" they couldn’t help but ask, imbalanced at the dissonance.
They didn’t want to be sexist, but being a high professional was rare for the fairer sex, let alone having so many.
Some of these were extremely difficult fields to enter, as well.
...they didn’t even know people could have more than one profession.
"Anyway, we would not be studying much about your tools today," she said. "What we want to know is the effect of our experimental potions we sent you guys to Bleulle."
This was actually the main reason why she and Hoffen were here at all (they were very into the subject they were studying earlier, so they would have taken their time to greet the newcomers otherwise).
Some of the latest potions used in this mission were the fake poison gas, improved Beast-attracting potion, and the improved Beast-repelling potion. These were all potions they rushed when they started the mission to Bleulle.
Other than spending a few hours a day with her family, Althea and Hoffen were literally faced with these potions until they were finally sent away.
The latter two had been made using the new techniques she learned, adding the fog effect from her water element and the efficacy of the wood element that kept it grounded and prolonged its efficacy.
The first potion (the fake poison), on the other hand, didn’t come from this ability. Rather, it was mostly Hoffen’s work with some improvements and suggestions from Althea.
Level 40s (even level 30s) and above were difficult to affect with potions, so they had to create something that could affect them somehow.
At the same time, affecting them without killing them was even more difficult.
Hoffen didn’t understand why it was needed at first (why not just kill them? He asked), but Althea didn’t want unnecessary deaths in this mission. It could bring them unnecessary vindictiveness, instead of just trouble.
Killing someone would just bring them life and death enemies, and that was something they didn’t want when they could help it.
Then she presented the problem as a challenge, and Hoffen’s challenge-hungry brain ate it up.
"The fake poison bomb worked really well," Kalfene said, and the others nodded. "It really made it look like many people were poisoned by it."
What it did was basically to trigger some of the body’s responses, to trick it into thinking that it was actually poisoned when, in fact, it was not. It was almost like the placebo effect, except there were actual visible effects.
Hoffen was primarily the one who created the poison, but Althea’s insight was what gave him the idea of triggering people’s nervous systems like that.
Hoffen was great with poisons, but creating a fake one was more difficult, and Hoffen learned quite a bit through that exercise.
"The Beast Repelling Potion also worked wonders. We really weren’t attacked by Level 30s and below, and it really stuck well to the carriage."
This was true. Except for that small group of level 40s, their travel was really smooth.
"Too bad we couldn’t see how the Beast Attracting potions worked, however."
After all, they just dropped them somewhere along the way.
...
Bleulle
At this time, the newly married Eveco gritted his teeth as he looked at the dense forest in front of him
They had been tracking the possible suspects for a while now. They knew which gate they exited, but the paths separated at some point until they couldn’t find many leads anymore.
His assistant went to him, shaking his head. "Nothing, Sir."
Eveco sighed and headed in a direction. The assistant blinked and pointed at a different one. "The Vesto family headed in that direction."
"To where the obvious paths are?"
"Yeah, you think people who did so many things to redirect us would take the obvious path?"
Ewan, the family’s heir, nodded. "Precisely," They must’ve taken a lot of misdirections. We should be aware of it now."
They had been humiliated so much during that party. They had become laughing stocks now, not even just in the Inner Circle—but below it!
There were even oral stories going on, recounting the events. Regardless of accuracy, what remained was that their family was among those who were mocked the most!
More than anyone else, they wanted to rip apart all those people responsible for it!
It had been a few days, and there had been no news. Many followed the obvious paths, and except for fighting mobs here and there, nothing was earned.
What did this mean? The enemies took another path!
They travelled for a few more hours, their guards battling the mobs that arrived. They brought in a lot of their guards, so they were dealt with, even if there were some injuries.
Eventually, they really found some clues. They were pieces of wood, wheels, planks, and so on. They were spread out, and some were already covered by shrubs.
"Look!"
"I think it’s part of a carriage!"
"They are remnants of a carriage!" another said, using his feet to lift one of the panels, showing part of an emblem! It was mostly destroyed now though, but most carriages didn’t have emblems at all!
Ewan held on to it, but seemed to have realized that there were multiple layers of the fabric. Before he could think any deeper, however, his people and his cousin approached him, asking him about his conclusion.
"They’re dead then?" Eveco asked, and Ewan sneered.
"Heh!" They probably were. The only regret was that they weren’t able to do it themselves!
"Do we continue?"
"I think we should at least find a few more clues about where they came from. Maybe we can see corpses, hopefully mangled."
"That’s true..."
"What if the monster is still there?"
After a thought, they decided to move forward, dousing themselves with the last bit of repelling potions they had.
They continued to look around for clues, but there was really not much.
In fact, had they been just a day early, they might’ve seen traces of the corpses of level 30 and level 40 monsters left behind.
When the monsters died, the weaker monsters naturally rushed over to eat them up, aiming to get the aether in their bodies, but they were large, so it did take a few days to completely consume them to the bones.
Anyway, the group remained blissfully unaware of this and continued perusing the place before deciding to head back home to make the report.
Unfortunately, Ewan seemed to have stepped on something.
Crack!
At first, they thought it was just a branch, until smoke seeped out from under his feet. It was low and didn’t get dispersed by the wind, but it dispersed enough that their whole party was covered.
"What is this?"
"It’s not poison again, isn’t it?"
"I don’t think it is—"
Their voices died down as the ground shook. "What—"
"What’s going on?"
For the first minute or so, they could not move, and their eyes widened when they realized they were soon surrounded by beasts, and there were not a few of them.
ROOOAAARRR!!
"RUN!!!"