Nicholas and her mother talked about a lot of things that night, including where he got his idea from and his inspirations. He said he found it in creating the liquid by applying the theory in the books and trial and error like the beauty products to create this product.
Nicholas also elaborated his new process on making the essence, or synthetic fertilizer, for his mother. This process, which was written on the plan, quite deviated from the process in the fake document since it was industrialized and fit for a huge setting.
It was simple; the effects are significant; they just needed to do this on a large scale and with a precise process to avoid the side effect of decomposing a large amount of dead bodies. He also elaborated his plan on how to prevent the decaying monster parts from causing diseases.
...
The next day
[Toxic Marsh Valley]
[Level Recommendation: 25-30]
[Scene: It was once a valley full of vitality where plants and trees grow very brightly and lively.] Everything was great until a powerful creature died and decomposed within this valley, slowly turning it into its current state. Full of poison fumes, monsters, and toxic plants.]
[Clear Reward 0/1]
This was the dungeon they will be clearing today. But before they entered the dungeon, they first ventured to the nearest alchemist shop near Nicholas's office.
Maria: "Master, how was your talk with the mistress last night?"
Nicholas: "It went well, Maria, but mom would discuss it with my father first before starting the project."
Maria: "That's great news, Master!"
Nicholas: "Well, thanks for the help in creating the product with the ice skills."
Maria: "No problem, Master; I'm glad that I could help."
They arrived at a well-furnished two-story building with a wooded sign hanging called Rosana's alchemy shop. It was the best alchemist shop in Curtana. This shop produces a wide variety of potions, from resistance potion to attack potions, and some people even requested personalized potions to their request. And like what Nicholas said in the previous chapters, health and mana potions do not exist in this world. It was quite weird, but not entirely surprising.
Nicholas went to the counter to buy some poison-resistant potions and some status-ailment cure potion. These were the potions they needed to complete this dungeon, which they completely used last dungeon exploration in the toxic marsh valley. While Nicholas ordered the potions they needed, the other two girls explored the shop and their merchandise.
Clarice: "Hey Maria, what are you guys talking about?" She nudged Maria since she was curious on what they were talking about while they were walking to the potion shop.
Maria: "Nothing much." Then shrugged her shoulders.
Clarice: "Mouuu..."
Maria: "Hey, Clarice, look at these. She pointed at a potion." She changed the topic since it was not that important. She was just trying to tease Clarice.
Clarice: "WH-What, don't buy that, Maria. Jeeeez." She stuttered as she looked at the bright pink potion on the shelf.
Maria: "Heheh. Look at your face. *giggle*" She giggled at Clarice's reaction to a potion with an aphrodisiac-like effect.
When Nicholas finished buying the potions, he went to call Maria and Clarice and saw them talking about something. The girls immediately responded to his call and followed him out of the shop, and they proceeded to the dungeon.
Nicholas: "What are you guys talking about?" He asked them what they were doing while he bought the potions.
Maria: "Not much, Master; we just browsed the store for any useful potions."
Clarice: "Yeah, nothing much, my liege."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
They continued talking until they arrived at the location of the portal. There was a line of people since it was a quite popular permanent dungeon, so they waited for their turn and handed over a token to the guard.
The guard then let them in, and Nicholas and his team went inside the blue portal and were surrounded by a blue light teleporting them inside the marsh.
They have experienced this spatial transfer countless times by now, so they weren't that affected now. After the light dissipated, what welcomed them was the toxic fragrance of the marsh and its heavy atmosphere, along with the dungeon quest.
[Dungeon Quest]
[This poisonous marsh is riddled with monsters and toxic plants. Navigate your way to the clearing where the ancient boar is located and defeat it. Be careful of your foothold, and the toxic fumes may cause your demise.]
Nicholas immediately took out the poison-resist potion he bought in the shop and distributed it to the girls. They drank the resistance potion to prevent them from succumbing to the environmental poison gas that the marsh is emitting.
Clarice: "This place never gets better over time. The atmosphere still feels heavy even after clearing it for a bunch of times."
Maria: "Ughh. I was never a fan of this dungeon. Master, why do we keep doing this dungeon?"
Nicholas: "Stop complaining guys... You know why; we have discussed this before, and you know why."
Maria: "Ughhhh. I hope we level up quickly so we don't have to do this dungeon anymore. Its so muddy and the atmosphere feels weird."
After they drunk the potion, the heavy burden on their lungs lifted almost immediately. Nicholas looked at them, checking whether they were ready to proceed. Both of them nodded and began their march. The soil they were stepping on feels like mud; it was a bit sticky, and its color is discolored with a light green tone. There was a path since everything is filled with water, and the only foothold they could get was a muddy road, which is slightly elevated from the knee-deep water line.
The walk was uneventful since most of the monsters are hiding on the water or below ground. They only encountered enemies after 15 minutes of walking, and it was a group of hundterpedes.
[Hundterpede Lv.20]
[Power Level – 13,150]
The monster looks like a meter-long insect with hundreds of legs; it has a fang in its mouth and bright red glowing eyes.
Clarice: "Encounter"
Seeing the monsters, Nicholas immediately used [Earth manipulation] to harden the ground around them for a more stable foothold. Maria also immediately used the [Wind cutter] and sliced one of the hundterpede into pieces. As the two remained on the back, Clarice dashed right to the group of monsters and fought them head-on.
The monsters pounced on Clarice, who was directly dashing into five of the horses. She was able to fend off most of the monsters, and the rest were taken care of by Maria, who kept shooting [Wind Cutter] from the back. The encounter didn't last long since the girls overpowered the monster quickly while Nicholas just stood there observing the situation.
Nicholas: "That was smooth." He commented on the teamwork of Maria and Clarice.
They proceeded to traverse the muddy path after looting the useful parts of the hundterpede. They again walked and fought a few times along the way until they arrived at an open field with a fork at the end, which led to the same destination but had a different length.
Clarice: "Should we take the longer path?"
Maria: "No. Its better to take the shorter one. Its more time efficient."
Clarice: "Hmph. I don't trust you; you just want to leave the dungeon as fast as possible."
Maria: "Huh?!? That's not the reason!"
Nicholas: "Well, I do have something to do later on. So, I think we should have to take the shorter road this time."
Clarice: "Fine..."
After a few minutes of walking, they heard a large croak from far away.
They can't see the monster that produced that sound, but it was evident that the sound came from the water inside the marsh; the monster must be submerged in the murky pool in the marsh.
Maria: "Everyone be careful; the monster is most likely hiding in the patch of grass from there." Maria pointed to her left as she warned her team.
With Maria's warning, Clarice became vigilant in that direction. Preparing her shield to block any surprise attack. Nicholas, on the other hand, already used his [Earth manipulation] again to harden their foothold for the incoming encounter with the monster; slowly, the area within a 15-meter diameter began to solidify. After that, he used [Nature's domain] an advanced elemental skill to passively boost speed and regeneration; it also purified the toxic environment around them, giving them better time to breathe during the impending combat.
Maria channeled her mana to create several [Ice Pikes] floating around her. She didn't want to wait for the monster to appear, so she used her [Ice Pike] one by one to agitate the murky water around where the sound was heard.
*Splash* *Splash* *Splash* *Splash*
Her first few tries were unsuccessful, hitting and splashing muddy water all over the marsh. But with that, she successfully agitated the monsters, and some of them jumped out of the pool, revealing themselves.
[Toxicroak Lv.26]
[Power Level – 14,550]
[Mud Flapper Lv.21]
[Power Level – 12,890]
[Rabid Bandicota Lv.25]
[Power Level – 13,150]
It was a group of monsters that emerged from the murky waters of the marsh, and some rodent-like monsters also appeared from the tall grass in front of them.
Clarice: "Looks like we're surrounded."
Maria: "That's great! We don't have to wait for them to show themselves. We can just eliminate them all here."
Clarice prepared herself and didn't recklessly dash in front to confront the monsters. She waited for the enemies to group up more before attacking since most of them came from different directions and are quite far apart from each other. Meanwhile, Nicholas also used [Earth puppets] to distract some of the monsters and some to protect both Maria and Clarice when the battle started.
As both Nicholas and Clarice prepared for the incoming battle, Maria just continued to thin out the group of monsters by casting long-range skills.