Dai got the other materials he needed, they weren't that uncommon or expensive. He just paid for them in bulls. Though, the minotaur would've loved spirit stones, Dai was not unaware of their value.

He glanced at the clock and looking at it sent a stream of panic coursing through his body. He walked into the arachnid's shop. She was hard at work, Dai couldn't tell if she was doing it because she was scared of him or because she had a new art to play around with. He guessed the former was a greater driving force.

[Time Remaining: 3.35.56]

"How much did you learn?"

She smiled, her brow had perspiration on it. "I can manage to un-wind one out of three at the moment. A little more time and I'll be able to get it every-time. This is a fascinating art, where did you get it?"

Dai didn't deign to reply. He wanted to get his essence back as soon as possible. Otherwise, he would just be reduced to peddling everything he knew and one day, the bargaining chips would run out leaving him with nothing. An old, flailing useless demon.

He pulled himself out of his spiral. It was immature and illogical to think in this way at the moment. He had to deal with the immediate problem.

He had a small pouch of filled with medicinal ingredients, spirit herbs, various tonics and bottles of nectar from various plants. Not to mention the core boxes. when he opened the box with flaming mantis core, the dryad's eyes widened. It was considered an exotic material in these lands.

"Do you know a fire spell?"

"Yes, I can create a fireball but I don't know about the temperature."

"Let me worry about that. Cast it for me, real quick."

She put her palm out and the air about it started shimmering the way it does above a fire. A few second later, a fireball popped out.

[Time Remaining: 3.25.12]

"Can you control the temperature? How about the essence you're supplying to it?"

AI, equip [Infrared Vision]

His eyes devolved into a series of melting pot, he could detect the heat emanating off the arachnid but it was somewhat dwarfed by the fireball. It was too hot but it started dimming a little bit. Dai could tell the exact temperature thanks to his AI.

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"I can reduce the flow of essence."

"Ok, reduce it even more." She kept on doing it.

"No, no, no. that's too less. Increase it." They spent a while getting the temperature right. "This is perfect, try to memorize the flow of essence and let go of it.

She nodded and the fireball dissipated. She was sweating a lot now. She was most likely from a tribe that lived underground in cold, damp caves. It didn't explain her eyes though.

All of a sudden, his throat started constricting. It was like his windpipe was being crushed. he heaved and tried to get some air in but it wouldn't happen. Through sheer force of will he forced in a breath and his windpipe relaxed.

He looked at the arachnid, she had a concerned expression on her face. A benevolent demon, how amusing. He would've expected her to stab his heart in the first chance she got.

He recovered a few minutes later and they got down to business. He took out a giant pot and placed it on the ground.

"This is the nectar of a polyian poppy." He poured it out in the middle.

He grabbed the core and placed it on top of it. "There's about twelve other herbs to think of but you don't need to worry about them. I'll place in the appropriate one when you need it."

"How do the insects tie into this?"

"That's simple. First, unwind the core, cycle it through your body and infuse it into the cocoon. You have to do it as much as possible until the insect is at their limit. Then, you un-wind. Have them feed on each herb. Once they're done you have to encase them in the nectar and seal them up again."

It would require a lot of moving steps. One of the main hurdles would be the multi-tasking. 'Most' demon creatures are incapable of it. She needed to fireball spell to work in the background and manage the insect. This was all practice now.

"How many of these insects do you have left?"

"About 20 flaming maggots. There's more than enough ice spider's and grasshoppers." Dai was reminded of the fact that he didn't have a sylph core. He just hoped that the antidote was in these two. He had the constant feeling that something was moving, whizzing, flying past him. He had to pull his head forward and remind himself that it wasn't there, it didn't exist.

[Time Remaining: 3.01.07]

It took her close to forty minutes to refine the first one. Anything that could've gone wrong went wrong. Sometimes, the insects exploded from too much infusion of the core's essence. The un-winding would fail after or before infusion. They would die while feeding but this time. It was the closest she'd gotten to completion.

The maggot crawled over to the nectar and ate into its center. The nectar started vibrating and heating up. It kept on heating up until it was baked up in a mid-sized pill. Dai breathed out.

[Time Remaining: 2.19.35] He'd been pouring spirit stone after spirit stone out for her to restore her essence.

The arachnid whooped with joy. She giggled a little bit and walked away to get a drink. She'd 'opened' her other eyes and was staring at Dai. He was interesting to say the least.

Dai took out a dagger made a small incision in the middle of his chest. He placed the pill in it and used a thread and needle to close it up.

This isn't working.

[Time Remaining: 2.16.56]