Next day, after Fungus came over in the morning, I met up with Lingfeng and I passed him all of the spirit stones that I had charged near the ley-line crack, so he could summon more troops. Unfortunately, this led to a secondary unwanted discovery. I had found out that I now could not access a lot of the items that used to belong to Fury Bone from my ring. All of the items still showed up as inventory icons, but they were all greyed out. When I tried to focus on one of the gray icons, a System prompt came up saying that the item could not be accessed because the spatial retrieval system for that particular section had been broken. Whatever Senior Knight Fall had done while he had been trapped within confines the ring had obviously damaged something inside of it.
I should have seen this coming! There is no way that Mother System would allow for such an immense treasury to just drop into the hands of a low-level “player”! No, Mother System wants us “players” to suffer for each and every item that we gain or upgrade!
Fortunately, the “secondary partition” where I had stored my bow, arrows, custom spirit stones and the tablet of Mowses was still functional, but just about everything else had gotten grayed out. The only bonus that I could think of was that I now had slightly more empty space available for storage, making my current broken ring somewhat similar in size to the one that Fungus owned.
After he had picked up the bundle of semi-charged spirit stones, Lingfeng had rushed out of the door to meet with the rest of the Sect Elders and the Templar leaders and to use the teleportation formation at the top of the mountain to get more people down here.
On the other hand, I had something else that I could do in the interim, which was to find some way to create a pill that would work with that Essence of Regeneration. Ignoring once again the side of my mind that did not like hurting innocent animals, I proceeded to decapitate the Immortal Chicken over and over, to harvest enough materials for my alchemical experiments. I am sorry Mr. Rooster, I'll make it up to you someday somehow.
*Squak*
After I was done abusing the chicken and I had a nice pile of headless bodies, I picked up Fungus and we headed towards the marketplace to pick up any ingredients that we could find, even if they were simple household items. Since the Sect was still in lockdown, this was the only way through which I could get my hands on extra ingredients. While extracting essence out of common fruits and vegetables gave little to no Alchemical experience, they were still a useful and near-inexhaustible source of the more common essence types. Money was not really a problem anymore, at least for this type of merchandise. I had enough spirit stones to buy a few hundred metric tons of food if I wanted to. When we got to the marketplace, besides buying the fruits and the vegetables, I had also decided to head to the butcher's shop, because I had noticed that Alchemical Essences could also be extracted from the body parts of animals.
I had made the Butcher’s day when I had bought almost the entire stock of his shop. I did not discriminate, and I had even asked him to bring me the unwanted offal and all of the other inedible pieces like the hooves, horns or other misc, since I wanted to see if any of them contained inside any type of Alchemical Essence.
Once I got home, I proceeded to attempt and extract Essences from all of the fresh meat products that I had bought, since they were the most likely to become rotten if left exposed for too long, at least compared to the other fruits and vegetables.
After getting some predictable results like Essence of Bile from the gallbladder and Essence of Wisdom from the brains, my most important discovery became the Essence of Blood after I mixed up the animals' liver and bone marrow with the thymus, spleen and lymph nodes, which somewhat made a whole lot of sense from an anatomical point of view, since that’s where red and white blood cells were created the first place.
I was hoping that I could obtain these ingredients as well from killing the chicken over and over, but no matter what piece or organ from the chicken I used inside of the pill forge, they all came back giving the same list of Essences. It's like the Immortality and the Regeneration Essences had replaced all of the other ones, or were overriding them somehow.
Still, with the bunch of bottles of Essence of Blood and Essence of Regeneration in hand, I began to mix them together with the rest of the Essences on my shelves in my attempt to find out a proper recipe for a regeneration pill.
I failed many attempts, but gained wisdom from each one of the unsuccessful experiments. While performing the entire "cooking" ritual, I could literally feel it in my Spiritual Roots when the recipe was about to blow up, and what had gone wrong. It's hard to explain the feeling, but I could feel it when I was missing a part of the recipe, or when an ingredient had been added in a too large or too little of a quantity. I guess that it was probably the passive effect of my Alchemist skill level that was “speaking” back to me.
Fortunately, each batch did not take more than 5 minutes to cook up, since I was working mostly with Essences instead of plain ingredients, which were much easier to mix together.
In the end I had felt it in my bones when I had hit the proper recipe, and even though the batch failed, I knew exactly what I had to do for the next one. I knew for sure that it had not been the balance of the ingredients that had caused the failure, but rather the insufficient amount of a catalyst.
I then immediately proceeded to overcharge some spirit stones with White Qi until they were nearly bursting, and socket the resulting stones inside the attachments of the Pill Forge.
With the new upgraded “power supply” in place, the recipe finally went off without a hitch, and I finally had a regeneration pill in my hands.
[Appraisal]
[Minor True Regeneration Pill - Low Quality]
Description:
This pill can heal any injuries that are below 20% of total bodily-integrity loss. It can regrow small appendages or organs like cut fingers, missing eyes, nose, ears, kidneys, etc. without a problem. If the damage is greater, it will only leave a partially-regrown stump, like in the case of a missing arm or leg. It also contains a decently strong pill poison, putting the cooldown of this pill at a little bit over one year and it hurts immensely when the effect is active.
Ok, so while it may not be enough to save somebody who got cut in half, it was still extremely useful. This was an incredible outcome for just my first round of testing. A veteran warrior who previously lost a finger or an eye would pay an enormous sum of money to get his appendages back, and this pill could solve that problem almost instantly. I do not think that the one year cool-down or the pain would even bother such a client, but it most definitely bothered me. I knew that I had to bring down that cool down and side-effects during my future attempts by a whole lot more, but for now I was glad that I had found the general outlines of the recipe needed to create a Regeneration Pill.
Since I was at the subject of extracting weird Essences out of everything, I wondered if I could do the same to some of the fungi we had been using inside of the Petri Dish experiments.
Was there even such a thing as an “Essence of Antibiotics”?
It was worth giving it a shot, therefore I picked Fungus and Liliam up, and we started to head towards the Hall of Medicine to meet up with Lady Yao, so that we might retrieve some of the less-dangerous cultures for my alchemical experiments.
Just as we were passing through the front doors of the Hall of Medicine, I spotted the mud-filled figure of Xibei, which had obviously been tossed into the riverbank again by the Troll.
"Oh my gods, are you alright? Did you get into a fight with Lew again?"
"Ah, hello there again my fair maidens and Mr. Fung. I see you are up and about as usual. Yes, unfortunately I have to admit that it was another failed attempt, but I have almost grown accustomed to these sorts of results. Still, I will not quit until I will see that darn bas*BOOOOOOM*"
*EARTHSHAKE RATTLE*
*SECT INTRUDER ALARM*
"Fucking seriously, again? Can’t a person get a break for even one day?"
Fortunately, I spotted Lingfeng that was riding on his sword right above the Hall of Medicine, so I cried and I waved over at him so he would land and talk to us.
"Lingfeng, what the hell is going on?"
"The Demonic Sects are attacking! They just showed up out of nowhere near the perimeter of the Sect's barrier, and have begun sieging it. We just spotted at least three Demonic Sects working together, and they are using some sort of demonic teleportation summoning rituals to call in more and more reinforcements right as we speak. They are using those peasants that had gone missing a while back as life sacrifices to fuel all the rituals, those bastards! Fortunately, because of your stones, we have managed to summon a whole lot more reinforcements from the Temples, and they are coming down the mountain right as we speak. Still, I did not think that this would happen so fast. I guess you were right after all, you crazy Child. Without your spirit stones, we would have most certainly been screwed. For now, everybody follow me quickly and get inside the Hall of Medicine and stay put, because this building has one of the strongest defensive formations in all of the Sect. Lady Yao will take care of you because she is an expert at creating barriers around entire buildings and people."
Just as our entire group was marching towards the Petri Dish Laboratory room, I heard a commotion coming from the entrance of the building, as some people had seemingly knocked out the receptionist that would not let them pass and were breaking their way in. I could immediately recognise Jin's voice among the incoming assailants, as the group burst through the doors of our makeshift Laboratory.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"I told you that she was the cause of all of this! We caught you red-handed using your vile experiments, witch!"
"Gentlemen, wait, these aren't what you think they are!" Intervened Lady Yao. "We can explain if..."
"Look my brothers, look at all of these vile concoctions!" Yelled Jin as he held up some of the Petri Dishes. "They must be trying to create a new Plague for sure! We cannot let these things fall into the hands of the demoniacs! Burn it all down!"
Truth to be told, all the experiments inside of the Petri Dish room indeed looked absolutely horrifying, but there was a very solid reason for that. Unfortunately, I was also almost certain that the Flame Templars would not listen to any reason anymore after seeing the place.
"No, don't you dare touch those!" I rushed to defend one of the tables that was filled with Petri Dishes.
"Gentlemen, please stop…" Yelled Lady Yao.
"Kid, take your hands off of those before you get yourself infected!" Lingfeng screamed at Jin.
"You! You have corrupted even the Elder and Lady Yao? No wonder that we could not find any evidence of any wrongdoings inside of the Sect! You guys were covering it all up!"
"What, are you fucking kidding me Jin? We don't have time for your childish tantrums right now…"
"Deus Vult Ignis!" The Templars both yelled as they lit their swords on fire, and began trashing the place.
"Jin, you mother fucking spiteful little piece of shit, this is about me killing your Fire Tome, isn't it…"
Lingfeng and Lady Yao immediately jumped to intercept the two crazed Templars, and began to fight them off before the morons could smash even more Petri Dishes and infest the whole place.
Right before Jin could also make a move, I saw Fungus sneak behind him with a wooden chair, and smash the daylights out of the red spiky hair boy before he even got a single fireball out.
"Damn, that felt satisfactory!" Fungus grinned back at me.
Suddenly, an immense blast shook the entire building, causing Lady Yao to bend over and start bleeding from the nose, a blast that also knocked down everybody else on their asses.
Whatever had hit the protective barrier formation that she was maintaining over the entire building had been very strong, causing her to keel over from the strain.
Taking advantage of her temporary daze, one of the Templars rushed at her and stabbed his sword right through her chest.
"NOOO! YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!"
I instantly jumped onto the back of the Templar who was stabbing Lady Yao, and I immediately drained all of the thermal Qi from his plate armor using my branch-tentacles straight into the ground, leaving him stuck frozen inside of his platings and a partial lava pool that was gathering at his feet. Lingfeng also propelled the other guy with a blast of wind straight through one of the walls and into the reception room, leaving him knocked out cold.
"Oh shit, oh crap. Lady Yao!"
I instantly ran to the healer lady, which now had a sword sticking out of her chest and was panting heavily while lying on the floor.
"Ah, Child...I am sorry I could not do more..."
"Lady Yao, stop speaking, you are only making things worse for yourself. You will be just fine. The Guild Master of the Hall of Medicine can't be taken down by a meager sword wound, now can she?"
Lady Yao smiles sadly as she begins to cough out more blood from her mouth. Oh no no no no no this cannot be happening! I'm not letting somebody die in front of me again!
"Fungus, help me pull this thing out!" I yelled at Fung to get him to help me with the sword.
As soon as we dislodged the object, a large amount of blood began gushing out of the wound.
"Lady Yao, please trust me! Swallow this pill before you pass out! It should be able to fix the wound in your chest."
*gulp*
"It's too late for me Child...I won't be able to make it just by swallowing some meager healing pill...save...hurk...AAAAARGH! IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS A LOT! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT PILL THAT YOU GAVE ME! AAAAAAYEEEEaaaa...!"
With that last scream, Lady Yao passed out while clutching her chest, and I had no idea if she would be alright. Looking at the wound though, it was now getting filled with those black tendrils that Mother Earth always extended for such bodily maintenance jobs, and was slowly but surely closing in on itself while the bleeding was stopping. In the end, after a couple of minutes of healing, all that was left of the wound was just an ugly scar on Lady Yao's chest. I hoped that the pill had been enough to patch her up, and that she will survive this ordeal and will not resent me for feeding her stupidly painful pills.
Still, the entire laboratory had been trashed, and would require some thorough decontamination measures. Ah, all of the last month's work just went down the drain in an instant. Fucking stupid ass Jin and his petty little vengeance! He couldn't have picked a worse time to do this!
The fucking Demonic Sects are knocking at our door, and yet he finds the time to come and trash my Lab! This is what happens when you have to deal with backwater idiots that do not know any shit about how the real world works! The morons just saw the ugly fungi cultures and immediately thought “UuUuU, Plague Lab” and did what came naturally to them, which was to set the stuff on fire.
*BOOOOOOM*
*SHUDDER*
Another huge strike hit the barrier formation, making the entire building shake from its foundations. Without Lady Yao to maintain the formation, it would not be long before the barrier failed and the building got destroyed. Why the hell are they hitting this particular building in the first place? Do they have some sort of method to track down the Tablet or Fury Bone's ring?
Just as I was thinking about that, the huge frame of Senior Knight Fall rushed through the entryway of the Hall of Medicine.
"Lingfeng, are you and the children alright? Sh....What the hell happened here?" Fall remained stunned for a second after seeing the frozen Templar statue and the human-shaped hole in the wall that the other Templar had left after being propelled through the plaster. "Is that Lady Yao on the floor?"
"Your Flameboys attacked her after being spurred on by Jin, thinking that we were running some sort of Plague Lab down here! The only thing we were doing is medical research!"
"Is that so? Then I have to apologise for their brashness, but you already know how the Flame Templars tend to act. Is he alright though?" Fall asks while pointing at the frozen Templar.
"Yeah, I only froze his armor, not the insides as well. And the other one probably has a slight concussion, but I'm sure he will be able to recover. Can you get them the hell out of here? This place is not safe anymore after they have smashed all of the cultures open, anyone could get infected from even a mere breath of this bad stuff."
"Yeah sure, I can take them to my fellow Templars of the Sun and get them healed since we have already summoned a healing contingent to assist with the siege."
"Can you take Lady Yao as well please? She got damaged pretty badly, so somebody with some proper healing skills should check her out."
"Yes, sure, hand her over. Also can you help me with...ugh...this guy."
Fall knocked on the frozen Templar.
"Aw, right, immediately…"
I pulled more thermal Qi from the environment and from the ground, and then I stuffed it back into the metal plate pieces of the frozen Templar. Slowly, they began to thaw back up, allowing for the joints to work again.
"Ssseeenniorrrr Kknight Fffalll...wwhy aarre yyyou hhheerrre!" The thawed Templar began to ask Fall while shivering like it was the middle of winter.
"I came to stop you morons from making an even larger mess of things! You fucking idiots stabbed Lady Yao? What the hell were you thinking?"
"Bbbut we ssssaw the pppplague lllab! Lllook aaat all off those hhhhorible experimmmments!" The flame Templar tried to defend himself.
"Have you thought for even a second that those things might be there to HELP people instead of "concocting a plague" as you so call it?"
"Bbbut Jin sssaid tttthat…"
"ENOUGH! You have gathered too much shame onto yourself this day. Expect disciplinary actions after all of this madness is over, if we manage to live through it. Grab your fellow templar, and follow me to the healer's tent."
"Yess, sssenior kkknight!"
"Fall... What's the situation out there?" Asked Lingfeng.
"It's pretty bad. The demoniacs have summoned at least 3 demon overlords that are over level 100. And those guys have been pelting the entire sect with meteor strikes. They are using live sacrifices as fuel, killing one prisoner for each one of the meteors that falls from the sky. The main barrier has already cracked in quite a few places, as you most certainly have noticed, since the Hall of medicine has been struck a couple of times already."
"Why do they keep hitting this place?"
"Maybe it's because the demoniacs assume that our healers are located here? It's a sound strategy to take out the healers first. Fortunately, we brought a mobile healing tent, leaving this building almost empty. Only you and these kids are the last ones remaining ins*BOOOM*"
*MASSIVE EARTH SHUDDER*
*CRACK*
The instance of the third meteor hit the building's barrier, it could not take the punishment anymore and the whole construction literally cracked in two pieces, causing our half of the building to submerge itself into a sinkhole and instantly separate us from Senior Knight Fall, the two Flame morons, and the unconscious Lady Yao, as we plunged below the surface. We held on for dear life against anything that was an immoble object, as the entire semi-section of the building sank beneath the Earth.
━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━
"I can feel it in me bones Gibbsn' , today is the day we make it outa here alrite…"
*Clang*
*Cla*MASSIVE EARTH SHUDDER*
"O shaite, nonono, the roof's collapsin agin' AAAAAA, run awaeee Gibbsn'!!!"
*HUGE STONE CRASHING NOISES*
"NOOOOOO! Fockin hell! I wuz almost out!!!"
The dwarf ducks behind a few more solid looking stones, watching as the entire floor of the Hall of Medicine collapses right into the tunnel system.
"Blyme! Wot the fockin hel'z dat? Dat looks like an entire buldin'!
Aw crap! Did we mess up the foundations of th' buildings above wid' all of our diggin'? Oh, somebody's gonna have our heads fo' this one fo' sure! If anyone asks, it wasn't us! Got that Gibbsn'? Ya keep your metal mouth shut!"
━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━◦○◦━
It only took about 20 seconds for the entire building to sink beneath the Earth and stop moving, but every second had seemed like an entire eternity for all of us that were still stuck inside of it. Still, I had to give bonus points to whoever had created the building in the first place because even though the entire half of the building had sunk beneath the Earth, the archways that were holding the ceiling up were still standing strong, and had not caved-in beneath the pressure.
After waiting for a couple of minutes and making sure that the entire building had stopped moving, we noticed that the building was now slanted towards an exposed cave system that had apparently existed beneath the entire structure, and could explain why the entire sinkhole effect had occurred. Personally, I was just glad that everybody was still alive.
For now, I was now stuck inside of the cave system together with Lingfeng, Fungus, Liliam, Xibei, and stupid-ass Jin that was still unconscious and had not felt a thing.
As soon as I stepped out of the building and into the cave system, Timmy jumped at me with an ominous prompt:
Timmy: You have now entered the Dungeon [Heavenly Library of the Righteous Path]
Minimum recommended level 40. Average level 50+
Warning! This is a Raid Dungeon, and you are totally under-leveled and under-geared to be here! You are not prepared!
Well, fuck me sideways! Just when I thought that this day couldn't get any worse!