Abaddon stood inside the [Cauldron of Molacure Wisdom] as he explained how to create health potions for around a hundred people. He was a bit disappointed in their levels. As far as he could tell, most of them had used Tom's quests to get to level 10 before immediately stopping. He wasn't sure if they were just unwilling to fight or if they just didn't understand how to level without fighting. Then again, this was only day four of the system, so he guessed he couldn't blame them too much for their lack of levels.
More importantly, these people had decided to take up the best form of crafting. Alchemy. Most of them had a previous interest in chemistry, and alchemy was just magic plus chemistry, so he didn't need to delve into every single technique.
"The recipe for an inferior health potion is four blades of Evergreen grass and one Redcap mushroom. Unfortunately, we don't have enough ingredients for everyone, so you're just going to observe," Abaddon explained.
Abaddon picked up the needed ingredients and tossed them into a cauldron that was already simmering.
"This is the cheapest inferior rarity health potion you can create," Abaddon explained. It takes no additional effort; you just leave the ingredients in the cauldron at a simmer. The juices will eventually bleed into the water, turning it red. Remove the evergreen grass and redcaps from the cauldron when they become soggy." Abaddon explained as he removed them from the cauldron.
"If you have [mana sight] or have other ways to perceive mana, then you can improve the recipe by removing the vegetables only once they lose all their mana," Abadon said. "Now we simply wait. We need to boil off the excess water until the potion reaches the quarter mark. At this point, the potion should look cherry red. Which is an indication that the potion has reached its maturity." Abaddon finished the first lesson. "The end result will be a health potion that might heal 50 hp if you do everything perfectly."
One of the people in the front of the class, a woman with a [Gardner] Class, raised her hand. And Abaddon pointed at her.
"Go"
"Um ah," she stammered a little as Abaddon pointed at her. "Couldn't we improve the recipe? Isolate and concentrate the chemicals that create the potion. Get more HP?" she asked as if unsure of her own words.
"First off, great quest. The answer is, of course, we can. This is actually the first time I have ever created this particular recipe," Abaddon explained as the cauldron slowly boiled off the water.
"I actually use a better recipe for our health potions. But the main advantage of this one is that you can make this potion basically anywhere, so long as you can boil water. The ingredients are also extremely common." Abaddon explained. "The next recipe we will be going over is what you guys will actually be making. You will be working in groups as, once again, we don't have enough ingredients for everyone to do individual projects. So everyone gets into groups of five," Abaddon explained.
He moved over to where he had prepared the racks for drying yesterday. He made sure to hand each group of five one tray.
"Alright, in front of you now are six dried Mistletoe leaves, ten dried blades of evergreen grass, and four redcap mushrooms," Abaddon explained as everyone looked down at the line of shrivelled-up ingredients.
"Here's what you all need to do. Take the evergreen and mistletoe and grind them up until you have a fine powder. The finer, the better. At the same time, fill one of the cauldrons in the room with water and bring it to a boil. Once the water is at a boil, toss in your ground-up materials, then place the dried recaps in a strainer and insert the device in the cauldron. You are basically treating the redcaps as tea leaves, allowing them to release their compounds into the tea. We don't want to directly mix the mushrooms in the brew as they have poisonous elements that can render the brew a failure if we ground it up." Abaddon explained as his students moved step by step through the process.
"Final steps. Now, we remove the soggy mushrooms first. We can grind these up later and turn them into a poison. After you remove the mushrooms, everyone will need to infuse 200 mana or MP into the brew. Your mana will act like a reagent. Bonding the ingredients together and creating the health potion."
The [Gardner] girl raised her hand again.
"Yes," Abaddon asked.
"How do we do that?" she asked.
"Ummm … huh," Abaddon muttered.
It had been so long since he had actually needed to consider how to manipulate his mana. He hadn't thought about how to move his mana since his first time playing the Legend of Noralon. At this point, it was just something he did, like walking or breathing. How did you teach someone to breathe?
Abaddon suddenly thought about it and checked one of the cauldrons. Fortunately, it had a rune to allow the user to input their mana into the brew. Holding up the cauldron, he pointed at the rune.
"For those of you who don't know how to manipulate your own mana yet, find and press your hand on this rune. Once you've spent 200 mp, remove your hand so you don't lower the brew's efficiency." Abaddon explained. "Try and share the load with others. That way, you can all get a feel for your mana."
Everyone followed along, searching for runes before they each started giving the brew mana. It took a while, but soon enough, the water in everyone's cauldron had turned cherry red.
"Perfect. Now we just need to bottle all of this up, and we can hand them out to the hunting groups," Abaddon said as he moved over to his cauldron. It was still brewing the lower-quality health potion, which should be finished soon.
<[Simplistic Alchemy] has Reached Level 16>
DING!!!
Congratulation
For creating the first Inferior Potion of the Beggars Health Restoration on Noralon, you have gained the World First Title.
[Simplistic Alchemy] - Common has upgraded to [Brewer] - Epic
[Brewer]: Potions are the staple of any good adventurer. Health, Mana and Stamina Potions are Staples of Alchemy. +1.25% per skill level for crafting mastery when performing alchemy. Increase the potency of all Health, Stamina and Mana Potions by 5% per skill level. +10% DEX
<[Brewer] has Reached Level 8>
Abaddon froze as he stared at the notification. Well, he didn't completely freeze. He still removed the cauldron from the heat source and then poured the material into one of those screw-on-top water bottles to store it. But he was still stunned. That title was normally reserved for creating brand-new products. What he created was as common as dirt hell. Making that potion was a system quest that a lot of alchemists gave out to help people get started on alchemy in Noralon. Abaddon couldn't think of a single person who wouldn't know it, so how did he have a world-first title?
Was the system broken? Probably not. But he couldn't be the first person to make a beggar's health potion. Actually, he might be. The potion's only redeeming quality was how easy it was to make. Unless you literally had no better options, no one would actually make the stuff. So maybe he had been the first one to do it.
Maybe the apocalypse reset everything. But that would mean all of the other options would have earned him the World First title. If that was the case, why hadn't he received this title before?
For a long while, he stared at the notification, mulling the problem over in his mind, tasting and sampling it.
Then Abaddon smacked himself. World first! This wasn't noralon or maybe it was. The point was this was effectively a new world, so maybe all those world-first titles were up for grabs!! He had gotten this title because no one else on the planet had made an inferior Beggars Health potion before him. The reason he hadn't gotten the title before was because someone else had made the Inferior mana and health potions. But that meant he could grind out world-first titles.
"Um, Mr.Abaddon, sir?" The [Gardner] girl was trying to get his attention.
"I'm sorry, class is over. Thank you all for attending." Abaddon dismissed them with a hand wave.
He immediately got to work; his reptilian hands immediately started to snatch up ingredients as he made a mental list of all of the potions he could make with what he had. He needed to make these potions now before someone else on the planet beat him to it. He looked over his ingredients. Tom had brought him a handful of interesting materials. He did a quick inventory count. They had five hundred raw ingredients. Plenty of them had already been placed in planters, but they still had plenty.
Snatching up all of the empty cauldrons, he washed them out, and then he started tossing in the ingredients. Even with his small mana pool, he could manage about three cauldrons at a time, so long as he didn't try and get clever.
Nothing from those three. Annoying but not unexpected. After Health and Mana potions, these would have been the first potions created. He emptied out the cauldrons, cleaned them and then started again the next three after jugging a mana potion.
DING!!!
Congratulation
For creating the first Elixir of Inferior Dexterity on the planet, you have upgraded your title World First to World First +2
+1 Skill Point
+10 Skill levels to your [Brewer] Skill
<[Brewer] has Reached Level 18>
Abaddon let out a grunt of annoyance as he reset the cauldrons, drank a mana potion, and started again. He needed to think outside the box, niche stuff. But then he checked their inventory. They didn't have what he would call a plethora of ingredients. Most of them had been planted in the greenhouse to grow more, further limiting their supply.
Pulling out a wad of paper, Abaddon quickly wrote down every ingredient they had. Then, he started writing down every recipe he could remember. He could remember a lot of them. Once he was done, he started cross-referencing what he could do with what he had on hand. He was still limited to inferior rarity potions, so that helped narrow things down. Then he realized he was two skill levels away from being able to make Lesser Potion, so he added those back in. Then he crossed out all of the really useful stuff. The potions that someone had almost certainly already created if they had more than five minutes to themselves. He ended up with thirty-two inferior rarity potions and six lesser potions that he thought could work.
Cracking his neck, he got to work.
<...>
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DING!!!
Congratulation
For creating the first Poison of Lesser Neurotoxin on the Noralon, you have upgraded your title from World First +5 to World First +6
+1 Skill Point
+10 Skill levels to your [Brewer] Skill
<[Brewer] has Reached Level 58>
Abaddon wanted to punch himself in disgust. Apparently, he wasn't the first person to figure this all out. Only five of the thirty-eight recipes gave him the title. And he had gone through a fifth of all of these herbs. If he had known about this at the start, he would have sat his ass down and just done alchemy for the first day of the system.
Which was probably why so many potions had already been created. Anybody who played the Legend of Noralon would have realized the exploit and immediately started banging out potions like there was no tomorrow. In fact, he was pretty sure the only reason he had gotten to the world's first +6 was due to the lack of available ingredients. It was the same reason he had stopped. They didn't have the inventory, even if he had the skill to earn more world-first titles.
On the plus side, his alchemy skill was now at 58. And he had six free perks to assign. He leaned back on the small chair he was on and groaned in protest. Honestly, he loved being huge; for all its drawbacks, he had to admit he understood why the jocks had all been narcissistic assholes. Being big was awesome. Lizard features aside. He had gone from barely five feet tall to seven feet of reptilian perfection.
Abaddon finally left the lab with the box of potions in his storage. He needed to drop off the random assortment of potions before he hit the baths and talked to Tom. He really wanted a bath to get some of the gunk off his scales. He marched up through the bowls of Hopkins. The place was really becoming a proper base. He wondered if he should bring up the idea of further upgrades to Tom's council. He had initially refused the offer to be placed in charge of the alchemy. The title was tempting, but he wasn't interested in actually managing anything, maybe when he maxed out his class and skill levels. But right now, it seemed like a waste of time.
Abaddon was so distracted by his train of thought that he didn't notice the people slowly surrounding him.
"Hey, little Hector," Chad called out to him.
Abaddon couldn't stop himself from flinching as the words broke his train of thought.
Chad and Kevin approached Abaddon with a swagger, flanked by a couple of his companions. Hopkin's hallways echoed with distant echoes as people went about their day.
Abaddon stood frozen as Chad and his gang closed in on him, their mocking laughter filling the hallway like a menacing symphony. Despite his new physique, he still felt helpless.
Chad sneered, his voice dripping with malice. "Or should we say, 'Fat Hector' now? I mean, it's not like you earned that freaky body, you pathetic loser."
Abaddon's heart pounded in his chest, his palms clammy with sweat. He wanted to do something, say something. But the words just caught in his throat. He was shaking.
The bullies snickered behind him. One of them shoved Abaddon roughly against the lockers.
"Look at him," Chad jeered as they walked up to him. "He's shaking like a scared little puppy. What a joke."
"Please, just leave me alone," Abaddon whispered, his voice barely audible over the taunts and laughter echoing in the hallway.
Shame burned through him worse than that pyromancer he fought. He tried to blink away the tears in his eyes as
But Chad was relentless, his eyes gleaming with sadistic pleasure as he leaned in close, his hot breath ghosting over Abaddon's ear.
"Aw, did we hurt little Hector's feelings?" he cooed mockingly, his grip tightening on Abaddon's shirt.
He felt so small, so weak. He wanted to shrink down into nothing and disappear. Why was he still like this?! He was big and strong now. Then Abaddon realized something. He was looking down at Chad. Chad was a football player; he was a big guy. But Abaddon was bigger than Chad, a lot bigger, and he had spent the last four days killing things a lot more dangerous than the bullies in front of him.
"Tell me, does being a reptilian freak get you off or something you freak out about." Chad jeered as he shoved him against the wall of lockers. "We're going to need a new name for you, freak."
This time, the words just seemed to wash over him. Chad was right. He wasn't a little Hector anymore. Hector was dead. He was Abaddon. He had fought demon lords and ripped his way out of a zombie dinosaur's stomach. What the hell was he doing, letting someone like Chad push him around?!
Abaddon's claws dug into the lockers, the aluminum doors bending under his claws as he stood up straight to his full eight-foot tall height. Chad looked so tiny from up here.
"Leave me alone, Chad," Abaddon growled.
"Or what?!" Chad mocked.
Abaddon gave Chad a light shove, sending him stumbling to the ground.
"Or else that." Abaddon chuckled as he turned and walked away.
"You, you. You fucking freak!!!" Chad screamed, but Abaddon ignored him.
Then, pain ripped through his side. Abaddon turned around and found Kevin had stabbed him. Seriously?! The cut Kevin had actually been impressive was rather deep and took about ten percent of his total HP. It's not that it mattered that his injury was already healing, but seriously?! He never expected to be attacked.
"Kill him!!" Kevin called out
Chad and the others drew their weapons, and apart of Abaddon realized that they might have come here to kill him all along. But this was better somehow. These people weren't his bullies anymore. They were monsters and he knew how to fight monsters.
Abaddon activated [Giga Impact,] smashing Kevin, through the lockers and into the wall behind them.
"You mother fucker!!" Chad screamed as he charged him.
Then he activated [Charge]. Chad leaped out of the way, but the bully behind him was too slow, and he slammed into him. At the moment of impact, he felt the guy's bones break as he flew into lockers on the other side of the hall. Immediately, his victim started screaming. His body was a mess, both arms broken with shards of aluminum piercing his torso. The other looked on in horror as Abaddon turned back to them.
"What the fuck did you do?!" Chad screamed in outrage
Abaddon didn't respond. He wasn't Skippy, he didn't speak in combat.
Swinging with a [Giga Impact,] he beheaded the second bully with pure overwhelming force. Was it a beheading if his head exploded? Questions for later.
The third one swung a metal pipe at him. Abaddon let it catch on his arm before he grabbed the guy's arm and swung him at the fourth.
"GAHHHH!" the third man screamed as his arm dislocated.
Though, to be fair they were all screaming at this point. The fourth guy went down like a sack of potatoes as his friend impacted him, but for some reason, Abaddon just kept beating him. Hitting them again and again like wild animals until the man he was using as a weapon let out a wrenching scream. As his arm was ripped out of the socket, his body was sent flying into the ceiling, spraying the room in blood, and Abaddon was left with just his arm. The other guy was already dead, so Abaddon just chucked the arm and moved on to number five.
"Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me," he mumbled as a wet spot appeared around his pants.
Abaddon grabbed his upper torso in both hands and squeezed. The ribcage splintered into fragments as his organs were pulped, blood, bile and other things splattered onto the floor, the smell nauseating.
"I'll kill you and your fucking faggot friends." Chad roared as he hit him
Abaddon was sent skidding backwards. Turning with the blow, he found Chad charging at him again as he activated a skill.
"[Penance for the Fallen]," Chad roared as he launched himself at Abaddon.
Abaddon activated [Charge], slamming into Chad mid-jump and cancelling his attack mid-motion. [Penance of the Fallen] was a capstone skill from the [Avenger] class. It worked by empowering its user for every dead party member. So he guessed Chad had finally hit level 20.
Chad was sent rolling backwards as Abaddon moved to finish him when Kevin's daggers sliced into his neck. They did a lot less damage this time, but he still bleed profusely from the injury.
Abaddon moved to grab Kevin and slam him into the ground, but Kevin was surprisingly quick, sliding off his body like a creepy spider before he could crush his skull. But Kevin had forgotten about Abaddon's tail. Abaddon activated [Giga Impact] again and slammed Kevin into the wall with an empowered tail strike.
Then Abaddon froze. Kevin wasn't dead. He hadn't even taken as much damage as he was expecting. Worse, he was regenerating. How the hell did Kevin have the ability to regenerate? Now that Abaddon thought about it, Kevin seemed to be operating above what he would expect, even for a level 20. Goddammit, did Kevin have a bloodline?
Further questions were cut off as Chad smashed into him, his machete cleaving through his flesh and slamming into his collarbone. Anyone else that attacked would have been lethal, but Abaddon was a tank.
Grabbing Chad's leg, he yanked Chad off his feet and slammed him into the ground, one, two, then three times.
"[Vengeance]," Chad screamed, kicking Abaddon with the power of his last three attacks, smashing him into the lockers.
Abaddon was marginally impressed. Four days ago, these guys hadn't understood the system at all. Now, they were actually putting up a fight. But even still, he had already won this fight.
Kevin kept at him, his knives slashing across Abaddon's chest and coating his bully in even more of his blood, in his very toxic blood. But Abaddon was ready. The moment Kevin moved towards him, he wrapped his arms around Kevin's body, trapping him against his body, the lanky asshole began slashing and tearing up his flesh in a desperate move to escape every cut, and every drop of blood added more poison to his system, even as Abaddon crushed his body.
Kevin's body shuddered under the pressure, his breathing growing more and more laboured as he kept slashing and flailing at Abaddon in desperation, clearly unaware that he was only accelerating his own death. Abaddon felt the crack of thick bone snapping against his arm, and Kevin went limp. Abaddon dumped his one-time bully to the ground before stomping on his head, crushing it like a melon.
Chad tried to get to his feet, only to collapse back to the ground. Even with [Penance of the Fallen], Chad's body couldn't heal the damage he had already suffered, and he was still poisoned.
"You fucking monster," Chad gasped as he pulled a gun and shot him three times in the chest.
The gun clicked empty, and Abaddon picked the bullets from his scales, the damage from this fight having already healed. He smiled; now, technically, Chad was already dead. The poison in his system was going to kill him unless he got to a healer, but Abaddon wanted a bit of revenge for all those years Chad tormented him. He activated [Giga Impact] and smashed Chad into the ground. The sound of bones shattering and meat splatter echoed through the room as Chad was turned into a wet smear on the ground.
Abaddon stumbled backwards, even if he wasn't physically tired. Mentally, this had been exhausting. Abaddon collapsed to one knee, vomiting up his breakfast. He was covered in blood, human blood. That shouldn't have mattered, and yet somehow it did. He threw up again. He threw up until there was nothing but bile in his stomach.
The notification pulled Abaddon away from his train of thought. He didn't really think about his new level. It just went straight into [Giantslayer]. A clicking sound made him turn to look down the hall. He saw a dozen people there with their phones out, taking pictures or filming him. That was when Abaddon realized he was covered in blood and worse things and surrounded by people he had killed. He should call Tom.
You may skip to the next chapter.
Name: Abaddon (Hector Fortane)
Race: Lizard-Man
Type: Humanoid / Giant
LVL: 21
SubRace: Crocodile
Age 18
Health: 3135
Stamina: 4975
Mana: 840
Health Regen: 29.4 per min
Stamina Regen: 50.1 per min
Mana Regen: 12.6 per min
Titles: Beta-Tester, First, Awoken Myths, World's First 6
Immune
Poison
Resistances
Physical 50%, Disease 50%, Crit 56%
Weakness
Mental 50%, Frost 50%
Bane
Manslayer, Scaleslayer, Giantslayer
Classes: Giantslayer 21
Total
STR: 161
AGIL: 84
DEX: 42
CON: 210
END: 207
PER: 84
INT: 42
WILL: 42
SPIRIT: 84
EGO: 42
CHA: 42
LCK: 42
Base
STR: 147 +10%
AGIL: 84
DEX: 42
CON: 210
END: 189 +10%
PER: 84
INT: 42
WILL: 42
SPIRIT: 84
EGO: 42
CHA: 42
LCK: 42
Personal: +4 END, +3 STR, +3 CON, +2 PER +2 SPIRIT
Racial: +3 END, +2 STR, +2 CON +1 PER
Bloodline: +3 CON
Giantslayer Skills: +2 AGIL
Level Bonus: +1 to all Stats
Bloodline:
[Bloodline of the Lesser Hydra] - Rare: The distilled essence of what makes a hydra a hydra: regenerating from gruesome wounds, surviving having critical organs damaged, killing people just by bleeding on them, and being immune to and enjoying the consumption of poison.
* [Regeneration] - Level N/A
* [Redundant Organs] - Level 42 >> Level 56
* [Toxic Blood] - Level 16 >> Level 25
* [Poison Conasuir] - Level 29 >> Level 32
* +3 CON per Level
Skill Slots: 17/60: Skill Points: 8
Personal Skills
* [Natural Arms and Armour] - Level N/A
* [Aquatic Predator] - Level 11 >> Level 15
* [Storage] - Level 29 >> Level 33
* [Mapping] - Level 26 >> Level 31
* [System Wiki] - Level 23
* [Siegebreaker] - Level 25 >> Level 29
* [Brewer] - Level 3 >> Level 58
Giantslayer 10/16
* [Immortal Fists] - Level 33 >> Level 37
* [Monster Lifeforce (Giant)] - N/A
* [Giant Slayer] - N/A
* [Second Stage] - Level 9 >> Level 10
* [Endless Brawler] - Level 23 >> Level 25
* Capstone: [Legendary Strength] - Level N/A
* [Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum] - Level 21 >> Level 27
* [Charge] - Level 23 >> Level 26
* [Giga Impact] - Level 18 >> Level 21
* [Enlarge] - Level 5 >> Level 18