Day 5 before going to Iqualius City…
Chrysos had an entire set-up full of ingredients as usual. This was the first time he was using the bio-engines for alchemy purposes.
He repurposed the drill into a mixer to make his job even easier. The unique ability "Blending" has the capability to turn two ingredients that normally don't mix into a well blended mixture.
He can't just use that for everytime he has to mix stuff, sometimes all Chrysos needs is to manually stir the ingredients. But then again, if he could just mix it using a machine, Chrysos would gladly do so while he worked on the other tedious tasks as the ingredients were getting mixed.
Now, what is Chrysos up to?
His plan for today is to work on things about his body that he neglected.
First of all, his bones. He has the body composition of a humanized rhino which gave him extreme amounts of strength that allowed him to easily destroy most of the enemies that he fought so far.
The reason why Chrysos neglected this is because he assumed that the Muscle Hardening Potion would change his entire body, including his bones.
Also, Chrysos decided to call them Evolutionary Potions instead of the Muscle Hardening Potion to appropriately fit its real function.
Chrysos was right though. The potion did strengthen his bones. But the effects were weaker for some reason.
Now after some testing, Chrysos figured out why his bones weren't affected much by the potion. He discovered that the Evolutionary Potions cannot affect organic tissue that was too hard. His bones are very tough, so the potion skipped most of his bones and only went for his softer tissues.
So how is he going to fix this problem?
Easy.
He had to increase the potency of the potion and inject it directly into his skeleton.. Sounds simple, but what's the downside?
It is very, very painful.
Sure, Chrysos can get the help of Meiros to block the pain towards his brain, but with that much pain, nerve damage is going to be a great possibility.
To fix this issue, the potion must be injected into the skeleton in small amounts. This way, the pain will be reduced but the suffering will be longer.
Chrysos exhaled and calmed himself down. He began brewing the Evolutionary Potion.
To strengthen his bones, he needed a creature to use for his potion. Luckily, he already has the preserved body of a Searing Venom Cobra.
The Searing Venom Cobra is a very dangerous creature and its rank is usually Iretoir Partial Rebirth stage to Provectis Reformation stage. Chrysos managed to snag a Partial Rebirth Cobra to initially use for some kind of poison, but he decided to use it for his bones instead because this Cobra's bones are very tough, comparable to, if not, stronger than the Steel Rhino. Not only that, it also has flexible joints.
With these factors involved, Chrysos was inclined to use it for the potion.
Clapping his hands together, Chrysos began brewing. "Alright.. let's get to work now."
And while Chrysos was brewing the potion, Meiros was practicing with the sword. He's still an amateur and his sword skills are subpar. But with his learning speed, he was advancing more quickly than others.
Using Blood Sap Mushrooms, Night Cloud Rabbit Intestines, The sap of the Yellow Tooth Fruit Tree, the procedure was just the same as usual.
But Chrysos was brewing a Rare Tier version of the evolutionary potion. There were more ingredients than normal.
He added Stone Driller Worms, Soursalt and Emerald Beetles into the mix.
Crushing the soursalt with the emerald beetles, Chrysos put them into the mixer and left it there while he worked with the blood sap mixture and the cobra's body.
It only took Chrysos 2 minutes to finish it. After that, he took a vial of hypertraining fluid from his belt and poured it into the small barrel filled with the base muscle potion.
The conversion process began and the evolutionary potion was starting to take shape.
Poof!
The barrel released a fume of dark green smoke.
Chrysos looked inside and was a bit doubtful.. "Success??"
The finished product was a dark green jelly that emitted an aura of ominousness. Chrysos raised an eyebrow at this. "Is this supposed to be an evolutionary potion? I know I increased the potency, but it looks too… jelly like."
Chrysos removed his glove and touched it. A piece of the green jelly stuck on his hand and it slowly traveled down to his palm. Seeing that it doesn't affect his hand at all, he took off his mask and placed it on the table.
His long, spiky rough black hair dropped down. Chrysos then took a whiff of the jelly.
Sniff.
Chrysos immediately coughed after that. The poisonous gas emitted by the jelly made his breathing difficult and his muscles constrict.
"Oh crap, this thing is strong… *cough* I only took a small whiff and I'm affected by *cough* this much." Chrysos drank a poison neutralizer and only then did the effects slowly disappear from his body.
"Next time I'm working with poison, I'd probably need a lab rat." Chrysos sighed and put on his mask. "This mixture is poisonous so I'd probably just die if I inject this inside me right now." Chrysos needed a vaccine of some sort to make his body immune to the poison just like how the Cobra is immune to its own venom.
Taking a sample of the evolutionary potion, Chrysos used it to make a poison neutralizer specifically for it.
He used the special glands of a Deep Sea Plunger Crab that has the ability to neutralize the venom that they produce. The Plunger Crabs use this venom in their claws to immobilize and catch prey.
The next one is the flaps inside the gills of a Spewer Pufferfish that fills their entire body with venom and then spew it through the holes of its spines. Adding in the meat of a Poisonfield Cow that lives and eats poisonous flowers, grass and weeds.
Lastly, the waters where Sweetthorn Flower petals have been soaked into for over ten years. Sweetthorn Flowers are thorny flowers with very delicate petals that can be drained of its essence by soaking it on water long enough.
Chrysos poured the water into a pot and began heating it up. He extracted the meat of the Poisonfield cow, squeezed out the liquid inside the glands of a Plunger crab and then purified it, and finally by mixing the flaps of the Spewer Pufferfish with Bloodsap mushrooms to liquify the flaps to easily mix it with the rest of the mixture.
He then added a spoonful of the jelly and poured it in the pot. He began blending it for five minutes and then he used the mixer to let it mix for fifteen minutes.
After that, he was done. He drank the potion and his body quickly adapted to become immune to the cobra's poison.
Taking a deep breath, Chrysos drank a strong numbing agent before injecting some of the jelly into his bones. Of course he can't just put it in any spot in his body, he needed to put it somewhere it could spread throughout his entire skeleton.
Chrysos used the flaming claws to burn a hole that led directly to his spine. He weakened his defenses as much as possible so that he could burn through his steel skin easier.
He raised the large and crude syringe behind his back. He gritted his teeth and stabbed it into his bones.
"That… didn't hurt as much as I expected.." Chrysos shrugged. He then injected the jelly inside and that's when he felt the unspeakable pain.
"Gah!! My bones are on fire..!" Chrysos heaved in a mouthful of air and exhaled it out. The pain was tolerable, but his legs and arms were twitching from the pain. A golden glare in his eyes and then he suddenly felt a surge of determination spread throughout his entire body. Chrysos clenched his fists as sweat slowly built up on his body.
He calmed his breathing down and stopped moving his legs. His eyes were filled with unyielding will to go through the pain.
After fifteen minutes, the pain stopped.
Breathing heavily, Chrysos raised his arms and filled his syringe with the jelly so that he could go for another shot. He examined the volume of the jelly and saw that it was enough for four more shots.
"Oh are you kidding me?" Chrysos slumped down. "Oh well, no pain no gain."
He stabbed the syringe and injected the jelly into his skeleton once again.
"It f#cking hurts…! Why do I always have to go through this much suffering!? It hurts so badly..!"
…
…
…
After a lot of cursing and silent screams of pain, Chrysos laid down on the floor, motionless like a rock.
Chrysos slowly raised his head and looked at the syringe in front of him. He flipped it off before resting his head once again.
Meiros walked inside the room and looked at Chrysos. "Master, what are you doing?"
"Nothing.." Chrysos had his face planted on the ground so the he spoke was very muffled. "Oh yeah, drink the potion from the pot, you need it.."
"Alright..?" Meiros already knew that Chrysos shows his strange antics here and there, so he really didn't question him lying down on the floor. It was the least weird thing that he could probably do.
He took a cup and scooped the contents of the pot.
It wasn't as hot as before so it was easily drank by Meiros in one gulp. It tasted quite sour and meaty.. a weird flavor mixing with each other tastes chaotic but it wasn't disgusting.
"Master, what's this potion for?" Meiros squatted down and nudged Chrysos who was on the ground.
"Vaccine.. for poison.." Chrysos lazily spoke three words. "Also, we're doing a quest later.. I want to make a potion."
"Understood." Meiros put the cup on the table and went back inside his room. If his master was initiating a quest, it wasn't going to be easy. Most of the time, it was very life threatening.
…
Twenty minutes later.
Chrysos has long recovered and was currently brewing potions. Once he was done, he stretched his body and then he dusted off his clothes and checked his physical state.
When he previously fought Cran's group, he felt that his bones were sustaining great amounts of damage. Especially that time when he overloaded his left arm with Force Pulse magic circles. When he punched with that much force, it ripped apart his arm and turned it into a shriveled mess of flesh and blood.
He grabbed a steel ingot and smashed it on his shin.
Bang!
Chrysos looked at the steel ingot and saw that it had a massive dent on it.
"What.." Chrysos rubbed his shin as he felt nothing but a dull impact that barely hurt him. "That is a great improvement…" He turned around and said, "Meiros! We're going now."
Meiros quickly got out of the room, fully dressed. It was evident that he came prepared. He sheathed his sword and began putting on his chestplate, boots, pauldrons, and gauntlets.
They both entered the stables where Ralfor slept quietly.
Chrysos opened the door and gently patted Ralfor's head. "Ralfor, wake up.."
Ralfor opened his mouth and yawned. His eyes slowly opened from small slits into beautiful flames of red and orange contained inside his iris. Ralfor stood up and walked out of the stables. Chrysos opened the door to the exit and Ralfor went out. He had been on many quests with Chrysos, so he knew what to do when Chrysos asked for him to wake up.
Taking a large set of armor from the stables, Meiros put it on Ralfor to give him extra defense.
This lion armor was commissioned by Chrysos from a decent armorsmith and the result was very satisfactory. It didn't affect Ralfor's speed that much at all, so this was within the acceptable range.
Chrysos hopped on and reached his hand out for Meiros.
Meiros grabbed Chrysos' arm and climbed up.
"You good?" Chrysos checked behind him.
"Yep, let's go." Meiros gave a thumbs up.
"Hiyah!" Chrysos struck the reins down which prompted Ralfor to roar before running towards the adventurer's guild. Some of the bystanders looked at the beautiful mount donning shiny steel armor with envy, with appreciation and some stepped out of the way and minded their own business.
Chrysos controlled the reins to prevent Ralfor from going too fast. He turned from one street to another until he reached the guild.
Chrysos got off and looked at Meiros. "Make sure to keep him here and don't hesitate to shout if something's wrong."
Meiros clicked the side of his mouth twice and made a finger gun gesture. "Master, don't worry about me."
Knowing that he had nothing to worry about, Chrysos went inside the building to take a quest.
Of course, as an alchemist who desperately needs flesh type ingredients, he needed to take quests that provide special ingredients for his experiments.
Little did Chrysos know that this need for special ingredients was the cause for him to be mistaken as Legion's Thorn. With Asimi and Chrysos' need for these materials and ingredients, Chrysos unknowingly became the main enemy of the Legion just because he and Asimi both focused on flesh type alchemy.