The sound of hoarse breathing echoed from the deep, uncharted basement.
Eleazar, who was having his body transformed by the magic potion, had beads of blood oozing out all over his body.
His hands, with their veins bursting out, gripped the clothes, and then lifted them and waved them about as if they were trying to catch the feathers that were spilling out of the air, or as if they were having an epileptic seizure; and with the coughing up of blood, the convulsions, and the recurrence of the dreamlike illness, he had been tossing and turning himself to the point of exhaustion, and only then did he cease to move...
Time passed little by little, but the symptoms of the disease continued unabated, despite the evaporation of blood and sweat, his skin was still dry and cracked and hot, his pulse was intermittent, and even stopped occasionally; his consciousness was already chaotic, but he could still clearly feel that the violent and sudden changes that were taking place in his body - blood and flesh were being dissolved and reorganized. The brutal process was excruciatingly painful for him.
The strings of sanity had long been strained to the breaking point as if they would collapse at any moment, and at the last moment, Eleazar used every ounce of will he had left to keep his brain awake; he had sensed that once he passed out, the potion would twist him into a faceless monster.
...
I don't know how long it took, but the power of the magic potion began to slowly fade.
Eleazar lies on the floor in a weak and unsteady state, his eyes staring vacantly at the ceiling.
The brain seems to have stopped thinking as well.
He's finished enduring the magic potion's transformation.
It was as if one had been given a new lease on life, and as if one had descended into a hell worse than a terminal illness.
A sense of crisis, if any, tightly wound around his heart, keeping him on edge and unable to settle down at all.
And as time passes, the more urgent it becomes.
After regaining a bit of strength, he immediately struggled to get up.
I don't know if it was because he had been tossed around too much by the magic potion, or if the debilitating disease had returned, but he felt his body was weaker than it had ever been at the moment.
Like a dying old man who can only hunch over and slowly creep.
By the time he managed to grab the stair railing and get back to the ground, he realized that it was already dark outside.
The trial went on all day.
But with a glance at the clock on the wall, Eleazar realizes that five whole days have passed!
He spent over 100 hours in the basement without eating or drinking!!!?
Eleazar's face was stunned as his brain seemed to try to analyze something, but it quickly became incapable of doing so, and he ended up with only one thought.
That's eating!
"So hungry..."
The moment the realization hit, the hunger pangs came flooding back and his head throbbed.
Their stomach was already twitching with hunger, and all the organs in his body were sending an almost frantic thirst to his brain.
That inexplicable sense of crisis became clear, that he was on the verge of starvation!
With a will to unify her whole body, Eleazar walked a little shakily on her feet to the kitchen and opened the cupboards with a shudder.
There were some spices and porcelain white dishes and utensils in there, but for the life of me, there was no food.
The strength that had been so hard to build up was disheveled.
"No... It shouldn't be... I clearly remember yesterday..."
The overly long trial of magic potions had caused the brain's memory to be severely skewed.
Stomach: "It's over, it's over, it's dying!"
Spleen: "Warning, backup energy is about to run out."
Ventricular: "Nutrient deficit, about to stop blood supply."
Liver: "Is there any help, please?"
Lungs: "Quick... Give me a blood supply, I can still be saved!"
Kidney: "I'm sick of this body, get me outta here!"
Brain: "The vital signs of the consciousness carrier have fallen to a critical point... It is ready for no more effort, thank you all for your 18 years of sincere cooperation, life has its dreams, and each one is wonderful, goodbye all..."
While in a trance, all sorts of absurd and bizarre distractions rise, and the hapless Eleazar is vaguely aware that his physical body seems to be about to undergo a mutation!
But just then, an unfamiliar force came over him, bringing him back to his senses in an instant, while his mind became so cold that it was as if he had stripped away the excess emotions.
"Shut up!"
Eleazar instantly regained control of his body, while suppressing that mutinous urge with a vengeance.
This is the residual transcendental activity of the magic potion...
Feeling the agitation within his body slowly calming down, Eleazar, who was in a state of extreme calm, quickly came to this conclusion.
Having solved the out-of-control crisis, he went back over to the stove and lifted the lid of the pot, where, to his surprise, he found a loaf of bread that had gone cold.
This is the lunch I prepared five days ago, intending to come up and eat it right after the trial, if all goes well...
I just didn't realize that the last step of the trial would go on for so long, and the steam-soft rye bread had already re-hardened after sitting for 5 days.
The taste is very bad... "Humans only need carbohydrates to survive, all other substances, are just superfluous desires."
Eleazar finished his bread with a grimace.
By finishing with a glass of cool water, you have completely satisfied your body's required nutrient intake.
As this transcendental state of absolute calm nears its end, Eleazar suddenly looks up at the glass case in front of him.
He reached out and slowly wiped the water spray off the glass, then saw the empty pupils of a pair of eyes whose pupils had completely disappeared.
...
Aside from that little concerning change in appearance, Eleazar could already feel that he was in a much different state than usual.
Especially after padding up, the strength that welled up inside was several times stronger than usual.
It was the first sense of fulfillment he had experienced in the ten years or so that he had been weak, a feeling that moved him so deeply that he never wanted to go back to his empty past.
After checking the changes in himself, he once again flipped through the magic guidebook.
"Enduring the baptism of the magic potion means that you have officially stepped into the transcendent realm, from this moment onwards, your life changes completely; you are no longer a mortal, and you possess the power to fight against the 'unknown'; perhaps you have already begun to try to control your destiny, but please don't forget that your greatest enemy, your heart, is constantly facing loss of control..."
The hand turning the pages paused...
"The residues of the unabsorbed magic potion will always be lurking in your body, and during the time you digest them, they will also be able to turn against you at any time; you will fight against each other, cancel each other out, or merge, and this process will continue until you consume the next potion, and the cycle will go on and on; in this path from which there is no turning back, the only thing you can do is to always remain calm, no matter what the situation, no matter what the circumstances..."
Always stay calm...
Eleazar took these important admonitions to heart.
Once one's spirit was out of control, the residual magical potion activity in one's body would instantly recoil, and no one knew for sure what kind of thing one would mutate into at that time.
As for what to do to control his mood swings, it was clear that that state just now had given him a good reference.
That was the extraordinary ability granted to him by the Enlightenment Magic Potion, and the way to turn it on was simple...
"Your body is a treasure, to explore to understand to dig is the right way to open it, but many people seek their whole life to find the key, and we, just need to focus our attention..."
For a moment, the world brightened in Eleazar's eyes.