Abel let out a breath with a deep rotten smell. Almost immediately afterward, all the plant decors in the house had wilted, as though it hadn't been watered in days.
A truly terrifying poison. Since Abel did not have much knowledge of poisons, he now finally had the chance to get a taste of their strengths. Luckily he had the golden combat qi to keep it under control. Otherwise, he would have died before he could even brew the poison antidote potion.
Now that the problem of the poison was gone, he could finally be at ease. But then, his brain began to register the feeling of pain from his wounds. The numbing effects of the poison had gone, leaving behind the untreated wound.
Taking out 3 sets of ingredients for a healing potion, Abel made 3 bottles of blue healing potion. After combining them using the Horadric cube, he'd obtained a golden healing potion, one that he would only use on himself.
Abel had a certain requirement for all the potions he brews. Under normal circumstances, he would combine the ingredients. Then, he would use the dark gold Akara's alchemy bottle to produce an improved blue rarity potion. These blue rarity potions wouldn't have unexpected effects.
As for the other combined potions he made, he would also only use it on himself. It would be a huge problem if their possible unexplained side effects were made known to the public.
After pouring the healing potion into his mouth, the 3 slashes had recovered quickly. Just after a few minutes, all the wounds were sealed, leaving behind a scab. Just a few moments later, the scab fell off, leaving behind a light red-colored scar. There was no way you would be able to tell that there was a deep wound just minutes before.
As Abel thought about making more potions, the bell on the wall had rung. This was the way of Steward Brewer signaling that a guest he couldn't stop had arrived.
Completely recovered, Abel had closed the magic circles. Leaving the Master's room, he was greeted by Grand Duke Edwina.
"Your Royal Highness, why have you come here in person?" Abel greeted her with a bow.
"Did you get a dark scorpion's poison in you?" Grand Duke Edwina looked at Abel suspicious at the news she'd heard.
Abel looked unscathed and full of life, showing no signs of being poisoned.
"I had just brewed a poison antidote potion and cured the poison!" Abel replied smiling.
Though Grand Duke Edwina was not well versed in alchemy, she also knew the strength of dark scorpion poison. It was not as easy as Abel had put it, but she hadn't felt the need to dig deeper.
"Abel, your attackers were dark elves. There must've been elves in the city who were accomplices. I should've known that the dark elves would target you when a Master alchemist such as you showed up. That was an oversight on my part. This is a rune for the city's defense system. Next time you encounter something like this, just activate the rune and blow them up!" Grand Duke Edwina said, throwing him a wooden tile.
Holding the rune sign in his hand, Abel knew how important the rune sign was. Being a rune sign, naturally, the power transfer would be limited. However, it was still enough to prevent damage and disintegrate his opponents. Checking out the rune with his power of the will had revealed that it was one especially made for him. He could also feel that he could teleport to most of the city.
"Your highness, this is too much!" Abel replied with a bow, feeling the weight of the gift.
"Abel, since my daughter chose you, no matter who you are, we are family. So, please accept it!" Grand Duke Edwina replied with a smile.
Abel had thoroughly impressed her. So what if he was human. A commander, level 3 wizard, master blacksmith, master alchemist, all at such a young age. Many elves would be working their whole lives just to reach one of his achievements. Even if he was just a level 3 wizard, he could still summon a spirit wolf. No level 3 wizard could do that.
Grand Duke Edwina couldn't help but worry for Abel after hearing the recount of his battle today. Two miniature crossbows, even an official druid such as Abel might not have survived.
The crossbows were what angered Grand Duke Edwina the most. These were weapons for single targets. If they weren't targeting someone else other than Abel, they would not have failed. Grand Duke Edwina knew Abel was a commander, and assassinating one in the Holy Continent was almost impossible as the intuition of a commander was rarely wrong.
After sending off Grand Duke Edwina, Abel once again cast the defense magic circle, followed by Barrier Circle, ready to enter the dark world to prepare for the mission in a week.
Using the blue portal, Abel had reached the Rogue's encampment. He then brought out the Akara tent and stood in front of the alchemy stand.
He then took out the golden 'air breaking potion' that Master Mara had given to him, which was able to increase the speed attribute. There are some special ingredients required in this potion that are endemic to certain parts of the double moon forest.
Abel hadn't consumed them immediately. As for potions crafted by others, he believed that combining them within the Horadric cube would produce better results. He put the potions into the Horadric Cube and pressed the transmute button using his power of the will. The bottles had disappeared in white light, leaving behind a dark gold rank air breaking potion.
Abel's speed was now 6.5, and it was still the lowest of all his attributes. Being a knight, an occupation not based on speed, naturally his speed isn't high. Most of the movements for a knight are done by their mount. It could be said that a knight was only complete with their mount.
The assassination attempt today showed Abel the consequences of having low speed. With enough speed, he would have been able to utilize the moment after throwing the shield and dodged the six arrows flying towards him, avoiding the poison Completely.
Therefore as soon as he had spare time, the first thing he did was to upgrade the air breaking potion gifted by Master Mara.
He picked up the bottle, drinking all of it in one go. As though he was in a hot spring, a warmth filled his body, only leaving his body after half an hour. Checking his attributes, the 6.5 of speed had become a 10.5.
Abel then put his hand in the air and flayed it around, noticing even simple movements like this feel faster. He felt as though his speed had doubled as he ran around in the Akara Tent.
Unfortunately, he hadn't received the recipe for air breaking potion. Furthermore, the ingredients were incredibly hard to gather. The golden air breaking potion must've required ingredients that Master Mara had gathered throughout the years. Because of how rare the ingredients were, you have to hope that you are lucky, and the loss of ingredients is minimized.
Improving the attributes was the first item on his checklist before executing the mission. The second point was to prepare enough potions, especially healing potions and poison antidote potions, having 2 dark gold ranks, 2 gold ranks, and 8 blue ranks of each. The blues were for the elves that were in his exploration team. He was still a master alchemist. Obviously, he would be saving the good stuff for himself.
Abel had also prepared some other potions. For example, he had nutrition potions that lasted for 10 days, and recovery potions to recover stamina.