As he sensed the Blood Phantom warriors leaving and gradually moving farther away, Nie Yan relaxed and canceled his feigned death skill. He stood up again and entered stealth mode.
Looking around, none of the Blood Phantom warriors had noticed that he had come back to life. They were still wandering around aimlessly.
Nie Yan stealthily moved toward the tent area ahead. The tents were connected by narrow paths about two to three yards wide, and occasionally some Blood Phantom warriors passed by. It was difficult to hide in this tent area while in normal stealth mode, making it easy to be discovered. Nie Yan used the Gnome Ring’s transformation skill, shrinking his body to about one-third of its original size. Suddenly, everything around him seemed enormous, as if he had entered a land of giants.
Nie Yan carefully crept along the edges of the tents.
One after another, Blood Phantom warriors passed not far from Nie Yan, but none of them noticed him hiding in the corner. After weaving through the tents for an unknown amount of time, Nie Yan reached an intersection where two groups of about seventy to eighty Blood Phantom warriors were approaching. With so many warriors passing by, it would be easy for them to detect Nie Yan’s presence.
As the warriors drew closer, Nie Yan grew anxious. He had nowhere else to go and glanced toward a nearby tent, where he noticed movement inside.
Nie Yan quickly slipped into the tent and hid behind the curtain. Usually, Blood Phantom warriors wouldn’t enter these tents, so he could wait until the two groups passed before leaving.
Nie Yan examined his surroundings. The tent was about 10×10 yards in size and appeared quite spacious. In the center were cabinets filled with all sorts of differently sized crystal bottles. Inside the bottles were colorful liquids that refracted light, creating a dazzling display. These cabinets were over two people tall, dividing the tent into several sections. In the distance was a table filled with various bottles and containers. At the center of the table was a test tube rack holding a flask, inside which a light blue liquid was constantly boiling, producing bubbles and a wisp of white smoke rising from the mouth of the flask.
This was clearly a laboratory belonging to an alchemist.
As Nie Yan was thinking, he heard approaching footsteps. He quickly hid behind a cabinet and looked toward the source of the sound. The person who entered was very short, reaching only to the waist of an average person. His face was covered with wrinkles and a scruffy beard, and he wore a tattered red robe with holes burned from potion experiments. This short old man was likely a Blood Phantom Legion alchemist. As he passed by Nie Yan, he muttered something, unfortunately in Lorgic, a rare language Nie Yan couldn’t understand at all.
The old alchemist walked toward the table in the distance, seemingly preparing to mix some potion.
Nie Yan cast a reconnaissance skill on the old alchemist.
Alchemist Afraic (member of the Blood Phantom Legion): level 90 special NPC, non-combatant, health 500/500.
This was a peculiar NPC. Generally, once an NPC’s alchemy skill reached the master level or above, the Core System would automatically set the NPC as non-combatant. Actively attacking such an NPC would result in severe penalties.
Nie Yan remembered that attacking a non-combatant production class NPC of master level or above would violate the Scholars’ Spirit Treaty of the Atlantis Continent, resulting in the permanent inability to use any special items or blood vials. The Scholars’ Spirit referred to the privilege granted to NPCs whose production skills reached the master level or above.
This NPC was a member of the Blood Phantom Legion, and Nie Yan dared not reveal himself. If the old man discovered Nie Yan’s location, it would be troublesome.
Nie Yan scanned the extremely messy alchemy laboratory, feeling a sense of treasure hunting, and began searching the lab for valuable items.
Such scenes often featured some rare treasures.
Many of the bottles and jars in the lab were unlabeled, and Nie Yan, who knew nothing about alchemy, had no idea what they were, so he ignored them. He carefully searched through the lab, moving very quietly without making any sound.
At that moment, a Blood Phantom warrior wearing golden armor lifted the curtain and entered the alchemy lab.
“Respected Master Afraic… Has the Life Winter Potion been completed?” the Blood Phantom warrior in golden armor asked, using Ancient Common Tongue, which was somewhat broken and hard to understand.
The short alchemist, Afraic, replied in Ancient Common Tongue, “In the second drawer of the third cabinet.”
Their use of Ancient Common Tongue was not fluent, but sufficient for basic communication.
After the conversation ended, the Blood Phantom warrior approached Nie Yan’s hiding place.
As the warrior drew closer, Nie Yan guessed that he was at least an elite-level enemy. Nie Yan had no chance against this Blood Phantom warrior.
With nowhere to hide, Nie Yan looked up and noticed that the top of the cabinet did not touch the top of the tent. He jumped high, extended his left hand, and shot out a thread of spider silk. The silk stuck to the top of the cabinet, and with a leap, Nie Yan reached the top of the cabinet and hid himself.
Unexpectedly encountering such a situation, Nie Yan couldn’t help but feel tense. The Blood Phantom warrior seemed to have noticed something. He looked around and searched the alchemy lab but found no trace of Nie Yan, wearing a puzzled expression. He then began searching the cabinets according to Afraic’s instructions and found what he needed.
He took the item and bid farewell to Alchemist Afraic, then left the alchemy lab.
Nie Yan was about to jump down from the top of the cabinet when he suddenly noticed several old scrolls placed on the top shelf of the opposite cabinet. He couldn’t tell what they were, but they looked ancient, covered in a thick layer of dust from lack of cleaning.
Nie Yan’s heart raced. The Core System often set up various treasure-hunting opportunities for players. These scrolls must have some mystery behind them!
Nie Yan leapt toward the top of the opposite cabinet. The distance between the cabinets was about three yards. Nie Yan jumped over effortlessly and landed lightly on the top of the opposite cabinet, gripping it tightly without making a sound.
He bent down and grabbed the scrolls. There were two of them. They were the recipes for the Life Winter Potion and the Basic Vitality Potion.
The Life Winter Potion was a potion that enhanced ice magic effects, providing a strong boost to ice magic. Drinking one bottle would increase ice magic effects by 30% for thirty seconds, placing it in the category of advanced potions that required an advanced alchemist to create.
However, players’ understanding of the Life Winter Potion wasn’t limited to just enhancing ice magic effects. This potion was considered an excellent recipe for advanced alchemists aiming to become masters. Because each successful creation of a Life Winter Potion would grant two skill experience points, more than the usual advanced potions, and its ingredients were relatively easy to find. A level 60 player team could gather dozens of ingredients from a trip to the Frosty Mountains, making the Life Winter Potion recipe highly coveted by advanced alchemists.
However, due to the difficulty in finding the Life Winter Potion recipe, its price was quite expensive, and few advanced alchemists could afford it.
Seeing the Life Winter Potion recipe, Nie Yan’s first thought was that the first master alchemist would soon emerge from the Star Pharmacy!
With this Life Winter Potion recipe, an advanced alchemist could reach the master level within half a month.
As for the Basic Vitality Potion, it was somewhat different from the usual instant recovery potions and instant magic recovery potions. The Basic Vitality Potion could restore both health and mana instantly, which was very convenient for magic users. In battle, they often lacked both magic and life, so using instant recovery potions and instant magic recovery potions separately would be too time-consuming. Using one Basic Vitality Potion could restore 35% of health and 35% of mana at the same time, instantly restoring some fighting power for magic users.
In the later stages, players’ health and mana often reached six or seven thousand, eight or nine thousand, or even over ten thousand. Using an instant recovery potion could only restore a few hundred or one or two thousand mana points, which was less cost-effective compared to using a vitality potion, as vitality potions restored based on a percentage.
The Basic Vitality Potion belonged to the master level potion category, and generally, master level recipes were very expensive and rare.
Nie Yan remembered that in his previous life, he and a group of friends had entered over twenty level 100 dungeons before they were lucky enough to obtain a master-level recipe. Selling that recipe allowed their group to upgrade all their equipment to a higher level.
The Basic Vitality Potion required a master-level alchemist to create, while the intermediate and advanced vitality potions would likely require grandmaster and supreme master-level alchemists to produce. Nie Yan calculated that a Basic Vitality Potion recipe was worth about twenty gold coins, and a finished product could sell for about fifty gold coins on the market.
Generally, vitality potions, like instant recovery potions, were used for emergency life-saving purposes and were only used in critical moments.
Nie Yan put the two recipes into his backpack and checked the information about the Star Pharmacy. Since the Bull Man Tribe unified Karol City, the number of advanced alchemists at the Star Pharmacy had sharply increased, reaching a total of thirty-seven. Many advanced alchemists saw the development potential of the Bull Man Tribe and the Star Pharmacy and joined in large numbers, rapidly expanding the pharmacy’s alchemist team. However, the only slight regret was that the Star Pharmacy still had no master-level alchemists. Nie Yan made up his mind to quickly cultivate a master-level alchemist upon his return, as it was crucial for the development of the Star Pharmacy!
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