“Mm, what’s the problem?”
“The essence of Dragon Bloodline is actually a mix of the Divine Dragon Bloodline and other powerful magic beast bloodlines.”
Camilla explained while rapidly scanning the Pharmaceutical Formula written on the parchment Lilian had prepared.
“The two bloodlines aren’t simply stacked; they’re interlocked in some complex way. In childhood, this interlock is relatively stable, but as one grows, if there’s a lack of certain ‘Stimulus,’ the bloodline gradually enters a dormant state. This is the body’s self-protection mechanism, to prevent Bloodline Conflict from causing a breakdown.”
This was a common problem faced by most mixed-blood creatures: different bloodlines were at constant odds with each other—if one wasn’t suppressing the other, then it was being suppressed. Barring rare exceptions, it was nearly impossible to inherit all traits from both parents simultaneously.
“That sounds hard to fix.”
“No, it’s actually very easy to fix.”
Camilla gave Lilian a strange look. After all, handling Bloodline Conflict was one of the basics in an alchemist’s foundation courses.
Lilian, as an alchemist of at least fourth rank, couldn’t possibly have missed this point. But she was pretending to be clueless, clearly just making an excuse to spend time alone with Camilla.
The potion making went even smoother than she’d expected—or rather, it was just too easy for her.
In “Talora Continent,” players were never limited by profession in their learning range. Even if you joined the summoner class, you could completely ignore nurturing summoned beasts, focus on training your body, and beat every enemy to their knees with your fists—becoming the best “Summoner” in all of Mistlera without ever bringing a summon along.
In fact, as long as you were willing to grind skill proficiency, it wasn’t impossible to fully master every class’s skills in the late game—it just took a bit of a grind.
“All done.”
Twenty minutes later, she handed Lilian a bottle of pale golden potion.
“Give this to Xiao Yin. It can gently stimulate the dragon bloodline and solve the growth stagnation issue.”
Lilian gazed in delight at the potion, shimmering with starlight in her hand. She had followed Camilla’s verbal instructions for the improved process, never expecting such dramatic results. A formula that normally required repeated trial and error reached perfection with just a few tweaks from Camilla.
“Thank you so much! Camilla, you’re so good at alchemy—why didn’t you join the alchemist department?”
Lilian couldn’t help but ask.
“Summoners can sit back and watch their summons fight.”
Camilla replied as if it was only natural, starting to tidy up the remaining ingredients at the same time.
“Besides, who says summoners can’t understand alchemy? The skill descriptions don’t say ‘only for alchemists,’ do they?”
Lilian froze, then burst out laughing.
She had to admit Camilla was right. She herself trained both her mana and battle aura alongside her main focus on alchemy, but she hadn’t reached Camilla’s level of depth across fields.
“Can I use the leftover ingredients for something else?”
Camilla pointed to the Starlight Dew and Moonlight Moss Spore Powder left on the workbench, both rare treasures on the market.
“Of course, help yourself.”
Lilian nodded. The more ingredients Camilla used, the greater the favor she owed; the easier it would be to win her over later.
Camilla began concocting a second potion, working much faster this time. She added the ingredients one by one with practiced hands, as if she’d done it hundreds of times. Five minutes later, a bottle of pale blue liquid sat on the table.
“Awakening Potion—a potent medicine that can trigger a summoned beast’s potential, greatly boosting its base stats, and with a very small chance, even make it evolve. The downside is, each summoned beast can only use it once in a lifetime.”
With that, she called out Rimuru from her satchel. The blue slime jumped onto the workbench with a “puchi,” curiously eyeing the blue potion.
“Go on, drink it—it’ll do you good.”
Camilla uncorked the bottle and fed it to Rimuru.
Without hesitation, Rimuru let out a slurping sound and swallowed the entire potion in one gulp.
The next second, its body shuddered violently.
“Puchi… jiji jiji!”
A shrill screech suddenly burst out. Rimuru’s palm-sized body swelled like a balloon—ten times, fifty times, a hundred times its size! In the blink of an eye, it became a blue giant, nearly filling the entire laboratory!
“Wh-what’s happening?!”
Lilian backed away in shock. Xiao Yin immediately bristled, letting out a warning growl.
But things only got worse. The swollen Rimuru lost all its usual docility. Dozens of thick tentacles shot out from its murky blue mass, thrashing wildly. One tentacle wrapped around Lilian’s waist, another coiled around Camilla’s leg, yanking them both toward its main body.
“Xiao Yin! Help me!”
Lilian cried out.
The dragon-blooded beast lunged with a snarl, trying to bite through the tentacle, but the rampaging Rimuru swatted it away with a heavy blow. Xiao Yin slammed into the wall, crashing to the ground in a daze, unable to believe this was a slime’s strength.
The laboratory was a mess—equipment knocked over, bottles shattered, liquids flowing everywhere.
Camilla was suffocating from the tentacle’s grip, but her mind remained unusually clear.
“Hiss…damn it, what are the odds of this low-probability crap happening to me?!”
“What, ah! Don’t touch there! What’s going on?!”
Lilian clutched her skirt, struggling against Rimuru’s rather unrestrained tentacles.
“Oh, didn’t I mention? The Awakening Potion has a one percent chance of making a summoned beast evolve. Looks like Rimuru triggered that effect—but with a slight problem: it’s gone berserk during the evolution!”
“Berserk evolution… isn’t that a one-in-a-hundred chance mishap?!”
“Exactly! So this ten-thousandth chance accident just happened to the two of us! Damn it, let go of me, hey!”
Camilla, losing her composure for once, yelled out. The rampaging Rimuru seemed to have unleashed some primal nature, over a dozen blue tentacles sliding under her clothes, leaving behind trails of cold, smooth, sticky slime wherever they went.
If that was all, she might not have panicked to this degree. The problem was that the thing was stretching into places it definitely shouldn’t go, touching what should never be touched.
Gritting her teeth, face flushed, she groped for the edge of the workbench. Relying on memory, she grabbed two unbroken bottles, bit open their stoppers, mixed them, and smashed the contents onto the tentacle binding her!
Ssss! White mist erupted. The tentacle trembled violently.
Camilla seized the chance to break free, then hurriedly grabbed more ingredients, mixing them blindly by feel—an emergency formula from the game for rampaging summoned beasts—before hurling the mixture at both Rimuru’s main body and the tentacles gripping Lilian.
“Puchi… jiji…”
The shrill cries gradually weakened. The gigantic blue body began to shrink. The tentacles slackened and released their hold. After another minute, Rimuru returned to its original size, flopping weakly to the ground with a soft “puchi.”
Lilian stumbled and nearly fell, her face pale, her clothes soaked and clinging to her, outlining subtle curves.
“Hah… for now, that’s dealt with…”
Camilla exhaled, crouched down, and checked Rimuru’s status. Through her mental link, she could feel the little guy undergoing some fundamental transformation. On the outside, it had returned to normal, but inside, the metamorphosis was complete.
This should have been something to celebrate. Unfortunately, Camilla couldn’t feel happy at all right now.
She straightened her underwear, then spoke, enunciating each word.
“Stupid Rimuru! No dinner for you tonight!”