Hell World, Undead Street, General Store No. 111, Back Kitchen.
“Ah—achoo!”
For some reason, Bai Tang suddenly sneezed out of nowhere. Her body shivered violently right after, and the potion bottle in her hand nearly slipped from her grasp.
“What’s wrong? Did you catch a cold while sleeping at night?” Claire frowned slightly from the side and asked with concern. “The temperature has dropped these past two days. Is the bedding in your room too thin?”
Bai Tang sniffled.
Recently, it seemed like some terrifying existence had passed by Undead Street, causing the temperature to plummet. Even though her bedroom — which had been converted from a storage room — was well-kept, it couldn’t escape the damp and chilly atmosphere caused by its location and layout. Sleeping in a room like that for long periods would make even an ordinary human fall ill.
“How about you sleep in my room tonight instead?” Claire said calmly, her expression unchanged.
Sleeping in the Witch teacher’s room… Did that mean sleeping in the same bed as her?
No, no, no! Students were students, and teachers were teachers. How could a student sleep together with her teacher?!
Bai Tang vigorously shook her head, trying her best to throw out the unhealthy images that had flashed through her mind. She stubbornly replied,
“Thank you for your concern, teacher, but I don’t feel uncomfortable anywhere else.”
“Alright then.”
Claire’s gaze lingered on the sudden blush that had appeared on the girl’s cheeks. She fell into thought. This girl isn’t thinking about that kind of thing again, is she?
“Don’t get distracted while making potions. Control your spiritual power properly!”
Claire lightly knocked her small fist on top of Bai Tang’s head.
“Guh…”
Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, more than a week had already passed since she sent her compatriot back to Earth and parted ways with the demon hunter.
With all her troubles resolved, her life seemed to have entered a brief period of calm.
Aside from quietly waiting behind the counter during business hours for bizarre creatures to come buy goods, or going out to deliver letters, she spent most of her off-duty time like this — staying with the Witch teacher and tinkering with potions.
Being an assistant wasn’t completely without benefits. Bai Tang could now independently create some simple recovery potions.
It was only now that she truly understood what the Witch teacher had meant back then — making potions didn’t necessarily require magic power. Spiritual power could also be used.
“Ah, that’s right, teacher!” While under the Witch teacher’s supervision as she independently finished making a bottle of recovery potion, Bai Tang took the opportunity to ask, “Is there any kind of potion that can greatly increase one’s strength in a short period of time after drinking it? Can I learn how to make something like that?”
As she spoke, Bai Tang placed the finished recovery potion into the Living Stomach Bag at her waist. After feeding it a piece of frog leg jerky, she took out a large amount of ingredients she had prepared in advance for potion-making.
Three-legged red toad saliva, semi-mature tubers of the carrion taro, and the digestive sac of a soft-bodied demon… and so on. Just preparing this specific set of ingredients in advance had cost her nearly 2,500 Ghost Coins.
Claire was momentarily stunned. This formula was…
“Did you peek at my notes, Bai Tang?”
The Witch teacher’s brows furrowed tightly. She seemed quite displeased that Bai Tang had looked through her notes without permission.
“I’m sorry, teacher. The student didn’t do it on purpose…” Bai Tang blinked her big, watery eyes, putting on a very aggrieved expression. “While cleaning your room, the student happened to see it. I thought you might need it, so I bought the ingredients in advance…”
Bai Tang had only wanted to help clean the Witch teacher’s room. She definitely hadn’t intentionally knocked the notebook to the floor. She had only wanted to check if it was damaged, and definitely hadn’t been driven by curiosity to flip through it on purpose.
What was this called?
This was called well-intentioned peeking!
Fortunately, the Witch teacher didn’t seem to mind too much. She simply waved her hand and said,
“That’s a new formula I’ve been trying to create. It’s still not very complete yet. If you want to see it, Bai Tang, and since we happen to have all the ingredients right now, go ahead and try making it.”
“Go get the notebook. While you’re at it, come help me.”
“Okay, teacher!”
The girl excitedly hopped in place. As expected, good things had to be fought for!
With Bai Tang’s current level of only LV15 — still at the Fierce Ghost level — she couldn’t create much of a gap between herself and most of the bizarre creatures on Undead Street. Whether it was the Demon Hunter Revolver or her tentacles, they could only deal sufficient damage against Fierce Ghost level beings.
Once she faced something at the Blood Robe level like the Barrel Butcher, it was obvious she would lack firepower and be forced into a prolonged battle.
The Soul-Severing Knife that dropped after defeating the Barrel Butcher could directly affect souls and had decent killing power, but it was an [Evil]-aligned relic, and the cost of using it was too high.
After the Witch teacher took one look at it, she had confiscated it.
All things considered, if Bai Tang wanted to have the strength to fight against Blood Robe level bizarre creatures on her own in critical moments, she would have to start with the Witch teacher’s potions, which had played a key role in previous battles.
……
……
Time passed quickly while making the new potion. In the blink of an eye, evening had arrived. The sky was growing dark — which, according to the Witch teacher, was also the time when the potion’s effects would be at their strongest.
Of course, as usual, the testing phase was unavoidable.
Looking at the dark red liquid slowly flowing inside the potion bottle, Bai Tang couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Even without drinking it, she could faintly sense that this potion gave off a far more violent aura than any potion she had taken before.
Focusing her attention, the gray pupil of her right eye slowly revealed information about the potion.
[Name: Witch’s Unknown Handmade Potion]
[Item: Potion]
[Introduction: A potion jointly created by the Witch ‘Claire Charlotte’ and her human student ‘Bai Tang.’ It contains a terrifying aura of mutation and curse. Consuming it carries certain risks…]
[Value: ???]
This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Back when she fought the Pig-Head Butcher at the slaughterhouse, the unidentified potion that had resulted from a failed Flesh Recovery Potion had been the same.
The Eye of Breaking Delusions was unable to directly determine the potion’s exact effects.
Bai Tang guessed that it was because this was a completely new potion created by the Witch teacher — something that had never existed before. Like Schrödinger’s cat, until it was actually consumed for the first time and an anchor was set, the potion’s effects remained chaotic and disordered. Any kind of mutation was possible.
She turned her gaze to the side and saw the Witch teacher calmly nod, signaling her to test it.
Bai Tang knew that no matter what happened to her next, the Witch teacher would be there to handle it. So there really wasn’t much to worry about.
“Teacher, I’m drinking it!”
Without hesitating any further, Bai Tang pulled out the stopper and tilted her head back, downing the potion in one gulp.
Unlike Bai Tang, who had no idea what the potion’s effects were, the Witch teacher — as the creator of the formula — seemed to have already anticipated something. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
“Try your best to stay conscious, okay? If you pass out, I really will tie you to the bed~”
Bai Tang: “?!?!”