When Ivan returned, Laurie was advancing with a proud, chest-thumping stride.
Seeing the smile on his face, Ivan wondered if he would still be able to smile later.
With a nod to Justine, he really wasn't in the mood to say much more.
At dinner, all apprentices had a new pale blue curse mark on their arms. Nobody present was a fool—they connected it to the previous batch of apprentices, piercing through the nice illusions of the past and recognizing the harsh reality.
A shadow of death seed to envelop them.
Even Laurie, who loved to show off, had turned into a frost-stricken eggplant.
Seven days passed in a blur.
During these days, the power of the curse marks quickly began to show. Justine's brown hair grew wildly, the newly grown hair a mix of half-green, half-brown.
Finkel, Glen, Charlene, and Feyen sprouted bluish stubble, and blue vertical stripes appeared on their nails.
The most severe case was Thomson, the weakest of them all. His face swelled, and his eyebrows, eyes, and lips all turned a purple-blue, as if he had been severely poisoned, which indeed frightened many people.
Ivan and Laurie, being the strongest, showed no strange changes for the ti being.
In fact, Ivan knew that changes were already occurring inside his body.
Strength: 3.0, Agility: 3.7, Body Constitution: 4.0, Spirit: 3.6
His body constitution had inexplicably increased by 0.3 units, while his agility decreased by 0.1.
What Toyennes had ntioned before made so sense: the curse mark truly enhanced ditation, aiding in understanding the ditation runes. However, he had learned from Pearney that the ditation thod and the curse mark were interrelated; ditating in such a state would inevitably accelerate the integration of the curse's power.
Toyennes certainly had a preditated plan in teaching them all the ditation runes from the start.
"Ivan, co out quick," soone called.
Upon hearing the familiar command, Ivan walked out the door, with the little green winged snake signaling him to hurry up.
The little green winged snake, its slit pupils fixing on him, asked, "Did you make Sorcerer Toyennes angry?"
Ivan replied, "I rely made a small request to my ntor."
The little green winged snake's attitude cooled significantly. "You've overstepped. As a human, you need to know your place."
Ivan could not deny it, knowing full well that Lahr was completely obedient to Toyennes; Toyennes' attitude was Lahr's.
The little green winged snake led him to a room on the far right. Without waiting for him to react, it flapped its wings and shoved him into the room.
When Ivan steadied himself, he found Toyennes standing in front of a bookshelf, holding a piece of literature in his hands.
"ntor, your student greets you," Ivan said.
"Ivan, are you sure you need what you asked for?"
"Very sure."
Toyennes' gaze swept over his body, and Ivan felt a wave of ntal power sweep over him.
"I will treat every student fairly; this is the price you must pay," he said, then drew a small cluster of blue energy from his own arm and deposited it onto the visibly changing Ivan.
"I understand," Ivan said, enduring the discomfort in his body.
"Now, this is yours," Toyennes said, referring to the room, then he stepped towards the door. "For anything else, consult Lahr. Rember, if you make any more inappropriate requests, you will inevitably pay a higher price."
After a while, the little green winged snake flew in carrying Toyennes' instructions, passing through an energy mbrane.
Ivan realized the room had an invisible protective mbrane, confirming it was no ordinary room.
"This used to be one of Sorcerer Toyennes' labs. It was abandoned later, and most things were removed, but what remains contains what you seek," the little green winged snake said, pointing around.
The room had two lab tables filled with various sizes of experintal instrunts, and in a corner stood a bookshelf laden with nurous paper docunts.
"Materials are not allowed to be taken out of the room, nor disclosed to anyone. This is the token for entering the room, which needs to be used in conjunction with an incantation. The incantation changes every three days, rember to ask for it," the little green winged snake said sternly, handing him a small bronze token.
"No problem," Ivan responded.
"Here is a recipe for a nutrition potion. I'll give you one day, no, just one day. You must submit a complete nutrition potion to by the end of the day, or don't bla for not giving you the incantation."
When one didn't like soone, everything about them seed disagreeable. The little green winged snake decided to make it harder for Ivan to let him know the consequences of defying Sorcerer Toyennes.
"I'll do my best," Ivan, knowing how troubleso the creature could be, didn't argue.
"It's not about doing your best, otherwise, you'll wait until I feel like giving you the incantation," the little green winged snake threatened.
The recipe was placed alone in a compartnt of the bookshelf labeled 'Nutrition Potion', with the main ingredients being gray mud pogranate and beast blood jello.
With a brief instruction from the little green winged snake, a Cloud Fog servant delivered all necessary ingredients to the laboratory.
"Turning one portion of curse power into two, I hope it doesn't bring too much evil." Left alone in the laboratory, Ivan rolled up his sleeve to check; the tattoo of the curse mark on his arm had darkened, and the pattern had slightly expanded in size.
Ah! Bargaining with Sorcerer Toyennes really wasn't easy, ultimately one must pay the price for their own words and actions.
However, he had no regrets. Having heard from Pearney about the circumstances of the previous apprentices, he knew a grim fate awaited him if he did nothing. A curse is a curse—it does not weaken over ti but intensifies instead.
He suppressed the anxiety in his heart and focused on the nutrition potion.
"Well, I must not offend Lahr."
He decided to show his skills to the little green winged snake, who could be considered his direct superior, to prevent further troubles.
The nutrition potion was an interdiate-level potion, and its difficulty level was supposed to be between glorybower powder and Ocean Blue Potion.
First, he pondered the recipe. The steps for apothecary by sorcerers differed significantly from those of pharmacists; sorcerers possess ntal power and the ability to manipulate energy particles, allowing them to purify and adjust using ntal power and particle techniques, which gives them more sophisticated and delicate thods in handling ingredients and apothecary.
Ivan was glad he hadn't made absolute statents.
Compared to before landing on the island, his mory had improved significantly with the enhancent of his ntal power, and he easily kept the recipe information in mind.
"Let's give it a try," he said to himself.
Confident in his utilization of ntal power and manipulation of energy particles, Ivan noted that the little green winged snake had provided twenty sets of ingredients, not making it difficult for him in terms of materials. He was fairly sure he could produce a nutrition potion within a day.
Next was handling the ingredients, exploring their dicinal properties and characteristics.
"Dudululu mah ah daa," Ivan muttered the elents incantation. Water elent particles turned into a bundle of dew that vigorously washed the dry mud off the gray mud pogranate, revealing its clean, smooth surface.
He sniffed it, detecting a distinct muddy aroma, which the recipe required to be removed as much as possible.
He sliced it with a knife, then baked, ground it into powder, and dissolved it in warm water. Using his ntal power, he pulled the deeply buried scent of mud to the surface of the water, where mud bubbles began to form.
When the muddy yellow bubbles on the surface no longer multiplied, he again softly chanted the elents incantation and used water to peel off the yellow muddy bubbles, completing the first processing of the gray mud pogranate.
[Apothecary Skill Experience Point 5]
[Energy Particle Skill Experience Point 1]
Ivan ignored the notifications on the mbrane of light and continued processing the gray mud pogranate, followed by the dark brown thick blood jello.
After processing the ingredients, he began his first attempt at sorcerer's apothecary.
"Pupupu,"
Monts later, accompanied by a strong earthy sll, yellow bubbles in the glass vessel incessantly erged and were about to overflow.
Ivan, quick with his eyes and hands, gently waved, making the glass vessel float to a cushion on the side.
His first attempt at apothecary failed.
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