Abe the Wizard

As the firewall rose, the mist was slowly exterminated. It was almost visible when they were around it. Screams of agony could be heard. Abel could see some spiked grey fish struggling amidst it.

Wizard Dolan explained as he cast the firewall, “These are hybrid swordfish, Master Bennett. They seem to live inside the eye of the demon, and they feed on those who fell into the eye.”

Despite the power of the firewall, some of the hybrid fish still made it out alive. However, they seemed to have lost their advantage in speed when they got close to the three legendary wizards. They were also heavily injured, making them less of a threat.

Abel didn’t know. The trip was going fine because the three legendary wizards were prepared for all kinds of situations that they might face. It was not the first time coming here for any of them. The last time they came here, they had to do what they could to pay the right cost.

Under the protection of the firewall, the three legendary wizards continued to bring Abel downward. Under the reflection of the bright light, Abel could see the bottom of the eye of the demon. There was a dark stone slab, but he couldn’t quite see the words written on it.

Wizard Dolan smiled, “We’ve arrived!”

He placed his hand on the stone slab, and the stone slab unleashed a white light engulfed the four of them. Following that, Abel saw the bottom of the eye. He saw a sparkling light that transformed into a complicated pattern. When the bottom was completely glowing, he could feel the presence of a dimensional power. As his eyes glowed up, he was automatically teleported. He could see that his front was shining bright. He was standing on a piece of grass with three legendary wizards beside him.

He raised his head to look in the other direction. In the sky, and there was a giant transparent cap with something glowing red in the middle. It looked kind of like the sun. It seemed that the area he was in was a dimension under the protection of the gap.

He looked around and saw that ten puppets busy working in the field. They didn’t seem to pay attention to the four that just came here.

Abel was surprised, “This is the ancient herb garden?”

All the crops were well taken care of. He couldn’t believe it. Since ancient times, the herbs were kept in such fine condition, and the puppets were still busy working diligently to maintain them.

Wizard Dolan smiled, “We’re pretty surprised when we first came here.”

Just when Abel was about to take a few steps forward, he stopped as he realized the many lying corpses. Some were a few hundred years old. Others were relatively recent.

Wizard Dolan bowed towards the corpses, “That’s what the Wizard Union had to pay for to investigate this ancient ruin.”

The Wizard Union had always known about this location. Many of the members did find it, but most of them couldn’t make the return trip.

Wizard Dolan went on to explain, “These men used their lives to get the most information out of all, and that is that if you want to get in this ruin, you must have an ancient command card with you. Otherwise, any trespassers will be struck down by the defensive mechanism here.”

After saying that, he took out a command card and showed it to Abel. He didn’t tell Abel the number of ancient ruins, the number of documents, and the number of failed attempts the Wizard Union had to go through to get their hands on this. Right now, they were standing here at ease, but without this card, they would’ve been dead immediately. It was a legendary wizard that almost died here that got this card, and he was considered extremely skilled and lucky to help with the exploration here.

Abel had to look at the herb garden in front of him. He couldn’t believe that the defensive mechanisms here would be so terrifying. Perhaps there was a spirit that was under control here. The more he was in contact with ancient times, the more he understood the things that happened in the past. When he looked at the ten ancient puppets, he thought that there must be something to keep replacing their parts and do the maintenance. A spirit must be here. Since he couldn’t see anything but the different herb gardens around here, he thought that maybe the only place the spirit would exist would be the underground.

Abel spoke to Wizard Dolan, “I’ll need a seclusion circle, Wizard Dolan. We’ll start preparing the items to initiate the brew.”

Wizard Dolan spoke, “We’ll commence then, Master Bennett. We’ve got all the ingredients for the “mana resistance potion.” There’s only ten days that we can be here. After ten days, we’ll be immediately teleported out of here. If we’re just collecting the herbs here, the garden will automatically decide the amount of time needed for the herb to be collected, then it will open up the garden again.”

The last time they arrived here, these legendary wizards had to make their way in without collecting anything.

Abel nodded, “Good. First, I’ll start preparing the brewing equipment, and then I’ll collect the stuff needed in the herb garden.”

Wizard Dolan continued to speak, “You won’t have to do a thing to collect the herbs, Master Bennett. We’ll do it for you. You just do what you can to brew the mana resistance potion.”

Within ten days, Wizard Dolan was planning to brew as many mana resistance potions as he could, such that they could be distributed to only the strongest of the wizards. Abel didn’t think twice to set up a seclusion circle. Following that, he took out an entire alchemy set from his portal bag. He’s almost had an entire lab over for this mission. However, since some of his techniques needed to be kept confidential, he had to have the seclusion circle do this for him.

The three legendary wizards quite fast themselves. The first pack for twenty potions was gathered in no time. From their perspective, they thought that Master Bennett could create a total of ten potions if they could. They were extremely positive with this estimation, given that most potion masters would have a 20% success rate in most brews.

Wizard Dolan placed the ingredients outside and asked Abel, “Do you think these ingredients are alright, Master Bennett?”

Abel bowed and looked around. He could see that the herb garden was fully automated so that the quality of all products would remain consistent. As a potion master, this was definitely ideal as the consistency would help with a higher success rate. Of course, that wouldn’t matter too much for Abe, but he still appreciated how well the management was done.

Abel put the twenty portions away and spoke to Wizard Dolan, “You keep collecting, Wizard Dolan. Make sure you get 100 portions every time.”

Wizard Doran reminded him, “Try not to waste the herbs here, Master Bennett. The herb garden decides when the next time it opens based on the amount they harvested this time.”

Abel smiled and looked towards Wizard Dolan, “Don’t worry. I won’t waste it.”

The ones that came this time were Wizard Dolan. All the decisions had to be made by him. If Wizard Dolan agreed, he would have to brew as many potions as he could. If there were no agreement, he would have to brew at the regular rate. The mana resistance potion was a master-level product. For every regular brew, a minimum of two hours would be needed. By this sense, even if Abel wasn’t eating or resting, he could only make about 120 portions in ten days, and that was if he wasn’t failing at all. The Wizard Union was only hoping for him to make 60, but for someone who’s never had to save any potions, he couldn’t help but think that the amount was really too few.

This was pretty much why the Wizard Union would only let the most powerful wizards distribute the mana resistance potions. Wizard Dolan was a bit hesitant as well. If too much was wasted without enough being produced, the herb garden might just shut itself even after the demon from beyond woke up. Their plan to mass-produce the potions might not work. Still, this was the best potion master they had. If Master Bennett promised them, they had no real choice but to trust him.

Having thought about this, he made an immediate decision, “Send word at any time, Master Bennett. We’ll listen to you and start collecting at any time.”

Abel smiled, “Good. Have the three collect 100 portions in two hours.”

Having said that, he walked into the circle and left the three wizards out.

Wizard Doran was not confident, “Dolan! We’re going to waste too much if we’re collecting like this. Some of the stuff can only be used within two hours after harvesting!”

Again, the cost of coming here was just too much. If they happened to have any waste here, after all the sacrifices the Wizard Union had to go through, it’d be a tremendous disservice to the wizards here.

Wizard Dolan spoke, “I’ll have to have a talk with Master Bennett if he wastes any.”

When the three legendary wizards collected the herbs, Abel was within the circle to start his brew. After switching on the world stone fragment, he began by processing the twenty portions worth of herb with his power of the Will. First, he divided the power into twenty, then proceeded to continue at the same time.

Because he was absorbing the power of the Will of the divine armor, there was a massive boost to his power of the Will. Combined with the bonus of the world stone fragment, he was able to be much more focused at this. Furthermore, since the power of the Will could be more flexible than human hands, he was been doing his part to process the herb one by one.

As a matter of fact, the potion masters were much more willing to use all kinds of ingredients provided by the stores instead of something from the herb garden. This stuff was mostly processed already by professionals, while the stuff that was collected straight from the field would require more work for them to be usable.

If someone experienced was watching what Abel was doing, they’d surely be stunned with how Abel was preparing them. The amount of precision and delicacy put here was phenomenal. The world stone fragment was what made it possible. All the materials were done so that they could be put to the very best of their abilities.

Once the materials were processed, the brewing process just became a lot easier. If he were just preparing for different stuff to make the mana resistance potion, he would’ve felt comfortable with most of it. He knew that the more he could make this potion, the more loss he could inflict upon the sacred knights of the Nation of God. This was why he decided to mass-produce these. The difficulty level was very high, of course. He was actually the very first who’s willing to try this.

Most potions that were mass-produced were restricted to low-tier ones. Even the intermediate-level potions would rarely have potion masters doing mass production unless the cost for the ingredients weren’t worth the money.

Abel had no intention of wasting anything. He was confident that he could master this mana resistance potion, just like how he became the sole producer of almost all the master-level potions on the central continent. He was the no. one figure to go for master-level potion because, unlike the other three potion masters, he could always produce at least a blue quality potion with what he had.