Chapter 185: Experiment

Leo left the Spirit Garden behind, stepping back into the main compartment. The metal partition slid shut behind him, sealing the entrance. He threw a glance over his shoulder. From the outside, there was not a single hint that an entire garden bloomed behind the steel wall.

"Good."

With that problem solved, Leo could finally focus his attention elsewhere. He pulled up a chair at the side table. His gaze dropped to the remaining cards tucked into his belt. One item in particular had been occupying his thoughts: the Mad Alchemist’s Working Table. It was the prize from the Legendary Card. Unlike his other rewards, he hadn’t yet found a spare moment to inspect it.

"Let’s see if I have something to use in the cards I haven’t checked yet."

Aside from the ten cards looted from the Blood Puppet, Leo had carved through a massive horde of zombies during the battle in Rendell City. He had set his card belt to absorb any drops on the go, barely paying attention to the influx of loot at the time. The vast majority were just Common and Uncommon Cards. Now, with a quiet moment to spare, it was worth sifting through the pile.

Leo knew his strange knack for producing cards hadn’t gone unnoticed. The military had seen it happen. Several members of the Freedom Convoy likely caught on, too. Yet, no one asked questions. Everyone understood that Leo kept his own secrets, and Leo wasn’t going to complain about that unspoken rule.

He drew the cards from his belt one by one. As expected, most held ordinary survival resources. Food. Medicine. Fuel. Ammunition. Alcohol. Even a few battered packs of cigarettes. Several Common and Uncommon Cards held basic weapons, which Leo sorted into a discard pile.

Then, a Rare Card surfaced. He released its contents.

A battered piece of tactical armor materialized on the table. Leo recognized it at a glance. It was the exact model he had been wearing when Ars stabbed him in the back. This set was ruined, its back panels torn open and jagged. He turned it over in his hands before setting it down.

"At least I don’t have to buy another one."

He had been meaning to buy replacement armor from the system shop anyway. Scavenging a spare set saved him the hassle.

He kept digging. A few more Rare Cards yielded extra food, supplies, and cold weapons. Then, a heavy cannon appeared.

Leo raised an eyebrow.

"A cannon?"

He triggered the release to inspect the weapon. It was a standard heavy cannon, though the engineering far surpassed the firearms built before the apocalypse. He decided to pass it on to Storm later. The truck’s weapon system could put it to far better use.

The next Rare Card made his eyes narrow in thought.

Rare Card — Potion Maker’s Liquid

An alchemical liquid used as a base ingredient for brewing low- and mid-grade potions. It can stabilize mixtures, enhance the properties of compatible ingredients, and prevent unstable reactions during refinement.

Leo nodded. That sounded useful. He set it beside his other prime ingredients.

The following card captured his full attention.

Rare Card — Aromatic Spirit Grass

A Spirit Grass containing a gentle spiritual energy and a refreshing fragrance. When used in alchemy, it can improve the stability of mixtures and enhance the effects of compatible ingredients.

Leo’s eyes lit up.

"Perfect."

He finally had the right materials to test the Mad Alchemist’s Working Table.

He activated both cards. The items took physical form on the tabletop. The Potion Maker’s Liquid sloshed inside a sealed vial, a vibrant, transparent green. The Aromatic Spirit Grass looked like a mundane bundle of thin leaves, but a crisp fragrance bloomed through the compartment the moment Leo picked it up. It smelled like crushed mint blended with fresh-cut grass.

Leo stood and approached the Mad Alchemist’s Working Table. He had reviewed the system prompts before the table’s upgrade, and the basic operating instructions remained fresh in his mind. The table required users to place ingredients into designated containers. From there, the machine processed them based on their compatibility.

The exact outcome, however, was a complete gamble.

That unpredictability was exactly why Leo found the artifact so compelling. He dropped the Aromatic Spirit Grass into one beaker, then uncorked the Potion Maker’s Liquid and poured half the green fluid into another.

He stared at the two components. He wasn’t satisfied.

They were useful, but far too safe. If he wanted to push the table to its limits, he needed something far more bizarre.

An idea sparked. Opening his Void Pocket, Leo reached into the dimensional space and withdrew a sealed plastic container. Inside rested a lump of pale, spongy flesh harvested from the eyeball aliens. He had saved the corpses after the battle, intending to dissect them later.

This felt like a much better use for the remains.

Pulling on a pair of thick gloves, Leo popped the lid and pinched off a small chunk of the alien tissue, dropping it into a third beaker. He checked the bottom of the plastic container. A thin pool of bright blue blood had settled there. Using a dropper, he collected the azure fluid and squeezed it into a fourth beaker.

Four raw ingredients now sat lined up.

Aromatic Spirit Grass.

Potion Maker’s Liquid.

Alien Flesh.

Alien Blood.

Looking over his setup, Leo felt an odd kinship with the mad alchemist mentioned in the item’s lore.

"Hopefully I don’t end up looking like one too."

He shook the thought away and grabbed a handful of Nucleus Crystals, roughly a hundred of them. He piled them onto the circular power plate in the center of the table.

The moment the crystals made contact, a sharp click echoed from the machine’s underbelly.

Leo watched as several thin grooves fanned out from the crystal platform. These crystals acted as the fuel, providing the raw energy needed to break down the ingredients. He reached for the activation switch, hovering his finger over it for a heartbeat before pressing down.

Click.

A heavy vibration rattled the table. A beat of silence passed before a low, rhythmic hum filled the compartment.

The Nucleus Crystals began to emit a soft glow. One by one, the cryptic symbols etched into the metal surface flared to life. Liquid purple light flooded the grooves, and the circular patterns began a slow, grinding rotation.

Leo leaned in. The four glass beakers started to tremble.

Inside, the ingredients were breaking down. The Aromatic Spirit Grass reacted first. Its green leaves withered, but rather than drying into dust, their color bled out into a dense, pale green mist. An unseen vacuum sucked the fog down through a thin glass tube attached to the base of the beaker.

At the same time, the Potion Maker’s Liquid churned. Tiny bubbles frothed within the fluid as the transparent green shifted into a brilliant, glowing gold. The glass beaker rattled, levitating a fraction of an inch above the table’s surface.

Leo raised an eyebrow.

"So that’s how it works."

He tracked the changes. The chunk of alien flesh gave a violent twitch. Thin strands of blue static began peeling off its surface, rising like electric smoke before being siphoned into a third tube.

The alien blood had the wildest reaction. It boiled rapidly, yet produced no heat. The rolling bubbles were fueled purely by the volatile energy trapped within the fluid. Blue droplets defied gravity, floating into the air before being yanked toward the center of the table.

The four distinct streams of energy converged above the circular platform.

The moment they collided, a muffled boom echoed through the room. A minor shockwave swept outward, forcing Leo to take a step back.

The table itself didn’t even budge.

The energy streams braided together in midair. Green mist, golden liquid light, electric blue, and a dull, murky gray from the alien flesh. They bled into a swirling, chaotic sphere.

The runes on the table burned brighter. The resting mechanical arms sprang to life.

Click. Click. Click.

Slender tubes extended from the table’s edges, locking themselves onto the vibrating beakers. A larger mechanical arm descended from the ceiling of the device. At its tip rested a crystal node. It hovered right over the swirling mass of colored energy.

Whoosh.

The node plunged, dragging the energy downward. The four streams were sucked violently into the heart of the table. The chaotic sphere compressed.

Smaller. And smaller.

Until it shrank to the size of a closed fist.

Leo narrowed his eyes. The table had moved on to the actual refinement stage. The engraved symbols pulsed in a steady rhythm. The beakers drained to nothing. The Aromatic Spirit Grass was gone. Only a film of the Potion Maker’s Liquid remained. The alien flesh shriveled into an empty husk, and the blue blood vanished entirely.

Leo watched without blinking. He had no clue what the end product would be.

That was the thrill of the table. Unlike traditional alchemy, which demanded precise recipes and a deep understanding of every component, the Mad Alchemist’s Working Table operated on its own logic.

It tested.

It combined.

It refined.

And perhaps, it would create something entirely unseen.ℯℯ𝑙.