Chapter 189: Master of Potion, D-Rank Craftsman

Helen handed Kei a tablet, displaying the marked coordinates of the S-rank Dungeon Clark had just mentioned.

Kei zoomed in on the map. The instant he laid eyes on the location, his brow furrowed deeply.

That Dungeon was situated in the immediate vicinity of the three Dungeons currently experiencing active Dungeon Breaks. The access routes leading toward it were choked with monsters flooding out from the black rifts. To approach that sector, one first had to punch through the active war zone encircling Ji-pong City.

No wonder Clark hadn’t harbored any expectations for outsiders to mount a rescue mission. Unless one was a high-rank hunter, blindly asking for favors achieved nothing.

Kei stared unblinkingly at the red markers on the map. The three Dungeon Breaks and that S-rank Dungeon sat close enough to one another to spark a deep-seated unease within his chest. He couldn’t articulate the exact reason, but he had a powerful premonition that this S-rank Dungeon was intimately tied to the simultaneous eruption of the other three.

If that hypothesis held true, Emma’s disappearance likely wasn’t a simple accident; it almost certainly intertwined heavily with the triple Dungeon Break crisis plaguing Ji-pong City.

Yet at the present juncture, he couldn’t afford to walk away.

The hunters holding the defensive line of Ji-pong City still required Potions. If the supply ran dry, the injured would lose all hope of holding out, while the remaining combatants would rapidly burn through their stamina. Kei had to help them resolve that crisis first.

Handing the tablet back to Helen, Kei pivoted back toward the alchemy laboratory.

Once he finished planting the Light Anise inside the boundaries of his Divine Space Ring, Kei resumed his research on the remaining two Potion formulas. Energy Potions demanded a stable yield of medicinal energy to accelerate stamina recovery, whereas Stat-Enhancing Potions demanded rigorous equilibrium among ingredients; otherwise, the resulting buffs would fluctuate unevenly.

He adjusted the raw material dosages, running micro-batch trials before fusing *[Efficiency Enhancement]* with magic array geometry to squeeze the herbal properties straight to their absolute thresholds.

On a few occasions, the mixture shifted colors too rapidly, forcing Kei to halt operations immediately. Another time, the magic array sucked his manastones entirely dry before the medicinal broth stabilized. He documented every single discrepancy, modified the mixing sequence, and tried again.

None of the formulas achieved perfection on the opening attempt.

Yet by the time the sun began descending toward the horizon, he had successfully finalized both remaining Potion types slated for optimization. The Craftsmen assigned to manufacturing had likewise mastered the revised workflow. The meager stocks remaining in inventory could now churn out a dramatically elevated volume of Potions, ample to keep the hunters holding the line for an extended duration.

Kei braced his palms against the table, exhaling a long, drawn-out breath.

Then his stomach violently cramped.

He froze, one hand instinctively clutching his midsection. A hollow, ravenous emptiness struck with ferocious intensity, as though his physical body was abruptly reminding him that he hadn’t consumed a single morsel of food the entire day.

“So hungry…”

Kei propped his forehead against the tabletop. A torrent of cascading thoughts whirled through his mind, Thunder, Emma, the S-rank Dungeon, the triple Dungeon Break… right up to the missed meals he had neglected.

Yet amidst that overwhelming exhaustion, a peculiar realization abruptly dawned upon him.

Has Kei’s physical body undergone a transformation?

Kei snapped upright, opening up his system interface, which he hadn’t checked in quite a while.

A notification materialized straight before his eyes.

[Congratulations on acquiring the title: Master of Potion]

[Congratulations on promoting to a D-rank Craftsman]

Kei blinked, then eagerly opened his detailed stat panel with a surge of excitement.

[Kim Kei]

[Physique: E]

[Strength: E]

[Speed: E]

[Dexterity: C]

[Hunter Energy: 800 / 10,000]

[Mana: 2,580 / Unmeasurable]

[Profession: D-rank Craftsman / SSS-rank Legendary Mage (Sealed)]

“So I’ve finally climbed up to D-rank…”

Kei stared at his maximum energy ceiling, his eyes sparkling.

If his hunter energy cap reached ten thousand points, he could convert it into one thousand points of mana. The higher his rank climbed, the larger his maximum energy reserve grew, which equated to the ability to stockpile fresh mana faster and in greater quantities!

This constituted a well-known mechanical advantage, yet it remained immensely gratifying to witness firsthand.

Previously, Kei had been forced to rely on manastones to supplement his mana pool because the daily baseline of hunter energy generated by his body proved insufficient for his casting demands. The absorption process was both sluggish and resource-intensive. But hunter energy regenerated naturally every single day, requiring zero financial outlay on manastones!

That was an astronomical cost-saving.

With that thought, his hunger seemed to recede by a fraction. Kei recalled encountering a peculiar skill listing buried within his Craftsman profession tree, prompting him to open up his skill window for a closer inspection.

[Profession: D-rank Craftsman]

[Skills:]

[- Analysis (C): Grants comprehensive comprehension regarding the operational principles of C-rank items and below.]

[- Fabrication (D, Passive): Enhances the craftsman’s dexterity and elevates successful item fabrication rates.]

[- Hand of ???: Deepens your comprehension of all raw materials, enhances ???, additional conditions required to unlock.]

Kei’s gaze locked onto the final line.

Hand of ??? That skill remained as cryptic as ever.

It stayed locked, while its most critical descriptive annotations remained shrouded in question marks. Yet now that he had been promoted to D-rank, perhaps the unlock conditions had likewise shifted, and the description seemed to have unlocked a minuscule hint of a brand-new ability.

Kei was just about to inspect it more thoroughly when hurried footsteps echoed from outside the doorway.

“Kei!” Linda called out. “The Potions have already been dispatched to the defensive squads. Clark wants to see you.”

Kei dismissed the system interface and stood up. A fresh pang of hunger caused him to wince slightly, though the residual elation over his new rank still danced within his gaze.

He had unlocked a larger energy pool for mana stockpiling alongside a mysterious skill awaiting its eventual unlock.

It was just that before entertaining any of those ambitions, Kei decided he desperately needed to find something to eat first.

No mass release, New book is coming.

1 castle – 5 chapters bonus