Chapter 353 - 353 - The Wild Mixture Lives Up to Its Name

The magic workshop in the basement was dim and quiet, bathed in soft yellow light.

Leon sat behind the old desk, working by the glow of a vintage table lamp, the Gale-Force Reading Glasses in monocle form fitted over one eye as he pored over a Pharmacology treatise titled Tailor: From Apprentice to Master.

Like Wondrous Potions: A Beginner's Guide I, this book didn't record any specific potion formulas, but it laid out a systematic, complete framework of pharmacological knowledge starting from zero, enough to lead an ordinary person with no foundation whatsoever across the threshold into a true potion apprentice.

Reading, studying, until he understood...

This treatise had thrown open the door to the field of pharmacology for Leon.

"Bloodline carries a wondrous power..."

"..."

"The brewing of advanced elixirs often involves the use of various monster materials, blood, and hides..."

"..."

"The classic work Twelve Applications of Dragon Blood lays out in exhaustive detail how to use dragon blood as a base to blend elixirs of extraordinary potency."

After finishing the chapter with keen interest, Leon eased back into the leather chair, reached up to take off the glasses, and lifted his teacup for a light sip.

"Dragon blood, huh. Looks like different worlds have plenty in common after all."

The thought reminded him of a chat with Airmid, where she'd let slip that the Elixir, that pricey item going for 500,000 Valis a vial, used the blood of a god as one of its crucial ingredients.

"No wonder it sells for 500,000 Valis a vial..."

Leon pursed his lips and shifted his gaze back to a line on the page.

"The power of bloodline..."

"Speaking of bloodlines, there really are a few in the Familia..."

He murmured, thinking it over. As his mind wandered...

Recalling the origins and backgrounds of his own people, their individual Falna details, and then thinking of Kureha's overpowered durability... it gradually became clear to Leon.

...

『Clyret Bloodline』

· Minor boost to "Strength" and "Endurance"

· Major boost to "Agility" and "Dexterity"

· Enhanced skill effects in close-quarters combat

...

"So that's how it is."

Leon clicked his tongue lightly.

"Once the power of the bloodline is activated by the Falna, it directly strengthens Kureha's base stats and her close-quarters combat ability. That's obviously the overt manifestation of the 'Clyret Bloodline.'"

He kept reasoning it through, drawing on what the book had taught him.

"Beyond that, there are the latent traits that never directly surface. Take Kureha, for example, that probably shows up in her extraordinary endurance..."

At that thought, Leon suddenly realized that Kureha wasn't the only one in the Familia with a rare bloodline-type skill.

"Right, besides Kureha, Lydia and Iri each have bloodline-type skills too."

"And if you count the elves, Laurier and Aura..."

He paused briefly, factoring Persephone in as well. In that case... the Familia's entire core team was only ten people, and four of them clearly had bloodline-type skills.

He suddenly sat up straight.

"Adding it all up, we've got four members with bloodline-type skills in our Familia."

"That ratio... is honestly pretty high."

As everyone knew...

Individuals with bloodline-type skills were the absolute prospects of any race. Even if their strength hadn't fully come out yet, as long as they didn't die young by accident, they were guaranteed to be major players down the line.

Just look at Orario's famous powerhouses. Which one of them didn't follow this pattern?

Freya Familia's the turtle, the runner, the Black and White Knights, the four Pallum brothers; Loki Familia's Big Three, Ais, the Amazon sisters, runner number two; Hephaestus's One-Eyed Craftsman...

And on and on, too many to count!

The value of bloodline-type skills was plain to see from this alone.

"Heh, our days are slowly looking up too..."

The corner of Leon's mouth lifted as he rolled his shoulders and neck and pulled his focus back to the experiment in front of him.

"Once the 'Wild Mixture' is successfully made, the Familia will have a second flagship product to offer. And by then..."

A vision of the future floated up in his mind, as if he could already see glittering gold wealth surging toward his own vault like a rising tide.

...

...

A muffled boom drifted faintly up from the basement, rattling even the living room windows.

Aura snapped shut the spellbook the goddess Demeter had given her as a Christmas present, the motion a touch harder than usual, her brow twitching almost imperceptibly.

Across from her, Lydia, immersed in her ocean of knowledge, looked up at the noise too, a hint of confusion and concern on her fair little face.

"Aura, what was that just now...?"

Curled up on the sofa nearby, Laurier tossed a dried nut into her mouth, cheeks bulging as she chewed, her voice muffled but oddly unbothered.

"It's nothing... Leon's definitely running another experiment in the workshop, just his usual failure."

She waved a hand at Lydia, her tone as calm as some seasoned veteran's.

"Lydia, you'll need to get used to it."

"It'd be weird if our workshop didn't blow up a few times a day."

"..."

Lydia fell silent for a moment, her emerald eyes blinking softly, then she just lowered her head and brought her gaze back to the page in her hands.

Just as Laurier had said, over the next three hours the muffled booms went off like clockwork. At first roughly once every half hour, then shortened to once a quarter hour, and finally stabilizing at almost once every five minutes, regular as some bizarre sort of timer.

At first, the living room stayed peaceful.

Laurier still gnawed lazily at her nuts, and Irisviel, being an alchemist, only glanced up now and then, her expression unchanged. But as the tremors came one after another, even Margaret gradually started to crack.

Another especially forceful blast slammed against their eardrums, and Aura finally closed the book in her hands.

She shut her eyes, a vein faintly throbbing at her temple.

When she opened them again, those usually calm eyes had taken on a clear tinge of anger.

She rose to her feet and headed toward the basement, her voice low but every syllable landing distinctly.

"Mis-ter. Leon."

The tone was steady, yet it sent an inexplicable chill through the air.

...

A moment later, the heavy door of the workshop was pushed open from the inside.

Leon's figure appeared behind it, his hair blasted into a frizzy, curling mess, soot smudged across his cheek, the whole picture both pitiful and comical.

He raised his eyes toward the top of the stairs.

Aura stood there backlit, looking down at him from on high.

Even with no real expression on her face, Leon could feel, beneath that calm stare, a restrained irritation ready to spill over at any second.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry!"

He scratched at his messy hair and tried to force out a smile.

"I didn't expect the reaction from a failed 'Wild Mixture' blend to be so... enthusiastic. Well, judging by the results, it really is pretty 'wild.'"

Aura said nothing, just watched him quietly.

"...All right, fine."

Leon sighed like a man admitting defeat.

"I'll head over to the Goibniu Familia tomorrow and get someone to come soundproof the place."

Aura's voice floated faintly down.

"Remember to reinforce it too."

Leon: "..."

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