Chapter 516 - 515: Potion Concoction

Chapter 516: Chapter 515: Potion Concoction

「Three days later.」

Colin stood inside the Moradin Temple, Spellbook in his arms. He alternated between reading and glancing over at Durkin and the others, who were tinkering with a device in the hall—a set of levers and buttons in an inconspicuous corner.

During this time, Colin managed to learn Enlarge Person.

Just as Donkexes had said, once he grasped the principles of this spell, learning "Shrink Person" would be a matter of course.

After learning the spell, Colin began to consider buying other practical Low-tier Magic Scrolls, or perhaps even seeing if he could learn anything from Morel and his group.

Donkexes’s Spellbook didn’t contain many Low-tier Magic spells. After all, his main profession was crafting Magic Items with Magic; combat wasn’t his primary concern. As a result, there were many practical spells Donkexes didn’t know.

"According to standard design practices, it should be this one..."

Langgrin muttered to himself as he pulled a lever on the wall.

A CLICKING and CLACKING of meshing gears sounded, followed by the deep RUMBLE of massive gears turning.

After a while, the sounds gradually became less jarring.

Then, the large block of iron above the giant anvil in the center of the hall shuddered violently before slamming down onto the anvil. The commotion was so loud it startled several of the Dwarves outside.

"What do you think, Colin?" Langgrin said smugly as he lifted the lever, causing the iron block to stop and rise back to its position above the anvil. "First time seeing a grand forging machine like this, I bet?"

He paused, then added, "How come you don’t seem very surprised?"

’Probably because I saw too many industrial machines in videos in my past life.’

While he was thinking that, Colin said, "I’m actually quite curious about what’s powering this hammer."

"Isn’t there an underground lake above this level? The hammer here is driven by water diverted from there. Somewhere above our heads, there must be a reservoir with water-powered gears inside," Langgrin explained proudly.

"So it’s a large-scale water-powered forge hammer," Colin said. "Then why isn’t this technology used in the other locations?"

"Of course we do," Langgrin said. "Once we’ve fully repaired this temple, we’ll show you. These automated forge hammers drastically increase the efficiency of our Forging."

"If we run it at full capacity, it would only take a few days to arm an entire army," Durkin added.

"I’m looking forward to it then," Colin said with a smile. He then looked at the portico outside and said, "In that case, let’s set off today and escort Lanser back. I think he’s pretty much recovered."

The main reason they hadn’t set out yet was to wait for Lanser to recover.

Most of his wounds had been treatable with Divine Healing Spells. However, the malnutrition from his long-term confinement in a poor environment was another matter. That couldn’t be fixed by Divine Arts, or at least not by low-tier ones.

Durkin nodded slightly. "Then I wish you a safe journey."

"See you again soon, then." Colin closed his Spellbook and walked outside.

In the portico, the destroyed tents had been set up again. Dwarves were moving back and forth between them, busy with their own tasks.

For the past few days, the group had settled down in the large portico in front of the Moradin Temple, using the Gray Dwarves’ tents to build a small camp.

Of course, they had also used this time to clean up the battlefield.

The Gray Dwarves’ weapons were very similar to the Dwarves’ own, so Durkin and his people could use them right away. After some discussion, Colin’s group sold their share of the spoils directly to Durkin’s group.

The shattered Stone Golem was also left for the Dwarves to handle.

As repayment, Colin’s group received Gemstones worth nine hundred Gold Coins. When divided, this meant each person got a share of nearly one hundred and eighty Gold Coins.

At the same time, Donkexes also promised to process the materials from the Troll and hand over the finished products to Colin’s group. He would also take the opportunity to teach Orelia some small tricks for making Magic Potions.

Colin made his way to a corner of the portico.

Donkexes and Orelia were there, working on some Potions.

Surrounding them was a large pile of glass vials and various tools for distillation and purification. It looked as if they were in the middle of some strange chemistry experiment.

Donkexes looked at the small cauldron of potion bubbling in front of him and said, "Alright, now add the Troll’s blood. Let it mix thoroughly with the other ingredients. Stir it gently ten times."

Standing by the cauldron, Orelia nodded carefully.

She did as he said, adding the Troll blood they had collected a while ago, then began to gently stir the mixture with the iron ladle in her hand.

As she stirred with the iron ladle, the liquid in the cauldron slowly began to turn red, and a faint, red magical glow started to emanate from its surface.

"Alright, now decant the Potion and cork the vials tightly." Donkexes took out several glass vials from within his robes. "Pay attention. You must use magically treated glass vials. Don’t complain about the cost, or the Potion’s effects could be compromised."

"I understand." Orelia nodded seriously, then began to decant the Potion from the cauldron into the glass vials one by one.

In the end, she had filled a total of five vials.

Colin took a closer look and saw that all five vials were High-Level Healing Potions. This was basically everything that could be made from the materials of that one Troll.

"The yield seems pretty good," Colin remarked.

"If you want more materials, you can’t attack a Troll with Flame or strong acid. You have to kill them by overpowering their regeneration. The way the Stone Golem killed that Troll just so happens to be the method that yields the most materials."

Donkexes said smugly, "Besides, don’t underestimate our technique. If this were a typical Alchemist, they’d only be able to make half as many Potions at most."

Colin glanced at the Potions.

Now, everyone on their team had three High-Level Healing Potions. As long as one of them wasn’t killed instantly, those three potions were enough to pull them back from the brink of death three times.

"Let’s go. Where is everyone else? We need to get to work today," Colin said.

"Kase and the others are resting, Mr. Colin." Orelia said, tattling as she led Colin away. "They secretly drank the strong liquor I brought. You have to give them a warning, Mr. Colin!"

"If you can’t do anything about it, I’m even more helpless." Colin shrugged. "I can’t imagine myself successfully convincing those two not to drink."

Chatting as they walked, the two of them found Dorn and Kase lying in a tent in a corner.

"Time to go. Let’s get to work," Colin shouted, pulling back the tent flap.

"Huh? Finally something to do?" Kase yawned, then scrambled up, ducking his head to crawl out of the tent.

Dorn also rose within the tent and simply walked straight out.

The group then called over Ale and Lanser. With their packs on their backs, they once again walked into the corridors of the Dwarf Ruins.

"You know, I feel like this trip has been much more relaxed," Kase remarked. "We haven’t run into any big guys, and we’ve handled everything pretty easily."