Chapter 287 – "Wrong" Potion

How many steps does it take to create a minor accident?

Step one: Place the alchemical experiment table against the laboratory wall.

Step two: Put the prepared semi-finished alchemical potion on the experiment table.

Step three…

Punk estimated the thickness of the magic tower’s walls, then took out a small pinch of gray-black powder from his storage ring.

This gray-black powder was made from incineration stone, with a purity of over eighty percent. To make the upcoming experiment sufficiently “spectacular,” Punk had specially ground it into a consistency finer than flour.

Punk’s plan was to fake an explosion caused by an experimental error, using this explosion to directly blast open the outer wall of his magic tower. Then, he would release that cage of iron-toothed ravens, making it appear as if they had escaped through the explosion hole.

By then, these intuitively sharp iron-toothed ravens would surely flee toward the five exits of the branch’s defensive formation. At that time, the newly recruited apprentices would likely have just arrived at the exits. Finally, Punk could use the pretext of “recapturing escaped laboratory creatures” to carefully screen those panicked apprentices.

Experimental errors were very common—even Master-Level Mages’ experiments were prone to mistakes. On the other hand, explosions caused by errors were also normal. Although the force required to blast through a magic tower’s outer wall was somewhat excessive, considering it was the result of a Master-Level potion error, it wouldn’t be too surprising. Punk believed the other Master-Level powerhouses would only give it a cursory glance before disregarding it.

Moreover, strictly speaking, this explosion was indeed an “error.” Even if this error was intentionally triggered, Punk possessed Haitzita’s Magic Box to shield himself from divination. So even if Master Kirk Weilen personally used divination spells to investigate, the results would only point directly to the “error” in the experiment itself, completely avoiding any factors related to Punk as the experimenter.

As for the final objective…

Punk thought this would be a good opportunity to test how well Ben Lajie had managed his “connections.” The origins of these released iron-toothed ravens weren’t exactly clean. Punk was confident Ben Lajie could handle the ravens’ background issues, but he was curious about how Ben Lajie would deal with them.

Although this operation might not seem like a big deal, and Punk’s extensive preparations might appear excessive, Punk didn’t think he was being overly cautious at all.

Outside the magic tower window, the weather was heavily overcast. The drizzling rain had unknowingly turned into a torrential downpour. Punk stood by the window looking into the distance… toward the true north, where Master Kirk Weilen’s magic tower stood.

The power gap between Master-Level powerhouses wasn’t exaggerated but was never small either. However, in Punk’s perception, among the other six Master-Level powerhouses in the Thought of Truth Branch, only Kirk Weilen gave him an extremely dangerous feeling. Regarding that eternally silent elder who seemed almost nonexistent, Punk’s evaluation consisted of just four words—unfathomably profound!Therefore, for Punk, no amount of caution was excessive when carrying out covert operations under the terrifying gaze of Kirk Weilen. This operation also served as a test for Kirk Weilen. If this elder, specialized in Divination Spells, failed to detect the “inconsistencies” in Punk’s actions, then Punk’s “Host Plan” could proceed. But if Kirk Weilen noticed anything this time… then the “Host Plan” would have to be halted immediately!

The Fragment of Law was too important, too precious—it was a crucial opportunity and aid on the path to becoming Legendary. Punk could not afford the slightest carelessness, nor tolerate even a hint of “error”!

——————Break——————

The empty Experiment Table was spotless. The potion placed in the center of the table had slowly cooled, with only a few orange bubbles floating up and down in the cyan-blue liquid. The radiant glow of the magic circle refracted colorful lines through the thick glass of the Potion Bottle.

Preparations were complete!

With a flick of his hand, Punk cast another Divination Spell. After carefully perceiving the information from the spell, he began cautiously preparing a spell in his hand:

“The timing is about right. Three groups of apprentices have already arrived at the branch, and the remaining five groups are not far off. It’s time to start the ‘performance’.”

Punk meticulously reviewed the entire plan and, finding no obvious flaws, slowly approached the Experiment Table.

A small pinch of powder trickled down from Punk’s fingertips, every granule precisely sliding into the test tube of the potion.

The moment the gray-black powder made contact with the cyan-blue potion, the entire bottle began to boil. A multitude of orange bubbles formed one after another in the liquid, and the potion, now resembling boiling water, gradually shifted from orange-red—to red—to bright red!

Finally, as the last bit of powder in Punk’s hand was added to the reagent, the potion had transformed into a white-hot substance emitting intense heat.

“Cremation Stone Powder possesses extremely strong elemental activation properties, while Feller Crystal has high elemental volatility. By correctly blending Feller Crystal infused with fire elements and Cerulean Water enchanted with sealing magic in a 3:4 ratio, one can create the highly explosive ‘Feller Elemental Blast Potion.’ All it takes is a slight catalyzing touch of mana…”

Punk shook the increasingly unstable potion and muttered to himself:

“What would happen if, instead of using a small amount of gentle mana as the detonating medium, I used a large quantity of highly catalytic Cremation Stone Powder for catalysis? Well, I’ll just claim to the outside world that I’m researching this topic. After all, I am genuinely curious.”

Punk gently set down the white-hot reagent, which had reached a temperature of thousands of degrees. He could sense that the sealing enchantment he had applied was on the verge of being torn apart by the elemental turbulence. Within the next three seconds, a terrifying explosion would engulf this small Laboratory. Conservatively estimated, the blast’s power would reach the level of a Master-Level, large-scale destructive spell enhanced by the “Mana Compression” metamagic technique—enough to breach the outer walls of this not-so-sturdy Magic Tower.”The Incineration Stone costs fifteen exchange points, and the Feller Crystal is also worth ten exchange points. I’ve spent quite a lot for this plan.”

Punk helplessly set down the reagent that had turned incandescent blue and shook his head. At the same time, he calmly cast the spell he had prepared—the Anywhere Door!

He could now instant-cast this Master-Level spell, making its use second nature. Although he was quite curious about the elemental surge reaction when this potion exploded, Punk had no intention of testing his seven-layer protective magic with such a blast just yet. So he decisively stepped through the Anywhere Door.

“Now, explode! Shatter that wall and tear open an entry point. After that… there’s still plenty to do!”

Punk stepped out of the Anywhere Door’s exit with an expressionless face and immediately closed the rainbow-colored portal. He was already holding a cage of Iron-Toothed Ravens in his arms. Now… all that remained was to wait for that deafening blast.

Please vote for me～ Mwah!

(End of Chapter)