When they reached the village, Draco was quite surprised to see its design. It was essentially the idealized style of Elven habitation, which was houses carved into the trees.
It was a small forest with large and thick oaks that were spread out equidistantly, in a more linear fashion. Some of the homes were carved into the base of the trees, some at the midpoint with what looked like stairs leading up to their doors.
The majority though, had their homse carved into the treetops, which created the need for walkways among the canopies. This was the main aesthetic of the settlement that Draco found extremely pleasing.
He felt like he had been thrown into the world of that popular novel with a ring and two midgets who needed to throw that same ring into lava.
The Male Elf led the Shameless Duo through the settlement, through the stares and pointing of all the Wood Elves situated there. Draco was surprised to see that there were very few children around, probably just 5 in total.
The total Wood Elf population was more than 300, yet they only had 5 kids around…
Now Draco could understand why the female Elves were so eager. It had nothing to do with being horny, but all to do with desperation.
Draco was brought to the largest tree in the settlement, which stood at almost 300 feet in height. Draco had to crane his neck real high in order to see the top of the tree and even then, the sunlight was blocked by the thick canopies.
"This is our HearthTree. It is the heart and soul of all the Wood Elves in the Four Point Valley." The Male Elf introduced with a reverent expression.
All the other elves became less fierce and more emotional as they looked at the tree. In Draco's eyes, it was as if they were all looking at their own parent.
Qiong Qi gazed at the tree with boredom until he saw a certain spot. Then his expression changed and he looked constipated. Draco noticed these changes with his 360 degree eyesight that the Eyes of Caelo granted.
He looked to the spot Qiong Qi spotted and focused there. At first, he only saw a small protrusion in the bark, sort of like how a pimple looked on human skin. He decided to 'see' it and subsequently understood why Qiong Qi was worried.
In the protrusion was a worm-like entity that was slowly eating its way into the bark. It looked like a tapeworm in a way, giving Draco a disgusted feel as he watched its actions.
It was clear he was looking at one of the reasons why he was in this Unique Quest in the first place.
It was a parasite!
Draco also hesitated for a second. To tell the Elves or not to tell them? Qiong Qi kept quiet because if he told them, they'd lose all interest in providing both of them their evil gotten benefits this evening due to worry and stress.
Besides, he was under no obligation to help with the parasitic outbreak.
Draco was different though, this should be his priority, instead of playing around. After all, the reason he went to each race's location was to gather information, see of the were any benefits to be extracted and gather their manpower for his use.
Draco decided to bite the bullet this time. He halted and walked up to the protrusion he saw and observed it suspiciously for a bit.
"Is this normal?"
When the Elves who were escorting him heard his question and peeked at where he was pointing to, they were flabbergasted.
"What is that?! The bark of our HearthTree is supposed to be flawless!" The Male Elf asked with a panicky voice.
Draco's face became a little solemn as he turned to regard the Elves arrayed before him. His grave look made the already worried Elves plunge into terror and fear. They half wanted him to remain quiet and half wanted him to speak the truth.
"Your HearthTree is being invaded by a parasite, the species of which have been wreaking havoc in the Four Point Valley. They are the reason I was sent here, to cull them and return the Four Point Valley to its usual peacefulness."
Draco's words made them breathe in sharply, but when he finished, their eyes began to glow brightly. His words directly alluded to the fact that he would assist them in dealing with the parasite that was infesting their HearthTree.
"My Lord, is there a way to kill the parasite?" A female Elf asked this time, with a sharp and mature voice that fit her features.
Draco nodded. "There is. I'll need you to prepare a cauldron and the following materials…"
Draco began to list the things he needed and when he was done, The Elves rushed to carry out his order. Not even half an hour passed when they returned with everything he asked for.
Draco was slightly surprised to see that. Was the Four Point Valley so rich in resources? One should note that most of the ingredients he had asked for were Rare.
He was even more surprised when he saw the cauldron.
｢Pair Dadeni – Crafting item
Rank: Epic
Effects:
Passive 1 – Reagent Improvement: All ingredients placed into this cauldron are improved to the same Rank as the Cauldron.
Active 1 – Return on Failure: Activating this skill allows the user to restart a failed crafting process three times. Cooldown: 21 days.
Description: The cauldron initially belonged to the giant Llasar Llaes Gyfnewid and his wife Cymydei Cymeinfoll, who lived within the Lake of the Cauldron. It was typically used to revive the dead infinitely, but was re-crafted for concocting potions.
Further abilities can be unlocked by sacrificing experience points. 0% of 50000% needed to upgrade to Legendary Rank｣
What a good cauldron!
The passive alone made it more than just an Epic item. It was able to turn any reagent, even trash-tier ones, into epic reagents with no limit as long as they were used for crafting within it.
However, despite how great it sounded, one might notice that Draco wasn't too excited about it. The reason was simple.
Were Epic reagents so easy to work with?
Look at how he crafted the Dragon's Blessing potion. He had limited himself to three Epic reagents not because he couldn't afford more but because he couldn't handle more.
If he wanted to craft anything in this cauldron, he would first have to make sure the ingredients were either very little or very compatible.
The active skill though, patched the issue that the passive skill created. Once activated, a person could retry crafting a failed potion three times per activation. So even if one was suppressed by the quality of the ingredients, they could use the same ingredients to try again.
Another general benefit of the cauldron was that it had unlimited durability, like all weapons and tools in Update 1. One could fail and fail and fail again, but not lose anything in the end, because all you had to do was toss in trash-tier regents, which cost almost zilch, and practice with Epic reagents, which were hard to get.
Draco's expression became a bit stiff when he looked at it. The concoction he planned to make was something a little advanced that only needed Rare reagents, but there was more than a few of them. The Concoction would require almost 30 different ingredients, 5 main ones and 25 supporting ones. Having them all buffed to Epic was a bit…
However, Draco was soon pleased when he remembered a certain fact.
He had the Source Origin of a High Rank Dragon! If the world was classified as a global company, his position would be Manging Director of a whole continent! He could move Worldly Energy in ways that even some hidden powers would feel envy.
After all, the only real difficulty in Potionmaking was the completion stage for any professional. If he could handle it well, he'd be able to make some scary potions with this cauldron…
Thinking along those lines, Draco decided to delay no more. He ordered the Wood Elves to step back considerably before collecting the ingredients they had gathered so far.
With a deep breath, he clapped his hands, a shockwave emitting from his body as he did. It wasn't an effect of his strength, but his Control. He had activated his Control to its fullest power, grasping all the Worldly Energy he could muster.
Draco was pleased to see that the quantity was higher than anything he could move back in his past life at Rank 6. It should be enough to work with.
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Draco took the first main ingredient for the concoction, which was a Rare-tier Scarred Salamander's Eyeball, and began to filter it. He did the same for each and every one of the ingredients, carefully filtering and purifying them.
It took a whole 2 hours just to do that for all the reagents, and Draco's alchemy level rose from level 36, 10% to level 37, 40%. Even though he didn't have an alchemical set, he was able to congeal one from Worldly Energy.
Of course, it wasn't as pure as what he could get when he was in a super mini small world, but it was leagues better that using anything else that was available.
Draco heated the cauldron with his Fire of War this time. Even though the Fire of War's benefit didn't extend to Potionmaking, he could still use its flame form for any sort of crafting.
Draco also equipped his Inventor title, which granted him a permanent 15% success chance when crafting anything, even if it were a Divine Item.
With his own skill and his boons, Draco estimated his total success chance was a strong 85%. For a concoction that was made with only Epic items, that was extremely good.
Draco tossed in the first Rare reagent and watched as it transformed with a white glow into something better. It went from the Scarred Salamander's Eyeballs to the Eye of the Poisoned Nether Newt.
Draco allowed the ingredient to melt under the pressure from the fire and his Worldly Energy manipulation. In most alchemical crafting processes, he would usually grind the ingredients into paste before throwing them in, so that they were just merged and mixed with the Worldly Energy,
However, he dared not try that with all Epic Reagents. Even though they only transformed when entering the Cauldron, that transformation would make the reagent far too volatile.
To give a useful comparison, if it were in its base form before being transformed, it would be like exposing diesel to fire. However, if it was in paste form when thrown in, it would be like exposing kerosene or petrol to fire.
Draco spent 6 hours on the concoction alone! He had to alternate the melting and mixing of the reagents perfectly since they were raw when thrown in, as well as the heat level and Worldly Energy saturation to keep the budding poison stable.
When he was done, he looked a bit haggard, but his eyes gleamed with determination and willpower. One could easily see that Draco really loved crafting and took it seriously. Most people who were talented in combat would scoff at Tradeskills, but Draco took unholy pleasure in it.
It was not just a means to make money or even to make things he needed, but sort of a relaxing activity that every person tended to do when the stress was too much. Some would go for a swim, some would play games, some would indulge in s.e.x.u.a.l pleasures.
Even though he looked like shit and his mind was strained, his soul was at peace. If before, his soul was like the ocean during a storm, it was like a calm and beautiful lake now.
When it came to the completion stage, Draco gathered all the remaining Worldly Energy he could muster. He didn't need to take a break this time because his in-game body was much better than it was when he crafted the Dragon's Blessing potion.
He split the Worldly Energy into a 100 bottles and gathered up the concoction. Draco felt the burn on his mind's 'muscles' when he tried coalescing these containers into solid form.
It was akin to trying to do that last push-up when your arms were straining and trembling, when it seemed like you couldn't go any further…
At that point, it boiled down to your willpower. Draco's will was strong after all the stuff he had gone through, so he was able to persevere and transform these semi-solid containers into actual bottles.
When he was done, he leaned onto the cauldron and took a deep breath. His head was pounding and his throat felt dry, but he was ecstatic deep down. Even if the poison fell down one Rank due to the completion stage, he was still happy because he had broken through a personal record.
His Refined Star Technique for alchemy was bottlenecked at tier 3 out of 10, but had broken through to tier 4 now. In the future, we would be able to turn Rare potions into Epic ones more easily at the completion stage.
Draco peeked at the 100 bottles of dark-red poison that hovered in the air above the cauldron. Since they were probably Epic Rank, they had some level of consciousness, though not really pronounced.
｢Parasitic Bane – Consumable
Rank: Epic (50% effectiveness)
Effect: Destroys any entity classified as a parasite without harming the host. It also heals that damage from the infection.｣
Draco was satisfied with its effects. After all, that was why he had made 100 bottles instead of just one. So that he could use it in different situations like this one without having to craft it all again.
Draco grabbed one bottle of the potion and placed the rest in his almost infinite inventory. He walked over to the protrusion where the parasite was and uncorked the bottle.
Surprisingly, the concoction wasn't noxious, but smelled like disinfectant. As Draco raised the concoction over the protrusion, he activated his True Sight to be able to see the parasite well.
The parasite, which was chilling as it invaded this tree, sensed the aura of death upon it. It tried to wiggle its way into the bark, but nothing could save it at this time.
After all, the whole reason it hadn't taken over the bark yet was because the wood was too firm and unyielding. Trying to dig deeper now that death was upon you? Keep dreaming!
My brother in there, please get ready to walk the road of the afterlife!
Draco poured the concoction into the protrusion, and it trickled down the hole that the terror stricken parasite had left in its wake, reaching it almost instantly. To a normal organism, this concoction would be a bit irritating on the skin, but for the parasite, it was like being dropped into lava.
It screeched in a high pitched tone as it felt pure agony, thrashing about in the throes of death.
When it had fully dissolved into the concoction, the poison transformed into a whitish green mixture that traveled back up the path the parasite took, healing all the damage that was dealt and restoring the tree to perfect shape.
The spectating Wood Elves watched this with trepidation at first, then hopefulness before bursting into pure joy.
They were connected to the HearthTree on a primal level, so they could feel the damage that was healed. That begged the question of, how didn't they notice it all this while?
Those who had been infected with worms before would understand why. When such parasites invaded the body, one would almost never feel it! It wasn't until the symptoms began to show that one would realize they were infected!
A huge tree like this and such a tiny worm-like thing… Honestly, Draco himself might have missed it with the Eyes of Caelo if it weren't for Qiong Qi.
Speaking of Qiong Qi…
The fellow was currently amidst a bunch of sleek lionesses, waxing hefty lyrics as he tried to woo them.
"Haha, Xaio Fei, would you believe it if I told you that This King hunts on his own?" Qiong Qi laughed with an arrogant expression.
"Amazing! It can't be true!" The Lioness called Xiao Fei exclaimed.
All the other lionesses, who had been listening to Qiong Qi's bullshit with amus.e.m.e.nt, experienced a sharp spike of interest. They all inched closer to him instinctively.
"It's true. Do you smell the scent of a Pride on this King?" Qiong Qi asked smugly.
"Ah! It's true!" Xiao Fei exclaimed.
There was always that one guy who seemed to be able to attract the babes wherever he went due to a certain trait he possessed. Qiong Qi was one of those fellows in the lion kingdom.
Everyone knew that in a Lion's Pride, the male was king and the females were the hunters! They would work hard for the food and the male would laze about while he would get first dibs on the meat!
After that, if he was feeling the urge, they had to lay down and let him express his true nature on them. Such was their natural instincts and they had no real problems with it.
It was just how nature made them. Still, to see such a male lion who was so muscular and hunted on his own without the need for a pride…
How could they not be attracted?!
Qiong Qi, seeing he had these ladies hooked, laughed uproariously. "Well, I've spent enough time here. I have to get back to my solitude and work with my brother, Draco. It was nice to unwind with you beautiful ladies."
He got up and began leaving casually, not seeming like he was faking it.
Suddenly, his tail was grabbed and he was pulled back into the midst of the Lioness, who were purring with nefarious intent.
"Don't leave so soon, Brother Qiong. We sisters would like to perform some exercises with you."
Qiong Qi laughed to himself. He was about to have a great time!