Chapter 18 – Florida Man Cooks Chemical Weapon Using Dog's Blood
The next day morning, Leo sat in front of the glutton plant, staring at it. The chomper was, as usual, lazing around like a tree. It didn't even notice that Leo had cut its root by an inch.
"Seriously, you…"
Leo was perplexed about how this plant was related to demons. He was aware that it became like this because of his radiation, but he couldn't figure out how it connected to the demon race.
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[Root of Infant Demon Dryad]
This root can be extracted from an infant demon dryad, a rare mythical specimen from a demonic realm. It can be used to substitute both wood and poison element catalysts due to its poisonous nature.
[Traits]
Increase any poison element pill success rate by 25%.
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"A dryad, you? Aren't you supposed to be sexy tree girls or half-naked elves with vines around your body?"
Leo stared at the round chomper's head. His fantasies were ruined.
"Meow?"
Cat drowsily woke up as it noticed Leo's gaze. It licked his face like a happy puppy.
Leo couldn't help but pat this guy like a good dog. He went back to the store and brought in a dozen of mutated cabbages for breakfast. Then, he returned to his pill-refining duty.
Last night, Leo got a good sleep, but his stomach was still full. As he couldn't increase his lifespan, he busied himself making more pills.
While inserting a potato and a mutated nut into the pot, Leo's mind wandered. He spoke out his thoughts, "Where can I get one of those Yin Fluid? If a man is Yang, is a woman Yin? Does Yin Fluid mean a woman's water... or pee?"
Leo repeatedly shook his head as he was disappointed in his silly mind. He activated the workshop to automatically make grain pills again. Then, he approached the pile of logs and pondered what to do with them.
"The wood is too hard for modern saws. Even if I use a chainsaw, it will end up breaking the tool instead. But that stupid mutated whip managed to break this tree. What if I use my super strength?"
Testing the toughness of the iron pine wood, Leo karate-chopped one of them.
SWUA
As if Leo's hand broke the log in half. His skin emitted yellow smoke because of his radiation.
"…"
Leo stared at his hand for a moment as he couldn't explain how light came out from his skin even though he had been living with it for years. He pursed his lips and shrugged, "I guess I still have it. Alright, time to remove the barks… with bare hands, it is."
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Leo finally encountered an issue. After measuring the log's elasticity and toughness with his raw strength, Leo concluded that the mutated pine log was too durable for modern tools to process.
After three hours, Leo finished cutting all branches, separating leaves, collecting nuts, and debarking the first log. Even though he managed to remove the hard skin, his fingers were sore. Still, Leo got to admire the beauty of a skinless log.
Despite the bark being black, the interior skin was glistening white, but the hardness was as tough as steel plates. As for the inner skin, it was as white as a sheet, but it was a lot softer than the bark.
Curious, Leo brought a piece of iron pine bark to the workshop. He collected the completed batch of pills and put the piece of bark in there. Then, he pressed research.
DING
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[Bark of Iron Pine Tree]
Extracted from an Iron Pine Tree. Can be used as a metal element catalyst or smelt into Iron Pine Ingot.
[Traits]
Increase metal element pill success rate by 10%.
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For the first time, Leo found an item that could be used in another field other than alchemy. Seeing the ingot option, he wondered if he could create a blacksmith workshop in his store domain too.
Leo was not disappointed. There was a blacksmith workshop building on the list.
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Basic Blacksmith Workshop
Requirement – Humble General Store Level 3
Price – 1,000 Years of Lifespan
Space – 10 x 10
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"Am I in an RTS game or a base-building game world?"
Leo was amused. It seemed that the general store system wanted him to craft his merchandise himself. Still, he couldn't afford it as he didn't have enough lifespan to invest in another building.
For the moment, Leo had no customers, and he couldn't eat food. Thus, he could only busy himself tidying his backyard and sorting available resources at hand. Having nothing else to do, Leo peeled other iron pine logs and organized the barks next to the alchemy workshop.
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Another day went by. The stomach condition issue was resolved as the grain pills' effects subsided.
Leo immediately rushed to the wolf cages to check on the livestock. The animals no longer made a noise. As Leo didn't feed it anything but water, they ran out of energy, and they were starving.
He had no intention to spare them as they were the only source of protein and lifespan. Leo mutated all of them and extracted their meat. As for the bones, blood, skin, and innards, Leo kept some for his alchemy while he donated a portion of them to Cat, replenishing its lifespan.
It was noon when Leo finished. He began cooking the old mutated meat in the freezers while he kept the fresh ones in the chest refrigerator.
After the meal, Leo let out a long sigh. A proper steak was a thousand times better than grain pill candies. Those meds weren't compatible with his lifestyle, and he swore not to eat them again.
Leo washed the dish and the BBQ set with the river water. When he was putting plates and grills on a table to dry them, he heard the whizzing sound of wind coming from above.
When Leo looked up, he noticed a team of five white-robed young men, standing on top of iron pine trees. They stared at him as if Leo was a celebrity.
Seeing new people, Leo was excited. He wondered if he would get new customers that day.
"Come down if you want to talk, boys," Leo smiled at them.
The cultivators gulped and looked at each other. However, they leaped away from Leo, heading west to Magpie City.
Leo clicked his tongue and shook his head. Since those kids avoided him, he returned to work at the alchemy workshop. He researched the wolf's goodies.
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[Fenrir Skin]
Extracted from the mythical beast Fenrir's skin. Can be tanned into hides and crafted into Fenrir Leather Armor.
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[Fenrir Bone Marrow's Essence]
Extracted from the mythical beast Fenrir's spinal cord. It is one of the key ingredients of the legendary pill – Bone Reconstruction Pill.
[Alchemy Recipe – Bone Reconstruction Pill]
One Drop of Fenrir Bone Marrow's Essence
A liter of Fenrir Blood
A liter of Holy Water
Three of Fire, Earth, and Water Element Catalysts
Fire, Earth, and Water Essence
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[Fenrir Heart]
Extracted from the mythical beast Fenrir. It is one of the key ingredients of the legendary pill – Werewolf Dantian Pill.
[Alchemy Recipe – Werewolf Dantian Pill]
One Fenrir Heart
A liter of Fenrir Blood
One of Poison Element Catalyst
Poison Essence
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[Fenrir Liver]
Extracted from the mythical beast Fenrir. It is the universal catalyst of all antidotes and healing pills, which can also substitute all elemental catalysts.
[Traits]
Substitute any type of catalyst for antidotes or healing pills. Increase the pill success rate to 100%. Increase the pill quality by three grades. Add a temporary purification perk to the completed pills.
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[Fenrir Intestine]
Extracted from the mythical beast Fenrir. Can be used as poison or earth catalyst in antidote or healing pills.
[Traits]
Increase poison and earth pill success rate by 100%. Increase the pill quantity by 20%.
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[Fenrir Blood]
Extracted from the mythical beast Fenrir. Can be used as a substitution for Yin-type liquid ingredients in any recipe. Can be consumed raw to replenish one's blood and Qi, but it has severe side effects.
[Traits]
Substitute any Yin-Type liquid materials. Raw consumption replenishes the loss of blood equal to the volume consumed.
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[Fenrir Meat]
Extracted from the mythical beast Fenrir of the demonic realm. Can be cooked for food if the consumer has high poison resistance or Poison Qi.
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A lot of questions were answered there. Leo finally understood why Wu Buyi valued them highly. Although he realized that he undersold the innards a few days ago, Leo didn't regret it. After all, he got a bunch of veggies and other resources in exchange.
Moreover, by completing the research, Leo had enough ingredients for another pill. He browsed the pill recipe while he gathered the necessary ingredients.
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[Alchemy Recipe – Demonic Poison Potion]
One Cabbage of Extreme Yin
One Liter of Yin Fluid
One of any Poison Element Catalyst
Poison Qi
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Although cooking a chemical weapon always resulted in trouble, Leo laughed and tried making it for fun. He threw in a mutated cabbage, a liter of mutated wolf's blood, the wolf's intestine, and a bit of spitting to the charcoals under the cauldron. Then, he pressed proceed to make the first poison.
DING
Unfortunately, the refine timer showed six hours instead of one.
"Six hours?! Seriously? What are you cooking? Ramen soup?!"
Leo almost kicked the cauldron. He grudgingly brought back the wolf ingredients and chilled them in the fridges. Then, he sat there, staring at the pot as he lost the motivation to work for the day.
"I'm gonna sit here. I'm gonna stare at you. And I'm…"
Suddenly, the weird sides of Leo took over his brain. He stood up and danced.
"Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down. Never gonna run around and desert you!"
