While Liam fired up the cauldron and started doing more experimentation, the guy on the grass next to him finally stopped leaking stuff.
It was now the second part of the cleansing where the deeper impurities came out so even with his eyes closed, he was wincing in pain.
"This is only the beginning." Liam gave the poor guy an understanding look as he weighed the side effects of the rest of the elixirs in his mind.
A few more minutes passed in silence and the two women standing outside also once again returned back to the garden.
No matter how unbearable it was they still wanted to be there for their brother.
"Don't worry. It's almost over." Liam saw that Rey stopped wincing. He now looked like he was peacefully asleep.
"Time for the next one."
Liam grabbed the [Lesser Mind Cleansing Elixir] bottle and emptied its contents into Rey's mouth.
He was just about to tell the two women that he did not know what the side effects of this elixir would be when unexpectedly Rey flashed his eyes open.
They were pitch black in color and he immediately started attacking the three of them.
Thankfully, his level was a lot lesser than any of them so it was like a small puppy barking at them. He wasn't able to do any real damage.
"Is this the effect of this elixir?" Alex straight up held back the guy and asked Liam
"Yes. It should be. He is probably in some kind of nightmare." Liam speculated.
When he had consumed the elixir nothing like this had happened so this elixir recipe in his hand was definitely superior to that one.
There would probably be a lot more benefits than simply stat gain.
However, this was also his modified version so it had to be weaker than the real deal. "Just give it time. Everything should stop in a few minutes."
Alex nodded. Both she and Mia tried to call out to Rey to break the nightmare and wake him up to reality but that seemed impossible.
No matter what they did, Rey continued struggling and swinging his limbs wildly like a zombie.
Even Liam did not expect it but this continued on for about half an hour when finally the guy woke up screaming and came to his senses.
He was fully drenched in sweat and he looked like he had just gone through war. "Huh? Huh? Where am I? What happened to the spiders? Alex! Alex! There are spiders!"
"Hey. Hey. Relax. You are fine now. It was just a dream." Alex hurriedly hugged him. "You are okay. You are alright. Take a deep breath."
"What? Are you serious? It was just a dream? How is that possible?" Rey dumbfoundedly stared. But he then quickly stood up.
"Wait, so is this also a dream? Am I in a dream within a dream? Is this that fucking movie Inception? Get away from me, you demon!"
"You don't look like my sister. You are ugly. Shoo! Get away!"
Alex's face twitched as she leaned back, calmly lifted her hand, and landed a tight slap on the guy's face. "See. It's real?"
"Dude! I am already sick! Did you really have to hit me! You heartless monster!" Rey pitifully rubbed his cheeks and whined.
Interrupting this heart-warming brother and sister moment, Liam calmly pointed out the obvious. "I don't think you are that sick anymore."
Huh? Alex and Mia as well only realized it now.
"Rey! See you are not fainting anymore!" Alex shouted in excitement.
"Can you get up and try to stand. Tell me how you are feeling." Mia helped him stand up.
The three of them worriedly stayed silent for a couple of minutes and Rey was still fine. It was no longer just a conjecture. He was actually fine.
Alex became emotional and stepped forward to hug her brother. He was finally himself after a long time but before she could come closer to him, he pushed her away and fell on Liam.
"Bro! Bro! You are awesome! Thanks for saving me!"
"This ungrateful little shit." Alex dragged him back. "There are still two more elixirs left and I hope it hurts."
"What? No…" Rey shook his head as he looked at the two vials on the ground.
"Bro, you made these potions? I really got better drinking them?"
"Yes. Mia and Alex will explain everything to you later." Liam patted him. "You should first finish all the elixirs. These next two might be even more painful. Try to bear with it."
Rey gulped and nodded. He was also tired of being weak and sick all the time so he was ready to get this over with.
But like Liam had warned him, the two next ones were even more painful. At least in the case of the body and mind, he could sense where the pain was and it was manageable.
However, with the soul cleansing elixir and spirit cleansing elixir, Rey couldn't even pinpoint where the pain was. It was completely unbearable.
Only because both Mia and Alex were constantly by his side and giving him words of encouragement, he was able to get through the whole process.
The entire thing took about two hours and all throughout Rey was continuously screaming at the top of his lungs in pain.
In the end, when everything was over he fainted from the sheer exhaustion of the procedure.
"Let him sleep a little." Liam placed the stone tablet back into his inventory and prepared to leave. He had a lot of things that he needed to get done as soon as possible.
Especially after observing the effect of the various elixirs on Rey he was more than determined to make the original, the unmodified version.
Just for these modified versions, the benefits were extraordinary, just how potent would the original elixir be?
Engrossed in his thoughts, he stepped out of the room and started walking out. After he reached a few steps, Alex came running behind him.
"Did something happen?" Liam asked.
"No. No. I just wanted to say… I mean thanks a lot." Alex fidgeted with her fingers and mumbled.
Liam looked at her but he did not make a big deal of it. "Ok." He replied and then went back to climbing down the staircase.
"Ah." Alex stammered and quickly rushed behind him again. "One second."
"What happened?" Liam asked her again.
"I… I managed to get some more recipes. Here." Alex took out a bunch of potion recipes and handed them to Liam. There were in total fifteen recipes which was a good haul.
"This is good. Thanks. I appreciate it." Liam quickly placed all the recipes in his inventory.
"I… I didn't do anything. This is from the guild. A few players exchanged these recipes for guild contribution points." Alex hurriedly explained.
"I see. Alright then."
Alex still looked reluctant so Liam sighed and went back to give her a pat. "I hope your brother recovers enough to be able to play again." He awkwardly patted her head full of flowing red hair.
"I have to go now. I will meet back with you guys later."
He finally left and the red-haired beauty no longer ran behind him. She was standing rooted on the spot with various complicated emotions on her face.
She started at the empty space for a few seconds before returning back to the room that was no longer a garden.
"Yes, he wasn't kidding when he said that the garden was from the stone tablet." Mia smiled bitterly.
Even she was surprised. It was almost as if there were teleported back and forth from a different world.
She noticed Alex's weird expression and asked, "Did something happen? Why did you run out in a hurry?"
"Nothing. Nothing. I just wanted to say thanks." Alex awkwardly coughed and recovered.
"Right. Did you say thanks or did you pick a fight with him again?"
Alex silently rolled her eyes and did not reply any longer. The two of them sat beside Rey and patiently waited for him to recover.
Meanwhile… Liam was already on his way to the Gresh Kingdom newbie zones.
These were the small towns and villages near the center of the Kingdom. The new players usually spawned here.
If he did not have the quest in his hand, he would have had to search for the man everywhere but he had the quest so he only needed to take a look at the quest description.
This had now changed to indicate that he had to return back to the instructor and meet him at Vala town. This meant that he was currently there.
Liam quickly hurried over and reached the town area. The place was in fact currently being tormented by two demonic beasts.
A few of the town elders had gathered around to deal with these beasts and the instructor was also one of them.
Around these people, of course, many players were gathered around like hyenas because for the newbies this was a rare chance to fight with an elite right in the newbie zone and maybe even get the last hit and bountiful experience points.
However, unfortunately for them… Liam landed and he only needed a couple of hits to finish off the two demonic beasts.
Liam ignored the several players who cursed him out loudly and directly walked over to the instructor.
