Chapter 3

Pharmacist Identity

After passing several streets, Gurney finally stopped before the door of Black Map District’s Old Rock Street, No. 155.

Black Map District had all sorts of people; there were even many thieves and bandits. Some young and inexperienced rich aristocrats would often suffer if they went there unprepared.

As for Gurney who had lived here for 16 years and was native to the place, there were naturally no thieves foolish enough to try and target him.

If they really did so, the hand that they used would likely never be lifted again.

The past Gurney might have needed the protection of Father Cohen, but now, after passively farming for six months using his system, Gurney was no longer someone who mere thieves could provoke.

He used the key to open his door. Once he entered, Gurney picked up the faint smell of a potion.

This potion smell would not have been detected by ordinary people, but Gurney’s nose could clearly sense the ingredients and preparations used for the potion, the temperature used to cook it, as well as the length of time.

Normally speaking, even high-tier supernatural Pharmacists would not have this special sensitivity and perception towards potions. And yet, Gurney, despite not being a Transcendent, had such an extraordinarily keen sense of smell.

The reason was that Gurney had the supernatural book

Bone Essence Potion Mantra

.

After half a year of passive farming, he had forcefully raised this ability to as high as level six.

Bone Essence Potion Mantra could elevate one’s sense of smell, vision, taste, touch, and precision, allowing one’s perception towards potions to increase, thus raising one’s success rate of creating potions.

Many Pharmacists would cultivate supernatural books like potion mantras to raise their ability to control their potion concoction.

Even if one’s potion mantra had not reached level one and was still at the elementary level, they would still be considered a proper Pharmacist.

Even so, out of a hundred Apprentice Pharmacists, only seven to eight of them could become true Pharmacists.

Many old Pharmacists who had spent their entire life researching potions would only be at the elementary level in their potion mantra; they could barely be considered level one.

This showed how tough potion-mantra cultivation was.

After all, a potion mantra was a genuine supernatural book; ordinary people could not even decipher their true profundity.

It was only natural that the cultivation difficulty would be very high.

Even the first level of a potion mantra was very difficult to reach. As for those people with level two or even level three potion mantras, they would undeniably be core members being nurtured by many powerful supernatural forces.

Those with level four or five potion mantras were even rarer; they were Legendary Pharmacists that would be recorded down in the history of the continent, their names well known to many.

As for Gurney, after half a year of passive farming, his Bone Essence Potion Mantra reached level six; it was going to become level seven in some time. A potion mantra of this level was definitely close to unprecedented in the entire history of the Oasia Continent.

The power of the Passive Farming System was clear with just this example.

After smelling the ingredients of this potion, Gurney identified what it was. It was the “Essence Healing Potion”.

Compared to ordinary healing potions which expended one’s vitality to rapidly heal injuries, the essence healing potion carried life force vitality within itself to heal the injured target.

An essence healing potion was much harder to make than an ordinary healing potion. It was one of the hardest low-tier potions to concoct; it was even harder to make than ordinary mid-tier potions.

Even Father Cohen, a Senior Elementary Pharmacist recognized by the Pharmacist Guild, only had a 50 percent success rate at it.

Gurney’s success rate, however, was over ninety-nine percent!

Thus, many of the potions sold in Father Cohen’s Pharmacy that were hard to create were concocted by Gurney most of the time.

Opening the secret door, Gurney walked down the stone stairs and went into the underground Potion-Alchemy Secret Room that was brightly lit.

“You’re back!” The elderly voice that resounded had a trace of hoarseness.

The elderly Cohen who had white hair and wore spectacles had great spirit and energy. He was currently distilling, boiling, separating, and blending the essence healing potion, which was mixing in a large beaker.

“Yeah!” Gurney replied plainly.

Afterwards, Gurney came to the beaker that was large enough to fit his head, and he gazed at it for more than ten seconds before speaking, “The temperature is slightly too high. Lower it and add in 180 milliliters of pure water. After twenty minutes, a high-quality essence healing potion will be perfectly created.”

After saying so, Gurney had already lowered the temperature of the fire below the beaker. He then opened the test tube containing pure water and poured 180 ml of it into the beaker.

The test tube contained 200 ml of pure water, but Gurney had agile hands that accurately poured in 180 ml of water; only 20 ml was left with less than one percent margin of error.

Old Cohen turned around to take a look. He was not surprised at all about this scene.

Gurney’s ability as a Pharmacist far surpassed his; he knew this.

If Gurney was willing to, he could have gone to the Pharmacist Guild and taken part in the Pharmacist Examination anytime.

He could easily become a recognized Pharmacist, before quickly becoming a high-tier Pharmacist, or even a Specialist Pharmacist.

However, Old Cohen also knew about Gurney’s personality.

He was not someone who would bother to do something with little benefits to himself.

“Father, the shop does not seem to lack these essence healing potions! Furthermore, we have many in stock that are diluted with pure water… Mmm, I mean those healing potions that ordinary adventurers cannot differentiate.”

“Why are you making so many essence healing potions?”

“Hehe…” Cohen chuckled with his hoarse voice.

“Take a look at this…”

Cohen pointed at the Jade Orchid Steam Newspaper on the newspaper rack.

“Jade Orchid Steam Newspaper” was the number one newspaper in the Jade Orchid Empire and reported extremely accurate and updated news.

Compared to ordinary newspapers, the supernatural tablet that Old Cohen bought cost over ten times more; the information recorded on this tablet also contained something that common people could not access — supernatural information.

Gurney took the newspaper and looked at the front page.

He saw a bloody and cruel sight.

Thankfully, the newspaper was in black and white, so the scene was not as terrifying as a result.

In the image, he saw a human-sized mound made of heads.

All the heads had wide-open eyes and mouths: they showed pain, hatred, and insanity. Their blood dyed the surrounding several meters red.

It was as if they had suffered unimaginable pain before dying.

Behind the terrifying mound of heads, there were many dissected headless corpses randomly placed everywhere.

Even for Gurney, who had some understanding of the supernatural world, seeing this type of evil ritual and terrifying death scene made a chill run down his spine.

There was even a description at the bottom of the picture.

“Anko Province, two hundred people in the periphery ‘Black Teeth Town’ were brutally murdered and beheaded. After initial investigations, the suspects are believed to be the followers of ‘Giant Deity Cult’. This was likely the Evil Deity Blood Sacrificial Ritual. Anko Province’s ‘Supernatural Association’ has already taken over the case.”

“Giant Deity Cult? Anko Province? But we’re in Anko Province now…” Gurney was slightly surprised as he spoke.

“Yes. Furthermore, that Black Teeth Town is only fifty kilometers away from us. From the size of this incident, these cult members would not be few in numbers. As for our Sugar Ruins City, because we have a huge inflow of people, it would be the best hiding spot for them. Those cult members will definitely try to hide in our city. In fact, those cult members who held the evil ritual in Black Teeth Town had likely gone there from Sugar Ruins City, to begin with.

“Earlier in the morning, Baron Tram came to find me. The Fourth Garrison of Sugar Ruins City that he leads will head out and search for those cult members. There may be an intense battle ahead for them. Thus, he came here to purchase some essence healing potions.

“You know that we have a good cooperative relationship with Baron Tram.”

“So we are selling him genuine potions,” Gurney added quickly.

“We are selling real potions to others as well. They are just less effective.” Cohen shrugged, feeling no shame toward his own unscrupulous action.

“These Giant Deity Cult members are already arrogant to this point? They dare to publicly commit a crime!” said Gurney as he frowned.

Since the time he transmigrated into this steampunk world, it had been half a year.

Even though Gurney saw lots of information from newspapers and knew that this world was not safe, it could be said to contain many undercurrents. Among the most commonly reported incidents were the vicious and cruel actions of various cults.

But most of them committed their crimes secretly and would only involve a small number of people. Most of the time, they would not create a huge commotion that would get reported on the news. Even when they did, the news would only occupy a tiny corner of the newspaper; it would often be ignored.

This time, they openly killed over two hundred people; they even dared to hold a blood sacrificial ritual.

Indeed, they were much more brazen than before.

“Not only here. According to what I heard, the other peripheral cities are also encountering the same issue, but they are just not reported,” said Old Cohen as he processed the materials in his hands.

After saying so, Cohen turned to Gurney. “There may be some chaos during this period. Try not to go out if possible.”

Gurney who was frowning squinted his eyes in deep thought.

A moment later, he nodded lightly. “Yeah, I know.”

Old Cohen suddenly added, “Oh right, I almost forgot. I’ve gotten the supernatural-rated Knight Breathing Style that you wanted me to find. This is the complete version of the supernatural Knight Breathing Style.”

“A supernatural-rated Knight Breathing Style that is actually complete!” Gurney expressed great joy upon hearing these words.