Chapter 297 197. PASSION

Noah slowly opened his eyes inside his room. His eyes scanned the interiors of his abode, and he found that nothing had changed within it. The same could be said for the outsides of the room.

A sense of tension he didn't know he had been carrying dispersed from his mind and relief filled the vacancy. However, before Noah could soak himself in his relief, another powerful sensation filled his mind.

Power.

A feeling of power like never before permeated Noah's consciousness as it dawned on him that he had advanced into the middle stage of tier 3. A sharp pain followed that realization, and Noah quickly felt his environment become blurry.

[You have reached the limits of the lower stage]

[Entity <Noah> will now undergo proper advancement into the middle stage  of tier 3]

[Your existence is evolving]

[Advancement will take 28 hours till completion]

Before he could properly react to the panels' information, Noah felt a wave of fatigue and drowsiness fall upon him, and the last thing he heard before his blackout was the sound of his body hitting the ground. And weirdly; a knock on his door.

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Ariana walked down the dark but shiny streets of the floating city owned by the Divine Lightning guild. Her passage left no significant mark since everyone went about their business and she wasn't as popular as a familiar white-haired man.

Her facial expression clearly showed that she swam in the depths of her thoughts which was probably why she didn't notice the myriads of individuals stealing glances at her.

Ever since she arrived at the beautiful city of the Divine lightning guild, most of her time had been wandering and learning new things, unfortunately once in a while, the thoughts of certain someone would pop up, keeping her mind in emotional turmoil.

Ariana had long since started to regret her confession to Aiden, as she doubted her supposed feeling for the breathtakingly handsome man.

Whether it was admiration, respect, or true desire to know him better, she hadn't fully figured out. But one thing she found clear was that she stood no chance at getting him either way.

Arriving before a small blue-painted building one story in size, she didn't hesitate to push on the gray door, allowing herself into the building.

"I'm back!" she announced into the brightly lit room a bit more than 4sq-meters in size. The green door at the left side of the lightly furniture room flung open a few seconds later and the figure of a lady who looked to be in her mid-forties unfolded in her eyes.

"You're back early Ariana!," the brown-haired lady uttered, genuinely surprised.

"Getting the things you asked of weren't that difficult," Ariana shrugged making herself comfortable by sitting on one of the three blue one-sitter couches.

The lady walked toward her and sat on the couch placed directly across Ariana's position.

Her aged green eyes seemed to scan the individual before her, and with a warm smile, she opened her mouth to speak.

"You seem to have a lot on your mind lately," the lady said crossing her legs ignoring the short display she made.

Eyes blinking multiple times; Ariana wiped the downcast expression to wear one that suggested she felt embarrassed.

"It's nothing that you need to worry about Miss Talia," she tried to dismiss the incoming questions but failed.

"Is it about the young man you spoke of?" Miss Talia inquired.

"It's truly nothing ma'am," Ariana replied waving both her hands weakly.

"Hmmm… I don't think it isn't. You're usually in high spirits unless the young man enters your mind," Miss Talia explained. "You told me so yourself."

Ariana tried to speak but no words escaped her mouth after the lady's last words. She eventually sighed and shrugged, as her mind moved to change the topic. She usually felt on edge whenever the lady questioned her since they were carefully picked and direct; to not allow her escape them.

"You don't have to worry about that. More importantly; the items you asked me to get," Ariana explained waving her hand to allow a bunch of items appear mid-air. The items were mostly plant-based.

Miss Talia calmly searched Ariana's face for something and sighed silently when she found the resolve glowing on the young woman's face.

"Thank you. I'll communicate with the guild that you completed the quest, and your payment will be given to you," Talia stood after waving her hands to store the items and walking towards the green door she had just exited.

"I was close to making a breakthrough when you arrived," the middle-aged woman revealed, going past the door with Ariana following closely behind her.

"Oh!" Ariana exclaimed an expression filled with genuine excitement appearing on her fair face.

"Yes," Talia gave a wide grin walking into the messy room. The place remained as brightly lit as the room on the outside but featured a big wide grey table littered with bottles and vials of different shapes and sizes.

Not only that but substances of different colors and states of matter were scattered around the table and even the yellow tiled floor.

A unique smell that would be associated with plants and medicine filled the entire room with its almost choking aroma, but neither of the ladies seemed to care about that detail. Or their noses completely disregarded them.

"I discovered that dipping a Mesdion and Rectulli in liquid highly saturated with mana would allow the Agdalio potion to increase the healing speed of a body by three times. The only issue is that it's not stable and turns into a poison that attacks the mana core, sapping its vitality," Talia explained placing her left hand on her chin. "The best the mixture can give is a few seconds until it becomes a disease rather than healing."

"I need something more to stabilize the final product and remove the Rectulli's poisonous effects, while still keeping its important properties. Unfortunately, I don't even know what I'm looking for."

"I thought you said you were close to a breakthrough," Ariana said after a moment of processing the information passed across to her. She also understood them, even if she felt eager to see them herself.

A grin brightened the tired face of the middle-aged woman. "You didn't let me finish," Miss Talia snorted, clearly excited.

"During the many hours of testing and performing experiments on the magical beasts in my hold, I found that adding a generous amount of the Urguania would lower the spreading speed of the Rectulli's effects. But it wouldn't stop it."

"You arrived when I was about to begin adding anything with the same effects as the Urguania," she explained walking towards one of the ten shelves of bottles filled with different types of powders and liquids.

"I first had the thought of pouring the Corobos, but it has a dangerous attribute of weakening the immune system of the human and even magical beast body if not mixed with something able to properly combat it," Talia said playing around with the bottle in her hand. The bottle featured an orange liquid that bubbled each time she shook it.

"How about adding the Gwantip. It has been proved to battle poison well especially when allowed to soak well. It is also used in the many healing potions based for certain types of poisons and their effects I believe the Rectulli's effects should be part," Ariana suggested thoughtfully.

"It has but don't forget that when used in overdose, no matter how many substances you mix with it, it explodes the arteries of the user. I'm trying to create something that is able to help tier 2 and 3 experts."

"Only peak tier 3's or tier 4's can withstand damage done to their arteries, especially since I'll be mixing them with highly concentrated mana water. There will be enough fuel able to generate enough power to rip a tier 3 apart if we're not careful," Talia explained, and Ariana nodded in agreement.

Both individuals continued to pass on suggestions for hours as their passion for alchemy expressed itself fully. A detail that allowed the two quickly bond after their initial encounter.