After this contest, there's really no need to argue which is superior—the Berserker Elixir or the Dragonforce Elixir.
The Berserker Elixir grants less than ten seconds of berserk fury—just enough for an ordinary swordsman to stand against a Greatsword Warrior. But the Dragonforce Elixir offers a full ten minutes of enhanced physical strength, enough for a fifth-rank mage to possess the power of an eighth-rank swordsman.
Keep in mind, we're only talking about a fifth-rank mage here.
A mage's physical strength is nowhere near a swordsman's—especially compared to monsters like Bill the Mad Bull. The difference is almost laughable. Yet this frail mage managed to go toe-to-toe with Bill and hold his own.
If it had been a fifth-rank swordsman, even a Greatsword Warrior would have to rely on battle aura and technique to gain the upper hand. In pure strength alone, even a Greatsword Warrior might not measure up.
Putting these two alchemical potions side by side—it's simply unfair to the Berserker Elixir.
This is nothing short of a complete rout!
"Grand Alchemist Hawkins, perhaps you should take your Berserker Elixir back to Twinmoon Radiance. The Gilded Rose really doesn't need this kind of technical exchange..."
Farrow still showed no intention of letting Hawkins off the hook. He stared at the Grand Alchemist with a cold sneer—his gaze held not only contempt and mockery, but a hint of barely perceptible pity.
If Hawkins ever learned that the Dragonforce Elixir, which so easily crushed his Berserker Elixir, was just a shoddy imitation, one wonders what the Grand Alchemist would think...
He'd probably die of sheer frustration...
No, no, it's not just the Dragonforce Elixir.
Even the Berserker Elixir in Hawkins's hand is a shoddy imitation—just like the Dragonforce Elixir. And both are copying Archmage Leon Merlin.
One has to wonder where Hawkins found the nerve to come to the Gilded Rose with a cheap knockoff, demanding a technical exchange and even dreaming of tearing down the shop's reputation. Now, his potion's been crushed by another imitation. Truly, ignorance is the greatest courage...
"No... no, I don't believe it! You must have cheated—yes, you definitely cheated! That wasn't a fifth-rank Grand Mage, that was a Swordmaster! I saw him use battle aura!" Hawkins, now on the losing side, was completely flustered, his words tumbling out in confusion.
"Ha! Swordmaster...?"
"How could that possibly be a Swordmaster? That's clearly a Sword Saint!"
"Give it a rest, Grand Alchemist Hawkins..."
The hall erupted in laughter. Howes was a member of the Alchemist Guild—whether he was a fifth-rank mage could be easily checked at the Guild. The Gilded Rose wouldn't fake something like this, let alone claim to have seen battle aura. If there really were a Swordmaster in his twenties, every major power in Seaview City would be fighting to recruit him, long before Hawkins ever got the chance.
Finally, this farce ended with Hawkins's incoherent protests. He slunk out of the Gilded Rose, not even sticking around for the Meditation Elixir launch. Honestly, it was for the best—if he'd stayed, his already swollen face would have been slapped even more by the Meditation Elixir.
Today's alchemy launch was held without any publicity, any preparation, or even a set starting time—by far the most rushed and haphazard event the Gilded Rose had ever hosted.
Yet this slapdash alchemy launch immediately caused a sensation throughout Seaview City. In just one afternoon, half the city knew: the Gilded Rose, famous for the Elixir of Hope, had now developed two brand-new alchemical potions.
One is the Dragonforce Elixir, which completely outclasses the Berserker Elixir; the other is the Meditation Elixir, which frees mages from the torment of mana deficiency...
Leon hadn't shown his face at all. At this moment, he was deep into a critical stage of his research on the Deathstone Tablet.
The Deathstone Tablet had been in Leon's possession for nearly ten days. Aside from discovering on the first day that it could boost Mana Harness efficiency, he'd found nothing new. But Leon never gave up—he knew that any component at least of True Spirit grade was bound to hold infinite mysteries, and no amount of time or effort would be wasted...
And sure enough, Leon's persistence finally paid off today...
After the old steward left the alchemy lab, Leon continued his research on the tablet. Today's test was mana infusion. For this, Leon had crafted a small device: a mithril frame, a mana crystal, and three miniature alchemical arrays—one to extract mana, one to control it, and one to infuse it. Using this homemade tool, he drew mana from the crystal and injected it into the tablet.
Originally, this mana infusion test was going nowhere...
The tablet's composition was truly bizarre. It looked like a simple stone, yet its capacity for mana was nearly limitless. By afternoon, Leon had already used up four mana crystals, each at least tenth-tier—a staggering amount of energy. Any ordinary Grand Mage would have been overwhelmed, but the tablet absorbed it all without the slightest reaction. It was like a bottomless pit.
When the fourth mana crystal was spent and Leon reached for another, he accidentally placed a piece of Necrotic Essence onto the tablet.
And then, the tablet underwent a sudden transformation...
What had seemed like an ordinary stone suddenly blazed with light. The surge of death energy was so intense that even Leon struggled to breathe. Luckily, he reacted fast—snatching the tablet up and casting a Hand of Flame the instant the light appeared.
Immediately, the glow faded and the tablet returned to normal, as if nothing had happened—as if the whole episode were just Leon's imagination.
But Leon knew it wasn't a hallucination...
Because he clearly saw that, after the light vanished, something new had appeared on the tablet.
It was a spell mark of the Hand of Flame—a burning palm, about the size of a fingernail, mysteriously imprinted on the Deathstone Tablet.
**********
Tomorrow morning I'll be visiting an elderly relative at the hospital. If the update is late, please don't be harsh! There will still be three updates totaling six thousand words—just the first and second might be a bit delayed.