I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha

When Roland woke up, he found himself lying on a mat on the floor of the 'cabin'. He realized he must be inside the cabin within his mentor's pouch.

Outside the cabin window, a thick fog obscured the distant scenery. The voices of his mentor and the Baron, among others, echoed in the sky.

Roland listened to the sounds outside for a moment, realizing that the team had already ventured deep into the ruins.

"It seems like I only slept for two hours… My mentor and the others didn't choose to camp at the entrance of the ruins, but instead jumped into the entrance (the dry well) and entered the ruins."

Roland listened again and found that Instructor Leynard and several other crazy fellows had been placed by his mentor into a magical artifact, a kind of separate space.

They had taken some magic potions before, and would probably wake up one after another in a few hours.

Roland revealed a strange expression: "So, my mentor had everyone drink the Suffering Elixir not to harm them… If she needed us to drink the potion, why didn't she just tell me nicely, instead of scaring people with that stern face."

At this moment, Instructor Catherine's voice suddenly came in coldly from outside: "If you're awake, stop pretending to sleep. Process the herbs outside. In twenty hours, I want to see a hundred bottles of 'Viper's Kiss'."

Viper's Kiss was a potion specifically for wizard apprentices, not only helping with meditation but also rapidly restoring magic power in combat. In addition, it had the effects of calming the nerves, enhancing mental power, and clearing mental pollution.

There might be many abyssal monsters in the ruins, so Catherine had Roland concoct this magic potion to provide logistical support for the team.

Roland found the recipe for Viper's Kiss on the alchemy table, and he thought to himself: 'I've heard of this famous potion. It has many effects, but it's very difficult to brew.'

These magic potions were very difficult to brew, and the materials were also very precious, so the price of the magic potion was very expensive, making its cost-effectiveness very low. But the one in Roland's hand was a modified recipe.

The new recipe used three very cheap materials to replace the three most expensive and rare main ingredients in the old recipe. The effect of the magic potion from the new recipe was slightly worse, but the cost and difficulty of brewing were greatly reduced. It could be brewed by simply simmering it in a cauldron like a witch's stew!

No wonder Catherine just said to have Roland brew a hundred bottles; this kind of magic potion could be brewed in a large pot.

'My potion-making skills are indeed not bad, but I haven't brewed any magic potions yet.' Roland looked at the mentor's alchemy table and thought: 'It's better to practice with the mentor's crucible first; that would be safer.'

Catherine seemed to be constantly sensing the situation inside the pouch with her mind. After discovering that Roland was fiddling with her alchemy tools, she said: "Don't use my alchemy table to make those disgusting things! Use the broken iron pot inside the cabin!"

The new version of Viper's Kiss was indeed a bit disgusting. Its auxiliary materials were still normal, but its three main ingredients were like this: testes of the Tail-Scorpion Sheep, venom of the Razor Serpent, and bodily fluids of a young pure-blooded witch (apprentice).

The first two items were okay, but the last bodily fluid... urine also counts as a bodily fluid.

Catherine had purchased a lot of these things in the wizard market before. There were several large barrels of golden witch bodily fluids near the alchemy table.

Pure-blooded wizards were nobles, the elite of society. Normally, they wouldn't sell this kind of thing, but Catherine must have engaged in some forced buying and selling with certain female apprentices before.

Roland found all the materials, the large pot, and a hundred 5ml small crystal bottles in the cabin.

The potion bottles were only slightly larger than a thumb. Judging from the quantity of materials, even if the brewed magic potion needed to be extracted and purified, filling hundreds of such small bottles wouldn't be a problem.

Roland secretly calculated the cost and found that the material cost of the modified Viper's Kiss was almost negligible.

Tail-Scorpion Sheep and Razor Serpents were both monsters that could be found in the mundane world, and adventurers could buy them for silver coins.

The witch's bodily fluids were also very cheap—bathwater and urine were not worth much.

But the brewed magic potion could be sold for magic stones!

Roland thought to himself: 'It's simply a business with no capital. If I sell it to the wizard market in the academy, I'll definitely make a fortune. If I can go back alive, Viper's Kiss is undoubtedly a money tree.'

After thinking for a while, he sighed again: 'Let's not think so much for now; let's talk about going back alive first. After brewing the magic potion later, I have to stash a few portions to deal with future dangers.'

Roland sorted the various materials and prepared for brewing the magic potion.

'It's better not to use the big pot to brew it. If it fails, a whole pot of materials will be wasted. It's best to try a few times with some smaller containers first.'

Roland went to the kitchen and found a small iron pot.

'This small iron pot is much smaller than that big iron pot. But brewing it once can still extract and purify seven or eight bottles of magic potion. Using it, I can complete the task in a dozen times.'

The modified Viper's Kiss was already about as difficult to brew as the most basic magic potion. But for a novice like Roland, who only had potion-making theory and no practical experience, it was still an arduous task.

He failed sixteen times in a row. Seeing that only half of the materials were left, Roland's face became very heavy.

Magical artifacts and magic potions were the life-saving items of wizards. Roland originally planned to brew more and stash a few bottles for his own use. But now, he had wasted half of the materials but hadn't even brewed a single bottle of magic potion. This put Roland under great pressure.

He thought to himself: 'I thought potion alchemy was too simple.'

Potion alchemy was indeed a very profound knowledge. Many potion alchemists often only specialized in one or two recipes in their entire lives. And they had to study it for a lifetime to achieve a high enough success rate.

The cost of becoming a qualified potion alchemist was very huge.

Therefore, magical artifacts such as the 'Bitter Slumber Crucible,' which could increase the success rate of magic potion brewing, were extremely precious.

The magic potion was still being brewed in the small iron pot. Roland flipped through the "Aleya's Notebook" and saw that his [Apprentice-level Potion Alchemy. Beginner (41/100)] had become [Apprentice-level Potion Alchemy. Elementary (0/1000)].

These dozen or so failures did give Roland some new insights into the brewing of Viper's Kiss. But it was only a little bit of insight.

According to the notebook, if he didn't have a magical artifact-level alchemy tool, then even if he thoroughly studied the recipe for Viper's Kiss before his potion alchemy reached the wizard level, the success rate wouldn't exceed 10%.

Roland thought to himself: 'No wonder the materials for many magic potions are very cheap, but the finished magic potions are so expensive.'

Roland couldn't help but think of the 'Bitter Slumber Crucible' that Wallace and the others had talked about.

Rubbing his tired eyes, Roland brewed the 17th pot of magic potion. This time, he actually succeeded directly.

Roland was ecstatic. He extracted and purified the magic potion from the small pot and dispensed 8 bottles of magic potion. Then he continued to work.

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But from then on until the materials ran out, he didn't make any more qualified magic potions.

Counting it, he brewed a total of thirty small pots of magic potion and only succeeded once.

The success rate was only about 3%, which made Roland very troubled.

Roland listened to the movement outside and found that the mentor's breathing was very steady. He was sure that she was already resting.

Looking at the 8 bottles of magic potion in front of him, and listening to the steady breathing coming from the sky outside the cabin, Roland's face changed for a long time, and he embezzled 2 bottles.

He diluted the remaining 6 bottles of magic potion with water and re-bottled them into 8 bottles. Then he put them into the magic potion box.

He only brewed 8 bottles in total, and then this guy embezzled 2 bottles. If this matter was discovered by the mentor, Roland would definitely not have a good outcome.

But if Roland didn't have a life-saving magic potion in his hand, then it wouldn't be as simple as not having a good outcome.

After doing all this, Roland's physical strength was almost exhausted. He fell on the bed and fell asleep.

He didn't know how long had passed, but Roland was awakened by mosquitoes.

When the pouch captured blood moths in the fern forest before, it brought in a lot of mosquitoes.

Before, Roland was focused on brewing magic potions and didn't pay attention to the mosquitoes. Now, when he woke up, he found that his whole body was covered in large welts.

After scratching his body, Roland suddenly discovered that there seemed to be a huge 'body pillow' behind him.

Carefully looking back, Roland found that the person sleeping next to him was the ancient elf beauty 'Miss Anna'.

After observing for a moment, Roland breathed a sigh of relief: 'The mentor seems to have cast a sleep spell on Anna.'

Just then, Anna ground her teeth in her sleep and embraced Roland into the crevice of her chest.

Roland almost suffocated under the pressure of her huge breasts. It took him a long time to struggle out of her embrace before passing out.