Returning to the inn, Shulim immediately began brewing the potion.
First was confirming the purity and properties of the ingredients. Even for the same material, differences in individual condition could alter the final mixing proportions; failing to grasp this accurately would easily lead to failure.
Skillfully setting up her potion-making apparatus, Shulim began inspecting each ingredient one by one, recording their specific details on paper.
Time trickled by, and before long, evening had arrived. Shulim finally finished inspecting all the ingredients.
Various sets of data densely filled several pages.
With the inspection complete, the next step was processing the materials. Compared to the first step, processing required extreme care, or an entire batch of ingredients might be ruined. To guard against this, Shulim had purposely prepared extra materials. The only issue was that the most precious items—the Dragon's Dream Fruit juice and Hadra Stygian Fish scales—were still strictly limited. There was no chance of getting more, so she had to succeed on the first try.
Mixing swamp snake mucus, flame thorn grass ash, and pure water in specific proportions, she heated the mixture to a low simmer and stirred constantly. Once the liquid was no longer viscous and turned a bright red, the solvent needed for later was ready.
After roasting the Hadra fish scales over a flame under light until they turned pure white, she mixed them with blind night spider bone powder according to calculated proportions, grinding continuously until it became a bright silver powder.
Next, using a distillation apparatus and strictly controlling the temperature, she continuously distilled the Dragon's Dream Fruit juice. When handling this, she also had to ensure everything was tightly sealed, as the vapor evaporating from the juice possessed an extremely potent sleep-inducing effect; one careless slip, and she would fall victim to it herself.
Once the Dragon's Dream Fruit juice turned caramel-colored and clung to the bottom of the glassware without dripping, it was considered a success.
Next was...
...
By the time all the materials were processed, it was already late into the night.
Throughout the process, Shulim had only eaten some food prepared in advance, not stepping out of the room even once.
“Time for the final compounding...”
Shulim first tested the environment to ensure temperature, humidity, and lighting were all optimal, then began the compounding.
Heating the solvent until slight bubbles formed, she added the weighed bright silver powder. Once the powder had completely dissolved and disappeared, she added the precisely measured caramel-colored viscous liquid. As the viscous liquid dispersed into thread-like strands within the hot solvent, she immediately added the prepared mist shroud flower solution.
Hiss! Hiss! Hiss...
The moment the mist shroud flower solution dripped in, a violent reaction instantly took place inside the reaction vessel, but this was normal.
Shulim had already sealed it beforehand, so none of the generated steam leaked out.
Once the reaction ceased, the solvent inside the vessel had turned into a bottle of bright silver transparent liquid, but it was not yet finished.
Shulim successively added several other ingredients...
After working for about another hour, a bottle of cloudy white liquid was produced.
At this point, all compounding steps were complete. All that remained was to let the potion rest in a dark, low-temperature environment for a period of time.
After finishing all this, Shulim checked the time—it was already the early hours of the morning.
Without hesitation, she went straight to sleep...
When sunlight leaked through the crack in the window, Shulim slowly opened her eyes.
Taking a bath to wash away her lingering drowsiness, Shulim opened the case storing the potion.
By now, after resting for several hours, the potion had turned into a colorless, transparent liquid just like water. Swirling it gently, it was fluid and free of any viscosity, completely water-like.
This meant the magic potion, Dragon's Dream Incense, was complete!
...
The docks.
A large ship was moored here.
“Hurry up! Faster!”
The large ship was loaded with large wooden crates. Under the supervision of a scarred man, a group of workers continuously hauled the wooden crates off the ship and transported them directly to a nearby warehouse building.
At this moment, the warehouse building, which remained closed year-round, had unusually opened its cargo doors as large wooden crates were brought inside one after another.
“Be gentle, you idiots! Don't damage the cargo!”
Inside the warehouse, a black-robed woman holding a leather whip patrolled continuously. The moment she spotted an issue, she would immediately lash out with her whip and unleash a barrage of curses.
Before long, a one-eyed man walked in.
The black-robed woman glanced at him.
“How is it outside? Any problems?”
“Relax. We've cleared the entire dock—it's all our own people. If any outsider enters, they'll be spotted immediately.”
“Well done.”
A voice came from deeper within the warehouse.
Hearing the voice, the black-robed woman and the one-eyed man immediately turned around and bowed respectfully.
“Chief!!”
“Mm.”
Silabein nodded in response.
Glancing at the large wooden crates, he said solemnly, “Daytime is not the critical part. Tonight and the period the cargo is stored are what matter! Remember, you must not let your guard down. If anything goes wrong... you know the consequences.”
Both of them swallowed hard and quickly replied, “Understood, Chief!!”
“Mm.”
Silabein nodded, looking once more at the large wooden crates in the warehouse.
“Once everything is brought in, waste no time in opening the crates and moving the cargo underground.”
With that, he turned and departed back the way he came.
“Yes, Chief!!”
The two replied respectfully behind him.
About an hour later, all the large wooden crates had been moved into the warehouse.
Rumble!
The warehouse doors, normally shut year-round, were closed once again after remaining open for only a few hours.
Looking at the twenty or so people inside the warehouse, the one-eyed man yelled:
“The Chief's orders: open the crates and move the cargo underground. Everyone, get moving!”
Following his command, the group used tools to pry open the wooden crates one by one, revealing the charcoal packed inside. But this was merely a disguise; with another pry of their tools, the partition holding the charcoal was lifted, exposing a large space underneath.
And at that moment, the true nature of the cargo was revealed.
Inside lay unconscious people bound by ropes—mostly humans, but also beastkin, dwarves, and elves. Almost every race was represented.
Each wooden crate held four to five people; across dozens of crates, there were more than two hundred individuals in total!
These were the illegal slaves kidnapped by this underground organization through various means, and this was certainly not the first time they had done such a thing.
Once all the crates were opened, they began carrying these people underground trip by trip, where enough cells had already been prepared to imprison them.
And as the underground organization carried out all this at the docks, a pair of eyes watched in silence from the distance...
There was no better opportunity than today.
Shulim was acutely aware of this in her heart.
Security at the docks was indeed extremely tight, with hidden sentries lurking in almost every blind spot. Even infiltrating with Shadow Sneak offered no guarantee of remaining undetected.
Since now was not the time to infiltrate, Shulim had deliberately scouted several known outposts beforehand. Sure enough, the personnel originally stationed at those outposts were all gone; all of the organization's members in the royal capital had gathered at the headquarters today.
Today was the moment to strike. No matter how powerful the enemy's fighting strength was at this moment, Shulim had no turning back.
...
Rate on N.U.
