Remi used [Blizzard] to make snow so that she could turn the potions into smoothies.
Nobody said no to berry flavoured smoothies.
While Remi was confident, Thor had been listening to the parts of the conversations which related to ruining someone’s potential with too much of a good thing. He trusted his little sister, but she got too enthusiastic about her projects, and she didn’t study humans much. There was a risk that like the first day’s Royal Rank soup, this was going to overwhelm them, but because this was a potion forcing them to gain power, it might cause permanent damage.
[Just wait, you will soon see that I know what I’m doing. It’s even in the book as a safe advancement formula for baby Elites.]
Karl examined the potions that she had made, and while they did have some Commander Rank ingredients, they were in minimal doses, and heavily watered down. The potions could be considered Awakened Rank, at least after they were mixed with the ice to make a smoothie, so they should be safe enough.
[Potion of Advancement] was what the System called them all, though Karl knew they had been tailored to each individual student. Fortunately for everyone, Remi had labelled all of the potions before she mixed them into smoothies, so there was no confusion as the began to pass them out to the students.
Much to the dismay of the rest of the trainees, and the suspicion of the recipients. They hadn’t forgotten what the cleansing drinks had done to their insides.
“What is with this unfair training bias? We get extra work on our combat skills and mental fortitude, and they get smoothies.” One of the Rangers complained.
Karl shrugged. “If it helps, I gave the Cerros and the Moor Cats a special treat.”
The all looked to where one of the cats was happily nibbling at a bowl of Commander Rank meat, and the beast covered it protectively.
“That does not make it better at all.” Pat, the Ranger bonded with the cat in question, remarked.
Karl could have sworn that the cat laughed at him as it resumed eating. The humans had gotten a pretty decent lunch, specifically chosen by the Clerics with the help of the apartment kitchen to include some higher rank ingredients to spike their energy in what Lotus assured them was a safe way.
But the cat got an entire bowl full of the good stuff. No filler, no nonsense. Just meat.
Remi did have mercy on the Rangers, and Nikki The Tiger Monk, and she passed them out similar smoothies as well. But that was part of the plan to distract the other five from their suspicions about being suddenly given treats. freewёbnoνel.com
They had already gotten a fancy lunch, and now a fruity drink that wasn’t served with the meal? That was suspicious. But when everyone had one, it was less likely to be some sort of nefarious plot. Or so they assumed until the potions started to take effect.
{The system is showing me something weird.} Appeared in Karl’s vision, thoroughly confusing him until he realized that there was a name tag before the words, indicating that it was sent by Sybil.
How had she done that?
Karl searched for the option, then focused on the words and realized there was a function button beside them with no label that he had simply hidden as useless.
“What do you see, Sybil?” He asked out loud.
The Rogue’s eyes lit up in excitement. Someone had seen her message!
She had tried to use the mind talk thing that Karl and Lady Rae used to make their plans, and it worked. Well, mostly. It was supposed to go to Rae, but Karl got it instead.
{It says Warning: Experience increase effects have a cumulative detriment modifier.
Chance of Success >=98%
Chance of Failure <1%
Chance of Critical Failure 1%
Modifier 0%}
Karl read that twice, then nodded at her. “Go ahead, that’s as safe as it gets.” Karl informed her, but Sybil was already finished the smoothie, not connecting the message with the beverage until it was too late.
Slowly, her power began to grow, the same as Karl’s had when he used growth resources at the Academy. Her power was steadily increasing in quality, and Karl was nearly certain that she would make it to Awakened Rank with just the one boost.
[POWER JUICE!] The Cerro Hatchlings began to cheer once they realized what was going on. [Why doesn’t it work for our pack? Is it just for the other pack?] The Cerro began to wonder.
[We didn’t give it to everyone, just in case it didn’t work right. Instead, you got the good feed and your partners got juice.] Thor explained through the Cerro mind link.
That made sense to them. You had to share when there were only so many good things. The big Cerro always gave the good treats to the littlest ones, just like Karl had done for his pack’s hatchlings.
Aaron and Jaime advanced to Awakened at the same time, with Joan and Owen only a few seconds behind them.
{Now it says Modifier -20%} Sybil updated them.
That was a dangerous category. The first one was basically guaranteed, but if there was a cumulative detriment to using that sort of resource, even a few of them would nearly guarantee a negative outcome.
Or it might have something to do with the strength of the concoction.
Overlord Drath might know.
“Commandant, I don’t suppose that you have one of those potions that they give to the bottlenecked Elites, do you? I would like to inspect it with a skill that I have. I suspect that I might be able to deconstruct it into a more effective form.” Karl asked.
“The Overlord Potion? No, I don’t carry that with me, but I can have some sent here if you need to study it. That potion of yours is brilliant. All five of them reached Awakened Rank in a single shot with no visible side effects.” He gushed.
“Oh, there is a side effect, just not visible. Every time a System User takes one of those types of potions, there is a cumulative chance of critical failure.”
The Overlord winced. He knew exactly what that entailed. Some who took the potion to break the bottleneck between Commander and Royal simply died, while others had their powers crippled. It was a low chance, but only a few had ever actually become an Overlord directly, and most of the successful attempts ended up barely bumped over the bottleneck into Royal Rank, with little to no growth ability left.
Now that they knew more about the System, and with Karl’s input, it could be presumed that was the result of a failure or critical failure of the potion effects.
That would also explain why some in the lower Ranks who tried to push too fast ended up crippled from overuse of resources. They had pushed their luck too far without ever knowing the odds.
The Bronze Dragon took out a magical communication token and sent a message.
“Someone will bring you a copy of the potion soon. If you can even tell us a few things about changes that will increase the odds, it would be an enormous benefit to the nation.” He explained quietly.
“I will let you know what I can find out. With the ability to identify the odds, my alchemist can at least experiment on the potion until there is an improvement.” Karl agreed.
[Then we can feed it to a new Commander and see if they explode.] Remi agreed.
[Your sisters are corrupting you.] Thor lamented.
[Become powerful.] Remi amended with an apologetic look at her big brother.