Sunders frowned. “The flower does improve blood flow, which helps sustain your body. It works in a strange way… but it’s not a bad choice.”
Ness quickly agreed. “That’s what I’m thinking! Just a small arousal effect, it won’t hurt.”
Angor did not deny. “There are many ways to improve blood flowing. Arousing sex is one acceptable approach.”
“There you have it!” Ness nodded.
“I don’t understand though. Mero Scorpion Flowers are really costly. Its arousal property also comes with a big side-effect. So… why don’t we use something cheaper, like a Sweetblood Orchis? This one is easy to get, and improves blood flow just fine, without any side effects,” Angor suggested.
Sunders nodded and agreed with his student. He realized he had been going the wrong way due to his excessive experience. A unit of Mero Scorpion Flower cost six times more than the same amount of Sweetblood Orchis. To Sunders, however, the difference in cost was never something that would concern him, so he never minded their prices.
As a level-2 wizard, Sunders could earn quick money by any means. Some extra magic crystals would not hurt. Ness, however, was a stingy old timer who was always saving money to buy beautiful slaves from other planes. He would never waste money like that.
Sunders stared at Ness again. “Explain, if you would?”
Ness wiped his forehead, but he was not sweating at all.
“Why didn’t I use Sweetblood Orchis?” Ness quickly tried to think of something and revealed a wicked smile. “You see, Sunders, I have a lot of slave girls here, hehe… So I always keep a good stock of Mero Scorpion Flowers. I don’t have any Sweetblood Orchis left now. I’m improvising.”
The words sounded legit enough. However, Sunders was already sure that Ness was planning something in secret, so the gentleman only considered it as an excuse.
Sunders already decided to reject Ness’ idea of using Mero Scorpion Flowers, but he did not show it yet. Instead, he asked Angor again, “Ness has his reason. Do you have any other questions?”
Angor hesitated. “I never learned Apothecary for real… but I think I read it in a book somewhere, that the locals in Abyss Plane tend to use Mero Scorpion Flowers as a blender for a certain catalytic reaction.”
He read it from a book he recorded in the Nightmare Realm, but he could not tell this to anyone.
Ness stared at Angor in shock when hearing these words. How could a fresh apprentice know such trivia knowledge!?
“Blender for a catalytic reaction?” Sunders remembered something and remained silent for a while.
Then he spoke again, “I saw something like that when traveling in Abyss Plane. There was an alchemist from Floating Mech City who did such an experiment while using some other magic plants in Abyss Plane.”
Sunders paused to recollect his memory. “We were camping together. I stayed up to be the night watch while he was making a potion… There was a Bloodline Wizard who came to whisper to the alchemist. That man asked if he was making something to seduce a witch in the team. And his answer was…”
Sunders closed his eyes to think carefully.
Angor was much surprised by what he heard.
You heard all that when guarding the camp outside? And, how did you hear something from a “whisper”??
Angor was surprised for his lack of wizardry knowledge.
Wizards all possessed superior memories. Someone with a high spiritual power indicator could even do something similar to “hyperthymesia”.
Hyperthymesia was a rare mental disease, in which case the victim’s brain registered every last detail of experiences and events automatically, in his or her subconsciousness, when the patient did not intend to do it at all.
For example, there was such a mother who was troubled by the disease, who could clearly recall the scene in her maternity room, such as whether a doctor’s sleeve was buttoned, how many scars were left on an ear of one of the nurses, how many birds were perched near the window, as well as the colors and stripe patterns of each of the birds… The mother remembered all of these when she was already 80. Ordinary people could only memorize something important. But hyperthymesia patients could remember all, as long as something once happened in his or her view.
The condition was considered a disease because the victims had lost the ability to “forget”. They would be troubled by boundless memories for their entire lives until they met a terrible end when their brains could no longer hold the memories anymore.
Wizards were different. They could do something similar only because their brains were amplified by their spirit power, thus gaining a better memory. They could choose to forget anything they liked, just like common people.
Sunders’ memory was not good enough to compete with a hyperthymesia patient, but his brain was already beyond the levels of average people.
Sunders was still young in his story. He was interested in alchemy at that time, so he always kept his attention on the alchemist in his team. He did not really hear their conversation, but he could read their lips.
Which meant… Sunders was now trying to remember someone’s lip language which happened during one of his travels across the planes several years ago.
“According to the alchemist…” Sunders imitated the alchemist’s lip movement. “When Mero Scorpion Flower reacted with magic plants originated in Abyss Plane, its initial effect will become catalysis, not s*xual arousal.”
Angor nodded silently. It was exactly what he saw in the book he read. When specifically mixed with magic plants native to Abyss Plane, a Mero Scorpion Flower’s catalytic property would cancel its aphrodisiac nature.
Sunders glanced at Ness again, who quickly avoided Sunders’ eyes.
Angor spoke again, “The flower will naturally improve blood flow when used with the other materials in the nutrient fluid which keeps my body alive. Although the side effect might be a little… troublesome. If its ‘catalytic’ effect is triggered, it’ll do something completely different when added with the other material I read.”
Sunders continued, “Blood overflowing. Excessive production of androgen hormone. Unbalanced metabolism.”
Angor added the last part, “A possible result… Death.”
To put it simply, the body would be killed by impulsive libido which had nowhere to go.
Angor believed he read something similar in the Earth novels. There were certain fictional medicines that forced the characters to “vent out” on any women they could find, or they would simply die of uncontrollable lust. Although these characters all conveniently had women nearby. Angor, however, only had these… guys, around. The only female creature was just sliced in half by Saka.
“What are you planning to do?” Sunders asked Ness with an emotionless expression. An aphrodisiac effect was fine. Angor might get “hot” for some time, but a cold shower would end his embarrassment.
But a catalytic potion… was a little too far.
Ness stuttered something and finally spoke in a really small voice, “I didn’t put any Abyss stuff in the fluid. The secondary effect won’t come up.”
His sophistry sounded pretty terrible now. Before Angor could point out where the “Abyss stuff” was, he heard Sunders laughing in a dangerous way.
Sunders released mana from his palm and the entire cave was blown over by a strong gale.
When it ended, an ice sphere appeared on Sunders’ hand. The sphere was hollowed-out in the middle where some pink-colored gas could be seen.
“This is your second Abyss material. Tell me now, why are you doing this?”
The gas was another type of magical material called “Fragrance of Charm” which was released by the Abyss Succubus. It was a popular pheromone perfume among witches.
The gas was left in the air inside the cave. If they brewed the nutrient fluid here, the gas would naturally connect with the Mero Scorpion Flower in the liquid.
Ness finally revealed an “oh no my plan was found out” look.
And Sunders waited for his answer patiently.
Ness sighed. “Come on. I won’t hurt Angor in front of you anyway. I just want to do a tiny experiment on my own.”
“What kind of experiment?”
Ness spread his hands. “Your deduction was mostly correct. Mostly. There was something you’ve gotten wrong. When Fragrance of Charm is mixed with Mero Scorpion Flower, plus the other materials Angor mentioned, they will raise the level of someone’s pheromone. But it’s not the androgen hormone you believed. The gas came from a succubus, the embodiment of women’s desire which triggers the female hormone while the Mero Scorpion Flower triggers male one. So… the result is, both male and female hormone will elevate in your body.”
Angor frowned. “You mean, I’ll die even faster?”
There was no way Angor’s young body could endure two hormonal surges. Several minutes at best, and he would kick the bucket in the heat for sure.
“It won’t happen. Just a tiny experiment, as I said!” Ness noticed that Sunders’ expression was growing colder, and he quickly took out a vial from his space bag. There was some pale pink liquid inside. “Inject this thing into Angor’s body and he’ll be fine. Or, he can even get something good out of it!” Ness lifted the vial to Sunders.
Sunders took the vial and sensed its content. Then the gentleman revealed another strange expression.
“Professor?” Angor asked.
“Ness is… right. You’ll be safe with this. And yes, there’s a benefit in it…”
Ness did not wait for Sunders’ explanation. “I never lied, right? You won’t have a problem. And you can get a beneficial effect for free. I wouldn’t want to use it on outsiders if only Saka would accept my experiment…”
Sunders chuckled. “So, Saka refused, and you still want to do the experiment. When the Fragrance of Charm was released into the air, you thought about your plan on the spot to force Angor into a situation where he must accept your medicine to stay alive?”
Sunders gave the small vial several shakes. “Smart plan, I would say.”
That was almost everything Ness was trying to do. Before they came, the old man had been trying to persuade Saka, who never agreed. Saka even used the visitors as an excuse and escaped.
Ness smiled. “I’m working on a subject involving different genders, and I really need some result out of a test. Saka didn’t want to help, and I don’t want to use the valuable potion on random people. Now you’re here. I can use it on your student, and the benefit still stays between friends.”
Sunders ignored Ness’ useless excuses with a hollow laugh and turned to Angor. “Do you accept it?”
Angor was puzzled for good when listening to their conversation. He still had no idea what was inside the vial.
“Um, what’s that stuff, professor?”
Ness cleared his throat to interrupt. “Come on, you kids don’t have to know the details. It’s good stuff, I tell you! Something that worths at least thousands of magic crystals on the auction!”
That just gave Angor more reason to hesitate. He looked at Sunders again.
Sunders did not disappoint his student. He replied in his hoarse tone while still smiling a little.
“Well. This is… the bloodline essence of a succubus.”