Upgrading to S-grade Talent

Abandoned Land, the Witch Habitat in Typhon City.

For some time now, Lan Qingyou had been secluding herself inside her alchemy workshop.

She currently had several projects in front of her that needed completion.

These projects were essentially the necessities for the elements she had previously decided on: "Protecting Witches," "Increasing Mystery," and "Staying High-profile."

After several days of research, she had finally found the answer to exactly what kind of results she wanted.

And now, Lan Qingyou had entered the trial production phase.

Since she was in the trial production phase, she naturally had to start by trying to craft that specific potion.

Having obtained so much of the Beast Emperor's meat, blood, fur, and even bones, Lan Qingyou had no reason not to make it.

Although the name Beast Emperor made it sound like a powerful physical-type creature, one mustn't forget that when they first entered the cave, they had suffered a mental attack from the dead Beast Emperor's heart.

Therefore, its flesh and blood could also be used to craft mental-type potions.

Of course, the most important thing was the talent potion, which she finally had the materials to attempt after being unable to progress for so long.

Since she had successfully upgraded her talent to A-grade during the last competition, she hadn't been able to find suitable materials to craft an S-grade version.

Now that she had the generous contribution of the Beast Emperor, she naturally had to try making this potion first.

Most importantly, if she could successfully upgrade, it would certainly be a massive help to her future plans.

"Whew—"

After six long days of production, Lan Qingyou finally managed to craft the S-grade talent potion.

Leaning her hands on the table, she let out a sigh of relief as she looked at the batch of potions before her.

The development time for this talent potion had completely exceeded Lan Qingyou's expectations.

In fact, this could be considered the longest production she had ever undertaken since becoming an alchemist.

She had never imagined that developing a new potion could take so much time.

However, most of her previous developments were for miscellaneous items; the last time she had made a talent potion was for the B-grade version.

And then she had jumped straight to the S-grade.

While the difficulty had indeed more than doubled, it also reflected the extreme challenge of crafting an S-grade talent potion.

Alternatively, it could be understood that the difficulty of ascending from A-grade to S-grade was significantly higher.

But that wasn't hard to understand.

After all, S-grade was already a talent level that many people dreamed of.

Beyond that were only the SS-grade and SSS-grade levels.

Pop!

Faced with a one percent success rate, Lan Qingyou didn't hesitate for a moment before drinking the first bottle of the talent potion.

"Hmm... this one is cherry-flavored, feels a bit sour."

Not expecting to hit the jackpot with the very first bottle, Lan Qingyou focused more of her energy on the potion's flavor.

One shouldn't underestimate this.

The reason potions from the Witch race were more popular than those made by other alchemists, besides their efficacy, was their taste.

After all, who wouldn't want to restore their health or mana while drinking something that tasted like fruit juice?

However, Lan Qingyou wasn't foolish enough to wait until her talent upgraded before taking action.

She still had quite a few projects to keep her busy.

And so, Lan Qingyou continued to drink talent potions for fun while throwing herself into another research project.

...

While Lan Qingyou was working hard, the other witches were doing the same.

During the time Lan Qingyou was conducting her experiments, the members of the Witch Group had been gradually relocating back into Typhon City.

They had previously been spread out across the region to stabilize the great magic array.

As witches who were also academic geniuses and elites, they preferred a quiet research environment, which was why they had all agreed to the external assignments.

However, the events of the Abandoned War had taught them just how malicious people could be.

So, except for a small number of witches whose shelters were in unique locations, everyone else—whether members of the Witch Group or ordinary witches—relocated from various parts of the Abandoned Land back to Typhon City.

These "various parts" included all the witches from the Abandoned City, the Abandoned Harbor, and several other towns and villages.

In other words, after driving everyone except the witches out of the Abandoned Land and having the witches relocate back to Typhon City, there were almost no other people left in the Abandoned Land besides a few scattered witches.

Fortunately, Typhon City was large enough that housing two to three hundred thousand people was not a problem at all.

Even the previous commercial areas had been demolished to make room for the witches' individual shelters.

Of course, relocating didn't mean they had nothing to do.

The witches each had their own work to attend to, and since their living conditions hadn't fundamentally changed, their individual research didn't have to be interrupted.

At most, it took half a day to a full day to move their shelters back to Typhon City.

However, besides their own business, the witches' workload was not any lighter than Lan Qingyou's.

After the members of the Witch Group relocated, the great magic array of the Abandoned Land was essentially paralyzed.

Actually...

A portion of the magic array had already been destroyed at the beginning of the Abandoned War.

This not only prevented the defensive capabilities from activating but also caused irreversible damage to the entire array.

Therefore, with the magic array basically paralyzed, the materials used for its construction naturally couldn't be allowed to go to waste.

Most of them could be reused after being recovered.

So, whenever the witches had some free time, they would head out to salvage materials.

Firstly, it was to avoid waste.

Secondly, it was to restock the Witch race's material warehouse.

Thirdly, some of the materials were quite precious and had to be recovered once they were no longer in use.

While the Witch race wasn't exactly lacking in these materials,

They had been built using all of the Witch race's previous inventory and Lan Qingyou's own materials.

The recovery process alone yielded a significant amount of resources.

However, for the witches—especially the apprentice witches who had just experienced the war—this was more like a learning experience than work.

After all, this was a super-large-scale magic array. Setting aside the quality of the materials, the sheer quantity alone was enough to make witches with insufficient knowledge hesitate.

Now that such an opportunity had arisen, neither Diana nor Lan Qingyou would let it pass.

The Witch race was, after all, a community with a very strong academic atmosphere.

Thus, even the physical-type witches, who seemingly had nothing to do with studying, were learning seriously.

In short, everyone had their own goals and research directions.

Aside from a few witches who truly came just for a change of scenery, the rest approached the task with a desire to learn.

The finished products created by Lan Qingyou or members of the Witch Group were particularly worth studying and referencing for many apprentice witches.

【Ding, your talent level has increased.】

On this day, just as Lan Qingyou had finished organizing the theoretical data she needed and casually drank a bottle of the talent potion, the voice of the world consciousness rang in her ears.