I'm not a Witcher anymore.

"vomit--"

Kevin felt a surge of nausea in his throat and almost vomited.

But he gritted his teeth and forced himself to swallow it, ignoring the disgusting taste.

The medicine slid down my throat into my stomach, bringing a burning sensation, as if a fire was burning inside.

"Ha ha……"

Kevin was panting heavily, cold sweat beading on his forehead, his face contorted in pain.

A few minutes later, the effects of the medicine began to appear.

Kevin could clearly feel a warm sensation spreading from his stomach throughout his body.

The warmth flowed through my blood vessels to my limbs.

He looked down at his thighs...

The unsettling dark purple patch on my leg is visibly fading away.

The color has faded considerably, and it's almost invisible.

Although some faint bluish-purple marks remain, it is no longer as terrifying as before.

More importantly, that numb feeling disappeared.

Kevin could clearly feel the presence of his thigh.

"How are you feeling?"

Zig crouched down, carefully observed the color change on Kevin's legs, and asked.

Kevin tried moving his legs.

"Ouch—that hurts!"

A sharp, intense pain suddenly shot through my thigh.

Although Petra's "small healing" miracle perfectly healed her external skin and flesh, the deep wounds caused by the toxins eroding her nerves and muscles could not be recovered in an instant.

As the toxins were forcibly neutralized by the antidote, the numbed nerves were reawakened, bringing excruciating pain.

Seeing Kevin wince in pain, Zieg nodded.

"Good, you can feel the pain, which means a lot of the toxins have been cleared, so you should be out of danger."

Seeing him like this, Zieg felt relieved.

If Kevin still can't feel the pain, that's the real problem.

That means the toxins have penetrated deep and corroded the body, rendering even antidotes ineffective.

But the fact that I can feel pain now means the antidote is working.

Once they return to the border town, they can find a high-ranking priest to completely remove the poison, and then everything should be fine.

After resting for a while, everyone began to clean up the battlefield.

The goblin's left ear is proof of its capture and can be exchanged for bounty at the guild.

Eileen volunteered to do it.

Because she felt she hadn't been of much help in the previous battle, she wanted to contribute more now.

"Mr. Zieg, leave the dirty work of cutting off ears to me!" Eileen said, rolling up her sleeves and enduring the strong smell of blood around her.

"No, I'll do it myself." Zieg stopped her, shaking his head. "I need more than just their ears; I need to take something else from them. You can't handle that."

Eileen was stunned for a moment. Although she was puzzled, she had no choice but to obediently step aside.

Sieg, carrying his herb-gathering knife, walked toward the nearest goblin corpse.

In the narrow passage lay twenty-seven ordinary goblins, as well as a large goblin whose head had been pierced by a steel sword and whose death was extremely gruesome.

Zig crouched down, grabbed the head of the first dead goblin, and pinched its pointed left ear with his fingers.

With a gentle stroke of the herb-gathering knife.

puff.

The left ear fell off with a thud, along with some flesh and blood.

But he didn't rush to get up.

Guided by his "Alchemy Proficiency," the tip of his blade moved with extreme lightness and professionalism.

The blade pried open the monster's stiff jaw, precisely severing the base of its tongue and completely peeling away the barbed, deep purple tongue.

This is a perfect alternative to Hidden Tongue, and it is an extremely important basic material for his subsequent alchemical concoctions.

Next, he did the same thing.

The movements were efficient and icy.

Twenty-seven goblins, twenty-seven left ears, and twenty-seven deep purple tongues.

With a slight thought, Zieg transformed the bloody materials into dust, which steadily fell into the storage pages of the Book of Adventure.

Finally, he walked toward the massive goblin corpse that had collapsed like a mountain of flesh.

Aside from cutting off its enormous left ear as proof of the extra bounty, Sieg turned his gaze to its massive head, violently pierced from the inside out by a longsword.

This monster is far larger and stronger than its ordinary counterparts, and the materials contained within its body are naturally much more precious.

Zig reached out and gently straightened the monster's head. The tip of his herb-gathering knife precisely pierced the crevice between the back of the skull and the cervical vertebrae, carefully extracting a small tube of dark red, viscous liquid through the broken wound.

He placed the tube of liquid into the Book of Adventure, and ink began to flow through the blank grid like a lively spring.

They converge into lines of profound text, shimmering with a faint light:

"Enhanced Spinal Fluid: The essence of a monster's life instincts"

"Derived from the spinal cord essence of a mid-level mutated individual, it is thick and contains violent activity. The purity and energy of this sample have fully met the standards for medicinal use, and it can perfectly replace the core material required for concocting the potion 'Maripo Forest'—Giant Ghoul Bone Marrow."

Zieg looked at the words appearing on the pages, and a hint of satisfaction finally appeared in his eyes.

"Finally, I've collected them all..."

With this tube of enhanced spinal fluid, the final piece of the puzzle for concocting the Witcher potion "Maripo Forest" has finally been completed.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten that true Witcher potions were nothing short of deadly poison to an unmutated mortal body.

Fortunately, he had already deduced and repeatedly improved the formula through the Book of Adventure, and finally finalized a new formula that greatly reduced the toxicity and was enough for mortals to bear.

Once he returns to town after this commission is completed, he can immediately begin preparing the ingredients.

Zieg let the Book of Adventure fade from the depths of his mind, opened his eyes, and prepared to call everyone to continue deeper into the adventure.

But Isabella's hesitant voice suddenly broke the brief silence in the passageway:

"Wait... something's strange."

"We've been walking along a straight path ever since we entered the cave, without encountering any forks or branches..."

"How did those goblins... manage to get behind us?"

Everyone was stunned.

Eileen recalled the battle scene from just now.

"Yeah...we definitely went all the way in from the cave entrance..."

"There really are no forks in the road..."

Petra also frowned.

"Those goblins charged out from behind..."

"But when we came here, we didn't see any goblins..."

These words were like a chilling gust of wind, instantly tightening everyone's nerves, which had just relaxed, to their limit once again.

If the cave only has one passage, then the goblins should only be able to appear from the front...

After all, they can't just disappear into thin air, nor can they pass through walls.

But in the battle just now, those goblins clearly rushed out from the rear of the group.

How did they do that?