I'm not a Witcher anymore.

The breeze in the forest was blocked by the giant rocks, and the air fell into a stagnant silence.

Zig leaned his back against the rough rock wall, his mind stirring slightly.

The Book of Adventure quietly opened deep within my consciousness, and dust particles spilled out from the edges of the pages, condensing and taking shape in the air.

A small copper crucible landed first in my palm, followed by a distillation flask, glass tubing, three layers of activated carbon filter, and several tightly sealed glass vials.

Finally, there was a sealed leather bag—dwarven spirits, brought from Kael'thas Morhen, and still untouched.

What he's going to work on today is "Maripo Forest".

This potion requires four ingredients: dwarven spirits, cypress stem fruit, giant ghoul marrow, and a water ghost's tongue.

Apart from the irreplaceable dwarven spirits, he had found similar substitutes for the other three ingredients in this perilous land.

First, there's the Dresden fruit.

The fruit of this thorny shrub, which grows in damp, semi-shaded environments, is very similar in appearance to the fruit of the burdock stem in the Witcher world. They are also rich in alkaloids that can instantly awaken nerve endings, making them the basic ingredient for brewing all kinds of stimulant potions.

However, it has a fatal flaw: the unprocessed, raw fruit is no different from poison to mortals.

If you put it directly into water and boil it, the boiling liquid will release a huge amount of oxalic acid toxins, which is enough to make a strong adult male lose his ability to resist due to severe stomach spasms.

Therefore, Zieg didn't rush to put it in the pot.

He took a sealed distillation flask, poured the dwarf spirit into the bottom, added a whole dreis fruit, and sealed the flask.

As a steady flame rose from the bottom, the transparent liquid began to boil.

Inside the enclosed glass tube, alcohol vapor circulates continuously.

Zieg watched all of this quietly.

He doesn't need the plump flesh; his only target is the fiery red pigment on the surface of the peel and the single drop of clear phytoestrogen at the core of the fruit.

The oxalic acid toxins are carried away by the steam, leaving only the useful parts.

The second step is to deal with the goblin tongue.

The reason why witchers need this foul-smelling organ is that the neuroactive substances contained in the tongue tip tissue can forcibly suppress the body's pain feedback.

At the same time, it can exponentially increase the sensitivity of reflex nerves, causing adrenaline to surge through the blood vessels like a flood.

However, it is itself an absolute poison.

Zieg cut the scarlet soft tissue into translucent slices as thin as cicada wings.

He first immersed the slices in a pre-prepared high-concentration salt solution, watching the turbid impurities gradually precipitate out like fine black sand.

Then, using dwarf spirits as the extraction medium, he steadily applied force with his fingers, peeling away only the thin, thread-like active nerve fibers on the tip of his tongue.

He simply discarded the rest at the edge of the open space.

Finally, the most important step has arrived: extracting the strengthening spinal fluid from the goblins and shamans.

This is the energy core of the entire potion, and also the most toxic and potent component that induces mutations.

Zig assembled a three-layer filter funnel and slowly poured the dark red and viscous cerebrospinal fluid into it.

The first layer filters out solidified blood clots.

The second layer filters out decaying factors.

The third layer of activated carbon contains trace amounts of silver powder—silver ions can lock in mutated viruses that attack the human immune system, rendering them completely inactive before they enter the bloodstream.

The liquid dripped from the bottom of the filter, its color gradually changing from a murky dark red to clear.

If it's "Maripo Forest" for a Witcher, then you can start brewing it here.

But Zieg still needs one last step.

Add basil.

In fact, the Peryza fruit in the Witcher world is not an ingredient from the "Maripo Forest", but rather an ingredient from "White Honey". Sieg discovered by chance that the Peryza fruit can greatly reduce the toxicity of potions.

Instead of roughly boiling it in water, Zieg patiently used a solvent to extract the crystalline cellulose deep within the pulp.

These tiny crystals act like sturdy cages, specifically designed to trap bulky, toxin molecules that tend to accumulate in the liver.

With it, once the potion enters the bloodstream, the toxins no longer attack the internal organs, but are quickly metabolized and excreted from the body after the potion has finished exerting its effects.

Half an hour later, the medicine in the crucible had completed its final boiling process.

Zig removed the fire and waited quietly for it to cool.

The wind blew through the woods, carrying away the lingering scent of strong liquor and a faint, bitter medicinal aroma.

Once the liquid stopped emitting heat, he took the small glass bottles he had prepared beforehand, divided the medicine into portions, sealed them, and placed each bottle on a flat rock surface.

He picked up one of them and looked at the dappled sunlight filtering through the tree canopy for a moment.

The liquid is deep amber in color, clear, and free of sediment.

He then placed the vial into the storage page of the Book of Adventure.

He slowly closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the depths of his mind.

The pages turned in my mind, ink flowing across the ancient parchment, gathering into lines of text:

"Prelude: Maripo Forest"

"Efficacy assessment: Close to the original formula, with minimal loss of medicinal power."

"Toxicity assessment: Completely within the tolerance threshold of ordinary human beings. Users may experience mild thirst after the effects of the drug wear off, with no other discomfort."

The words on the pages glowed quietly after the ink solidified, and then disappeared into the paper after a moment.

For mortals to touch a Witcher's potions is tantamount to drinking poison to quench their thirst. This is not because potions cannot be improved, but because the Witcher's forefathers never considered poison a problem that needed to be solved.

The Witchers have all undergone the brutal baptism of the Trial of the Grasses, and their reshaped blood vessels flow with astonishing toxin resistance.

For them, a deadly poison that could instantly cause the internal organs of an ordinary person to fail is merely a small price to pay to unleash their fighting potential.

Since a non-human body can easily withstand this potent poison, there is no need to waste energy on tedious purification and neutralization processes.

The reason why Sieg was able to overcome the blind spots of thought that had existed for hundreds of years in just a few years and reduce the deadly potion to a level that mortals could use was not only because the Witcher potion itself had huge potential for development, but also because of the adventure book that was tied to him.

He doesn't need Shennong to taste hundreds of herbs and use his own flesh and blood to serve as a vessel for testing poison.

Simply place the potion you've attempted to improve into the Book of Adventure, and clear, confident words will appear on the pages.

This absolutely accurate intelligence feedback completely eliminated the most fatal trial-and-error cost in alchemy.

The dappled sunlight in the woods was already noticeably slanted, and the midday heat was fading.

Zieg waved his hand, and the complex alchemical artifacts, along with the other potion bottles filled with magic potions, all turned into light dust and disappeared into the Book of Adventure.

He stood up, brushed the dead leaves off his leather armor, and walked to the bushes at the edge of the woodland.

He skillfully removed the springs from the cast iron animal traps, pulled out the wooden spikes hidden in blind spots, and retracted all the warning devices used to ensure that the alchemy was not disturbed.

Having done all this, he lingered no longer and walked steadily toward the border town along the animal trail he had come from.