The most shameless alchemist in history

"What was this again?" Kelly asked curiously, intrigued.

“Lance, watch your mouth. My hometown is famous for raising cattle with unique flavors. Don’t say anything that might hurt the herders, and definitely don’t say anything like this is some kind of weird meat.” Dure gave Lance a meaningful look, clearly warning him.

"Yes, I understand, this is beef." Lance realized he had misspoke and immediately covered for Dure. At the same time, he kept thinking to himself that there was indeed a difference in treatment between men and women. Dure was telling the truth to him, but Kelly called it beef.

"You two seem a bit strange. Could it be that you're hiding something from me?" Kelly became suspicious.

“What else could we possibly be hiding from you, Kelly? It’s all because Lance is so paranoid. The night is long, Lance, you should eat something. Don’t let down the kindness of the herders from my hometown.” Dure blamed Lance for Kelly’s suspicions and stuffed the jerky into Lance’s hand.

“Since Kelly loves this so much, I’ll give it to her. I’m not hungry at all,” Lance said, though he had no choice but to accept it.

"Lance, that's going too far! I'm just a girl, and girls have small stomachs. Are you trying to say I'm a pig who can eat all that by myself?" Kelly said angrily, glaring at Lance.

"That's not what I meant," Lance said, feeling that he didn't know how to explain himself and that the more he tried to explain, the worse it got.

"So the rest is up to you, Lance," Dure said with a smile, pointing to the jerky.

"Speaking of which, Durei, didn't you say before that your hometown was in the snowy mountains? Where would you find herders in the snowy mountains?" Lance used this question as a way to get rid of Durei and stop pressuring him, as he really couldn't stomach the jerky from the magical beasts.

"Why are there no herders in the snow-capped mountains? There are herds of cattle and sheep in the mountains. You'll see when you go there. So don't let the herders down. It's practically a crime. Hmm, who's there?" Dure was still urging Lance to eat jerky.

But just then, he suddenly heard a noise and abruptly looked to his right into the bushes. This action immediately alerted Lance and Kelly, who both followed Dure's gaze and, by the light of the torch, saw something moving in the bushes.

126 Forest Ghost

Although there were quite a few students participating in the third round of testing, more than two hundred in total, and they seemed to be quite a large group when they gathered by Maple Leaf Lake, they were instantly swallowed up by the forest once they entered the Misty Forest. It took Du Lei and the other two at least three hours to walk there.

During this time, they did not encounter a single person. All around was deathly silent, with the occasional owl perched on a treetop and hooting. A white mist permeated the forest, and even with torches in their hands, their visibility was still limited.

But in this situation, Du Lei suddenly noticed a noise. The three people who seemed to be having a pleasant conversation were actually using their words to distract themselves and distract themselves from their inner fears. Now, the rustling sound coming from the grass made their hearts jump to their throats.

"Hehehe, I smell it! I smell meat! So just let me eat you up!" From the bushes where the commotion grew louder, a swaying figure suddenly appeared. Its hoarse voice and terrifyingly ferocious expression were chilling in the darkness.

"It's here! It's here! The ghost wandering in the forest has appeared! Dure, Kelly, we have to run! It'll eat us!" Lance was terrified by the sudden noise. He wasn't a coward; if he encountered a magical beast, he would never back down.

However, supernatural phenomena were beyond his capabilities. In addition, his hometown had a special reverence for ghosts and gods, so his first reaction was to flee in panic. In fact, his body carried out this action very well, and he ran several steps away in an instant.

"You idiot, stop right there! This isn't a ghost, it's a girl, okay? Everything was fine until you scared me to death." Kelly also wanted to run away, but she was more cautious than Lance, and she watched Dure's reaction.

After confirming that Dure had not left, she turned around to look more closely and discovered that there was another person on the ground. She immediately stopped Lance.

"What? Not a ghost? But just now it was clearly..." Lance, who had run a dozen steps, turned around when he heard Kelly's voice. He saw that she had stopped and realized that his reaction was a bit too much. After all, he was a man, but the girl hadn't run away.

He himself fled in a panic, which was far too embarrassing. As for Du Lei, he had already squatted down to check something.

“It is indeed a girl, and she is a student taking the Maple Leaf Academy entrance exam just like us,” Du Lei finally said, turning around.

"Oh, a girl!" Lance was surprised by this conclusion and immediately walked back. Only then did he see clearly that there was a girl who had fainted in front of Dure. She was face down and his face was not visible, but from her back, her figure was very slender and well-proportioned.

“That’s right, she’s just a cute girl. Lance, you actually mistook her for a ghost. That’s really too much. But she seems to have fainted. What happened? Was she attacked and injured?” Kelly crouched down to examine her closely. The girl was completely unconscious.

“But I clearly heard a ghost’s voice just now, and who exactly was that shadow?” Lance was a little embarrassed by Kelly’s words, but after thinking about it carefully, he confirmed what he had just seen and heard, which confused him and even made him wonder if he was hallucinating.

“She is in good physical condition and shows no signs of injury. If I had to say there is something wrong with her, then…” Dure examined her and frowned.

"What's wrong?" Kelly was very worried about her. After all, as a fellow girl, she would naturally feel some sympathy for her if they met in this kind of forest.

"Didn't you hear me?" Du Lei didn't answer directly, but asked in return.

"What did you hear?" Kelly was a little confused, not knowing what Dure meant by those words.

"It's just a cooing sound," Dure reminded her.

"Is that hooting sound an owl or a stomach rumbling? Hey Lance, didn't you say you weren't hungry? Why is your stomach rumbling?" Kelly's first thought was an owl, but after listening carefully, she realized it was coming from her stomach.

"No, that's not me, it's Dure, he didn't eat much tonight either." Lance hurriedly waved his hand, trying to distance himself from the situation.

“It’s neither Lance nor me, it’s her.” Dure pointed to the unconscious girl.

“She probably fainted from hunger,” Dure added.

"Ha!" Kelly was completely defeated by Dure's answer.

Because they suddenly encountered a female student who had fainted on the road, Dure and his two companions had to stop temporarily. Kelly helped her to the side, and Lance went to get some water. After about ten minutes, the female student's nose twitched and she opened her eyes again.

"Hey, are you awake? What's your name? What happened? How did you end up lying in the grass all by yourself? And your companions? Do you know how scary you looked just now? Hey, say something!" Lance asked immediately when he saw that she was awake.

"This smells like meat." Her first reaction upon waking was to smell it all the way down to Durei.

"I'm talking to you, don't ignore me. I just went to get you water, what are you doing?" Lance was getting anxious when the other person ignored him. At this time, Dure was still unaware of what was going on, but the female student had already pinned him to the ground.

"Be careful, Dure!" Kelly thought the female student was going to harm Dure, so she immediately stepped forward, intending to take some countermeasures.

"Is this what you're looking for?" Du Lei wasn't too panicked. He took out the oil paper package from his pocket and handed it over.

"As expected, there's no mistake. It tastes like meat. Can I really eat it? Can I really eat it? Can I really really eat it?" The girl immediately snatched the oil paper package from Du Lei's hand, opened it, looked at the dried meat inside, took a deep breath, and had a very intoxicated expression.

Before she could take a bite, she realized that her actions seemed a bit rash, so she looked at Du Lei and asked him three times in a row, her eyes brimming with tears, looking rather pitiful.

"It's fine if you eat it all, please go ahead," Du Lei said, gesturing for her to eat as much as she wanted.

"Understood, then I'll start eating." The girl, grateful for the response, glanced at Du Lei and began to devour her food.

127. Relationship terminated.

Lance had always considered himself to have a rather large appetite; otherwise, he wouldn't be so hungry tonight, his stomach rumbling and craving something to eat. After all, he was physically robust and still growing, so this was perfectly logical and understandable.

However, the unknown girl lying on the roadside next to him completely overturned his understanding. The girl looked petite and cute, at most less than 1.6 meters tall, and her weight was definitely no more than 80 kilograms. According to common sense, she shouldn't eat too much.

But when she received the jerky that Dure handed her, regardless of the fact that the jerky was made from the meat of a magical beast that Lance avoided, she ate at an astonishing speed. Not only did she finish Dure's jerky in one go, but she also ate all the bread he had prepared for dinner.

"I'm so full! I haven't had such delicious meat in so long. What kind of animal is this? It smells so good! Is there any more?" The girl looked at Du Lei with lingering satisfaction. Beneath her sky-blue hair were a pair of bright, sparkling eyes, as if they contained countless stars.

"I think this is the second time tonight I've heard something like 'what kind of animal meat' coming up. Hey, what's going on here? Don't you girls have a really weird sense of taste? Why are you all so fond of this kind of meat?"

Lance nearly popped his eyes out. His "second time" wasn't entirely unfounded; Kelly had actually said something similar not long ago. At least back then, Kelly noticed the jerky was a bit sour, so her sense of taste was still normal to some extent.

But the girl in front of him directly called it "delicious," which Lance found particularly incomprehensible. How bizarre would someone have to be to think that monster meat tasted good? Shouldn't any normal person run away at the mere smell of monster meat?

"Oh dear, why are you being so mysterious? Did you use some special secret recipe? Don't worry, I just like to eat, not cook, so I'm not interested in recipes or anything like that. By the way, my name is Hannah. Thank you for saving me, otherwise I would have starved to death on the roadside."

The girl, who called herself "Hannah," came over and put her arm around Lance's shoulder, displaying a very bold style that made the latter feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"I'm asking if you have some strange misunderstanding about the recipe or something." Lance was completely defeated by her. This was clearly a problem with the meat quality, but she was trying to bring up some secret recipe, making it seem like he was so petty.

"So it's Miss Hannah. My name is Kelly. This jumpy guy is called Lance. He's from the Land of Swamps. He seems a bit crazy. Actually, I'm not very familiar with him. It's best to keep your distance from him. This is Dure. Compared to Lance, Dure is a much better guy."

Kelly stepped forward and introduced herself and her two companions. She was always a poised and generous person and had a good impression of the easygoing Hannah.

“Hey Kelly, can you please stop making such misleading introductions on your own? If people didn’t know better, they’d think I was crazy. I’m a normal person, okay?” Lance was unhappy with Kelly’s introduction and immediately stood up to argue.

“No wonder he seemed a bit off about me from the start. I understand now. I’ll definitely keep my distance from him.” Hannah nodded emphatically. She was grateful for Kelly’s reminder and immediately took a few steps back, her earlier enthusiasm of putting her arm around Lance gone.

"Don't listen to Kelly's nonsense. What's wrong with my eyes? I'm a perfectly normal person, okay? If you ask me, it's someone like you who would suddenly starve to death on the street. By the way, Kelly, we're teammates, teammates, understand? So it's time to leave now."

Lance tried his best to defend himself, while gesturing for Dure and Kelly to leave, as they couldn't stay in the forest for too long.

"Everyone gets hungry sometimes, isn't that normal? Lance, don't you ever get hungry?" Hannah asked, puzzled.

“Of course I would be hungry, I mean so hungry that I would collapse by the roadside, and in such a dangerous misty forest, and I would almost scare someone. This is very suspicious, very abnormal, don’t you think so?” Lance felt that he was having difficulty communicating with Hannah.

"Sigh, Lance, have you never starved to death on the roadside? I thought everyone did." Hannah pondered, biting her finger.

“How could you just collapse on the roadside for no reason? What if a monster ate you? Forget it, I can’t reason with you. Anyway, I don’t want to have anything to do with someone like you. Dure, Kelly, let’s go.” Lance urged again.

"But is it really okay to just leave her alone like this?" Dure asked worriedly. He had been looking at Hannah with a puzzled look in his eyes from the beginning, and that puzzled look had not completely disappeared even now.

"What do you mean 'it's okay'? Come on, Dure, she's the kind of weirdo who can starve herself to death on the roadside, and in such a dangerous place. Bringing her along would just be a burden. Besides, we're not sightseeing right now, we're testing something, right? So let her fend for herself."

Lance glanced at Hannah, but had no intention of taking her along.

"Hannah, where are your companions? Why are you all alone?" Kelly ignored Lance's suggestion and continued to question Hannah.

"I don't have any friends. When I was little, everyone in the village disliked me because I ate too much, so no one liked to play with me. Although I tried to make friends when I grew up, I don't know why, but all my friends drifted away from me. Before I knew it, I was all alone."

Hannah scratched her head and laughed as she spoke. Her smile was clean and pure, and even in the mist of the night, her eyes remained clean and pure.

"Is that so? Hannah, you've really had a tough time." Kelly looked at her with some sympathy.

“It’s not easy, but what’s so difficult about it? Normally, people would be willing to deal with weirdos. So Kelly, let’s hurry up. We’ve already wasted a lot of time here, and we can’t waste any more time,” Lance urged repeatedly.

"Lance, don't you have any compassion? A girl is going through this, and you're talking to her like that? That's really going too far!" Kelly was annoyed by Lance's words and immediately questioned him.

"I'm being unreasonable, please. I'm only thinking about your safety. We're your comrades, how did it become me being unreasonable?" Lance also got a little angry and started to confront Kelly.

"In the end, companions are just temporary teammate groups. Companions can be changed, right? Since you have such a prejudice against Hannah, then let's just end our companionship here," Kelly said coldly.

128. Hesitant and awkward.

Not long ago, the trio of Durey, Kelly, and Lance were getting along very well, but with the arrival of Hannah, there were signs that they were about to fall apart. Durey never expressed his opinion, but the conflict between Kelly and Lance was brought to the forefront, and it seemed that neither of them could tolerate the other.

"So, the relationship is over? You've been annoyed with me for a long time, haven't you? Fine, fine, it's over then. I'll just leave." Lance hadn't expected Kelly to say such a thing. He was so angry that he laughed and immediately turned and walked into the thick fog. His action directly announced the breakdown of the temporary partnership.

"Lance, wait a minute, wait a minute, Kelly, Hannah, you two wait here for a bit, I'll go and bring Lance back right now." Dure hadn't expected Lance to be so impulsive, he told Kelly and then chased after Lance's location, the heavy fog nearby obstructing his vision.

Du Lei chased after his companion for over a hundred meters with a torch in hand. In such an environment, even with a torch, the visibility was less than five meters. In addition, it was a forest where magical beasts roamed, so being alone was extremely dangerous. Du Lei was not so reckless as to abandon his companion at any time and disregard his safety.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it! She was the one who suggested forming a team, it wasn't like I dragged her in, and now she's trying to break off the relationship and kick me to the curb. Seriously, Kelly is such a pain in the neck!" Lance ran all the way to the riverbank.

He was so caught up in his resentment that he didn't take a torch when he left. Only after he had left Kelly far behind did he notice that there was a white expanse around him. Apart from the misty fog, there was only the eeriness and darkness of the forest, which gave him a creepy feeling.

"So what if we break up? In her words, it's only temporary. What a perfect temporary! But we should have taken a torch when we left. It's so cold around here, and we can't see anything clearly. Hey, what's that?" Lance felt a little annoyed after his anger subsided.

Fortunately, he noticed a firelight coming from behind him at that moment. Soon after, a figure approached, and Lance recognized the person chasing after him by the light of the firelight.

"Lance, are you alright? Why did you suddenly leave like this? It's very dangerous to wander around in the Misty Forest like this." Dure caught up, holding a torch and looking around. All around was a vast expanse of white, eerily quiet.

"Oh, it's you, Dure. What could have happened to me? I'm perfectly fine. As for why I left, didn't you hear what Kelly said? She said we're no longer partners. Since we're no longer partners, why should I stay there and spoil the mood?"

Lance crossed his arms and deliberately raised his voice. His anger had dissipated considerably after he ran out, and now that Dure had caught up, he was just putting on an act to vent his resentment towards Kelly.

“She was just saying that out of anger. Why are you arguing with a girl like her? Okay, let’s go back quickly. It’s dangerous here. Who knows what we might encounter?” Dure stepped forward and grabbed Lance’s arm. He could tell that Lance was just putting on an act to give him a way out.

"Durey, look at Kelly. She's got the temper of a spoiled princess. Just because she's cute doesn't mean she thinks she's someone special. If you ask me, we should just leave her there with that Hannah guy. We can move on without her. It'll be easier without her."

Lance waved his hand; he didn't want to go back and see Kelly's face again, as resentment wouldn't easily dissipate.

"A young lady with a temper? When I first arrived in Maple City, I did meet a young lady with a rather bad temper. Compared to her, Kelly is quite gentle and understanding. And what you said just now, Lance..." Dure recalled the scene when he met Sherry.

At that time, he was asking for directions from a fruit vendor on the street when an out-of-control carriage crashed into him, nearly knocking Xue Li down. Fortunately, he managed to save her in time. As the owner of the out-of-control carriage, the girl who got out of the carriage started whipping him without asking any questions.

This incident left a deep impression on Du Lei, and he also remembered the girl's appearance vividly. It wasn't because she was particularly pretty or cute, but because he was a vengeful person. Since she had angered him, he was determined to retaliate, but he hadn't yet found the right opportunity.