Chapter 139

Combination (2)

The mature mandrake had turned blue, apparently after absorbing the Ice Blossom.

Mature mandrakes really did resemble humans, which only made them more frightening.

Its eyes were wide open, and its mouth opened and closed like a goldfish’s. It genuinely looked as though it were moments away from freezing to death.

I wondered what I should do with it, then decided to leave a comment first.

The Starlight Princess would probably know at least something about this phenomenon.

└ Wild Grylls: (Video of the blue mandrake) It turned out like this. What happened to it?

└ Starlight Princess: Huh? Why did it end up like that? Why is it blue?

└ Wild Grylls: Excuse me?;;

└ Uh. Why’d that thing turn blue?

└ Did it get a blue badge too?

└ Looks like it just died. What blue badge are you talking about?;;

Even the Starlight Princess seemed bewildered.

If that was the case, I was screwed.

But as they said, even when the sky collapsed, there was always a hole to escape through.

Not long afterward, the Starlight Princess posted another comment explaining the probable cause.

└ He’s seriously trying to turn everything in the Forest of the Four Seasons into liquor, lol.

└ He’ll be making snake wine next, lol.

└ Starlight Princess: From the looks of it, the mature mandrake seems to have absorbed the Ice Blossom... First, we need to check whether it’s still alive. Could you poke it with a chopstick or a twig?

└ Wild Grylls: I poked it, but all it did was open and close its mouth.

└ Starlight Princess: Does it scream?

└ Wild Grylls: It does, but the screaming keeps cutting out instead of continuing steadily.

└ Starlight Princess: Then the mature mandrake really must have absorbed the Ice Blossom. I never expected this to happen.

└ Wild Grylls: What should I do now?

└ Starlight Princess: Surprisingly, this isn’t a bad situation. It means their energies have blended. Eating it raw would be dangerous, so I’ll tell you how to extract its essence.

└ Wild Grylls: Can’t I just send it to you as it is? You should be able to extract it right away.

└ Starlight Princess: That wouldn’t be a bad option either, but I’m worried the Ice Blossom’s effects might disappear if something goes wrong.

└ Passing Dwarf: Can’t you just make liquor out of it? Honestly, I think that’d be better.

└ Wild Grylls: Be honest. You only said that because you want it, right?

└ Passing Dwarf: Was it that obvious? If you have another one, give me one.

└ Wild Grylls: Good grief, lol. You’re so predictable.

I casually ignored the alcoholic dwarf’s suggestion and waited for the Starlight Princess to explain the method.

The combination of an Ice Blossom and a mature mandrake was practically a first for even her.

Both were herbs that money couldn’t buy, and I had combined them.

It was an idea—and a method—that only I, someone living in the Forest of the Four Seasons, could attempt.

’Putting mature mandrakes aside, Ice Blossoms must be extremely difficult to obtain.’

In truth, if this experiment failed, even I had no idea when I would be able to acquire another Ice Blossom.

Unlike mandrakes, they didn’t grow in colonies.

I prayed that it wouldn’t fail.

This might be my first and last opportunity.

└ Starlight Princess: (Image of a mandrake’s anatomy) As you can see in the picture, mandrakes resemble humans, so their vital points are similar too. You still have a syringe, right?

└ Wild Grylls: The one you gave me before?

└ Starlight Princess: Yes. Fill it with elixir and stick it straight into the mandrake’s mouth.

└ Wild Grylls: That sounds like torture.

└ Starlight Princess: Exactly. Force-feed it until its stomach is completely swollen.

└ Wild Grylls: Understood.

└ Poor mandrake.

└ Humanity is sorry.

└ He’s shoving it so deep that it can’t even scream, lololol.

└ Couldn’t he just crush it and turn it into juice? I seriously feel sorry for it, lol.

└ Starlight Princess: After that, put it in a mortar and grind it finely. That should extract a highly concentrated essence.

└ Wild Grylls: That’s an extremely primitive method.

└ Starlight Princess: There’s no other way. Do you need a mortar?

└ Wild Grylls: No. I can buy one from the auction house.

I knew nothing about the process, so I had no choice but to do as I was told.

Following the Starlight Princess’s instructions, I filled the syringe with elixir.

Then I jammed it into the blue mature mandrake’s mouth.

Shnk!

"Kkueok?! Kkuuk! Kkueoooeok!"

The instant I inserted the syringe, the mandrake thrashed around, trying to scream.

But since I was forcibly holding its mouth shut, its struggle was futile.

Still, perhaps because it looked human, it even flailed its arms and legs.

It went so far as to grab the needle with its hands, trying to pull the syringe out of its mouth.

Whack! Smack!

"Kkuyolk?! Kkuup!"

So I hit it a few times and told it to stay still.

It was troublesome, but this was part of the process of extracting its essence, so I endured it.

In the end, I injected all the elixir into the mature mandrake.

Its body remained blue, but it gradually began to glow.

It seemed to be absorbing the elixir’s energy.

"Kkiyo...!"

Whack!

"Gguek! Kkiyoooo...!"

Thwack! Smack!

"Kueek! Kkiyoooot...!"

"Kkiyooooot! Kkiyoooo!!"

"Ah, come on."

Had this thing taken drugs instead of absorbing an Ice Blossom?

The moment I removed the syringe from its mouth, it began making a bizarre noise.

It wasn’t a mandrake’s characteristic scream.

Instead, it sounded like something that had gotten ridiculously high. Even punching it didn’t calm it down.

It was probably recovering in real time because I had injected it with elixir.

Even its face looked completely blissed out, making it react like a genuine drug addict.

Elixir was technically a "medicine," so it seemed to have had a strange effect on the mandrake.

Whack! Smack! Thump!

"Kueek! Keek! Kkueek!"

So I hit it a few more times.

Thanks to that, the mandrake went limp like a corpse.

I had used half a bottle of elixir, so I prepared the mortar.

For hygiene’s sake, I didn’t forget to wash both the mortar and the mandrake with water.

’She told me to grind it finely and collect the juice, right?’

According to the Starlight Princess, the juice itself was the essence.

Incidentally, although I was only mentioning it now, her method prioritized safety.

Apparently, there was a more reliable method, but it would place a burden on my survival. That was why she had chosen the safer option.

I had absolutely no intention of risking my life just to gain strength, so I obediently followed her instructions.

Thud! Thump! Thud!

I finely pounded the mature mandrake inside the mortar.

It wasn’t a small bowl-shaped mortar, but a full-sized mortar traditionally used for pounding grain.

I had bought it so I could extract as much essence as possible.

’Is this enough?’

After being pounded for quite some time, the mature mandrake had been completely pulverized.

It was still blue.

I tilted the mortar slightly and poured the essence into the empty elixir bottle, which I had washed thoroughly.

Only a few drops came out, but I wasn’t finished yet.

Squeeze!

I grabbed the finely crushed mandrake with my hand and wrung it out with all my strength.

I applied the maximum grip strength I could muster, to the point that the veins stood out on the back of my hand.

Drip! Drip!

Juice trickled down.

After repeating the process several times, I managed to fill about half the bottle.

The elixir bottle was extremely small, so it couldn’t be called a large amount, but it was enough.

Shwaaaa—

Perhaps because the essence contained elixir as well, it wasn’t an ordinary shade of blue.

It was an incredibly beautiful color, a perfect blend of ice-white and blue.

It glowed like an elixir, making it look like a precious medicine at first glance.

└ Wild Grylls: (Photo of the glowing blue essence) I’ve extracted all of it. I can drink it now, right?

└ Starlight Princess: Yes. Still, just in case, I’ll give you another elixir. It contains plenty of yang essence, so it should be sufficient for emergencies.

└ Wild Grylls: Thank you.

Now that I had even received an emergency elixir from the Starlight Princess, all that remained was to drink this.

I stared at the blue, glittering essence and took a deep breath.

Essence was a liquid containing powerful energy.

It would be easiest to think of it as an inner core in liquid form.

Therefore, I only needed to calmly control the energy while reciting the second mnemonic chant the Heavenly Demon had taught me.

’It should be fine. I even mixed in elixir to make it safer.’

Everything was difficult the first time.

I swallowed nervously, then drank all the essence in one gulp.

From my mouth down to my throat, I felt a coldness so intense that it stung.

On top of that, it was unbearably bitter.

The bitterness was so extreme that my entire face twisted.

It was so much stronger than the cold that I nearly failed to circulate the heart method.

’Th-The heavens become me... Wait, that’s not it.’

As if I had eaten ice cream too quickly, a sharp ache rang through my head as well.

The double blow of bitterness and brain freeze made my consciousness grow hazy, but I somehow managed to recite the chant.

There was no pain, but the sensations assaulting me were intense enough to rival it, making the process far from easy.

Even so, I kept trying.

Rather than losing consciousness and being overwhelmed by the energy, I worked to accept it.

As the Heavenly Demon had taught me, to control the energy of the heavens, I first needed to understand that energy.

I concentrated on sensing every strand of energy contained within the essence.

Whoosh!

The results of the safety-focused production method combined with my efforts gradually began to appear.

The essence started flowing along the same pathways through which my mana circulated according to the heart method.

If I continued circulating it steadily, it wouldn’t take long to absorb the entire essence.

Although the inside of my body felt as cold as if it contained a solid block of ice, it was bearable.

Whoooosh!

I had no idea how much time passed after that.

Eventually, I absorbed the essence completely.

I continued circulating the heart method for a little longer before slowly opening my eyes.

The tree sloth was there, staring blankly at me.

"Phew..."

The fact that I could see the tree sloth meant I was still alive.

I let out a long sigh.

As I exhaled, white breath escaped my mouth.

"Did it... work?"

Having absorbed all the essence, I examined every part of my body.

Nothing had visibly changed.

The same was true of the cold.

I still felt chilly.

It appeared that I hadn’t gained the cold resistance that had originally been my goal.

What a shame.

’There’s nothing I can do about it. Even the Starlight Princess wasn’t certain.’

That didn’t mean I could have disregarded safety.

To report the results, I made a post in the gallery.

Title: Results of the First Attempt

Wild Grylls

Nothing seems to have changed. I guess the energies were completely neutralized.

└ Starlight Princess: That’s unfortunate. I’m truly sorry that my knowledge was inadequate.

└ Wild Grylls: No, it’s all right. You didn’t do anything wrong, Princess. It would have been strange if we succeeded on the very first try, wouldn’t it?

└ Starlight Princess: Even if we set the Ice Blossom aside, I think I need to conduct more research on mature mandrakes. Could you give me the remains later?

└ Wild Grylls: Yes. You gave me an elixir too, so I’ll send them to you.

└ Passing Dwarf: See? I told you making liquor would’ve been better.

└ Wild Grylls: Nonsense.

└ Starlight Princess: It isn’t entirely nonsense. Snake wine and ginseng wine are essentially ways of drinking extracted essence too.

└ Passing Dwarf: See that? Heh.

└ Wild Grylls: Even so, alcohol is a bit...;;

└ Passing Dwarf: Just give it a try. If you make some, I’ll give you something amazing.

└ Wild Grylls: If I can make it, lol.

I would need another Ice Blossom before I could even think about making it again.

I soothed my disappointment and checked the time.

I still had a little time left.

Building the ice storage house would take too long, but I seemed to have enough time to cut firewood for the night.

Fwoosh!

"Hm?"

I had just coated my axe in aura to make the logging easier when I noticed something strange.

My aura had originally been nearly colorless.

But not now.

It was a vivid blue—a frigid blue that looked cold enough to sting.

’No. It really is cold.’

Although it still flickered like flames, it gave off cold air instead of heat.

Curious, I placed my hand against the aura, but it didn’t harm me at all.

’Did it just make my aura cooler?’

What was this supposed to be, all style and no substance?

I chuckled.

What mattered right now was cutting wood.

Even if its color had changed, aura was still aura.

I swung the axe, putting my back into the blow.

Thunk!

The axe blade struck precisely into the center of the tree.

Crackle—crack, crack, crack!

Starting from the point of impact, the entire tree froze solid.

My jaw dropped at the unbelievable sight.

’Just what the hell did I drink?’

I couldn’t decide whether I should be pleased or worried.

In any case, one thing was certain.

’Th-This is freaking awesome...!’

I had unintentionally obtained an incredible ability.

An Ice Blossom, a mature mandrake, and finally, an elixir.

Every single ingredient was extraordinarily rare.

Perhaps such a result was only natural after mixing all three together.

’...What would happen if I combined this with a sword?’

A completely pointless thought suddenly crossed my mind.

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