Chapter 11: Face-Flower

Cultivation secret chamber.

Gunie, seated cross-legged, opened his idle system.

All along, Gunie's spirit had been honed and elevated through the negative tempering of the extraordinary remnant scripture "Ring Art Bombardment."

Gunie's spells were cultivated through idling.

But Gunie's source pool had not been opened.

There was no source pool to contain his own source power.

Thus, Gunie's source power was stored throughout his body's hundred bones.

And the method Gunie employed was also the very ancient "meditation."

Meditation, as a method, was not codified into scriptures, so it could not be cultivated through idling.

During meditation, one calmed the mind and concentrated the spirit, then used mental power to draw the source power of heaven and earth, merging it into the body.

Through continuous drawing, the body adapted to source power, and finally the body stored a portion of source power.

This method was slow and inefficient, not as fast as cultivation through scriptures.

But, given Gunie's powerful mental strength and robust physical body,

under tireless cultivation, Gunie had indeed stored a not insignificant amount of source power.

And by leveraging the high-level power of spells themselves,

Gunie could release spells of considerable power with only a small amount of source power.

Relatively speaking, Gunie's sustained combat ability was quite good.

But this could not conceal the fact that Gunie's source power was not abundant.

Now, the weakness of his source power was finally about to be resolved.

He hadn't obtained the scripture method for opening the source pool from Old Cohen, but he had gotten it from Instructor Olov.

First: Bone Element Potion Secret Spell.

Second: Rocket Art.

Third: Ring Art Bombardment.

Fourth: Devout Knight Breathing Method.

Gunie's gaze swept over the four scriptures one by one, and finally replaced Rocket Art.

This Rocket Art was just an ordinary spell, and its level had risen to four, its potential nearly exhausted.

As the Sebona Source Pool replaced Rocket Art,

+6

+6

…

Continuous streams of experience drifted out from the idle slot where the Sebona Source Pool scripture was placed.

After several instances of +6 experience gain,

Gunie immediately felt a faint flow of source power beginning to converge within his body.

And his body accelerated its absorption and digestion of source power.

This acquisition speed, compared to meditation, was simply lightning fast; a single day of idling was equivalent to ten or even half a month of previous cultivation.

Moreover, as the level of the "Sebona Source Pool" increased, this cultivation speed would accelerate further.

If Gunie's body were an extraordinary body,

then, as the "Sebona Source Pool" operated, it would simultaneously absorb source power and help Gunie open a source pool within his body.

But Gunie's physical body was clearly not an extraordinary body.

At this moment, the Sebona Source Pool, in its idle operation mode, caused Gunie's physical body to absorb source power and store more source power.

The system's optimal adaptive acquisition method ensured Gunie need not worry about any issues with the system's idle cultivation.

"After a week, I'll test how much my body's source power capacity has increased, and then I'll know the powerful effect of the Sebona Source Pool," Gunie mused to himself.

…

As Gunie studied during the day and brewed potions at night, while idling in secret, a week quickly passed.

Life continued as usual, stable and comfortable.

But the extraordinary section of the Yulan Steam Daily occasionally reported on extraordinary murder cases and incidents by cultists, indicating that stability and ease were only superficial.

Undercurrents still surged, and were even expanding.

What gratified Gunie was

that Meisha adapted quickly to the new environment.

This saved Gunie a fair amount of effort in teaching and guiding.

When Meisha appeared before Gunie the next day in new clothes, he almost didn't recognize her.

And Gunie was surprised to discover that Meisha had considerable talent in potion-making.

Specifically, perhaps even slightly stronger than the boy named "Sibo."

Of course, her greater talent was displayed in "super-sense."

"In the future, she might become an extremely excellent shadow-walker," was Gunie's initial assessment of her.

Unlike the fear she had toward Gunie, she had none with Hawk and Beryl.

The three of them quickly hit it off.

Meisha's arrival also brought a rare bit of new vitality to the potion alchemy room, which had lost Sibo.

Potion alchemy secret chamber.

"Gurgle, gurgle…"

Inside the beaker, a viscous red liquid churned continuously.

Occasionally, red bubbles would swell and then burst.

Standing by the brewing table, Gunie examined it carefully before nodding slightly.

The heat was well controlled; continue simmering for fifteen minutes, then stop the fire.

This would yield about thirty-two bottles of the mid-grade potion "Rage Potion."

After drinking it, even extraordinary high-rank—that is, fifth- and sixth-rank warriors, even knights—would enter a rage state.

In the rage state, their neural reactions, speed, and strength would all increase significantly.

But correspondingly, after twenty minutes, they would enter a weakened period lasting one hour.

At critical moments, this potion could be used to fight desperately.

Gunie had seen in the newspaper that, reportedly, in the southern wasteland war zone, many wasteland tribes used potions similar to Rage Potion when fighting against the empire's legions.

Occasionally, this caused the legions to lose many soldiers.

Compared to the fierce battles in the southern wasteland war zone of the Oya Continent,

the northern expansion of the Yulan Empire's territory, though facing less resistance from wasteland tribes, still saw a significant number of deaths in the exploration of extraordinary lands.

Gunie was waiting for the simmering to end.

Footsteps sounded on the stairs.

From the lightness of the steps, Gunie could tell it was Meisha.

After a moment, Meisha appeared at the stair entrance, standing far away and not coming closer.

"Am I really that frightening?"

Without turning around, Gunie rubbed his chin.

"Isn't it just that my spirit is a bit stronger and my spells a bit more powerful?"

"What is it?" Gunie asked softly without looking back.

This little girl was very wary of him; if he acted too warmly, it might make her even more afraid.

After hesitating for a moment, Meisha seemed to muster her courage.

"Our extraordinary biology teacher said we should cultivate some extraordinary plants and observe them regularly, saying it can cultivate our delicate observation skills and patience."

Gunie turned around.

At the stair entrance, eleven- or twelve-year-old Meisha, wearing a floral dress, her short hair setting off her clean, slightly gaunt cheeks, looked at Gunie warily with her large, clear eyes.

"Do you want me to accompany you to buy potted extraordinary plants?" Gunie asked in a calm tone.

"A classmate gave me a face-flower seed."

"A face-flower seed?" Gunie lightly rubbed his fingers together.

"So, you want to plant face-flowers?"

"Mm! But the biology book says face-flowers grow best when planted in winter, preferably during the snowy season."

"It's not the right time to plant now, but if you soak the seeds in an ice-attribute potion for a few days, you can plant them now."

"Could you…" Meisha looked at Gunie pleadingly.

"No problem. Come here tomorrow night, and I'll make an ice-attribute potion for you."

"Thank you!" Meisha's face immediately lit up with a smile.

Face-flower.

In the extraordinary wasteland, it was not an uncommon flower. Within the wrapped petals and stamen, the flower's center bore a face-like pattern, vivid and lifelike, hence the name face-flower.

And face-flowers often grew in clusters, forming a sea of flowers.

Compared to the potted "Red Bite Man-Eating Flower," which had a certain aggressiveness,

the potted "Face-Flower" seemed relatively harmless.

But in the wild,

between a sea of Red Bite Man-Eating Flowers and a sea of Face-Flowers,

you'd better pray you don't encounter a sea of Face-Flowers.

A vast sea of Face-Flowers often harbored a very terrifying existence: the Face-Flower King.

And the Face-Flower King was born with the ability to bewitch, hallucinate, and even manipulate souls and deep emotions.

When you lock eyes with the Face-Flower King, you will fall deeply in love with it, becoming its "Face-Flower Puppet," willingly driven by it and even revealing everything you know.

Fortunately, solitary cultivation posed no problem.

Listening to Meisha's departing footsteps, Gunie fell into a contemplative silence.

"Face-flower, huh?" Gunie murmured softly.