What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Several days later, in the depths of the Arend Island Labyrinth, within the Moilai Temple.

Inside a massive tent partitioned off within the hall, Leon, transformed into his Werewolf form, panted like a true beast, adjusting his breathing as steam rose from his body.

After completing the Bestowal Ceremony in the major diocese, he had returned to South Harbor County without pause. Once he had handled numerous miscellaneous affairs, he came back to Arend Island and entered the temple in the depths of the Labyrinth—the most concealed and secure place available to him—to begin testing the power of the Blessings he had obtained.

After some simple trials, he discovered that, just as he had envisioned, even after transforming into his Werewolf form through Moilai’s Blessing, he could still draw upon the Supreme God’s Blessing to cast the divine art of time acceleration upon himself.

With the physique of a Werewolf, his tolerance for the physiological burden caused by time acceleration far surpassed that of his normal state.

In his ordinary condition, even increasing his movements to roughly one and a half times speed could only be sustained for about seven seconds, as measured by his pocket watch. If he pushed it beyond double speed, the duration would shrink drastically—he could not last even two seconds. Of course, from his accelerated perspective, that amounted to roughly four seconds.

If used in combat, such a brief window would only suffice for something like a quick-draw contest. Yet firearms of this era were not particularly practical, and afterward he would suffer intense discomfort due to the corrective effect mentioned by Archbishop Miller.

By comparison, the Foundational Blessing of the God of War, which directly and comprehensively enhanced physical capabilities, seemed far more respectable.

But now, with the support of his Werewolf physique, his baseline physical ability alone already surpassed that of ordinary recipients of the God of War’s Blessing. When activating double-speed acceleration, he could now endure for over thirty seconds—subjectively, it felt like more than a minute.

And that speed could be pushed even higher, though the duration would shorten accordingly.

The key point was that he could now fully withstand the burden brought by the corrective effect. The Werewolf’s body recovered rapidly, which meant that after a short rest, he should be able to use it again depending on his condition.

Leon adjusted his breathing while feeling the intense pounding in his chest. After every use of time acceleration, his heart rate would fluctuate sharply due to the corrective effect. Fortunately, the Werewolf state could endure it.

The violent throbbing of his heart made him think of the blood flowing within his body, and suddenly an idea occurred to him.

Leon used his claws to slice a wound across the back of his hand, allowing fresh blood to spill out.

Under his will-based manipulation, the blood flowed swiftly, pooling on the ground like water poured from a cup, forming a small pool of blood.

Leon invoked the Witch’s Blessing and focused his will to control the blood.

The blood that had flowed from his body instantly turned purplish-red and began to slither across the ground like a living creature under his command. Its crawling speed could hardly be called fast—anyone even slightly wary could easily run away from it.

Good. Now stack time acceleration!

Leon concentrated his will upon the Cursed Blood that had flowed out, flipped the hourglass on the small table beside him, and cast the divine art of time acceleration.

The flow of sand in the hourglass abruptly slowed in his perception, yet the crawling speed of the Cursed Blood appeared unchanged to his eyes.

That meant that in the eyes of others, the movement speed of the Cursed Blood had been accelerated in sync with Leon himself.

“It actually works.” Leon himself was somewhat surprised.

It seemed that the Cursed Blood he released could still be regarded as part of his body. Even after leaving him, it could still be affected by time acceleration.

“In that case—” Leon then attempted to vaporize the Cursed Blood while in the accelerated state.

The Cursed Blood boiled at the speed familiar to him, transforming into poisonous smoke that spread outward. In the perception of others, the speed at which the blood turned into toxic mist and dispersed was likewise accelerated. In the blink of an eye, a massive cloud of poisonous gas erupted, practically like a poison gas bomb.

“Then what if I do this—” Leon temporarily ceased the time acceleration and took a deep breath to steady himself.

After his body settled down, he fixed his gaze on a Head-Hunting Rabbit confined within a small cage in the distance.

This time, he directly splashed blood into the cage, then simultaneously activated both the Cursed Blood and time acceleration Blessings.

The poisonous mist burst over the Head-Hunting Rabbit. In Leon’s eyes, the creature began struggling in slow motion, crashing against the cage in an attempt to escape. However, the Cursed Blood had already accelerated its infiltration through the surface of its body, and the toxic mist independently entered its nostrils.

Leon chose to trigger the effect of the Cursed Blood and watched as the Head-Hunting Rabbit rapidly entered a petrified state.

By the time Leon withdrew the time acceleration, the Head-Hunting Rabbit had already ceased breathing, and crystalline symptoms had begun appearing on its body.

As expected—the speed of the poison’s onset could also be accelerated.

These two Blessings could indeed be coordinated with one another!

Leon was exhilarated by his new discovery.

At that moment, Rena’s silhouette appeared against the firelit canvas of the tent. Through the curtain, she called out to Leon, “Leon, are you done with your experiment?”

“More or less. I’ve made a lot of new discoveries!” Leon replied excitedly.

“If you’re free, come out and help for a bit.” Rena sighed. “I’m a little tired.”

“Alright.” Leon returned to his original state and stepped out of the tent.

“Why are you bare-chested?” Rena looked him up and down.

“I was testing in Werewolf form. Regular clothes get torn easily when I transform, so it’s safer to take them off.” Leon washed his hands first, then retrieved the clothes hanging outside and put them back on. “By the way, I’ll clean up the things inside later. Don’t touch them.”

“You released poison in there?” Rena immediately realized he had been experimenting with his abilities again. She frowned. “It’s better not to do that near my laboratory for brewing Magical Potions, isn’t it? You can control your abilities now, but in a lab like this, it’s best not to have such dangerous substances around.”

“But other than here, I can’t think of a more concealed and secure place.” Leon glanced at the tent he had set up. “I sealed it carefully enough. The space here is so large—we might as well partition a few more rooms.”

“So the experiment succeeded?” Rena asked.

When Leon returned, he had already informed her that he had obtained the Supreme God’s Blessing.

“It succeeded. The Supreme God’s Blessing and Moilai’s Blessing can be used simultaneously—and they can coordinate with each other—” Leon explained the results of his experiment.

“It went so smoothly that it’s almost surprising. Honestly, when you went to receive the Church’s Blessing, I was worried something might go wrong,” Rena said.

“Next, I’ll help you refine Mana. The purity I can produce now should be sufficient anyway.” Leon put on his protective long robe and gloves.

“Sorry. The volume is just too much—and I still have to handle brewing Magical Potions. I really can’t manage it all,” Rena sighed apologetically.

Leon strode into Rena’s laboratory area. Half of the temple’s interior space had been allocated for her use.

The main setup consisted of a workbench for Mana extraction arranged beside the grand altar. On it sat two distillation apparatuses nested together. Rena could directly conduct one round of Mana extraction and one round of purification there. Surrounding the Mana extraction workbench were additional tables for processing Magical Beast materials and various instruments for brewing Magical Potions.

“I haven’t been here for a few days, and it feels like there’s even more equipment now,” Leon observed.

The entire laboratory, in both equipment and floor area, had expanded to three times the scale of what they had in the Hamel Town Labyrinth. It no longer looked like something Rena alone could possibly handle.

“Didn’t you send word last time that the types of Magical Potion orders had increased? I added some equipment according to the formula requirements,” Rena replied.

“Then where’s the crude solution for Mana extraction?” Leon asked.

“Right there.” Rena pointed to the ground, where several small wooden barrels—resembling wine casks—were placed.

“This much?” Leon lifted a lid and glanced inside. They were all filled with red crude Mana solution. “You’ve been handling this volume the whole time?”

The processes of breeding Magical Beasts, slaughtering them, and using their cores, brains, hearts, and other parts to produce this crude Mana solution had already been delegated to subordinates assigned to positions inside the Labyrinth. Back then, Rena had personally taught Leon step by step, and now those subordinates, trained by him, were fully competent in the work.

Compared to before, a considerable portion of the workload had already been offloaded. Yet Rena’s total workload had not decreased—in fact, it had increased.

“It suddenly increased this quarter. The Magical Beasts reproduced too quickly in the first half of the year,” Rena sighed.

“Has the production scale grown too large?” Leon pondered.

He had inspected the breeding grounds outside. After being raised within a Mana-rich active Labyrinth, their scale had grown several times larger than it had been in the Hamel Labyrinth, and the Magical Beasts continued to reproduce with each passing quarter.

He had even been forced to double the manpower handling Magical Beasts outside. In that case, Rena’s workload was likely already completely saturated.

That also meant their output was approaching its limit.

“Even though the Labyrinth still has plenty of space, we need to control the number of Magical Beasts,” Leon said.

He had too many responsibilities to regularly assist Rena like this.

Unless he could recruit additional personnel to serve as her assistants. Apothecaries capable of brewing Magical Potions were not particularly difficult to find, but in the matter of Mana extraction, only a Witch would suffice. And this laboratory was their core operations area, directly connected to Rena herself—anyone brought in would have to be absolutely trustworthy.