Wizard: I'm leveling up by AFK in another world

Claire had never heard of the author's name before; he must have been just an ordinary wizard.

Opening the book, the yellowed pages were densely covered with scribbled notes and hand-drawn illustrations.

In the opening, the author of the notes briefly summarizes the characteristics of modern potion technology.

He pointed out that despite the availability of a wide variety of modern equipment, the core of potion-making still "remains inseparable from the crucible."

He wrote:

"Potion masters need to precisely control the temperature, stirring speed, and magic output to blend materials with different properties at a prescribed rhythm."

"The potion makers of the Blue Sea Clan are somewhat different. They do not use cauldrons in the traditional sense, because they themselves are the cauldrons."

Turning the page, a disturbing hand-drawn anatomical diagram comes into view.

The image depicts a blue sea fish-man with its abdomen cut open; its internal organs differ from those of a normal fish-man.

The stomach was abnormally large, its inner wall covered with dense, fleshy growths. Three strange, blood vessel-like structures branched from the gallbladder, leading to the heart, gill sacs, and spine, respectively.

Claire raised an eyebrow and continued reading.

"Sea-folk alchemists refine materials by consuming them and utilizing their specialized organs."

"Stomach acid is a natural strong acid solvent that can instantly break down hard minerals. Bile is the perfect harmonizer, neutralizing the violent clashes of elements. And the primal magic flowing in their blood is the best catalyst."

"The most crucial thing is pain."

"When two materials with conflicting properties react violently within the body, the sea-folk potion master will suffer excruciating pain."

"What's amazing is that this pain stimulates their brains to secrete a special substance."

"This substance travels rapidly through the blood vessels to the stomach where the potion is being made, achieving perfect harmony between materials that were originally incompatible, all while enduring pain."

"It's worth noting that I've conducted numerous experiments trying to extract this substance. However, when it's exposed to air, it mysteriously and suddenly disappears."

"No matter what method I use, I can't preserve it."

Claire was horrified.

Using one's own body as a furnace, and pain as a catalyst—can this truly be called alchemy?

In the blank space at the end, Claire saw a short annotation, the handwriting completely different from the previous ones, clearly written by someone else:

"Absurd and barbaric. While it does have some unique advantages, training a qualified sea-folk potion master is expected to take at least ten years, and the mortality rate is terrifyingly high."

"This inefficient and uncontrollable process can neither be industrialized nor can it break through the higher limits of magic potion production. Apart from satisfying curiosity, it has no value."

The annotations were signed "Guy Charles".

Claire had seen this name before.

The head of the Water Elemental Potions Department, a third-tier potion master, and also a third-level archmage in the academy with the potential to gather spiritual energy.

Such annotations left by such important figures naturally determined the value and fate of this notebook.

"Completely worthless...?"

Claire looked at the cold annotation, but felt a surge of warmth in her heart.

He closed his eyes and immersed the idea he had just captured deep into the sea of ​​his mind.

soon.

[Data analysis complete]

[Blueprint being generated]

[Subtype Blueprint Generated: Sea Clan Potions Master]

[Description: This sea creature has abandoned most of its combat abilities, evolving an extremely complex internal organ system. It can devour materials and process them into Blue Sea Clan potions.]

Success rate: 35%

Manufacturing materials:

Blue Ocean Clan's Knowledge of Magical Potions (1/7)

Large shovel turtle stomach pouch (0/1)

Macrosoma glands (0/3)

Fish Spirit Spine (0/3)

Deep-sea coral heart (0/1)

Primal Tidal Essence (0/1)

Claire froze as soon as the text filling her vision faded.

The originally dim and cold bookshelves suddenly became lively in his view.

Many faint points of light, like fireflies, emerged from the rows of black bookshelves.

On the third row from the left, the spine of a thick book, "Anatomy of Deep-Sea Soft Organisms," gleamed with gold.

In the upper right corner, a book titled "The Theory of Pain and the Transformation of Spiritual Power," locked in chains, is flashing.

In the corner at my feet, a dusty book titled "A Study of Primitive Tribal Totems" was also highlighted.

Before Claire could react, her mind was suddenly flooded with a barrage of prompts, as if it had just recovered from a system crash.

Blueprint material detected

[Detected...]

[Detected...]

Those books that were glowing were actually a list of required reading compiled by the system for him.

"Isn't that a bit too much?"

Claire felt a chill run down her spine as she looked at the dense clusters of lights in her field of vision.

Looking around, there are at least thirty or forty books.

It covers multiple fields such as anatomy, spirituality, and semiotics, and many of the books are so good that just looking at their titles makes your SAN value drop drastically.

"Let's give it our all."

Claire took a deep breath and reached for the nearest point of light.

……

……

"Cough cough..."

Behind a tall stack of books, Claire coughed twice, then everything went black.

After his vision was restored, he felt his brain was burning up and he had a kind of overclocked fatigue.

Over an unknown period of time, countless bizarre and distorted fragments of information were forcibly crammed into his brain.

Those were the whispers of the merman priests at the deep-sea altar.

Those were fragments of internal organs that flew out during a live dissection.

It was the shadow cast by some indescribable deep-sea behemoth in the darkness.

"Huff... huff..."

Claire's breathing became heavy as he reached for a book—"The Recipes and Taboos of the Black Tide Tribe".

The book's cover was made of some kind of slippery scales, which felt icy cold to the touch.

As he turned the pages, lines of text written in the language of the Blue Sea tribe came into view.

The characters are crooked and twisted, each letter resembling a wriggling worm.

"...swallowing... rotting eyeballs...fermenting...with bile..."

Claire's vision began to blur.

He vaguely heard the sound of gurgling water, as if the entire library was submerged underwater.

He paid no attention to that, and instead pulled out a thin booklet bound with black chains from the bottom of the pile of books.

Records on the phenomenon of "echoes from the abyss" in sea tribe rituals.

This book has no author, and the cover features an octopus totem with only one eye.

The eye seemed to be alive, moving its eyeball in response to Claire's movements.

"Don't look at me," Claire muttered under her breath, reaching out to unlock the chains.

Click.

The moment the book was opened, a strong, fishy sea breeze rushed towards me.

Claire felt the space around her instantly distort.

The once hard stone floor became soft and muddy, like the seabed of the deep sea.

The surrounding bookshelves stretched out and transformed into towering underwater pillars, covered with glowing jellyfish.

"This is an illusion."

Claire's last shred of reason told her that he had been corrupted.

He should close the book immediately and wait for the silent ones to come to his rescue.

But he couldn't do it.

His hands seemed to be attached to the book, unable to move an inch.

His eyes were fixed on the writhing words on the pages, words that seemed to crawl out of the paper and creep up his arm.

"...using souls as kindling... to ignite the fires of the abyss..."

A hoarse voice echoed deep within his mind.

It wasn't human language, but he understood it.

"Welcome the new offering."