What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

Lena got up at the sound and soon saw Leon excitedly push open the door and enter the room. He closed the door and looked at Lena with shining eyes.

"What... what's wrong?" Lena was a little confused when she saw him like this.

“I have something good to show you.” Leon said as he walked toward Lena, while reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket.

As Leon approached, Lena caught a faint scent, much like a perfume or incense commonly used by women.

Lena was immediately puzzled. Just as she was about to ask something, Leon pulled out a piece of paper and held it out to her, excitedly saying, "Look at this!"

Lena was caught off guard and instinctively grabbed the letter, glancing at it twice: "Isn't this a potion recipe? Who gave it to you?"

She froze when she asked the question. Someone who studies potions is just a witch, isn't she?

The delicate handwriting on the letter, which wasn't hers, and the faint fragrance emanating from it, involuntarily conjured up an image in her mind of a bewitching witch smilingly handing the recipe to Leon.

What happened? Where did he go and make contact with other witches?

Suddenly, she thought of something, looked up at Leon with an uneasy expression, and then slowly leaned in to sniff.

She was immediately certain of it upon smelling it; the fresh scent came from Leon, and it was also on the letter!

Lena immediately looked as if the sky had fallen.

This left Leon, who was just about to answer the question, completely bewildered: "What's wrong?"

"You...don't you have other witches with you?" Lena looked at Leon with a pitiful expression.

"What?" Leon was completely dumbfounded.

Two minutes later, Leon explained the whole thing to Lena in detail, telling her that it was a cure for his injuries given to him by the saintess of the Church of the Creator, which finally pulled Lena out of her inexplicable delusions.

Although Weiss told him not to tell anyone about this, Lena was someone Leon absolutely trusted, and since Lena was needed to verify the preparation of the medicine, it was natural for him to inform her of the details.

"This is the formula for the antidote? This can really cure you?" Lena finally grasped the key point when she heard the last part, and her eyes lit up just like when Leon came in.

"Let's not get too excited yet; we need to verify it with animal experiments," Leon cautioned.

"This formula seems pretty reliable; at least it doesn't contain any particularly dangerous ingredients," Lena nodded repeatedly. "And coincidentally, we have all the raw materials!"

The wolf blood they had previously acquired was buried by Lena and Qian. After her processing, the wolf blood in that jar could be preserved for several months without any problem. As for the maze mandrake, they were now trying to plant it in the maze.

If this formula really works, then Leon can finally be completely free from the injuries that have been plaguing him, and Lena can't help but feel happy for Leon.

"If it really works, we'll owe her a huge favor," Leon said, recalling the events. "When she came to say she wanted to transfer Mrs. Hershey today, I thought we were in big trouble."

"She also wanted to save Ms. Selene in her own way."

When Lena mentioned this, she immediately recalled her time as Bishop Leona, when she used potions as holy water to heal Selene. Weiss, on the other hand, was a genuine bishop and was hesitant to use the potions she had researched. But they were essentially the same; they both wanted to use their research findings to save lives.

"She said she really wanted to meet Celie because she thought Celie had developed those drugs. She felt that with your drugs, there was real hope of developing a cure for halogenation. She commented that the general direction of your research was definitely correct," Leon relayed Weiss's words.

"If she says that, she must really be confident she can do it," Lena sighed.

She is researching effective drugs on her own and is approaching a knowledge bottleneck.

In comparison, Weiss should possess more knowledge of potions collected and accumulated by the church. If Weiss could unleash her research, she might actually be able to create a truly effective potion starting from her own potions.

The restrictions imposed by the church greatly hindered the development of a cure for salification disease.

"Let's eat first, the food's getting cold." Leon tried to change the subject, picking up a bowl from the table and ladling stew from the soup pot.

"It's because you came back too late." Lena also sat down at the dining table.

"How was your day?" Leon asked casually.

"Ah..." Lena stopped abruptly, only then suddenly remembering the bad news she had originally planned to tell Leon.

"What happened?" Leon noticed that Lena's expression was off.

“Leon, there are some things I need to tell you about in the labyrinth.” Lena looked at Leon with unease. “Recently, I’ve noticed that the monsters are less active and seem to be getting weaker every day.”

"Hmm, they didn't seem to have much of an appetite when we fed them," Leon said after a moment's thought. "Could they have a contagious disease?"

He's now basically in charge of feeding the animals in the maze, since the feed contains some things that are not suitable for Lena to come into contact with.

“I had my doubts, but after a careful inspection, I found that wasn’t the case. Today, I tried taking a few monsters that I had raised for seven days and used them to make magic essence. The result… the amount of magic essence was much lower than I estimated, only about half!” Lena said.

"Is it because there are too many monsters?" Leon asked.

“No, Leon, actually I have a guess… the problem might be more serious than we think.” Lena’s eyes flickered with unease.

Leon became serious upon hearing this and waited for Lena to finish speaking.

“I’m thinking that this maze might be nearing its end,” Lena said with a grave expression.

“Depleted?” Leon’s eyes widened.

"Yes, this place was originally a sealed labyrinth, and it no longer produces magic essence. The magic essence there is just something that was stored and accumulated in the labyrinth space in the past, and it has been constantly being lost. When we use monsters to extract magic essence and take it away, the magic essence inside will decrease even faster. The church people sealed this place before, and they should have carried out another round of cleanup."

I'm thinking that after all this trouble, the magic energy in this maze is probably almost depleted. Judging from today's spot check, I've estimated the production; at this rate, forget about achieving that goal, we might not even reach half the required amount!

Chapter 90 The New Labyrinth (Seeking first subscriptions and monthly votes)

The following day, in the office of the director of the Inquisition for Heresy.

"The labyrinth is exhausted? Oh, I knew it." After listening to Leon's explanation, Bishop Beckett, sitting behind his desk, seemed unsurprised. "Not bad, you discovered this problem earlier than I expected."

"You knew all along?" Leon frowned.

“I have experience sealing labyrinths. A labyrinth that was sealed for thirty years, and now that you’ve raised monsters in it for a year, and then it’s been sealed again, it’s normal that it’s nearing depletion. The sheer number of monsters you’ve raised inside will further accelerate the depletion of magic essence, but no matter what, the total amount of magic essence you can extract is limited.” Bishop Beckett spread his hands.

“Such important intelligence, I think it’s necessary to share it in advance,” Leon said, staring at Bishop Beckett.

"The depletion of the maze is just our estimate, not a certainty. It needs to be verified, and now you have completed the verification. Moreover, even if the maze is not depleted now, it will be depleted sooner or later. What you have is a mine that will eventually be exhausted."

"This way, we can't supply the Earl with goods in the long term. You have to solve this problem before you're qualified to take over the territory of Southport County and become the Earl's most stable supplier," Bishop Beckett said earnestly.

"So, this is the real difficulty of this mission?" Leon finally understood.

The depletion of the Hamel Town maze meant that he had to find a new breeding ground, namely the maze, which was the most basic and important resource for producing magic essence.

“That’s right, you’ll have to solve this problem yourself,” Bishop Beckett said.

“If we want to find a sealed labyrinth again, we’ll have to retrieve information from other Inquisitions, and we’ll also have to worry about being investigated at any time…” Leon pondered.

There should be other sealed labyrinths in Southport County, but those should be the responsibility of the inquisitions of other towns, and the secret entrances used for patrols are known only to the inquisitions there.

Moreover, the biggest problem is that once they leave Hamel, they will no longer have the protection of Bishop Beckett, and Leon is unsure whether the Count's influence is enough to make the other courts turn a blind eye to this matter.

In that case, the scenario of the studio in the maze being raided could very well repeat itself.

However, if you find an unsealed living maze, where wild monsters roam freely, it's impossible to raise them. Relying solely on hunting monsters to obtain magic essence is far less efficient than raising them, and it's also very easy for injuries and deaths to occur.

Most importantly, if it's a living labyrinth registered by the church, the church can send a knightly order to seal it away when they're ready, and then they can wipe them all out.

Seeing Leon's worried face, Bishop Beckett smiled and finally gave his advice: "Leon, I think you can find a labyrinth that the church considers to have no value for sealing, then completely clear the labyrinth, send people to deal with any wild monsters that are generated, and after you have complete control of this living labyrinth, you can raise them in it. In this way, you can produce magic elements in a continuous stream."

Upon hearing this, Leon began to ponder. Was he to learn from the Knights and clear out the labyrinth himself, then claim it as his own property? It sounded feasible.

Even if the monsters in the labyrinth are so numerous that they pour out of the labyrinth, they cannot get far away from the area where the labyrinth is located. If there are no settlements or important natural resources nearby, the church will generally not sacrifice the knightly order to carry out the sealing, and these labyrinths will be left behind.

"Thank you for your suggestion. I'll go and inquire about it right away. Goodbye, sir." Leon quickly made up his mind and left the director's office.

Leon first searched through the archives of the Inquisition for relevant information before leaving the Inquisition and heading to the East Church.

"So, you want a living labyrinth that won't be targeted by the Church?" Father Auden asked Leon after hearing the request.

“Yes. Those monster hunters you know, they must have dungeons they frequent, right?” Leon asked.

“There are some that meet your requirements, but they are very far away, mostly outside of Nangang County. You know, the labyrinths that the church is too lazy to seal are all extremely remote.” The priest shook his head, then suddenly remembered something, “Wait a moment!”

The priest got up and began rummaging through his study, eventually taking out a notebook containing several contracts and placing it on the table to look through it.

As he watched, Father Auden suddenly chuckled.

"What did you find?" Leon leaned closer to look and read out the place name marked on the file, "Arend Island?"

“I never imagined that these bad assets that have been sitting on my hands would ever come in handy!” Father Auden seemed very happy. “Fenrir, the maze you’ve been looking for is right here on this island!”

“I saw in the Inquisition’s records that Arend Island is a fiefdom of nobles, right? The lord is a viscount. How can a place like this be left unmanaged?” Leon was a little worried.

"Don't worry, Fenrir, Viscount Arend is so indebted that he can't even sell his title and his daughter. This island is no longer his; he can't manage the affairs of his own territory," Father Auden laughed.

"Debt? Who does he owe money to?" Leon asked.

“It used to be Porter, now the creditor is a business group related to Porter, and I’m involved in it,” Father Auden explained.

"You've even taken over the nobles who own land?" Leon was a little surprised.

"Because this generation of Viscount Arend is the worst of the worst, the scum of the earth. The previous generation of Viscount Arend was a capable man who made his fortune through business, bought this island, and obtained the title of Viscount through some connections."

There was an iron mine on the island at first, and he originally wanted to run the iron mine and build a dock to revitalize the family business. However, the mine suddenly became maze-like and could not be mined. He died of illness soon after.

Then his son, the second viscount, was a hopeless gambler who was tricked by Potter's casino and lost tens of millions of dollars, betting all the property in the territory. Even after losing everything, he still refused to stop.

Now, he has absolutely no hope of repaying that debt. Porter had his eye on the docks on Arendt Island, but a tornado last year destroyed them all.

The island's mining labyrinth and the docks were gone, turning it into a bad asset for Potter. The only thing still somewhat useful was Viscount Arendt's title, and then there was his daughter, who was said to be extremely beautiful, a renowned beauty. However, firstly, their titles were useless, and secondly, no matter how beautiful his daughter was, she wasn't worth thirty million," Father Auden explained.

"Doesn't the Church care about this maze?" Leon asked, confirming.

“The church won’t care. This is an island. Even if there’s a maze on it, it won’t affect the outside world. Nowadays, there are almost no residents on the island. Viscount Arend can’t afford the church’s donations. The church abandoned this place a long time ago.” Father Auden spread his hands. “For ordinary people, this is just a bad asset that’s stuck with them. But it’s different for you.”

The maze was a danger and a loss for others, but for Leon it was like a gold mine.

“However, I’m not sure what kind of monsters are inside; no one has specifically investigated it yet,” Father Auden emphasized.

“Let’s go now, take me to see it.” Leon made the decision immediately.

Chapter 91 You're a shameless bastard

Arend Island.

Waves crashed against the rocks. A ferry approached the shore, and fully armed men disembarked one after another, carefully climbing ashore.

“Mr. Fenrir, it’s slippery here, please be careful.” Simon, who had gone ashore first, reached out his hand to Leon on the boat.

"It's alright." Leon waved his hand and climbed up himself.

“Hey, give me a hand!” Father Auden frowned and waved to Simon; he was feeling a bit seasick.

Leon stood on the shore, scanning his surroundings.

From here, you can see both Hagak County and Namgang County, as well as the estuary between them.

There are several islands nearby, and Arend Island is the closest to the coastline. Geographically, Arend Island has the potential to become a shipping hub.

There should have been a newly built pier here, with half a wooden pier left in the water, and several stranded, broken boats lying crookedly on the gravel beach. Debris was everywhere on the ground, and seabirds were calling and circling overhead.

This dock was once the most valuable asset on Arend Island. It was originally built by the previous Viscount Arend for transporting ore, but it was accidentally destroyed by a tornado.

However, Arend Island can no longer produce minerals. The mines have become labyrinthine, teeming with monsters, making them difficult to mine.

Thus, another important asset on Arend Island became worthless, and the existence of the labyrinth made it difficult to carry out other development projects.

The priest also told Leon that the villages on this side of the island had been completely abandoned due to the labyrinthine mining pits in the mountains.

Viscount Arendt's mansion and the island's only two villages are located on the other side of the island, and the population has dwindled to just over a hundred.

Although Arend Island is a relatively large island, the maze-like disaster would not affect the entire island. However, the lack of industry on the island means there is no outside income, and life here is destined to be poor. Those who can move away have basically moved away, and most of the able-bodied young people have gone out to work. Only some elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people remain on the island, mainly relying on fishing and farming for a living, and they can't pay much tax.

This has led to Viscount Arend's current impoverished state. Potter had originally taken a huge debt from the current Viscount Arend, which is now completely hopeless to repay and has become a bad asset. However, the debt itself was caused by Viscount Arend's gambling addiction and was manipulated by Potter's casino, so it did not cost Potter anything. He simply left it there and didn't even bother to send anyone to collect the debt. The merchant group that inherited the debt also had no interest in it.

The group set off from the abandoned dock and hiked up the mountain along the road that had originally been built to transport ore. Two and a half hours later, they finally saw the entrance to the mine.

The road was blocked by wooden stakes and there were signs warning of dangers in the maze. Leon was about to lead his men around the roadblocks when the priest stopped in his tracks.

“I’ll wait for you here,” the priest said, finding a flat rock nearby to sit down and placing his food basket aside.

Leon came here to conduct a preliminary exploration of the labyrinth, a task he would absolutely not participate in due to its inherent danger.

"You're here for a picnic, right?" Leon teased, then turned to Simon and the others. "You all know what the job entails. This is just a reconnaissance mission, to understand the structure of the maze and the types of monsters. If possible, set up supply points. You don't need to fight any monsters. If you encounter a level three monster, evacuate immediately, understand?"

In the church's records, monsters are classified according to their level of danger. Level one is low danger, which consists of creatures that are basically harmless or can be dealt with by ordinary people, such as slimes, non-toxic small mushroom people, maze mandrakes, living vines, and blood-sucking mosquito bats.

Level 2 threats pose a certain degree of lethality to humans, but can still be dealt with by armed personnel. Examples include headhunting rabbits, giant scorpions, giant spiders, venomous slimes, chicken snakes, and man-eating plants.

Starting from level three, the monsters become quite difficult for even fully armed soldiers to deal with, such as dire wolves, griffins, manticores, gargoyles, three-headed dogs, and dryads...

Level four monsters are terrifying creatures that can wipe out an entire army with a single one. Even a single one requires the full strength of an elite order of church knights to deal with. They either have physiques and strength that surpass ordinary creatures, or they possess special abilities, such as earth dragons, wyverns, cyclops, unicorns, hydras, etc.