What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

Deep within the labyrinth, there are often ravines and caves that lead directly to the earth's depths, from which Moirai's magic constantly overflows, turning the underground space into a labyrinth.

These magical powers will accelerate the growth and reproduction of the native creatures in the labyrinth, while also causing them to mutate and transform into monsters, which can then reproduce like ordinary creatures.

Some mazes with a large magical scale can gather magical power deep within, creating monsters directly from nothing.

Just as Johnny mentioned earlier, the Lord of the Labyrinth can control this power to create new monsters. For example, the awakened earth dragon created those petrified lizards as its followers to guard the temple.

If he really becomes the master of the labyrinth, does that mean he can directly control this magic power and create monsters on his own, or that he can calm it down so that the labyrinth only supplies magic power and does not generate monsters on its own?

Johnny waited for a long time, and seeing no new movement in the maze, he ordered his men, "Go and check on the situation in the temple."

“Mr. Johnny, I have something I’d like to ask you,” Leon said to Johnny from behind.

"Spit it out!" Johnny was a little impatient, but he was still willing to listen.

"Are there any precedents of witches becoming the lords of labyrinths?" Leon asked tentatively.

Johnny, as the former leader of the Knights, can be considered a high-ranking figure in the church. He is also very skilled at dealing with monsters and has fought against heretics. Leon thinks he should know a lot about the labyrinth and witches.

"Are you talking about the Moirai Apostle?" Johnny countered.

"The Moirai Apostle?" Leon was hearing this concept for the first time.

“They correspond to the saints among the four blessed by the gods. In this world, there are always some people with extraordinary talents. The Moirai Apostles are the chosen ones among witches. Legend has it that they can directly connect with the magic power flowing from the ground of Moirai and become the masters of the labyrinth like high-ranking demons. In pagan countries that worship Moirai, such witches are chosen as high-ranking high priestesses as soon as they appear.” Johnny explained in a lazy tone.

"So there really was a witch who became the master of the labyrinth in the past?" Leon pressed.

“Well, most of the records about the Moirai Apostles are just legends; only one person has been confirmed by the Church as a real person,” Johnny said.

"Who?"

"Princess Aissi of Elland from three hundred years ago was an apostle of Moilei. Historical records confirm that she could continuously create monsters to guard the city and resist the empire's army in the temple dedicated to Moilei, which is a labyrinth. She was very troublesome."

"That's why, even when Eland was destroyed, she still had many followers who followed her across the sea to establish Moyland," Johnny explained.

“Princess Elland?” Leon fell into deep thought.

So, he, like Princess Elander, is an apostle of Moirai, possessing this once-in-a-century talent to become the master of the labyrinth?

Given that he received the blessing of Moirai despite being a man, this possibility is not low.

However, this still needs to be verified further before it can be completely confirmed.

Princess Eland was also from three hundred years ago, and should be dead by now.

No, not necessarily. Witches are said to have long youth and long lifespans, and there are even legends of immortality.

“You’d better not expect your own witch to have that kind of talent.” Johnny misinterpreted Leon’s intention in asking about this information.

Just then, his men finished exploring the hall and came out, raising their hands and waving at Johnny.

"It seems there's nothing good in the hall. Do you want to go take a look?" Johnny wasn't surprised by the gesture and asked Leon.

These ruins are most likely the Moirai Temple built by the Eland people who worship the Earth Mother Goddess, based on a natural labyrinth. The so-called Earth Mother Goddess priestesses of the Eland people are actually witches who have the ability to control the labyrinth, tame the monsters inside, and even build temples inside.

Three hundred years ago, when the empire destroyed Eland, the Elanders on Arend Island must have found a way to destroy the passages in this labyrinth, putting it into hibernation and hiding the temple in the mountains until the Viscount of Arend bought the land for development. While digging in the mine, he accidentally discovered the ruins, causing the labyrinth to see the light of day again.

In that case, any valuable items in the temple would have been emptied out long ago.

Leon and Johnny entered the temple together, where Johnny's men had already lit fires.

The temple was truly empty, except for rows of pillars and a Moirai altar in the center, which was as large as the square.

In the center of the Moirai altar, there is an empty vertical shaft, only about thirty centimeters in diameter, so people don't need to worry about falling in.

A faint beam of light shone from the shaft, shooting straight up to the dome, seemingly an effect of high-concentration magic.

The entire layout was exactly the same as what Leon had sensed earlier. Now, as he approached the altar, he felt the churning magic at the bottom of the well more clearly.

“A large altar to the Earth Mother Goddess, that’s quite a sight.” Johnny suddenly grinned. “There must have been some rather spectacular sacrificial ceremonies held here.”

Leon looked at Johnny with a puzzled expression.

“You didn’t know? The people of Eland worship the Earth Mother Goddess, also known as Moirai, and believe that she is in charge of reproduction. It is said that in the past, the priestesses of the Eland Earth Mother Goddess, that is, the witches, would choose the heroes of the tribe to enter the temple and revel with them all night long, in order to worship the Mother Goddess in this way.” Johnny talked about this topic with great interest.

"Is this true?" Leon asked casually.

“That was a long time ago, it doesn’t exist anymore. But the church’s propaganda about witches often associates them with promiscuity, so it can’t be entirely considered a smear campaign.” Johnny finished speaking, glanced around, and ended the topic. “But it seems there’s nothing good here, so let’s leave it at that.”

Leon also scanned the area, his gaze suddenly drawn to a groove in the wall deep within the temple.

There are several such recessed designs on the wall, which appear to be purely decorative.

However, Leon could vaguely sense that there was something behind this groove.

He concentrated and tried to recall the structure of the maze in his mind, and the three-dimensional structure of the temple slowly reappeared in his mind.

Then he saw, just as he had expected, that behind the recessed area, there was a narrow passage leading to a secret room.

However, he couldn't quite sense what was inside the secret room; he could only feel a dense concentration of magical power within it.

Leon glanced at Johnny and the others behind him, who were already preparing to deal with the earth dragon's corpse, and left the temple without saying anything.

……

Two days later, Leon and Lena stood in the temple deep within the labyrinth.

After the earth dragon died, Johnny and the others managed to dismember its body and take it away, leaving only the parts that could be used to extract magic essence for Leon.

Leon summoned people to thoroughly clean up the depths of the maze and brought over a large amount of equipment. He then personally processed the earth dragon's brain and heart into a potion that could be used to extract magic essence before taking Lena to the depths of the Arend Island maze to see what was going on there.

"You say you can manipulate this maze?" Lena asked Leon in surprise.

Leon nodded to Lena; he had only told Lena about this.

Only Lena knew that he had received the witch's blessing, and he completely trusted Lena. This matter needed to be discussed and verified, and she was undoubtedly the best person to turn to for help.

“Yes, I’m going to test it out, so I dismissed everyone else today, just the two of us here,” Leon said.

“But how will you verify it?” Lena asked tentatively.

“I’m going to try creating monsters here.” Leon’s gaze shifted to the altar, next to the well in the center of the altar, where an empty iron-barred animal cage stood.

"Is this really possible?" Lena asked, somewhat surprised.

You'll only know if you try.

“It feels a bit dangerous. What if you create a monster and it goes out of control…” Lena was a little worried.

“So I need you to keep an eye on things from the side.” Leon pointed to the side, where three demonic wolves, including the alpha wolf, sat waiting, like well-trained hunting dogs.

After repeated training by Leon and Lena, these demonic wolves have become quite docile. Not only Lena, but Leon can also control them. However, the precision and number of wolves Leon can control are still not as good as Lena's when she uses the Blood Pact ability. He can only control these demonic wolves like hunting dogs, while Lena can control the monsters almost in perfect harmony.

"Okay, then be careful." Lena still seemed a little nervous.

"I'm going to begin." After saying that, Leon began to concentrate his mind and draw magic from the shaft.

Chapter 103 The Power of the Labyrinth Master

As Leon focused his mind, the beam of light shining from the shaft seemed to actually split into a wisp of mist that emitted a faint glow. Following Leon's intention, it drifted toward the beast cage and gradually gathered into a ball inside.

"Let's start with something simple," Leon thought, and the first thing that came to mind was the classic level one monster, the slime.

In that instant, the slime's approximate physical structure naturally emerged in his mind, like a three-dimensional figure being constructed in his brain.

Soon the magic turned pale blue. Over the course of about ten minutes, the magic gradually took shape. It was a transparent pale blue sphere with an egg-sized core suspended inside.

After the slime's form gradually stabilized, it began to wriggle on the ground.

"It really worked!" Lena exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise.

Leon's guess was confirmed; after becoming the master of the labyrinth, he really did have the ability to create monsters.

"It's a success..." Leon frowned slightly, carefully observing the slime wriggling in the cage. "Why is it so small?"

This slime is only the size of a papaya, about the same size as a newly formed slime. An adult slime can grow bigger than a watermelon.

Leon tried to manipulate the slime to climb out of the cage, and then had Rena try to manipulate it as well. Manipulating these low-level monsters was not difficult for them.

Leon decided to try other creatures. He began to gather magic power and started trying to create another familiar monster, the Headhunter Rabbit. Similarly, the physiological structure of the Headhunter Rabbit also appeared in his mind.

The magic that split out this time turned into red mist, and it took about fifteen minutes to slowly gather into the shape of a rabbit.

“This…” Leon frowned again when he saw the headhunter rabbit he had created.

The headhunting rabbit created this time is obviously a young rabbit that has just been weaned and grown fur, and can be easily held in someone's hands.

"The monsters I created all seem to be in their larval stage," Lena said.

“This is a little different from what I imagined.” Leon shook his head.

The earth dragon created five adult petrified lizards in just one or two days, while he could only create a juvenile version of a level one monster. This was quite different from his idea of ​​creating a monster army in the maze.

Is it because his magic level is insufficient, or is there an inherent difference between a human and a monster as the master of a labyrinth?

He was initially worried that the monsters he created would go out of control, which is why he had Lena command the dire wolves to stand by. However, the monsters he created were all in their juvenile stage and posed virtually no threat.

"Try others."

Leon tried to draw upon magic again, this time attempting to create the vampire mosquito bats he had discovered in this labyrinth.

However, this time, the physiological structure of the vampire mosquito bat did not appear in his mind. Although he mobilized the magic in the pillar of light, it only floated at the point where his mind was focused, without any intention of coalescing.

Leon was surprised by this failure. The vampire mosquito bat was not a very high-level monster. It was even smaller than the headhunter rabbit, which could be considered a level two monster.

He pondered for a moment, glanced at the three demonic wolves waiting not far away, and then slowly concentrated his magic power, preparing to create a demonic wolf.

However, this time the magic merely wandered around in that spot without coalescing into a demon.

Leon and Lena looked at each other, not understanding what was going on, and then they both began to think about the reasons.

Slimes and headhunting rabbits were monsters they used to keep, while dire wolves and vampire mosquito bats were monsters from the Arend Island labyrinth. If there was any difference between the two for Leon...

"Could it be related to whether you've used them to extract magic essence?" Lena suddenly thought of a possibility.

After Leon obtained the witch's power, he tried to extract magic essence from the slimes and headhunting rabbits they raised for experiments. However, after discovering that the purity of the magic essence he extracted was not as good as that of Lena, he basically stopped trying.

Leon thought about it and realized it made sense. It seemed that the types of monsters he could create required that these monsters had some kind of direct connection with him. This connection might have been formed during the process of extracting magic essence from these monsters. So when he was creating slimes and headhunting rabbits, the physiological structure of these monsters appeared in his mind.

Verification is simple: Leon just needs to extract magic essence from materials from other monsters and then try to create a monster.

The vampire mosquitoes and giant rats captured from this maze last time were all killed because they were not worth keeping. Some of them were left in the maze and eaten by the earth dragons. The ones that were taken out were disposed of by Lena as soon as possible to prevent them from rotting. The purity of the extracted magic essence was only around 72%.

They haven't slaughtered any demon wolves yet, so the only readily available magic essence preparations here are those extracted from earth dragons and petrified lizards.

After thinking for a moment, Leon decided to play it safe and use the petrified lizard first. It would also be a good opportunity to test whether the Moirai altar in this temple would be of any use.

Leon shared his idea with Lena, and the two quickly set up the altar using the petrified lizard's magic essence.

The altar of this temple is enormous, resembling a plaza. The runes and magic circles carved on it are even more complex. However, in some key areas, there are raised platforms with perfectly sized magic circles and runes carved on them, which appear to be for witches to refine magic essence.

They carried the distillation equipment upstairs, and then Leon tried to extract magic essence first. He quickly extracted a test tube of magic essence with a grayish sheen.

"This altar extracts magic essence incredibly quickly," Lena remarked.

Leon refined magic essence at this altar in only a third of the time it took them to refine it at the small altar. He didn't know if it was because of the different craftsmanship of the altars or because of the active labyrinth.

Leon tried to purify it twice more, but the clarity of the magic essence did not change significantly after the second and third extractions. It seemed that even the additional purification steps could be simplified on this altar.

Lena compared the color of the reagent and finally concluded: "The purity is 75 percent."

“If I can refine it to 75%, then you should be able to get close to 80%,” Leon said.

“We’ll have to try to find out,” Lena said.

"These petrified lizards have such purity even though they haven't eaten any humans, which proves that the higher the level of the monster, the purer the extracted magic essence is true. In that case, we should be able to extract unprecedentedly high-purity magic essence from the earth dragon," Leon guessed.

After refining the magic essence from the petrified lizard, Leon attempted to create a monster again. This time, when he extracted the magic, the physiological structure of the petrified lizard successfully appeared in his mind.

The magical smoke then turned grayish-blue and began to coalesce.

But in the end, the magic did not turn into the shape of a lizard. Instead, it gradually coalesced into an oval shape, eventually becoming a gray-blue egg, about the size of a volleyball.

Leon and Lena were both stunned for a moment. This was... a petrified lizard egg?

"We can't expect it to hatch on its own, can we?" Leon chuckled wryly.

"It's not entirely without its advantages. If you start raising them from infancy, the monsters should be easier to control," Rena said.

“Petrifying lizards are poisonous and difficult to raise. If you want to raise a level three monster, a demon wolf is more suitable,” Leon said after thinking for a moment.

After creating this level-three monster, Leon felt noticeably tired. Although he used the magic of the labyrinth to create the monster, he also needed to circulate his magic to trigger a resonance. He couldn't create monsters indefinitely.

The monsters created are all in their infancy or still incubation stage, and they need to be raised to adulthood before they have any use.