Realm of Myths and Legends

...

Meanwhile, in the garden...

’To leave behind a garden like this, if not for the name, I would think this person was of the trephasia race.’

As Izroth walked around the garden, he noticed that its layout was incredibly methodical. Plants that worked together and harmonized aided in each others growth. While those that countered each other were kept at just enough distance to not interfere with one another. Furthermore, the garden was divided into various climates that ranged from sunny and dry, wet and humid, to freezing cold.

In a way, this garden was a miniature world of its own.

’There doesn’t seem to be any monsters or living creatures in the garden. If it has been over a thousand years, how has it been so perfectly maintained?’

Izroth used his Energy Vision Sense to read the flow of energy and mana spreading throughout the room. At first glance, it was difficult to detect. However, the more one read the flow of mana, the more it became obvious that there was a great secret laid out in this garden that controlled everything taking place.

’A pinnacle magic formation. No, not just one, there are five pinnacle magic formations working together in harmony. How much resources were poured into garden? I suppose if it’s a grade ten Apothecary, resources wouldn’t be too challenging to come by.’

The reason high rank Apothecaries did not have to worry about resources are simple. There were no shortages of powerful figures or organizations that needed high grade pills. And, as long as an Apothecary could craft those high ranking pills, how would they not be willing to give over the necessary resources?

It was the same reason why the top guilds offered to bring their own resources and even pay for all the crafting costs as long as Izroth’s Mystical Realm Palace would craft the pills for them. Of course, Izroth did not accept their offers. After all, he had no plans on becoming a pill factory for the top guilds. Though he did end up making a special agreement with Sleeping Gardenia due to them being allies.

"The Spiraling Flame Pill is a grade two pill that’s comparable to a grade three pill. On the surface, it’s not that difficult to craft; however, the ingredients it requires is a test in and of itself." Izroth said to himself as he abruptly halted his steps.

Izroth stopped before a small area of unique looking flowers. They stood roughly thirty centimeters tall with a pitch black stem rising from the ground. The most breathtaking thing about its appearance was the fact that its petals were in a plasma state of flames and flowed a reddish orange. But, contrary to one’s expectations, the heat being released by the flowers were not scorching hot, but rather gave off a feeling of comfortable warmth.

This plant was the core ingredient of the Spiraling Flames Pill, the Morning Flames.

The Morning Flames are a superior-ranked material, which was uncommon in grade two pill recipes as its quality and rarity felt somewhat wasted on a low grade pill. That being said, the Morning Flames was likely that allowed the Spiraling Flames Pill to rival that of a grade three pill despite only being grade two.

Most importantly, Haishe had made one fatal mistake when challenging this Trial Dungeon in the line-up of individuals he chose. There was one role that was crucial to this place that was not present and it would only be a matter of time before this weakness showed itself in full force.

Izroth observed his surroundings before his eyes landed on some light blue soil located roughly two to three meters away from the flower bed of Morning Flames. He walked over to the light blue soil, took a handful, and walked back over to where the Morning Flames were planted.

The next moment, Izroth leaned over and spread the light blue soil around the base of one of the Morning Flames’ stem. Then, in the blink of an eye, the warmth from the Morning Flames seemed to die out completely as the plasma flames of its petals disappeared, leaving only its black stem.

Pluck!

Izroth picked the Morning Flames from the ground; however, since his inventory was currently restricted, he had no choice but to carry it around.

The moment this thought crossed Izroth’s mind, a couple of system alerts sounded in his ears.

〈System Alert: You have harvested an ingredient from «Franz’s Garden» for the first time!〉

〈System Alert: You have received x1 «Franz’s Special Garden Bag»!〉

Name: Franz’s Special Garden Bag(Magical Item)

Rank: Unique*

Usage: This item can be used to hold up to any number of items that are harvested from «Franz’s Garden».

Special Note: This item and all its contents are automatically destroyed upon leaving «Franz’s Legacy: Five Cryptics». This item cannot be replicated, traded, or sold.

’Oh? I guess overlooking something this trivial is impossible for someone who planned this far ahead. It can carry any number of ingredients, but the restrictions placed onto it keeps it from ever leaving the trial dungeon. I suppose this much was necessary to keep his legacy in tact.’

Although the legacy was tempting, if Franz had not put the restrictions in place, then what was to stop someone who was not an Apothecary from completely ignoring his legacy and removing all the resources from his garden?

Izroth placed the Morning Flames into the garden bag.

〈System Alert: You have collected x1 «Morning Flames»!〉

’One down, seven more to go.’

The Spiraling Flames Pill had a total of eight ingredients. Among them, the Morning Flames was the most challenging one to collect; therefore, Izroth decided to get it out of the way first.

Izroth departed to the next place in the garden to continue collecting the necessary materials.

...

Five minutes later...

"Someone’s back." Steel Mountain commented.

In order to prevent anyone from being tempted by the sight of so many precious materials and due to the lack of monsters, Haishe had everyone stay behind outside of the garden.

"Already? Isn’t that too fast?" Mystic Lock frowned.

Indeed, only five minutes or so had passed yet someone was already walking out of the garden. Could it be that something had gone wrong?

Izroth casually strolled out of the garden and made his way back to his table and cauldron on the platform.

Pill Master, who had been carefully studying the pill recipe, looked over at Izroth and noticed that he returned with no ingredients just as Haishe said.

Seeing this, Pill Master sucked his teeth and said, "You were acting so arrogant earlier and now you can’t even do something as simple as collect a few ingredients? Haishe brat, I’m afraid you wasted a precious spot by giving it to this useless thing." Pill Master scoffed as he stroked his beard.

"Palace Master Izroth, you returned empty handed. Can it be that you had some trouble collecting ingredients?" Haishe questioned with furrowed brows.

In truth, Haishe did not know much about Izroth. Their interactions with each other was severely limited and most of it had been via the system after Haishe made his request. However, based on the rumors surrounding Izroth and the information he managed to dig up about him, Haishe knew that Izroth was quite the resourceful individual.

Not to mention, even though he had not outright said it, Haishe was confident that Izroth was one of the Pill Emperors of the Mystical Realm Palace. How was it possible that he could not even gather some ingredients?

"Just having a mouth doesn’t mean that you should always talk nonsense." Izroth said as he glanced over at Pill Master before setting the garden bag onto the table.

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The following moment, the ingredients from the garden bag emerged and laid out in an orderly fashion onto the table.

Pill Master frowned as he observed the ingredients leaving the garden bag. He thought that outside items were prohibited from being used in this trial dungeon. If so, how did this brat manage to get a storage bag?

Haishe let out a small sigh of relief when he saw the ingredients laid out on the table before Izroth.

"Right, how can merely getting some materials be a setback for this guy?" Haishe thought to himself.

"Disrespectful child! Let this old man see if you can continue being arrogant after you fail!" Pill Master scowled angrily.

Pill Master had been studying the pill recipe carefully this whole time. Therefore, he immediately noticed that one of the key ingredients to the pill, the Morning Flames, was missing from Izroth’s table. How did he expect to craft a Spiraling Flames Pill without its main ingredient?

Of course, Pill Master had no way of knowing that Izroth had employed a special method when it came to picking his Morning Flames. To the untrained eye, the Morning Flames he had would just seen like a random twig. However, if a high rank herbalist or Apothecary were here, they would be unable to contain their surprise.

"As I said before—I have no time to waste here." Izroth said indifferently as he immediately increased the heat of the cauldron next to the table.

After waiting for the cauldron to reach its peak temperature, Izroth picked up the Morning Flames and dropped it into the cauldron.