Chapter 43: The Witch’s Death Line Laboratory
[Quest 40: Assist Liya with her stalled Ancient Magic research. Note: Important item, Blood Mint Essential Oil.]
Clarifying his thoughts, Will closed the Quest System and looked up.
*Knock, knock, knock.*
Bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, he stood before Liya’s laboratory door and knocked three times, watching his shadow on the door.
“Just come in! I’m really busy right now!”
“Alright!”
Will nodded and pushed the door open.
It was his first time in the laboratory, and it was as messy as Liya’s office.
“It’s so messy. You, you, you… find a place to sit first. The competition is very complicated. The core part isn’t done yet, and the publicly displayable reagents also need to be presented. This part needs adjustment too.”
Liya was overwhelmed with work.
“Don’t worry, I’ve brought everything. Just tell me what you need.”
Will calmly walked in, casually pulling over a lab stool without a back—this was surprisingly similar to the university chemistry labs he’d visited in modern times.
“Okay, the intermediate reagent I have here is a bit unstable. Just a moment…”
Liya stared at her test tube, shaking it left, then right, then reducing the angle, left…
Right.
A super wide angle!
*Bang.*
It exploded.
Will jumped up from his chair, startled. “Are… are you alright?!”
“Cough, cough… I’m fine, fine…” Liya’s nose was stained with a blue-green liquid. She wiped it with her hand. “This thing was a little unstable to begin with. When you came in just now, you brought the Blood Mint Essential Oil, and I got a little… a little stressed, and lost control for a moment.”
“Right, right, right, I’m sorry… Should I come back later? Or should I draw some more blood for you?”
“…Are you addicted to my blood?”
“Honestly, it’s quite sweet.”
Will received a glare from Liya—if she hadn’t been holding a test tube, Will felt she would have punched him.
“No need. It’s good you’re here. I need to get used to a laboratory environment with Blood Mint Essential Oil for the actual competition!”
Liya, hands on her hips, gripped the test tube again.
“Hoo… inhale…”
She adjusted her rhythm, trying to make her nervous system adapt to the accelerated heartbeat and the speeding-up magic circuits.
Last night, in bed, she had contemplated how to adapt to the Blood Mint Essential Oil. At least she couldn’t appear too… too excited on the competition day?!
Then, the solution she came up with was to spend more time with Will when he came to help these days. If her body got used to it, she would be much better on the day.
Indeed…
Her heartbeat didn’t stop.
To adapt and complete the experiment stably, it would still take a long time.
This time, there was no explosion. A bottle of beautiful blue liquid in the test tube glowed with faint fluorescence.
“How is it?”
“Mm, this step is successful. There are still two or three intermediate reagents that need to be prepared.”
“So this competition is this complicated?” Will hadn’t dared to speak earlier. “I… I thought…”
Will suddenly couldn’t find suitable words to continue.
Although at home, at school, and in front of most acquaintances, he maintained the persona of someone with poor talent and average combat ability, who could only dedicate himself to research. Because he knew the plot direction of the original work, he knew from the beginning that he would end up in the dungeon. Therefore, he had memorized a lot of theory. However, he hadn’t actually understood or researched the experiments and competitions related to scientific research, as it was definitely not something he would pursue in the future.
“You thought a magic department research competition was like your fights, where you just throw a couple of spells and it’s over?”
Liya inserted the test tube into a nearby test tube rack, leaned against the experiment table, and began explaining with her fingers.
“Then you’re being superficial. Most research competitions involve large-scale magic, so the entire process of the magic needs to be reproduced during the competition. If some reagents cannot be completed within the time limit at the competition site, multiple backups must be prepared for the judges to inspect.”
As she spoke, she reached out and played with her twin tails.
Will noticed that perhaps because she had no classes today and didn’t need to meet anyone, her golden twin tails were tied a little lower than before, hanging on her shoulders, making Liya seem a bit more like a wifely figure today.
—No, a wifely figure of this height and appearance is very dangerous!
“So time is quite tight. For some magic, the originator might not have the talent to cast it, and they will find volunteers. Volunteers also need to be prepared in advance and submit applications for review. However, since I’m reproducing Ancient Magic, only those with a Witch’s bloodline can achieve it, so I have no choice but to do it myself.”
Will nodded repeatedly.
He had never heard of these things in the original work. The original work was more focused on dungeon adventures.
When the world in the novel is treated as a real world, many richer details emerge.
For example, today, Liya was wearing a white lab coat for the experiment. The small Liya was wrapped in the lab coat. She wasn’t wearing her usual tall magic hat, revealing her full face for a rare occasion.
But perhaps because she slept directly in the laboratory, she wasn’t wearing her usual low-heeled leather boots, but a pair of flat, non-slip slippers, revealing her rounded, and somewhat red heels.
Will felt he was seeing a very ordinary Liya, which was quite novel.
Liya felt Will’s gaze moving from her ankles to her heels.
Normally, she wouldn’t notice these details, but because the Blood Mint Essential Oil was so close, she now seemed to be… extremely focused on them.
“Will… classmate! Stop looking and come help.”
“Okay, okay, I was just waiting for the teacher’s orders.” Will took out the coins and the essential oil. This time, the coin was not the one he had faked, but the genuine article. “I’ve brought everything. What do you need me to do?”
Liya looked at the witch’s coin placed on the table.
She picked it up, tapped it on the table, and then conducted electricity with magic.
Now…
It could be confirmed that this was the genuine witch’s coin!
“Don’t look anymore, I didn’t lie to you this time. You really need this for your experiment, right?”
“…Mm! Thank you!”
Liya was a little surprised herself when she said it, that she could… could frankly say thank you like this.
It seemed…
In front of Will, these words came out naturally, and she even expected Will to give her some reward for her frankness.
“Oh, that’s good. That’s how it should be. But it’s not aggressive enough.”
“Don’t push your luck!”
“For example, you should embrace my head, smile, and say, ‘Thank you, how do you wish me to repay you, with my body or my mouth’…”
“Don’t start dreaming yet.” Liya’s face flushed slightly. She put her hands on her hips. “First, help me with the experiments a few times.”
“No problem.”
“Hmm, you need to briefly introduce this Blood Mint Essential Oil to me. Although it forcibly activates my magic circuits to the point of activating ‘Gentle Blessing of Warmth,’ judging from the subsequent results, it also catalyzed the reaction itself, making it indispensable as a material.”
Will brought the small bottle closer to Liya.
He waved it in front of her.
Liya looked at his small bottle, her eyeballs following the bottle.
“Pfft, haha… As expected, this thing is very attractive to you witches.”
“Stop laughing!”
“But Liya looks quite cute like this, hmm… your body seems more honest than your mouth…”
Liya saw herself in his eyes again.
He… he was really looking at her.
After all, there was no one else in the laboratory.
“Stop, stop saying these things. If you have time, do more experiments with me!”
