Old Witch

I never thought Mireth would have such an attitude toward teaching.

The first thing she told me was to connect with the ingredients, so she made me sleep outside while I took care of the plants, ensuring none of them died.

I thought it was absurd that she said I should do that, since it was going to be cold outside. But I don't think she would leave me out there for too long, right?...

"OLD WITCH!!"

She left me outside for an entire week, only providing me with food at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I still went to training with Alonso, and upon returning, I had to look after the ingredients. There were snake tongues, which are used to make poisons, blue flowers for mana potions, midnight berries for tranquilizers, and many other plants.

There were plants I didn't know, and I hoped Mireth could teach me what each one was for.

I spent an entire week outside the house, managing to take good care of them, as none of the plants wilted, and I gave them water from a small well next to the cabin.

When the week was over, Mireth came out of the cabin and started checking every ingredient to make sure they were in perfect condition.

"Mmmm... Alright. Good job," she said.

'Old witch,' I thought angrily.

"I suppose you have a connection with the ingredients. Now, what you need to do is form a deep connection with the potion vials," she said while smoking a pipe.

'Is this some kind of joke?' I thought, looking at her incredulously.

The weeks passed, and Mireth kept telling me absurd things, like that I had to form a deep connection with every tool used to make potions, which I found ridiculous, but there was a chance she would actually teach me alchemy.

While doing what Mireth asked, I also continued training with the sword. During my training, I wondered if I could use mana to enhance myself, since when I once drank a mana potion, I felt something coursing through my body, filling every part of me.

That feeling was magnificent, so I tried to figure out how to release it from my body, but I couldn't, so I just focused on continuing to strike with the sword.

Each day, I could make 100 vertical slashes until my hands hurt terribly, so I took a health potion to relieve the pain.

When I ran for 30 minutes, my legs would get exhausted, so I would take a stamina potion to recover and continue with the rest of the exercises.

Little by little, I ran out of potions, so I thought about making more. But if Grandma was going to teach me alchemy, I needed to wait and see how she made them. I wanted to compare potions made manually with those created through the system's ability.

I had finished training and was drinking some water to cool off.

"Alonso, what's your class?" I asked curiously.

"My class?"

Alonso left the kids under a tree to rest.

"I'm a swordsman," he said, grabbing his sword.

"Can you teach me your skills?" I asked.

"Of course."

He stepped away from me to make sure it wouldn't be dangerous for my well-being. He drew his sword from his waist, positioning his left foot behind and his right foot forward.

"Quick Slash."

In an instant, he made a slash I couldn't see, but I felt a gust of wind, and on the ground, there was a cut caused by Alonso.

"That was the first attack."

He placed his sword in the same position as before, but his grip seemed a little different.

"Sword Dance."

I didn't see anything happen until I noticed numerous slashes on the ground.

"That was the second attack."

Alonso looked tired, so he sheathed his sword.

"There are more attacks, but with my body, it's impossible to do them," he said, touching his missing arm.

"I understand. It was still impressive. Thank you."

Alonso told me he had three more skills, and that they probably weren't all of them, since one of the dead hunters had seven skills and was of the Sniper class.

The next day, everything was normal. I went downstairs to eat and saw a plate of eggs, bread, and juice.

I ate them as usual, but this time I noticed a strange taste that was different from the rest. It was a bit spicier, but not bad, actually quite tasty.

Grandma taught me that some ingredients can only be grown in specific environments, and these are the important ones.

-Snake Tongue: Must be grown in a dark environment alongside other poisonous plants.

-Dragon's Mouth: Must be grown in full sunlight on hot sand.

-Water Leaf: Must be grown in wet soil, and it needs to rain; otherwise, it won't grow.

According to Mireth, I had to learn everything in the Alchemy book, as I wouldn't always have it available, so here I was, sitting down reading the book, trying to memorize it.

"But this is awful."

I turned page after page, reading the book, trying to make it stick in my memory. The only potions I really remembered were the health, mana, and stamina potions, since I had made them over time.

I saw the table where the grandma left me some juice to drink, saying it would help me learn the book faster, which left me puzzled.

I drank several jars of that juice for about a month until something surprising happened.

_______________

A small percentage of poison has entered your body consistently.

Creating a skill.

System Skill: Low Poison Resistance

_______________

I blinked a couple of times while reading the screen. I rubbed my eyes, and there it was, the skill.

'Poison Resistance? How?'

I looked at the juice, and that's when I got the answer. The damn old woman had given me poison along with the juice.

"YOU DAMN...!!"

And I stopped before insulting her.

'Wait a minute. If I've been ingesting poison for a month and developed poison resistance, that would mean... If I come into contact with fire, I'll get fire resistance?'

This world was slowly starting to feel like a strange game.

I looked at my hand, thinking that if I injured it repeatedly, there might be a chance to get Pain Resistance, but I quickly regretted it.

"Hurting myself is too much."

I continued reading the book, trying to push that thought away, but it still lingered in my head.

--

--

{Pov Omniscient}

"Alright, now go look for the ingredients."

Another month had passed, and finally, Mireth was going to teach me the Heat Resistance Potion.

Mireth ordered Vaelor to go search for the ingredients for the Heat Resistance Potion.

The ingredients to be gathered were: Marigold, Licorice Root, and Cinnamon Branch.

The first thing Vaelor did was go after the easiest one, the Cinnamon Branch, which grew on a tree near the cabin. He carefully removed it and placed it in a small bag on his waist.

"Here's the first one. Luckily, Grandma had it right here."

Next, he went after the Marigolds, which grew in meadows, so he headed straight to the outskirts of the wheat fields, where there was a large meadow.

After a few minutes, he arrived at the meadow and immediately began searching. The flowers were yellow to deep orange, which made it difficult since they camouflaged well in the sunlight.

He kept searching until he found a few growing next to a small bush.

"Finally, I've got the second one."

He stretched a bit, as he was tired, and now only needed the last ingredient, the Licorice Root.

He went to the forest, as Grandma had given him a hint that it could be found there.

To find the Licorice Root, he first had to locate the plant, so he had to stay alert the whole time.

Ten minutes passed, then thirty, then an hour, until after five hours, he finally found it.

"YOU TOLD ME IT WAS IN THE FOREST!!" He yelled to the heavens.

He wasn't in the forest anymore but by the small lake where he washed after training.

'That old witch.'

He carefully pulled out the licorice plant with its root, making sure not to damage it, or it wouldn't be useful.

The moment he took it out, he felt the ground sink slightly.

"What was that?" Vaelor wondered.

"Congratulations, you managed to gather all three," said Mireth from behind him. "And now..."

The ground beneath Vaelor collapsed, and he fell deep into some kind of tunnel.

"Try coming back on your own!" she laughed, sealing the hole and leaving.