Chapter 163: Chapter 162: One-eyed Frenzy Potion
Richard turned his head, looking in the direction of the scent, and saw that next to him was a cabin with its door open. It seemed to have been searched earlier. During the search, someone must have carelessly knocked something over, causing the contents of a container to spill out and emit this peculiar odor.
But what exactly was it?
Driven by curiosity, Richard stepped into the cabin, glanced around, and noticed that this cabin was much larger than ordinary cabins, with more decorations and furnishings. It appeared to be where a person of some status on the pirate ship lived.
The cabin floor was in disarray, with several fixed racks toppled over and items strewn all over.
Following the scent, Richard walked to a corner, crouched down, and then saw a broken porcelain bottle with some dark gray powder scattered on the floor, releasing an unpleasant and odd smell. At first sniff, it smelled burnt, and upon close examination, it seemed to have a faint acidic note. After a while, it uncontrollably induced a urge to vomit.
“Is it some kind of emetic potion?” Richard speculated, his eyes flickering as he looked at the wooden rack beside him.
Several porcelain bottles were placed on the wooden rack, similar in style to the one that had been broken, suggesting that the broken bottle had fallen off this very rack.
Opening each of the bottles on the rack, Richard saw various colored powders inside, each releasing a different, nausea-inducing scent, no wonder no one was interested in them.
But still, what was it?
Richard stood up, surveying the entire cabin, searching for anything that might provide a clue. However, after looking around, he found none. Shaking his head, Richard decided to give up exploring and leave the contents of the bottles here.
After all, taking back a pile of mysterious substances for research would be a waste of time, and it would likely prove to be of no value.
Richard slightly shook his head and stepped on the wooden floor of the cabin as he walked outside.
“Tap tap… creak… tap tap…”
Richard was about to leave the cabin when he suddenly stopped, furrowing his brow, then walked backward.
“Tap tap… creak… tap tap…”
Richard stopped again, raised his eyebrows, his eyes twinkling, and carefully stepped forward, one step at a time…
“Right here,” Richard murmured softly, his eyes fixed on the wooden board he was stepping on, muttering to himself, “Seems like there’s a secret compartment.”
He shifted his foot to the side, crouched down, his gaze fixated on a small section of the board that was slightly raised.
Placing his hand on the opposite corner of the board, he forcefully lifted the whole plank, revealing a shallow secret compartment about two centimeters deep underneath, containing two blackened parchments.
Holding the parchments in his hand, Richard quickly scanned the content, then turned his head towards the broken bottle in the corner and the bottles on the wooden rack, already having an idea.
“So that’s how it is…” Richard murmured to himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, Richard glanced at the cabin door and saw that no one was passing by. With a flick of his hand, he stowed two pieces of parchment into the Space Iron Ring. Then he stood up, walked to the corner, collected both the broken and intact porcelain vases from the shelf into the Space Iron Ring, and walked out of the door as if nothing had happened.
That night, three decks below the giant ship’s deck, in the cabin where Richard resided.
Pandora was asleep on the bed, while Richard, by the light of an oil lamp, read the two pieces of parchment he had acquired from the pirate ship during the day.
During the day, Richard had only briefly skimmed the content of the parchment and felt it was no ordinary find. Now, reading it in detail, he was sure he had indeed picked up a treasure, possibly the most valuable thing on the pirate ship.
The two pieces of parchment, one old and one new, bore traces of history—the old one appeared to be decades old, while the new one also had several years on it.
On the old parchment, the recipe for a concoction called “Spartan Heroic Potion” was recorded, requiring dozens of ingredients, many of which were unheard of, like Sky Stone and Sea Demon Stone, for example.
On the new parchment, however, the method for making the potion had been simplified. It required fewer than ten common ingredients. Correspondingly, the potion’s effect was reduced, and there were adverse effects, thus it was renamed “One-eyed Frenzy Potion.”
Seeing the words “One-eyed,” Richard immediately thought of the old man who had died with a pierced brow on the deck—he was the one-eyed man. No doubt, “One-eyed” referred to him.
It could be inferred that the man had come across a piece of parchment detailing the method of potion preparation from the Wizard World by chance, but due to a lack of most of the required materials, he couldn’t produce the real potion and had to substitute what materials he could access, ultimately creating an incomplete product, the “One-eyed Frenzy Potion.”
With this potion, the man was valued by the pirate captain and gained a significant status on the pirate ship.
The Red-eyed Pirates, who had previously attacked the massive ship, were likely under the influence of this potion—making them irritable and insensitive to pain and danger.
Such effects were advantageous against panicked ordinary people, but not so much against those who remained calm. They were likely to be effortlessly dealt with using unconventional methods, like the bloodletting technique Richard had used.
Nevertheless, it was impressive that One-eyed had managed to derive a weakened potion based on a piece of parchment about potion-making from the Wizard World.
The “Frenzy Potion” he derived, compared to the original “Spartan Heroic Potion,” might have had many shortcomings, but it also had research value and room for improvement. A thorough study might prove quite functional.
Apart from anything else, the component of the Furious Potion that induced rage and obliterated danger perception was highly useful, as it could be employed on allies as well as enemies.
In battle, dispersing powder containing this component for the enemy to inhale, combined with the Crystal Skull’s Spirit Shock, might turn a dreadful foe into a witless imbecile.
In such a way, many crises encountered could be resolved.
Ultimately, at this stage, when one’s own strength wasn’t very formidable, forcibly reducing the intelligence and strength of enemies was also a battle tactic—termed as “I may not be as strong as you, but I can make you as weak as I am,” or “you may scorn my strength, but I can crush you with my intelligence.”
However, how to begin researching this Frenzy Potion was indeed a question.
Pondering, Richard mused aloud, “What to do, what to do…”
Meanwhile, in a spacious cabin on the deck of the massive ship, four wizards were saying the same thing.
“What to do, what to do…”