Lich for Hire

Chapter 237: The New Alchemists' Council

With enough experience, nothing was surprising.

Alkhemia had already been exiled into the void. The teleportation array that Ambrose had casually left behind should not have been able to function. After all, Alkhemia had been exiled by the gods themselves.

If something that simple could bypass it, the gods would be a laughingstock.

There was only one explanation: the Chairman had discovered the teleportation array and altered it.

At this point in the timeline, the Chairman had already spent several months exiled in the void. Ambrose had grafted chaotic tentacles onto him, turning him into a ruler of that strange realm. Given that much time, a legendary alchemist like him could have accomplished quite a lot.

Ambrose collected a sample of the slime and returned to the laboratory to study it carefully.

Half a day later, he reached a certain conclusion: the slime was the living tissue of a completely unknown organism.

It resembled slime, but in truth, it was fundamentally different.

Even Ambrose's living mercury slimes possessed a trait common to all slimes: they dissolved and consumed other substances. His mercury slimes devoured metal; others consumed organic matter.

But this slime had no corrosive properties whatsoever.Just as Isabel had said, it possessed a strange temporal instability. Most creatures that consumed it would exhibit varying degrees of rejuvenation.

However, this was entirely different from the Potions of Youth produced by the elves.

True Potions of Youth didn't manipulate time. They enhanced the body itself, restoring vitality and extending lifespan. Because of that, resistance would build up over time. Even in the best-case scenario, they could only restore about ten years of youth, and after thirty doses, the effects would diminish significantly.

Before becoming a lich, Ambrose had relied on one bottle per year just to stay alive. When their price ballooned to five hundred thousand gold each, he knew he could no longer afford them—and decisively chose undeath instead.

But this slime worked differently. It had nothing to do with the body. It reversed the body's timeline, rolling it back by decades. It resembled the abilities of a time dragon, but once the temporal energy dissipated, the rejuvenation effect vanished as well.

"Naomi possessed temporal energy after being resurrected in the chaos realm… and now this slime transported from that realm does too…" Ambrose muttered thoughtfully. "That place really is a treasure trove. If the Chairman keeps this up, he might actually obtain divinity over time."

Any deity with even the slightest ability to manipulate time would be among the higher echelons of divinity.

For a moment, Ambrose felt a twinge of regret. Perhaps he should have treated the man better. Their relationship wasn't nearly secure enough.

But it didn't matter. There would be more opportunities ahead. After all… the man's great-granddaughter was still in his hands.

For now, Ambrose set the thought aside. He grabbed a sheet of parchment and began scribbling formulas across it, filling it densely before handing it to Isabel.

"There are five new formulas here. Make ten bottles of each."

Isabel took the parchment nervously, but relaxed after reading it. Fortunately, she understood everything, and knew how to proceed.

Ambrose didn't remain idle either. He pulled out a large assortment of tools and began working. Isabel had five formulas. He had more than a dozen.

Some were refinements of Isabel's original work, but the rest were entirely his own concepts.

After all, this slime could do far more than produce a weakened version of a Youth Potion.

Half a day later, Ambrose stared at the rows of potions before him, less than satisfied.

Most of them were failures. His original idea had been to extract the temporal energy and create a new type of acceleration potion, one that could dramatically enhance reaction speed and movement for a short period.

Such potions were expensive, but indispensable.

For ordinary people, they could double physical responsiveness. They were even valuable for those legends who lacked agility.

However, existing acceleration potions all had a flaw: once the effect wore off, the resulting dizziness could sometimes be severe enough to leave a person bedridden for days.

That was because they worked by overstimulating the body to produce a temporary enhancement. Naturally, such strain came with side effects.

But this slime functioned differently. In theory, it could allow for an acceleration potion without any of these drawbacks.

Unfortunately, Ambrose's recipes hadn't panned out. Some of his concoctions had no effect at all. Others had only weak results. A few even had worse side effects than the originals.

"Innovation is never easy," Ambrose muttered. "Even with new materials, results don't come overnight."

Still, he wasn't discouraged. Alchemy was not a simple art. Even failed potions had value—they outlined wrong approaches, narrowing down the field of possibilities and increasing his future chances of success.

There was, however, some good news. His improved recipe for the Potion of Youth, which he had given to Isabel to handle, had succeeded.

Three bottles sat before Ambrose, each shimmering with stellar light, though their hues differed slightly.

"Master, you're incredible!" Isabel said excitedly. "All three of these are better than my original formula!"

All three offered a stronger boost of rejuvenation than before, though they would still need to be tested carefully over the next few days.

Ambrose nodded calmly.

Modifying an existing formula was far easier than creating one from scratch. And while the material itself did much of the work, Isabel's effort couldn't be overlooked.

"Run more tests over the next few days," he instructed. "Classify them by effectiveness. The one we're selling for 1,200 gold is just the basic version. We'll also have deluxe versions, premium versions… name them however you like. Once the basic version establishes the market, we'll roll out the others."

"…You can do that?" Isabel asked, surprised.

"Didn't your previous master show you these tricks? Diluting potions and selling them as standard products, for example."

Isabel quickly shook her head. "No! That's a serious crime in Alkhemia!"

In a place that revered knowledge, product integrity was sacred. Selling fake potions could mean death—or, at best, confiscation of all property and permanent exile.

Ambrose scoffed. "Crime? The Alchemists' Council sold fake potions themselves. Besides, the Council's gone now. And we're not selling fakes. Improving the formula and charging more is perfectly reasonable."

When its economy collapsed, even Alkhemia had cut corners to survive. That kind of thing existed in every world.

Isabel hesitated, then said, "Master… the Alchemists' Council… has been reestablished."

"…What?"

She hurriedly handed him a letter. "This is an invitation from the new Council."

Ambrose opened it. Polite formalities couched an invitation for Isabel to attend the reestablishment ceremony for the Alchemists' Council, one month from now.

The format of the invitation felt familiar. When the Council had first been founded, Ambrose had received a similar invitation. Even the wording was nearly identical: they had clearly copied the old template and simply changed the names.

Isabel had earned this invitation by creating a new Potion of Youth, even if its effects were only temporary.

But what caught Ambrose's attention most was the signature at the very bottom: Gustavo Flynn.

"…That old bastard is still alive?" Ambrose muttered with disappointment.

"Master, the ceremony is in three days. Will you attend?" Isabel asked.

Ambrose tossed the letter aside. "They didn't invite me. Why would I go?"

"But…"

Isabel hesitated.

She didn't quite dare to go alone. This was the Alchemists' Council! Flynn was a legendary alchemist, someone she had only read about in books. To her, he was completely out of reach.

She didn't think her success was due to skill, but rather mere luck in discovering a rare material. Any other alchemist could have done better, faster.

After all, Ambrose had improved her formula at a glance. In her eyes, she was still just an apprentice, one completely unqualified for such a prestigious event.

She had planned not to attend at all to avoid embarrassing herself.

But now that her master had returned, she fervently hoped her master would introduce her to alchemist society.

"Master… shouldn't someone of your level join the Council?" she asked hopefully. She revered Ambrose and believed him to be no different from the other legendary alchemists she had read of.

Ambrose sniffed disdainfully. "The previous Chairman invited me to join the Council personally, and I refused. Who does Gustavo Flynn think he is? He teamed up with the Lyon Empire to tear down my castle. I haven't even settled that score yet…"

He suddenly stood up, his tone sharpening. "Actually, you've reminded me that it's about time to take revenge."

After all, even a broken ship still had a few nails left. And someone like Gustavo Flynn, who had once been immensely wealthy, could surely still be wrung dry.