After circling around outside the shelter, Lan Qingyou found nothing besides a single supply box — and a whole lot of monsters she'd never seen before.
Especially those slow, blob-like things that looked like walking piles of mud.
If she had to guess, those were the Slimes people had been talking about in the channel.
Curiosity got the better of her, so she drifted over for a closer look. That's when she discovered there was actually a swamp not far from her shelter.
And it was crawling with Slimes.
Other areas might have people fighting monsters, but not here.
The reason was simple: physical attacks were virtually useless against these things.
Only powerful magic could deal them any meaningful damage.
Under those circumstances, naturally, nobody wanted to waste their time here.
She glanced up at the sky.
The sun was nearly overhead. Time to head home.
On the way back, a foul, metallic stench of blood drifted through the air.
Lan Qingyou looked and spotted a dead E-rank Warg lying in the forest undergrowth.
The beast was roughly three meters long. Its skull had been cracked open, and its left foreleg and part of its abdomen were missing entirely.
Not far away, a Man-Eating Flower lay crumpled on the ground like a wilted ruin — motionless, clearly dead as well.
Mutual destruction, by the looks of it.
If a human had done this, the wolf wouldn't have been left this "intact."
'Since I didn't find much in the way of materials today, I'll use your blood to expand the stockpile.'
Spirits lifting, Lan Qingyou grabbed a nearby vine and floated down.
At the Warg's carcass, she pulled a water bottle from her herb bag, drew the dagger from her belt, and started collecting wolf blood.
Monster blood had applications in alchemy, but since she'd never needed it before, she hadn't bothered purchasing any.
After filling three water bottles with Warg blood, she stowed them in a supply box to prevent coagulation, then moved on to the Man-Eating Flower. She scraped material from its petals.
'What else on a monster could be useful?'
Dagger in hand, Lan Qingyou thought for a moment, then sliced off several of the Man-Eating Flower's tendrils and collected two bottles of what could only be described as either blood or sap.
'Oh right — the wolf's teeth, eyeballs, heart, and liver, too.'
'Well, well — so the Warg's crystal core is right next to the heart? First time learning that.'
'I'll carve off two hind legs while I'm at it. Gu Xiaobei is amazing with these — the meat comes out tender, almost like beef.'
'Especially that Warg Shredded Meat with Green Peppers. Absolutely phenomenal.'
Once she'd finished processing everything, Lan Qingyou finally relaxed.
Without the Moonbright Stone Dagger, this whole operation would've been a nightmare.
Splat...
Just as Lan Qingyou was about to leave, something else slipped out of the wolf's belly.
Fist-sized. Slimy-looking.
After studying it for a moment, she determined it was a chick.
Its belly was rising and falling — still alive, apparently.
Probably swallowed whole by the Warg.
'If I wash it off, could it still be edible?'
Remembering Gu Xiaobei's Steam Pot Chicken, Lan Qingyou couldn't help swallowing.
Sure, a baby chick didn't have much meat, but what if it was delicious?
After all, Colored Feather Chicken really did taste fantastic.
So Lan Qingyou pinched it between finger and thumb, grimacing with distaste, and flew back to the shelter.
She washed the chick in the creek, then went to the desk to send the wolf legs and the chick to Gu Xiaobei.
Except the Small Screen informed her that live creatures couldn't be teleported...
"Hmm... then I'll keep it for testing potions."
After a moment's thought, Lan Qingyou came to a decision.
She was going to develop new potions, after all. Having a test subject that could provide real-time feedback on effects wasn't a bad idea.
The Small Screen's appraisal gave you the literal description, but that was only surface-level.
Take the healing potion — the description said "drink it," but in practice, both oral and topical applications had distinct effects.
She poured a healing potion down the chick's throat, drizzled another over its body, and set it down on a folded towel. That would do for now.
Then she pulled out the materials she'd collected and ran appraisals.
"Chipped Wolf Fang (E-)"
"Use: Decoration, alchemy, magic tool crafting."
"Description: Who extracted this? The technique is worse than the village's newest hunter. One star."
"Warg Blood (E)"
"Use: Alchemy."
"Description: Not everyone appreciates blood. Perhaps you could pawn it off on some deep-pocketed, dim-witted alchemist and make a quick buck."
"Warg Liver/Heart (E-)"
"Use: Alchemy, cooking."
"Description: Full of holes. Even a dim-witted alchemist wouldn't touch these."
"Man-Eating Flower Sap (E)"
"Use: Dyeing."
"Description: An excellent product for coloring fabric. Popular among cloth merchants. Of course, certain... less scrupulous alchemists also enjoy using it to dye their potions and pass them off as something else."
"Man-Eating Flower Tendrils (E)"
"Use: Handicrafts."
"Description: Flatten them, dry them, and you'll get fine Man-Eating Flower tendril fibers."
'Not much that's actually useful.'
Lan Qingyou smacked her lips and chose to ignore the Small Screen's jabs at alchemists.
'Since when is it unusual for alchemists to be rich?'
'The kind of people who buy two bowls of soy milk — one to drink and one to pour out.'
She tossed the mostly useless heart and liver over to Gu Xiaobei, then got to work brewing potions.
The entire day passed in a whirlwind of activity, giving Lan Qingyou a refreshing change of pace from her reading marathon.
Especially the hands-on experience of dismantling a Warg and harvesting materials from a Man-Eating Flower.
No wonder Albert insisted on collecting materials personally whenever possible.
After getting her hands dirty and experiencing it firsthand, she felt she'd gained a deeper, more intuitive understanding of Wargs, Man-Eating Flowers, and their alchemical components.
Since today's entire production run had been mana potions and she still needed to trade with Li Huai, Lan Qingyou finished bottling the +50 batch and checked her friends list.
But to her surprise, Li Huai still hadn't responded.
This was a man who liked to take initiative. Not the type to sit around and wait for someone to come to him.
'Did he run into trouble?'
It was past eight, pushing nine at night.
If he still wasn't back by now, things probably weren't looking good.
At least, that was Lan Qingyou's guess.
For someone who spent every day out in the field, encountering danger was the most normal thing in the world.
After thinking it over, Lan Qingyou let it go. At worst, she'd lose a few potions. Not exactly a catastrophe.