Chapter 37 – Innate Alchemy Physique (Seeking Favorites)

Chapter 37 – Innate Alchemy Physique (Seeking Favorites)

As Cheng Yang unrolled the scroll, a flash of white light enveloped his body, and in an instant, he vanished from his original location.

When Cheng Yang opened his eyes again, the scenery before him had completely changed. He wasn’t surprised by this, as all sub-profession initiation tasks were completed in specific instances. In these instances, death only resulted in task failure, not true death.

At that moment, a voice echoed in Cheng Yang’s mind: “Welcome to the Alchemist Initiation Instance. Task countdown begins: 10—9—8—…”

Cheng Yang’s heart was filled with tension. He wondered if the gods would assign him a peak first-tier demonic beast to kill. If that were the case, he would have no chance of success. The gap between levels during the apprentice stage was the largest for any combat profession. The possibility of fighting above one’s level at this stage was extremely low. However, after reaching the warrior level, cross-tier combat became possible, even with similar equipment—something unimaginable at the apprentice level.

Therefore, if Cheng Yang encountered a peak first-tier demonic beast now, no matter how skilled he was, he wouldn’t be able to defeat it. The instance was completely flat, with no terrain advantages to exploit.

However, he thought the chance of encountering a peak first-tier demonic beast here was low. After all, even the most difficult instances weren’t impossible to complete. But if a peak first-tier demonic beast appeared, it would be impossible for any human at this stage to defeat it, which would go against the purpose of setting up such a difficult task.

As Cheng Yang’s anxiety grew, the task countdown finally ended:

“Since you are initiating the Alchemist sub-profession, as a successful alchemist, identifying medicinal herbs is a basic skill. Please find the following ten types of herbs within the instance within half an hour: Sky Sword Grass, Mystic Ice Flower…”

After reading the task prompt, Cheng Yang felt as if ten thousand alpacas were galloping through his mind. But once the alpacas passed, he became excited.

The task was actually about identifying herbs.

Of course, this task wasn’t simple, and being a doctor in the real world wouldn’t give anyone an advantage. The reason was that the herbs after the world’s transformation were completely different from those before. Even if Hua Tuo were reincarnated, he wouldn’t be able to make any progress on this issue.

But for Cheng Yang, this task was extremely simple. Although his sub-profession in his previous life wasn’t an alchemist, he had seen these herbs before. These ten herbs were precisely the ingredients for crafting small mana potions and health potions. If the proportions were added, they would be complete recipes.

Why did the gods create such a task? Cheng Yang could guess a bit. These instances weren’t directly controlled by the gods but operated automatically under certain rules. The reason for this oversight was that the world’s rules didn’t know Cheng Yang was a reincarnated person. According to the world’s rules, the average human strength was infinitely close to being uninitiated. That is, even a first-tier early-stage demonic beast would be considered a difficult-level challenge. Because of this, some people worldwide could still complete it. But if a first-tier mid-stage or late-stage demonic beast appeared, it wouldn’t be explainable as a difficult-level task. At this stage, apart from Cheng Yang, no one could defeat such a demonic beast.

But for Cheng Yang, this task was equivalent to cheating, which the world’s rules didn’t allow. Therefore, it automatically discarded the standard of measuring success based on strength and changed it to something more related to alchemy—herb identification. In the world’s rules’ deduction, given the number of survivors on Earth, even by luck, two or three people could complete such a task, which would comply with the rules.

But the world’s rules didn’t know that Cheng Yang was a reincarnated person. Facing this challenge was much easier for him than killing a first-tier late-stage demonic beast.

The instance wasn’t large, covering about ten thousand square meters, roughly a circle with a diameter of over a hundred meters. But in such a small area, it was filled with various exotic flowers and rare herbs, some of which were so precious that Cheng Yang couldn’t help but covet them.

However, these rare items couldn’t be touched, as the task’s final judgment on whether it was completed depended on whether the herbs in hand were exactly the ten types required—no more, no less.

Cheng Yang immediately began searching the instance.

“Sky Sword Grass, found…”

“Mystic Ice Flower, found…”

“Earth Dragon Root, here…”

In no time, Cheng Yang had all ten herbs in his hands.

“You have obtained ten different types of herbs. Do you confirm the task completion?” The prompt in his mind arrived as expected, giving the challenger a choice.

Cheng Yang didn’t hesitate to confirm.

Instantly, the space around Cheng Yang twisted, and he disappeared.

“You’re back so soon?” When Cheng Yang reappeared in the alchemy room, the shopkeeper couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

No wonder he was so incredulous. In his view, Cheng Yang reaching high-level apprentice strength on the fourth day of the apocalypse was absolutely top-tier among humans. Therefore, he had a good chance of completing the difficult-level task, but it shouldn’t have taken so little time. Coming back so quickly from the instance, did he fail the task?

But he would never have guessed that Cheng Yang’s task had nothing to do with combat but was about identifying herbs.

Cheng Yang smiled and extended his right hand, holding ten herbs, and said, “Just lucky. The gods’ test was to identify herbs, and I happened to know them, so I completed it quickly.”

Looking at the ten herbs in Cheng Yang’s hand, the shopkeeper felt as if he were in a dream. For an uninitiated combat profession, completing this task was too difficult. The key point was that Cheng Yang was the first person in this world to initiate the alchemist profession. Before this, no one knew what these herbs were.

But now Cheng Yang had indeed completed it. Apart from being pleasantly surprised, the shopkeeper had no other thoughts. He immediately smiled and said, “It seems you are indeed a born alchemist! Your harvest this time is enough to make the gods envious. Since you are the first to initiate the alchemist profession, you have gained an additional unique talent called Innate Alchemy Physique. This talent allows you to receive double the effect of any pill or potion you consume. At the same time, you have completed the difficult-level initiation task, and you will initiate as a very powerful alchemist. What exactly it is, you’ll know after you successfully initiate.”

With that, the shopkeeper took out a light golden token from under the counter and handed it to Cheng Yang, saying, “This is the sub-profession initiation token. Use it, and you can initiate directly.”

Cheng Yang had used such a token in his previous life, but the one he used then was black, seemingly several grades lower than this light golden one.

Cheng Yang took the token, held it in his palm, and silently recited, “Use sub-profession initiation token.” Immediately, he felt the token vanish from his hand.

Cheng Yang eagerly opened his attribute panel and found that a sub-profession section had been added.

Compared to his main profession, the alchemist sub-profession’s description was more concise, but no amount of simplicity could overshadow the powerful talent. Ordinary alchemists didn’t have sub-profession-specific talents, though some main profession talents might benefit the sub-profession. Completing a difficult-level initiation task would grant a general talent, which could be good or bad, sometimes depending on luck.

But a unique sub-profession talent was different. Any unique sub-profession talent increased a certain aspect by 100%. For example, output, attributes, reduced energy consumption, or reduced material consumption. Any sub-profession had more than one unique talent, but there was no denying that the total number of unique talents was extremely rare, as there were only a few aspects that could be enhanced or reduced for any sub-profession.

At this moment, Cheng Yang thought of something that thrilled him: with his new main profession talent combined with his sub-profession talent, wouldn’t a potion’s effect be quadrupled?

Cheng Yang immediately opened his main profession attribute panel and indeed found a new talent.

If it were just an ordinary recovery potion, Cheng Yang wouldn’t be so excited, as it would only save him some spiritual energy. But he knew that in this world, there were pills that could permanently or temporarily increase certain attributes. That was where the true value of an alchemist lay. With the Innate Alchemy Physique and Divine Effect talents, those attribute-enhancing pills would undoubtedly make Cheng Yang incredibly powerful.

Cheng Yang suppressed his excitement and said, “Thank you, shopkeeper. Do you have any recipes for sale now?”

The shopkeeper immediately replied, “I only have two crafting recipes here. If you need higher-level recipes, you’ll need to upgrade the alchemy room level quickly.”

Cheng Yang nodded and said, “I’ll upgrade the alchemy room level as soon as possible. For now, I’ll buy the small mana potion recipe.”

The shopkeeper happily took a parchment-like item from the shelf behind him and handed it to Cheng Yang, saying, “This recipe costs one thousand spiritual energy points.”

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang paid. One thousand spiritual energy points were undoubtedly a huge amount, but for Cheng Yang, it wasn’t unbearable.