Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

The confidential library's time limit of three hours per day wasn't much. Sorin, therefore, decided to 'learn' the A-Tier Blood Soul Nurturing Art first. The art was commonly used in the Kepler Clan apothecary group and had B-Tier and C-Tier equivalents.

During his remaining time, he alternated between the public and restricted libraries, updating and compiling knowledge until he confirmed two important facts. First, even with all the work done over the centuries, they had only discovered replacements for 25 percent of the ancient two-star ingredients in the Ten Thousand Poison Canon. Most of these were herbs. For monstrous ingredients, now sourced from demons, it was closer to five percent.

Sorin discovered another important fact: there were ten times as many poisonous ingredients as there had been prior to the cataclysmic emergence. This was largely due to the influence of Violence, which affected proliferation, potency, and competition, and Madness, which greatly increased mutation rates and variance in offspring. What was worse, these new plants interacted very differently than ancient plants. New ingredients were discovered every day, and new concoctions were not unusual. Some could even rival the ancient formulas in some respects or exceed them.

Thanks to his powerful soul and eidetic memory, Sorin had a good grasp of the basics after only a week's worth of reading. The only breaks he took were for a short lunch, a late dinner, four hours of sleep, and, naturally, a small break every few hours to feed demon cores to Lorimer. He also made sure to feed the rat various poisonous ingredients to bolster his immunity and did the same himself to increase the variety of poisons his body could identify and generate.

After memorizing the basics, Sorin began spending twelve hours per day practicing in the laboratory. He first concocted a variety of in-demand one-star poisons, then moved on to crafting the high-level one-star meridian opening tinctures.

The rewards for meridian opening tinctures were as generous as Elder Calvin made them out to be. Even after costs were considered, Sorin was earning five times as much as the cost of the ingredients he was using. What's more, he could now produce poison in 1000 milliliter batches now that he was a Bone-Forging cultivator.

Sorin's success rate in crafting meridian-opening tinctures was much higher than Elder Calvin's. After the first few batches, he managed to increase his success rate to over 90 percent, even when concocting the highest-level tinctures that could be used to open a sixth extraordinary meridian. While a tincture for the hero meridian existed, it wasn't very practical since the possibility of death was ten percent and upward. As such, the clan did not offer any rewards for its production.

Sorin's earning capacity reached unprecedented heights. According to the clan's reward structure for meridian opening tinctures, he started earning over 5,000 gold per day and could continue to do so indefinitely.

Unfortunately, doing so would not benefit him in the long run. He crafted meridian opening tinctures for three weeks and earned around 100,000 gold before switching gears and experimenting with the two-star poison recipes in the library.

Crafting these poisons was much more difficult than crafting one-star poisons, as the recipes weren't set in stone and had yet to be optimized. Even so, Sorin was able to break after only a few batches and quickly expanded his repertoire of poison formulas and usable ingredients. At the same time, he finished reading everything the library had to offer on two-star poisons and their corresponding herbs.

"Crafting poisons according to a recipe is relatively straightforward," said Elder Calvin when Sorin asked him about potentially attempting the two-star apothecary examination. In terms of raw concocting skills, you're more than qualified, but you're still lacking in two very important areas: herb nurture and patient diagnosis. As an apothecary, your knowledge of human physiology, especially the part relating to poisons, must match that of a physician."

"Are there any opportunities in the hospital for apothecaries to gain experience?" asked Sorin.

"Of course there are," said Elder Calvin. We consult all the time. And sometimes—it's not common, but it does happen—the physician in question will request that we apply a difficult treatment. Under their supervision, of course."

Sorin shook his head. "Given how much they depend on us, I can't see why our reputation sank so low."

Elder Calvin sighed. "That's politics for you. That, and a few other factors. I, too, can't see the sense in it. Emotions got in the way of reason, and the people in power took advantage of it."

With Elder Calvin's recommendation, Sorin began shadowing the group's three two-star apothecaries. He accompanied them whenever physicians requested official consultations. In his remaining time, Sorin practiced using Grove Keeper's Touch under the guise of the Blood Soul Nurturing Art to catalyze and grow several known poison variants. He also fed these same plants various demon cores to promote mutations and familiarized himself with established herb classification protocols.

"Good work," said Elder Calvin when Sorin presented his latest work after two grueling months of hard work. "That's your fifth significant discovery, which is remarkable given that you aren't yet a two-star apothecary. They're relatively useless discoveries, but knowledge contributions are knowledge contributions. The clan will reward you for them."

"Do you think I'm ready to challenge the two-star examination now?" inquired Sorin.

Elder Calvin nodded. "You're not a competent two-star apothecary, but that's not the standard for the two-star examination. Instead, they want you to demonstrate a sufficient knowledge base, crafting ability, and physiological knowledge. "Your ability to memorize knowledge and synthesize solutions is simply monstrous. It seems your reputation from your days as a physician wasn't unearned."

Sorin let out a sigh of relief. "I was worried I'd fallen behind."

"It normally takes a new Bone-Forging apothecary three years to reach your current level," Elder Calvin said drily. "That you were able to achieve this much six months after breaking through speaks highly of your talent. But don't let that get to your head. The examination won't be easy.

"Do you have any specific advice about the examination?" asked Sorin.

"I suggest you go pay a visit to Elder Maric," said Elder Calvin. "He said to direct you to his office when convenient."

"Elder Maric?" Sorin asked, confused. "What would he know about the apothecary examination? He's not even a physician." Out of the six presiding elders, only four were physicians. Elder Maric from the Defensor Branch was a sword cultivator. It was the same for the rest of his branch, which was focused exclusively on guardianship and combat. The second non-physician was naturally Elder Samson. His Lucian Branch cultivated elements related to wind and darkness or shadows; Sorin wasn't sure of the specifics. Generally, the cultivators from the Lucian branch were rogues and archers. Their role was to collect, collate, and distribute secret intelligence reports for various interested parties within the family.

"Elder Maric is the most knowledgeable person regarding the family's political situation, both internal and external," explained Elder Calvin. "Though Elder Samson might give him a run for his money in that regard.

"The reason I suggest seeing Elder Maric is that, unlike Elder Samson, Elder Maric doesn't involve himself with clan politics. He should be able to provide actionable advice and recommend precautions you should be taking against tampering in the examination."

"I'll be sure to see him," answered Sorin. Though he was certain Elder Maric was somewhat hostile to him, it wasn't to the extent of Elder Simon and Elder Samson. Moreover, he strongly suspected that his hostility was due to Sorin's unrestrained behavior, which could potentially endanger clan members or the clan itself.

"He's a harsh man, but he means well," said Elder Calvin. "I can't even count the number of times he's risked his career to stand up for the apothecary division. Moreover, he is probably concerned about your safety. He always blamed himself for the death of your parents."

Sorin's heartbeat quickened. "Elder Maric was involved with my parents' death?"

Elder Calvin sighed. "Indeed, but it would be best if you asked him about it personally." Sorin resolved to do exactly that.

Before Sorin left, Elder Calvin had him fill out some application papers. Sorin then hand-delivered the application to the Alchemists Guild upstairs. It took less than thirty minutes to complete everything. After that, Sorin hastily returned home, where he had the secretary draft a meeting request for Elder Maric.