Chapter 29: Cold Potion

After resting once more, Lily Rhodes looked up at the sky.

Compared to yesterday, today’s weather was noticeably less scorching. The clouds largely obscured the sunlight. She checked the time and saw that it was already noon.

Although directly dismantling trees could train her spiritual power, she didn’t intend to waste too much time here. So, she took a different approach.

Lily manifested a Wind Blade in one hand and a Water Blade in the other. Striking with both simultaneously, she felled massive swathes of trees. This method was countless times faster than dismantling them directly.

Moreover, they were out on the ocean. Surrounded by water, Lily’s Water Manipulation Technique was second nature to her, consuming almost no energy.

Next, Lily rampaged across the island like a hurricane. She chopped down trees and didn’t even spare the stones on the ground—these were free basic materials, after all. She was currently paving floors, which required a massive amount of stone.

Lily collected everything on the entire island that looked remotely valuable. She didn’t even overlook the weeds, planning to take them back to see if they could be useful for anything.

She kept at it until the afternoon, by which point she had stripped the entire island completely bare.

Seeing that it was getting late, she quickly rowed her raft back out to sea and let Shelly out of her spatial storage.

Lying back on the cold stone floor, Lily gasped for breath.

Between using her Collection Skill, Wind Blades, and Water Blades, the day’s labor had left her physically exhausted despite the Potential Seed. Still, tired as she was, the deep sense of satisfaction in her heart was undeniable. What’s more...

Lily sat up cross-legged, clenched her fists, and rolled her shoulders. After her brief rest, her stamina had recovered somewhat. Her body, which had once been pampered back on Azurea, now sported distinct muscle lines on her arms. She felt much lighter and more agile overall.

She examined her arms. The muscles weren’t bulky; rather, they were sleek, streamlined, and looked exceptionally beautiful.

"Let’s go, Shelly. It’s time to leave."

Just then, a sea breeze blew past, drying the beads of sweat on her forehead.

"Did the temperature drop again today?" Lily asked, rubbing her arms as she shivered.

While Shelly was on the move, Lily returned to the wooden cabin, took a thorough hot shower, and changed into clean clothes.

"It would be great if I had another set of Soft armor, so I could alternate between them."

After her shower, Lily dried her hair with a clean towel as she walked outside. By now, the sky had turned completely dark. The Arrow Tower was active, but because Shelly was moving, it didn’t trigger very often.

This wouldn’t do. If they just sailed away, how would she recover the corpses of the Sea Beasts?

Realizing this, Lily hurriedly ordered Shelly to stop.

Once Shelly halted, the Arrow Tower fired significantly more often.

Seeing this, Lily brought out the Biological Energy she had saved up earlier.

She had initially planned to upgrade Shelly yesterday, but doing so required two thousand Crystal Cores or four hundred Biological Energy. She intended to save the Crystal Cores for a rainy day, which meant she could only use Biological Energy for the upgrade.

She still had a lot of Biological Energy salvaged from the whale—enough to upgrade Shelly by one more level. However, going from Level 6 to Level 7 required five hundred Biological Energy.

The whale had yielded over a thousand Biological Energy in total. She had spent three hundred on two consecutive upgrades earlier, and upgrading to Level 6 required four hundred. That left her with three hundred. Add to that the energy she had collected from killing Sea Beasts recently...

Lily did the math. If she wanted to level up twice in a row, the Energy Balls she currently had were nowhere near enough, though she wasn’t too far off. That was why she had held back yesterday. She planned to wait until she had enough Energy Balls to level up twice in one go, hoping the System would reward her with a Self-selected Weapon Box and a Self-selected Prop Box like last time.

She glanced at the continuously firing Arrow Tower and at Shelly, who was busy enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet. After tonight, she should have enough Biological Energy.

With that thought, she headed to the glass workshop first and deposited the sand. She didn’t have an immediate use for glass, so she didn’t start production right away. As for charcoal, she had plenty of wood, but she didn’t start firing that yet either.

Instead, she took out all the various items she had collected today.

In no time, she was surrounded by a pile of Bronze Treasure Chests. Lily had to rely on her memory to figure out what was inside each one.

"This isn’t going to work long-term. If only I had a warehouse blueprint."

As she mused, Lily opened her System panel and was instantly shocked by the volume of direct messages.

"Why are so many people messaging me?"

She clicked open the messages; without exception, they were all begging for medicine.

It turned out that the drastic temperature differences between day and night at sea had taken a toll. Many children and those with weaker constitutions were now suffering from cold symptoms like fatigue and fever. Very few people had medicine right now, and Lily was one of them. Moreover, her Healing Water was basically a miracle drug.

Lily skimmed through the messages. Some offered supplies in exchange, while others clearly just wanted free handouts.

While she had plenty of Healing Water, there was no way she could provide it to everyone for free.

"Should I dilute it?"

The Healing Water was incredibly potent. Using it at full concentration for minor injuries or mild illnesses was simply a waste. However, directly listing diluted Healing Water felt a bit shady.

"It’d look like I’m selling snake oil."

Lily went back inside the cabin and took out the Alchemist Workbench.

She still hadn’t obtained a blueprint for her wooden cabin, so she couldn’t upgrade it. The room was already cramped, and deploying the Alchemist Workbench made it feel suffocatingly small.

Left with no other choice, Lily had to temporarily pack away the room’s furniture. Even then, it remained incredibly tight, though at least she had enough space to turn around.

Next, she brought out some of the Golden Leaf she had gathered on the island earlier. One of the herb’s properties was treating colds and fevers. Then, she produced the diluted Healing Water.

Since Lily wasn’t a Pharmacist or a medical student, her version of crafting potions at the workbench basically involved mixing some Healing Water into clean water, mashing the Golden Leaf to extract its juice, and stirring the pulp into the mixture.

Looking at the green water in the basin, which smelled strongly of fresh grass, Lily frowned in hesitation. "This stuff should be able to cure a cold, right? It won’t kill anyone who drinks it, will it?"

Just as she doubted her concoction, the Alchemist Workbench suddenly lit up with a brilliant glow, followed immediately by the System’s prompt.

[Congratulations, Survivor Lily Rhodes! You have developed a Cold Potion capable of treating colds and fevers.]