A mid-level aether-rich area.

When Velin’s finger tapped lightly on the map and he uttered those five words, the air in the conference room seemed to freeze for a moment.

Old Walker and Kolon had looks of pure confusion. They only knew that the depths of the Swamp were dangerous, but they were completely unfamiliar with the term.

Ryo’s breathing suddenly quickened. He looked ecstatic, excitedly sharing what he knew about aether-rich areas with the two of them, his voice trembling slightly with agitation.

After just a few sentences, Old Walker and Kolon were choked up by the sheer scale of the concept. Their eyes darted back and forth between the map and Velin, filled with a mixture of greed, awe, and wariness of the unknown dangers.

Valerius, on the other hand, was the calmest of them all. The Chief simply stroked his graying beard, his eyes not blinded by the prospect of unearned wealth. Instead, they gleamed with the light of reason.

"Velin, you must understand, a mid-level aether-rich area could never be ownerless. It will have, and I mean it will *inevitably* have, one or even a group of powerful Magical Beasts guarding it. They use the abundant aether to strengthen themselves and grow, treating the place as their lair. Any creature that dares to approach will be torn to shreds."

His tone was stern, and he kept his eyes fixed on Velin, trying to see if the young man was taking him seriously.

Caroline didn’t speak.

She hadn’t shown any surprise from the very beginning. The moment Velin uttered the term, a different kind of light had already ignited in her eyes.

It was the reaction of a merchant discovering a new trade route: valuation.

A mid-level aether-rich area was a strategic resource that typically only a Viscount could obtain.

It would provide a stable output of mid- to high-grade Magic Materials. If managed well, it could yield an annual income of over a thousand Golden Suns.

She lifted her head, looked Velin straight in the eye, and spoke decisively.

"Where is it? When do we leave? How many Golden Suns will it require?"

Her rapid-fire questions brought everyone’s attention back to the matter at hand.

The meeting ultimately ended in a unanimous agreement.

Risk and reward always go hand in hand, and the reward before them was great enough to make anyone willing to take a chance.

...

The day after the meeting, the machinery of Newly Town was wound tight and set in motion.

Kolon led the guards and hunters in day-and-night drills, inspecting their weapons and equipment.

Old Walker mobilized the villagers to prepare rations, ropes, and various tools needed for the Swamp.

Caroline didn’t leave. She stayed behind under the pretext of "supervising the security of her investment," spending her days in her temporary residence and occasionally sending her attendants with rare materials that Velin might need.

As for Velin, he locked himself away in the Origin Association’s laboratory.

He had to complete his promotion before they set out.

On this day, Velin and Valerius finished their preparations and officially began the potion experiment.

Caroline suddenly appeared at the laboratory entrance. She had uncharacteristically traded her elaborate dress for a pair of sleek riding trousers, which made her long legs look even more slender and straight.

She leaned against the doorframe, her arms crossed over her chest.

’Just what is this infuriating man up to now?’ she thought.

Inside the laboratory, everyone was tense and focused.

Six Moonlight Dragon Lizards, confined in specially made iron cages, scratched restlessly at the bars, letting out threatening hisses.

"Are you sure about this? A madman’s formula won’t become safe just because you’re bold," Valerius said, making one last attempt to dissuade him.

"Master, boldly hypothesize and carefully verify. Isn’t that the charm of research?" Velin smiled and handed a sheet of parchment to Ryo, who stood beside them, his palms sweating with nervousness. "Record exactly what I say. Don’t miss a single word."

The experiment began.

The first round was incredibly dull.

Velin simply had Valerius place the potion residue near the cage without a word. Over the course of an hour, the lizard only gave two listless cries.

Standing at the entrance, Caroline frowned. ’This is a complete waste of time,’ she thought.

In the second round, the atmosphere changed abruptly.

"Begin mixing," Velin ordered.

Valerius took a deep breath and poured the Petrifying Lizard’s saliva into a beaker. A sharp wave of aetheric fluctuation spread out.

Ryo, his eyes glued to the newly calibrated water clock, shouted out in a rapid-fire pace.

"One breath, two breaths... The lizard is getting agitated! Three breaths!"

The lizard in the cage let out its first short hiss!

"Six breaths!" The second hiss!

"Seven breaths!" The third!

"Now!" Velin commanded calmly, but Valerius, tense, was a beat too slow and missed the window.

"Stop," Velin halted him and walked over to a tree diagram, its icons covered in densely packed symbols. "Master, the sound is just a superficial phenomenon, a result. What we’re looking for is the ’internal cause’ that leads to this result."

He pointed at the chart. "Out of fifty-nine repeated trials, ninety percent of the ’third hisses’ occurred between the twelfth and fifteenth breath after the potion was mixed."

"Those three breaths are the true *punctum* of that ’third-rate sonnet’! It’s the real meaning that the ancient formula was trying to convey!"

Valerius stared at the diagram, his mouth half-open, feeling as if his entire worldview of alchemy was being shattered again and again.

Caroline’s heart skipped a beat, and the keen merchant’s nerve in her mind was struck with a violent twang.

She no longer saw a man she both loved and hated, but a... a slowly rising, immeasurable gold mine.

This ability to transform mystery into methodology was worth far more than a single aether-rich area.

Velin’s thoughts didn’t stop there.

"...Three breaths is still too short," Velin frowned. "We need to extend this window."

"Extend it?"

"Yes. We need an ’inhibitor’."

A new round of testing began. They divided the mixture into dozens of portions, adding a different inert substance to each one.

"Group A, ground Wind Chant Crystal Stone. The window is extended to seven breaths!"

"Group B, embers of a flame demon. Failure, the reaction is contaminated!"

When it was Group C’s turn, Velin made a bold decision: "Try adding Ghost Light Salt."

Valerius looked doubtful. "Ghost Light Salt? Its properties are highly unstable. It’s a taboo in ancient alchemy..."

Before he could finish, the mixture in the beaker suddenly boiled over. BANG! With a violent, muffled explosion, the beaker shattered into countless fragments!

Ryo was so frightened he fell and sat right on the floor as a pungent smoke filled the air.

At the doorway, Caroline’s heart leaped at the sound of the explosion, her knuckles turning white from gripping the doorframe.

She almost rushed inside to check on Velin.

From within the smoke, Velin’s calm voice emerged, laced with a hint of excitement.

"Interesting. It didn’t inhibit the reaction; it acted as a catalyst instead. Master, I think I know what to use... We’ve been looking in the wrong direction all along!"

He turned, his gaze burning as he looked at Valerius, his eyes shining with the light of someone who has grasped the truth.

"It doesn’t have to be an ’inhibitor,’ it can be a ’stabilizer’! Go get the ground powder of a Sleeping Crystal! It doesn’t participate in the reaction, but its structure can absorb the overflowing, violent aether like a sponge, making the whole process gentle and controllable!"