Chapter 35: Being in Charge is Not Easy

Gao De gave Amy a meaningful look, then reached out and took the box.

As for whether Amy couldn't open the box or if it was truly as he said, he didn't care.

As long as the final result was the same, it was fine.

Gao De also understood that if he hadn't agreed to be the master of this herb garden, even if this box couldn't be opened, Amy would likely have taken it away rather than offering it to him.

Gao De thought while trying to open the box—although Amy had already said it couldn't be opened, it didn't prevent him from trying again.

Facts proved that Amy hadn't lied to him.

The box looked perfectly normal, but when he tried to open it, it was as if it had been welded shut; no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't budge.

After trying for a while, Gao De gave up the idea of opening the box by ordinary means.

Clearly, there was an invisible, unseen lock on the box.

Without opening this lock, it was impossible to open the box.

"Isn't this just a safe in the mage world..." Gao De muttered to himself, feeling a bit depressed but also feeling it was within reason.

He had already caught a glimpse of the magic of spells; in such a world, even more fantastical things could be real.

"The top priority is to recuperate and heal, and to get the herb garden running again."

"After these two things are done, then I'll find a way to open the box."

Gao De knew that the things in the box must be very precious, and it was highly likely that it contained the spell formulas and medicinal recipes he needed most.

However, he was very clear that being anxious about some things was useless, so he quickly adjusted his mindset and put the box away.

Gao De looked at the crowd of apprentices still squeezed into the room, making the air in the narrow room feel stagnant.

He yawned and said to everyone: "I'm a bit tired and need to rest; everyone go back first. We'll discuss the herb garden matters in detail when I wake up."

Gao De was indeed tired; the high mental pressure that had lasted for a whole month had long since left him exhausted, and coupled with the injuries on his body, he was even more fatigued.

The apprentices were sensible and left one after another, including Amy, who was Gao De's roommate, who also retreated.

"If you need anything, just shout, and I'll come immediately," Amy said.

"Okay," Gao De said to Amy.

With a low creak, the door was closed.

"This place is too small, it's not comfortable to sleep in; I need to change rooms," Gao De thought, for instance, Master Seda's bedroom was quite nice.

"It's good to be alive," finally, he said to himself.

Gao De lay diagonally on the bed.

It was currently the time when the sun was high.

Warm sunlight fell in from the open window and spilled onto Gao De, making him squint his eyes comfortably as he recuperated and recovered from his injuries.

His narrow bedroom only had a small air vent, so naturally, there would be no such scenery.

This was Master Seda's bedroom.

A spacious room with good lighting.

Now it was his.

As the victor, Gao De unceremoniously claimed it as his own.

This was the spoils of war! Outside the door came bustling sounds, mixed with the creaking of objects rubbing against the floor as they were moved.

Gao De knew this was the apprentices cleaning up the trash.

Because of that violent explosion, Master Seda's workshop, which was also his study, had completely turned into ruins.

Fortunately, the explosion did not affect other areas of the herb garden, so it did not cause greater losses.

Cleaning up the mess after the explosion was not an easy task.

The apprentices had spent two days and still hadn't completely cleaned up the aftermath.

Master Seda's corpse, however, had been moved away by them while Gao De was still in a coma and buried in the back mountain.

They buried him together with the apprentices who had died from testing medicine earlier.

It could be considered a harmonious reunion of master and apprentice in the same grave.

As for all the items in Master Seda's room, except for the spell wooden box that couldn't be opened, they were all blown to pieces and became useless trash. Even the magical robe on Master Seda's body was torn into pieces due to the immense power of the explosion.

Clearly, with this degree of damage, it was beyond the capability of the Mending spell and was absolutely impossible to repair, so in the end, it could only be treated as trash.

This made Gao De feel very distressed; after all, a 1st-circle supernatural item was worth sixty or seventy gold coins.

But given the vast gap in strength between him and Master Seda, where did he have the qualifications to consider the spoils of war?

As long as one is alive, there will always be bread.

Gao De could only comfort himself in his heart.

Although this still couldn't stop the heartache he felt, it seemed to feel a little better.

Gao De moved his body slightly, changed to a more comfortable position, and pondered the things he needed to do next in his mind.

The top priority was definitely to get the herb garden running again and back on track to ensure the herb garden's revenue.

In addition, he could continue to maintain contact with the Pierre Grocery Store.

Although the business of repairing supernatural items was not as stable as the potion business, it could also serve as an extra income.

Secondly, he needed to find a way to open the spell wooden box left by Master Seda.

Finally, he needed to focus on his own cultivation, which had an even higher priority than learning new spells or using the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow to strengthen spells.

After all, even if he mastered more and more powerful spells, if he didn't have enough mana, it would be a castle in the air with no practical significance.

Spring Bud Month, the fifth day.

The traces of Master Seda in the herb garden had been completely cleaned up.

Gao De's injuries had also recovered a lot—they were just external injuries, not affecting his bones or muscles, and the medicinal herbs in this world had extremely significant effects compared to his past life due to the presence of magic.

In the past few days, during the intervals of recuperation, Gao De had also sorted out the current situation of the herb garden:

Before he came to this world, there were twelve people in the herb garden, which was the period with the most people in the herb garden.

After he arrived, he killed Yilan and Master Seda one after another.

Coupled with the night raid by subterranean creatures last month, two more apprentices left.

That is to say, there were currently eight people in the herb garden, including Gao De.

Roommate Amy, apprentice and cook Ramos, and Aiqi and Lei Meng, the only two in the herb garden besides Gao De who could formulate magic potions—the seven people besides him were all first-rank apprentices.

It's just that there were also gaps between first-rank apprentices.

They had only barely mastered one cantrip, either Mage Hand or Mending, and calling them mage apprentices was a bit of a stretch.

What was even more embarrassing was that although Aiqi and Lei Meng could also formulate magic potions, their success rate was not high, and it took two sets of materials to formulate one bottle of potion.

You know, 0-rank magic potions themselves did not have high profits and were essentially "low-end" products, winning on output and success rate.

For magic potions of this rank, as long as an alchemist mastered them proficiently, they could basically guarantee a 100% success rate.

In fact, low-rank alchemists who couldn't guarantee this success rate couldn't survive at all; and the magic potions mastered by Aiqi and Lei Meng were not primary spider venom potions, but Nap-time Sleep Potions.

The effect of this potion was to quickly guide the drinker into a short but deep sleep, feeling refreshed after waking up.

It just couldn't be used for a long time, otherwise, it would lose its effect, and symptoms of sleep disorder would appear.

The target audience was generally cargo transporters, used when they were on the road for emergencies.

It was practical, but its applicability was not wide, and coupled with the fact that it couldn't be used for a long time, the market was limited.

The demand for Nap-time Sleep Potions at the Phil Magic Potion Shop was not high, and they only placed orders when occasionally needed, unlike primary spider venom potions and primary stamina potions, which were purchased long-term without limit.

In other words, Aiqi and Lei Meng were two unqualified alchemists and couldn't be counted as productivity at all.

Looking at it this way, in fact, the only person in the herb garden who could stably produce income was Gao De.

It was no wonder that the apprentices in the herb garden insisted on electing Gao De as the Garden Master; it was indeed true that only he had this ability.

The new book is in the first round of recommendations; brothers, please follow the new book during the new book period; this is very important to me!

The last sword cultivation book was eliminated in the first round of PK; this is already the second book, so I have to let my brother enter the second round!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 36 =====