The First Cultivator - Changing Existence

"Huh?" Master Chef Garb said. "Oh right. I forgot about that. You can just enter. The door is next to the bathroom door."

Skymender thanked him and walked over. Opening the door, he saw a set of wooden stairs that led down. He began to walk down them, and eventually, they turned, still heading down but in the opposite direction. 

After a while, he came across another wooden door. He pushed it open and stepped inside. Above was a lamp, and all around was concrete. There was a vent on the side. Against one of the concrete walls was a table with equipment on it. Skymender looked around for a few moments, recognizing the tools as classic equipment.

He put down the wooden box with the Yellow Lightning Thorn inside and walked back up the stairs. Taking a few trips, he brought down a bunch of different materials and herbs. All of them, excluding the Yellow Lightning Thorn, were taken from a herb store. It did not get many customers, only those that occasionally cooked for themselves. 

Surprisingly, they had a great selection of poisonous materials.

Skymender imagined that he was the first person to concoct poison in the Imperial Scholar Camp, but he naturally didn't know.

With all of the materials in the basement, Skymender could begin. Although he had memorized the recipe, he took it out and looked over it once again. Now with full confidence, he began. He took a few of the non reactive materials and began to mix them together, as instructed.

He made a few different mixtures, storing them in glass vials. This was the first step.

The next began by mixing a few of the reactive materials together. Although Skymender did not have a cauldron, he did have a pot and constant heat. 

As Skymender began to mix the reactive materials together, he saw a mist come up. As it entered his nose, he felt a slight numbing sensation.

When all of the reactive materials were in the pot and mixed up, the third step began. Skymender began to pour the prepared vials of non reactive substances into the reactive substance. They mixed together, changing the color from dark brown to a slight yellowish green. 

Now, it was time for the final step. He opened the wooden box and grabbed the Yellow Lightning Thorn. 

As its name suggested, it was a yellow plant with thorns. One of the thorns poked him, and he felt that part of his hand turn numb. 

Skymender quickly threw it in the pot whole and began to mix it. The substance's color changed, now turning almost clear. No more mist was released, and Skymender was barely sure that he had done it correctly. However, there was only one way to know.

He put the substance in vials, a total of ten. 

He then took one of the vials and uncapped it. Taking a small sip, he felt as if electric had coursed through his body.

His body paused and fell. Luckily, he had already known the effects and had instantly capped the vial after taking a sip. He and the vial fell. He stared up at the ceiling for around ten seconds before feeling instantly returned to his body.

He was amazed. It would have been one thing if it had been a slow process, but it was instant, both coming and going unnoticeably.

Naturally, Skymender's first thought was to become immune to it. He uncapped the same vial and took another sip, capping it instantly. 

He fell to the ground and counted. He repeated this process ten times, draining half of the vial. The first time, it had been almost exactly ten seconds. However, the tenth time, he had counted a little bit more than nine and a half seconds. It was hard to be 100% accurate.

Continuing on, he finished up one of the vials, knocking the time it took him to recover down to almost exactly nine and a half seconds. It didn't seem like much, because it wasn't, but it was progress.

Skymender took the nine remaining vials with him and left. He stored them in his room before heading to the library. A day or so later, he once again met up with the Imperial Scholar.

"How did it go?" He asked.

"It went well." Skymender responded.

"Good. You only had one chance. The Yellow Lightning Thorn is both valuable and restricted. Not many know of it, as even a Sword Master would be somewhat affected by it. Don't be stupid with it." The Imperial Scholar said.

Skymender nodded, agreeing. He did not have any plans to poison anyone any time soon.

"Alright. Let's begin."

The Imperial Scholar did not even ask what Skymender wanted to learn about, as he already knew the answer. He began to talk about poison. Eventually, near the end, he began to write out another poison recipe.

"Now I won't give you any recipes for killing or extreme harming, but I can show you how broad the study of poisons can actually be. For example, this poison can be used on a plant, rapidly killing it down to its roots. Even this counts as a poison."

Skymender had heard of something like that before. Supposedly, farmers used some sort of poison to kill weeds or other plants that were harming their fields. There were also poisons that could be used against tiny bugs that harmed their crops. 

This was actually a common practice, but Skymender had never associated these things with poison before.

"Though difficult, poisons can be made to only specifically target one type of thing, whether that be plants, animals, humans, or even just a single species such as a cow or pig. Throughout the years, competing businesses have researched such poisons to use against their competitors. While there are very few tales of success, and those that do succeed usually face punishment for their dangerous actions, there are no doubt some who have greatly benefited from these practices."

He handed Skymender a piece of paper. "Here."