The Dead Spider Potion

Lucas Hall examined his body, finding numerous stitched-up wounds, densely packed and too many to count.

It was deep into the night, but the lab remained brightly lit.

"How long was I unconscious?" Lucas asked.

"35 hours and 17 minutes. It's already the next day," Seraphina replied.

Lucas nodded seriously and began checking the activity logs.

After he fell unconscious, the captain's duties were temporarily transferred to the first mate.

The Nightmare Star only had two officers, so the first mate was naturally Seraphina, giving her full authority, which allowed her to perform surgery on Lucas.

Lucas hopped off the metal table, put on the pirate uniform resting beside him, and pulled out a healing spray from inside his clothes.

It was Henry's legacy, and it came in handy right now.

He sprayed it on one of the larger wounds, feeling a cool, soothing sensation. The healing effect wasn't bad, but the spray was small, and after three uses, it was gone.

After thinking for a moment, he took out a bottle of pink potion, gritted his teeth, and swallowed it down. The taste was extremely spicy, like drinking a bottle of chili oil.

[You have consumed an unknown potion]

[Health restored by 20, wound healing accelerated, health continues to regenerate]

[Your wounds itch terribly, sanity -20]

Lucas's sanity immediately dropped to 17, and he writhed on the floor like a worm... the wounds healing rapidly as he twisted.

Seraphina watched closely, taking notes in a book, before asking:

"How do you feel? I see your wounds are starting to scab over. The effects seem really good. If you had to rate this potion from 1 to 10, what would you give it?"

"...."

Lucas, sweating profusely, glared at Seraphina.

He wanted to curse, but he couldn't open his mouth. If he did, the screams that came out would be anything but dignified.

He didn't dare scratch at the itching, afraid it would make his wounds worse...

After several minutes, Lucas finally stopped writhing and stood up as if nothing had happened. His health had risen from just above 40 to nearly 70.

In terms of efficacy, this potion was stronger than holy water!

[Name: Regeneration Potion]

[Type: Consumable/Elixir/Unique]

[Quality: Fine]

[Description: A potion originally created by witch Seraphina, it tastes spicy and is made from water soaked with healing pearls, fish scales from the Merman, and the fiery red lips of a flame eel.

Drinking restores health by 20, sanity drops by 20, health continues to regenerate, and wounds heal faster. The wounds will itch terribly, but if you resist scratching, the effects will be amplified…]

Lucas read the information and his face turned pale. He responded flatly, "Zero out of ten!"

"Zero? No way! The effects are obviously great, your wounds are already scabbing!" Seraphina retorted, clearly displeased. "You can't just ignore the effects because of the bad taste!"

"Uh..." Lucas was left speechless.

To be fair, the potion was incredibly effective, but the side effects were unbearable.

"I'll send you the information so you can check it yourself," Lucas said, sending Seraphina the details of the Regeneration Potion.

"By the way, I plan to head to the island. Time is running out, we can't afford to keep delaying!" Lucas added.

This latest episode was like a warning.

The Spider's Kiss was urging Lucas to go to the island, reducing the safe distance from 200 nautical miles to just 100.

If it happened again, death could be imminent...

"Actually, I've already developed a potion that can kill the spiders inside you, otherwise, you might not have survived this time," Seraphina said, pulling out a black potion.

"What's this?" Lucas asked.

"It's a poison I specifically made! The ingredients come from cystic spiny pufferfish and that coral trapfish you caught. The toxins I mixed are minimal for humans but extremely deadly to spiders!" Seraphina explained.

Lucas immediately took the bottle and examined it.

[Name: Dead Spider Potion]

[Type: Consumable/Elixir/Unique]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: A potion originally created by witch Seraphina, specially formulated to kill spiders. Its toxicity to humans is minimal, but it is highly toxic to spiders.]

"Will this cure me?" Lucas asked, surprised.

"Unfortunately, no!" Seraphina shook her head. "It will kill the spiders inside you, but it's only temporary. Once the toxins are metabolized, new spiders will appear inside you. To fully solve it, you need to find the source of the spiders and eliminate it at its root."

"Disease?" Lucas questioned.

"Exactly! Doesn't it seem like a disease?" Seraphina said.

Lucas thought about it for a moment, and indeed, it seemed more like a fantastical illness than anything else.

He left the lab, grabbed a piece of black bread and some sausage, and ate it along with a coconut for hydration.

It had been nearly two days since his last meal.

Once the food was down, Lucas felt more alive.

As he ate, an idea suddenly struck him, and he rushed back to the lab.

"Seraphina, you said this poison works great on spiders?" Lucas asked urgently.

"It does…"

"Then how much of this poison can you make? Would it work on those giant spiders from urban legends?"

"It will! As long as the biological structure is classified as a spider, the potion will work. The main ingredients come from the cystic spiny pufferfish and the coral trapfish. The former is not too rare, but the latter is unique. I can only make about 10 vials, roughly 1 liter in total."

"Then as long as we have coral trapfish, we can make this potion in bulk, right?"

Lucas had an idea. He planned to kill the spiders on the island and then head there himself.

From the information on the fire fuzz sweater, it was certain that a creature called the fire fuzz spider existed on the island!

The next day, Lucas woke up fully rested, his health restored to 90.

He checked the weather forecast.

Sunny with a gentle sea breeze, perfect for fishing.

Location: Origin Sea

Sunshine duration: 9 hours remaining

Temperature: 15~25°C

Wind strength: Level 3

Without hesitation, he grabbed his fishing rod and went outside, preparing the fishing net and taking several eyeball fruits from the storage. These had been caught earlier and were unpleasant to eat, but were perfect for catching the coral trapfish.

Using deep-sea fishing techniques with eyeball fruit as bait, he began fishing.

[You caught a red-lipped eel]

[You caught a human-headed octopus]

[You caught a long-legged sardine]

"Holy Shit!"

"Why are we catching long-legged sardines in the deep-sea zone?!"

Fortunately, on the fourth try, he finally caught something useful.

[You caught a coral trapfish]

Lucas's eyes lit up, and he quickly used a wooden spear to collect the fresh coral trapfish and sent it to the lab...

At this rate, he would quickly catch 10 coral trapfish and be able to produce 100 vials of the Dead Spider Potion.

While fishing, Lucas received a private message from the seller of the trebuchet he had previously inquired about.

The first thing the seller wrote was: "Are you sure you want to buy?"

"Of course!" Lucas replied.

"I'll be honest with you, I have the formula for making this trebuchet, but at 500 sea conchs per unit, I won't make a profit!"

"600 sea conchs per unit, buy 4 at once! If you're not selling, don't bother!" Lucas replied quickly.

He had previously asked for 500, so the seller's response showed that price wasn't too far from cost, likely just covering it.

So Lucas raised the price by 100, hoping to give the seller a margin.

The seller responded quickly.

"700 sea conchs, that's my lowest price. I still need time to make them."

"650 sea conchs, not a penny more! You know, in two weeks, nobody will want them even at 200 sea conchs!"

The seller hesitated for a few minutes, then finally agreed to the deal.