The Gray Mountains are a mountain range located in the middle and eastern part of Katic Road. Although the peaks are generally not very high, they are continuous for thousands of miles and spanning several countries, making them an important geographical dividing line. The small town of York is located at the foot of the Gray Mountains.

York town belongs to the Principality of Raqqa. It is said to be a small town. In fact, it has only a population of about 200 households. It is remote, has inconvenient transportation, and has no production. The entire town is surrounded by mountains and can only be connected to the outside world by a mountain path. There are few outsiders in the town, and it seems that this place has been forgotten by the world. Except for when collecting taxes, the nobles of the Principality of Raqqa will not let go of a copper coin tax. Even in remote places, the tax that should be paid, and sometimes the tax that should not be paid must be paid.

Although there is shortage of resources and poor land here, being forgotten in troubled times may not be a bad thing. It is a blessing to be able to stay away from all kinds of wars. The whole town lives a self-sufficient and poor but peaceful life.

There has been a story circulating in the town. On the east side of the town, there is a small courtyard on the edge of the forest. There is a terrible witch living there. It is said that she can use human internal organs to make potions for immortality and youth, or use human blood to make highly toxic poisons and terrible plagues... In short, the witch likes to use humans, especially children, to make all kinds of strange things, and is an evil and terrible guy.

Gradually, the evil witch became a weird story in the town, usually used by parents to scare disobedient children, but no one really fled here because of this weird story.

...

The morning sun pierced the darkness and shone into the room through a burnt hole in the dark gray curtains. The tiny dust danced in the light. The legendary terrifying and terrifying witch stretched out and yawned, sat up from the bed, rubbed her eyes.

After sitting blankly for a while, everything in front of him gradually became clear from blur, and the witch completely woke up from her sleep.

This is a small room of only about ten square meters. The wall is directly naked rammed earth without any decoration and painting. The furnishings in the room are also very simple. A single bed is against the corner of the wall, a chair is placed at the head of the bed, and a table beside the window, with some books and scattered paper piled up on it. The table looks old, and there are several cracks of varying thickness on the table, as if the face of an old man who is already full of dusk.

Looking at the familiar room, the witch breathed a little relieved. She had a dream last night, and forgot what she dreamed about when she opened her eyes, but she only remembered that she was very tired and painful in the dream, but sometimes she was also very happy. The feeling of wandering with the flow of water was very bad, helpless, persistent, resisting, and struggling made her feel very tired and even unsustainable.

Fortunately, it was just a dream.

It’s still this kind of stable life that makes people feel comfortable! It’s really strange, why did I leave here and go out to explore? The witch thought strangely.

On the chair at the head of the bed was a small glass bottle, stuffed with a cork stopper, and there was half a bottle of light green liquid inside. It didn't look sticky, but it was refreshing.

The witch picked up the glass bottle, shook her wrist and shook it, hesitating and hesitating, but there was no way. This was her choice, and she had to walk on anyway. She pulled out the plug, took a deep breath, and suddenly poured the liquid from the bottle into her mouth.

The cyan liquid flowed into the stomach through the throat and burst directly like a deep cold bomb. The witch couldn't help but shivered. She felt as if she had been thrown into the Gris River floating with ice. Before she could even put the bottle down, her whole body began to tremble violently. Fortunately, this painful experience was not the first time. The witch quickly got back into the quilt, curled up, and wrapped her body tightly with the quilt - although it was useless, at least it made her feel a little better.

The coldness, like a blizzard on the top of the gray mountain range in the middle of winter, slashing into every crack of her bones, followed by pain and extreme pain. She seemed to be able to hear the crackling sound of the knives transformed into by the cold wind cutting their muscles in strands, scrambling their bones. The strong pain made her whole face muscles twist. While her will was clear, she picked up a pillowcase and stuffed it into her mouth to avoid biting her tongue due to severe pain.

After half an hour, the strong pain slowly dissipated. The witch stiffly stretched her tight body and lay on the bed, gasping for breath.

It's so painful. Although using pain potions to sharpen your soul every day is an effective way to improve your mental power, this process is really painful. This is also a helpless choice. I have passed the best age to learn magic. If I want to become a real magician, I must accept this kind of tempering. This is the path I choose.

"Highing the spirit" sounds quite unfathomable, but in fact the principle is very simple.

Of course there are potions in this world that can act on the soul, but the raw materials of that potion are extremely rare, and even the most powerful magicians cannot take them for a long time. It is not that they cannot afford them, but that they cannot be bought at all. Moreover, even the potions made of this rare medicinal material have side effects on the soul. It is okay to take them occasionally during a large-scale experiment. If you use them for a long time, you will cause the soul to be depressed, which is irreversible damage.

Later, the magician discovered that some strong stimulation could also make the soul tough - such as pain, so there was this "pain potion". The pain potion did not act directly on the soul, but on the body. The only function was to cause pain and use pain to sharpen the soul.

Feeling pain is a protective mechanism for the body. It is because there is a problem with the body, so the body will transmit pain information to the brain. Therefore, the strong pain caused by painful agents is also a huge burden on the body. Although the actual damage to the body can be minimized through the preparation of drugs, if taken for a long time, the body will still become very weak. This is why the physical condition of the classical magicians is not very good, and because they have to endure such torture every day, the mentality of the classical magicians is often not very normal. There are often magicians going crazy because they take pain agents, and even if the rest is not crazy, it is almost the same.

The destruction of the body and the influence of the mind have made the mainstream academic magicians give up using pain potions to sharpen their souls, and instead work hard on the selection of magic qualifications and the arrangement of daily training.

But the Magic Academy is not that easy to enter. In addition to the requirements of talent, we also need recommendations from connections. Our witch just accidentally obtained a broken magician inheritance. It is already very lucky to be able to embark on the path of a magician. No matter how comfortable you have, you dare not ask for it.

After a full hour of rest, the witch climbed off the bed, but her feet touched the ground, and her legs became weak and weak. She almost didn't kneel on the ground. This was the side effects of the pain potion, and because she was poor now, she could not match even the medicinal materials needed for simple pain potion. She replaced several slightly expensive medicinal materials with other herbs, which deepened the side effects of the medicine.

The witch slowly moved to the table beside the window, sat on the chair, wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, took a piece of black bread and stuffed it into her mouth, picked up the magic notes he made on the table and started to look through it. This strong weakness will last for about an hour, and during this period, you can review yesterday's study.

This magic notebook was cut out by herself from a large piece of sauna, with frilled edges, which seemed a bit uneven. But this was her first magic note after all, so she still used a piece of soft lambskin to put it into a cover. She opened the cover on the title page and had a name she wrote seriously - Danica Fengyu.

Danica is an orphan. She was picked up from the forest by an old pharmacist on her way to collect herbs ten years ago. When she was just taken back, she was stupid and silly, not knowing anything and remembering nothing. She was about five years old at that time.

From then on, Danica lived with the old pharmacist. The old pharmacist was not a qualified raising man, or he never thought of raising this child.

At first, the old pharmacist ate it by himself every time after cooking, and did not realize that there was only one wooden bowl and a set of tableware at home. Looking at the old pharmacist's indifferent expression, Danica swallowed the words to her mouth, and went to find a fruit similar to coconut fruit, dipped it open, and made a bowl by herself, and found a small wooden piece as her own rice spoon. Every time after the old pharmacist finished eating, she saw if there was any left. If there was one, she could eat by herself, and if there was no one, she would have to be hungry.

The old pharmacist's attitude towards her was not excessive, and Danica could only endure it silently and survive day by day. Although the old pharmacist did not restrict her freedom, where else could she go after leaving this eccentric old man and this house full of herbs?

After a period of observation, Danica found that if she cleaned and cleaned her room, there would be leftovers at noon or evening. If she just went out to play and didn't do any housework, she would be hungry all day long.

It feels bad to be hungry. In order to survive, Danica, who is only five or six years old, swept the floor with a broom twice as tall as herself every day. Because she was too short, she could only step on a stool and wipe the table. Fortunately, she worked hard all day to exchange for two leftover meals every day at noon and evening.

Seeing Danica doing things quickly and easily, the old pharmacist began to allow her to roughly treat some medicinal materials. Perhaps in order to better utilize the labor force, the old pharmacist also spent some time teaching her the reading and writing of common languages ​​in this world.

The old pharmacist is not a patient person. Danica learns very quickly when she is about to be kicked if she writes a wrong word.

After teaching Danica's vocabulary, the old pharmacist began to arrange more tasks for her. These tasks of handling medicinal materials could not be exchanged for more leftovers or a piece of warm clothes. The only thing she exchanged for was a learning opportunity. The old pharmacist allowed Danica to watch next to her when he was preparing the drug. Of course, the old pharmacist would not explain, let alone answer her questions.

Although Danica is still very young, she knows that if a person wants to survive in this world, she must rely on something. Although daily housework is already a heavy burden for a child, she will still try to squeeze out as much time as possible to learn how to prepare the medicine.

After eight years of such a life, Danica's tired life had a huge change one day.

It was a clear autumn day. The old pharmacist carried the medicine basket and the medicine shovel out to collect herbs as usual. He had not come back when the sun set. Fortunately, Danica could already cook at that time, so she would not starve herself.

The next day, the old pharmacist still did not come back.

Danica waited at her residence for three days, but in the end she couldn't wait any longer. She locked the door and went to the place where the old pharmacist often collected herbs to find him. As a result, under a cliff, Danica found the old pharmacist's broken body, and her chest and abdomen were almost bitten by wild beasts, leaving only a bloody head intact.

Looking at the old pharmacist's body, Danica was stunned and had not recovered for a long time. He died like this? The old man who brought fear, joy, hunger, coldness and knowledge to himself died like this? The body was still bitten by wild beasts.

Danica dug a small hole with stones and branches, cleaned up the old pharmacist's body and buried it. She did not set up a grave, but just flattened the ground. Although there was no way to compare it with other professions, at least in Danica's opinion, the old pharmacist was much more powerful than the strongest hunter in the town. As long as he could flexibly use the prepared potion. Such a powerful pharmacist hid in the ravine of the gray mountains, there might be many hidden secrets. Now that he is dead, all the stories will disappear with the wind.

When he returned to his residence, it was almost dark. Danica boiled some boiling water and threw some vegetable leaves, a small spoonful of salt and a small piece of air-dried bacon in. When it was almost cooked, it broke some black bread in. This was his own dinner. Just when he was about to eat, Danica suddenly thought of a very serious problem.

The land in York town is barren and cannot support so many people by farming. The residents of the town often need to hunt in the next gray mountains. Hunting up the mountain is very dangerous. In addition to being injured when fighting wild animals, the primeval forests of the gray mountains are not welcome to outsiders. The smoke and poisonous insects are even more difficult to guard against. People in the town are often injured by hunting up the mountain.

Although the old pharmacist's research on pharmacy is not about curing diseases or saving people, some trauma that are not particularly serious, poisonous injuries, etc. can still be treated. As the only person who can treat injuries in a hundred miles, the old pharmacist should have great prestige in the town, but the fact is just the opposite. The old pharmacist is not a warm-hearted person. On the contrary, his personality is quite mean. Any townspeople who come to ask for help from him will have to pay a considerable price, either they need to lose their money for their bankruptcy, or they will pick herbs for him to go to cliffs or dangerous areas where beasts often appear. Because of this, although the old pharmacist has been continuously treating the injuries to the town, his reputation in the town is quite bad, but because he is a professional, the townspeople can only endure it.

But now that the old pharmacist is dead, will the anger that the townspeople have suppressed for several years be vented directly on themselves? Danica looked at the bowl of thick soup in her hand and survived after hardships. Could it be that those foolish townspeople beaten to death?

It was from that time that the news that there was an evil witch living in the house near the forest east of York Town slowly spread. Danica tried hard to show her evil and evil in front of outsiders, and spread it out and said that she liked to use human internal organs to make potions.

The fear brought by this rumor successfully suppressed the anger of the townspeople. The "evil witch" Danica and Yorktown lived together for three years.

Of course, the lies made up by Danica can only deceive children. People who have really made a living outside and see the world will not be deceived by such clumsy lies. The reason why they do not expose this lie is just because they do not have enough benefits to drive it.
Chapter completed!