Awakening: Reincarnating With the SSS-Level Extraction Talent

In other words, the event and discussion had been triggered overnight, and became the topic among millions of players!

Of course, Alex perfectly knew what this event was about.

And someone even displayed an image of the panel they received once coming close to the forest!

This was a feature introduced to allow other people that weren't in the game or didn't have the time to be able to see.

Later on, a broadcast feature will be available, but until then, images are good enough.

...

[Area: Toxic Forest]

[Type: Limited Time Event]

[Difficulty: ???]

[Rewards: Earn points for each monster killed. Points can be exchanged for rare items such as Pet Seal Cards, Magic Crystals, Experience Points, Reputation Points, and more.]

[Duration: 48 hours]

...

Alex was immensely excited.

The reason?

Well, because some of the rewards were [Pet Seal] cards!

Remember how he got an [S-Rank Shadow Pet Egg] for scoring first in the event at Dawn City?

Well, you actually needed a [Pet Seal] that matched the pet egg's rank to be able to start the hatching process.

This would surely cost hundreds of points, but Alex was ready.

And also, he would need [Magic Crystals] to help his pet evolve further.

...

[Item: Magic Crystal]

[Quality: Rare]

[Effect: Help pets upgrade and synthesize consumable materials for pets.]

...

If he got enough of those, not only could he use [Potential Extraction] on them one by one to push them to their highest forms, but he would also be able to directly use [Synthesis] to enhance his shadow pet's power!

Basically, this event was a treasure trove for Alex.

...

[Event Timer: 22:42:39]

And above the page with the official discussion of the event, a timer was ticking down.

By the way, as Alex is currently in the real world, we use reality's time, meaning that when inside the game, the event would be around 44 to 45 hours away!

But there was one single little problem with this event: poison, and Alex could read several posts about this already.

[The Toxic Forest is blocked by a wall of poison, if you enter it you will begin to receive -100 damage per second until death!]

[What the hell?]

[I can confirm, my friend died trying to rush inside!]

The problem was that the forest was filled with [Poison Mist], meaning that anyone who wanted to participate would need to get a [Poison Antidote] to participate.

And oh boy were these things difficult to get.

You could buy them at the alchemist, of course, but this was the "expensive" way of doing it.

Otherwise, you could maybe try to learn the [Alchemy] skill from a mentor, which made more sense, but would also cost you.

And lastly, you can try to gather the materials yourself, though you would need to then pay the [Alchemist] to brew them together.

As for Alex, he had no such issues.

[Synthesis] could help him out, and he already had some basic alchemy skills from his past life, meaning that learning would be much quicker.

In the end, Alex got up, prepared breakfast for himself, while leaving a portion to Alice, then immediately connected to 'Universal Descent'.

...

As Alex logged back into Universal Descent, the familiar landscape of [Dawn City] loaded around him.

The city bustled with players, NPCs, and merchants hawking their wares.

But Alex's mind was focused.

The [Toxic Forest] event had been announced, and he had around 45 hours until it officially began.

He needed to be ready.

His first objective: acquiring enough [Poison Antidotes] to survive the toxic mist that shrouded the event area.

Since he'd need one antidote every hour, and he planned to be in there for the full duration, Alex calculated he'd need at least 40 to 50 antidotes—just to be safe.

With that in mind, he headed toward the alchemist's shop nestled in the heart of Dawn City.

The twisting alleyways led him to a small, unassuming wooden door with a sign etched into the top: [Fiora's Potions & Brews].

As Alex entered, the shop was filled with the pungent aroma of herbs, drying flowers, and bubbling potions.

Behind the counter stood an NPC, Fiora, a seasoned alchemist in her late fifties with a sharp gaze, she was one of those NPCs with personal reputation, which is why she didn't care that he was at -300 with the church.

She greeted Alex with a knowing nod.

"Another adventurer preparing for the Toxic Forest event," she said, already guessing his purpose, "You'll be needing antidotes for the poison mist, yes?"

Alex stepped closer to the counter, "Exactly. I need a lot of them. You wouldn't happen to have a recipe for [Poison Antidotes], would you?"

[Reputation with Fiora: -20]

Fiora crossed her arms, giving him a scrutinizing look, "It's not a simple brew.

Gathering the right ingredients is one thing, but balancing the potion is another.

I can sell you the recipe, but you'll need to have at least some basic alchemy skills to craft it yourself, which I don't think you have."

A grin spread across Alex's face, "That's not a problem. I have enough experience."

"Good. I'll sell you the recipe for 10 silver coins."

This is a hefty amount, the price of 10 antidotes actually, but it didn't matter.

...

[Poison Antidote Recipe Acquired]

After the transaction was complete, Fiora handed Alex a scroll with detailed instructions on how to create the antidote.

The materials list included:

...

[Luminous Leaf:] Found in novice village forest.

[Snake Tongue:] Can be extracted from poison snakes.

[Fire Fox Tail:] Can be extracted from fire foxes.

...

All of these items could be found in the novice village, and his [Synthesis] ability would let him combine them efficiently.

"Thanks," Alex said as he tucked the scroll into his inventory, "Now, I just need to gather the ingredients."

Fiora nodded, "If you're short on time, I have some of the materials in stock."

He glanced at the stock of materials behind Fiora.

While buying them would save time, Alex preferred going out to gather the ingredients himself.

...

With the recipe secured, Alex left the shop and headed toward the forest surrounding the novice village, and the one outside Dawn City.

The towering trees and undergrowth were dense, but it didn't take long before he spotted the first material on his list—Luminous Leaf.

The glowing, greenish-blue leaves dotted the dark corners of the forest floor, providing just enough light to make them noticeable.

He quickly gathered enough to meet the recipe's requirements.

And as for the [Fire Fox Tail] and [Snake Tongue], he had no other choice but to hunt the monsters himself.

It took him around 3 hours, and over 900 monsters, but in the end, he finally managed to gather the ingredients, leveling up to level 33 in the process.

...

[Materials Gathered: Luminous Leaf x100, Snake Tongue x100, Fire Fox Tail x100]

He had grabbed 100 of each because he needed to get some for Alice too.

Without wasting time, he began the synthesis.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

[Synthesis: Luminous Leaf + Snake Tongue + Fire Fox Tail = Poison Antidote]

The three items glowed for a moment before merging together, and once the light faded, all that was left was a small vial with green liquid inside.

...

[Item: Poison Antidote (High-Quality)]

[Quality: Rare]

[Duration: 1 hour]

[Description: Drinking this potion will negate low-level and middle-level poison entirely.]

...

When brewing a potion, you would need to be very precise as to not make mistakes and reduce the quality.

But with [Synthesis], Alex was able to instantly made the antidotes with the highest quality possible for a [Rare] potion.

Each synthesis would create a single [Poison Antidote], and considering the poison mist lasted for 48 hours, Alex decided to make 100 antidotes to be safe.

It took several minutes for the system to craft all 100 antidotes, but Alex's patience paid off.

And the vials of pale green liquid now sat in his inventory, glowing faintly.

[Poison Antidote x100 Acquired]

[Superior Backpack: 100/100]

[Snake Backpack: 10/10]

His backpacks were full, but satisfied with his preparations, Alex sat back and opened the event panel again.

The countdown continued to tick away.

[Event Timer: 42:02:11]

There was still plenty of time, but he knew that being over-prepared was never a bad thing.