After Gred sold the elf's two weapons, he gave Jess six silver. That brought Jess's total earnings from their journey into Duskwood to twenty-four silver.

The carriage fares and lodging for the trip had cost the two of them less than five silver altogether, leaving them with nearly twenty silver in net income.

On his way home, Jess stopped by the rent collector on the street corner and paid his four silver in rent. Once home, he lay on his bed and counted his remaining silver coins and copper pieces.

He no longer wanted to think about matters such as wear and depreciation on their weapons. He could calculate the losses when the equipment started failing or broke.

The herb-gathering expedition had been far more frightening than Jess had anticipated. They had even encountered an extremely dangerous competitor and fallen into peril again and again.

That was the problem with trying to make money in Azeroth. Either a person was born into privilege as the descendant of nobles, or he had to risk his life for every coin.

Could he make a living by searching only the forests of northern Elwynn and concentrating on common herbs with steady demand, such as Peacebloom?

If even a dangerous place like Raven Hill had few herbs near its settlements, then this area would have fewer still.

And if he traveled farther afield, how safe could anywhere far from settled land be, even within Elwynn Forest?

Gnolls and murlocs were both deadly. Worse, when it came to gathering herbs, the gnoll and murloc tribes were formidable competitors. Ruth Lumere had told them that many gnoll and murloc herbalists were far more capable than those in Stormwind.

Finding a way to increase his own strength had become urgent.

It took him a long time to fall asleep. Early the next morning, he jolted awake before dawn.

With nothing else to do, Jess arrived at Malin's study early and cleaned the room. Then he found an alchemy book titled *Alchemy and Common Ailments* and began reading.

He planned to begin preparing his potion that afternoon. Before then, he needed to master the technique for grinding Wicked Claws and the proper methods for drying and powdering herbs.

When Malin came through the door, he found Jess reading intently.

"Are you interested in alchemy, Mr. Seso?"

"Yes," Jess said. "When I was young, I dreamed of becoming an apothecary or a physician. Of course, I never had the means to apprentice myself to one. It's too late now, so I can only satisfy my curiosity by reading about it."

"I have an alchemy laboratory next door," Malin said. "It may not be as well equipped as the laboratories inside the Wizard's Sanctum, but it will suffice for simpler formulas. You may experiment there, but you must provide your own ingredients. You are not to use anything from my cabinets."

"Really? That's wonderful!"

Jess was genuinely delighted. On his way there that morning, he had been wondering whether he should buy a crucible or something similar from Alchemy Needs. Then he had considered the risk of starting a fire by boiling a pot in his rented room.

Now the entire problem was solved: he had access to a ready-made alchemy laboratory. The pay for this job might be low, but its benefits were truly first-rate.

"Make me a pot of tea, Jess." Malin beckoned to him. "Go to the laboratory and use the brown pot to boil the water from the waterskin. Once it boils, let it cool for five minutes. You can wash the teapot while the water cools, then add one teaspoon of Goldthorn. By then, the water should be ready to pour. Bring the teapot here when the tea is brewed."

With the book tucked under his arm, Jess went into the alchemy laboratory. The dazzling array of pots, kettles, and bowls nearly overwhelmed him at once.

He found a pouch of Goldthorn, a teaspoon, and the small brown pot on a shelf. Then, following Malin's instructions, he lit the fire and began boiling the water.

He glanced at the label on the waterskin. It read "spring water." This was probably the same kind required for the Shadow Protection Potion—clean water untouched by any magic.

Once the water boiled, he extinguished the fire, quickly washed the teapot, and added the Goldthorn. He checked his pocket watch. There were still four minutes to wait, so he sat down and resumed reading the alchemy book.

As he read, he suddenly came across a passage describing the early symptoms of undead rot poisoning: difficulty falling asleep at night no matter how exhausted one was, the odor of a rotting corpse clinging to the body, sunlight seeming painfully bright during the day, and unexplained fatigue and weakness throughout the body...

Jess's heart lurched. Could he have contracted undead rot poisoning?

He turned the page and found the other symptoms: vomiting green bodily fluids and veins in the arms turning purple.

Reluctantly, Jess rolled up his sleeve. Faint purplish lines were visible along his arm.

Could this be real? Had he truly been infected?

The bottom of the page stated that severe cases could prove fatal within three to five months. However, if detected early and treated properly, the patient could recover completely.

Thinking back to his fight against the walking corpses in the Raven Hill Cemetery, Jess could not remember being wounded. Even when the ghoul spat venom at him in the end, he had dodged it.

The book said undead rot poisoning could occur only when undead fluids or ghoul venom came into contact with an open wound. If he had not been injured, how could he have been infected?

He began searching his entire body for some wound he had overlooked. At last, he found several blackened punctures on his lower leg.

What had happened...? Had a snake bitten him?

Then he remembered the countless black beetles that had poured from the final sarcophagus in that tomb. Gred had sworn that being bitten by those insects would cause no harm... and those beetles had possessed two enormous fangs!

If there was no danger, why did the book say the poison could kill him within months?!

Jess abruptly realized that the reassurance had come from a dwarf. Dwarves had evolved from earthen beings, and their resistance to poison far exceeded that of other races. Why had he ever trusted a dwarf's advice about poison?

The water was getting cold!

He touched the pot and badly burned his hand. Flustered, he poured the tea and carried the teapot into the study, but his mind held nothing except undead poison... undead poison...

"You seem terribly distracted." Malin sniffed the tea. "Not bad. You brewed it just as I instructed. I won't need to explain it again next time."

As soon as he finished work at noon, Jess sprinted all the way to the library and began searching for potions that could treat undead poison.

Before long, he found a formula—the Restorative Potion. It was one of the fastest and most effective treatments for undead poison. Not only would it immediately alleviate the symptoms, but over the following days, it would prevent the poison from spreading, purge what remained, and even heal the bodily damage it had caused. Most importantly, a single dose would solve the problem for good.

The potion was also very simple to make. All it required was Goldthorn—Master Malin's tea leaves—boiled together with one other ingredient.

That ingredient was... Jess turned the page—Elemental Earth?!