A Hollow Success

After getting directions from my advisor at the Guild, I entered the busy streets of Orario and quickly made my way over to the Blue Pharmacy. Luckily, it was in the general direction of the ruined church and after a short ten or so minutes long walk, I found the place. Entering the small store, I was slightly surprised to see the place utterly devoid of people. But after a couple seconds a female Chientrope, or dog person, came out of the store's backroom to greet me.

"Hello, what potions or services are you in need of today?" she asked.

"I'm here to buy some equipment… I need test tubes, beakers, a pestle and mortar, and several boxes to preserve herbs." I replied.

"Equipment?" She paused for a second, momentarily revealing a look of skepticism before adding, "I can certainly sell those, but since we're in the business of selling medicine and treatment, not equipment, expect a mark up on all the products' values..."

It didn't matter to me, after all, I had just recently earned over a ten thousand Vali by myself. So, after discussing the details of the transaction I paid a total of 2500 Vali for a set of 20 test tubes, 3 beakers of all types, a nice pestle and mortar, five boxes that were insulated with spiritually enchanted metals to store herbs, and as Miach himself had entered the store in the middle of my discussion with Naaza Erisuis, the cheintrope, I was also given a set of flasks for buying in bulk.

"Pleasure doing business with you," I said after packing my backpack as best I could with all the space I had made after turning in all my Monster Cores. The rest of the things I couldn't fit in my backpack were placed in the storage boxes I bought from Miach's store and carried by hand.

"Send Hestia my regards, Keter," Miach said as he held the door open for me to leave. I thanked him and went on my way back home.

A quarter of an hour later I made it to the church's basement. As I entered and started setting things aside to make an alchemist workstation, Hestia asked from the couch, "So… what are all those parts?"

"Mhmm?" I stopped for a second due to confusion, thinking, 'Isn't she supposed to be a goddess? Well, I guess it makes sense for her to not know what I'm doing as she's not exactly a Goddess of healing, alchemy, or anything related to medicine...' I said, "These are all the tools I'll need to make anything from medicine to poison."

Seeing her face grow worried at the mention of poison, I clarified, "Though I'll mostly be working on making helpful potions for myself and Bell, I'm just saying that these tools can be used to make a broad spectrum of products. If you want, I can show you as I figure this out myself..."

Surprisingly, she took my offer and moved over to my side after I finished setting everything up. Then again, she was a goddess with nothing else to do as it was only her and I in the ruined church, so perhaps this counted as entertainment in her eyes. Now… it was time to conjure up another skill; a skill I'd most undoubtedly need to make any headway in the field of alchemy!

[Skill Conjured: Allpurity Light Flames (Locked)

1st Degree Prerequisite: Level ??? (Too High To Properly Calculate Given Current Strength)

2nd Degree Prerequisite: Infernal Light Flames (Locked)

3rd Degree Prerequisite: Light Flames (Locked)

4th Degree Prerequisite: Light Flameling (Unlocking)

Light Flameling Unlocked!

New Skill

Name: Light Flameling

Level: Null

Description: The ability to create flames out of light. Burns up Light Magic to create a false flame suitable for heating things up, albeit gently.

Effect: Creates an unstable flame that would take constant exposure for several minutes before achieving a burn.

Light Flames can be unlocked at Light Manipulation Level: A, and Light Flameling Level: S]

Sighing at the underwhelming description of my newly unlocked skill, I picked up a cluster of herbs called Raindrop Goldenseal and began to carefully separate the leaves from the stalk. Using my newly acquired mortar and pestle I crushed the herbs' roots to power and discarded the leaves before moving on to another herb.

Continuing to process herbs in a myriad of ways — crushing, charring, and steeping being just a few such methods — I eventually ran out of things to prepare. Now was where the actual alchemy began as it was time for mixing. But first, I reviewed my book of herbs before doing anything as the endeavor was potentially dangerous. The recipes my Alchemy Skill gave me only consisted of lists and suggestions, not instructions; thus it was up to my experimentation!

Eventually, I got the confidence to begin concocting a health potion, so I started combining prepared herbs and… I ended up with it blowing up in my face, forming a cloud of black smoke as a foul-smelling sludge was left within one of my Florence Flasks. Hestia began laughing at my failure, but I ignored as I thought about what went wrong and how to avoid it going forward.

Fortunately, the number of herbs I procured earlier today was nothing to scoff at; it would take more than a hundred attempts to run out. So, after a bit of thinking and cleaning, I redid the potion, changing my method, and succeeded in getting a bit further before I ended up with a soapy mixture…

Needless to say, this was not it either so I pressed on. With my goddess watching me as I would a TV in my past life, I continued producing failure after failure until at last a health potion formed. Sadly it was Worthless and close to being unusable, but in the end, it was a viable health potion.

[Appraised Status

Name: Basic Health Potion

Quality: Worthless

Description: Consists of 100 milliliters worth of a red water-based liquid which can be splashed onto a wound or drank to activate its effects. Has a bitterness close to that of 100% cacao and uh… also, it's among the most inferior quality goods ever produced, ever...

Effect: Heals very light scratches and like-minded wounds over the course of a minute.]

"Wow," I said to myself, "For a success, this sure feels hollow..." I shook my head and poured the red liquid I'd just concocted from my flask to a test tube, sealing it with a cork before I returned to improve my technique.