5 A Boy Named Owen (2)

Alcohol magic. Magical alcohol.

He did not know what to call it. Owen had almost expected that it being under the fire would have resulted in said drink to burn into flames as well—but it didn't. Which was disappointing for the young man expecting it to either blow up or explode.

"Is the drink watered down that much?"

A scowl erupted in his face, the young man knowing that his current stash had been tampered with. However, when he met his grandmother, she was more than happy to provide him the other things he needed to prepare the most basics of potions. And so he tried to keep his head cool and focused on the beaker currently placed in the furnace.

As for the said potion, it would be none other than the Healing Potion.

Owen had sliced and diced the next ingredient he needed to add into the base, trying not to wince as the evaporation somehow made his eyes sting. Too much mana had that kind of effect sometimes. But it was finally done. The shredded magical sage grass contained and provided the levels of healthy mana needed to make such a potion and supply the healing elements of his brew.

And so he would create a magical potion and not just a child tinkering and playing with random ingredients.

—That was false.

Any child could have made a healing potion if they wanted to and if they were taught properly. There was nothing to underestimate with kids, especially when at a tender age of six, one could already learn a Class.

But potion-making, it was a good trade to learn.

The young man shuffled through his drawers and picked up a perfectly clean parchment which held notes about alchemy. There were even little trivia written on the good kind of parchment set to last for a lifetime compared to those that aged and grew yellow—his parents cared a lot about education.

'It is important that every person be equipped with the basic knowledge of learning how to make a Healing Potion. This Potion is seen in every kit of an Adventurer or a Soldier's pack, it should be seen in the bags of Farmers, Woodcutter and others too.

However, because of the lack of formal education, and perhaps time, only those who are of the Alchemist Class can spend the necessary time and education in learning. Thus those who choose to pursue the trade of being an Alchemist must do their best to provide it to these people who are often busy at an affordable price.

-Alchemist Sich Drauht on Alchemy Introduction''

"Affordable price? Seems like where you'd want to make barely enough money to survive on. Acquiring the necessary ingredients is no joke and often pricey if you want the good kind." Owen closed his eyes and recounted a lesson, almost from perfect memory. Often something his mother made him recite in the past. "Most of the ingredients are gathered from dangerous spots where mana naturally converges, a secret spot in the forest, hidden in dark caves filled with unknown creatures—"

There were Magical Farmers, but magical ingredients often led to dangers on their own.

When his grandfather's old friend had once come over, the man had gone into a wild tale of how his crops had actually begun to gain a form of sentience, or at least started to attack the Farmer in an attempt to protect themselves and take over the entire land. Something in between those two.

He wasn't so sure.

Owen hadn't actually seen anything like it before.

But then the Farmer had gone on and started spouting about contacting Green Mages, and Druids to form some kind of army with the plants and thought it was the best next thing between golems and summoned spirits.

"Plants aren't really good when they're stationary and can be eliminated with a [ Fireball ] unless they battle something dumb like zombies, but even then…"

Owen eliminated the thought and paid attention to the next step of brewing the potion. Although, he had already committed an error when he poured the alcohol a while ago as the base, but he wasn't doing a serious job.

Perhaps his father would have jumped out of his grave if the man saw what was going to happen next—

Alcohol base. Sage grass enriching it with mana. And because he was feeling lazy, the young man added drops of healing potion from an already pre-made healing potion that his grandmother once gave him. Then he started tossing in some additional ingredients based on the recipe, just a tiny bit of each reagent and mineral available—he wasn't going to waste everything his grandmother gave him.

Although he probably could, and it wouldn't even be a problem.

Half an hour later, a glowing green liquid was inside of a vial.

"I could have made it yellow, blue or some other color…" But the idea of healing potions being green was actually quite prevalent, and so he stuck with that. Owen picked up the vial and watched the liquid swish slightly inside of it. "Voila, it's done."

He had done it out on a whim, but now he actually finished doing it.

There would be nobody else but him to drink it.

However, to test its effect…

He glanced at the knife he had used to cut the grass and other ingredients—Owen placed his arm under the flames. The fire scorched through his skin. "Fuck—"

He wasn't really thinking well, but it could be said that for the past few years, almost everything had gone wrong, so he tried to give himself a break. The young man downed the liquid and drank it to the last drop… and he began to cough.

The taste was awful and horrid.

But when he glanced at his skin healing itself… it worked!

He laughed and hacked out another cough. The sage grass bits stuck to his throat, and he probably didn't filter some of the other ingredients like the scratchy pollen from the yellow puff bud, but other than that—it was all fine and good!

Would he get the Alchemist Class?

Maybe, maybe he would.

If anything, he could at least tell that he got that instead of the Drinker Class. His grandparents would be—proud? Upset? Owen Liddell now understood that the demise of his parents was because of his father rediscovering an important potion's long-lost recipe, and it happened while they were to visit said grandparents.

Would he really take the same path as his father once did?

He didn't think his grandparents would be pleased about it… more than that, however, as he glanced at his room that he might have called his own home—it didn't feel like he was growing anymore. He had grown accustomed to the life of being the only and sole grandchild.

Maybe it was just the alcohol giving him a moment of clarity and understanding.

He was actually being like his father right now. Unbeknownst to him, he had already followed right into the man's footsteps for staying hidden from the world for such a long time. Only one conclusion would follow right after that realization.

"I need to get out of this place."

—-—-

Author's Note: Hi there, Reader! Welcome to TGIF Mass Release where I'm releasing five chapters this Friday. Here's the first one. (April 16, 2021 GMT+8)