[9 - THE ART OF POTIONCRAFTING]

It wasn't until I realised the Goblin Chieftain landed onto the ground with a thud that reality had snapped back to me.

Evgeni was dusting himself off, giving me his gorgeous, blinding smile. It looked just a little bit strained, and I could tell he was hiding the pain in his leg. "Seraphim? Is your leg alright?" "It's fine, I can walk it off." No, Evgeni, that leg does not look okay. "Here, you took a few of these, right? They should be able to help if you eat them." Unless that leg was broken from that giant slam, which meant that I'd need to refine a potion for him ASAP. "Oh!" Evgeni took out the berries and swallowed them like pills.

I wonder if he forgot they existed.

"Does it feel better? How is your leg now?" "It feels slightly better, I can walk it off!" But Evgeni looks like he's still having trouble with his leg, I'll make a mental note to start refining lesser health potions right away. Chances are we won't be running into each other for a while, though, so I don't think I'll be able to give him one. I think that's okay though, it's still a good idea to stay far away from him.

And then, out of nowhere, the Tower spoke suddenly.

[Player 'Erstwhile King of Ice' has completed the hidden quest: Kill a Goblin Chieftain!]

[For being 2nd to clear the Quest, Player 'Erstwhile King of Ice' has received the Skillbook: Madness Enhancement!]

I blinked, I hadn't seen one of the Tower's window popups for a while now. A skillbook was my reward, it may have been almost completely useless to me, but I know that Bonekeeper or Beastmaster Players would kill for it, Bonekeepers especially. Madness Enhancement enhanced a summoned familiar's abilities at the cost of their health, since Bonekeeper familiars do not use health, it was just a free stat boost for them. And I got it just like this…I wonder how much money I'll make from selling it?

…

Hold on.

Since when did I kill a Goblin Chieftain!? Xingxi landed a punch on it, yes, but all of the work was done by Evgeni! "Seraphim, did you perhaps know that killing a Goblin Chieftain was a hidden quest?" "...Maybe," he had a teasing smile on his face, as if he knew that both of us knew about the hidden quest. My idol is going to be the death of me one day, but I'd probably be okay with that. "Well, it seems our agreement has come to an end. I'll be taking my leave now, we'll see each other again, I'm sure of it." Before Seraphim left, though, he leaned in close to my ear.

Oh, I've never noticed that he was slightly shorter than I was.

"You're interesting, I like you. I think we'll see each other more often. Thanks for the cloak." Evgeni walked away just like that, and I just stared at him with what was definitely a dumb look on my face as he left.

Is my face turning red? I think my face has flushed red. That was too close, too close! Goodness, I am so glad the mask covers my face, my face is burning up. I don't think I'll be able to handle it very well if Evgeni continues to be so close to me like this!

I slapped myself out of my stupor, turning to the boys.

Xingxi and Mercury have been getting along very well, entertaining each other while Evgeni and I talked. Mercury seemed to be acting out stories from when he was helping out new players in the first floor, and Xingxi has just been happily listening all the while. "Alright, we only have one more goblin camp to clear and we'll be done! Let's keep at this pace, fighting!" Mercury gave me a beaming grin, "Alright! I still have so much energy left!"

The final camp was easy to clear without any issue, and the resources I managed to gather from it were extremely important.

[Mana-Concentrated Water - C]

[Freshwater collected from cave settlements in Goblin Fields, has an unusually high concentration of mana, but acts like normal water otherwise. Higher grades will have higher concentrations of mana.]

Of course, normal water you could find in shops or from your taps also worked, but potent potions, even if they were low grade, would always use Mana-Concentrated water from inside the Tower. So even if my potions are low grade, I can at least ensure their quality. Once I finished filling all my buckets of water, I got up from the spring within the goblin cave settlement and walked to find the boys.

Mercury waved to me with a grin, "We're done~! I already opened my Treasure Box, I got some really cool winged sandals! Hah, it's kind of funny, considering I-oops, nearly made a mistake there, good thing I caught myself on time!" Mercury tapped his ankles, showing off his equipment, it was a hilarious coincidence, he may as well be the avatar of Hermes. "Have you opened yours?" "Oh, no, I haven't." "Then what are you waiting for? Open it! I wanna see what you got!" Alright, fine. Please open the Treasure Box, Tower.

[Player 'Erstwhile King of Ice' has opened Treasure Box x1 and received: Everflowing Flask x1!]

I did not blink in exasperation.

"An…infinite source of water." "A WHAT!?"

I'm not lying, the Everflowing Flask is perhaps one of the best sources of mana-concentrated water for Alchemy, providing a constant flow of B-grade liquid. And I received it just like that. This feels like cheating, is this truly how it feels to be someone favoured by the Tower?

Moreover, all that hard work collecting that water from the cave! I can't believe this, now it's all gone to waste! I resisted the urge to punch a wall, I can still use the water. I'll just use it first, this is fine, I can also use it to compare between potions made with different grades of the mana-concentration. "You can't be serious!" "I am. I'm very serious." "And I thought being allowed to fly with these sandals was already broken enough!" Honestly, I'm not that worried, the Tower is only going to get even harder, getting good stuff this early is already a blessing.

We decided to call it a day after that spectacle.

After getting home and having dinner with my family, I entered the Hearth of Hestia, finally being able to put the equipment to some more use.

Potion refining was tricky, you had to keep a constant flow of mana and ensure everything was measured correctly and precisely, and this was one of the more simpler things to do as an Alchemist. Crushing the Melberries, dicing the Manacaps, I had to be very precise and careful with these steps. I was also keeping my hands busy distilling and purifying the water while preparing the ingredients, it's better to kill two birds with one stone. I had placed the Everflowing Flask on the bench behind me, so it wouldn't get in the way.

Xingxi watched with interest, I let him, he looked fascinated by all of this.

When I finished my preparations, I was finally ready to refine an initial batch of potions.

Each potion was about 50mL, so refining a litre of the liquid would make 20 potions. I poured the distilled litre of liquid into a cauldron, then carefully hung it over the fire in the hearth, the handle was insulated, so I wouldn't burn myself when I took it off the fire. Once the liquid started to simmer, I added the diced Manacaps by quarter portions until it came to a boil. I would take the cauldron off the heat, place it on the insulated section of the workbench and slowly stirred the mixture for about a minute. It was essential to maintain a stable flow of mana during this step, which was thankfully a skill that I mastered when I was still a mage.

A vortex would be created if you did this correctly, and that was when I would add a drop of the catalyst powder, which measured approximately 0.08g. I needed to be careful here, because too much of it would make the potion overloaded and therefore mess it up. That was a waste of resources, so I specifically bought a special set of measuring spoons for this. And after that, the potion should quickly turn into a rich blue colour. To which it did, and I inwardly cheered at getting it correct on my first attempt.

I repeated the process with the rest of the Manacaps. When I was done, I ended up with 55 usable lesser mana potions and on the verge of passing out due to mana exhaustion. Ah, I was too excited to start making potions, I should watch my mana levels next time.

I hit the ground as the world turned black.

⸻⸻⸻⸻

When I finally saw light again, Xingxi was standing in front of me with a worried look on his face. He's learned a lot more expressions since I first met him, now I can see him laughing when he's happy and pouting like a child when something doesn't go his way. "Thank you for taking care of me, Xingxi. How long was I out for?" One quick look at the clock I had hung up on the wall a few days ago showed that I'd been in the Hearth of Hestia for 8 hours, which meant that one of the twins would be knocking on my door to wake me soon.

As soon as I exited the space, I heard a knock on my door.

The twins called me to breakfast, and I started the day off the same as any other. It was peaceful, with occasional chaos from the boys, and my parents continuing to dote over Xingxi. My father doesn't show it much, but he likes to take care of Xingxi just as much as my mother does. He's always peeling the shrimp for his 'grandson', even when he's forced all his children to learn it as soon as possible. I sense some favouritism there. The twins, too, they're also showering Xingxi with love and care, to the point where both spent half of their total allowance to spoil him. I'm happy that Xingxi's loved so much in my family.

I spent the next two days refining potions as well, making about 200 lesser health potions by the time I was done. I was careful not to pass out from mana exhaustion again, and it turns out that my lesser mana potions worked better than I expected since I took a few to keep my reserves up.

Xingxi had just about capped the last bottle when I received a message from Mercury.

[Fleet-Footed Envoy: Do you happen to have any more of those berries left? I found an injured kid while making my rounds through the first floor and I ran out!]

[Erstwhile King of Ice: I don't, but I do have something that might be able to help. I'll be there quickly.]

I hurriedly put a few lesser health potions into my inventory and entered the first floor with Xingxi, employing the disguise as usual. Mercury found me almost immediately, carrying a young child on his back. "Hey! What do you have? The kid's bleeding out, a horned rabbit slammed into his gut." "I got this the other day, it should be able to heal him. Lay him down on my legs." I took out the lesser health potion as Mercury placed the child on my lap. He looked terrible, and that was excluding the giant bloody wound at his stomach.

"Here…drink it slowly, it'll ease the pain," I held the bottle to the kid's mouth, but he refused to drink it. I couldn't blame him, so I poured the potion over the wound instead. This was the other way to apply the effects of a potion, it still had the same effect, the wound got less severe within a matter of seconds. "I'm sorry, that must've hurt, didn't it?" The child was trying to hold back tears, and all I did was gently try to comfort him. How cruel of the Tower, to think that even young children couldn't escape it.

What would've happened to this kid if Mercury wasn't here to help him?

I took out another lesser health potion, applying it over the wound again, letting it fully recover. Keep holding on, alright?

I can't have another person nearly die on me like this, especially a child.

"Does it still hurt?"

After a few minutes of recovery time and Mercury's constant worry for the kid, I could tell they had regained their energy again when they suddenly shot up from my lap. They placed a hand where the wound used to be, only to be surprised to find nothing. "Easy, easy! Calm down, nothing's here to get you!"

They stared at me, hesitating before speaking. "What did you do to me?"

"Nothing bad, I promise! I just applied a lesser health potion onto the wound to speed up the healing process." I held up my hands in surrender, watching the boy's expressions jump back and forth from relieved to suspicious. He placed his hands on his hips, his face settling into a pout, "...I'll accept your words as the truth then. I won't forgive you if you're lying to me."

I felt like I was being stared down by the kid, but luckily, Mercury swooped in when he saw the kid was okay now, "Thank the gods you're alright! That wound looked deep and real bad, I had to call over our big bro here to help!"

Is it just me, or does this child feel really familiar?

I used Appraisal to sate my curiosity, but I didn't think I'd be this surprised by the end result.

[Player Yue Fulong - Status]

[Player Title: Resplendent Merchant]

RESPLENDENT MERCHANT!?