042 Plus-One Pill

Windel Garden was heaven for many magicians and cultivators, as it provided a rich mana filled environment. However, it was also one of the reasons why the garden was restricted by the Academy.

No form of meditation was allowed.

If a person was to meditate inside the Windel Garden, they would have interfered with the growth of the plants.

Nico regretfully sighed, it was such a shame.

"Nico, Professor Stance said you can take home another cutting today," Elmara instructed as she was about to leave for the day.

Elmara and the other assistants were surprised by how well the manaplants were growing, and it had only been less than a month since the boy Nico had started working in the garden.

The changes Nico made to the plant's regiments were minor, less water here, and more sunlight there. However, they could tell that the overall growth had improved.

"Great!" Nico stopped surveying the plant and thanked Elmara.

Elmara left, and Nico returned to his survey.

Nico had been recording the height and length of each plant every night in a journal. Although it wasn't necessary, he needed a way to explain how he was able to gauge the growth of the plants. The changes were so minute that most people weren't able to differentiate.

Even Elmara, who had a plant spiritual root, wasn't able to notice. She could analyze the manaplant health status and diagnose it, but that was the extent of her ability.

The other assistants assumed Nico was some sort of crazy plant boy who was obsessed with plants, but Elmara thought that Nico was more methodological in his approach.

At the end of the working day, Nico took an extra cutting of a plant.

Nico returned to the dorm, and prepared five sets of ingredients and brought them to Killo Restaurant Inn.

On top of the inn was a quiet slightly sloped rooftop. Nico had prepared all the necessary items to create the Plus-One Pill.

The Plus-One Pill required five ingredients, Kaibera, Topen, Renshaw, Shishio, and Manamarigold.

Nico had exchanged APs for the Kaibera. The Topen he had discovered from Arango Forest. The manamarigold he had cultivated himself. And the remaining two manaherbs he had taken as part of his payment while working as Professor Stance assistance.

He didn't have the correct age of the ingredients, but he was sure the amount would be accurate. Unlike food recipes, the amount were units of shadow symbols.

He had no cauldron, but he had a large copper stockpot and a grill he had borrowed from Killo Restaurant Inn's kitchen.

As the sun settled beyond Grisham Range, Nico chopped up the manaherbs to best capture the amount of shadow symbols required.

The chopped Kaibera plant went in first.

"Add Green Rain." Nico said to himself as he took out the Green Rain Talisman and released the rain into the pot until it was half full.

Once the shadow symbols loosened and released into the pot, he added the Topen. Unlike what was taught in class, the mixture did not need to be separated out or refined. Nico added the remaining manaherbs one at a time, and used the Black Flame.

Nico watched as the shadow symbols formed black manalines. Nico then used the Blue Ice Talisman. A shard ice crystal shot into the pan.

Pang!

"Crap!" Nico looked at the dent appearing on the bottom of the copper pan. "Busho is going to kill me!"

Luckily, nothing was leaking. Maybe he should have bought a cauldron, but the cheapest one was 500 gold pieces, he would be broke if he buys it.

Inside the soupy mixture, the manalines began to bind together and crystallize.

The recipe had instructions on how to build the structures with the manalink. Instead of using Minko, Nico used the manaring from Saturn to manipulate the structure. Manipulation was easier with Saturn, but the disadvantage was his short range.

Nico moved his head closer to the copper pot. The manaring spiraled out from Saturn and into the pot. Nico controlled the tiny spiral tentacle and moved the black manalines to form hexagonal structure. As the manalines continued to form, a honeycomb shaped orb could be seen.

Within an hour, the Green Rain water had evaporated and what was left inside was a single ugly pill the size of a small pea. It was too out of shape to be called round.

Congratulation, Plus-One Pill Grade F created.

According to the recipe, the pill could be ingested.

Nico wanted to enhance it with lifeless water, but he also wanted to test it out without the lifeless water for baseline information. Nico thought about it again, it was useless to test for a baseline if every pill he took could weaken to a degree.

Nico decided to wait until dawn to use the lifeless water.

Nico took his second set of ingredients and followed the same procedure. The only alteration was that he aimed the Blue Ice Talisman up in the air and waited for gravity to drop the shard. He caught the falling shard with a tong and dropped it into the copper pot. This saved Nico the trouble of causing more damage to the copper pot.

Before dawn, he gave the twins some instruction.

"If I pass out, wake me up in the morning before dawn. If I look dead, go get Busho, okay?" asked Nico.

Snowy nodded. Junior was a little slow, and tilted his furry head side to side.

Woof! woof!

Nico enhanced all the pills. After everything was settled, he ate the lifeless water enhanced Plus-One Pill.

As the Plus-One Pill traveled down his throat and Minko took a little nip at it, but the rest was immediately gobbled up by Chaos Manaroot.

Status:

Manaroot: Chaos 7>8

Mananode: 2

Manaspirit: Midnight Koi 29

Strength: 45

FP: 26/28

Defense: 32>33

Speed: 33

Magic: 39

MP: 74/75

Resistance: 35

Casting: 27

Nico manaroot and defense went up by one.

The 2nd pill raised his speed by one, and 3rd pill didn't have any effect on his status.

The 4th pill raised his manaroot and Minko,

Status:

Manaroot: Chaos 8>9

Mananode: 2

Manaspirit: Midnight Koi 29>30

Strength: 45

FP: 26/30

Defense: 33

Speed: 34

Magic: 39

MP: 74/78

Resistance: 35

Casting: 27

Minko wriggled with joy.

Looking into Minko's vision, Nico noticed that the shadow symbols were brighter than before, especially the manalines that ran through all the objects in his surrounding field of vision.

When it was almost 9:00am, Nico finished the 5th set.

Congratulation, Create 5 Alchemy Pills Task Complete.

Nico selected the Roulette Coupon.

Receive Elder Wand Recipe.

Nico scanned through the recipes with his droopy eyes. He was too tired to read through the recipes.

Task:

Plant and Harvest 1 Manafruit. 0/1. Reward: System Reward.

Kill 200 Manabeast Terrors. 15/200. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

Create 5 Inscriptions. 0/5. Roulette Coupon.

*New* Create 200 Alchemy Pills. 0/200. Reward: Roulette Coupon.

He yawned, he better get to class.