Chương 78: A Return to Alchemy

After getting everything planted in the garden, I stretched my arms wide before taking a big swig of water. Gardening is a lot of work, especially when you're planting over 400 plants at once… Thankfully, the mushrooms were quite small, so they all fit in the planter boxes I had available. Anyways, now that I've successfully planted them all. The next step was to uproot them… Hehe, imagine. I wonder what Luna would say if I suddenly told her that? I glanced at Luna who was drinking water.

She looked at me, her eyebrows lifting curiously as she drank. I smiled and shook my head before turning my attention back to the garden. Let's see… For a batch recipe, I should need about 10 of each? In my head, I roughly calculated the materials I'd need. After confirming the recipe, I picked enough kingrow shrooms and huffpalls, tossing them in the bin.

"W-what?" Luna let out. Looking over, she had a completely shocked expression. Her mouth was opened and she looked baffled that I was undoing all the work we just did.

"Pfft." I couldn't help but chuckle, "I need to use them somehow, right?"

"Ah, yeah, I forgot…" She nodded, a faint red appearing on her cheeks. After I got everything I needed, I used my [Plant Growth] skill on the remaining plants before heading to the kitchen, bin in hand. Luna naturally followed, heading to the sink to wash her dirt-covered hands. I set the bin on the counter, doing the same.

"Alright! I'm excited!" I said, "First time doing alchemy in like 3 months!"

"Do you even still remember how to do it?" She asked teasingly, "Are you sure you aren't washed and old nowadays?"

"Pfft, if I'm washed and old, than you'd be a grandma by now."

"Haha. I'm a little excited too, this'll be my first time seeing you actually do alchemy." Luna said, taking her seat behind the counter. She propped her chin up with her hand, her elbows resting on the counter top.

"Well, you probably won't get to see much. I don't have VFX unlocked yet." I joked.

"Damn it, I'm stuck with a bronze quality Raccoon?" Luna joked back.

"Should've spent more~ Then you may have gotten a silver quality~""What're the rates? I'll whale right now."

"My gacha banner has already passed~ You'll have to wait for a rerun."

"Tch…" Luna clicked her tongue before bursting out laughing, "Pfft! Hahaha!"

"Hehe." I giggled as well. Taking a deep breath, I cleared my mind and focused on the task at hand. It'd be embarrassing if I mess up now. I'm not even doing anything hard—just creating an antidote. If I messed up during free alchemy, that'd be understandable, but, if I mess up while using the basic style? Luna might as well say "Don't say you know me"! First things first, I need to prepare the materials. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Grabbing a bottle of my usual sap from the fridge, I poured it into the pot, setting the heat to low. Originally, I was going to use water, but, like opara grass, I just love using sap as my base liquid so much. Although the two liquids aren't completely interchangeable, for this antidote, it works fine. I tossed the kingrow shrooms into a mortar and pestle, grinding them into a fine dust before dumping it into the sap and stirring. While that sat, I moved onto the huffpalls.

For these little guys, I can use them whole. I threw them into the pot and let them soak. Finally, onto my beloved, opara grass. Hm… Do I want to simply tie them up and let them soak in the sap like the huffpall? Or do I want to grind it to a powder like the kingrow shrooms? Oh! Maybe I could even cut them into strips to get their properties kicking? Hm… What to do… What to do… I thought about it for about half a minute, slowly stirring the sap with a wooden spoon. Alright! I've decided!

Turning the heat up on the stove, I brought the sap to a boil. Next, I tossed in the bundled up opara grass and stirred. Of course, I couldn't forget the flavor-enhancing strawberry concentrate! Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the handles and drew mana from my core. Like usual, I prepared for a struggle, battling against the inherent resistance of the pot. But… Huh? Why is it… My mana swiftly maneuvered through the pot. That resistance to my mana that I used to feel… It's still there, but, it's severely weakened?

Ah… Wait a minute. I see… My manipulation over mana had become much better since the last time I did alchemy so I can more easily navigate through the pot's pathways. And, the size of the thread of mana has decreased tenfold to a very thin string which gives my mana more options and pathways to move through. Not to mention that my mana is naturally stronger now and can resist the natural pressure from the pot. It was a surprise for sure, but a pleasant one at that.

After thinking about it, it was only natural that I'd be better now. Otherwise, wouldn't my three months of training have been for nothing? Unknowingly, my lips curled to a smile. Then… How much more can I push the limits? How fast can I draw out the properties and imbue them? Ah… Hehehehe… This is fun. With the mindset of experimentation, I immediately pushed my thread of mana deeper into the pot and into the materials. Drawing out the properties had become so much easier and faster.

If before they were blocked by some type of cloggage, now, the cloggage had cleared up letting the properties come out smoothly. Blocking out unwanted properties and imbuing the ones I wanted had become so easy. I felt like an adult playing a children's game. Due to my external mana projection training, it became extremely simple to isolate materials. I wasn't even using an excessive amount of mana—I used just the right amount. It feels like everything's going faster too?

Is my mana naturally agitating and speeding everything up? I don't know but… Hehehe! This is so fun! … I poured the light-white liquid into a funnel, topping off the 10th and final potion of this batch. Stepping back, I licked my lips with a smile. This batch of potions only took about 30 minutes, half the time it'd usually take to create a batch. And that's assuming I'm familiar with making that potion. Even if I knew that this speed was mainly because of the simplicity of the potion, I felt great.

It made me curious just how much time could I cut? Can those alchemists more experienced than me create a batch in like 10 minutes? How many skills and traits do they have that lets them lessen the time of creation? One day, I'll find out for myself. For now… Picking up one of the potions, I checked the description. [Sweet Simple Antidote] Grade - D+ Creator: Raccoon A simple antidote that can cure most low-level poisons. Cures low-grade poison Purifies low-grade curses D+ Grade? Really?

That's higher than I thought it'd be. I nodded in satisfaction as I took a whiff of the potion. That familiar strawberry scent is great as always. Picking one up, I tried tasting it directly.

"Paah!" I let out a breath of air, acting like an old man. It tasted absolutely delicious. I love strawberries so much.

"Are you done…?" Luna hesitantly asked from the side. I glanced over and shook my head,"Only with the first batch. It takes less time than expected, so, I should be able to get at least half of them done by night." I said, "Here, you can try one if you want." I slid over a capped off potion, "I'm gonna grab some more materials." … Luna checked the description of the antidote and nodded. Throughout her time in the tower, she had seen and used plenty of antidotes.

The antidote Stella created wasn't innovative or anything shocking. There were many other antidotes just like it on the exchange. However, what was surprising was that this antidote seemed to also act as a low-grade purification potion, being able to purify low-grade curses. It wasn't as if she had never seen a antidote-purification hybrid potion before, but, those were usually more expensive and had higher grades. Having seen every material that went into this potion, Luna just couldn't understand how it was made.

After thinking about it for a moment, she eventually shook her head.

'Leave the alchemy to the alchemist.' She thought with a chuckle. Finally, she uncapped the potion and sniffed it. Her eyes widened as she smelt a familiar scent.

"This is…" She let out. Not even a second later did she lift it to her lips and drink. Her eyes widened ever more. It was the taste of her newly favorite snack. The strawberry flavor hit the taste receptors on her tongue in all the right way. If nothing else, this was the most delicious potion she had ever tasted in her life. She savored the taste, slowly sipping the potion as if it was a cup of juice. A moment later, Stella returned with a bin of materials.

She looked over and saw Luna happily sipping at the potion and smiled. Without commenting, she quietly started to process the materials and went straight into creating the next batch. … Luna watched for hours as Stella continuously produced and set aside completed antidote potions. After the first few batches, Stella was completely locked in and had her full focus on alchemy. Luna quietly sat and stared at all of it. Though she didn't know why, for her, watching Stella work so seriously was like watching a movie.

Especially when she saw that completely focused expression on her face. After taking a few photos, she simply watched in silence as more and more potions stockpiled on the counter. By the time night fell, the both of them had completely skipped dinner without realizing it.

"Phew, just over a hundred done." Stella said, wiping her forehead with the arm. She took a step back and appreciated her stockpile with satisfaction. On the side, Luna quickly snapped back into focus and blinked a few times. Without realizing it, she had her attention fully stolen by the potion maker in front of her.

'Why…?' Luna wondered but quickly accounted it to seeing the hard work her friend was doing. She snapped a few photos of the smug looking Stella. Then, Stella turned. She looked directly at the photo-taken Luna and her eyes widened. But, it wasn't from the surprise of getting her photo suddenly taken. No, rather, it was something way more shocking.

"Ah! I forgot to feed the mouse!"