Chapitre 32: Chapter 31: Alchemy
The sun was rising when I got to the alchemy station. To my surprise, it was a beautiful gazebo in the middle of the forest, containing a workstation of different pots and tools. Inside the cabinets were powders and herbs and liquids of different types, which was too convenient. It was clearly meant for a test, but it felt very eerie. There were plates with magic circles on them that looked weathered and used, while the ingredients and certain equipment were brand new.
There were also parts of the countertops that had been eroded away or gashed and replaced with quick repairs. It was clear that the station had been there for a long time, but the ingredients and equipment and repairs were new and rushed, perhaps for my arrival.
"What's the catch?" I asked as I walked forward.
Twenty meters from the gazebo, my entire body scanned with blue light as if I were stepping through a bubble. I recognized that light. It was the barrier that I saw when I woke up!
I got a notification.
You have discovered the trial workstation! You have 72 hours of barrier protection. Please use this time to the fullest.
Note: You can leave the barrier at will.
I patted my backpack lovingly. "I guess this tent'll be useful, after all."
Puss pouted.
"Oh, please," I said, dropping the reiga in front of him. "Why don't you cut this up and sneak a bite when I'm not looking."
His shoulders slumped as if to say, I killed it; now you're acting like you're doing me a favor?
"Hey Lithco," I said. "Can I make a cleansing elixir for Puss?"
It was part of the tutorial, so a pop-up came up, and Lithco sent a message.
Yes. The same elixir will work for spirit beasts.
"Thank~you," I said and then looked down. "I'm gonna double your magic. You wanna cut that meat, now?"
Puss' eyes widened, and he started clawing through the meat without sass or delay.
I smiled and then walked to the alchemy station. There was an oven, pots, pans, and other equipment, each on arrays that had precise temperatures.
I get the feeling they did half the work, I thought. So if I fuck this up, it's my fault. So why…?
It was at that moment that I realized something important. I didn't know anything about alchemy, let alone cleansing elixirs!
Suppose this's where I spend more money, I thought ruefully as I opened up my menu and went to skills. Yet I paused when I got there. This is a huge part of my class… should I go platinum or diamond?
My knee-jerk reaction was screaming, "Diamond, you idiot!" but there were only two diamond requests left (aside from my free requests), and I still needed equipment, spells, books, skills, and tutorials. Most importantly, if I got into soulmancy, I might need a request there.
Still… I thought about the mana syrup that I gave Puss and the bath bomb that saved me from the root strangler. The balm that healed my cuts. The water that saved my life. I was staring down a miracle in a forest where these powerful medicines were at my fingers. Wouldn't I be a fool not to pursue this? Hell, why did I even want soulmancy if I was being offered power right here?
I folded my arms, unfolded them, rubbed my forearms, tapped my foot, and folded my arms again. That's when I made my decision:
"Lithco. Give me the best diamond skill for learning alchemy."
A chime popped up, and I became overwhelmed with notifications:
Book: Fundamentals of Alchemy (Grades 1-5) has been added to your shelf.
Book: Common Alchemic Recipes (Vol 1-5) has been added to your shelf.
Book: Alchemic Herb Identification (Vol. 1-5) has been added to your shelf.
Book: Alchemic Mana Control (Vol. 1-3) has been added to your shelf.
Book: Fundamentals of Working with Spirit Ingredients (Complete Edition) has been added to your shelf.
Book: Advanced Alchemical Reactions and Catalysts has been added to your shelf.
Book Essence Extraction Techniques (Vol. 1-4) has been added to your shelf.
Book: Healing Alchemy (Vol. 1-5) has been added to your shelf.
Book: Alchemic Preparation: Choosing the Right Medium For Your Creation (Complete Edition) has been added to your shelf.
The list of books was truly overwhelming. There were thirty-seven in all, proving the intense power of diamond requests. It made me glad that I didn't use any of my free requests on books, as I could've probably bought a poisonous plant skill and gotten a dozen!
It didn't stop there, either. There were two dozen tutorials, followed by spells and recipes.
Spell: Purification (Second Tier) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Desiccation (Third Tier) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Water Sphere (First Tier) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Flash Freeze (Third Tier) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Controlled Heat (Tiers One Through Three) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Separation (Tiers One through Five) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Sublimation (Second Tier) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Essence Extraction (Second Tier) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Domain (Tier Two) has been added to your spells.
Spell: Skin Barrier (First Tier) has been added to your spells.
I ran my fingers through my hair and laughed.
"Lithco, why would anyone buy spells when they can just buy skills?"
Since I had books and tutorials, he could answer me. So, a new pop-up materialized.
"The only reason you've obtained so much is because you bought a fundamentals skill, which requires a lot of prerequisites, with a diamond request. If you bought a higher level skill, it wouldn't provide you with any of these basic spells. You'd need to learn them before you could use the skill."
"Oh, so I should get the fundamentals of every trade, first?"
"Correct. The higher the grade, the better."
I nodded.
"There's other reasons as well," he wrote. "Beyond convenience, skills only provide you with basic spells. If you want to upgrade them, you must do so with requests. There are also spells that are convenient but unnecessary, or are necessary but for skills beyond your means. So you must buy those individually. Lastly, these books don't give Guide effects. Your poison and foraging books highlight plants at a distance, and your trap plants book notifies you when there's one nearby. That's more valuable than having the internet."
"That is useful... Okay. This is a lot to take in, so... let's just get started." I pulled up the tutorials and found one for cleansing elixirs. "That's convenient," I whispered.
I opened it, and Lithco's human form materialized like a genie.
"I was wondering if you'd ever let me out of there," he said, patting down his clothes.
"I'd expect this torture from a Pather, but I thought you were a humanitarian."
"I should've just killed you," I groaned.
"Ah, yes, but you're a pushover." He walked over to my foraging bag and frowned. "It's a shame you didn't have preservation boxes when you picked those. You're killing those herbs."
I shrugged. "It'll have to do."
"It will. At least you have them." He picked up the bag, duplicating it as he walked over to a cutting board. "Let's cover the basics. Alchemy is one part cooking, one part medicinal creation. For scientific exactness, you must later enter heximedica, which is far more advanced and requires equipment to capture and distill mana essence in its rawest forms. Until then, you will be cooking up drugs."
I chuckled and watched him pull out knives, squeezers, and measuring cups, followed by pots and pans, placing them onto arrays.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone