บท 27: Potionmaking 2

Draco returned his focus to his work. After all, the completion stage was where the truly arduous part of the work laid. While hovering over the lid of the cauldron, Draco slowly closed his eyes and entered a deep level of focus that was similar in intensity to before, but with a different nature.

This was a milder and gentler type of concentration, where he was more in tune with the energy of the world, rather than forcing it into doing his will.

Draco gently 'suggested' to the worldly energy of this small world that it should assist him in extracting the potion from the cauldron. Naturally, the energy of the small worlds in the Tradeskill Association were geared towards crafting rather than battle.

As such, it was easier to get it to move compared to the outside world. On that same note, the energy of the world of Boundless was far more amenable to usage in combat.

Otherwise, why would combat based classes dominate the world?

After all, the AI had assessed human literature and history, ascertaining that such a concept was the more realistic and favored outcome by humankind.

The worldly energy simply gathered around the cauldron, forming a thick miasmic entity of a blueish-green color. It hovered around and remained much more stable than when Draco pulled it for refining and concocting.

The completion stage had a complex method to success. One must use the coaxed worldly energy – which varied per person – to form a sort of container and carry some of the concoction to be stored. This worldly energy would then be condensed into a proper bottle that housed the potion.

Of course, the higher the quality of the potion, the higher quantity of worldly energy required to hold it. At the same time, the higher the quantity of worldly energy, the harder it was to transform it into a suitable container.

This was where the difficulty with the completion stage laid. A better container could see your potion increasing in quality explosively, but a shabbier one would see it lose quality rapidly.

Since Draco was working with a potion that had the possibility to be epic rank or higher, naturally the amount of worldly energy he needed to control was enormous.

However, he wasn't worried about failure in the least. After all, as a Control master who had focused on crafting in his past life, he had made countless epic and even semi-legendary potions.

What had Draco troubled was that, even though he was aiming for an epic potion, a part of him wanted to make something of a higher tier. Naturally, the higher the tier, the better the reward.

For example, if Draco's first potion was semi-legendary, one could not compare the rewards he'd get if his second potion was semi-legendary after the first being an epic one.

Hence, the higher he could climb, the better the reward.

In the face of such promising rewards, Draco was naturally putting in his all and more currently. He began scooping 500ml of the potion into the thickest bubble of worldly energy he could control.

Based on Draco's estimate, this bubble should be enough to hold a semi-legendary rank potion, much less an epic one. However, whether this bubble could take the potion to the semi-legendary level straight from epic was up in the air.

Draco guessed that there was less than a 50% chance it would. If the Dragon Soul didn't intervene, it'd probably end up as a pseudo-legendary rank potion that was at the peak of its rank.

Despite pondering all this, Draco began solidifying the worldly energy into a typical potion bottle, but with a roaring dragon with thick legs and a spiked horn as the motif on the body of the potion bottle.

Once that was done, a bright flash occurred in the room, blinding Draco to the point where he almost cursed. Right at the moment when the light was about to subside…

The Dragon Soul's eyes popped open and it left Draco's soul while staring at the potion bottle with interest. With a slightly excited toot, it shot out a beam of light that was ten times thicker than the one it used on the equipment sets.

This light split into the bottle and the cauldron, with the latter taking the lion's share. Draco half expected to either faint or see the Dragon Soul dissipate, but neither happened.

In fact, the Dragon Soul didn't even looked the slightest bit fatigued. Before Draco could ponder exactly what the hell was happening, the little tyke grabbed the potion bottle in his hands and downed it in one gulp, burping with satisfaction afterward.

Suddenly, it hit Draco. This fellow was pretending to be exhausted from the last boost! He was waiting for Draco to make a potion aligned with its Dragon Essence so that it could buff it and consume the benefits for itself!

Easily seeing through Draco's thoughts, the Dragon Soul gave a wide grin that was absolutely wolf like in nature.

"Shameless! Outrageous!"

Draco cursed and swore, the Dragon Soul taking all his dissatisfaction with a pleased smile as if it were enjoying Draco's anger and pain. Draco realized that for once, he had been played like a fiddle due to ignorance!

The Dragon Soul returned to his brain and immediately went to sleep with a comfortable smile. After a while, Draco could even hear loud snoring sounds from his soul.

With a face that was so red it was about to burst, Draco reigned in his anger and indignation.

'Hmph, revenge is a dish best served cold.'

With an absolutely chilling smile, Draco returned his attention to the cauldron and continued extracting as much as he could.

After four hours of work, he had gathered 24 bottles of potions. It would have been 25 counting the one the Dragon Soul shamelessly swallowed, which wasn't too little, but not much either.

Draco could pull almost 100 bottles of Semi-legendary potions before, so this amount wasn't too impressive. But given his current body and the standard of the world, it was quite an amount.

After placing them down together, Draco decided to wait for the obvious alert screen before checking the potion's stats.

｢Congratulations on creating new potion: Unnamed (consumable) (Semi-Legendary)

Rewards:

2,000% Exp

All Tradeskill ranks + 1

Legendary unique quest: Refinement God's treasury

200,000 gold

10,000 reputation with the Tradeskill Association｣

｢Unnamed – Consumable

Rank: Semi-Legendary (70% effectiveness)

Effect: Allows one to gain 50% of a low rank Dragon's source energy｣

"Damn…"

That was all Draco could force out with his currently chaotic mind. Getting a Semi-Legendary potion was definitely what he wanted and the rewards were a little more than what he expected so that was all good.

But it was the effect of the potion itself that astounded him.

Every existence had a State of Being that was ranked. A mortal was under a superhuman, a superhuman was beneath a demi-god and so on. Although the state of being rankings weren't split into a rigid and linear hierarchy, it was still there.

Dragons were Beings of Origin, meaning that they were there when the world was created, so they had 'admin rights' over the world. Their ability to manipulate worldly energy would have even True Gods lament.

Draco always assumed his Dragon Soul belonged to a low rank dragon, but clearly he was horribly wrong. For a single breath of a fragmented soul to create a potion that could permanently transform a simple mortal into half of a low rank Being of Origin like a Dragon, this was on the level of the elixir of youth.

Before, Draco had ingested the legendary potion from Richmond that granted one ability point to allocate freely. That potion had caused a huge uproar in his past life and crippled a player's account.

However, what happened then would amount to 1% of what this potion would cause if its effects were released.

However, Draco didn't have to bolt at this time. After all, he had already made waves once and now he was going to make another. Even a fool would see something was up.

Also, the effects of the potion wouldn't be broadcasted, just the name and rank. He was also located in a separate small world, so no matter who, they'd have to obediently wait for him to come out.

He decided to name the potion 'Dragon's Blessing'.

｢Sturgehaven Kingdom Regional Announcement

Player Draco has created the unique potionmaking recipe, 'Dragon's Blessing. Players can now purchase the design from player Draco and achieve a 10% extra success rate when brewing the potion.｣

｢Cario Continent International Announcement

Player Draco has created the unique potionmaking recipe, 'Dragon's Blessing. Players can now purchase the design from player Draco and achieve a 10% extra success rate when brewing the potion.｣

｢Boundless System-wide Announcement

Player Draco has created the unique potionmaking recipe, 'Dragon's Blessing. Players can now purchase the design from player Draco and achieve a 10% extra success rate when brewing the potion.｣

The players in the world who were currently either crafting, adventuring or relaxing leisurely were once again astounded. At this point, some started to believe that Draco was a hacker or the son of the developer studio's AI.

The person himself finished tidying up his worktable and cauldron before moving on to brewing more common potions like stamina, mana, health or a combination potion that merged the effects of at least, two of the types mentioned before.

He also made a few miscellaneous potions like the damage increase, defense increase, speed increase potion etc. There were a few enhancing potions, restoration potions and even a few one-time use transformation potions.

Players barely had the recipe for the restoration potions, yet Draco had gone ahead to craft almost all the other types of potions that existed in the game.

After that, he moved to poisons.

Thanks to the reward for crafting the Dragon's Blessing potion, he had been given 20 levels – or one rank – in each of his current Tradeskills. Draco had climbed from Alchemy level 7, 45% to level 36, 10%.

After all, minus the reward from the game, his Tradeskill level would definitely be boosted for making a Semi-Legendary potion as an amateur alchemist.

This made crafting these simpler potions and poisons much easier and quicker. After barely four hours, Draco had more than 10,000 bottles of different potions and almost 2,000 bottles of scarily toxic poisons.

Because it really taxed his mind and body, Draco refrained from trying for another epic potion or poison. He definitely knew how to make one, but without the Dragon Soul's boost and coupled with his own weakness, it wouldn't be worth it.

He wouldn't receive a great reward for it. After making a semi-legendary potion like Dragon's Blessing, Draco would need to straight-up make a legendary potion to qualify for mouthwatering boons.

Draco packed everything up into his almost infinite inventory and left the special crafting room.

Unsurprisingly, there was a whole crew waiting for him outside. Draco could see various old geezers and hags arrayed in the chamber outside the crafting room, all with suffocating auras.

After taking a cursory sweep of everyone, Draco moved to stand behind Lord Richmond before any of them could start coercing, threatening or inviting him to their factions, making his stance known.

'If you can beat up this fellow whose thigh I'm hugging, you can do whatever you want to me after!'

Richmond had an amused look on his face while Nakiu simply glanced at Draco once and looked away, purposefully acting cool. The others had an extremely bad expression on their faces, because it could be said that Draco gave them all a slight face slap.

"Haha, what a great Young Hero. I can see that you have great talent in both combat and crafting. This old man is the Grand Elder of the Refined Star Abscond Faction. Would you like to join us as an Elder?"

One decrepit old fart who looked partly undead shot his attempt with his hoarse and discomfiting voice. The others glanced at him with chagrin for being so quick.

Draco simply smiled and spoke calmly, "I have no intentions of entering an agency. I prefer to walk free and unfettered."

His answer made all the powers here either frown or sigh with regret. They were too slow compared to Richmond.

What they didn't know was that Richmond didn't search out Draco, but vice versa. He then randomly chose to take him under his wing because, hey, why not?

He never predicted that the lad he had taken on a whim would be such a monster. Fresh from the world of the gods – which was where NPCs believed players stayed – and yet so gifted.

"Hmph, free and unfettered? Yet you are the herald of that undying freak."

A reasonably attractive woman who looked to be in her late forties snorted with unhappiness while pointing at Richmond. Richmond himself just gave a bitter smile.

Had it been anyone else, he'd have taught them a lesson, but could he do same to his own little sister? He had pampered her from birth yet she had joined the Tradeskill Association as a Grand Deacon, unlike he who liked remaining free.

"Little sis, you don't have to be so mean to big brother, okay?" Richmond pleaded with a distraught expression.

"Hmph! Still, big brother, do you dare to claim you aren't an old undead? Look at you! I can't even marry you off with so many wrinkles on your face!"

At some point, his sister began haranguing him in public, to which all the other powers just smiled. After all, this sort of scene was nothing new. Richmond could only swallow his dissatisfaction and play yes man to his sister.

However, she didn't make a request for Draco. She knew her limits with her brother and as such, remained quiet afterwards, but the look she gave Draco was rather unkind.

Draco himself sighed. It was a good thing he was an only child, otherwise…

After that, the hidden powers began leaving one by one after introducing themselves and giving Draco a means to contact them in the future. Some gave Richmond some minor gifts to which he subtly passed onto Draco.

While they were meaningless to him, to Draco, they were amazing. Majority were crafting materials that he could use to make epic and pseudo-legendary items and equipment.

When they all exited, Draco was left alone with Richmond and Nakiu. Richmond just gave him some cursory advice to Draco, to which he listened with an apathetic expression.

"Fuck old man. You can't even talk to your little sister well and you want to advise me? Can't you see that This Daddy is self-sufficient?"

Draco cursed at Richmond while picking his ear, not even looking at the fellow. Richmond could only sigh and give up. After all, between him and Draco was no real master - servant relationship, just a relationship of convenience. The day Draco could tank the hidden powers by himself, he'd break off from Richmond.

Of course, the silent Nakiu was jubilating inside at this. He was screaming at Draco to ask who he was so he could continue acting cool and wow the boy into becoming his disciple.

Richmond eventually decided to leave and Nakiu obviously couldn't stay back if he wanted to act cool, so he was screaming internally for Draco to ask the damn question!

Unfortunately for him, Draco simply left with room without even looking at him once. Nakiu could only curse and swear until his face became red.

"Fuck! I have to go bully someone to let out some steam!"

Nakiu left with Richmond in a huff and a puff. The fellow was definitely going to make some hidden power's life miserable, all because of Draco.

The fellow himself was now headed back to the guild outpost to stock up his shop with the basic items he crafted. As for the special ones, he had different plans for them altogether.

He still had yet to allocate his experience and check his special armor set, but he would do those after sorting out the shop.

When Draco entered the wilds around the guild outpost, he was about to activate Appearance Deception: 9 forms when he saw two women he thought he'd never have to see.

In front of Draco, was Riveting Night and Sublime Notion, who were also surprised at his sudden appearance.

The two former lovers and unreconciled enemies finally meet again in this life!