Chapter 206: Preparation (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Several hours later, Flan slightly tapped the surface of the silver mirror.
The scene vanished into darkness and the mirror returned to its original state.
Flan stood in front of the table. As she blinked her eyes, she started thinking.
She then turned around and walked out of the stone room.
Outside the stone room, a woman wearing a white mask was waiting quietly. She bowed as Flan stepped out of the door.
"Master Flan, master Isabel sent out several cases of materials again."
"To the wizard named Green?" Flan questioned.
"Yes."
"Potion materials?"
"Yes."
"He’s living a better life than the Potion Masters in the family. Whatever, a Gas stage wizard, it’s fine if she’s having fun."
Flan finished her word and walked down the spiral staircase.
"Where are the guards for the family resource point?"
"Waiting for you down the obelisk."
"Time to show the elders what the Jones Family is capable of."
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In the house beside the lake.
Angele walked down the stairs and reached a small door below the staircase.
The door was painted white. It had the same color as the wall, so it was hard for others to find.
Angele tapped on the door. A red dot flashed on its surface and the door opened itself, revealing a bright underground tunnel. The tunnel led to a spacious basement.
White glowing crystals lined up on both sides of the wall. They looked like small diamond-shaped lamps.
Angele walked into the tunnel and pressed his hands against the door.
Silver liquid slowly filled up the gaps around the door, resulting in the door almost looking like it became part of the staircase.
After the door was sealed, Angele turned around and walked down the tunnel.
There were four closed doors on each of the walls in the basement. Different signs were hanging over each of the doors: Material, Creature, Potion, and Spell.
Angele walked into the material room and opened the door.
A whole pile of black boxes was stored inside.
There were also several wooden barrels with meat jerky, fruit wine, and special wheat.
Angele walked to a white box on the left side and opened it carefully. Inside were two test tubes that contained blue and red liquid, protected by cotton pads.
The red and blue liquid was glowing under the dim light.
Angele grabbed the two test tubes in hand and left the material room. He then entered the potion room.
Inside the potion room, there was a shell-shaped black metal table covered with crystal lab equipment.
A head-sized glass container with black sticky liquid was being heated using a fat burner and the liquid inside was bubbling. The bubbles were rising and exploding on the surface of the liquid. White smoke formed small vortexes after the bubbles exploded and they looked like clean white roses.
Angele stood in front of the crystal container and observed the reaction quietly. After several minutes, he took a deep breath and slowly removed the stopper, then quickly poured the liquid from the test tubes into the container.
*BOOM*
Intense dark smoke spurted out of the crystal container and formed a goat’s head in the air. The goat head was more than half a meter tall and its spiral horns were eye-catching.
Angele was satisfied with the result.
"Baphomet…The demon with a goat’s head and a human’s body…so the materials I collected are correct. Good thing I stored them well."
The smoke floated in the air for about ten minutes before disappearing.
The black sticky liquid inside the crystal container turned into translucent clean liquid. It looked just the water from the lake.
Angele calmed down and took out a black stone piece with a white rune engraved on its surface.
He dropped the rune stone into the container.
Angele stared at the container carefully and observed the reactions happening inside as he started invoking the incantation to activate the rune.
The deep and loud incantation echoed in the room. The words were hard to understand, but his voice was calm and steady.
The rune stone slowly moved to the center of the translucent liquid.
The rune stone broke into countless small pieces as Angele invoked the incantation.
Angele’s incantation got louder and louder, and the rune stone pieces almost completely dissolved in the liquid.
The progress was going well. He looked relaxed.
Suddenly, Angele increased his chanting speed.
*CHI*
The dissolving black rune stone pieces gathered together. They merged and returned to the original shape within seconds.
However, the white rune on the stone’s surface slowly vanished into the air and the rune stone was no longer surrounded by the gentle glow.
"Damn…"
Angele sighed.
"That was close. I spent so much time preparing the materials…" He eyed the black rune stone in the container with a disappointed look on his face. Angele picked up the crystal container and poured everything into a stone wash basin.
"I need to start over again." Angele shook his head with his brow furrowed.
It was difficult to stabilize the Black Rose oil and clean the heart of the tree. Angele’s original plan was to make the Tree Killer Potion first but failed.
‘Zero, collect the results and restart the simulation.’
‘Task created, simulating…’
Angele walked to the shell-shaped table and sat down on a chair. He closed his eyes and started to go through the mistakes he had done during the process.
Although Angele had simulated the process using the chip and increased his success rate, he was still lacking in practical experience. The Potion Masters had a lower success rate, but some of them spent dozens of years to improve their skills and most of them could stay focused during the process.
Angele needed more practice to improve the concoction process, which would take some time.
‘I’ll do it again in ten days. Let me try the finished Demos' Water first.’
He opened the small drawer and grabbed one of the small pink crystal bottles. The liquid inside the cylinder-shaped bottle was dark.
Angele removed the stopper from the crystal bottle.
*CHI*
Red smoke spurted out of the bottle and slowly disappeared into the room.
A creamy milk smell permeated the air. Angele’s expression turned serious and started meditating right away.
Although concocting Demos' Water had a low success rate, the number of rare materials Isabel sent to him was enough for Angele to try four times before successfully obtaining one high-quality potion.
The hardest part of potion concocting was the mentality merging process. It required a high expertise in mentality manipulation. Otherwise, the reactions happening in the container would not happen. Usually, a Potion Master needed to try multiple times before finding the right methods for different potions. However, many materials would be wasted during the testing phase.
This was the reason why it required a huge amount of resources to train a Potion Master.
Angele skipped the testing phase by using the chip’s simulation function. The best plan given by Zero after the simulations would increase his success rate greatly. However, many things could happen when concocting a mid-level potion, and he still needed to find the right amount of mentality to use by himself.
After the plan was improved to perfection, Angele concocted about 20 bottles of Demos' Water.
The correct way to use the potion was not to drink it but to let it evaporate. The effect of the potion was strong and one-fifth of the liquid would be gone in two hours.
By inhaling the gas from the evaporated potion during meditation, Angele’s mentality would increase at a much faster rate.
It was the first time Angele tried to use the potion during the meditation. He had, after all, spent way too much time on preparing the materials for the Tree Killer potion.
The gas had a creamy smell and was moving into Angele’s ears and nose quickly.
It almost looked like Angele’s body was absorbing the mysterious red gas and the scene looked quite strange. The red gas kept spurting out of the crystal bottle and revolving around his face.
Angele slowly woke up from the meditation after a while.
His face turned pale and he quickly sealed the bottle with the stopper.
‘Zero, how long did I meditate?’
‘Meditation length, 2 hours 24 minutes and 31 seconds. Mentality increased by 0.1.’
Intense pain was hurting Angele’s head. It seemed that the side effects from the Demos' Water were physical.
"The name of the potion is Stinky Demos’s Water…Where’s the stink?" Angele wondered.
Suddenly, he covered his mouth with his hands, bent over to the side, and retched violently.
A strange but awful stench rushed into his nose after he put the crystal bottle back into the drawer.
The place now smelled like rotten eggs mixed with feces, but it made Angele’s head regain clarity.
The meditation made his sense of smell keener. It seemed like the stinky smell was the byproduct produced prior to the evaporation process.