Chapter 26 – Beginning Alchemy

The primary ingredient in the Night Vision Potion formula is Nightshade leaves, which is also the most expensive and indispensable medicinal component.

Punk carefully used alchemical tweezers to pick up a small leaf the size of a fingernail. The leaf was black-purple with faint red glowing spots, tiny spiral-patterned veins distributed across its surface, and gave off a chilly sensation when placed in the palm!

This single small leaf was worth five Gold Coins, and it was merely the lowest-grade Apprentice Rank material. No wonder the finished potion was so valuable. The raw materials for Alchemical Potions were inherently expensive, with high production costs, scarce alchemists, and enormous market demand all contributing to the situation where these potions were priced beyond reach.

Speaking specifically of Nightshade, its exorbitant price was justified. On one hand, it required harsh growing conditions—it could only survive in cold, damp shadows. On the other hand, it had a short shelf life—if not used within a month after harvesting, it would lose its potency. In the Faerûn Plane, where transportation was underdeveloped and travel dangerous, it took a full two months to travel from one city to another!

As a warm city, Konola City didn’t produce Nightshade. Punk gently touched the leaf’s already faint and fading veins, deducing that these leaves must have been transported to Konola City by professionals moving at extraordinary speeds. Thus, these Nightshade leaves had likely been harvested for quite some time, with much of their potency already dissipated… This undoubtedly increased the difficulty of Punk’s potion-making.

However, looking at the small bag beside him containing enough alchemical materials for ten batches of Night Vision Potion, Punk gained some confidence. “Nothing is impossible to a willing heart (and a full purse)”—surely out of ten attempts, he could succeed once or twice. Even one success would recoup the cost of all these materials.

Alchemy in the Faerûn world involved using spell techniques to directly extract required materials from substances. For example, Punk was now casting the Apprentice-Level alchemical spell—Energy Extraction Technique—on the Nightshade. As the mysterious Byron incantation concluded, a small, flickering multicolored light sphere completely enveloped the Nightshade leaf. Over the next minute, the leaf’s black-purple color gradually faded until it became transparent with a faint purple tint, while the spiral veins transformed into a yellow-green mixed hue. Beside the now energy-depleted leaf, a small energy bead with red spots—about the size of a ballpoint pen tip—floated up and down within the undulating colored light sphere created by the Energy Extraction Technique.

Observing the remaining faint purple energy that couldn’t be extracted from the leaf, Punk felt dissatisfied. Though these residual energies seemed minimal, they amounted to one-fifth of the total extracted energy. While Punk knew this was already a relatively good outcome—if he were still at Apprentice Rank instead of Apprentice-Level, or if he were using a lesser energy extraction spell instead of the more efficient Energy Extraction Technique—he would have needed three leaves to produce one energy bead.

Perhaps only when he reached Formal-Level (Level 10) could he achieve energy extraction without waste, Punk thought.Next came the process of extracting energy or semi-energy from the other auxiliary materials one by one. In the end, a disc-shaped alchemy container in Punk’s hand, capable of repelling external energy, held numerous small energy beads floating within. These red and blue energy pearls slowly moved along the bright silver mystical patterns engraved on the golden disc, their energy interference neutralized by a peculiar energy field generated by the disc.

Guided by the System’s analysis of each critical detail, Punk began channeling psychic energy into the golden disc. Through the disc’s focusing effect, the normally chaotic fluctuations of psychic energy were streamlined into nearly uniform frequencies. Using this stabilized psychic force, Punk controlled the energy beads to make contact one by one, then cast the Apprentice-Level alchemy spell—Energy Fusion Technique—to merge them together. In the microscopic realm invisible to the naked eye, countless fine threads of magic gradually fused different energies while emitting gentle, steady radiation that neutralized dispersion and fluctuations caused by energy conflicts.

Though Punk couldn’t see these magic threads, he could sense their presence. Under the full computational power of an Apprentice-Level practitioner’s mind, countless threads moved with methodical precision: smoothing out unnecessary energy conflicts, drawing together non-repelling energy units, and separating improperly attracted units. Macroscopically, one could only observe energies continuously merging into a translucent sphere at the disc’s center that emitted gentle energy waves. Occasional energy dispersions were neutralized by the surrounding field, preventing interference with other energy interactions…

As time passed, the central energy sphere began showing liquid characteristics, transforming from translucent to crystalline transparency. Just as the final energy linkage approached completion and the liquid potion started stabilizing its properties without energy leakage…

Then… it failed.

The previously stabilizing translucent liquid suddenly generated intense heat, morphing into a rapidly vibrating pink energy sphere.

“Damn it!” Sensing the sphere beginning to emit alpha radiation, Punk swiftly scooped it into his hand. Protected by his Apprentice-Level Conjuration spell—Mage Armor (an advancement of Minor Mage Armor)—Punk feared no harm from the energy sphere, but his expensive and fragile alchemy tools couldn’t withstand its high temperature!

As life-threatening danger manifested, Mage Armor instantly materialized over Punk’s body. Every inch of his skin and clothing became coated in a transparent energy film shimmering with chromatic brilliance. On his left hand contacting the energy sphere, the armor blocked the invasive heat and radiation. Now glowing with rainbow hues from energy conflicts, the Mage Armor transformed Punk’s left hand into a multicolored lightbulb.Clutching the high-temperature sphere tightly in his hand, Punk decided in an instant to crash through the decaying, dilapidated wall to ensure the safety of his Alchemy Tools. Although as a mage, Punk certainly lacked the physical strength of a knight, breaking through a thin, rotten wooden wall was no problem for him.

In reality, when faced with such unexpected experimental mishaps, a mage’s first instinct should be to distance themselves from the source of danger as much as possible. Only after putting sufficient distance between themselves and the hazard, and layering enough protective spells, should they use a Divination Spell to assess the Laboratory’s condition—that would be the correct approach.

Punk wasn’t unaware of the safe course of action, yet he still chose to clutch the dangerous sphere in his hand and move as far away from his Alchemy Tools as possible. On one hand, he could sense that even if the energy sphere in his hand exploded, it wouldn’t be enough to breach his mage armor’s defense. On the other hand… Punk simply couldn’t afford to buy another set of Alchemy Tools. If he ended up destroying his tools without producing anything, he would truly be left in the lurch!

With no time to locate the door, Punk had no choice but to move in a straight line, crashing through wall after wall and creating gaping holes. Only after bursting through three Rooms did he finally come to a stop!

“Well, this is a fine mess I’ve made!” Leaning against a shaky wall, Punk muttered a quiet complaint. Then, enduring the searing pain in his hand, he reluctantly began chanting an incantation…

(End of Chapter)