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Forgotten Lands - Chapter 34 (Book 1)
🕑 Added 2024-02-14 13:03:33 +0000 UTCHours flew by in the blink of an eye. Zayn’s sense of time distorted as the batches of ingredients flooded his mailbox.
Millenia had spent a small fortune to transfer the ingredients straight into Zayn’s mailbox where he could retrieve them whenever he saw fit. However, there was no need to waste any time. Zayn retrieved most ingredients the moment he received a notification. He had to keep up with the high demand for ingredients that mass production posed.
It hadn’t been easy to learn how to use Coalesce but Zayn grew more accustomed to its uses as the Card Level increased. After Coalesce reached Level 5 within the first few hours, Zayn’s knowledge and proficiency were high enough to fuse the herbal essences into the energy-infused water in the instance the herbal essences oozed out of the processed ingredients.
Coalesce allowed Zayn to distribute the amount of herbal essences infused into the water with great precision. This made it even easier to mass-produce potions, which was what Zayn did once he was comfortable using Coalesce.
Piles of potions surrounded Zayn as his focus landed on the cauldron. He had been using the cauldron to mass-produce the Minor Fire Resistance Potion and the Energy Recovery Potion. The results had been pretty good. Unfortunately, he was short of a few glass vials, leaving merely bits of the last batch of Energy Recovery Potions at the bottom of the cauldron.
The portion was not enough to bother about, but Zayn was curious. He could sense excessive herbal essences and energy within the liquid mixture.
Alchemist’s Instinct stirred his heart as if trying to tell him something and Zayn responded accordingly. He had never been lied to by Alchemist’s Instinct, so why would he stay idle and do nothing? His next course of action was obvious. Zayn trusted Alchemist’s Instinct and used Coalesce to merge the excessive energy with the surplus herbal essences. The energy empowered the herbal essences and created a drastic response. Crackling sounds resounded from the cauldron and bright sparks ignited. The cauldron tremored once but nothing broke down, and the feared explosion never happened.
However, Zayn’s eyes went wide as he approached the cauldron once again.
‘Maybe, I shouldn’t have experimented blindly. That was a bit stupid.’
A faint glimmer at the bottom of the cauldron attracted Zayn’s attention. He frowned as he noted that the liquid mixture was darker than it should be. The water was not supposed to shimmer either.
Proficiency of Coalesce reached 100%. Level Up!
Proficiency of Alchemist’s Instinct reached 100%. Level Up!
Alchemist’s Instinct advanced to Level 10. +2 Soul Essence.
By a fluke of fortune from heaven, a new potion has been created.
“Huh?”
Zayn’s eyes shot wide open.
‘That was possible?’
He understood that Alchemist’s Instinct was an exceptional Card that was incredibly hard to procure, but wasn’t that a little bit too much? Did he just create a new potion…just like that?
He couldn’t believe the notifications in front of him and summoned the information of Alchemist’s Instinct instead. There had to be something he missed before.
Alchemist’s Instinct
Uncommon - Level 10(0%)
Utility
Passive/Active
Requires Energy and Stamina to be used.
Effect – Passive – As a True Alchemist you know instinctively how to concoct and improve potions.
Active – Your instincts call for the return of the True Alchemist. Your Dexterity and Perception improve drastically while brewing potions.
The failure rate decreases drastically. The probability of creating potions of higher quality increases.
-–
Failure Rate decreases with an increase in Card Level.
The probability of creating potions of higher quality increases with Card Level.
The likelihood of attaining epiphany increases with Card Level.
The potency of Alchemist’s Instinct increases with Card Level.
“Likelihood of attaining epiphany increases with Card Level…and Potency of Alchemist’s Instinct increases with Card Level. That combined with an increased probability to create potions of higher quality could be enough to create a new potion by chance…”
He was still having a hard time believing how easily he’d created a new potion, but the three factors should have played a major role.
‘What potion did I create, either way? If the potion isn’t more efficient in making money, I might as well ignore it.’
As Zayn’s mind drifted to the newly created potion, a parchment appeared in front of him. It was the unnamed potion he’d created, followed by a notification.
Congratulations on creating your first customized potion! Please name your potion in time to spread its renown!
+3 Soul Essences
The notification verified that Zayn created a new potion. But it was not a new potion. Instead, it was a customized potion. That ignited a glimmer of hope in Zayn’s heart. Maybe, the new potion was going to be more valuable than he’d assumed.
[Unnamed Potion]
Common (+)
After consuming, the User’s natural energy and stamina recovery will be accelerated.
The effect lasts between 8 to 14 hours.
—-
Calling it a customized potion recipe was the most suitable. The potion was an upgraded version of Old Farthma’s Energy Recovery Potion. The duration of the potion’s effects was much longer and it included stamina recovery as well. It was a perfect potion for every beginner. Even professionals would love such a potion. After all, most Cards required Stamina, Energy, or both to use. The best, however, was that the potion was only a little bit more difficult to make.
The production complexity and production cost increased by roughly 30% whereas the effects were several times better. The potion’s duration was already twice as long, forget about the additional stamina recovery effect.
It was not uncommon for Alchemists to create their potions and improve existing potions by customizing them. It was the main source of income for hundreds of Alchemists and one of the reasons why Alchemists were known for their insurmountable wealth. As long as someone customized a potion, or created their potion, they could create copies of the potion recipe and sell them for a fortune. They possessed copyright for their potion recipe, granting them various benefits.
It was crazy advantageous to create a customized potion with characteristics like Zayn’s Unnamed Potion…yet he created one less than one week into Forgotten Lands’ launch.
The corner of his lips curled upward, but he quickly regained his senses and slapped his cheeks firmly.
‘Don’t be a fool. Stay level-headed!’
He had to remind himself that a mountain of work was still waiting for him. The effectiveness of the unnamed potion had yet to be determined. What if its effects were weaker than anticipated? Wouldn’t he make a fool of himself if he focused on mass-producing them?
Zayn retrieved a few herbs, a beaker, and the alchemy stove.
Before he would do anything stupid, he should recreate the unnamed potion to ensure its quality and effectiveness.
Zayn made his move. He organized the ingredients and put them inside the beaker with enough water. He placed the tripod above the alchemy stove’s flame, adjusted the heat, and put the beaker on top of the tripod. Using Alchmist’s Instinct and Coalesce, Zayn infused the necessary energy into the water right before merging some herbal essences with the excessive energy. The following reactions happened swiftly. First, the ordinary Energy Recovery Potion was created. The liquid mixture rested for a few seconds before the potion liquid responded to the energy-herbal essence.
The Energy Recovery Potion’s liquid mixture began to shimmer as the liquid darkened.
Zayn waited for a second or two before he retrieved a sieve and a small glass flask. He sieved the liquid mixture to remove all the bits and pieces. Once that was done, his eyes landed on the dark blue liquid in the flask.
Unnamed Potion
It was the correct potion. Still unnamed, but the potion was certainly the customized potion he’d created with a bit of luck.
He split the liquid mixture within the flask into three glass vials and finished the remaining bits.
Unnamed Potion has been consumed efficiently.
Effect duration: 41 minutes.
He didn’t even get a full gulp of the potion, resulting in the short effect duration, but that was no problem. Zayn could perceive how efficient the potion was even if the duration was shorter.
He closed his eyes to feel the potion’s effect and immediately sensed that his hearing, smell, taste, and touch senses sharpened. His senses were much sharper than a moment before and his drained energy and stamina replenished swiftly. The effect of the unnamed potion was better than the Energy Recovery Potion.
“It feels like I drank 10 energy drinks in a row,” Zayn mumbled, the corner of his lip uplifting, “I believe I can fly!”
He tested himself, glad that he was getting a little bit luckier. The plans he came up with didn’t depend a lot on luck. However, it felt like he was finally a little bit luckier…luckier than he had been in his past life.
Thinking about his past life soured Zayn’s mood instantaneously. He recalled one misfortune after another dawning upon him, and he didn’t like it.
Maybe, he was going to be luckier this time. No. Even if he would remain as unlucky as before, Zayn would turn his misfortune into an advantage to grow stronger. He would grow stronger and exploit the misfortunes until even the God of Misfortune would mistake himself for the Goddess of Fortune!
“Since you’re an energy drink, you might as well be named after one,” Zayn mumbled before assigning the Unnamed Potion a name.
The new customized potion will be called ‘Booster’ from now on. Congratulations!
Zayn ignored the congratulations and paid more attention to the new potion, Booster. He felt like mass-producing it right away, but he decided to complete his other tasks first. Zayn prepared a mail for Millenia with all the Minor Fire Resistance Potions and Energy Recovery Potions he’d concocted up till now. He also added a screenshot of the notification he received when he created his own customized potion and a picture of Booster’s description.
Following that, Zayn added one of the Booster vials to the mail as well.
‘If you give me a good price for every Booster vial, I can stop mass-producing the Minor Fire Resistance Potions.’
The Minor Fire Resistance Potion was a little bit more complex to concoct than Booster. It took up more time, which offset potential earnings.
‘But how the hell has nobody created something like Booster yet?’
Zayn couldn’t believe that he was the only one with this much luck. Maybe, Coalesce was a lot more exotic than he expected. Or maybe the combination with Alchemist’s Instinct was unique. That was more likely.
It could also be considered a stroke of fortune that there had been remnants of the Energy Recovery Potion in the cauldron before, and that the excessive herbal essences didn’t deteriorate. Even the remains of the surplus energy inside the cauldron could have dispersed earlier.
It might have been plain luck.
Fortunately, luck was a part of one’s skillset. At least, that was what Zayn always prayed. Luck was a mixture of unique events that could only be taken advantage of with the right knowledge, experience, and abilities.
No amount of luck would help Zayn kill a mighty beast if he didn’t possess the strength, abilities, and knowledge to find its’ weak spot and harm it.
In the worst case, he had been fortunate enough to trigger the epiphany of Alchemist’s Instinct as the Card Level advanced to Level 10. Luck or not, Zayn was happy.
His energy drink empire was about to rise!
