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Forgotten Lands - Chapter 28 (Book 1)
🕑 Added 2024-02-13 14:29:43 +0000 UTCNot even ten minutes passed before Zayn had cleaned his tools, picked another set of ingredients and got started with his first attempt to concoct a Minor Fire Resistance Potion.
Twenty minutes later, Zayn finished concocting a reddish-orange liquid mixture. He transferred the liquid mixture into two vials which he handed to Old Farthma, who looked ten years older.
She didn’t even have to inspect the Minor Fire Resistance Potions to know that Zayn succeeded. He concocted an Uncommon Potion, after only one try. What the hell was going on?
“You don’t want me to believe that this is the first time you concoct potions…right?” She asked, taking a few deep breaths to calm down her nerves.
Zayn was actually not sure what to answer. In truth, he had been concocting various poisons and antidotes in the past. He’d been experimenting with a Poison-maker and studied under the Alchemy King. However, he never actually concocted ordinary potions. That was also why he had been forced to ask Old Farthma hundreds of questions about the basics of potion-making and alchemy in its entirety.
In fact, even if he had been concocting potions in the past, Zayn would have been using the Alchemy King’s techniques. His techniques were extremely high-ranked and they required a tremendous amount of energy and energy control to be utilized. That made them unusable since both factors were unavailable to Zayn. He was but a Classless Player with low-ranked Foundation Stars, at this point.
“Maybe, I’m just talented?” Zayn responded with a question, the smile on his face looking like a good target to hit. Old Farthma cursed and left the workshop.
“Can I continue concocting potions? I will grow the herbs on my own and pay you for the rest,” Zayn requested, staring at Old Farthma with his famous puppy eyes, “Please~”
Old Farthma looked back, but all she did was curse Zayn for being a prodigy.
‘I take that as a yes,’ He thought before his eyes fell on two notifications.
[Proficiency of Alchemist’s Instinct reached 100%. Level Up!]
[Proficiency of Alchemist’s Instinct reached 100%. Level Up!]
“Two levels? That’s pretty neat,” Zayn prided himself with the notifications. Concocting the Minor Fire Resistance Potion granted Alchemist’s Instinct two level-ups because its difficulty was considered a big challenge for someone like Zayn.
There had been two moments where he had been certain that the liquid mixture would end up a failure, but he narrowly salvaged the potion. He had been lucky.
And because he had been lucky, Zayn wanted to give it another try. Since Alchemist’s Instinct leveled up rapidly, he might as well continue concocting potions until his materials would run out. That had been his plan all along, either way. It was about time to rake money. At last, his time had come!
The second attempt to concoct a Minor Fire Resistance Potion failed, but the third and fourth succeeded. Zayn then switched back to concocting Energy Recovery Potions. He could produce them much faster and the failure rate was extremely low. Alchemist’s Instinct leveled up once more, further increasing his success rate.
As his understanding of the two potion recipes increased, his movements accelerated. Alchemist’s Instincts aided his movements and it was only a matter of three hours before he could turn a set of ingredients into a batch of three Energy Recovery Potions, or two Minor Fire Resistance Potions.
It didn’t even take four hours before the herbs and other ingredients that Old Farthma had set aside for the practical lesson of the next three days were used up.
There was not a single herb of inferior quality left for him to practice with.
“Wasn’t that way too fast? Am I that good already? Great!” He exclaimed, happy about his rapid progress.
Zayn was ready to use Rapid Plant Growth to recover the herbs he’d used up for his practice, and he was more than willing to use the online market if that was what he had to do to start his mass-production plan.
He was going to make a fortune pursuing his part-time career as an Alchemist, and Alchemist’s Instinct was going to help him grow more proficient and efficient in the process. All he needed was enough time and the necessary ingredients to keep producing more potions.
At some point Old Farthma tried to stop Zayn. He was getting ahead of himself.
It looked like Zayn was getting overconfident after a few successful concoctions in a row and from the point of view of an experienced Alchemist it looked like Zayn was going to make a big mistake. He swept through the processing steps too fast in an attempt to finish the potion in record time. However, instead of intervening, Old Farthma decided to let Zayn taste failure as well.
As long as Zayn wasn’t going to destroy everything around him, injuring himself and innocent bystanders alongside, it would be fine to fail. In fact, Old Farthma was certain that Zayn had failed to learn more about his limits. But she underestimated Zayn and his luck. Zayn succeeded in concocting the Minor Fire Resistance Potion and it looked like Alchemist’s Instinct rewarded him for his craziness.
Alchemist’s Instinct has been triggered. Quality of the Minor Fire Resistance Potion has been upgraded.
[Proficiency of Alchemist’s Instinct reached 100%. Level Up!]
Zayn laughed like a maniac when his first attempt at quick-brewing succeeded. Quick-brewing was a method created by the Alchemy King, and it did exactly what the name suggested. It allowed an Alchemist with considerable mastery of a low-ranked potion to…quickly brew it. The Alchemy King used this method to mass-produce thousands of low-ranked potions in a large cauldron. Zayn’s move was on a much smaller scale, but that was fine. He gained something for his brazen attempt to reproduce the Alchemy King’s quick-brewing method.
He was satisfied.
**
Alchemist’s Instinct
Uncommon - Level 7(1%)
After Alchemist’s Instinct reached Level 7, Zayn decided to record the creation of potions. At first, he used Rapid Plant Growth to recover the ingredients he required to concoct the potions. Then he began recording the entire concoction process. He forwarded the recording to his brothers but told them that they should cut out certain parts to prevent other factions from reproducing Old Farthma’s potions.
He didn’t want his monopoly to turn into a war against other major corporations after producing a total of 48 Energy Recovery Potions and 24 Minor Fire Resistance Potions in 4 hours.
Talking about monopoly, it was about time to sell the first batches of Minor Fire Resistance potions alongside the Energy Recovery Potions and earn a fortune.
Since the tax for all purchases and sales in the Forsaken Auctionhouse was the lowest, Zayn chose to auction the Energy Recovery Potions and Minor Fire Resistance Potions there.
“Hmm…I should set the Energy Recovery Potions at 10 silver per bottle and the Minor Fire Resistance Potions at 70 silver each. That should be fine,” He mumbled before putting his products up for sale.
Energy Recovery Potions were useful for everyone, however, their cost production was cheap and easy. At least, that was the case for him. There were only two other Players who sold Energy Recovery Potions in small batches. However, they sold their potions at 30 silver coins per bottle.
‘They might be alchemy apprentices, but their success rates are way too low. The product quality is also worse than mine. What a waste.’
But then again, Zayn was certain that some wealthy Players would be willing to invest 30 silver coins to purchase an Energy Recovery Potion if they were truly desperate. Roaming through the regions in Forgotten Lands was a lengthy procedure, and nobody wanted to run back and forth to purchase inferior potions from the Beginner Villages’ merchants. They might as well purchase potions with long-lasting effects online.
‘I rather keep my image and let the Players fight for my potions.’ Zayn shook his head, and looked at the batch of lonely Minor Fire Resistance Potions he’d released in the Forsaken Auctionhouse. Their price was quite hefty at 70 silver coins per bottle, but the ingredients required to concoct them weren’t cheap either. It was only fortunate that Zayn was at a slight advantage since he produced his own herbs in the Farming Hall.
“In four hours they should earn me like 150 silver coins per bottle, maybe a bit less.” Zayn calculated in his mind, tilting his head as he received the first notifications from bidders.
‘To think that Old Farthma hated the heat in Emberfall enough to create her own fire resistance potion recipe. I expected nothing less from the crazy creator who came up with the Serum of the Foolish Owl.’ Zayn thought before his mind went astray.
“It would have been great if I spawned in Silverwood, but there is nothing I can do. At least, I can make use of the crazy situation over there to make a fortune.”
The Minor Fire Resistance Potion was a god-like creation for Players in the Beginner Villages like Silverwood because of certain grinding spots that promised high drop-rates for Soul Essences, Cards, and Card Shards. The potion could be used to counter the highly destructive power of fire-attributed monsters, which were frequently sighted in certain places and regions.
More bids were made and within a few minutes the entire batch of his Minor Fire Resistance Potions reached bids of 80 to 85 silver coins per bottle. Zayn received a few direct messages proposing a partnership and a large-scale transaction, but Zayn could only shake his head.
He didn’t have the necessary ingredients to create more Minor Fire Resistance Potions.
“Should I get back to work?” He mumbled, ready to return to the Farming Hall to grow Old Farthma’s plants while waiting for the response from a few merchants and herbalists.
Unfortunately, Old Farthma had different plants with him.
“Get out!!!”
