Brewing Potions

In Highland City, in the basement of a two-story house.

By the bright light of a Magic Lamp, Roland carefully took the materials for brewing a Fire Element Resonance Potion from a box.

One portion of Level 1 Fire Element Water.

One Fire Flower that had grown for three months. Based on the amount of Fire Element it contained, it was also Tier 1.

One Seven Star Grass, likewise Tier 1.

Roland did not immediately begin brewing a Tier 3 Potion. Instead, he planned to start with a Tier 1 Potion. After all, he only possessed the memories of his predecessor and had no personal experience brewing potions. More importantly, his current finances did not allow him to waste materials.

The three ingredients cost roughly seven silver coins. If he successfully brewed a Tier 1 Fire Element Resonance Potion, it could be sold for five times that price, earning thirty-five silver coins. In other words, he had to succeed once out of every five sets of materials just to barely break even. His predecessor had hovered between breaking even and taking losses. From the memories Roland possessed, it seemed that ever since his predecessor had entered the field of potion-making, he had never earned any gold coins from it.

"Nuwa, I'm starting." Roland took a deep breath and spoke seriously to Nuwa.

"Master, I activated scanning and recording a long time ago."

"Don't talk back."

"Okay."

Roland stopped wasting time and began brewing his first potion since arriving in this world.

The process of brewing a Tier 1 Potion was actually quite simple. He only needed to liquefy the Fire Flower with Magic Flame, remove its impurities, blend it with Elemental Water, then use the neutralizing effect of Seven Star Grass for the final extraction.

The difficult part was that throughout the process, the brewer had to continuously and steadily pour Mental Power into it to enhance the potion's effects. Even the slightest fluctuation in Mental Power would cause the potion-making process to fail.

However, Roland, who was brewing a Magic Potion for the first time, did not even reach the stage of injecting Mental Power. While purifying the Fire Flower with Magic Flame, his unfamiliarity caused him to lose control of the Fire Element contained within it, resulting in an explosion.

Bang.

Roland's first attempt at brewing a potion ended in failure, as expected. Fortunately, the Tier 1 Fire Flower contained too little Fire Element. The noise was loud, but its power was pitifully weak.

Covered in soot and dust, Roland looked at the black ash in his hand and said furiously, "Nuwa, didn't I tell you not to disturb me? Compensate me seven silver coins."

Nuwa felt quite helpless to have such a master.

Seeing that Nuwa ignored him, Roland awkwardly rubbed his nose.

After adjusting his mindset, Roland immediately began his second attempt at brewing a Fire Element Resonance Potion.

In the basement, Roland mobilized the Mana within his body and ignited a ball of Magic Flame in a small furnace. Then he cast Mage Hand, picked up a Fire Flower, and gently placed it into the Magic Flame for purification.

With his earlier experience, Roland's movements were clearly gentler and more careful this time. He followed the memories left behind by his predecessor exactly. Soon, under the burning and purification of the Magic Flame, the Fire Flower glowing red turned into a pool of crimson liquid. Seeing this, Roland had no time to rejoice and quickly poured it into an exquisite Crystal Vial.

He then repeated the process, refining another Seven Star Grass into liquid. Next came the most critical step in potion-making: fusing the three ingredients.

First, the purified liquid from the Fire Flower had to merge with the Elemental Water, while the Seven Star Grass needed to be added during the process for neutralization.

This step was also the most difficult. Not only did he need to control the violent fire-attribute Mana within the Fire Flower, but he also had to continuously inject Mental Power for secondary purification.

However, with the experience from last time, Roland carefully controlled his Mental Power and smoothly injected the Fire Flower liquid into the Elemental Water little by little.

The originally bright and clear Elemental Water immediately began to boil, producing layers of spreading mist.

"Beep! Warning: The interior of the Elemental Water is extremely unstable. Explosion imminent in three point five seconds."

Upon hearing Nuwa's warning, Roland immediately panicked. At that moment, the Mental Power he was pouring into the Elemental Water fluctuated sharply. Still hoping for a miracle, Roland quickly dumped all the purified Seven Star Grass liquid beside him into the Elemental Water, hoping to neutralize the unstable elements within it.

"Beep! Mental Power fluctuation detected. The Elemental Water is about to explode."

Just as the Chip finished speaking, the Elemental Water in Roland's hand turned into black ash again with a bang.

Because all three ingredients were involved this time, the blast was much stronger than before. Roland was not injured, but the explosion left him dizzy and disoriented. The mess all over the table made the veins on his forehead bulge.

However, as a researcher in his previous life, even if his intelligence was not exceptionally high, his stubbornness far surpassed that of ordinary people. Roland quickly cleaned up the table and began his third attempt.

Bang.

"Nuwa, where did the problem occur this time?"

"Your Mental Power fluctuated just now, stimulating the fire-attribute Mana in the Elemental Water and causing it to expand."

Hearing this, a bitter smile appeared on Roland's lips. It was Mental Power again. During the brewing of Magic Potions, steadily injecting Mental Power into the materials for secondary refinement and fusion had always been the most difficult stage. For mages, this stage was also the greatest obstacle and challenge on the path to becoming a potion-maker.

This did not apply only to potion-makers. The same condition applied to Magic Pattern Masters and alchemists.

It could be said that the steady output of Mental Power was as important to a mage as the amount of Mana and Mental Power within their body.

A mage capable of maintaining a perfectly steady output of Mental Power could play an important role even in battle. Not only could they greatly conserve Mana, but their casting speed would also be much faster than others'.

However, unlike combat, the steady output of Mental Power required during potion-making lasted far longer than what battle demanded.

Take the Tier 1 Fire Element Resonance Potion Roland was brewing now. At his current level, the process would take at least fifteen minutes from beginning to end, and more than half that time required the injection of Mental Power.

How long did it take Roland to cast a Tier 1 spell? Only a few seconds.

Moreover, during potion-making, even the slightest fluctuation in Mental Power could cause elemental imbalance during the fusion of the ingredients. Situations like the one just now would result in potion-making failure.

And this was only a Tier 1 Potion. According to the intermediate potion formulas his predecessor possessed, the ingredient requirements increased by twofold, meaning six ingredients had to be fused. The entire potion-making process took more than three times as long, which also meant the duration of Mental Power injection tripled.

For a mage, this process was absolutely no less demanding than an intense battle.

Therefore, for a potion-maker, maintaining a steady output of Mental Power over a long period was of utmost importance.

The reason his predecessor's potion success rate had been so low was also because he could not maintain a constant output of Mental Power for long.

At this thought, Roland's eyes suddenly lit up. Since the Chip was now driven by his own Mental Power, could the Chip control the output of his Mental Power for him?

"Nuwa, can you control the output of Mental Power during potion-making?" Roland immediately asked expectantly.

"No. According to Article One of the Blue Star Federation Government's Chip Technology Devices Basic Law, no Semi-Intelligent Chip may control human consciousness for any reason," Nuwa replied.

"Right, I forgot about that basic law." Roland was disappointed for a moment.

This was one of the most mandatory laws that the Blue Star Federation Government had forcibly implanted into every manufactured Chip in his previous life. It could not be altered or violated. Its purpose was to prevent intelligent Chips from threatening humanity's position.

Although this law might have limited some of the Chip's functions, it had also thoroughly made Chips humanity's best companions and indispensable assistants, ensuring that they posed no threat to humans.

Now that he had calmed down, Roland could not help laughing at himself. He mocked how foolish his suggestion had been. He had actually considered handing control of his Mental Power to a Chip. That was practically handing his life over to it. If the Chip developed independent consciousness during the process, Roland would become its puppet completely. That outcome was even more terrifying than death.

However, just as Roland was about to settle down and continue experimenting, Nuwa Chip's mechanical voice sounded in his mind again.

"Master, although I cannot directly control your Mental Power, due to an unknown influence, my storage function has undergone tremendous changes. I can store part of your Mental Power in advance. Perhaps it can assist you in brewing potions."

"Store Mental Power?" Roland froze. This was something he had never heard of in his previous life.

"Yes."

It seemed this was another new effect caused by the Chip's journey through worlds.

Roland did not know whether this effect was good or bad. But for now, he knew that if he could not use Magic Potions to earn his first pot of gold, his situation three months later would definitely not be good.

However, remembering the laws of the Blue Star Federation from his previous life, Roland became much more cautious. Instead of agreeing immediately, he continued asking the Chip, "What does storing Mental Power mean? Will it affect me?"

"No, Master. Once you inject Mental Power into the Chip, its connection to you will be erased instantly, turning it into ownerless Mental Power."

"I see." Roland suddenly understood.

"Then does that mean the portion of Mental Power you store can also serve as your energy source for your daily needs?"

"Yes, Master."

"Then why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You didn't ask."

"I didn't ask you today either."

"But today, I wanted to tell you and help you solve your problem."