Starting Alchemy

The main ingredient in the Night Vision Potion recipe is Nightshade Grass leaves, which are also the most expensive and indispensable herb.

Punk carefully picked up a fingernail-sized leaf with his alchemy tweezers. The grass leaf was black-purple with faint red specks, its fine veins arranged in a spiral pattern. It felt cool to the touch!

This single leaf alone was worth five gold coins, and this was only the lowest-grade Apprentice Level material. No wonder the finished potions were so valuable. The raw materials for alchemy potions were inherently expensive, and factors like high production costs, the scarcity of alchemists, and huge market demand were all reasons why alchemy potions were highly sought after but rarely available.

The reason Nightshade Grass was so expensive was twofold. Firstly, its growth environment was harsh, requiring it to survive in cold, damp, shadowy places. Secondly, its shelf life was short; if not used within a month of picking, it would lose its efficacy. In a world like Faerun, where transportation was underdeveloped and journeys were perilous, traveling from one city to another could take as long as two months!

Konola City, being a warm city, did not produce Nightshade Grass. Punk gently touched the faint, almost imperceptible patterns on the leaf, deducing that these leaves had likely been brought to Konola City by Professionals traveling at supernatural speeds. Therefore, the Nightshade Grass had probably been picked quite some time ago, and much of its potency had already dissipated... This undoubtedly increased the difficulty of Punk's potion-making process!

However, looking at the small bag of alchemy ingredients beside him, enough to craft ten portions of Night Vision Potion, Punk felt a surge of confidence. "Nothing is impossible for the determined (and wealthy)!" he thought. If he could succeed in making just one or two portions out of ten, those materials would be recouped.

Alchemy in the world of Faerun involved using magical means to directly extract the desired components from materials. For example, Punk was now performing a Journeyman Level alchemy spell on the Nightshade Grass – the Energy Extraction Technique. As he finished chanting the arcane Byron Incantation, a small, flickering ball of colored light completely enveloped the Nightshade Grass leaf. The black-purple hue of the grass gradually faded over the next minute, becoming lighter and lighter until the leaf was completely transparent with a faint purple tint. The spiral veins on the leaf turned a mix of yellow and green. Beside the now energy-depleted leaf, a small, bead-sized energy orb with red specks, resembling the tip of a ballpoint pen, bobbed up and down with the fluctuations of the colored light created by the Energy Extraction Technique.

Seeing the faint purple residue on the leaf that could no longer be extracted, Punk was somewhat dissatisfied. Although this residual energy was small, it was equivalent to one-fifth of the total energy extracted. While Punk knew this was a relatively good outcome, if he were at the Apprentice Level instead of Journeyman Level, or if he were using a lesser version of the Energy Extraction Technique instead of the more efficient one, he would have had to use three leaves to create one energy orb.

Perhaps he would only be able to avoid wasting energy once he reached the Formal Level (Level 10), Punk mused.

Next, he had to extract the energy, or partial energy, from the other auxiliary materials one by one. Finally, in a disc-shaped alchemy container that repelled external energy, numerous energy orbs floated. These small, red and blue energy beads slowly moved along the bright silver arcane patterns etched onto the golden disc. The energy interference between them was neutralized by a peculiar energy field generated by the golden disc.

Next, with the System providing reminders for crucial details, Punk began to inject mental power into the golden disc. After being focused by the disc, the mental power, which was usually chaotic, became almost entirely synchronized to a single frequency. Punk used this more stable mental power to control the energy orbs, bringing them into contact with each other. Then, he cast the Journeyman Level alchemy spell – the Energy Fusion Technique – to fuse these orbs together one by one. In the microscopic world, invisible to the naked eye, threads of magic power began to gradually merge different energies, simultaneously emitting faint, steady radiation to neutralize the diffusion and fluctuations caused by energy conflicts.

Although Punk couldn't see these threads of magic power, he could feel their presence. With the full computational power of a Journeyman Level practitioner, the countless threads moved in an orderly fashion, smoothing out every energy unit that shouldn't conflict, bringing closer every energy unit that shouldn't repel, and pushing apart every energy unit that shouldn't attract. On a macro level, one could only see energy after energy merging into a semi-transparent sphere at the center of the disc-shaped container, emitting a soft energy fluctuation. The occasional energy diffusion was neutralized by the surrounding force field, preventing it from affecting the interaction of other energies...

As time ticked by, the central energy sphere began to show signs of liquefying, and its color transformed from semi-transparent to a crystal-clear transparent state. As the final energy connection was about to be completed, the liquid potion at the center began to stabilize its properties, no longer radiating energy outwards...

Then... it failed...

The semi-transparent liquid, which had begun to stabilize, suddenly generated a large amount of heat and transformed into a pink energy sphere vibrating at a high frequency.

"Damn it!" Feeling the energy sphere begin to release radiation in all directions, Punk quickly scooped it into his hands. Protected by the Journeyman Level Abjuration spell – Mage Armor (an advanced form of Minor Mage Armor) – Punk wasn't afraid of the energy sphere's damage, but his expensive and fragile alchemy tools couldn't withstand the ball's high temperature!

Sensing the danger that could destroy his body, Mage Armor instantly materialized around Punk. Every inch of his skin, including his clothes, was covered by a transparent energy film shimmering with colorful light. On his left hand, which was in contact with the energy sphere, the Mage Armor's energy blocked the invasion of heat and radiation. Due to the energy conflict, the Mage Armor, now glowing with a rainbow of colors, turned Punk's left hand into a colorful light bulb.

Clutching the high-temperature sphere tightly in his hand, Punk, to ensure the safety of his alchemy tools, decided in a flash to smash through the decaying, dilapidated wall. Although as a Mage, Punk certainly didn't possess the physical strength of a Knight, he could still break through a thin, rotten wooden wall.

In reality, when an experiment encountered unexpected situations, a Mage's first reaction should be to get as far away from the source of danger as possible. Once far enough away and having cast sufficient protective spells on himself, the correct course of action would be to use Divination Spells to assess the state of the laboratory.

Punk wasn't unaware of the safe course of action, but he still held the source of danger in his hand, keeping it as far as possible from his alchemy tools. On one hand, Punk could feel that even if the energy sphere in his hand exploded, it wouldn't be enough to break through his Mage Armor's defense. On the other hand... Punk didn't have the money to buy another set of alchemy tools. If he failed to craft anything and destroyed his tools, he would truly be in trouble!

Punk didn't have time to find the door, so he moved in a straight line, smashing large holes through one wall after another. He stopped only after passing through three rooms!

"Well, that's messed up," Punk muttered, leaning against a wobbly wall. He then began to chant spells with a resigned sigh, enduring the burning pain in his hand