Ding-a-ling-a-ling--
After the scenery outside the window had changed from golden to black, the alarm clock on the table rang.
As the alarm rang, the potion in the pot began to glow with the same golden light as when the base had first been lit.
This was the normal process for completing a potion.
Eight hours were up. Turn off the heat.
Lan Qingyou put down her book and snapped her fingers. The flames beneath the base went out instantly.
A freshly brewed potion couldn't be bottled right away.
She needed to use a slotted spoon to fish out all the herbs that had boiled to mush, then drain the moisture from them with a cloth and funnel.
After that, she had to let the potion cool and allow the remaining herbal impurities to settle.
During this time, Lan Qingyou went out to grab a meal.
About half an hour later, she returned with a Wooden Water Ladle, a liquor dispenser, and ten test tubes.
Without stirring the liquid in the pot, she carefully scooped the potion out of the cauldron with the Wooden Water Ladle and poured it into the filter.
Once only a little herbal residue remained in the cauldron, she also had to wrap it up in a cloth with the herbs she had fished out earlier, then squeeze out all the potion it contained until not a single drop came out.
According to Albert, the moisture in the herbal residue contained the most medicinal properties. If she skipped this step, she'd end up with nothing more than a semi-finished product.
Once all these steps were complete, all that remained was to wait for the potion to filter through.
Twenty liters of water boiled down to 2,000 milliliters—just four pounds' worth—so it wouldn't take long to filter.
As soon as all the potion in the upper part of the filter had drained away, Lan Qingyou eagerly scooped some up with the liquor dispenser, filled a test tube, and took it to be appraised.
[Apprentice-Grade Mana Potion (E)] [Effect: Restores 5 points of Magic Power per second for 10 seconds.] [Description: A standard Apprentice Magic Potion. The dosage is a little on the high side. Its maker must be an apprentice who has only just entered the field of alchemy. Too textbook-like. No jokes, a little boring, a little stiff.]
So, in your eyes, alchemical potions were supposed to be jokes?
Lan Qingyou pursed her lips at the potion's description.
This time the potion hadn't made the Small Screen crack jokes like last time, so now it was forcing one in?
Lan Qingyou was quite satisfied with her first genuine attempt at alchemy.
Accordingly, she was rather unhappy with the Small Screen's review.
With the Small Screen's appraisal in hand, all that remained was to bottle the potion.
The 2,000 milliliters of potion only required 200 test tubes. Compared to last time, when she'd needed 1,000, it was a breeze. Lan Qingyou had them all filled in no time.
However, she didn't rush to sell them. Instead, she gave ten to Gu Xiaobei first.
Lan Qingyou: "This is the difference in price I promised you. Sorry to ask, but where did you get the blueprint?"
Gu Xiaobei had been bored, scrolling through the chat, but as soon as she saw her friend notification flashing, she got excited.
Unlike Lan Qingyou, who had two friends, Gu Xiaobei only had one.
She could immediately guess who had messaged her.
As soon as she saw the notification flashing, she also spotted ten potions on the Small Screen.
After learning from the Small Screen's appraisal what the potion did, Gu Xiaobei was astonished.
Gu Xiaobei: "It restores 50 points of Magic Power! That's amazing! Thanks, boss! As for the blueprint, I got it from a treasure chest."
A flurry of excited messages from Gu Xiaobei conveyed her surprise, gratitude, and answer all at once.
A Material Treasure Chest?
Could those things really give you this?
Lan Qingyou had assumed Material Treasure Chests only contained supplies. Now she finally understood what the "treasure" in their name meant.
Looks like she'd have to keep searching for treasure chests tonight.
Gu Xiaobei: "Oh, right, boss. What about herbs? Do you want any? I have a lot: Ascetic Herbs, Yellow-Tail Flowers, Yulan Herbs, Thorn Spikes, Stone Orchids, and Moonflowers."
If you like this book and don't want to lose track of it, remember to add it to your bookshelf.
Lan Qingyou: "How do you have so many herbs?"
Lan Qingyou was a little surprised at her desk. They were all herbs used to make E-Rank potions, but she'd never imagined other people would gather them too.
Gu Xiaobei: "It's because of my talent. I went to gather these after seeing that you could make potions."
Lan Qingyou: "I see. Then I'll trade one pound for one Mana Potion."
Gu Xiaobei: "Sure, sure! I'll send a trade request right away."
Although the herbs hadn't been processed after being gathered, so their medicinal properties were certainly inferior to freshly picked ones, Lan Qingyou ultimately decided to buy the batch anyway.
Gu Xiaobei's actions had reminded her: why gather herbs herself when she could have other people do it?
If she didn't waste time on this, she could brew two batches a day. The profit from the price difference alone would be huge.
So she didn't want to discourage Gu Xiaobei.
As for what Gu Xiaobei's talent was, what did that have to do with Lan Qingyou?
"An alchemist never has to worry about materials. I'm not interested in the materials."
Lan Qingyou chuckled, then began thinking about how to get those people in the Valley of Villains to help.
There was no doubt that the Apprentice Magic Potion was enough to get them motivated, but the problem was that they didn't know what the herbs looked like. They might bring her a handful of weeds instead.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, Lan Qingyou decided to use the Small Screen's camera function to take pictures of the herbs, then write up guides to identifying each one.
Finally, she'd post them on her personal homepage.
The homepage was a little like a blog and could be edited. Anyone could visit it by clicking on her avatar.
Just like Lan Qingyou had once visited Shang Chuan's personal homepage.
However, most people were busy upgrading their Earphone Shelters and preparing for the end of the beginner period, so very few of them wrote online diaries.
Lan Qingyou could take advantage of that.
After finishing all the preparations, Lan Qingyou put this batch of potions up for trade: one Mana Potion for 60 basic units of materials.
She also added two trade listings to the shop.
One was "500 grams of E-Rank Herbs for 1 Apprentice-Grade Mana Potion."
The other was "1 E-Rank Devilish Creature Crystal Core for 2 Apprentice-Grade Mana Potions."
The whole channel erupted instantly.
The potion that restored 1 point of Magic Power per second had been just barely enough to get by, but it had been usable.
Now it restored 5 points of Magic Power per second. Wasn't that incredible?
The average Blue Star Person had only about 5 or 6 points of Mental Power, and only 50 or 60 points of Magic Power in total. Now, after drinking a 50-point Mana Potion, most people could restore their Magic Power to its peak within ten seconds.
"Damn! I just bought ten Crude Magic Potions, and now you're bringing out Apprentice Magic Potions?"
"Shut up!"
"If you don't buy them, plenty of other people will."
"Buy them? They're gone!"
"That fast?"
"They really are. They were gone in an instant."
"Wait, there's more! You can trade Devilish Creature Crystal Cores and herbs for them."
"Looks pretty good. One pound for one potion, but how am I supposed to know what the herbs look like?"
"Her homepage has guides, even pictures."
"No dirt on them, and they have to be washed. Otherwise, you'll be blacklisted from the shop. Damn, she's making us do all the work?"
"Why not? A pound of herbs and half a pound of dirt—would you put up with that?"
"Fair point."
"Wait, doesn't this seem unfair? When the potion restored 10 points of Magic Power, it cost 10 units of materials. Why does it cost 60 units now that it restores 50 points?"
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