Lan Qingyou immediately took the Hurricane Lamp off the wall, having thought of something.
Then she tossed it onto the Small Screen for appraisal.
[Magic Hurricane Lamp (E)]
[Remaining Duration: 2466 minutes]
[Effect: Lights the way ahead for you in the dark.]
[Description: No way, no way. Surely nobody actually takes this out at night.]
2466 minutes—that meant it had less than two days left.
Lan Qingyou was sure she wasn't the only one in this situation. The Magic Hurricane Lamps in other shelters should be about the same.
It was just that people had gotten so used to them that no one had noticed.
So once the seven-day protection period ended, the Magic Hurricane Lamps would stop working. What would they use for light then?
The answer: a fire.
Since they wouldn't need to go out at night, they could just light a fire inside their homes.
But that would cost them.
Someone had calculated earlier that it took a non-mage giving it their all for seven days just to gather the materials needed for an upgrade—and that didn't even include Devilish Creature Crystal Cores.
So how much Wood would they have to burn every night once the Magic Hurricane Lamps stopped working?
Ten units? Or twenty?
Lan Qingyou had spent the night brewing medicine, and in eight hours, she'd burned through more than a hundred units of Wood.
She hadn't counted exactly how many more than a hundred, but it had definitely taken at least five or six uses of Gathering Art to collect.
Of course, there was another important point: burning Wood produced smoke. Without a stove, the only way to let it out was to open the windows and doors.
Even if they only burned a fire for an hour or two after returning at night, it would still be miserable.
Especially with the doors and windows open.
Unless they chose not to burn Wood—or made their own torches.
Lan Qingyou fell silent. She wasn't feeling sorry for other people; she was wondering whether there might be a business opportunity in this.
After all, one of the materials needed to make a Hurricane Lamp was Luminous Mushroom, which could also be used in alchemy.
The uses of Luminous Mushroom were also recorded in Potions Study. It was used to make Luminous Potion.
But the book didn't explain what Luminous Potion was actually for.
Looking at the Hurricane Lamp now, could the liquid inside it be Luminous Potion?
Should she take one apart and find out?
Lan Qingyou looked at the two Hurricane Lamps on the table.
Their remaining durations overlapped, so it would be fine to take apart the one with less time left. It just meant she'd have to carry a lamp up and down the stairs at night afterward.
"Take it apart!"
There was nothing to lose, so Lan Qingyou decisively decided to try it.
She picked up the Magic Hurricane Lamp and examined it from every angle. At last, she found a hole about the size of her thumb near the top.
She pried it open with a toothpick, then tilted the lamp. A stream of glowing liquid slowly flowed onto the Small Screen on the table.
[Luminous Potion (E-)]
[Description: A potion that is close to losing its luminescent effect. It has little value left for recycling.]
Excellent. It seemed her guess had been right.
Lan Qingyou smiled faintly. Another consumable.
She still didn't know whether it would sell well, but that didn't matter. Now that she knew how the Magic Hurricane Lamp worked, she could make more once the "power went out" and earn a little extra.
Though it wouldn't make as much as Mana Potion.
She'd think about it later.
Yawning again, Lan Qingyou carried the new Hurricane Lamp upstairs.
It had become her habit to read for a while every night before going to sleep.
The next morning, Lan Qingyou went downstairs, grabbed a loaf of bread and a carton of milk, and was eating when she received a message from Li Huai.
Li Huai: "Sure."
The brief reply came with a trade request on the Small Screen. Lan Qingyou shook her head.
You're really taking this in stride. Was this the easygoing confidence of a combat expert?
Still grumbling, Lan Qingyou took out the stone slab and sent over the forty potions as payment.
Li Huai: "Got them."
Lan Qingyou: "You're online."
Li Huai: "Yeah."
Lan Qingyou: "Then I'd like to order some more stone rods. Twenty that are one meter long and three centimeters in diameter, and a hundred that are thirty centimeters long and one centimeter in diameter."
Li Huai: "Five Mana Potions will do."
Lan Qingyou: "No problem."
Ten minutes later, Lan Qingyou received the stone rods.
She planned to use them as stirring rods.
The branch she'd picked up earlier hadn't been quite right for brewing medicine. Since it was made of Wood, leaving it in the mixture for too long risked leaching its components into the brew and affecting the potion's quality.
So she'd had to stir for a while, then take it out. It was too much of a hassle.
With the stone rods, she wouldn't have to go to all that trouble.
Eager to try out her new equipment, Lan Qingyou immediately began preparing to brew medicine.
She fetched water, washed and sorted the herbs, and set them out to dry, completing each step in one smooth sequence.
Since she had more alchemical bases and containers today, Lan Qingyou wanted to brew a larger batch at once.
That meant she needed more herbs than she had yesterday, and it took her over an hour to finish the preparations.
While preparing the herbs, she also laid out a hundred stone slabs in the first-floor hall and placed a 1.25-liter enamel mug on each.
These enamel mugs were for brewing medicine too, but not for making Mana Potion.
They were for a secret weapon she was preparing for herself.
After mixing the Mana Water, Lan Qingyou portioned it into the various containers, one spoonful at a time.
Then she began brewing.
During the process, Lan Qingyou would occasionally set down her stirring rod and sort herbs.
Since she'd decided yesterday that she wouldn't wander around anymore, but would focus on handicrafts and earn a little money through hard work, she naturally needed to standardize and streamline her brewing business.
Sorting herbs while they brewed was one way to work that out.
After all, standing in front of the cauldron for eight hours doing nothing would be a terrible waste of time.
Waste was shameful.
Lan Qingyou didn't just sort the herbs; she also set them out to dry.
In an hour, she could process nearly ten pounds of herbs.
At noon, Lan Qingyou took a moment to check the Magic Desk and found that quite a few people had gathered herbs that morning and exchanged them with her.
Lan Qingyou didn't mind. She accepted every offer.
When she took the herbs out, she found that most had already been washed. They hadn't been rinsed very thoroughly, but they still saved her quite a bit of time.
With the Small Screen's appraisal keeping watch, all she had to do was specify a minimum quality for the items she'd accept. That way, no one could pass off inferior goods as good ones.
As the World Will had said, the Magic Desk was worth making good use of.
It could monitor trades, take photos, appraise items, and transport them. It really was convenient.
Lan Qingyou also received a blueprint for a 500-milliliter measuring cup.
The materials required weren't much—just a few dozen units of sand.
It looked much like a liquor measure, only with markings on it, making it easier for Lan Qingyou to keep track while using medicine.
At four in the afternoon, the first batch of potions was ready.
Once they had settled, Lan Qingyou used the Small Screen to appraise the potion brewed in the stainless-steel stockpot first.
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