Crude Healing Potion (E-)

You're right, an alchemist's way of classifying potions is based on their ingredients.

If anything other than plants is added during the brewing process, whether it's bugs, other living creatures, or the blood of magical beasts...

Make no mistake, my friend: that's a potion, one hundred percent.

Lan Qingyou had collected these earthworms while gathering herbs over the past few days.

Besides centipedes, she had collected plenty of other good things, like Green-Eyed Frogs, Amplifier Bats, centipedes, Red Stone Rats, Withered Wood Snakes, Stone-Nitrate Leeches, Fire Red Ants, Grass Saw Worms, and the like.

Honestly, Lan Qingyou had found them disgusting at first, too.

But as a novice alchemist desperately short on materials, she had no right to be picky. If she came across something, it was fate, and she had to collect it.

Not collecting them would be letting down Great Teacher Albert and would be a desecration of alchemy.

They were all drying on the second-floor terrace. In about two days, they should be dry enough to grind into powder and store.

Because of the Supreme Rule, she had always collected them in secret without taking them out.

But now that she was making potions, she had no choice but to show them.

In alchemy, there were two ways to use centipedes. One was to add the whole creature to the potion, as she was doing now. The other was to grind it into powder after it died.

The two methods had different effects and uses, and produced different potions.

This time, Lan Qingyou was focusing on reducing her opponent's attributes.

Pay attention, this is important. Great Teacher Albert might test you on it.

After working at it until the afternoon, Lan Qingyou finally finished making today's potions.

Without those enamel mugs, the work had been much less hectic than yesterday.

Once the potions had cooled and settled, Lan Qingyou began bottling them.

[Apprentice Grade Magic Potion · Slow-Acting (E)]

[Effect: When it hits an enemy, the potion bursts into a mist that clings to the enemy's skin and reduces their Agility by 3 points for 10 seconds.]

[Description: 3 points of Agility isn't little, and 6 points isn't much. Let your enemies experience what it's like to slam on the brakes!]

Lan Qingyou nodded in satisfaction as she looked at the Slow-Acting Magic Potion's stats.

With this potion, she at least had a chance of escaping in a hostile environment.

A proper Apprentice Grade Slow-Acting Magic Potion only reduced Agility by 3 points. That might not seem like much.

But you had to remember that the limit for Blue Star people was only 10 Agility.

Even if she was unlucky enough to encounter a superhuman with maxed-out Agility, that 3-point reduction would be enough to make him face-plant.

Think about it.

Someone used to moving at high speed would need a little time to adjust if their speed suddenly dropped out of their control.

Even if it was only a few seconds.

Those few seconds of adjustment would be the perfect opportunity for her to escape or counterattack.

Of course, this all depended on Lan Qingyou being able to hit her opponent.

But she wasn't worried about that.

There were 200 potions in a batch. If she threw them all at once, one of them was bound to hit, and she wouldn't even feel bad about it.

After all, it was to save her life. What was there to feel bad about? The bros would've already finished the job.

As for whether using this potion would put her in danger...

She didn't know about anyone else, but Lan Qingyou knew for sure that she'd be fine.

Honestly, Lan Qingyou felt that she still had far too few materials.

Every one of the snakes, bugs, rats, and ants she'd mentioned earlier could actually be used to make potions more useful to her than earthworms—or, no, than Slow-Acting Magic Potions.

Unfortunately, she didn't have enough of any of them to brew a full batch.

Brewing a small amount on its own would require tools she didn't have, and would be wasteful.

That was why Lan Qingyou had chosen Slow-Acting Magic Potions, which she could produce in large quantities all at once.

She had made this decision only after thinking it through carefully.

She knew her own limits and didn't expect too much from herself, so she had to—and could only—win through quantity.

After bottling all these life-saving potions, Lan Qingyou began cleaning her tools.

Once she'd finished that, she started filtering and bottling the Healing Potion.

[Effect: Restores 3 health points per second for 10 seconds.]

[Description: A barely usable Healing Potion. Does anyone really need something like this?]

Need it? Of course they did. Plenty of people would.

Seeing the sarcastic description on the appraisal, Lan Qingyou threw some sarcasm right back.

It only restored 30+ health over ten seconds, still 20+ less than an Apprentice Grade potion.

But Lan Qingyou was certain plenty of people needed it.

After all, people had complained that they had no use for Mana Potions that restored +50 Magic Power. A potion that restored +50 health would surely be less popular than one that restored +30. Someone like her, with only 20 health points in total, would even find a +30 potion a bit wasteful.

So even though the +30 health potions had been made in a soup pot, Lan Qingyou had no worries about selling them.

Lan Qingyou kept only 10 of the 200 Crude Healing Potions that restored +30 health and the 200 Crude Magic Potions that restored +30 Magic Power for her own use. Then she contacted Shang Chuan.

It was a little past five in the afternoon, around the time when everyone who had gone hunting or gathering returned to the shelter. It was also Shang Chuan's busiest time.

Although people came back now and then at noon, most chose to fight outside all day, or return to drop off their materials before heading back out. Very few had time to stop and browse the Trading Post.

Unless they'd found something good.

Shang Chuan couldn't speak for other districts, but thanks to Lan Qingyou tying basic materials to Magic Power, prices in District 666 had remained fairly steady. Even black-market prices were stable.

That was wonderful news for a merchant. At the very least, it made it easier to predict the business environment and reduce risk.

But today, Shang Chuan was feeling a little restless.

He sat in front of the Magic Desk, operating the Trading Post interface on its screen with both hands. Everything seemed normal, but the way he kept glancing at his friends list and the way his leg bounced beneath the desk showed that he was far from calm.

It was almost six, and Lan Qingyou still hadn't sent him any news.

He didn't think Lan Qingyou would run off, but it was several thousand units of supplies, plus a hundred potions as payment. As time passed, he grew more and more anxious.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The friends list suddenly chimed.

The muscles in Shang Chuan's face twitched. He swiped his right hand and opened the friends list with practiced ease.

Lan Qingyou: "[Crude Healing Potion (E-)]"

Thump—thump—thump—thump—thump—

When he saw the Healing Potion's effect, Shang Chuan's heart began pounding against his will.

One hundred percent! Absolutely a hundred percent profit!

His throat felt dry. He grabbed the Shuaishifu Jasmine Honey Tea beside him and gulped down two big mouthfuls.

Lan Qingyou: "How many do you want?"

All of them!