The First Profession

Three days had passed since the last Swordsmanship Class. During those three days, Fran could only stay holed up in her dormitory and practice the Harmonization Method.

Cuilan Academy's schedule was extremely relaxed, spread across an entire academic year. Even if you took ten courses, you would still have plenty of time for other things.

With only three courses left, Fran was even more free. It was not that she did not want to take more classes to earn credits, but courses could only be selected during the first two months of the academic year. So now, she could only wait for next week's Art Appreciation. Swordsmanship Class was the week after next, while Arithmetic Class was also next week, after Art Appreciation.

On the first day, she had actually wanted to raise the proficiency of her Breathing Technique first. But after practicing herself unconscious that day, she gave up on the idea. Twice a day was enough.

Her Breathing Technique proficiency was now (73/100). Practicing twice a day gave her 6 proficiency points, so as long as it leveled up by the next Swordsmanship Class, that would be fine.

After using up her forty-sixth batch of materials, her Harmonization Method finally reached a new stage.

[You once again used the Harmonization Method to create a liquid with an unknown effect. Proficiency +3]

[The Harmonization Method's proficiency is full. Level increased.]

[Harmonization Method (Mastered) (Proficiency: 1/1000): You can skillfully fuse two materials together in an aqueous solution.]

Then she began attempting to make a Strength Potion. She took out three materials and placed them into the complete set of potion-making tools she had just bought for 4 silver coins.

The set was extremely expensive. In truth, it was merely a set of grinding and chopping tools along with several glass flasks. But considering this other world apparently had not yet developed large-scale manufacturing, the high price of such tools was probably due to production costs.

In any case, she had visited several shops and still found only that price, so she could only buy them with an aching heart.

Fran first used the technique she had copied from the Basic Herb Compendium to pluck off the petals of the Blood-Eating Flower, placing them into a mortar and slowly grinding them into powder.

She chopped up the animal meat and mixed it with fragments of Fenghua Crystal.

She then tossed the animal meat and Weathered Crystal into a beaker first, using the Harmonization Method to fuse the two together. When only a small piece of matter remained, she added the powdered Blood-Eating Flower.

She continued fusing them without pause until the entire bottle of solution turned yellow. Her first true attempt at brewing a potion had succeeded.

The whole process involved no stirring, heating, or any other method. It relied entirely on mental power to fuse things together in midair. That was how potions worked in this other world.

[You successfully created a Strength Potion. The Harmonization Method's proficiency is full. Level increased.]

[Drug Identification, Herb Processing, and Harmonization Method have fused into Pharmacy.]

[You have obtained a Profession: Apothecary.]

It had finally come. She had noticed that fusion prompt long ago, but nothing had happened after raising the Harmonization Method to Mastered. So she had needed to brew a potion as well.

As for the newly appeared Profession, that was an unexpected delight. She had never imagined that Professions could appear too.

This was her current Panel.

[Name: Fran

Profession: Apothecary

Attributes: Physique: 1.0 Mental: 1.8

Skills: Pharmacy (Mastered) (Proficiency: 631/1000): You are extremely skilled at making potions, but it seems you have only ever made Strength Potions?

Star Gazing Art (Beginner)

Swift Wind Breathing Technique (Beginner)

Magic Missile (Not Learned)

Trait: Moving with the Wind.]

The first thing she noticed was that her mental power had actually increased, rising by 0.4 from its original 1.4. She guessed that becoming an Apothecary had raised her mental power.

Also, Pharmacy had started out with more than six hundred proficiency points. It was probably carried over by her mastered drug-related skills.

The unfortunate thing was, why had she already mastered Pharmacy without gaining a new Trait? Did she need to level it up again?

Still, forming a Profession could actually increase her attributes. If she added several more Professions, would her attributes not soar...

As basic attributes, even an increase of 0.1 gave her a qualitative improvement.

The Physique she had increased earlier had been the key to defeating Mars. Without that bit of Physique, she might not even have been able to hold her sword steadily.

And her newly increased mental power made her want even more. When she used the Harmonization Method, she could intuitively feel that her mental power covered the herbs faster. If that was true, both the speed and precision of fusion would improve considerably.

She also recalled what the General Education Class instructor had said during basic lessons: "Mental power is the key to learning Spells. All of you have met the mental power requirement, so in theory, you can all learn Spells."

Could increasing her mental attribute speed up how quickly she gained Spell proficiency? She felt that was entirely possible...

There were other Professions here similar to Apothecary: Magic Artisan, Enchanter, Scroll Maker, Alchemist...

If she collected all those Professions, would her basic attributes not take off?

Of course, the future was the future, and the present was the present. Learning those Professions would require money no matter what, yet she was currently spending more than she earned. Money only went out, never came in.

She needed to find a way to make money. She looked at the Strength Potion she had just brewed. She remembered Teacher Rita saying that she should go find her once she had learned the Harmonization Method, and now that she had brewed a potion too, it was time.

She placed the potion into its designated storage box and headed out.

Rita held the Strength Potion up to the light, examining its color. After observing it for a while, she placed it on the table, took out a dropper, and dripped a small amount of the solution onto a sheet of special paper.

After examining it for a moment, she turned back to Fran and said:

"Not bad. This Strength Potion is very well made. I can tell that the fusion was excellent. You have practiced the Harmonization Method well..."

"Your material processing is also flawless. However, your timing for adding the Blood-Eating Flower was slightly wrong. You added it too late. Otherwise, this potion's effect would have been considerably better..."

"How did you make such a mistake, one that only someone making it for the first time would make? I heard you bought dozens of batches of materials. This should not have been your first attempt..."

Fran rubbed her forehead. She knew Teacher Rita had misunderstood. She had bought dozens of batches of materials, but they had not all been for Strength Potions.

Teacher Rita probably thought she had spent over a hundred silver coins buying dozens of batches and gone home to madly brew Strength Potions, which was why her Harmonization Method had become so proficient.

But she had no intention of correcting her. If she did, she would have to explain why she had bought two unrelated materials just to fuse them together. Had her brain short-circuited?

People in this other world did not have her game Panel. They did not know that as long as she practiced, she could level up. Normally, people learned how to brew a potion after making several dozen batches.

But the unreasonable part of her Panel lay precisely there. If an ordinary person learned to brew a Strength Potion, they would not necessarily know how to brew other potions.

That was because every material differed in properties, size, and fusion speed. At most, they would gain some experience that let them learn other potions much faster.

Her Panel directly raised her familiarity with the Harmonization Method for all materials to an extremely high level. That way, even if she brewed a potion she had never learned before, she could still succeed on the first try.