Antidote Potion

After successfully settling into the small town, the first thing Drew did was not to clean his room, but to find the town mayor.

He asked the mayor to request that a merchant caravan heading to a larger city help purchase a set of alchemy tools and some materials.

Alchemy is a very rare profession compared to side occupations like blacksmithing, tailoring, or leatherworking.

While the town had blacksmiths, tailors, and leatherworkers, the residents had never even seen an alchemist or an enchanter.

There were hardly any mages in the town; the highest-ranking one was a novice mage leading a few apprentices, making Drew the town's premier mage upon his arrival.

With so few mages, let alone the alchemy and enchanting professions that only magic-users can practice, there were no alchemy tools for sale in such a small town; one had to travel to larger cities to find the relevant materials and equipment.

Fortunately, the town bordered a forest with rich botanical resources, and some of the herbs needed for alchemy could be found there.

Drew could purchase these herbs directly from the townspeople, which was much cheaper than buying them from alchemy shops in large cities.

For the residents, although merchant caravans from large cities would come to buy these herbs periodically, the prices they offered were at least half of what Drew was willing to pay.

The enthusiasm of the townspeople was greatly boosted.

Everyone was happy with this win-win situation.

Once everything was prepared, Drew began to ready himself for alchemy.

Drew first cleaned the room thoroughly, as an unclean environment would introduce impurities into the alchemical potions, severely affecting their success rate and quality.

After cleaning the room, Drew set up a small dust-removal magic circle on the floor and solidified it with materials.

This was why Drew chose to buy a house rather than rent one; it would be a waste to solidify a magic circle in a place he didn't own.

Afterward, Drew searched Karen's memories and began to arrange the alchemy laboratory according to Karen's habits.

Since the house he bought was not in the same league as the one in Dalaran, there was a significant difference in room size.

After setting up the alchemy lab, there wasn't much space left.

Fortunately, Drew was controlled by the system and did not need to sleep; he could just sit and meditate in a designated spot, saving the large amount of space usually required for a bedroom.

Once everything was finally placed, the room looked quite strange to an ordinary person.

But since Drew was a shut-in, he wouldn't be inviting anyone over, and no one would rashly visit the home of someone with such a significant status gap.

Thus, no one would ever see the strange room.

After finishing the setup, Drew sensed that his body was a bit fatigued and not suited for alchemy.

He began to control his body to sit and meditate.

At the first light of dawn, Drew controlled his body to wake from meditation.

After finishing his meditation, Drew ate breakfast, which consisted of a simple, coarse meal.

Karen used to be a super-rich second-generation heir; his daily breakfast alone could cover a month's living expenses for an ordinary person.

Thinking back to the time spent staking out without a drop of water, compared to the current coarse meal, Karen would have had a breakdown if he weren't being controlled by the system.

But the body controlled by the system, now named Drew, was different.

The system had no concept of enjoyment. It was mechanical and focused primarily on survival; as long as the body's energy requirements were met, it didn't matter if the food tasted good or not.

After finishing breakfast, Drew did not start alchemy immediately. First, he searched Karen's memories to familiarize himself with what alchemy was, understanding the steps, formulas, and even the sensations Karen felt while practicing alchemy.

Drew carefully recalled the feeling of Karen practicing alchemy and then used the analysis system to perform a virtual simulation. The conclusion reached was that alchemy was extremely simple.

The first step of alchemy could be ignored; even Karen found this step simple, and Drew could complete it with 100% accuracy.

The second step was the liquid blending phase, which Karen found difficult. Drew analyzed that as long as there was a vast database of experimental data, one could determine the true composition of every material, the specific function of each component, and then record the reactions, ratios, and reaction times between various materials.

Then, through comprehensive analysis, every detailed operational step required for each alchemy formula could be derived, including the exact amounts of materials and the precise timing for adding them.

Furthermore, through the system's powerful scanning function, the amount of every material held in his hand and whether the liquid molecules in the mixture had finished reacting were perfectly clear.

Finally, the system could control every cell in Drew's body, perfectly managing the operation to ensure no mistakes occurred, completing every action with 100% precision.

Combining these three advantages, alchemy was as simple as eating and drinking for Drew.

Of course, alchemy was not fully mastered by Drew, because the system indicated that magic was an entirely new field that required further study.

Especially the final stage of alchemy: the solidification phase.

This stage was entirely within the realm of magic, and even Karen only knew how to do it without understanding the underlying principles.

Searching Karen's memories was useless; the system had no grasp of this stage.

If one were to strip away all the magical parts of the alchemy process, it could be viewed entirely as a chemistry experiment, and the system indicated that this was its specialty—it had no fear of that.

However, once the magical components were added, it became an upgraded version of a chemistry experiment.

The system indicated it was still in the learning phase but would definitely master it in the future. Although the system was currently a bit unfamiliar with magic, it possessed Karen's memory database, meaning the system's magical comprehension was equal to Karen's current level.

Karen's comprehension of magic at the intermediate level and below was quite advanced, so the system's mastery of magic up to the intermediate level was also quite good.

With this level of magical mastery combined with superior chemical experimentation capabilities, Drew's alchemy was formidable indeed.

With all preparations for alchemy complete, Drew prepared to begin.

First, he selected a formula. Drew chose the antidote potion formula.

Reason one: the herbs currently produced in the forest could account for the majority of the antidote formula, and only a small amount of other medicinal materials needed to be purchased to complete the preparation.

Reason two: the town residents frequently went into the forest to gather herbs, hunt, and chop wood—after all, one lives off the mountain if one lives by the mountain, and off the water if one lives by the water.

However, there were many places in the forest with miasma, and many venomous snakes appeared; some herbs also emitted deadly toxins. Therefore, the antidote potion was a highly necessary item for the townspeople, and it had a very strong market.

A potion formula that could be welcomed by the townspeople while also earning money—if he didn't choose this, what else would he choose?