Alchemist (Sub-Profession)

After returning to Dalaran, Karen used Kael'thas's identity to borrow a vast number of books on secondary professions from the Dalaran mage library, gaining a preliminary understanding of them.

First, the major manufacturing secondary professions—such as tailoring, leatherworking, blacksmithing, and engineering—all existed, but they differed significantly from those in the game.

For instance, the bags Karen had hoped to craft via tailoring simply did not exist.

These secondary professions could produce equipment, but that was all they did. Armor produced was defined only by its sturdiness, durability, and resistance, while weapons were defined by sharpness, sturdiness, and piercing power.

If equipment crafted from superior materials possessed certain traits, those were merely the inherent properties of the materials themselves.

The equipment in the game that came with bonus attributes and skills did not exist here; one required an enchanter to perform an enchantment on the gear to potentially imbue it with such properties.

These secondary professions did not involve magic and were quite mundane; they were roles that any ordinary person could master.

Gathering professions like herbalism, mining, and skinning were also accessible to ordinary people. However, secondary professions like alchemy and enchanting required one to be a magic-user, as they both necessitated working with mana.

Furthermore, there was no mention of inscription or jewelcrafting; it was unclear whether these professions did not exist or if they were hidden professions inaccessible to the average person, as there was no record of them even in the Dalaran library.

However, it was possible that jewelcrafting had not yet been introduced because the Draenei had not yet arrived in Azeroth to bring that technology with them. As for the three life-skill professions—cooking, fishing, and first aid—Karen could only chuckle.

Regarding which secondary profession to choose, Karen did not consider the gathering professions; he was a man of wealth, and there was no need to explain further.

The manufacturing professions were too ordinary, and Karen had no interest in them. That left only alchemy and enchanting.

Initially, Karen wanted to start by learning enchanting, as it truly suited a wealthy individual; if you weren't rich, you had no business with this profession, as you would lack the materials required to practice and improve.

Moreover, High Elf society was the primary hub for enchanters, and the headquarters of the Enchanters' Guild was located in Silvermoon City, the capital of the High Elves.

Just by looking at the ornate magical equipment of the High Elf, one could tell where such gear originated.

However, enchanting required not only materials but also the study of magical runes.

Enchanting was the act of constructing and solidifying magical patterns onto equipment using magical materials.

The level of this secondary profession was fundamentally tied to one's primary profession; one only heard of an enchanter's level being lower than their primary class level, never higher.

Considering his own primary class level, Karen decided to put that idea aside for now.

That left alchemy. Although this profession also required mana, it did not necessitate the study of magical runes, and the amount of mana one possessed had little impact on alchemy.

Even a mage apprentice could become an alchemist; he had even heard of a top-tier mage apprentice who became a master alchemist.

That individual's secondary profession level exceeded their primary class level by three, just one step away from the highest rank of Grandmaster Alchemist.

By this comparison, since Karen was an intermediate mage, he could theoretically reach the pinnacle of alchemy.

Very well, he would choose this secondary profession.

Karen ceased his adventurous outings and began to study alchemy.

First, products manufactured by an alchemist were divided into potions and elixirs.

Those without mana were classified as potions, such as remedies for the common cold.

Those containing mana were classified as elixirs, such as the healing potions and mana potions from the game; because they contained mana components, the effects of the elixirs were primarily provided by these components.

The lowest-grade healing elixir from the game was different here.

Here, healing elixirs fell into the category of intermediate elixirs, and there were no different tiers of healing elixirs; if one was severely injured, one simply drank more bottles. Once the effect of one bottle faded, one would drink the next, or one could drink multiple bottles at once for a better, though not strictly multiplicative, effect.

For instance, drinking two bottles at once yielded an effect equivalent to 1.5 times that of a single bottle.

Of course, there were also special healing elixirs, but those formulas were improved versions held by a very small number of people and were not made public.

Karen did not aim too high; he spent a few days learning the basics of alchemy. After all, reality was not like a game where you found materials and clicked a button to auto-synthesize; in reality, crafting elixirs involved many operational steps.

Karen had no interest in crafting potions. Elixirs contained mana, and the crafting process required the use of one's own mana at several stages.

First, many materials used in alchemy contained mana, such as certain mana-infused herbs.

Azeroth was rich in mana, and these herbs could absorb it and convert it into inherent properties. For example, Silverleaf was a very common herb because its mana possessed a harmonizing effect, allowing herbs with different properties to fuse together.

The first step of alchemy was material processing: removing impurities and retaining only the essence. This step required the use of one's own mana to ensure the mana essence of the materials did not dissipate. The integrity of this essence directly determined the upper limit of the final elixir's quality.

After processing the materials, one had to perform the blending. Every elixir was composed of multiple alchemical materials.

The dosage of materials, the order of addition, and even the timing and method of blending each material were all critical.

This step required the alchemist to have excellent mana sensitivity, to constantly monitor the degree of fusion between various materials, and to add subsequent materials at the right moment.

The final step was the solidification phase. When the blending phase ended, the mana of the liquid materials reached a balance point, but this balance was fragile and easily disrupted. It required special mana-control techniques to solidify the mana structure.

It was like a cup: first, you put in stones, then sand, and finally water, creating a blended state.

But once the cup was turned upside down, this structural state would be immediately destroyed.

At this point, a technique was needed to fix the structure in place—for example, cooling it down to turn the water into ice, which would solidify the structure so that even if the cup were removed, the state would remain intact.

This was the special mana technique that alchemists needed to learn.

Different solidification techniques gave rise to different schools of alchemy, each with its own unique methods.

Some common solidification techniques were either leaked, too mundane, or too widely circulated to be kept secret, and were thus made public by the Alchemists' Guild.

These common techniques could be learned for free at the guild, but the success rate of solidification was low, and the quality of the elixirs was mediocre.

To learn more advanced solidification techniques, one had to complete tasks for the Alchemists' Guild to earn and spend contribution points.

Of course, given Karen's identity, he could learn them without contribution points. Furthermore, he could even learn the secret techniques of exclusive alchemical schools by paying a price, provided he did not spread them further.

Karen had no interest in common techniques; he decided to pick an advanced one to practice first, before deciding whether to pursue the secret schools.