Healing Potion

Karen excitedly shared the news of his alchemy talent with Kael'thas and Antonidas.

Kael'thas was delighted to see Karen find a productive path for his development. He wished him a smooth advancement and gifted him a magnificent set of alchemy tools.

However, he did not place much weight on what results Karen might achieve, as the High Elf race alone boasted dozens of Master Alchemists, making it nothing out of the ordinary.

Antonidas, on the other hand, was particularly invested. He said happily, "That's great! From now on, I'll come to you for all my potions. When can you start making Mana Potion? We're short on those. Also, you can start by making me 100 bottles of Intellect Potion."

"100 bottles? I've only just learned how to make Strength Potion; I don't even know how to make Intellect Potion yet. Besides, Mana Potion is an advanced concoction that requires an Advanced Alchemist to produce," Karen rolled his eyes.

One hundred bottles? I haven't even studied the formula yet! Even if I worked at full capacity, I could only manage ten or so a day. It would take nearly ten days to finish a hundred—this guy really has the nerve to ask.

He's only just become an alchemist and he's already eyeing advanced Mana Potion. He's got some nerve.

"Most of the members in our guild are low-to-mid-level mages, so using Mana Potion now would be a bit of a waste. But by the time we promote to advanced mages, I expect you'll be an Advanced Alchemist. That will be exactly when we need them. Plus, I believe your advancement speed will be very fast. After all, you're a rich kid. The record for a rich kid becoming a Master Alchemist is only 10 years; I believe you'll be an Advanced Alchemist soon."

"That impressive? Only 10 years to reach the top? Is alchemy really that easy? Why are there so few alchemists then?"

"That's just a record. In reality, becoming an alchemist is quite difficult. Just like with primary professions, there is a bottleneck when advancing to the advanced level, and most people get stuck there. Furthermore, alchemy requires two things: talent and burning money. Only magic-wielding classes can be alchemists, and since those are already rare, finding one with alchemy talent is even rarer. Alchemy advancement requires massive amounts of practice. Where would an ordinary alchemist get the money to fail so many times? Especially with advanced potions, the materials themselves are pure gold—it's too expensive to burn through. Normal alchemists usually earn experience by refining for others. As far as I know, the Alchemist Association only has about 20 Master Alchemists."

Damn, that few? I heard the High Elf Master Alchemists alone numbered more than that. Oh, right—most of them haven't joined this association. Plus, High Elves have long lifespans and plenty of wealth; it's very possible they have more Master Alchemists than the association. But for low-level alchemists, the gap is likely huge. Karen realized this as soon as he thought about it.

"Oh, right, hurry up and learn how to make the basic Intellect Potion. Your quality is so high, remember to give me only those of Excellent grade or above. Normal grade is fine too, I suppose—I can use those to rinse my mouth," Antonidas added.

Karen rolled his eyes and gave Antonidas the middle finger. I've seen shameless people, but never anyone this shameless. And to think you'll be a Great Mage in the future.

Despite his disdain for Antonidas, Karen still focused on the basic Intellect Potion, tossing all the successful batches to him. The success rate was decent, with 50% reaching the proficiency level of a primary alchemist.

However, Karen felt he still had plenty of room for development and was far from his limit.

In terms of quality, the excellence rate reached 50%, and the superb rate was 10%, but he hadn't seen a single Perfect potion. After making hundreds of bottles, he hadn't encountered one. It seemed Perfect potions couldn't be obtained through luck alone.

He gave all these potions to Antonidas, who was overjoyed. Now, their guild could chug Intellect Potion freely during missions, increasing the combat power of their mid-level mages by at least 10%, not to mention the primary mages.

Antonidas and the others discussed it; although Karen was a rich kid, they felt bad about taking them for free. They decided to provide the materials themselves. The Alchemist Association had specialized material extraction devices where anyone could input mana to extract ingredients. They bought one, and soon, a steady stream of materials was handed to Karen. Karen, in turn, provided a steady stream of finished products to Antonidas. This saved him a lot of time, and his alchemy experience soared, though he was constantly plagued by the fact that he couldn't refine the materials fast enough.

Soon, Karen felt he had reached the level of an intermediate alchemist. He had mastered primary potions, with his success rate hitting 80%, leaving little room for improvement. He told Antonidas to stop bringing materials, as he didn't plan on making any more basic Intellect Potions—they already had more than they could use.

After using up the remaining materials, Karen began researching the Healing Potion among the intermediate concoctions.

The Healing Potion was a famous intermediate potion with many variant formulas. The basic formula required five magical materials and five non-magical auxiliary materials. Karen wondered if higher-level potions would require more magical materials and fewer, or even zero, non-magical ones.

He didn't bother with material extraction; he just bought them directly. After studying the formula for a day and practicing it in his mind a few times, he began to concoct.

Intermediate potions didn't differ much from primary ones in terms of production; they just required more materials, more delicate operations, and more time. After a few attempts to familiarize himself with the process, Karen began formal production.

In just three attempts, Karen successfully produced a bottle of Healing Potion, and it was of Excellent quality.

Holding the crystal vial, Karen felt a richer mana than in the primary potions, along with a sense of vitality. This must be the special effect of the main ingredient, Life Flower.

He had found the Life Flower strange earlier; he couldn't feel any vitality in it, and eating it directly caused poisoning. He wondered why it was called Life Flower—it turned out it was meant for crafting Healing Potions.

Was it like a scent, where the perception changes with concentration? A faint scent is pleasant, but too high a concentration smells like dung. Was the Life Flower the same?

Karen asked someone for a Life Flower herb, took a tiny piece, and chewed it. The taste wasn't bad, but—ugh, that wasn't the point—he was poisoned again.

He quickly used an antidote to clear the effect and pondered: was it a structural issue? Like starch, which is a polysaccharide the human body cannot absorb directly, but becomes absorbable monosaccharides once broken down by amylase?

Karen tasted the Life Flower extract; it tasted better, and he wasted another bottle of antidote. It seemed the extraction stage only refined the essence without destroying the material's structure.

Karen continued to concoct while experimenting with the liquid. Finally, he discovered that after adjusting the Life Flower with three other herbs, the structure changed, manifesting vitality instead of a poisonous effect. Feeling that alchemy was quite interesting, Karen once again became immersed in the art.