Recommendation Letter

Letter of Recommendation

After the active ingredients had been thoroughly extracted with alchemical solvents and precipitated, the sapphire-blue solution was poured through filter paper into a small crucible. Pei Renli slid an alcohol lamp beneath the crucible and waited for the liquid to boil.

The moment the solution churned and produced a mass of bubbles, he immediately drew a rune in the air. Unlike when he normally activated a spell, the rune fell into the crucible and continued to shimmer instead of vanishing.

Once the rune entered the crucible, a great deal of vapor was released. It drifted upward toward the collector and flowed into a long, narrow glass tube.

The glass tube then curved, guiding the vapor into the condenser ahead.

It was called a condenser, but in reality, it was merely a wet towel draped over the glass tube, constantly dripping water to keep it cool. Though crude, the method was fairly effective.

The water vapor passing through the condenser condensed back into liquid. The liquid, originally sapphire-blue, had somehow turned dark green after evaporation and condensation.

The liquid flowed down the slanted tube and into a graduated measuring cup. Once it reached the predetermined level, Pei Renli opened a valve, allowing it to flow from a lower tube on the other side into a special instrument with a brass casing.

The center of the instrument was cross-shaped, with an hourglass-like object at both its upper and lower ends. Except instead of sand, they contained a metal that remained liquid at room temperature—mercury.

When the dark green liquid passed through the instrument and reached the test tube at the other end, Pei Renli turned the cross-shaped hourglass at its center. The mercury that had been below switched places with the mercury above and fell through the tubes, using gravity to draw as much air as possible out of the test tube and create a vacuum.

Once all the mercury had fallen, he triggered the mechanism. Gelatin boiled from ox horn flowed into the dark green liquid and mixed with it. Finally, a cork stopper prepared beforehand was pushed into the test tube by a lever.

Pei Renli released the latch and removed the test tube from the instrument, then sealed its mouth once more with sealing wax to prevent the cork from deforming and causing an air leak during storage.

That was not the end of it. From another corner of the table, he pulled out a square sheet of paper already covered in densely packed magic circles.

Drawing magic circles was naturally a required skill for mages as well. However, the school did not have drafting tools, and Pei Renli could not draw circles freehand. Straight lines were easy enough—he could use anything flat and straight in place of a ruler—but circles were much more troublesome.

So he found beakers of different sizes and made do with them as compasses. The result was that his success rate was rather heartbreaking...

He placed the test tube atop the magic circle and pressed both hands against one corner of it. As magic power flowed in, magical radiance began at the point of infusion and slowly lit up along the lines of the circle.

The entire process lasted around five or six seconds. The magic circle drawn in special ink had fully activated.

He then lightly tapped the test tube with a finger.

"Identify magic item."

The magical radiance instantly burst apart, and the magic circle drawn on the paper vanished without a trace, showing that it could only be used once. At the same time, every parameter concerning the liquid in the test tube—its composition, properties, and so on—appeared in his mind as though reflected there.

Only after confirming that all the data fell within the tolerances specified by the formula did Pei Renli let out a breath and place the test tube on the rack beside him. A flask of strong acid was complete.

This sort of alchemical potion was not meant for drinking. The proper way to use it was to throw it like a grenade. It began taking effect as soon as it came into contact with air, so the seal had to be extremely strict.

Ten days had passed since he returned to school. Aside from his unshakable daily spell practice, Pei Renli had spent most of those ten days studying potion-making. Since he had started with the easiest recipes, mastering their production had not been difficult. He had even made two bottles of healing potion, the most commonly used and best-selling potion among adventurers.

Anything related to magic became exceptionally expensive. A flask of strong acid could sell for as much as one gold coin, yet even counting every last expense, its materials cost less than twenty copper coins. And those materials could be bought even in the gradually declining Naspar. It was truly easy money.

Healing potions were even more profitable. The required herbs all grew in the Great Tree Sea, and Lavna could gather them simply by having the magical creatures Puni, who did odd jobs, wander around near Demon King Castle. The material cost was effectively zero.

But that did not mean Pei Renli immediately had money.

It was true that healing potions sold for five gold coins a bottle, but wholesale and retail prices were definitely not the same. Otherwise, what would the shops earn?

Besides, Naspar had no magic shops. To sell these things, he would have to go to the nearest major city, Curtain Star City. Those magic shops all had their own regular suppliers, and no one would casually take in such "three-no products." Who knew whether his goods were real or fake?

So using potion-making to make money breed money was impossible in the short term. For now, it was only for his own use and for practice.

"Be careful. If you break that, you'll have to pay for it."

"Teacher Grace, could you just sit there and drink properly?"

Turning around, Pei Renli saw the slovenly, beautiful-but-disappointing Teacher Grace seated behind him. Judging from her complexion, she had probably already had quite a bit to drink.

Pei Renli had the enormous fortune of thirty gold coins. Beakers and similar tools were not expensive, and buying them was no trouble. But that mercury vacuum instrument was not something thirty gold coins could buy. Besides, even if he could afford it, such precision instruments had to be ordered in advance; there were no ready-made units in stock. He could only borrow the school's.

As it happened, Teacher Grace was responsible for all magic-related courses at the school. Borrowing alchemical equipment required her approval.

Thus, Pei Renli had no choice but to bleed himself dry. While out on the street buying materials, he also made a trip to the tavern and spent money on a bottle of good wine. Only then did Teacher Grace relent.

In truth, these were all low-grade potions. There were other ways to make something like a flask of strong acid without a mercury vacuum instrument—for example, by adding an antioxidant and attaching a specially treated piece of red phosphorus behind the cork, allowing it to burn away all the oxygen inside the test tube. But flasks of strong acid made that way were of far poorer quality.

For something he was using himself, naturally he wanted the best. Besides, the instrument was not needed only for flasks of strong acid, so he could only grit his teeth and pay the price.

Put bluntly, he was still poor.

Money really was a headache.

Come to think of it, ten days had already passed, yet the reward that young lady had promised still had not arrived. A windfall would make his circumstances much easier. If the reward was generous enough, he could even buy a magic item to keep on hand. That would send his combat strength soaring by a good chunk.

As he wondered whether he should find an opportunity to visit Curtain Star City again and ask around, Teacher Grace poured red wine into her cup and casually said, "Was that rune you used something you researched yourself?"

She meant the rune inside the crucible.

Potion-making could be done without any magic at all, relying entirely on experience and technique. But when magic was involved, efficiency could be greatly improved.

Pei Renli had found a book in the school library titled An Overview of the Practical Applications of Rune Magic in Potion Preparation, which mentioned several suitable runes.

The rune in the crucible meant "release." Its purpose was to release the active ingredients into the vapor, greatly reducing the reliance on the operator's experience.

His practical trials had indeed shown improvement, but according to his calculations, roughly forty percent of the active ingredients were still wasted.

Pei Renli, still trapped by poverty, found that unacceptable and began improving the rune.

After all, he possessed a cheat that allowed him to understand every kind of writing. Improving a rune was really just changing it into words from another language that carried the same meaning.

That was also one of the reasons mages had to master Elvish, Draconic, and magical script.

If spells were woven with runes, they couldn't be swapped around casually. Otherwise, the spell might blow up right in your face. In alchemy, though, it was no big deal—at worst, a beaker would be ruined and the materials wasted.

After more than a dozen attempts, he finally found the rune. It could achieve an active ingredient utilization rate of around 75%. There was still plenty of waste, but it was already very good.

"Do you know what language that is?"

Pei Renli truly didn't know. His ability to understand writing could consciously switch languages, but it wouldn't tell him what language he was reading.

Before Pei Renli could answer, Teacher Grace said drunkenly:

"I thought from the beginning that you might come from a family of scholars. I never expected you to know even Ancient Elven."

It was not just Teacher Grace who thought so. His classmates also believed Pei Renli came from a scholarly family. He didn't look like the type who had trained his physical strength since childhood, and he stood head and shoulders above the rest when it came to languages and writing.

Training a qualified mage from scratch took five to ten years, and most of that time was spent learning languages and writing. Pei Renli had effectively skipped the most time-consuming part. Coupled with his rune-based method of casting magic, it was only natural that he improved so quickly.

No wonder outsiders who did not know the full story assumed Pei Renli had to come from a scholarly family, having mastered all kinds of languages from childhood, which let him learn magic with twice the result for half the effort.

"You already count as a qualified mage. All that remains is to keep accumulating experience."

Pei Renli hurriedly responded modestly. Teacher Grace suddenly saying this made him feel that she had some other motive.

Incidentally, the bar for a so-called qualified mage was actually very low. Anyone capable of casting two F-rank spells and one E-rank spell could be called a qualified mage.

"But the spellbooks at the school probably won't be enough for you, will they? Have you considered your future?"

Honestly, compared with the future, Pei Renli was more concerned about the present. After all, he did not even know whether he could survive the next Demon King Arena.

Still, everyone had to make plans for the long term, and Pei Renli had indeed given it some thought.

The library only contained low-level spells. The highest rank was D, and there were not many of those. At Pei Renli's current pace, it would take him no more than six months to a year to master them all.

What then?

That really was a problem.

"My personal recommendation is that you pursue further studies at a magic university. The entry fee is rather high, but it's the best choice for you."

There were even magic universities?

Pei Renli was indeed tempted. He asked:

"Entry fee? How much?"

"It may have gone up over the past two years, but it should still be around three thousand gold coins."

Three thousand...

Let it be said again: anything related to magic was outrageously expensive.

"You can slowly save up the money after becoming an official adventurer. So? Are you interested? I happen to have some connections there, and I can write you a letter of recommendation."

Though the fee of three thousand gold coins was an astronomical sum, Pei Renli truly had no other choice.

After thinking for a moment, he said slowly:

"Teacher, what do you want in exchange for writing me that letter of recommendation?"

Grace froze with her wineglass in hand, then suddenly realized.

"Oh, right. I can do that, too. Then how about this? Find me another bottle of good wine."

"..."

Damn!

Why the hell did I have to say that?