The Alchemist

For Aige, the auction house search results meant only one thing, and he had already acted on it: he had chosen alchemy as his second profession. With that, he had filled all his profession slots. His primary professions were enchanting and alchemy, and his secondary professions were first aid, cooking, and fishing!

The reason Aige had held off on learning alchemy was that he hadn't known whether the auction house had an adequate supply of raw materials. The results showed that there was no problem with basic materials, though high-level rare herbs were scarce... But that wasn't enough to deter him from learning alchemy. If he really ran short of rare herbs, he could always offer a gold coin bounty for them.

The fact that he could find Black Lotus showed that the continent did have high-level herbalists... That was all he needed to know.

In fact, the most important reason he'd made up his mind was that he'd searched for Minor Healing Potions and found, to his surprise, that the results were empty! Unwilling to give up, he'd refreshed the search several times before finally finding a bottle priced at 12 silver coins. But the next time he refreshed, it was already gone... That meant someone had bought it out instantly.

What a huge profit! The raw materials cost around 10 copper coins per portion. Even if a Minor Healing Potion required two portions, that was only 20 copper coins in costs, yet the finished potion sold for more than 10 silver coins. If that wasn't a huge profit, what was?

What Aige didn't know was that alchemists were already scarce on the continent, and their success rate was extremely low. Even when they were in good form, one successful attempt out of several was considered good, and the process was extremely taxing. Even alchemists capable of making potions struggled to produce them in large quantities... That was why potions were bought out instantly.

Of course, Aige had no such problem. In World of Warcraft, as long as an alchemist wasn't interrupted, no one had ever heard of a potion failing...

Aige frantically bought up a pile of herbs. If he hadn't needed to keep at least one silver coin for emergencies, he would have bought even more. He snapped up twenty portions of ingredients for Minor Healing Potions in bulk, bought all the necessary alchemy tools, and put everything into Hero Space... The search terminal was incredibly convenient. Once his identity card was recognized, he could buy items on the spot and collect them all at the post office.

Aige rushed to the post office and collected a large quantity of herbs under the staff's watchful eyes... To avoid drawing too much attention, he put everything into Hero Space, unaware that doing so only made him stand out more. The staff were guessing that this novice mage probably had a spatial storage item on him. Still, his status as a one-star mage carried enough weight that no one dared entertain any funny ideas.

Back in the old room at the old inn in Old Town, Aige paid for a day's lodging and told the attendant not to come asking after him that evening, as he had important business to attend to. After hanging a do-not-disturb sign on the door, he shut himself inside and settled down to begin his potion-making career...

Even though he'd told the innkeeper not to let anyone disturb him, that was simply how things were at an inn. This room had some of the best soundproofing among the superior rooms, but it still couldn't block out the moans of the illicit lovers next door as they reached the heights of pleasure from time to time. Lord Aige was very dissatisfied, but what could he do? He was paying for a room, and they were paying for pleasure. Just because he liked his peace and quiet didn't mean everyone else deserved to die, did it?

"Damn you, I hope you come in a second!" Master Ai cursed viciously, a graduated cylinder in one hand. Unfortunately, he clearly hadn't learned any curse-type dark magic, and the man next door seemed to be getting more vigorous as he went on. "Looks like I really should buy a property in Stormwind City too. If I keep staying at inns, the conditions for making potions alone will be bad enough!"

Having already ruined two portions of herbs, Master Ai poured the blackened medicinal residue down the sink. "Teacher Deke said there's a wind-element soundproofing barrier cantrip. I should learn it if I get the chance!"

World of Warcraft mages had three major schools: Arcane, fire, and frost. Those three schools were already extremely comprehensive, and their strength in actual combat was beyond question, especially with every talent in all three trees unlocked... Mages on the Azeroth Continent weren't so fortunate. Many might spend their entire lives without mastering more than ten spells, cantrips included. Compared to Lord Aige, the mage, they were utterly worthless.

But the diversity of magic on the Azeroth Continent couldn't be reduced to three simple categories like those of World of Warcraft mages. Besides the common Arcane, fire, and frost, the continent's mages were divided into far more varied schools. There were at least the major schools of earth, wind, lightning, darkness, and necromancy, as well as the extremely rare spatial and mental schools. There were even more obscure derivative schools.

The light school hadn't been mentioned here. It was actually the domain of Priests and knights, and generally wasn't considered part of a mage's path... In fact, though, a Priest could be regarded as a light mage, and a knight as a light magic warrior.

Here, nearly all mages were favored by one or even several magical elements, which directly determined what kind of mage they were. Deke, for example, was a fire mage, meaning his body had an affinity for the fire element. The vast majority of mages had an affinity for only one element. Only a tiny number of geniuses were born with affinities for two schools, while those with three or more were basically geniuses. Deke had been very friendly to Aige before, saying he hadn't seen him use spells from two schools. No one would believe that explanation!

Of course, being able to cast spells from several schools didn't necessarily require an affinity for multiple elements. Once mages reached a certain level, a fire mage could also cast frost spells, though the results weren't as good as those of someone with multiple affinities...

He and Deke had discussed this before. Wind-element soundproofing barriers and amplification spells, for example, were cantrips that might not even qualify as magic, but they were extremely useful. There was also lightning-element physical stimulation, which could make one's body more sensitive and agile for a short time... Deke had advised Aige to study these as electives, which was also why he'd been so excited to receive the letter of recommendation.

"A mage's strength is not limited to how many kinds of war magic he can use or how much destruction he can cause, but lies in his understanding of magic and even the cantrips of the various schools. The more deeply you understand, the more you will find that you have only just pushed open the doors to the hall of magic, while inside stand many giants you must look up to." This was from the opening of Magic Notes, written by Archmage Antonio, and it was also required reading for first-year academy students.

Setting all that aside, he certainly didn't know a useful cantrip like the soundproofing barrier right now. A single "perfectly timed" cry from the bed next door could send a precious potion worth 12 silver coins down the drain. Aige could only seethe in silence...

Not because he was afraid, but because... it was rather nice to listen to!

Master Ai immediately thought of a solution. Naturally, it wasn't something as stupid as stuffing cotton in his ears. This was clearly a hard-won perk, wasn't it? Wouldn't blocking it out be a waste? Instead, he decided to process the ingredients in stages...

Bruiseweed, Peacebloom, and Silverleaf had to be ground into powder in a ratio of 2:1:1.5 (the recipe is made up, so don't take it too seriously). Once heated and melted, ten times their volume in clean water had to be added at the proper moment, then heated gently until boiling. Only after that came the bottling...

In that case, why not just grind the powder in the right proportions while listening? Grinding didn't require much precision, and even if something went wrong, it could be fixed. He could finish it all before moving on to the next step... He didn't believe that man could last into the small hours!

And so he took a small grinder over to the wall, listened to the music, and ground the medicinal powder on and off, cursing as he listened. "I hope you come in five seconds!"

Of course, what he was actually thinking was, "Landlady, could you turn up the volume? Otherwise, change the record!"

He put the carefully ground medicinal powder into a large flask and added an equal volume of clean water. This step required a scale and a graduated cylinder. After that, he had to control the heat carefully, keeping it preferably between 300 and 400 degrees without letting the temperature fluctuate too much. That temperature was ideal for melting medicinal powder with relatively mild properties...

In the game, alchemy only required waiting for a progress bar to fill, but here it was completely different. It had to be handled with the precision of scientific research and careful attention... What had happened earlier was just a minor interlude. The young master was definitely not someone who was easily distracted, and he could be relied on at crucial moments... Though he was a little lecherous...

Once the medicinal powder had fully dissolved and reacted, it still needed to be heated, but the temperature had to be lowered appropriately, and the process shouldn't last more than twenty minutes. The solution in the flask gradually changed from yellow-green to red, and finally turned bloodred...

"Now!"

He slowly poured the tenfold volume of clean water he'd prepared beforehand into the flask, stirring with a slender glass rod as he poured. At this point, the temperature needed to be kept at around 500 degrees...

An alchemist and a mage were not the same thing. An alchemist wasn't necessarily a mage, and a mage wasn't necessarily an alchemist!

In fact, most mages were unwilling to learn alchemy. Most immersed themselves in the hall of magic and didn't want to divert their attention to studying such "unorthodox arts"...

Nor did one have to be a mage to become an alchemist. Many alchemists weren't even combat professionals... But such noncombatant alchemists were destined never to reach a very high level in alchemy. One of the most important reasons was their control over heat.

"Fire mages can be called alchemy's best allies! Anyone who wishes to advance further in alchemy must, I'm afraid, be a fire mage!"

Those somewhat awkward words came from the senior alchemist Ailafei. This commoner alchemist could be said to have reached his limit on this path, but it was precisely because he'd reached the level of a senior alchemist that he understood better... This might be the limit for a commoner alchemist.