Magic Potion (Please Follow)

Leaving the Test Area, the perfect pair Richard and Ellie drew the attention of quite a few apprentices.

Unlike the somewhat famous Ellie, not many people knew Richard, the genius who had become a formal apprentice less than half a year after enrolling.

Besides Richard's lack of socializing, he had also deliberately kept a low profile.

Playing the pig to eat the tiger and quietly making a fortune was Richard's style, but sometimes, being too reserved could also invite trouble.

"Ellie, long time no see. Were you testing spells again today?" A handsome man in black robes suddenly stepped out from among the apprentices and approached Ellie with a brilliant smile.

Ellie's smile faded, and her tone turned somewhat cold.

"Yes. I've already finished."

Seeing that Ellie was in a bad mood, Richard quietly asked in her ear, "Who's that?"

"He's that Joseph," Ellie said with some distaste.

Richard sized up the Wizard Apprentice before him. Joseph looked powerfully built and fairly handsome, with a thick mane of golden hair draped over his shoulders. Judging by the fluctuations of magical power around him, he was quite formidable. He was also a wizard descendant and a wizard's formal apprentice.

To be fair, if someone like him were pursuing anyone else, he probably would have won them over long ago.

"Ellie, won't you introduce this friend of yours?" Joseph seemed not to notice Ellie's attitude, his face still full of smiles.

"Richard. He's with the Alchemy School too."

Before Ellie could speak, Richard stepped forward and introduced himself.

"So you're Richard. You truly can't judge a person by appearances. I'm Joseph, Master Ulrich's formal apprentice. May I ask under which master you study?" Joseph seemed somewhat surprised. He extended his right hand, apparently intending to shake hands.

"Master Gerald." Richard's expression did not change as he reached out and shook his hand.

"So you're Master Gerald's prized disciple." A trace of ridicule flashed across Joseph's face as he sneered inwardly, So he's one of those good-for-nothings under Wizard Gerald.

Gerald's habit of taking in apprentices far and wide was no secret among Alchemist Wizards. But everyone knew that apprentices were apprentices, and formal apprentices were formal apprentices. The former were merely employees and servants; only the latter truly inherited a wizard's knowledge.

Although he had recently heard rumors that Gerald had accepted a low-level apprentice as a formal apprentice, he did not need to think twice to know that person had to be a wizard descendant.

Only wizard descendants who had been exposed to wizard knowledge since childhood could become Wizard Apprentices right after enrollment. He himself was like that, and he assumed everyone else was as well.

As their hands clasped, a mental message traveled into Richard's mind.

"Five hundred Magic Stones. Leave Ellie."

Richard froze for a moment, then almost laughed.

Had he run into some overbearing CEO? But wasn't five hundred Magic Stones a little too cheap for an overbearing CEO?

At the very least, it should have been five thousand to count as generous.

"My friend, five hundred Magic Stones aren't enough."

Joseph's confident smile instantly froze on his face.

Richard released his hand and cheerfully pulled Ellie into his arms.

"For such a peerless treasure, you'd need to offer at least fifty thousand Magic Stones before I'd let go."

Ellie had no idea what Richard was talking about, but the sudden embrace made her heart pound wildly.

"What's going on, Richard?" Ellie asked.

"Nothing much. A friend wanted to offer me five hundred Magic Stones to leave you." Richard spoke animatedly. "I thought his offer was far too low. You have to be worth at least fifty thousand Magic Stones."

Ellie turned to Joseph, her disdain drawing tight as she said, "Joseph, is this your method?"

Joseph shook his head and sighed.

"You wild apprentices really are troublesome. Wouldn't it be better if you knew what was good for you?"

He looked at Ellie, his tone grave. "Ellie, sweet words cannot bring tangible benefits. In a wizard's world, Magic Stones and knowledge are the foundations for moving forward. You walk the path of evocation, a school with an especially great need for Magic Stones. And you follow Wizard Susanna—her inheritance requires even more Magic Stones. In this Academy, only I and Master Gerald's formal apprentices can afford to support you."

Having said that, Joseph gave Richard another deep look, his face carrying a trace of pity and mockery.

"My friend, there is a difference between heaven and earth between formal apprentices and apprentices like you. My promise still stands. I hope you recognize reality sooner rather than later, so you don't end up unable to scrape together even a single Magic Stone."

With that, Joseph strode away. Watching his retreating back, Richard suddenly lowered his head and looked at Ellie in confusion.

"You didn't tell him I'm Master Gerald's formal apprentice?"

"No. Didn't you tell me not to reveal your information to outsiders?" Ellie shook her head and replied obediently.

The two looked at each other, then suddenly burst out laughing.

After they finished laughing, Richard released Ellie. "Come on, let's go eat now. I'll be studying Magic Potions tonight. Otherwise, I won't be able to support Master Susanna's prized disciple."

"What do you mean, support?" Ellie bared her teeth and waved her fist. "I can support myself!"

That evening, at the dormitory building.

An Academy Watcher clutched a chest the size of a person, flapping its wings as it hovered before Richard's balcony.

"Apprentice Richard, Apprentice Richard, your goods have arrived!"

"Apprentice Richard, Apprentice Richard, your goods have arrived!"

"Caw!"

The Death Crow on the balcony let out a piercing cry. Although the Academy Watcher was far stronger than it was, it still gave a warning call.

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Richard ran to the balcony, opened the window, and took the wooden chest. The Wizard Merchant Guilds that could open shops within the Academy almost all hired Academy Watchers as couriers. Apart from the Watchers' vast numbers, their all-day patrols of the Academy, and the fact that the Academy did not forbid it, another major reason was that these owls were very cheaply paid.

Hiring these owls required no Magic Stones, only large quantities of nuts and a few pretty but useless gemstones.

"Please sign for it."

The owl held out a sheet of parchment in its beak. After Richard signed it, the parchment instantly burst into flames.

The payment and goods were settled; the contract had been fulfilled.

Carrying the chest back into his room, Richard arranged the materials within one by one along one end of the table.

The table also held all kinds of oddly shaped glassware, the equipment Richard would need.

Taking out the Crystal Ball that recorded the Magic Potion formula, Richard reviewed its contents once more. After confirming that the information matched his memories exactly, he went outside and hung a Do Not Disturb sign on his door.

He had few friends. The sign was mainly for Ellie.

Returning to the room, Richard put most of the materials back into the chest, leaving only enough on the table to make one bottle of Magic Potion.

The Focus Potion's effect was to physiologically help a wizard calm down, preventing casting mistakes caused by intense pain and agitated emotions.

Following the formula's records, Richard took out a black fruit that looked like a plum.

"Gastrodia Fruit. It has an anesthetic effect when consumed. Extract the juice and heat it for around ten minutes."

Richard placed the fruit into a mortar, crushed it with a crystal pestle, filtered it through a fine sieve and filter paper, then placed it in a beaker to heat.

"Next is White Rhinoceros Horn. Grind it into powder."

As he spoke, Richard took a cracked rhinoceros horn from the materials. This was not easy to handle, so Richard had to use a Magic Dagger to cut it apart before grinding it bit by bit into powder.

After handling the White Rhinoceros Horn, Richard processed Gaoyang Lime, Concentration Grass, and the other ingredients one after another according to the formula's records.

"Once the ingredients are processed, it's time for synthesis."

Richard looked at the bottles and jars before him. When making Magic Potions, there was one thing that absolutely could not go wrong—the order in which ingredients were added.

Different addition orders for certain ingredients produced different results. Get the order wrong, and a life-saving divine medicine could become lethal poison.

There were three kinds of steadiness required when preparing Magic Potions: steady hands, a steady mind, and steady magical power.

When preparing Magic Potions, magical power often had to be involved. At such times, magical power had to be supplied steadily; it could absolutely not surge and dip unpredictably.

Richard fetched a small pot. It was made entirely of ceramic, with several Runes carved into its walls.

This was an Alchemy Pot, one of the essential tools for potion-making.

Following the formula, Richard began adding the ingredients one by one, using magical power as a catalyst to fuse them together.

Richard was exceptionally careful throughout the process. Unlike Magic Armor, a single failed step in making Magic Potions meant losing the entire game.

"Lastly, add the Black Bone Stone Powder. If the ingredients turn into a transparent deep-blue liquid, the Magic Potion is complete."

Richard carefully added the White Rhinoceros Horn powder into the pitch-black solution before him. As the powder entered, the liquid gradually began changing color.

"Good, there's hope!" Richard's expression brightened as he continued adding the powder.

But before long, the liquid suddenly began bubbling furiously, then rapidly turned black.

With a bang, the liquid in the Alchemy Pot became a cloud of black smoke that sprayed throughout the room.

Richard darkened his face and silently wiped the soot from it.

It had clearly failed.

After scrubbing the Alchemy Pot clean, Richard returned to his desk and began reflecting on the process.

That was how experiments worked: failure after failure, reflection after reflection, until after exhausting every possible effort, one found an answer—and sometimes, that answer was not even the one one wanted.

"There was no problem with my steps, and my magical power input was stable. Eliminating those two, the only things left are the material processing and the quantity of magical power input."

The formula Gerald had given used vague terms such as "about" and "roughly" for material processing and the amount of magical power input. This was partly because he had not been researching Magic Potions and could not be bothered to spend the effort, but also because precisely controlling material processing was extremely difficult.

Different origins, growing environments, and processing methods all affected ingredients. Differences in ingredient quality likewise affected the amount of magical power needed during fusion.

Wizards had a simple way of dealing with this problem—if you were bad at it, practice more. As long as the quantity was enough, experience would guide a wizard into making the right choice.

An Alchemist Wizard inevitably grew through thousands upon thousands of failures.

But Richard thought of another solution.

"Potions... should be able to extract a skill too, right?"

Thanks to readers Junior Cultivation and 141219080 for their Monthly tickets.