NOVGO.NET Chapter 2082 Alchemy Lessons Part 3
Chapter 2082: Chapter 2082 Alchemy Lessons Part 3
— Kat —
So it turns out that being locked up makes you sort of angry. Once Appoline had finished ranting about the various poor students she had, she instead moved onto talking about everything wrong with her family. Kat sure hoped Lin wasn’t spying on them because it was a treasure trove of blackmail that was very quickly shoved into the ’do not think about’ box. It covered everything from that one time someone stole her shoes when she was eight, all the way up to cheating scandals and industrial scale sabotage. That’s not even considering all the illegal things, or well, the things that were heavily implied to be such. It wasn’t like Kat had a perfect idea of the cities laws.
Appoline had enough complaints that she finished the first batch of potions and started to work on a second. During the second go around she also explained the technique she used for each ingredient. Slightly different ways of applying her mana to each thing and Lily was certain that it was beyond most people. Appoline was manipulating her mana in ways that you just didn’t need to attempt while casting spells.
Lily explained it like this. Casting a spell was like drawing a picture, making sure you keep your pen moving, never doubled back nor forgetting what the whole picture looked like… but at the end of the day it was a single constant flow of mana with the occasional break for different runes. If it was pure manipulation it was even easier because you just moved your blob of mana into the are you wanted it. Twisted it made it spin, throwing it up made it go up. It was a very macro scale way of moving things.
Appoline was turning her mana into a blender. Lily thought of her mana as something akin to a stream of water that was constantly moving and you could freeze in place. Appoline proved it was so much more than that when you wanted it to be. Some ingredients required you to spin the mana in place, others required you to stab into it and almost physically tear it apart. The weirdest one was a seemingly normal leaf that required you to completely saturate it with mana… and then yank all of it out except for a tiny bit in the middle that would then expand and take the rest of the ingredient with it as you did.
Even that was simplifying Appoline’s explanation a bit, which was once again an abstraction from the true process. It really gave Lily an appreciation for the level of mana control Appoline had to have. She also realised how it didn’t necessarily improve your spell casting ability. It was just the fact that they were completely different skills. It was like how you didn’t expect a long distance runner to suddenly be an expert powerlifter because they’re both sports.
As the second lot of healing potions was finishing off, Kat felt the need to ask. “So… what’s the plan with the healing potions? Like, what are you making them for?”
“Well I was making the first batch both to teach you and to ensure that all of the equipment here works and I haven’t missed anything with the ingredients. I’m making the second lot because there isn’t too much I can make with these ingredients other than healing potions. They’re a bit too old for me to try and force them into a different recipe and I probably shouldn’t be experimenting… so I’m just brewing these because it’s what I do I suppose. It’s always good to have healing potions around,” explained Appoline.
“What do you mean by ’they’re too old’ in this instance?” asked Kat.
“Well,” Appoline paused her stirring for just a moment before getting right back to it. “It can really mean a lot of things if I’m being pedantic about it. In this specific case though? It’s because ingredients change as they’re dried, aged, and preserved. Depending on the preservation technique you can sometimes heighten aspects of it…
“And in this case they preserved them all with healing potions in mind. It means that trying to use them for other tasks would be a pain, and it’s not like they were particularly interesting ingredients. A bit outdated perhaps, in that way we have newer more efficient strains of many of these plants, as well as simply ingredients that I wouldn’t choose to use myself, but there’s little wrong with them.
“There is this rumour that older ingredients make for better alchemy but it is simply untrue. Older ingredients only make for better alchemy when the mana inside of them is continuing to flow, and even then, ’better’ ingredients is a bit of a nebulous term. Taking a static blossom, caring for it for a decade, and then using it in a potion to breathe underwater is simply going to make the potion worse.”
Kat opened her mouth, and Appoline, used to the pair of them now, answered swiftly with. “Static blossom is a special kind of flower that attracts lightning strikes. You can somewhat artificially make them by zapping them with lightning magic but it’s not quite the same. Regardless of that fact, I’m sure it’s still quite clear why such a thing would be bad for a water breathing potion. Not impossible to use, but not BETTER certainly.
“Older ingredients tend to make for more potent ones, but so do things with more mana, or more specialised abilities.” Appoline tapped her face a few times. “Well, even that isn’t always true. If you have a berry or plant that matches up with the multiple effects you want a potion to have it might be better but it’s rare to find something like that so its not the standard,”
Kat nodded along. “Alright that makes sense. Why do people tend to think that way then?”
Appoline shrugged, “Lots of alchemists with minor skin can’t get everything out of an ingredient. You may notice that when I use them they merge completely with the potion? Even the impurities are essence? Well alchemists of lacking skill can only get fractions of the use from an ingredient when compared to me. They like to think getting better, more mana rich ingredients will help make up for that lack. Some people even invent stupid ways to… essentially sacrifice parts of the ingredient, usually the ones you don’t want, for a better end product. Once again, this is just because they’re poor alchemists.
“Sadly, some people are simply taught that way. They don’t know any better and then teach apprentices to be just as bad as they are. It’s a fundamentally incorrect way to think of the profession but I’ll at least add that its an easy mistake to make when you’ve never seen it done better,”
Appoline hummed a little as she finished up the second batch of potions. As she started to bottle them, Appoline had an idea. “Did you want to try breaking down an ingredient? I’ll probably make a third and final batch of this stuff before packing up for now. I can pick something for towards the end?”
Kat glanced at Lily who nodded along. “Alright, Lily is interested in trying, as I, sadly, have only demonic energy.”
Appoline handed over the leaf as if that made perfect sense. As she went to walk away though, she turned back to the ingredients table and came back with a stack of them instead. “Alright you’re probably going to mess up so here’s a few. In fact… a bit of a waste but whatever. Touch the edge of this leaf and focus on the mana inside.”
Appoline placed the leaf down on the table and Lily gently placed a paw on the end. Appoline started to pump mana through it in waves. Lily watched as the entire thing just sort of… came apart on the table and was swiftly blown away. Kat however, had to ask, “Um… is there a reason Lily isn’t using a cauldron herself?”
“Mostly that she’s got so much mana,” explained Appoline. “I expect that she’s going to destroy quite a few leaves… but apprentices normally don’t have to worry about also destroying the cauldron. I think Lily COULD do it if she’s not careful and I only have the two at the moment. I can’t really afford to break it because I am NOT begging for a replacement. At least this will give you something you can test out wherever you are.”
Kat shrugged at the answer as Lily got to work… and quickly proved Appoline correct. For a moment, it seemed like she’d managed the technique perfectly… but instead a bunch of shadows exploded out of the veins of the leaf. The second one she somehow managed to turn into paper and the third one looked like it had the life sucked out of it. Nobody had any guesses as to how the last one happened. Still, it proved this was not going to be easy. The attempts weren’t fast but one after another they did fail.