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Chapter 145 – Part 1

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Translation: DarkHeartedAlchemist
Editor: Weasalopes

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The workshop was filled with a bizarre smell.
I arranged all the magic mushrooms and placed them on the desk.

「Master Juna, I want to give priority to work.」

「I’m sorry! Can I help you?」

「And Keith, there is something I need to tell you.」

「Yes? What is it?」

「Don’t rely on the magic circle so much! If possible, I’d like you to only use it for 【Quick Recreate】.」

「I see you still hate magic circles as always, huh?」

「I know they have their uses, but using them also has demerits. I thought as a fellow researcher to at least tell you that.」

「You’re so rigid, as usual.」

 

But Juna-san had some more comments for me.
What is the advantage of using magic circles?

Simply put, by using them it is easy to make a product of a certain quality regardless of the Summoner’s actual skills.
It is said that even beginners can use it effectively.
And since it will be used in future generations, nothing will be lost.
That seems to be Juna-san’s understanding of the matter.

So are there any risks of using magic circles?

There is one, and a quite obvious one at that.
The risk of the user neglecting other areas of his character in favor of pursuing alchemy.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with a beginner doing something like that just to have fun, but this raises a question of whether the know-how accumulated by the user will be passed for the future generations to use.
Even if a master would take on a disciple, the knowledge might not get passed on.
But even if that was the case, the disciple can still grow in his own way, making new, unique discoveries.
It seems that Master Aurnier found great value in that.

Master arranges empty bottles while quarreling with Juna-san.

「Your next task is to create 200 Mana Potions.」

「Will I be able to do it?」

「If you do everything exactly the way I showed you then, yeah, you will do this no problem. 」

「Do we have enough bottles?」

「I requested for another 100 to be delivered the day after tomorrow.」

「Hmm….」

「If you wrap up all the work today, then you’ll have the whole day tomorrow to play around.」

Play around, huh?
I don’t know why, but for some reason those words sounded kind of disturbing.

「It will take some time, but I’ll teach you everything from the start.」

「I shall make the 100 Mana Potions. That way you could begin teaching him right away, Aurnier-chan!」

「No! Not 『chan』.」

「All right, I’ll be borrowing your equipment then!」

And just like that, Master’s dignity as a master has been completely curb-stomped, and absolutely destroyed without mercy.

 

Mana Potion Making 101.
First, the materials.
Naturally, magic mushrooms.
Pre-processed ones.

「Evaporate!」

The teacher used a spell to forcibly dry the magic mushrooms.
What a skill!

「They’re supposed to be dried in a shaded and well-ventilated place. With this spell, the process can be shortened.」

「Yes!」

I can also use that spell since it belongs to the dust magic category.
So Master can also use it, huh?
I should have expected as much from him.

What is the next process?
Crushing the mushrooms using the Alchemy skills.
In the case of potions, the sharp grass was crushed with a mortar, but it seems that this can be done by drying it as well.
I see.
Next, the powdered mushrooms and grass were placed on a filtering paper.

[This will serve to create a Mana Potion, enough for one bottle. If you have the Pharmacy skill 『Eyeball』it will be easy to reproduce the amount.]

「Huh….」

「This is quite important, so make sure you remember that, okay?」

While saying so, Master arranged the same amount of powder on the five filter papers with practiced, steady movements.

「All right, this is the part which you have to keep secret no matter what.」

「Yes!」

「You have to use this too.」

Master had a handful of Paingrass in his hand.

「I have to use… this?」

「Yup. You’ll see in a minute.」

Saying that, Master continues his work.
It is the same procedure as with the Magic Mushrooms.
Drying and grinding.
Then measuring a certain amount on the filtering paper.

「Remember this amount. It’s exactly one bottle.」

「Yes.」

I take the bottle in my hand.
It’s pretty light.

 

The Magic Mushroom and Paingrass powders were placed in separate containers.
Next, exactly the same amounts of water are being poured into said containers.
The amount of Paingrass powder is considerably less than the Magic Mushrooms powder.

「With this amount. Remember.」

「Yes!」

「Originally, the process of extraction by stirring takes up to several hours.」

「Eeeh?」

「I know, right? That’s why this little trick here will allow us to save a great deal of time.」

「Yes!」

「Now then, let’s proceed with the reaction. By using the {Dissolve} skill.」

Having said that, he proceeded to use the Pharmacist’s skill Dissolve.
Let the solution stabilize..
Use Dissolve again.
And stabilize again.

After that was done, the time has come to filter the two solutions.

「You ready? You have to carefully mix the two liquids together. Watch out so that you don’t mess this up.」

「Yes!」

「Now you have to look out, because when those two get mixed together, they will start producing toxic fumes.」

Adfter he said that I started mixing them.
Pour the Paingrass extract into the Magic Mushroom extract little by little and stir.
It smelled good.

「It smells good, right? But don’t let that fool you.」

Master then used another spell.

「Control Air Current!」

The scent disappeared rapidly.
Yup.
So that’s the way to do it, huh?

「You have to watch out from now on. If you try to pour too much at once the fumes will emerge again.」

「It’s quite dangerous, now that I think about it.」

「It is. That’s why it’s important to do it in a short period of time.」

Master turned his gaze.
Juna-san was pouring some liquid into an empty bottle.

「You can avoid such risks if you use Quick Recreate.」

「Is there any danger?」

「Yes, unless you’re a skilled enough Alchemist. The Mana Potion could make you sick.」

「Sick?」

「If prepared wrong, it’s addictive.」

It’s the drug, itself?

 

Juna shows me the mana potions she created.
It was all in quality C.
Let’s just say I’m impressed.

「This constant stirring is making my arms hurt.」

「That was to be expected. It’s no cause for concern.」

「So… And then, I can do whatever I want in my spare time?」

What’s that?
Should I train?

 

「Master, when I’m done, can I use some spare ingredients to practice?」

「You can use the leftovers of Paingrass, but be sure to dispose of any Magic Mushrooms leftovers.」

「Are they dangerous?」

「Yes, due to the poison fumes. The only way to safely get rid of them is by burning them.」

「All right, leave it to me.」

Juna-san incinerated the remnants of magic mushrooms with her fire spell in such a way that they didn’t leave any kind of smell behind.
How exciting.

「What about the rest of the Paingrass that I won’t be using? We burn it too?」

「No, we’ll just boil it until it hardens so we can preserve it longer. But we’ll get to that tomorrow.」

With all of the instructions now clearly in my head, I was ready to do this without Master’s help this time.

I crush all of the ingredients into a fine powder, weight them and then dissolve them in water.
I’m not using any skills to do so.
Now that that part was over, I use the Evaporator spell.
Master and Juna-san both seemed surprised, but didn’t say anything to stop me.
Okay, let’s try to do all the other processes without using any spells or skills.
This might seem pointless at first glance, but it’s better to do something normally the first time around so that you would memorize everything for when you’ll be using shortened production.

I now memorized every step up to the middle stage.

 

「You can continue the rest tomorrow.」

「Okay! Let’s play!」

「Master Juna, pull yourself together.」

It’s no good, these two.
I’ve got to do something.

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