The first potion

When he was already at the middle of the book, which described every plant and animal down to every detail, many details which he dint think had any use whatsoever, someone knocked at the door.

Dean asked "Who is it?" putting the book a the counter, getting up and walking to the door.

The voice of a woman came from outside "Excuse me mister Dean, I have brought some food. Sir Ted said you are only reading, so I knocked."

Dean opened the door and said "Thank you, I was actually getting a bit hungry"

The maid said "Its my pleasure, please enjoy it was made by the main chef" passed him the tray, bowed slightly and left.

Dean closed the door and looked around with the tray on his hands, finding a strange purple ball at a corner the ceiling. He thought "That must be the camera he used to see me, what a weird camera".

After his first bite he quickly wolfed down the rest of the food until there was only a smear of the sauce left on the plate, which he wanted to lick but remembered there was a camera at the room.

He thought "I have to ask Tony if I can live here, I can't go back to the inn food after tasting this. I don't think I can like my mom food after this.

I will definitely hire a chef for me in the future, I will eat until I become a ball of fat. There is actually some spirit qi entering my soul from this food, what an amazing chef".

After enjoying the after taste for a minute Dean went back to reading, feeling full of energy.

When he finally reached the end of the book, he was already out of the mood to do anything productive for the day, feeling like just browsing his phone at bed. But still forced himself to at least try doing one potion for the day, at least so Ted would not be mad at him.

He took the box of ingredients out and begun to think "So this is a bear leaf, why did they name something because just because a specific bear likes to eat it? Any way this and red lizard bone powder have healing proprieties, but how do I turn it into a potion, the recipe just say to throw them in the cauldron headed by an alchemist flame, but its definitely not like that"

Spinning the leaf by its base, Dean thought for some time on all the formations on the cauldron until he came to a conclusion. "A normal alchemist probably uses the formations and the alchemy fire to keep everything stable and make the ingredients merge them compress in a pill, the merging is probably related to those structures. So if I observe the structures I might find a way"

Dean first activated all the formations on the cauldron, feeling all the formations with his spirit qi infused with a bit of his mental energy. He regulated then to where he thought would be good for this potion and started to get a big excited for his first try at alchemy.

Taking one leaf and two flask of bone powder, he calmed himself down with a few deep breaths then lit an alchemy fire beneath the cauldron. Dropping the leaf down first he watched it turn into a brown liquid, sensing the wood qi structure in it spread out slightly.

Little by little he Increased the flame temperature, hopping to feel something that gave him an indicative to when pour the powder. Just like he hopped he felt the structure open itself slightly when the liquid leaf started to bubble, he instantly poured the two flask of bone powder.

Using a formation to stabilize everything, he felt the many formations on the liquid bone powder connect with the leaf formation, strengthening it.

When every thing had merged he turned the fire out and used the compressing formation to turn it into a thin sticky light brown sheet. He carefully rolled the sheet, put in on one of the glass tubs and closed it firmly, then whipped the sweat from his forehead.

He said "Whew, I actually did it, first try. What a shitty recipe they gave me, they could have just written to increase the temperature until the leaf liquid start to bubble then pour the powder.

If all potion formulas are like this then is no surprise that there is so little alchemists. Without a specific sense there is no way to find out, unless you keep trying and buy a bunch of resources. Wait a second, its this done on purpose? this bastards".

Dean sat back at the stool and relaxed for a bit, waiting for his spirit qi and mental energy to recover. He thought "This is kinda of a gold opportunity to earn points, with those points those two bastards gave me I only have 234 left. If I can buy a cauldron, rent a big place and be able to afford more ingredients I can earn a living and have time to cultivate".

With his cellphone he searched for cauldrons and immediately felt phantom pains at his pocket, a cauldron reaching a million at the online auction being the first thing that appeared on his research.

He thought "Are alchemist this rich, a million points for a cauldron, what kind of madman buy this. Here much better, well a little better, a new simple cauldron is a thousand points minimum. Tsk is missing some useful formations too, this one too… fuck two thousand points for a good cauldron with all the essential formations.

I really have to hope this potions cell for a lot or my plan is fucked. Hmm, a hundred for a top quality one, fifty for a high quality one and twenty for a normal one. How do I know its quality?".

He searched on the internet but only found books on potion qualities and how to increase them. He tried searching on the social media, but found nothing.

Deciding to go ask Ted, Dean walked out to where Ted was seated, reading a book.

Ted said, without lowering his book, "What do you want? I won't teach you alchemy unless you officially join the clan".

Dean said "Can you at least tell me how to tell the quality of a potion?"

Lowering his book Ted looked at Dean and said "There three ways, be born with a rare elementless innate ability called appraisal, make enough potions you know with just a look, and third reach the soul emperor or spirit emperor rank whatever you want to call it.

There some master with the wood talent talent that can tell by the structure of the potion, but that only goes for potions with a plant as the main ingredient".

Dean said "Since you are going to buy my potions for 20%, do you mind appraising mine?".

Without responding Ted just extended his hand. Dean took the potion that was in his pocket and put it on his hand, very excited for the results.

Ted looked at it for a second then said "You are really wasting my time for such a simple wound mending potion. Luckily for you is top grade, with your wood talent I would have throw you out of here if was any worse.

Take this and go make something that in not literally throwing the ingredients at the right time". Ted took a thick book from his desk drawer and gave it to Dean, hundreds of different formulas with many side notes where written in it.