Practicing Alchemy

‚If I want to get medicine to enhance my cultivation speed there should be a few options.'

‚The most obvious one would be joining a martial dojo, but that's probably not possible for me since they always test for cultivation aptitude.'

This world is divided into 4 continents. One each in the north and south, that are just called the northern and southern continent.

On them there are extreme weather phenomena, with the north being extremely cold and the south being extremely hot.

Since these temperatures aren't really suitable for human life, only the outskirts of the continents have been claimed by humans and the rest is still ruled by strong beasts.

Aside from these two there are also the Eastern and Western Continent that span around the center of the globe. Even though there are still some beasts on both of these continents, 70% of the territory has been claimed by humans.

Those 70% are somewhat equally shared between 5 sects. From strong to weak they are the Supreme Sect, the Savior Sect, the Yin Sect, Yang Sect and the Beasttamer Sect.

The Supreme Sect has always held the number one spot, since they are a subordinate sect of a sect from the elven high world.

Kael is located in a city called Yellow River city in the territory of the Savior Sect. This city is ruled by a subordinate sect called Indomitable Sect since it's located pretty close to the beastforest.

This is also where Kael could potentially earn some money as well.

‚I could go hunting for beasts inside the outskirts of the beastforest. I can gain some fighting experience as well as sell the valuable parts of the beasts I hunt.'

‚On the other hand, doing that would be no different from suicide with my current strength. Not to mention I don't even know any fighting techniques or own a weapon.'

‚The only option left is for me to start training in alchemy. With my B-Grade alchemy talent as well as my high grade comprehension I could probably succeed with some easy medicine.'

‚Lets do this then'

Alchemy is the art of refining spiritual plants and other ingredients to make their helpful effects more pronounced.

In the later stages you need a special cauldron and fire to melt the ingredients and form pills. But since you can't really use spiritual energy in the early stages of body refinement you can at most mix some medicinal powder.

‚To start with this I need a simple guide to alchemy as well as the recipe for body strengthening powder.'

‚If I produce body strengthening powder on my own I can cheap out on the production cost and sell some for profit, meaning I've basically got an infinite supply.

‚System open the global market and show me beginner alchemy techniques'

[Introduction to alchemy]

[Grade: Peak Mortal]

[A simple Introduction to alchemy listing all the common herbs of green planet and their attributes. It also explains basic refinement methods suitable for the body refinement and energy refinement realm.Created by an entry level alchemist with a mediocre understanding of the topic]

[Price: 750 Credits]

[Beginner Alchemy manual]

[Grade: Low Spiritual]

[A simple Introduction to alchemy listing all the common herbs of green planet and their attributes as well as a few tips on what to look out for during the refinement. It also explains basic and slightly advanced refinement methods suitable for the body refinement and energy refinement realm.Created by an master level alchemist with a medium understanding of the topic]

[Price: 10000 Credits]

‚Even though I would like to buy the second manual, I barely have 1500 credits left in my account and I still need to buy the pill recipe and materials for my first refinement.'

‚A credit is worth about as much as a Euro in my past life so considering that this is the body of an orphan who was basically abandoned, I am lucky that I even have this amount left.'

‚System, I would like to buy the first manual, also can you show me the recipe for refining body strengthening powder'

[Deducted 750 Credits from your bank account]

[Body strengthening powder (recipe)]

[Grade: Mid Mortal]

[The basic recipe explaining how to refine body strengthening powder]

[Price: 500 Credits]

‚What the fuck! Why is it so expensive? Ughhh I barely have 250 credits left now.'

‚I hope that is even enough to buy a few sets of ingredients. Otherwise I might not be able to eat anything for the next month'

,Buy it anyway! Let's see which ingredients I need to refine this baby.'

‚Hmm, Weak fire fruit, body strengthening grass and pink lotus. Let's see, they are all low mortal grade herbs and cost 50 Credits per set. That's actually really cheap considering that a portion of body strengthening powder sells for 250 credits.'

„Fuck it, I'm just gonna gamble on me being a super genius and spend all my money to buy 5 sets of these ingredients."

With this Kael bought all the ingredients needed for the recipe and started to study the refinement process.

The powder functions in a way, where the weak fire fruit first burns away a part of your body. Afterward the same part gets healed and strengthened at the same time by having the body strengthening grass and pink lotus work together.

To refine the powder you need an embarrassing process that would send any real alchemist into a coma.

Instead of burning away the impurities and then mixing the leftover medicine you simply heat them, usually with high quality equipment until they lost most of their moisture and are pretty dry. Afterwards you need to mix them in the right ratio and grind them to a powder.

This process that might not resemble alchemy all that much could still be done relatively professionally with good equipment. But what Kael did looked like a child cooking for the first time.

To dry the ingredients he simply put them in the portable oven he has in his dorm. Afterwards he grinds them by using the same mortar and pestle he always uses for his pesto.

If any actual alchemist had seen him he would have wanted to strangle him.

The main fault for his actions probably lies with the guide to alchemy, that didn't mention how you are supposed to heat and grind the herbs. Afterall it's considered standard knowledge that you need industrial grade equipment.

Still, after one hour Kael was finally done with his „alchemy".

‚Wow this actually smells amazing and also looks pretty good considering this is my first time.'

‚System, identify this powder please!'

[Body strengthening powder]

[Grade: Mid Mortal]

[Quality: Low]

‚Hmm pretty well considering it's my first try, I even reached low grade which is the bare passing grade for medical goods.'

Pills and medicine in this universe are divided into 5 qualities depending on how many impurities are left in them and how effective they are.

Those are from low to high Poor (<30% impurities removed) - Low (<50%) - Medium (<70%) - Good (<80%) - Great (<90%). Theoretically there is also the Superb and perfect grade, meaning there are less than 10% of the impurities, or for perfect 0%, left. For most alchemists this is unreachable though, except for when they refine pills two ranks under their actual rank.

Considering his methods it is unbelievable that Kael even created a working powder, speak less of one with low quality.

‚Practice makes perfect, I'm just going to use up the rest of my ingredients now.'

4 hours later you could see Kael standing at his table, looking proudly at his own creation.

[Body strengthening powder]

[Grade: Low Mortal]

[Quality: Good]

‚I guess that's good enough for my fifth try.'

‚If I continue to improve this way I will easily reach Perfect quality next week.'

‚I guess you can attribute that to my high quality comprehension'

‚The only thing left to do is try it out and see if this is actually consumable or not.'