14

Chapter Fourteen - "Green Grass"

Forseti replaced the herbs, except for the star grass, carefully back in their respective places. He then turned his attention back to the hair restorer formula, deep in contemplation.

After a while, he rose and fetched a tome from the shelf, placing it on the table. The book's cover read: Greenhilde Pharmacopoeia.

As Asgard's foremost compendium of herbal knowledge, the Greenhilde Pharmacopoeia was as extensive as it was profound.

Opening the tome, it nearly matched Forseti's own size.

After a brief hesitation, Forseti purchased a Meditation Shard from the Sanctuary and immediately activated it, entering a state of meditation.

He had recently used the meditation spell shard he had purchased.

The spell's effects were astounding. During his last meditation, Forseti had tackled several perplexing issues from the Greenhilde Pharmacopoeia that had eluded him for the past month.

Now, meditating again, he aimed to apply his pharmacological expertise to pinpoint Khadgar's beard as the likely substitute material in this realm, potentially saving him considerable time.

With the onset of meditation, Forseti's expression took on an otherworldly calm, seemingly impervious to distractions.

Two hours elapsed, and Forseti remained immersed in his sea of knowledge.

Uncle Peter entered the room, casting a somewhat surprised glance at him before quietly searching for something on his own.

"Bald..." Forseti suddenly murmured to himself.

"What did you say?" Uncle Peter asked, turning towards him.

Forseti fell silent again, as if unaware of Uncle Peter's presence.

After a while, Uncle Peter furrowed his brow, touched his own head, and glanced at Forseti with a puzzled expression. Eventually, he shrugged and left the room.

Another hour passed.

El entered the pharmacy and set about her tasks.

While she worked, Forseti suddenly slammed the pharmacopoeia shut. "I've figured it out!" he exclaimed.

El jumped in surprise, nearly spilling the potion in her hand. She clutched her chest in shock. "What?"

Only then did Forseti notice El's presence. Hurrying over, he asked, "El, do we have any horn mushrooms or green chip grass in stock?"

El pondered for a moment. "There are two green chip grasses in the herb garden, but they're rarely used. Why do you ask?"

"Well... uh..." Forseti hesitated briefly before explaining, "I've conceived a formula, but I need to test it with horn mushrooms or green chip grass."

"You've come up with a formula?" El blinked in disbelief.

"Perhaps. It's just a preliminary idea for now," Forseti said. "But I have a feeling it might work."

Both horn mushrooms and green chip grass were costly medicinal ingredients, each fetching more than a single rune. Forseti knew he'd have difficulty acquiring them without El's assistance.

"Alright, wait here. I'll fetch a green chip grass," El agreed without much hesitation.

She turned and left, returning shortly with a green, onion-shaped herb in hand, which she passed to Forseti.

Forseti placed the green chip grass on the sacred deed. Since no one but him could see the diagrams and text on the holy relic, El didn't suspect anything and assumed Forseti had merely set it down casually.

In Forseti's eyes, as soon as the green chip grass touched the hair restorer formula, a line of text appeared: [105% substitution for Khadgar's beard].

105%? Can it exceed 100%?

Seeing this figure, Forseti paused momentarily before understanding.

Just as blueprints for forging had a completion percentage, alchemical recipes also had a perfection rating. Therefore, it wasn't surprising that the substitution percentage could surpass 100%.

Forseti nodded to himself, satisfied with the confirmation. The green chip grass indeed closely matched Khadgar's beard, at least according to the hair restorer formula.

"What are you planning to do with it?" El asked, continuing her work.

Forseti didn't respond immediately, hiding his inner excitement. "You'll find out soon enough. I think I might just surprise you, dear El."

El shook her head, smiling indulgently, as if Forseti were merely indulging in teenage daydreams.

Compared to commonly used Sparkling Star Grass, green chip grass was rare and its processing intricate. To ensure success, Forseti opted to process the green chip grass while still in a meditative state, significantly boosting the success rate.

With less than three hours remaining in his meditation state, Forseti knew he could finish processing the green chips within that timeframe.

He immediately set to work, following the recipe's instructions meticulously, employing various techniques on the green chip grass.

After about two and a half hours of processing, the green chip grass transformed into a small jar of translucent liquid, with tiny bubbles silently swirling within, indicating its relative viscosity.

It was quite late.

"Well done," El nodded approvingly, then tousled Forseti's hair. "I'll head off now. You should get some rest too."

Once El departed, Forseti turned his attention to the Sparkling Star Grass.

Perhaps due to a slight lapse in focus after handling the green chip grass, Forseti inadvertently made a misstep while processing the Sparkling Star Grass, resulting in the wastage of one unit.

Fortunately, Sparkling Star Grass was abundant, and wasting a piece or two wasn't a significant setback.

Having processed the main ingredients—star grass and green chip grass—Forseti moved on to the minor ingredients. These secondary materials had negligible effects, requiring less precision and effort.

It was now past midnight.

After numerous steps, Forseti finally completed the product—a bottle of thick, black liquid.

Placing the bottle on the sacred deed's display, a line of text promptly appeared: [Completion: Excellent. Its effects will closely mimic the perfect "Andorov's Hair Restorer".]

It worked!

Gazing at the hair restorer contained within the crystal bottle, Forseti couldn't suppress a smile.

Asgardians faced unique challenges, often far surpassing those encountered by mortals. Curing "divine baldness" was certainly more daunting than addressing mortal hair loss.

Methods like the Asgardian hair growth elixir and magical hair growth were effective but exorbitantly priced, costing thousands of large gold coins to cure divine baldness.

In contrast, Andorov's Hair Restorer—a universal solution—cost a little over a hundred gold coins, promising immense profit margins. Forseti even briefly entertained the idea of monopolizing advanced hair growth remedies across the universe.

Of course, such ambitions were distant prospects.

For now, Forseti was simply curious which fortunate soul in Asgard would bid farewell to baldness tomorrow...