Alchemy

"What profession should I choose alchemy or formations" Arjun was contemplating about what to choose. 

Arjun thought for the whole night and the next day morning, he and the girls gathered for breakfast because today was a special day. 

Siri asked "Arjun, have you decided what profession to choose". 

Ahalya and Pavitra were also looking at him with a curios face. 

"I have decided to choose alchemy" Arjun said to them while eating the spirit rice porridge. 

Ahalya smiled for a bit and Pavitra felt a little sad. But Pavitra felt somewhat better after hearing the next sentence. 

"But, in the future, when I have free time, I will learn formations also, I hope that Pavitra, you will teach me then". 

Pavitra nodded with a smile and said "I will teach you". 

After the breakfast, Arjun went to the Alchemy peak along with Ahalya to check results. 

The notice board had their names and scores. 

Arjun~93 

Ahalya~84 

Saro Dinesh~ 77 

... 

... 

As expected, Arjun scored 93 and Ahalya came in the second place. 

They were both happy for each other. 

Arjun went to the front desk along with Ahalya towards the senior disciple he was familiar with and asked after greeting her "Senior sister, me and my friend qualified for the scholarship, can you please tell me the details about the scholarship". 

Mukerjee Latha looked at him and said "Junior brother, congratulations, junior sister, congratulations. The scholarship that the sect provides for you is providing you the furnace and alchemy resources at one fourth of the price, and if you don't have enough contribution points, you can borrow them from sect with an interest rate of 0.5%". 

"You can also attend the classes for free until you become a 1st tier low grade alchemist". 

"Junior brother Arjun and Junior sister, you can choose one of the furnaces in this jade slip". The senior sister gave them both two jade slips, one for each. 

Arjun went through the jade slips, there were alchemy furnaces from 1st tier low grade to high grade (weapons and artifacts don't have top grade). 

The price of the cheapest low-grade furnace is 55 contribution points, while the price of the high-grade furnaces reached as high as 400 high grade spirit stones. 

Of the hundreds of the furnaces, Arjun chose a high-grade furnace called Azure Lotus Furnace, this furnace has the effects of reducing pill failure rate by 13%, and also can increase the purity of pill by 10%. But there was a drawback to the furnace, it required 20% more Qi to refine pills. 

Although the drawback was huge for other cultivators, the drawback was nothing to Arjun, and the price was also 370 contribution points, which was not too high among the high-grade furnaces. 

Ahalya also chose a high-grade furnace called Mystical Jade Essence Cauldron, this furnace required the alchemist to practice a 1st tier high grade or higher Qi refining cultivation techniques inclined towards plants, and Ahalya's technique although totally not based on plants, it was suitable for the furnace. 

The Mystical Jade Essence Cauldron had the effects of decreasing the pill failure rate by 7%, and increases the pill quality by 13%. The cost was also only 365 contribution points. 

Finally, they both got the furnaces for only half of their price. 

After that, the disciples who were all able to pay 3 contribution points were brought to a room where there was an elder waiting for them in front of an alchemy furnace. There were only 17 disciples. 

The elder looked at all the people and said "I will show you and explain you the process of refining dieting pills for three times a day, and for three days a week. I hope that all of you can successfully become alchemists. Now let us begin". 

Elder first started by lighting the fire saying "this is the spirit flame, powered by the level 2 spirit flame. Normal flames cannot extract the spiritual properties of these herbs, so you will have to use the spirit flame. Theses flames are provided in every one of your abodes, and you can also buy portable flames, if you are leaving sect for some time and if you will have to refine pills outside". 

After that the elder started to add ingredients one by one, and then increased the intensity of the flames. 

After that the elder began to adjust the intensity according to the rate at which the herbs were melting, and by the time the pills melted, the temperature was decreased and was constant. 

Finally, when the furnace opened with a pop, and inside the furnace one can observe 5 brown colored pills and two black pills. 

The elder took the three brown colored pills and said "This is a medium quality dieting pill, the difference between medium quality dieting pill and a low-quality pill is that medium quality pills have more smoother surface, greater effect, and lower impurities compared to the lower quality ones". 

He then kept those pills into a jade bottle and said "The price of medium quality pills is two lower grade spirit stones higher than the low-quality pills, meaning you can earn more. But to refine medium quality pills, you will need years of accumulation, and experience". 

"This is for only the dieting pill and if you want to refine other pills, then you will have to 

After that he took the black pills saying "these are the impurities, which are condensed into pills, these pills are poisonous to a cultivator, and if it is taken by a cultivator their meridians would be damaged in the best case, while they may die in the worst case" and threw the two pills into spirit fire. 

After that he demonstrated pill refining two more times. 

Arjun and Ahalya went to the front desk to collect the alchemy furnaces. Arjun bought 4 sets of dieting pill refining materials for 3 Contribution points, Ahalya also bought four sets. 

With that they returned back to the Celestial Mist peak. 

After returning back Arjun took rest for some time and then started to read the pill formula. 

After an hour of reading and getting a basic understanding, he went to the alchemy room and then after lighting the spiritual flame he started his first attempt of pill refining.