BXBX NOVEL Chapter 1061: Attempts at Alchemy
Chapter 1061: Attempts at Alchemy
Slightly chuckling at the young man\'s eagerness to learn, Mystia responded, "First, let me explain the entire process of concocting a potion."
"Similar to how forging an item goes through multiple steps, the entire alchemical process has multiple steps as well." Ignoring the slight embarrassment that appeared on Valyr\'s face, Mystia sported a serious expression as she began her explanation.
"To sum it up, the alchemical process is comprised of three general steps: removing the impurities from the ingredients, extracting the essence from the ingredients, then combining those extracted essences to obtain a specific effect."
"Then again, there\'s also various methods to contain the completed product, so I guess you could say that there are four general steps to the process," added Mystia at the end.
"However, we\'ll be focusing on the first three steps since those steps are the most important."
Taking in a deep breath to remove all of the errant thoughts that popped up in his mind, Valyr soon nodded at Mystia\'s words, his eyes shifting between her hands and the ingredients on his table.
"I\'ll walk you through the entire process, so don\'t worry too much." Saying these words, Mystia took in a deep breath of her own before releasing a few strands of mana that she immediately sent to her cauldron.
Whoosh!
In less than an instant, the cauldron immediately responded to the energy she infused, causing it to visibly fill up with water in a matter of seconds.
Then, not long after, the water inside the cauldron began to bubble up, making it seem like the water inside was boiling from the heat.
"Though I said that removing the impurities from the ingredients is the first step, the true first step is to prepare the cauldron for that exact purpose," said Mystia as she kept an eye on her cauldron.
Sending out a few strands of mana to her cauldron every once in a while, she eventually looked back at Valyr with a smile once she was satisfied with the current state of her cauldron.
"The trick is to start the cauldron by giving it enough energy," Mystia told Valyr. "However, make sure to not infuse too much energy into the cauldron, or else you\'ll cause the water to overflow."
"Now, you try."
Nodding as he went through what Mystia showed him in his mind, Valyr redirected his attention towards the cauldron in front of him before releasing a bit of his Prime Azure Energy out of his fingertips.
Not wanting to introduce any unknown variables into his first attempt at concocting something, the young man went ahead and transformed the energy he was releasing into mana, infusing it into the cauldron before him after that.
Whoosh!
Seeing the cauldron swiftly fill up with water in response to his infusion, Valyr immediately reducing the amount of mana he was infusing, allowing the cauldron to fill up at a similar rate to what Mystia showed him.
Then, once his cauldron had reached the same level of water as Mystia\'s cauldron, the young man reduced the amount of mana he was infusing into it even more, eventually causing the water to bubble up at a moderate intensity.
Blub... blub... blub...
Continuing to send mana into the cauldron every once in a while, Valyr constantly shifted his gaze between his cauldron and Mystia\'s cauldron, soon letting out a sigh of relief once he felt he\'d got it right.
Fortunately, Mystia let him know he got it right. "I\'m surprised you successfully started your cauldron. Pretty impressive for your first time."
Letting out a chuckle, she continued, "In comparison, Vera took around eight tries before successfully starting her cauldron, while Aloe took like 12."
"Then again, you did create a new type of energy, so I guess I shouldn\'t be too surprised you have good control over energy." Mystia smiled at him. "That level of control will definitely help you out later on."
"Anyways, now that the cauldron is ready, grab the ingredients I\'ll show you then roughly chop them up."
At those words, Mystia picked out the ingredients they\'d be using one by one before showing it to Valyr.
Then, once Valyr grabbed the same ingredient from his table, it was only then did Mystia chop her ingredient up into rough pieces before chucking them into her cauldron.
Naturally, the young man did the same thing soon after, making use of the dexterity he\'d honed as a blacksmith to cut the ingredients up before throwing it into his cauldron. Considering that Mystia wanted Valyr to learn both the practical and theoretical side of alchemy in this session, it went without saying that she explained what each ingredient was before chucking them into the cauldron, briefly going over their properties and uses with
Valyr.
In response to that, Valyr committed each and every word Mystia told him to memory, even going so far as to ask a couple of questions for clarification along the way.
Because of that, it took them longer than Mystia expected to proceed with the first step.
"Now that all of the ingredients for the basic health potion are in the cauldron, infuse more mana into the cauldron to start removing the impurities." As these words left her mouth, Mystia went ahead and sent a constant stream of energy into her cauldron, causing the bubbling to quickly intensify.
Keeping an eye on the contents within the cauldron, she continued, "Though you could say that you don\'t have to do much on the first step, you should still keep an eye on your ingredients."
"You want your ingredients to look like they\'ve been thoroughly cleaned," said Mystia to Valyr. "If your ingredients look like they\'ve lost a bit of color, then you\'ve failed the first
step."
Nodding in response to those words, Valyr returned his attention to his cauldron before going ahead and infusing more mana into it.
Watching the bubbling happening within the cauldron intensify in response to his actions, the young man pushed his senses to its limits as he kept a watchful eye on the ingredients he put
in.
Blub... blub... blub...
Keeping most of his attention on the cauldron before him, Valyr watched as the ingredients he put in the cauldron slowly release a murky substance into the water.
Though, with the mana he\'d been constantly putting into the cauldron, that murky substance disappeared before it could even spread, allowing the ingredients to slowly but surely reach the clean state Mystia was talking about.
"They\'re all clean now," said Valyr, reducing the amount of mana he was putting into the
cauldron after he noticed that his ingredients now looked similar to what was in Mystia\'s cauldron. "Now what?"
"We move onto the next step." Mystia smiled in response.
"Now, we extract their essence."