After getting the new quest, Thomas gave a soft sigh. It was a good thing there was still plenty of time in the day for him to work on the quest since he would need to take many breaks in order to extract the 'heart' from each Blood Root. As he thought about that, he wondered if he could also extract the 'heart' from the Mending Flowers as well... Shuddering at the thought of that, Thomas pulled up his character sheet and instantly invested some of his experience into his Magic attribute.

Thomas poured 2,550 experience into his Magic attribute to instantly rocket it up to 30. As soon as he confirmed the change he felt a powerful flow of energy through his body as the power of his mana increased by fifty percent. There were no hard numbers for him to view, but he could feel that his mana had increased drastically. After reveling in the feeling of his expanding mana pool for a few minutes, Thomas closed his eyes and emptied his mind to activate his 'Serenity' ability.

After about twenty minutes, Thomas felt like his mana had been completely recovered. Taking a deep breath he moved over to the table and placed a single Blood Root into the mortar to pulp and extract the juices from. After pouring out the initial juices out of the mortar he focused his vision and began to once again extract the 'heart' from the Blood Root's remains. He could feel mana gushing out of his body as most of it was once again lost into the air while he maintained control of around a fifth of his mana.

After extracting the 'heart' of the Blood Root he poured it into the beaker and emptied the mortar. He once more used his 'Serenity' ability to recover his mana. Every twenty minutes Thomas repeated the cycle until he'd extracted the 'heart' from five of the Blood Roots and added it all to the beaker. By the time he finished with the Blood Root his 'Transmutation' and 'Mana Control' had both reached rank five while his 'Serenity' had gone up to rank ten. Though Thomas couldn't feel any actual change to his work from the increased ranks in his skills and abilities. The only positive change was that Thomas didn't feel like he was going to bottom out on his mana after extracting the 'heart' from a single Blood Root, though he definitely did not have enough mana to do two before needing to take a break.

Thomas began the next phase of his work by dropping a Mending Flower into the mortar and grinding the flower into pulp to extract as much of the sap as he could. Compared to the Blood Root, the Mending Flower provided much less material to work with. Once the initial bit of sap was extracted, Thomas activated his 'All Seeing Eyes' and used his 'Transmutation' to pull every last bit of sap out of the decimated flower. The flower required more visual focus as it was much less material to work with than the roots had.

Thomas manipulated his mana to wrap it around every scrap of sap he could find within the flower. Thomas was rather annoyed that it took far more effort and control to extract what he expected was the 'heart' of the Mending Flower. Even with his increased mana pool, it took over eighty percent of his mana to get the job done. After all of his effort, after straining his eyes to the point they throbbed with pain, he extracted a single extra drop of sap from the Mending Flower.

Wiping the copious sweat from his brow, Thomas took a seat and once more used his 'Serenity' to recover his mana. So far it had taken him three hours just to extract the hearts from the five pieces Blood Root and a single Mending Flower. Doing the math, Thomas would barely have enough time to finish the quest. After he finished recovering, Thomas once more cycled through the steps needed to extract the heart from the Meding Flowers to add to the mixture. After another two hours, he finished with the hard part and began the much easier task of turning the magic crystals into powder to add to the mix.

After five grueling hours of hard work, the majority of which was spent using 'Serenity', Thomas finally placed the beaker onto the formation plate and channeled his mana into it to purify the mixture into a finished product. After the last of the black smoke-like impurities were removed from the potion it flashed once again. However, this time the light was much brighter and lasted for a couple of seconds instead of a single instant. Ricktor looked over in surprise and then let out a sigh of appreciation.

Thomas retrieved the funnel and began to carefully pour the potion into five equal parts. Once the first vial was filled and corked he got his first notification for the current batch of potions.

System Notice: You have created a Magical grade Mending Blood Health Potion. Quality: Perfect. You have gained 159 Alchemy experience and 39 experience.

Thomas shuddered in excitement and poured the next potion, though after corking it he was surprised that both his Alchemy and personal experience had increased to 160 and 40 respectively. By the time he poured and corked all five of the potions, he gained a total of 799 Alchemy experience and 199 personal experience. Looking at the notices, Thomas was not oblivious to the change in the name of the potions. He assumed because he had used the hearts from both the Blood Root and the Mending Flower it had made a different, possibly more powerful, healing potion.

Thomas picked up one of the mending blood health potions and walked over to pass it to Ricktor for him to examine. Thomas was a little apprehensive that he just might give the man a heart attack with what he had done this time. Though Ricktor had taken looks at Thomas as he worked, he wasn't entirely sure what exactly Thomas was doing. He only understood that it had to do with Thomas using his 'Transmutation' ability. Ricktor accepted the vial of potion from Thomas and examined it closely. 

Thomas watched Ricktors face and could clearly see the moment Ricktor read the description of the potion. Ricktor's eyes opened wide and started to bulge a bit while his jaw dropped leaving his mouth hanging wide open. Ricktor's whole body began to tremble and shake as the shock rank through him. Ricktor finally managed to close his mouth and swallowed loudly before addressing Thomas in a trembling voice, "Y... you extracted the hearts from all the Blood Root and Meding Flower?"

Thomas nodded to Ricktor's question while trying his best to maintain a straight face and not laugh at the ridiculous look on the man's face. Ricktor looked like a venerable wizard so seeing the look of extreme shock on his face was a rather peculiar and hilarious sight. Ricktor shook his head and let out a deep sigh. After looking at the potion a bit longer, Ricktor waved his hand in a somewhat dismissive manner while letting out a slightly defeated sigh, "Just... just go and make the last four."

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Thomas turned away and when Ricktor couldn't see his face he smirked playfully. Thomas made his way back over to the table and began his work on the last set of ingredients. He only had just enough left to make the final four potions to reach his quota of nineteen for the day. If he'd just done the potions normally it would have only taken him a couple of hours at most to make the full batch. Instead, he just had to go and experiment. He was extremely excited by the results of the experiment and those same results were giving him a craving for knowledge so he could put his 'Transmutation' to even more ridiculous uses.

For the next four hours, Thomas repeated the cycle of juicing, draining, extracting and resting to get every last drop out of the pieces of Blood Root and Mending Flower, including their hearts. Even with his Magic attribute increased to thirty he still felt drained after every extraction. Through his hours of effort, he had increased his 'Transmutation' and 'Mana Control' both up to rank eight. Now that he had all the liquids extracted it was just a bit of manual labor to smash up the last four mana crystals and add them to the mix and then place the beaker onto the formation plate.

After channeling his mana into the formation plate and purifying the final batch of potions, Thomas earned an additional 640 Alchemy experience and 160 regular experience for making four more Mending Blood Health Potions. Once they were finished, Thomas presented them to Ricktor with a rather tired smile. He may be able to recover health, stamina, and mana using 'Serenity' but it did absolutely nothing for his own mental energy. In other words, he was feeling brain dead after all of that intense focus.

Ricktor examined the final batch of four potions while shaking his head in a mixture of amusement and exasperation, "You really are ridiculous. I already knew that after what you did for Rock, but seeing it in person I can't help but marvel at just how insane some of you otherworlders actually are."

Ricktor set the finished potion aside and turned to take a serious look at Thomas, "If you focused on Alchemy, I have no doubt that you would reach the very pinnacle of the Alchemical world. I have no doubt you would create legends and spawn myths for generations to come if you did."

With a sigh, Ricktor climbed to his feet to fetch the monetary reward for Thomas completing the quest. Shockingly, Ricktor placed a bag filled to the brim with gold coins into Thomas's hands, "You exceeded my expectations so I had to increase your pay for the work you did. Each of the Mending Blood health potions you created is worth a rather large sum of money, befitting the effort made to make them. So I'm giving you fifty gold for each one. In total, I'm giving you 600 gold." Ricktor strokes his beard for a moment as he studies Thomas, "As for your bonus..." Ricktor walks over to the far side of the room and picks up an item similar to a rather large briefcase and brings it back over to Thomas, "I'll give you this. It's a portable Alchemy kit. It doesn't contain everything you will need, but it contains all the necessary items to make a good variety of things while traveling. I have no doubt that you will eventually leave Ulvstad to head out into the wider world. Take this with you so you always have at least the basics on hand!"

System Notice: Quest Complete! Ricktor Helstan has requested that you make 19 health potions for him but after seeing your 'Pure Blood Health Potions', he has requested that you finish the remaining 9 in the same fashion.

Rewards: 20 experience, 5 gold per potion of average rank or higher. 50 experience, 25 gold for each 'Pure Heart Health Potion'. 75 experience, 50 gold for each 'Mending Blood Health Potion'.

Failure: You must pay 20 gold for each potion that fails to meet Ricktor's standards.

Time Limit: 1 day

Bonus: Portable Basic Alchemy Kit

System Notice: You have gained 1,025 experience.

System Notice: Your reputation with Ricktor has vastly improved.

Thomas absentmindedly held the bag of gold while staring between the system notifications and the large suitcase that Ricktor held. Thomas seriously, seriously, began contemplating if he should quit the quest line for Magitech Engineering. In a single day, he had made unbelievable gains in just about every department he could imagine. His skills and abilities had ranked up, he'd earned a nice chunk of experience, and he'd gained a large quantity of gold on top of all of that!

After accepting everything that Ricktor had given him, Thomas decided that since Ricktor had become so close to him he could ask about something he'd wanted to know since the very beginning. He would have asked sooner, but it seemed like he would have a better chance of getting what he wanted after spending some time with the man. Now that his reputation had improved though... Thomas smiled at Ricktor and just asked what was on his mind, "Ricktor, do you have any material pertaining to Transmutation that I could read? I want to study up on it so that I can know what I can do with my ability and do it more efficiently."

System Notice: Your reputation with Ricktor has improved.

Ricktor gave Thomas a wide smile, believing that his question implied that Thomas would continue down the path of Alchemy. While Ricktor wasn't exactly wrong, Thomas intended to finish his quest line and learn Magitech Engineering. However, Ricktor was also not entirely incorrect as Thomas did fully intend to put his 'Transmutation' ability to use to gain as much of an advantage as he could get. After a moment though, Ricktor shakes his head, "Sadly no. Most of the books I possess pertain to herbalism and alchemical recipes. Ulvstad is just a port town between the capital and the port town of our neighboring country. On top of that, we have a rather weak dungeon so there's really no call for anything high class. To find any books on transmutation you will need to visit the capital."

Ricktor begins to stroke his beard and he contemplates for a brief moment, "You know. Someone with your talent in transmutation might do rather well at the academy. Maybe one day you will be able to attend. If you ever do, don't miss the chance to use their library!"

Thomas nodded and, after exchanging some pleasantries with Ricktor, started to make his way to the door. He was a little disappointed, but he intended to make his way to the capital eventually anyways so it was just a little more time until he could learn more about his 'Transmutation' ability.

Carrying the large suitcase containing the portable basic alchemy kit, Thomas made his way towards The Swans Nest so he could get himself a nice warm dinner and relax in his bed. It had been three weeks in game time since he logged into AoG. While his attribute progress and experience could be considered middling at best, his progress in crafting professions was nothing short of monstrous.