John had reconnected to his private consciousness!
John put on the ring and felt mana begin to flow into it from the magic matrix.
He still needed his job as a librarian to make money. What for? It was to fund him becoming a potioneering master! You see... He had looked into the prices of a rank 1 spell model and reactive elixir.
The elixir alone cost 500 magic stones! As for a rank 1 spell model? It costed a whopping 1,000 magic stones.
In some cases, you couldn't buy these even if you had money!
John needed 1,500 magic stones! This was an outrageous amount. You're probably wondering how the academy has so many rank 1's with such expensive cost of becoming an official magus. That is by design! All of the professors in this academy aren't here by choice. They had signed a contract for the resources to break through.
The contract stated that they would need to work for 100 years of service and teaching.
The contract was made by the rank 3 principal. Even John would have issues breaking it. The contract made by an acolyte was weak and could be destroyed easily by John who was capable of manipulating soul.
But that was different when compared to a rank 3! The difference between levels was too great. People would also know about his abnormal ability to not honor contracts.
John didn't plan on working a century in this academy. He had already acquired everything he could learn besides spell models and potions.
The reason he stayed? He needed a place to sell his potions!
Now that John had a magic medium, he could use mana to perform the precise movements required for potioneering.
John contacted the person in charge of the library asking for permission to set up his brewing tools in the library.
"You're planning to start potioneering? Good. You can set it up in the library, just be careful."
John let him know that he would briefly be gone to inquire about potioneering equipment.
John then went to the market, to a person selling potions and asked:
"How much are you selling potioneering equipment for?"
"Do you plan to buy the whole set?"
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"Yep."
"3 beakers, 4 conical flask, 2 straus flask. 1 claisen flask, 2 retort flask, 4 volumemetric flask. A magical heater, magical cooler, 150 test tubes. 100 petri dishes. A medicinal hammer, magical blender, a hot plate, an essence extractor, one grater, and 25 syringes, along with 25 needles."
"The cost is 3 magic stones!"
John currently had 1 magic stone.
"How much are the ingredients for a coagulation potion?"
"One magic stone for 10 sets."
"How much does a potion sell for?"
"I buy each potion at 2 magic stones."
John's eyes lit up. This was sure to be profitable!
"I'll come back in 2 months."
John continued to work at the library.
Soon two months went by.
He had been in the academy for over a year now.
He now had 5 magic stones.
He bought the potioneering equipment and also bought 20 sets of coagulation ingredients.
John set up the equipment at the desk for librarians and started brewing potions!
He used his nascent soul in combination with his vast knowledge from reading the entire library. He didn't even fail a single time!
All twenty sets of ingredients became coagulation potions!
He had spent 2 magic stones for the ingredients. But he could sell them all for 40 magic stones! 38 magic stones of profit...
People were giving him weird looks.
"How did he get permission to brew potions while working?"
John ignored them.
John made a quick trip to the market and talked with the guy selling potions.
"You've already brewed them? 100% success rate? Bullshit!"
He then tested the potions.
"Well, I'll be damned. You weren't lying!"
John then exchanged the potions and had 40 magic stones.
"How much for ingredients of a satiety potion?"
"1 magic stone for 10 sets."
"How much does it sell for?"
"Official wizards like to use them, so they sell pretty high. Three magic stones per potion."
"I'll buy 400 sets of ingredients!"
Soon John had a large cart that he brought to the library. He began to brew the satiety potion. This potion was very useful as drinking it could make you not hungry for an entire week. You essentially didn't have to worry about eating. It was too expensive for an acolyte. But for an official mage? 3 magic stones a week was trivial.
John wasn't able to brew them all in one go though. He only had 130 test tubes left. So he filled those up and then brought them back to the potion seller.
He was told some unfortunate news though.
"I don't have enough magic stones on me for this purchase. You'll have to sell them yourself!"
So John did something a little taboo. He went to where the professors lived and began to go door to door offering his potions.
Eventually he found a few buyers.
He made 390 magic stones!
He went back to the potion seller and bought more test tubes.
He then brewed 270 more satiety potions!
He had made a total of 1200 magic stones...
He obviously didn't have to carry around 1200 magic stones.
A mid grade magic stone was worth 100 low grade ones.
He had 11 mid grade magic stones in his pouch. He had a hundred in his cart.
He continued this cycle of cheaply buying the ingredients and brewing potions.
Soon he had over 2000 magic stones!
He was quite rich.
Now, he planned to buy the reactive elixir.
But then he thought about something... why not brew it himself?
Unfortunately, it was a rank 1 potion and he was only at rank 0. His mana wasn't even in gas form yet.
More unfortunate news was learned.
There were no reactive elixirs available to the public!
There was an auction in a few weeks.
Supposedly there would be both rank 1 spell models and reactive elixirs.
John couldn't wait!