“Impossible. It broke.”

That was all Dr Volta could say. Naomi looked at him with sorrowful eyes. Afterall, that was an alchemic magical tool. Alchemic magical tools were expensive, ranging from the price of 500 gold to 10 000 gold. This magic tool, the magical potency measurement crystal, costed at least 900 gold coins. It was sold by the magic towers of the continent, making it really expensive.

Naomi was now conflicted. Were they going to be held responsible for the destruction of the crystal? The Doctor shook as if he was in tears. Naomi wasn’t sure what to do. Afterall, alchemist researchers cherished their magic tools with their lives.

A small voice escaped Dr Volta’s mouth.

Is he angry? Is he crying? Are we going to have to pay extra?

Those were the questions raging inside Naomi’s head. The voice of Dr Volta rose.

“Kakakakaka!!!!!”

He was laughing? The man Naomi thought was crying was laughing like a maniac.

“Kakakaka. Fascinating. Truly fascinating.”

“Um, doc. Aren’t you angry that your magic tool broke?”

“What are you going on about lass? I have five more spares.” He answered waving his hand, as if to tell Naomi not to disturb him.

“What?!”

Naomi was confused. It seemed Dr Volta didn’t care about the magic tool. In fact, he seemed more delighted than ever.

“So doc, what happened? Why did the magic tool explode?”

Dr Volta’s expression changed to that of an expert.

“It seems that the magical potency measurement crystal couldn’t handle the magical energy within this potion. This measurement crystal has a limit of 50%. Meaning it can measure all potions under that scale. The fact that it exploded means that the potion’s magical energy is beyond the 50% limit. Meaning that this potion is above high-grade.”

“A-above high-grade? Then, what grade is it doc?”

“I don’t know lass.” Exclaimed Dr Volta as he scratched his head.

The room was silent for a while but that silent soon disappeared due to someone’s laugh.

“HeheheHAHAHAHA. Such beauty. I can’t believe I’m witnessing such a thing. Something that will turn the whole world upside down. It was a good idea coming here.”

Realising that Naomi and Jasper glared at him as if he was crazy, he cleared his throat before acting professional again.

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“The test isn’t over yet lass. We still have to test its effectiveness.”

Dr Volta placed his hands within his briefcase and pulled up a cage with 6 hamster-shaped animals.

“What are those?” asked Jasper confused.

“These, lad, are called Himonki hamsters. They are rare and we’ll be using them to test the potions effectiveness. Do you know why we are using these animals for the test instead of any other animal or monster?”

Jasper shrugged his shoulders, not knowing the answer.

“What about you lass?” He turned to Naomi.

“I also don’t know.”

“Hehehe. The thing about these hamsters is that unlike normal animals and monsters which have a magic core. These little fellas have a mana core, just like us humans.”

Naomi and Jasper were speechless.

“Yeah, I know right. It’s mind blowing. Anyways, it is believed that these little fellas might be related to humans, which in my opinion, I think it’s bullshit.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Well, I fail to believe that I’m closely related to my experimental subjects. And besides, that theory went up in flames as the researchers didn’t find any similarity within our DNA and them. Do you know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think a sort of mutation happened. But now we are getting off track. As you probably know, potions don’t work on monsters. That’s because they have a magic core instead of a mana core. Of course, we still don’t know why they don’t work on them. But these little fellas here have a mana core, meaning that potions do work on them.”

“Ah, I see. So you’re going to feed them the potions to test for their effectiveness.”

“That’s right lass. Of course, I’ll have to first calculate the exact ratio that’s needed for them to take that will have the same effect as us humans. Usually, humans have to drink at least 80% of the potion for it to take effect. Which means I’ll have to take into account the size of the body of the hamster, the core as well as the magical potency of the potion. For the potency, I’ll go on a limb and say it’s about 60% even if it’s just my wishful thinking.”

Dr Volta was already engrossed in his calculations. After exactly three minutes, he was done. He took out one of the hamsters from its cage. He also took out a dark needle.

“What are you going to use that for?” asked Naomi.

“This is demon steel. Demon steel has the ability to drain mana.”

After saying that, he pricked the hamster in its chest with the needle. The hamster squirmed and after a few seconds, it lost its strength. It had its mana completely drained, leaving only a little bit for it to breath.

Taking the dropper made from a leech, he drew the amount of potion based on his calculations. It was at least two drops. He released the potion within the dropper inside the hamster’s mouth. It didn’t even take a second for the potion to take effect. The hamster glowed blue, and it was revitalised back to life. It was as good as new.

“Gehahahaha. Incredible. Truly unrivalled.”

“So, what happened?”

“The potion was able to restore the hamster’s mana completely. And it only took a single second. Truly astonishing.”

“Really? That’s incredible.” Said Naomi with a smile.

“Of course, the effects won’t be the same for humans. The potion should be able to recover ordinary people’s mana to a 100% but depending on the person’s strength, the potion can have different effects.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you know why S-ranked adventurers never buy low-grade or even intermediate-grade potions? That’s because those potions have little to no effect on them. You see, the stronger the person is, the lesser the potions take effect. So for a C-rank adventurer, this potion might restore at least 90% of their mana. For an A-rank, at least 70% can be restored. And as for an S-rank, at least 60% to 50% can be restored. That’s actually a pretty good result considering that the high-grade potions so far can only restore 10% to 20% for S-rank adventurers.”

Naomi and Jasper looked dumbfounded. That was to be understood since they knew nothing about potions and adventurers.

“Now, let’s test the healing potion next.”