CHAPTER 186 - ELIXIR-ATING ALCHEMY PROGRESS
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At first, I thought my new cauldron was faster than the old one, but I was wrong. The [Dragon’s Pearl Cauldron of Unrivaled Mastery] upgraded items at the same speed as the [Nine Dragon Jade Cauldron], but it could handle three items at a time, effectively tripling the output of [Automatic Alchemy].
With the new cauldron, I also unlocked the compounding function, which was a way to combine two or more pills or potions into one, thereby making them stronger or last longer.
For example, five [Dewy Glow Potions] could be compounded to make one [Ageless Beauty Essence], with a corresponding difference in their text description, and, presumably, a stronger effect on the skin.
[Dewy Glow Potion:
This Dewy Glow potion is formulated with natural ingredients to help improve your skin’s appearance.
To use, simply apply a few drops of the potion to your face and body after cleansing. Gently massage it into your skin until it’s fully absorbed. You can use this potion morning and night for best results.]
While the original potion simply improved the skin, the upgraded one allegedly makes the skin look younger.
[Ageless Beauty Essence:
This potion is formulated with natural ingredients to restore your skin's youthful vitality.
To use, simply apply a few drops of the potion to your face and body after cleansing. Gently massage it into your skin until it’s fully absorbed. For best results, use this potion morning and night.]
However, combining five [Five Elements Pills] simply turned them into a [Supreme Five Elements Pill], with the only difference being the duration of the effect and a slight boost in its defensive capabilities. The basic pill lasted for fifteen minutes, while the compounded one was good for one hour.
[Supreme Five Elements Pill:
Crafted from potent herbs, it harmonizes with the wielder's aura to strengthen elemental defenses against earth, fire, water, wood, and metal magical attacks.
Duration: 60 minutes]
In the game, using this item resulted in a minimum of a 20% damage reduction and up to a maximum of 90%, depending on the player's and enemy's levels, which was 10% higher than the basic [Five Elements Pill].
...But I would really hate to get even 10% damaged in the real world!
Remembering my fight with the demon rats last year, I shuddered.
I definitely needed to take advantage of my prior knowledge of the fabled [Diamond Shield] and its power. My mind raced as I thought of a plan to get my hands on the shield. While I was thinking it over, I cleared more space in my living room and set down the cauldron in the center.
That night, I loaded the cauldron up with the maximum number of [Five Elements Pills] it could hold and turned it on. When I woke up, I had a few handfuls of [Supreme Five Elements Pills] which I sent off as a gift to Prince Baiyu. Then I Ioaded the [Dragon’s Pearl Cauldron of Unrivaled Mastery] with [Strength Potions] to make [Mega Strength Potions], and with [Antipoison Potions] to make [Fortified Antipoison]. Both were slightly more potent and doubled in duration, which was a little disappointing because using five potions should've logically resulted in a product that was five times as powerful. I also compounded [Dewy Glow Potions] and gave the resulting [Ageless Beauty Essence] to Fengying for testing.
***
Over the next few weeks, Scholar Wu visited the Grove of the Harvest Goddess every day to check the qi levels. For some reason, she seemed shocked that whenever she measured the qi in the grove, it was always normal.
The rice plants grew tall enough for us to flood the rice field and release fingerling [Rice Carp] and [Cleaner Shrimp] into the paddy’s water. Due to the increased qi levels on the farm, the tea plants grew fast and developed a strong fragrance that boded well for this season’s harvest. The vegetables seemed to be thriving, too.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
As the leaves on the trees in the forest turned brown and red, we harvested some of the plants in the [Herb Garden].
“The prize is yours. Congratulations!” I crowned Lari with a circlet made of silk leaves and flowers. “You can tell Fengying what you want to eat for your winner’s banquet next week.”
“Thank you.” Lari cheekily bowed to me and the others.
Kharli and Mo clapped as Lari cleared his throat and started a winning speech in a mock-serious tone.
“Thank you, thank you.” Lari strutted about with his chest puffed out and his chin up. “I couldn’t have done this without the help of [Kola Kola Soda] and [Tea]. Thanks to the sun for shining down on me and the moon for lighting up my nights and the-”
Kharli cut his speech short. “Oh shut up and harvest the [Rosemary] already! We have homework to do!”
“And I’m going out to Forage today,” said Mo.
The qi levels in the forest had finally stabilized enough that the animals had stopped behaving weirdly. Lari, Kharli, Mo, and I, like wild animals just released from their cages, were absolutely raring to go outside the farm to Forage, Fish, and Hunt.
“Yes, let’s start,” I said.
Not all of the plants in the [Herb Garden] were ready for harvest yet. The [Ginseng] in particular, though it was an extremely valuable item, wouldn’t be ready for another year, maybe two. Most of the plants were perennials that could be harvested more than once, like the [Mint], [Thyme], and [Sage], but a few like the [Ginseng], [Sweetroot], and [Scarlet Yam] had to be dug up and replanted.
The work was easy and pleasant enough, with the autumn sun shining down on us and a cool breeze lifting the hair away from my face.
We finished plucking leaves, digging up roots, and cutting off stems laden with flowers, fruit, and seeds in less than an hour since the [Herb Garden] wasn’t that large.
Stretching my aching back by bending backward at the waist, I sighed and put down my basket full of herbs. “Let’s hand these over to Fengying, shall we? She’ll know what to do with them.”
I had the vague idea that the herbs needed to be dried or otherwise processed before storing them in our shared medicine cabinet.
“Yes, teacher, I’ll give these to her before leaving.” Mo grabbed all our baskets and ran off.
The girl was really in a rush!
“She’s so eager.” Shaking my head, I turned to Lari and Kharli. “Shall we have a snack before we leave?”
“I would like to go now, please.” Lari looked at the gate of the [Herb Garden] longingly and was off like a shot the moment I nodded my agreement.
Kharli waved goodbye to him before saying to me, “This has to be the first time Lari said no to food!”
“Well, I can’t blame him. Yichen and the other hunters must already be waiting for him at the meeting place.”
We walked to the rear of the garden where a small open-air dining area and lounge had been set up under the shade of a tall, decorative [Jade Rain Tree] I had bought from the Cash Shop. Kharli sat down on a wooden chair while I chose to sit on the sofa beside it.
“Tea or coffee?” I asked.
“Tea, please,” said Kharli.
I put the tea kettle and other tea things on the coffee table for her to brew her own beverage while I poured myself a cup of hot coffee from a thermos that I had filled this morning from my coffee machine.
“So Lari will go Hunting with the others and Mo will be Foraging with her maid, while you will go Fishing with Scholar Wu?” I raised a cup and took a sip.
Delicious.
“I’m the last she went with! I can’t believe Scholar Wu went Foraging with Mo and Hunting with Lari before me.”
Kharli pouted a bit but cheered up when I offered her a plate of honey cookies from my inventory.
I chuckled at her fake outrage. “Isn’t that because she already observed us Fishing in the river on the farm? Anyway, I heard you’ve been doing very well with your studies.”
“We all have. Mo’s really smart, too, and Lari would do much, much better if he wasn’t so lazy.” Kharli suddenly slapped her mouth shut with a hand and gave me a horrified look, shocked at her own words. “Teacher... Please forget I said that.”
I waved a hand dismissively. “Yes, yes, it’s forgotten.”
“I didn’t mean to say that.” She hastily stuffed her mouth with food to cover her embarrassment.
The kids, of course, joked a lot about each others’ shortcomings, but they would normally never speak ill of one another for real.
“Remember when you guys used to groan and complain about me hiring a tutor?” I smiled into my cup. “Now you all love your classes.”
“We thought it would be like the classes in the orphanage.”
“One-on-one personalized tutoring is much better.”
“Yes, now I know why nobles are always boasting about being learned. Academics are much easier for them than commoners!”
“Of course. Rich people have the best tutors. Here, try these oatmeal cookies.”
There wasn’t much serious talk after that. We spent a few more minutes finishing off the cookies before leaving on our separate errands.
“See you at dinner!” I said to Kharli.
“See you at dinner, Teacher!”
Now that the kids and Scholar Wu were gone, I had an important experiment to do at the Chitinous Caverns. I went to get Cutie and set off for the Mines.
“Time to use this thing!” I said to Mr. Bear as we stepped into the portal and arrived at our destination.
Activating my puppet’s [Guard Mode], I equipped my full set of [Aurite] melee armor which consisted of plate legs, plate body, helm, and gauntlets.
[Aurite] was a fictional alloy from Adventure Incarnate made of steel and enchanted gold. A few older items were called [Luminite], but they were essentially the same thing. The only difference was that in the game, the newer items had updated graphics while the old ones lacked detail. In this world, it was the same, the [Luminite Armor] had slightly worse stats and their design was bulky, unlike [Aurite] items which were sleek and had fancy gold engravings.
Sprinkling [Bone Melting Powder] on my [Aurite] sword using the System’s [Use] command should temporarily give it a [Poison] effect. I was unsure of the strength and duration of the [Poison], so I wanted to test it out on some mobs.