Upon logging out, Adam went straight to the auction house.

"Let us see what this bonus is."

It didn't take long for Adam to find the transaction he was looking for.

[You have received $25,000.00 from the Hao Wei Guild Store. All transaction fees have been covered by the sender.]

He just earned twenty-five thousand dollars for meeting with Hao Jun! It is the equivalent of a typical pro gamer's signing bonus with a mid-sized gaming company.

While Adam does not place as much value on money, this is still quite a shock for him.

The current funds in his account, not counting the bonus that Hao Jun sent, are about 18 grand. It was originally close to 30 grand but he made quite a bit of spending spree buying all sorts of raw materials.

With the bonus he received, his current funds were more than doubled,

Adam isn't swayed by the money; he knows that the amount he received is unusual for a no-name gamer like him.

To call a spade a spade, Hao Jun has taken the first step to buy Adam. It is obvious that Hao Jun saw his value and wanted to secure him before he gained more fame.

There will be more to follow- be it in the form of access to in-game items, benefits in the real world, live stream features during boss raids, etc.

And this is why Adam prefers to remain anonymous for as long as possible.

Having to dodge guild offers all the time would pose a serious threat to his plans in Pangea; sometimes a sweet offer will turn sour if declined too many times.

In this regard, it is best not to be targeted by such offers in the first place.

He will never join any guild. Not Hao Wei, not any other guild.

Adam is open to the possibility of doing a joint mission or quests, but that's where his cooperation will begin and end.

The reason is simple as to why he doesn't want to join a guild. Or, for that matter, establish a guild of his own.

In the end, the player's guild will not translate well into the real world for a couple of reasons- the major factors being political and geographical. There will be very few guilds that will overcome this.

The Flora Guild is one of the few well-known examples that succeeded both as a gaming guild and a real-world guild.

Technically, the Hao Wei Guild did transition well from a gaming guild to a real-world fighting force, but their base of operation is in China so their missions have been exclusively to protect and secure Chinese territories.

It is only Hao Jun's alchemy-centric group that opened worldwide to training foreigners. But even that did not last long.

In fact, the dissolution of Hao Jun's Alchemy Academy is one of the main causes of Adam's death in his previous life. But he decided not to dwell on that unpleasant bit of memory.

There is no need to complain about the past- or a future that will never come to be this time around.

Simply put, Adam doesn't need Hao Wei or Hao Jun in this life. They need him.

While it's true that Adam required Hao Wei's resources, this is not something that only Hao Wei can exclusively provide. On the other hand, no other alchemist is qualified to teach Hao Jun other than Adam.

Satisfied with his gain and the current status quo with Hao Jun, Adam went ahead and browsed all the available items- both the ones on sale and the ones for auction.

He spent a lot of time shopping for ingredients.

Every single ingredient that he deems of value, he bought immediately.

He also joined several auction events and bid ferociously on items he needed.

Of course, he made sure to avoid purchasing the list of ingredients that he gave to Hao Jun- it is obvious that Hao Wei has allocated a significant budget to secure those materials.

Adam noticed an unusually high amount of bids for the ingredients that used to be sold relatively cheap such as the Red Morgel Leaf. Its price has increased nearly threefold; the other ingredients that Adam told him have also shown a noticeable price increase.

Fortunately, the other ingredients have been mostly ignored. The material that Adam would need to create powerful utility potions, and high-grade basic potions is also relatively untouched.

While the quantity available comes in small increments, Adam made up for it by dedicating three straight days to diligently monitoring the items available.

By the end of his three-day shopping vigil, he managed to procure a decent amount of materials.

However, he can't use them for potion-making just yet. It is now time to meet with Hao Jun for his alchemy lessons.

***

Upon returning to Vetius' workshop, Adam immediately tore a teleportation scroll.

Hao Jun has permitted him to tether a teleportation scroll directly at the cavern in the interest of saving time getting there.

The guards stationed at the cavern were initially startled by his arrival. But as soon as they verified his identity, they directed him back to the tent.

Many of the guards greeted him as if they were friends. Some even congratulated him on making a deal with Hao Jun as not many people gain such a rare opportunity.

Their attitude was noticeably friendlier than the last time.

And Chang Yichen, who made no effort to hide his dislike of Adam, is suspiciously not in the cavern.

It is evident enough that Hao Jun instructed them to make Adam feel as welcome as possible.

He is preparing himself from having to endure cringe-worthy attempts at gaining his favor. But he was not expecting it to happen this soon.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he walked wordlessly towards the tent.

The tent became noticeably bigger from the last time he saw it.

Or rather, it is far more appropriate to call it a moderately-sized hut.

Adam opened the door.

"Welcome, Mr. Mianju," greeted Hao Jun. "You arrived three days on the dot. I like that."

The inside of the tent had changed a lot. Originally, it was just a makeshift office with two chairs and a table to facilitate a meeting.

But now, several cauldrons, stoves, and other alchemical tools and a couple of sacks full of alchemical ingredients are out in the open- the ingredients that Adam named during their last meeting.

Adam returned a courtesy greeting in response.

"Hello, Mr. Hao."

"Hello to you too, Adam, I believe?"

Silence.

"I suppose it wouldn't take long for you to piece the clues together, Mr. Hao," responded Adam lightly. "However, the name Mianju has a nice ring to it. I'm starting to like the nickname."

He is not in the least bit perturbed that Hao Jun managed to deduce his name.

During their last meeting, Adam previously disclosed that he was in the cavern crafting potion. And a few weeks earlier, it was known that a mysterious player became the top contributor in the recent Battle at the Chamber of Sacrifice- where the player was referred to as Adam, the First Potioneer.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

It's not too difficult of a leap for Hao Jun to conclude that the top contributor and the man whom he reached an agreement with are one and the same.

But that was all Hao Jun could learn from him for Adam did not make any further comment.

Adam then went straight to one of the sacks with ingredients to inspect their quality.

It's Bleedwort Mushroom and there is a full sack of it.

Hao Wei was busy gathering material in other caves scattered all around the Undead Region. This much quantity is something that Adam wouldn't have been able to acquire by himself. Not only did Hao Wei buy every Bleetwort Mushroom in the auction house, but it is clear that they have a farming area for it.

It is undeniable that there is an advantage in being a guild.

Hao Jun noticed Adam's reaction to the sack of Bleedwort Mushrooms.

"Impressive, is it not?" asked Hao Jun.

"Our ally, Maxima Guild, has secured a farming area with an abundance of this mushroom," he explained.

"They happily provided this much quantity with no issue at all. Amazing, is it not?"

Adam knows where he's going with this statement.

Translation: 'Join us, and you will never have a problem securing ingredients.'

He decided to ignore what Hao Jun said.

"Mr. Hao, let us start with the Bleedwort Mushroom."

Hao Jun simply nodded, his provocation and attempt at swaying Adam with access to resources is not working as intended.

As he is the student in this setting, there is nothing else for him to say and everything to hear.

"Mr. Hao, regarding the potion showed me last time," said Adam simply.

"If I'm not mistaken, you boiled it exactly as the recipe found in the Lorik Herbal Remedies, correct?"

"Yes," confirmed Hao Jun. "You know I got it from that book?"

"I've read the book as well," responded Adam shortly. "But it is an outdated book and many of the recipes there have long since been improved by the alchemists of the current Lorikan Republic."

"The book only tells you to boil it and to let it melt before turning off the heat source."

"But while this procedure is technically correct, it does not efficiently extract the qualities we want for a health potion."

"Remember, this place is called the Forgotten Temple. It is natural to conclude that many of the writings here have long since been updated."

Then Adam's explanation turned into a full-blown speech.

"Alchemy, at its basic core, is the art of extracting the qualities of raw ingredients that can be found all around us."

"A skilled alchemist can identify and extract this quality. Then he can enhance it, dilute it, combine it with another, or even transform it- provided one is skilled enough. He can utilize an ingredient's most basic qualities and magnify it. In other words, it is our role as an Alchemist to find out the essence of the world around us and use it to our advantage."

"The most essential step in alchemy is its preparation. The way we pick the ingredients, what part to use, how we slice it, how we peel it- among others. This would all play a crucial part in determining if what we have will be more valuable than the ingredient we start with."

"You need to keep this in mind when preparing potions. Whether you are a novice or an expert. You must never forget the importance of the preparation stage of alchemical procedures."

Silence.

Hao Jun is impressed. But he couldn't help but ask something.

"Tell me, Adam- or Mr. Mianju, are you teaching other players alchemy?" he asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"No, Mr. Hao," said Adam flatly. "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. You sound like you're giving alchemy classes regularly."

Adam openly chuckled at this.

In truth, the speech he gave was word per word, the same speech that Hao Jun had told him and countless other alchemists in his previous life. But of course, Hao Jun would have no way of knowing that.

"I guess I have a talent for making speeches, Mr. Hao," answered Adam. "But rest assured, at the moment I have not taught alchemy to anyone else, but you."

Hao Jun did not miss the subtext. What Adam is saying is: 'I'm only teaching you for now. But I'm open to teaching others.'

Neither party openly addressed it but nothing is holding back Adam from teaching others. And there is little that Hao Jun can do to stop him should he choose to do so.

This is because there are now several video guides on the internet teaching alchemists how to craft certain potions. Of course, many guides are unreliable but some have been deemed legitimate by the community. So making money off of posting recipes online is a viable option for Adam should he choose it.

Adam cleared his throat.

"Now, I will show you how to craft a health potion using the Bleedwort Mushroom."

"Boiling is indeed a part of the process, but it is just a component of the potion-making procedure. Let me show you how to extract the most healing properties from the mushroom."

First, he filled a cauldron with one liter of water. The one liter is the minimum volume of water required for most basic potions.

But Adam did not turn on the fire yet; that will come later in the process. Then he set the cauldron aside.

He then chopped 1 kilogram of Bleedwort Mushroom into fine pieces. Thanks to his dexterity, he chopped the mushroom with expert precision typically found in highly experienced chefs in the real world.

Then, he placed the chopped mushrooms in a pan and turned the fire on.

Internally, Adam couldn't help but be envious of the full sack of Bleedwort Mushroom that Hao Wei was able to acquire. He estimates that if he were to have it all for himself, he could turn it into at least 300 health potions of superb grade.

But there is nothing to be gained by showing off to Hao Jun; 1 kilogram of mushroom is sufficient for the demonstration.

"Now, we will burn the mushroom until it blackens," Adam told Hao Jun. "The smell can be a bit unpleasant, but please bear with it."

Adam skillfully tossed the pan so that every bit of chopped mushroom was exposed to heat equally. He did this for 30 minutes straight.

The smell of something being burnt permeated the entire hut.

Hao Jun had to cover his nose, but Adam was unperturbed by it.

"You need to toss it like this as doing so will prevent the mushroom from sticking in the pan," explained Adam. "We want to burn it, but not let it stick."

Not long after that, the mushrooms had burned to a crisp. Adam turned off the fire.

"For this next step, I will apply Purify," said Adam. "But if you don't have the skill yet, that's fine.

As the guild master of a prominent gaming company, Adam knew better than to ask for any details about Hao Jun's status window. It may be seen as trying to pry into a guild master's secret so he wisely side-stepped that particular subject.

Besides, Hao Jun's status window has little to do with the recipe.

"Just know that the healing effect will be a bit less if you don't use Purify on it before boiling it," he added as an afterthought. "However, the final product should still be pretty good for as long as you follow this procedure properly."

As Adam said this, he turned on the cauldron with 1 liter of water and set it to boil.

Meanwhile, he placed the burnt remains of the mushroom in a mortar and pestle set and pounded them until it became as fine as an instant coffee powder. He did this while regularly applying Purify in the powder.

Adam continued doing this until the water boiled.

Then, he poured all the fine powder of what was once the Bleedwort Mushroom into the water he set to boil earlier.

"FFFFFFSSSSSSS!"

There was a pleasant hissing sound coming from the cauldron as Adam poured the powdered mushroom. The aroma that the cauldron emitted was a far cry from the burnt mushroom earlier.

Now, the cauldron is releasing a smell similar to that of a sweet wine.

Slowly, but surely, the liquid in the cauldron turned into a blood-red color.

And when all the powder was poured into the cauldron, Adam turned off the fire.

"After the water boils, place the all powder just as I did," explained Adam. "Then, turn off the fire and keep stirring."

"Keep note of my tempo and stir the cauldron this way. If you use a smaller or bigger cauldron, you will need to adjust the frequency accordingly."

"Smaller cauldron, stir a little slower. Bigger cauldron, stir a little faster."

"Notice the consistency, it looks sticky, right? Keep on stirring until it is almost back to its water-like consistency. With this quantity, you'll have to stir it for around 30 minutes."

"As you do this, the water will slowly evaporate. Don't worry, that's normal."

"The undesired parts of the mushroom will also start to float up. Ignore them for now and just keep on stirring and do not forget your stirring tempo."

"Again, 30 minutes. Not a minute less."

Adam stirred for 30 more minutes.

Meanwhile, Hao Jun had been nothing but silent, closely paying attention to everything Adam said and did.

The method that he used to create a potion using Bleedwort Mushroom is embarrassingly simple compared to what Adam is currently doing. While the potion isn't done yet, Hao Jun can tell that the outcome will be vastly superior to what he made.

After 30 minutes, Adam turned the fire once again.

"Now, this is the final touch. Remove the undesired parts that floated to the top of the cauldron- use the finest sieve to get every impurities."

He used a sieve as he said this and removed the materials floating in his cauldron.

"You'll know you prepared the ingredient well if there's not a lot of impurities floating in the cauldron."

"When you made this potion and just boiled it, there were a lot of floating impurities, right? Those are what you wanted to burn off before boiling the mushroom."

"And then, once you removed the unnecessary waste, turn the fire on again and let it reach its boiling point."

"As soon as it boils, turn off the fire."

The cauldron reached its boiling point after a few minutes.

"And you're done."

Ding!

[You have created a Health Potion (Superb Quality). You have gained 5,000 Essence.]

Health Potion (Superb Quality)

Description: A mixture that restores a decent portion of one’s health. Users can drink up to 3 flasks of this potion before any side effects start to manifest.

Details: Restores 120 HP

Cooldown: 1 Hour

If Hao Jun could see his status window, he would have been impressed with the Essence that Adam gained.

But to Adam, it is near-negligible. He can get 30 thousand minimum Essence by crafting a Health Potion if he does it in huge quantity.

The method he just demonstrated is almost identical to the way he crafted his Bleedwort Mushroom-based potion before the Battle of the Chamber of Sacrifice. But what's different now is that his dexterity is higher and so he became much more precise in preparing the ingredient.

Back then, the restoration effect was only at 50 HP, but now it has more than doubled- such is the importance of proper preparation of ingredients and dexterity in crafting potions.

Dexterity helps in precision slicing and dicing- among other things when making potions. Even the way one stirs the cauldron is influenced by dexterity.

Regarding the superb grade rating, this is made possible due to Adam being an Adept Alchemist. If Adam had crafted this potion when he was in Intermediate rank, the highest he would have achieved was a notable grade.

As for Hao Jun, if he were to recreate the same process, the best he could reach at his current level is an average grade.

"And that's how you craft a health potion using Bleedwort Mushroom, Mr. Hao," said Adam. "Would you prefer to see the next recipe, or would you like to practice on this first?"

Hao Jun shook his head.

"I want to work on this one first," replied Hao Jun. "The other recipes can wait."

"Very well, Mr. Hao," said Adam, turning to leave. "Then we shall meet again, say a day from now?"

Hao Jun was surprised at Adam's response.

"Why are you leaving?" asked Hao Jun with a confused look on his face. "Weren't you going to help me craft this potion until I can do an average-grade potion by myself?"