Ethan pushed open the door to the empty room on the second floor.
He opened the two large crates and began moving the items out one by one.
The heating plate was palm-sized, with a black metal surface and several rings of runic patterns engraved around the edges.
Ethan placed it near the window, then took a magic stone from his ring and slotted it into the groove on the side of the device.
The moment the magic stone clicked into place, the runes around the edge of the plate glowed with a faint red light, and a wave of warmth rose from the metal surface.
The mortar and pestle set was made of copper. The bowl was as wide as a large mug, and the pestle was a solid hunk of iron that felt like it weighed at least three pounds when he hefted it.
A distiller, a filter funnel, measuring cups, stirring rods... a whole assortment of jars and bottles was pulled from the crates and lined up on the table.
After setting the final piece of equipment in place, Ethan took two steps back and surveyed his work with hands on his hips.
The heating plate was by the window, flanked by the mortar on the left and the distiller on the right. Flasks, measuring cups, funnels, and stirring rods were neatly arranged on the racks by size. Two rows of empty reagent bottles stood against the wall, shimmering slightly under the light.
"It actually looks like the real deal."
Rubbing his hands together, he took the materials for the Spirit-Focusing Potion from his storage ring.
Three grams of Clear-Mind Grass. He weighed it carefully on the balance scale and placed it on a dish. The leaves were dry and dark in color, giving off a bitter, clean scent when he leaned in—reminiscent of a forest after a rainfall.
The Spirit-Focusing Flower juice was contained in a crystal vial the size of a thumb. The liquid was a pale blue, and a quick shake revealed extremely fine silver flakes floating within. Ethan unscrewed the cap and took a sniff; a sharp chill surged up his nostrils, instantly clearing his head.
"Good stuff," he muttered, setting the vial aside.
Fifty milliliters of pure water—that was the easy part, easily measured with a pipette.
Zero point five grams of low-purity magic stone powder. Ethan pulled a fragment of magic stone about the size of a fingernail from his ring, placed it in the mortar, and began grinding it with the pestle.
When it came time to process the Clear-Mind Grass, the moment he took the leaves in his hand, a faint sensation traveled through his fingertips.
It was an indescribable feeling, as if the grass was "telling" him something.
The leaves should be cut like this, not like that; the juice in the stems should be squeezed from this direction, or it would be wasted.
Ethan paused, then decided to follow the sensation.
His blade sliced through the Clear-Mind Grass at an angle, dividing the leaves into perfectly even shreds on the cutting board. A tiny amount of transparent juice seeped from the cuts, glowing with a faint green light under the lamp.
"Heh." He raised an eyebrow and pushed the shredded grass to the side. "Plant Affinity can be used like this? That certainly makes things easier."
After processing the Clear-Mind Grass, he picked up the vial of Spirit-Focusing Flower juice.
With the preparations complete, he stood before the heating plate and inserted the magic stone into the side groove.
The runes around the edge lit up with a pale red glow, and heat rose from the metal plate.
Ethan placed the beaker on top and poured in fifty milliliters of pure water. Once small bubbles began to form, he added the shredded Clear-Mind Grass.
The moment the grass hit the water, a bitter aroma filled the air, and the surface turned a pale green. Ethan held the stirring rod and began to stir slowly in a clockwise direction, following the instructions on the recipe.
The first attempt.
He completed three rotations and poured in the Spirit-Focusing Flower juice.
The liquid in the beaker surged violently, its color shifting from pale green to a murky yellowish-green. A few large bubbles rose to the surface, and then—
"Poof."
A plume of black smoke erupted from the beaker. Ethan recoiled two steps, covering his nose and coughing.
The liquid had solidified into a dark, gooey mess at the bottom of the beaker, emitting a smell like burnt rubber.
"..." Ethan stared at the mess for a few seconds before reaching out to remove the beaker from the heating plate and tossing it into the trash.
First attempt: failure.
"The temperature was too high," he thought, frowning as he recalled the process. "Spirit-Focusing Flower juice is heat-sensitive; it should be added after the temperature drops."
He grabbed a fresh beaker from the rack and started over.
...
Thirty sets of materials for the Spirit-Focusing Potion—all failed.
Ethan stood before the workbench, staring at the row of beakers containing various forms of failure. Some had solidified into charcoal, some were as thin as water, some gave off a pungent odor, and one had even caused a crack to explode across the bottom of the beaker.
He picked up the final beaker. The semi-solid liquid inside was a bizarre dark green, with an oily sheen floating on the surface.
"What's going on?"
Ethan frowned and threw the beaker into the trash. He had been mentally prepared for the high failure rate of alchemy, but having all thirty sets of materials go to waste was still a bit staggering.
"It can't be that I have no talent for this, can it? That doesn't seem right."
He leaned against the workbench with his arms crossed, replaying the entire refining process in his head from start to finish.
The material ratios were correct, the operational steps were fine, and the temperature control had strictly followed the recipe's requirements.
So where was the problem?
Ethan closed his eyes, and the states of each failed product surfaced in his mind.
Some solidified too quickly, some didn't solidify at all, some had the wrong color, and some had abnormal smells.
The issue with each failure was different.
This indicated that he had blind spots in his understanding of certain key stages.
"Wait, could it be..."
Ethan suddenly remembered a phrase.
Knowledge is power.
That cliché slogan from his previous world held a completely different meaning here.
"Is it because my knowledge reserve is insufficient?"
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
The recipe for the Spirit-Focusing Potion only told him "how" to do it, but not "why." Why did the Clear-Mind Grass need to be shredded instead of ground? Why did the Spirit-Focusing Flower juice need to be added at this specific temperature instead of higher or lower? What was the mechanism behind the magic stone powder?
The recipe didn't mention a single word about these underlying principles.
And his current knowledge was limited to the academy's basic courses. What those courses could teach was finite, and the principles they could explain were even more so.
"Right. Even though I've finished all the basic knowledge at the academy, I'm still completely ignorant of Intermediate and Advanced knowledge. It looks like I'll need to invest a lot of time into further study."
Ethan straightened up and cleaned the equipment on the workbench.
In the Teaching Area, inside the library.
Ethan's gaze swept across the category signs one by one.
"Advanced Runes," "Advanced Energy Particle Theory," "Deep Analysis of Wizardry Models"...
He randomly pulled a book titled 《Intermediate Runic Structure》 and flipped to the table of contents.
After scanning two pages, his brow furrowed.
The material in this book was too shallow.
It claimed to be Intermediate-level, but in reality, it was just a slight extension of the basic course material. It was the same old concepts rehashed in different words.
Ethan put the book back and pulled out several others.
《Advanced Application of Energy Particles》—the first three chapters were material he had already learned in the basics. The later chapters were slightly deeper but didn't stray far from the scope of the basic curriculum.
《Rare Supernatural Material Illustrated Handbook》—this one actually had quite a bit of new information, but it was purely descriptive. It detailed what materials looked like, where they came from, and their basic characteristics, but didn't mention a word about how to use them in alchemy or why they were used that way.
Ethan stood before the shelves, flipping through several more books before reaching a conclusion.
There was no knowledge above the basic level in this library at all.
At least, not in the sections open to ordinary students.
He turned and went downstairs, walking up to the counter.
The white-haired old man was still sitting there, dozing off over a thick ledger.
Hearing footsteps, he didn't even open his eyes, merely mumbling, "What are you looking for?"
"Where is the Intermediate and Advanced knowledge in the library?"
The old man finally lifted his eyelids. "There isn't any."
"There isn't?" Ethan raised an eyebrow.
"None. The library only holds basic knowledge and some miscellaneous notes and manuscripts. Knowledge at the Intermediate-level and above is all held by the Official Wizards. Want to learn? Go find them."
Ethan nodded, turned, and walked out of the library.
Rate on N.U.
