D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 2129: Chapter 2129 Advanced Alchemy Part 2

--- Kat ---

Kat wasn’t surprised that Appoline’s view of what was and wasn’t difficult with alchemy happened to be a bit skewed... but she seemed genuinely surprised about this one. Apparently she just thought that people weren’t practicing enough, which was true, but it failed to truly capture just how much practice Appoline considered reasonable. Even on the easiest potions she was constantly utilising little tricks to make things faster. Even if it was just ’the basics’ for her when she was feeling lazy it was still more skill and effort then most alchemists were capable of.

And that compounded. As she got better she just used that as an excuse to practice more, which lead her to believing it was simply a matter of practice for everyone else... and it sort of was but she had no understanding of just how far away the target was nor how many skills the average alchemist seemed to lack. Only the fact she was treating true beginners had helped hide this for so long. Because obviously if this was your first alchemy class, or if you’d only had Appoline as a teacher then there was no way to notice that anything was wrong.

Regardless, eventually Appoline did stop listing all of the various potions that ’needed’ the extra attention from her advanced methods. From the way Tweedle responded, it seemed like need was bit of a strong word, but Appoline would refine them all to a razor’s edge, making small tweaks that required more and more skill in exchange for better potions, and they were better, but the difficulty scaled far too steeply for the average alchemist.

Of course, with all that being said, as much of a nervous wreck as Tweedle was... she couldn’t truly be called an ’average’ alchemist. She was in the special alchemical investigations division of the guards. Not glamorous perhaps but she was experienced in brewing and understanding a much wider range of potions then normal so it was likely she could manage at least an understanding.

Appoline started to pull the ingredients from the box. ”Alright, whatever. We’ll see how things go and even if it seems too difficult I’ll want you to at least make an attempt Tweedle, just to see how close you are with your current level of skill. Now, this potion, despite what you might think, isn’t a purely restorative potion. Instead, it carries the essence of destruction, and regeneration, a duality. Which is stronger or are they equal?”

Lily raised a hand, an Appoline glared at Tweedle for a few seconds, making the dwarf shrink in on herself before Appoline gestured for Lily to answer. ”Destruction.”

”Why do you think that?” asked Appoline.

Lily shrugged, ”I don’t know but I feel like you wouldn’t have asked the question if it was equal or regeneration that was strong.”

Appoline frowned at the answer. ”Perhaps I’m getting predictable. Alas, you are correct even if your reasoning isn’t something I want you to continue learning. Figuring out how to predict the answers purely based on MY words will not help you learn alchemy in the future. Still, I can’t help but admit you are correct, and that I may have given it away from my phrasing... so do either of you want to take a crack at why that’s the case?”

Lily considered it for a moment... but she only had guesses, mostly due to the fact Appoline had admitted her guess destruction was stronger was correct. Tweedle however, was confident enough to raise a shaky hand that Appoline acknowledged. ”Um... is it because if the regeneration is too strong you can’t get rid of the scar tissue?”

”Exactly,” agreed Appoline. ”It’s what makes this potion a pain in the ass to make actually, and why removing scars is always a problem. You can’t simply ’heal’ them away. The body already did that. Healing will simply cause them to fade which, perhaps counter-intuitively makes them harder to fix later on. The more... dramatic the scar the easier it is to remove due to the ease with which you can make a potion to target the specifically.

”Though that’s not the only reason the potion is difficult because you need it to remove the scar without simply allowing the patient to bleed out, or perhaps in my and Furen’s case, to suffocate because the skin was removed and didn’t instantly regrow. Its possible that creating a potion to change the skin from scar tissue into healthy skin directly is possible... but if so I don’t know of it.

”What my potion does is... essentially ’eats’ under the scar tissue CAREFULLY. It helps fix the issues underneath the scar tissue and then starts to cut it away while helping to promote more skin growth in the area for a short time. You can then just peel the scar tissue off like it was normal dead skin. HOWEVER, do keep in mind that this is still a slightly destruction sided potion. I make it sound clean but the exact mechanics are anything but. Best not to think too hard about it.”

Appoline glanced around at everyone, nodding at their reactions which ranged from Tanisha’s considerable interest, to Furen’s apathy and everything in between. Appoline then moved on to start taking a few ingredients from the storage box and onto the table so that they can be more easily accessed. ”Ok, so, considering the duality of the potion you should be able to guess that you need two cores for most of the brewing process.

”One core for the regeneration component, and one core for the destruction component... but in truth what you need to do is form two small cores of regeneration and destruction and then form secondary cores around them both of the opposite idea without causing either of them to destabilise. This can be especially hard depending on the size of the cauldron and you NEED to keep them separated until the final steps where you merge them together.

”Keeping the potion ingredients spinning around each other helps with this, and helps with a few other things but I’m not entirely certain its strictly necessary. Now, we are starting first with death cap... sap? Juice? It’s a mushroom you squeeze the liquid out and nobody agrees what the liquid should be called. Its mushroom juice though, don’t be too concerned with labels.”

Appoline carefully removed the mushroom in question, a slight glow of mana around her hands keeping it from touching anything as she moved it into a press. ”Once this is squeezed for its juice CAREFULLY we can move onto the second ingredient which is the sap of a ever burning tree of at least a century in age. Arguably more potent then the mushrooms, but you don’t need a whole tree’s worth nor do you need to kill the tree. The fire aspect is also to help offset the water aspect from the mushroom.”

Appoline pulled out a jug from the crate after mulching the mushroom. The jar in question had lightly moving sap that glowed a faint red and seemed to light up a bit more now that it was being shifted around. ”Just a drop of this, and you need to add both at the same time while processing them at the same rate. You need two entirely separate cores formed in the potion at the same time. You can’t have any contamination at this point, at all,” explained Appoline.

”That’s already super hard,” Tweedle added.

”Yes, well, you can alleviate the issue with a larger cauldron I suppose,” Appoline countered.

”Do we HAVE a larger cauldron?” asked Tweedle.

”Not anymore? I should order another one at some point... but money. Anyway, once you’ve got those two in the cauldron,” Appoline added the mushroom juice by carefully lifting the juicer up and pouring it into the cauldron, careful not to touch it. The tree sap was simply poured in with a careful swing of the hand.

”Now, you want to build up an earth based layer around both, regen for the juice, and decay on the sap. In this variant we use the horn of the burrow worm for the destruction side of things, and the mud ocean lily in its entirety for the juice. The horn can be crushed but it doesn’t need to be while the Lily needs to be diced finely before dropping it inside. You then use them to form the second layer of the core that is, in some ways, the true ’core’ of each half of the recipe...”

Appoline then quickly prepped the ingredients before adding them to the cauldron. With both added the water swiftly turned brown and Appoline nodded alongside it as if this was normal. Tweedle however was looking at it like it was about to stab her. ”And how are you meant to tell which brown is which ingredient?” Tweedle asked.

”Huh? Feeling the mana of it all out obviously. Using your eyes for potion work is a surefire way to miss the little details,” explained Appoline.

Tweedle looked ready to cry. That was not the answer she wanted to hear.