Chapter 39

Waking up in a good mood, Kai was pleased to notice it was barely an hour after dawn. His mana was also completely full.

Yesterday had gone splendidly, but he was happy this would be the last day of his crazy marathon. He really needed a break.

Curious about his progress, Kai checked his skills list. Mana Sense, Mana Manipulation, Alchemy and Inspect all gained a level, while Herbology rose by 2, and Processing – Plants a pleasing 4 levels.

Mana Sense increase was far more valuable considering its higher grade. In two days, he made the progress of a week of hard work. It came to show how highly pushing your limits was rewarded by the Guide.

He was about to close the window when something caught his eye. Meditation had leveled too.

Why did it level? I never practiced it.

He remembered the strange feeling he had when he fell into the flow of alchemy.

Can I actually meditate while doing other things?

This discovery deserved more study, but now wasn’t the time. He could try to achieve that state again after he was finished with the order.

Walking into the kitchen, Alana greeted him with breakfast.

“Do you need anything else today?”

Kai shook his head. Her tone wasn’t cold, but it made clear she was still upset regarding the ‘trouble’ he got into.

“Don’t worry, Mum, it’s all fine. I’ll be done by tonight and make this worth it.”

“Good.”

Thinking again, there was something he needed. “Actually, could you ask Uncle Moui to come late this afternoon? I’ll need his help to move everything.”

Alana raised an eyebrow. “Uncle?”

Kai smiled mischievously. “He makes funny faces when I call him that.”

“You shouldn’t go provoking dangerous people so casually. Moui is a hunter and a very good one from what I hear. Are you sure he’ll be willing to come to help you?”

“Uncle Moui is harmless behind the menacing muzzle. I’m sure he’ll come. He was the one to lend me the money after all.”

In the time it took Alana to process his latest revelation, Kai was already halfway to his room. “I need to get to work now. Thanks for the help, Mum.”

Closing the door to his room, Kai waited, holding his breath, to see if Alana would follow him. After a minute, he let go with a sigh of relief.

He was in the clear, for now.

His Alchemy station dearly needed a good wash, together with his whole room. The herbs for the energizing potion didn’t smell as pleasant as those for the healing one, leaving a pungent smell behind.

Doing a quick check on himself, he definitely needed a shower too. The smell of sweat had been covered by the herbs, but he wasn’t sure if that was better.

It can wait another day. One last stretch and I can rest all the time I want.

Rummaging through the chaos of his workstation, he found the right piece of paper.

This recipe was a step beyond the previous two, with two main tier-one ingredients and three secondary ones. Worst of all, he wasn’t familiar with either. One was a pale mushroom with dark veins called ghostshroom, the other a night blue bellflower aptly named nightbell.

While this poison was innocuous to humans, the ingredients were not. He had to be careful how he handled them. If properly prepared, the ghostshroom and the nightbell would form a reaction that changed their poison on a fundamental level, creating something stronger that would not harm most sapient species.

Kai’s only hypothesis for such a strange effect was that it must act on the mana veins. That was the only factor he knew that sapient species had in common against beasts. He remembered reading somewhere awakened animals interacted with mana differently. Something to do with how their version of the Guide worked.

Another thing he would have to study back at the estate. Was their Guide different because awakened beasts’ bodies acted differently? Or maybe it was the Guide’s touch that changed them. A classic case of which came first: the chicken or the egg.

His mind was intrigued by the thought, but he couldn’t afford to be distracted. Putting away anything that wasn’t needed for the current project, Kai took out two sealed boxes containing the poisonous ingredients.

The ghostshroom and nightbell weren’t that dangerous in their current form unless he ingested them. If he failed to properly carry out the reaction process, their poison might grow stronger while not becoming innocuous to humans. It wasn’t the most likely outcome if he botched the process, but the recipe clearly stated it could happen.

Kai’d rather avoid that risk. He needed to be extra careful and succeed on the first try. For both his money and health.

Tier-one plants rapidly bled out their mana after you cut into them. If you handled them correctly, and avoided damaging the main mana channels, you could slow the process. Since he needed to prepare two tier-one herbs, he decided to begin with the less delicate pseudo-mana materials.

By now any plants below tier-one proved no challenge. He easily got through the three secondary ingredients.

Only the main ingredients remained. He chose the pale mushroom with dark veins first. Kai focused on his usual combo of Mana Sense and Inspect, proceeding cautiously, ready to observe any change.

As he was about to make the first incision, the ghostshroom’s spongy texture resisted his knife. Kai swore under his breath. The blade must have dulled. He had never expected it would see this much usage. He had other knives, but this was the best one. The result wouldn’t be as good with another blade.

Deactivating his skills, he rummaged through his alchemy chest with growing desperation. Thankfully Dora had more foresight than he had and packed a whetstone. He would doubly thank her when he went back. Wasting time sharpening his tools was not how he hoped to begin the day. To hone a blade was a delicate and slow process if you wanted a good result. It took a good fifteen minutes before he was satisfied with the result.

The knife’s edge easily reflected light like a mirror, perfectly sharp. He tested it on a piece of paper and the blade went through without a problem.

Turning back to the mushroom, Kai was ready to proceed, but his good mood was soon dashed. The damned thing was too stretchy and still resisted his knife. He would be able to cut into it if he applied more strength, but alchemy needed precision, he couldn’t reduce it to a pulp.

With another deep breath, he reminded himself to stay calm. There was certainly a solution, he just had to find it.

Turning the twice-damned thing over and examining his mana flow from every angle, Kai got more anxious with each passing second. He was pushing Mana Sense and Inspect to their limit. Nothing he tried worked.

Worse yet, while Reishi had been generous with the other materials, he only gave him exactly twenty ghostshrooms. If he committed to something and it ended up ruining the ingredient, he was screwed even before starting the brewing process.

Damn brain, time to pay rent. Give me something.

After racking his mind for answers, Kai’s neurons got working. When he couldn’t find a solution, it usually meant he was looking at the problem from the wrong angle. In his scramble to get things done fast, he had overlooked the obvious.

Deactivating Mana Sense, he started looking with his own two eyes. This wasn’t an issue about mana, not only at least. The problem lay in the physical structure and composition of the mushroom. Odds were the solution did too.

Observing the stalk and cap of the stubborn material, Kai focused on Inspect to find a weakness on its pale surface. Finally, he got something. He used the tip of the knife to make a small cut into a dark crease of the stem and slowly worked on widening the cut.

After piercing the outer layer, the knife was able to effortlessly slice through. In his reverie of glory, he came dangerously close to cleaving the cursed mushroom in half. His instincts kicked in in the nick of time to stop his hand.

That was close, but it seems I didn’t sever any important mana veins.

Containing his enthusiasm, he proceeded with bated breath. His deep study of the ghostshroom to cut it turned into a great boon for the next part. He might have overused Inspect, but now he knew exactly what to do.

And one is done.

Next was the nightbell, he had to be quick. The mushroom parts were already bleeding out mana.

Thank the spirits the night blue bellflower turned out to be a much more agreeable patient. The flower almost had the opposite problem. It was extremely delicate and frail. Thanks to the recent sharpening, gently moving the blade along its surface was enough to cut into it.

With the main ingredients done, he started brewing. He tossed the secondary ones in the cauldron. Mixing them properly was fundamental. They would create the base that would catalyze the reaction between the two tier-one herbs.

It had taken more than he expected to get everything ready, but the pseudo-mana plants didn’t look like they decayed too much.

Step one went without a hitch. Starting with step two he added the ghostshroom first, and the nightbell twenty seconds later.

The difficulty of the recipe became immediately apparent. Even with the help of the secondary ingredients, the energies of the two tier-one herbs clashed violently.

Kai had no time to consider if he did something wrong before things started going south. He could only use his mana to placate the situation, but there were too many clashes. He had to choose his battles going for the most serious cases.

Time lost all meaning as Kai’s senses zeroed in on the bubbling contents of his cauldron. He pushed the thought of rationing his mana to the back of his mind. He couldn’t afford to hesitate.

Despite his efforts, the reaction continued to escalate out of control. For a moment he considered cutting his losses and leaving it be. After an eternity, the reaction reached its apex and started to settle down.

Kai nerves relaxed a little. The hardest part was over. Now he had to continue stirring for three more minutes, sieve the solution while it was still hot and continue to boil the brew.

It would have been ideal to have a second cauldron to pour the solution and continue the process. He could only make do with what he had.

Sieving the concoction in a glass container he prepared, Kai was careful not to get burned or get any liquid on his body and clothes. The problem with not having a second cauldron was that the liquid would cool while he was transferring it back and forth.

It shouldn’t affect the result too much, but it wasted more time reheating the mixture. He thought about heating the glass container but only had one stove. He would need to ask someone in his family to heat it in the kitchen and he didn’t want to involve them while he worked with poisonous material.

The bait poison was basically over, he only had to wait for most of the water to evaporate till he was left with a sapphire substance. Reishi had provided small glass jars with a large opening for the poison, sparing him from having to scoop it into a vial.

I just have to stir and wait. Exactly the thing I love the most while I’m working against a deadline.

The water content wasn’t high, but with each passing second, Kai wanted to scream, glaring at the shrinking sludge.

Give it a move, I don’t have all day.

Untold time later—which was admittedly less than ten minutes—it was ready.

Instead of having the advertised sapphire color, his concoction was a murky teal sludge with a sugary aroma.

At least it isn’t purple.

That was the color he had to worry about according to the recipe. It signaled the reaction hadn’t occurred properly and it wasn’t safe for humans.

Scooping it out of the cauldron into a glass jar, it could be considered a success of the lowest quality.

A win is a win.

Kai conceded himself a small celebration for the hardest potion he ever created. Then it was time to assess his situation.

It took him about an hour to complete it and he had to make nineteen more. That wasn’t even the most worrying problem. He spent around 8-9% of his mana on this one potion. Even considering his regeneration across the day, he needed to reduce his mana usage drastically if he wanted to have any hope to reach his goal.

Just this morning, Kai had been very optimistic about his chances. Now he started to have doubts. Could he meet the deadline?

This alchemy session would not be meditative or relaxing.