The six hours are completed. The host needs to wake up now.
"Ahh"
Unknowingly, Ajax had slept for more than 6 hours before waking up all of a sudden by a system notification.
'What? Six hours are already over? Didn't I sleep just now?'
Before going to sleep Ajax had set an alarm for himself to wake up after six hours; however, due to him being very tired he had a nice sleep and felt that it was very short.
Nevertheless, he didn't sleep as he had more important work to do now.
"Let's start the rank 2 pills refining,"
After waking up, he opened Mason's family alchemy handbook to look for some rank 2 pill recipes.
Unlike many rank 1 pills recipes there were only 5 pills recipes and they were very common that even Ajax saw those types of pills being sold in the Zrochester province.
"I should check for the availability of the herbs now for these recipes,"
Since there were five recipes, Ajax wanted to see whether he had suitable ingredients with him to refine them.
"What? Looks like ingredients for these common pill recipes are rare to five elemental world,"
It took a while for Ajax to check the ingredients for all the pills recipes. After checking each and every ingredient, he noticed that some of the herbs were not available in the space ring in which rank 2 ingredients were stored.
"Still, it's okay. There are complete ingredients for two pills recipes,"
Even though he doesn't have all the ingredients to refine the three pills recipes, he was satisfied with the other two pill recipes which had a complete set of ingredients to refine.
"Underwater breathing pill or Poison resistant pill. Which one should I refine,"
Among the five pill recipes, these two were the only ones that have complete ingredients. So, he thought for a second and muttered, "Poison resistant pill seems more useful than Underwater breathing pill.���
Since he had to refine only one rank 2 pill recipe, there was no need for him to worry about two pill recipes and finally selected a Poison resistant pill recipe.
After selecting the pill recipe, he studied it carefully and remembered all the techniques while refining them.
Soon, Ajax stood up from his bed before keeping the handbook aside and came to one corner of the room in order to not disturb Snow and Ghost who were resting on the other bed.
"Thunder grass-root, spark seed, pearl cress and the main ingredient poisonous snake's gall,"
After sitting on the floor, Ajax repeated the names of the ingredients and took out around a dozen sets of them before placing them in an orderly manner.
In alchemy, all ingredients were not plant-based, there were many animal-based ingredients like snake's gall, various spirit beast's hair, horns, teeth etc.
Refining the rank 2 pills was almost similar to refining the rank 1 pills but there was a slight difference.
'The difference is, the rank 2 alchemy master has to refine two ingredients at a single time and separate the essence from them simultaneously,' Ajax clearly remembered the most important thing for the rank 2 alchemy master from the basic alchemy book of the alchemy king.
That means he had to separate the essence from the main ingredient and any one of the auxiliary ingredients from the pill recipe. As for the remaining ingredients, he could either refine individually or in a batch of two.
'The only complexity in refining the rank 2 pills is that I have to divide my focus to two separate things,' Ajax muttered about the problem but still, he had to do it since he was serious on becoming a high-level alchemy master.
"Before starting this second mission in the series mission, I will try to refine some rank 1 pills as a practice,"
Without wasting any time, he took out one batch of every rank 1 pill recipe he had refined earlier and started refining them.
First, Level breaking pellet refinement is successful. Refined 18 high-level pills.
Second, Blood cleansing pills refinement is successful. Refined 15 high-level pills.
Third, Bone restructuring pills refinement is successful. Refined 21 high-level pills.
Next, Beauty pills refinement is successful. Refined 15 high-level pills.
Finally, Low-level healing pills refinement is successful. Refined 18 high-level pills.
Without any surprise, he was able to refine all the rank 1 pills in a single attempt and what's more every time he refined a batch, there would be a minimum of 15 high-level pills making Ajax feel satisfied with his refining skills.
'The effect from the title- Alchemy maniac is very useful,' Even though he was satisfied, he knew the true reason why his pills refinements never failed even when he refined back to back and each time he refined a different pill.
"Phew...now it's time to refine the poison resistant pills,"
Filled with confidence from the previous successful pill refinements, Ajax looked at the dozen batches of ingredients which were placed in front of him in an orderly manner.
Slowly, he took the poisonous snake's gall and thunder grass-root in each of his hands and closed his eyes.
'Fire, come out'
After closing his eyes, he called out the fire from the basic alchemy fire refining technique.
Within seconds after he summoned the fire, a bright red flame came out from both of his hands and started refining both the ingredients in his hands at the same time and in a skilful manner.
Soon, Ajax refined half of the essence from both the ingredients which made Ajax excited as it was his first time refining two ingredients at two different temperatures and it was going great.
'It's easier than I thought. Just a little more and I can relax,' Just as Ajax thought it was going well, the thunder grass-root suddenly became black and turned into ash.
'What?'
When he saw that, Ajax's focus became unstable and the main ingredient in his other hand also turned black before becoming ash.
'Sigh...I let my emotions take control of me,'
Ajax doesn't need to ask the system to know his mistake as he already knew where he went wrong.
"I can do it. I can do it," Ajax became resolute and motivated himself before picking up the same ingredients from another batch and started refining them.
Just like last time, the separation of the essence from the ingredient went well until half.
When it reached there, Ajax fully focused on the two flames and maintained the stable heat.
This time, the refinement of the ingredients was successfully completed and in his hands, two small essence orbs were left behind after he retracted the flames back into his body.
'Fire Cauldron'
Without wasting any time, Ajax proceeded to the next step and made a cauldron from his flames which hovered in front of him.
He threw the two essences into the fire cauldron and closed the lid and started supplying heat to it.
'Phew....finally half of the refining is done,'
Heaving a sigh of relief he looked at the other two ingredients in front of him and muttered to himself.