Chapter 156 - Making A Potion

After coming back from the training exhausted, Rohan used a small time to take a bath. At least, the people living inside the magic tower weren't low people and the second floor had a place specifically made to clean one's body.

Testing if someone had a mana stone needed the approval of the court wizard, and it was obvious such a deed wouldn't be done for a poor commoner. It was extremely rare for someone to have one, and wasting time over thousands of commoners for no reason wasn't their goal.

Because of this, most of the wizards and apprentices were nobles or from rich families, and their daily lives were far more refined than what Rohan had first thought.

After cleaning his body, he directly changed with the dark robe that was given by Alice, and he directly went to meet with her.

She was impatiently waiting for him inside the hall of the fourth floor, and the moment he came out from the entrance, she almost pounced on him. She slightly glanced at this young man as he couldn't hide his exhaustion. It was obvious she was internally gloating, but Rohan chose to ignore it.

He nodded his head as a salutation and waited for the next operation.

"As I said yesterday, today I will show you the secrets behind the method to brew magical potions. Even an apprentice should already know about it, it is very ridiculous for you to be accepted as master's disciple." She gave him a look of haughty disdain before walking toward a desk.

A man was waiting behind the desk, with an open notebook in front of him. The moment he saw Alice followed by Rohan, he bowed his head.

"Wizard Alice, like you have asked, we have kept a free room for you to use until noon." He was himself a rank 1 Beginner Wizard, but it was tradition to specify their title when a wizard was talking to a more powerful one.

After exchanging a few words with the man, Alice then walked away and headed toward one of the many doors that were on the sides. She simply opened it and after Rohan entered after her, she closed the door.

Welcoming Rohan was the light smell of dried plants, as well as a room filled to the brink with different tools and utensils. To the right, against the wall, was a shelf with countless plants on it. The place was almost the same room of the wizard Rohan killed before.

From what he could understand, every person in the tower had access to one of those rooms for a limited time, and they must pass through the man managing this floor. The Intermediate Wizards had their compartment to make potions in their place on the ninth and tenth floors, but Alice would not bring Rohan into her own room.

Although she didn't want to do that as it was taking up her precious time, Alice still wanted to do her job perfectly. Hence, she put away her grievance and explained everything she knew to him.

"This is in this room that you will have to brew potions. Once you will be able to make some of the simpler potions, you will have a duty to give a certain amount each month. All potions you make after this limit will be yours, you can sell them or keep them for you."

This explanation was what Rohan needed. Now at least, he knew how a wizard was paid. He thought that the court wizard was maybe paid directly from the kingdom, but there was no way for all wizards and apprentices of the tower to be paid as well for nothing but as a prevention force.

After this short introduction of the future tasks Rohan would have to do, Alice reached the important part: the brewing part.

"Today, I will show you the different parts you will need to do to brew a potion. So open your eyes, it isn't every day that someone could watch me!" Rohan ignored her boasting as they came closer to the utensils.

She firstly described to him everything there was in the room as well as all their uses. It was obvious her knowledge had reached an extreme level, but the more she was losing herself in explication, the more Rohan was starting to lose himself in understanding.

Was he supposed to remember everything she had just said?

Oblivious to the unsightly expression of her student, Alice then took out the utensils as well as a few plants that were on the shelves. She would show Rohan how to brew a weak recovery potion. Those tools ranged from a simple mortar to the most complicated one which was composed of long and narrow glass tubes.

As Rohan listened and watched carefully what she was doing, he immediately understood it wouldn't be easy to make a potion. It was far from only putting the plants with some water to heat everything, and the numerous steps one needed to do were each more complex than the previous one.

Firstly, one needed to take into account the quality of the plants as it would play a large part in the brewing. Of course, if the quality wasn't high, it would be impossible to make high-grade potions, even with the best skills in the world.

After that, one should know everything about the ingredients, and how to process them. It wasn't really hard to learn how to do this for each ingredient, but it wasn't this easy. As different ingredients had various effects when combined with others, the process must also take this into account.

Since Rohan had learned by heart the botanic book during his time in the Barren Lands, he already knew the plants Alice was using. But not all ingredients were a kind of plant, as there were also other sorts such as a strange glowing power and other nonliving matter.

All the utensils which were in the room had as a sole utility to process the ingredients, to mix some of them, or to separate a small part from an all. They didn't have a direct use during the most important part.

After the ingredients were processed in the best manner, the wizard should now mix them all together to extract their essence. It wasn't for no reason that only a wizard could brew a potion, and it was mostly for this part.

Alice heated the stove with a flick of her fingers and put a cauldron on it. This move greatly alarmed Rohan as the emanation of mana was almost nonexistent.

She then put the ingredients in the right order in function of the temperature of the cauldron, as well as the composition of the ingredients, and once everything was inside the large pot, she stretched her hand above the mixture and stopped to talk.

From the start, she was giving the impression it was incredibly easy and she commented on every single one of her gestures. But now, this step necessitated her utmost concentration.

Rohan's perception was clearly above a normal rank 1 Beginner Wizard, and he easily felt the ripple of mana coming from her hand. It was the pure mana that was inside her mana stone, without being tempered with any elements.

It coiled around her fingers like several snakes dancing under her control, and delicately, Alice made her milky white mana descend toward the ingredients which were starting to liquefy.