Chapter 294 – Alchemy with Mei
Aiko was now running around with 8 tails behind her.
Everyone was speechless and questioned their sanity, but Aiko just shrugged at them.
"It's not like I'm cheating, you know?" Aiko tilted her head.
She definitely was cheating for the normal Fox, or maybe they just didn't want to admit that Aiko had it easier.
"Since you got stronger, we will now try Alchemy with the Divine Sense." Mei suddenly dragged Aiko away. She was greatly bothered by the number of tails that Aiko had.
"You will also have to activate the Heavenly Suppression Technique. Keep at most 3 Tails." Mei said. "I will try to get at least 4 Tails before we enter, but if I can't manage that, you will have to keep 3 Tails." Mei then explained. "It's to keep you safe from others. If I don't have more tails than you when I have higher fame, people might target you for believing you have more Treasures than what you are supposed to have."
"Isn't that a bit too late?" Aiko tilted her head. "I already ran around with 4 tails during business."
"But you only ran around when Muscle Peak used our service." Mei commented. "Those guys are completely harmless, so you don't have to worry about them, but you have to worry about everyone else."
"Okay." Aiko nodded gently. "So about the Divine Sense..."
"What's wrong with it this time?" Mei was slightly startled that Aiko would talk about her Divine Sense.
"For some reason, I can switch between them, but I'm not sure what effects that wolf brings..." Aiko stared at the very knowledgeable Mei.
"If it's close to what dragons have..." Mei narrowed her eyes. "It's raw firepower. You can command it to automatically defend you and attack when others get into range, but keep in mind that if you can't defend completely, your Mind and Soul will be harmed!" Mei warned Aiko.
"Got it, no defending against powerful individuals." Aiko nodded quickly.
"Good, let's sit down and go through the Divine Sense Alchemy." Mei sat down with Aiko.
"I won't make you use your Divine Sense on Herbs to cut them, since I know that is impossible for you, but you will still mix them and protect them during the refining process." Mei explained.
"Like when you shielded that turd?" Aiko questioned.
"It's not a turd, but impurities!" Mei's eyebrow twitched.
"So black turd." Aiko nodded and Mei could only sigh.
"Prepare the Herbs and I will guide you through the process." Mei massaged her temples. It seems like Aiko was in a playful mood, which will cost her a few headaches.
Aiko quickly prepared the Herbs, thanks to the [Alchemy Mastery] it was a lot quicker since she could faintly see where she should cut.
It seems like the [Alchemy Mastery] came with a guidance system, but you needed to level it up a lot for it to manifest.
That was fine for Aiko as she now had Divine Sense which should propel her [Alchemy Mastery] even further.
The Herbs were cut and sorted, the Pill Cauldron was warmed up.
"Don't check it with water. We will use your Divine Sense." Mei stopped Aiko from using the water to determine the temperature.
"..." Aiko blankly stared at Mei. "Isn't this jump in difficulty a bit too harsh?"
"You need to learn more skills to stay protected from others." Mei nudged Aiko.
"Ugh, fine." Aiko didn't like this jump in difficulty, but there was nothing that she could do about it, especially when Mei stared at her like 'that'.
"How am I supposed to get the temperature?" Aiko tilted her head. She could get shapes and colours, but she was unsure about the last ones.
"It's simple-" Mei started to explain to Aiko, but Aiko ignored it, since...
[Pill Cauldron Temperature: Too Low]
"It has this kind of thing too..." Aiko was speechless.
Mei pinched Aiko for ignoring her. "How do you intend to learn anything when you don't pay attention?!" She was a bit hurt.
"So what caused you to do that?" Mei narrowed her eyes.
"I think I found how to guess the temperature. If I can match it with the system's reading..." Aiko narrowed her eyes. "It should be possible to create a scale where we can easily estimate the temperature with accuracy!" Aiko proudly raised her fist.
Mei's face twitched, those large attractions were too distracting. "Are you sure that the system is not wrong?" Mei narrowed her eyes.
"We will see once we try to create the Pill, no?" Aiko smiled innocently.
Mei sighed. "Fine, we can test your theory, but how did you find it?"
"Well..." Aiko didn't know how to explain it properly, so she took her time trying to narrate the whole thing.
"Space distortion?" Mei pondered.
"Heat distortion." Aiko corrected Mei.
"Does it always happen when there is a high temperature?" Mei tilted her head.
"No, for some reason I could only observe it in that small desert." Aiko shook her head.
"Oh... OH!" Mei suddenly nodded like a broken doll. "I think I understand what you mean."
Mei fired up her own Cauldron and gently raised the temperature.
"Sure enough." The strange distortion happened in her Cauldron, but only when it was closed. Once you opened the lid, the distortion vanished like it was never there.
"I can definitely work with this." Mei's eyes shined, like she found a new toy.
"I told you." Aiko smiled proudly.
Mei's expression greatly softened and she gave Aiko a big smooch.
Aiko was startled and tried to understand what just happened.
"Hey! That was my first kiss!" Aiko pouted, but she was not really angry.
Mei licked her lips. "We are even in that sense."
Aiko blushed. "You fiend! I'm the one supposed to tease you!" She proclaimed righteously.
Mei laughed. "Let's use your system on this, so I can learn it." She smiled gently at Aiko.
Aiko pouted again. "Tsk. Fine, I will reluctantly help you."
...
They spent a half a year researching this in great detail since Aiko could only estimate the temperature from the system for 1st and 2nd Grade Pills, but the higher you went, the temperature varied more and more.
"I think I can use this up to Grade 3, but we need a more detailed chart for the higher Grade Pills." Mei pondered on it.
"That is fine, we can use 3rd Grade Pills for now and once I learn more, I will help you with the system." Aiko smiled.
"Okay." Mei now believed Aiko about the accuracy of the system when it came to temperature, but the most shocking thing was the results.
100 batches of 2nd Grade Pills yielded 1,100 Perfect Quality Pills!
'I think I can get them blessed if I polish the basics a bit more...' Mei narrowed her eyes, but this number was simply insane!
It was widely known that the most you could get is 10 per batch and that is if you perfected everything, but now she managed to get 11! Not to mention, all of them were Perfect Quality! She usually had only around 40% chance of success when she quickly made Pills and 90% If she really tried for the sake of Aiko, but now she had a 100% chance!!
Mei giggled to herself and Aiko felt a shiver down her spine.
Aiko hoped that this wouldn't backfire on her...