Alchemist In The Apocalypse: Rise Of A Legend!

Concocting Pills

[Ace POV],

Following the now-familiar pill-making steps, I gradually began my first attempt at making a basic stamina pill.

Unlike the basic mana pill, whose materials are more costly to obtain, the basic stamina pill was similar to the basic health pill in that the materials needed to make them were inexpensive and cheap.

The use of the basic stamina pill could also be considered useless, but according to the basic alchemy knowledge, there is no such thing as a useless pill.

If it is ineffective for someone, it simply means that the pill was not one that they required or could use.

According to the basic alchemy knowledge and the pill's name, the pill is used to recover energy and reduce exhaustion. I can already think of numerous applications for the basic stamina pill if used correctly.

In a fight, combined with the other pills I concoct, one could only be regarded as an undying monster. The pill can also be used to deal with stressful situations at physical labour.

I suppose blacksmiths would love this pill.

I was already in the process of forming the basic stamina pill when I had these random thoughts.

This was what would determine whether or not I was successful in concocting a pill, and it was by far the fastest of my first trials in all the pills I'd concocted to date.

I brought the knowledge about pills, and in this knowledge were recipes for basic pills ranging from rank 0 to rank 2, and aside from having a few more recipes about pills than the basic alchemy knowledge in my head, the steps taken to make these pills were also more detailed.

I was also making the pill using the pill knowledge steps rather than the generalised steps stated in the basic alchemy knowledge.

I'm guessing that, in addition to my better mana control in manipulating mana than when I first started, and my experience with making pills, the basic stamina looked surprisingly easy to make despite its steps not appearing to be any easier than concocting a basic health pill.

It should also be noted that this is my first attempt at making the pill.

I was in the final stages of creating the basic stamina pill when I had this thought.

After using the pill forming technique to create a pill from the clump of herbs in the cauldron, I used the primordial chronicle to check the information of one of the pills in the cauldron to see if I was successful.

Even before I checked the pill's information, I had a good intuition that the outcome would be positive.

...…

[Basic Stamina Pill-[40% Purity]],

Recovers 30% of stamina for unranked species.

Recovers 10% of stamina for rank 1 species.

It is ineffective for species above rank 1.

...…..

Although the purity of the pill in my hand was 40% pure, the primordial chronicle still classified it as a pill that could recover 30% of stamina because the 40% purity of the basic stamina pill only meant it was a more effective 30% purity pill to the primordial chronicle. Only when the purity of the pill reaches or exceeds 50% will the pill's evaluation improve.

However, this was not the point. The point is that, in addition to successfully creating a basic stamina pill on my first attempt, the purity of the pill was as high as 40%.

The basic health pill is the only pill I make that can compete with this.

I know I followed all of the steps outlined in the pill knowledge to the teeth, but is it because of this that the outcome is this good?

It should be a part of this, but to confirm my hypothesis, I'll need to experiment again, but this time with the pill I'm most familiar with, the basic health pill, and this time I'm going to set aside my experience making the pill and simply follow the steps in the pill knowledge and see how it goes.

The steps outlined in the pill knowledge were so detailed that even my novice self from before would have no trouble understanding them, and I wondered if I could succeed in concocting a basic health pill with a high purity level with my improved mana control.

To date, the highest purity level I've achieved with the basic health pill is 46% purity, and the basic mana pill is 38% purity.

I should have been a trainee alchemist by now if it hadn't been for the fact that my success rate when concocting the basic mana pill was still quite low.

With these thoughts racing through my mind, I cleaned the cauldron and my lab and prepared to make another pill after purchasing the materials required to make the basic health pill from the store.

Initially, I was about to go off and start creating the pill like I used to due to habit, but thankfully, I was able to stop myself before I actually started doing anything.

Concocting a pill like I used to was pointless because I wanted to follow the steps and methods stated in the pill knowledge, and because I couldn't stop when I was in the pill making process, I would have to waste time.

Thankfully, this was not the case, as I was able to begin concocting the pill using one of the methods described in the pill knowledge.

I was a little lost in the pill forming process at first because the method I was using to concoct a pill I was familiar with before was a little unfamiliar now, the start of the pill making process was strange but as time passed, I found myself getting familiar with it and soon enough, I started to notice some things.

For one, I noticed that in the basic alchemy knowledge, it is stated that at the start of the concocting process, I need to place the herbs in the cauldron as they were, but in the pill knowledge, it stated that for easier better results, I needed to first process the herbs, such as washing them even if they were clean before and cutting out the parts of the herbs that served no use, such as the roots.

Despite the fact that it was only a difference in steps that I thought were unnecessarily stressful but still did, it showed results later in the concoction process.

Aside from this, the basic alchemy knowledge states that after putting the herbs in the cauldron and waiting for them to heat up a little, the next step was to use the pill forming technique.

While these steps were the same as stated in the pill knowledge and basic health recipe, the pill knowledge was more detailed in that it stated that after putting the herbs in the cauldron and before using the pill forming technique, during the heating process of the herbs, I was not supposed to evenly heat the herbs but rather concentrate on them, such as heating some specific herbs more while heating the others averagely or less.

This was something I had noticed in the past and had adjusted slightly, but now that I knew it was a real thing, I was enlightened.

These minor changes to the steps may appear insignificant, but after completing them, I realized their significance in the subsequent process of creating the basic health pill.

It just felt like things made more sense and were easier. The steps that appeared to be confusing and unnecessary began to make sense.

As I was thinking about these things, I circulated my mana for a while in preparation for the final step, which was to form a pill from the solution in the cauldron, and as soon as I was finished, I took one of the pills in the cauldron and checked its information through the primordial chronicle.

...…..

[Basic Health Pill-[57% Purity]],

Recovers 50% of Health for unranked species.

Recovers 20% of Health for rank 1 species.

It is ineffective for species above rank 1.

...…..

Seeing the pill's information in my hand made me wonder if I was the true creator.

This was far too significant an improvement.

Although I knew I had made a successful pill the moment I saw it because there were fewer black spots on the pill surface, I never expected it to be this pure.

I expected the purity level to rise, but not by this much.

Perhaps my previous experience making the pill contributed to this, but it was mostly new knowledge that played a role.

Looking at the remaining four pills in the cauldron, I decided to try the basic mana pill, so as soon as I finished cleaning the cauldron, I began concocting the basic mana pill according to the steps outlined in the pill knowledge.

The highest purity level for basic mana pills I've made is 38%, so I wondered if it would rise by a few points this time.

Even with the extra knowledge that was supposed to make things easier, the basic mana pill concoction process was more complicated than the basic health and stamina pill, but thankfully I was still able to successfully concort the pill in the end.

After that, I used the primordial chronicle to test the purity of one of the pills in the cauldron.