I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash - Chapter 23
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- I'm an alchemist. I've dumped self-restraint into the trash
- Chapter 23 - Application of Characteristics
“Laffy, you really are ridiculously strong…”
“Well, I do happen to be an S-rank adventurer,” Laffy said, slightly embarrassed, as she took her sword out from the Skeleton’s skull. By appearances alone, it wouldn’t feel out of place as a horror scene.
If some extra blood was added to it, it would surely be enough to traumatize whoever witnessed it.
However, it didn’t stay in that state for long. The body of the Skeleton, lying face down at Laffy’s feet, crumbled and turned to ash.
The ash blew away and scattered in the wind, and by the end of it, all that was left was a fist-sized crystal that glowed purple.
“Hm, a magic crystal? That’s rare,” Laffy said, picking up the crystal and looking closely at it.
Magic crystals were made up of crystallized magical energy, and they could be used as materials for making magic items like the ring Raith had made.
Strong monsters tended to have magic crystals within their bodies, where it would serve as their power source and create magical energy.
Laffy often saw magic crystals due to her job of hunting monsters as an adventurer. However, she had only laid eyes on a crystal the size of a fist about a few times.
“Huh, so this is what a magic crystal looks like? I’ve never seen one before.”
“Well, it’s rare for them to be this big.”
“Seems like it.”
Raith had also learned about magic crystals. He’d been considering using them for alchemy, but unfortunately, he wasn’t lucky enough to get the chance to do so.
In any case, they had successfully accomplished their goal of retrieving the ingredients. It was unfortunate that the rest of them had gotten buried in the wreckage of the house, but there was nothing they could do about it. Lamenting this, Raith mentally said his goodbyes.
“Alright. We sort of wasted some time, so let’s hurry back.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
The sun was already starting to set, and the forest would soon be shrouded in darkness. Considering the amount of time it would take to make the potion after they got back, it would be best to return quickly.
They were exhausted, of course, but neither Raith nor Laffy uttered a word of complaint.
***
By the time Raith and Laffy made it back to the capital, the sky had turned pitch black. It had been about two days since they had left.
Sylvia currently had about five days left. Although, this was only Raith’s estimate, and he couldn’t declare it to be a flawless one, so they couldn’t let their guards down.
The two hurried back to the house, and Sylvia was sleeping in her bed, the same as before. She would sometimes groan as if in pain, and the sight of it made their hearts ache.
At the side of the bed, Amelia had fallen asleep while sitting, perhaps due to exhaustion from taking care of her. While Raith and Laffy had been gone, she had stayed with Sylvia that whole time.
Since Sylvia couldn’t move, Amelia had made food for her and kept her body clean. While taking care of Sylvia, Amelia had been single-mindedly praying for her recovery.
“Thank you so much,” Laffy whispered, expressing her appreciation to Amelia, and put a blanket on her gently so that she wouldn’t get woken up.
“I’ll go make the potion, then. I still can’t tell how long it’ll take, but I’ll try to do it as fast as I can,” Raith said.
“Alright, I’ll leave it to you.”
Raith entered the work room he was borrowing from Laffy. From here on, it was all up to the alchemist, Raith.
Now, Raith would have to work at least as hard as Laffy had in the forest. He was getting the minimum amount of sleep, so he had no intention to rest.
“Alright, let’s begin,” he muttered as he opened his bag, overflowing with motivation. The recipe wasn’t a problem, since they were all there in his mind.
“I want a workshop…”
Not having a workshop wasn’t a huge problem, but it would certainly be more convenient to have one. Maybe Raith had just gotten used to the environment prepared for him by his teacher, but this felt much too inconvenient, especially with how unique the ingredients were this time.
“A monster, huh.”
The ingredient was a monster. It was called a Vett. It was an SS-rank monster that lived in the north and preferred cold environments. It was a sentient plant, and it was well known for using powerful magic.
Of course, Raith hadn’t been the one that defeated such a terrifyingly strong monster. His teacher had defeated it to use it for experiments.
Raith had ended up being given the ones that were left over from that.
This monster’s most notable trait was that it ate magical energy. It absorbed magical energy from whatever it touched, although it was a very small amount.
While the Vett was alive, that property was extremely dangerous, but after it was hunted, it was mainly noted for its use in medical treatment.
Magic Crystallization Syndrome was an illness that caused magical energy to crystallize. It was difficult to treat through ordinary methods.
Therefore, he’d have the Vett absorb the magical energy directly.
However, if he made her ingest it in plant form, there was a risk that she would die by having all her magical energy sucked out of her. For that reason, Vett was an infamously difficult ingredient to work with.
In the past, there had been cases where patients had ingested incorrectly processed Vett and died. There was absolutely no room for mistakes.
“Massage the dried Vett, soak it in water with moderate heat. Then, alchemically process it,” Raith said as he contemplated and reviewed the processing method.
The Vett had been dried for storage, so now he just had to follow the procedure and there’d be no problems.
“Alright.”
He put on a pair of magic-shielding gloves and picked up the Vett. The gloves were so that Raith, who was not a mage, could remain conscious while touching it with his hands.
For some reason, he felt stiffness as he continued massaging the Vett, which glowed jade green. After about five minutes of this, the stiffness gradually disappeared.
“Seems about right.”
Raith stopped massaging, filled an ordinary pot with water, and placed the Vett inside it.
Since the Vett could absorb magic, it was not compatible with magic items, which possessed magical effects. Therefore, his favorite tools were put in storage this time.
“This takes me back…”
Back when he had started doing alchemy, he hadn’t collected all the tools since he still hadn’t had the skills for them. Filled with nostalgia, he began heating it.
The goal of this was to kill most of the bacteria before using Purify, so the heat was kept to a level that wouldn’t change its form.
After waiting several minutes, Raith took the Vett out of the pot and drained the water into a potion bottle.
“Extract. Purify. Refine.”
If he was creating one of the usual potions, he would use Retain Composition, but this time, the potion did not utilize medicinal effects, so it wasn’t necessary.
Refine was more important.
Ordinarily, it was an alchemical spell to improve medicinal effects, but this time, it played a different role. It wasn’t to improve the effects, but to decrease them.
In short, it was used to suppress the magic absorption property of the Vett.
This was the hardest part of processing Vett, so most cases of failures were from not being able to use Refine well.
However, although there were many alchemists that could use Refine to improve effects, there were few who could do the opposite.
Unless they were proficient enough to intentionally control alchemical spells, it was an impossible feat.
“Phew…”
In front of Raith lay the completed liquid, which faintly shined jade green. It would feel perfectly natural to refer to it as a work of art without a bit of hesitation.
“All I have to do now is have Sylvia drink this…” Raith said, with audible exhaustion at the end of it, and sat down in the chair. As expected, the exhaustion in his body was nothing to sneeze at.
Raith closed his eyes, falling asleep within a few minutes.