This wizard only wishes to be a teacher

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: First Attempt, Potion?

Chapter 36 -36: First Attempt, Potion?

“Deal!” Lucien looked at Carly, pondered for a moment, then nodded earnestly.

Carly silently breathed a sigh of relief.

“That settles it, one Magic Stone a week as a base. If you work diligently and without errors, we’ll add more. This should also fully encourage your enthusiasm!” Lucien nodded, feeling Carly’s suggestion was very apt.

Carly: Σ(꒪ȏ꒪)

That… wasn’t what she meant at all…

“Alright, then let’s not waste time, and start with today’s assistant work.” Lucien patted the still somewhat dazed Carly, feeling very pleased.

After all, he had just earned 50 points of admiration, which at this stage was much more valuable to Lucien than any Magic Stone!

Then, Lucien pointed to the Wizard Robe, “This counts as 80 Magic Stones, so I won’t be giving you any wages… uh, compensation, until we square this off.”

After standing in place for a moment, Carly slowly bowed her head, hesitated, then silently took out her notebook and flipped to the last page to start recording on a special “ledger”.

“Owe mentor Lucien one Magic Stone…” Carly quickly jotted down, and as she looked at the many unredeemed IOUs in her notebook, she felt a weight in her heart.

Previously, Carly had maintained an attitude of “hop on the train first, ticket later,” but now she began to doubt whether she had the ability to pay it back.

“Don’t just stand there foolishly; same rules as before. If you slack off in the three-hour window, I will extend the time needed, you know,” Lucien said, smiling as he looked at Carly still standing dumbly by the door.

Only then did Carly snap back to reality and hurriedly ran inside.

“First, I’ll teach you some of the most basic operations in Pharmacy, and later when I’m concocting Magic Potions, you’ll need to assist me with these mechanical tasks,” Lucien said to Carly, pausing before he continued.

“Once you’re familiar with these tasks, and when your spiritual power reaches the standard, I’ll teach you step by step the Pharmacy procedures that require spiritual power. But by then, some of the material-handling work will also be passed on to you.”

Carly nodded softly. After her recent inner struggle, she had now clarified her goals.

If possible, she must become an outstanding Pharmacist and make the greatest effort to truly assist Mentor Lucien, rather than always hiding behind him.

Reflecting on this, a flame called determination began to blaze in Carly’s eyes.

“This feeling of not having to do everything myself seems quite nice,” Lucien mused as he sat in his chair, watching Carly carefully clean the set of equipment needed for potion-making, while planning his Pharmacy-related schedule in his mind.

“At this stage, the most suitable Magic Potions to enhance my spiritual power are Soothing Elixir and Praise of the Moon,” Lucien tapped his fingers lightly on the table, “but concocting both of these is quite difficult and the raw materials are costly. If I fail several times in a row, I’ll run out of Magic Stones and will need to sell some materials to continue trying.”

“So it’s best to start with a relatively easy Magic Potion as practice, gain some experience, and earn some Magic Stones through potion-making…” Lucien pondered while also sorting through the materials at hand.

“I’ll make the Recovery Potion then. The original owner had some practice with this potion, providing some reference, and fortunately, among my current materials, I can scrape together a few batches, so no need to go to the market.”

Soon, Lucien made up his mind. With a wave of his hand, the three materials needed for the Recovery Potion were taken out of the Space Ring.

Blue Ring Mushroom, Healgrass, and Coldwater Herb.

“Who would have thought that the highly toxic blue-ring mushroom is actually the core ingredient of the Recovery Potion if it wasn’t clearly recorded in the recipe?” Lucien said after putting on his gloves, picking up a blue-ring mushroom about the size of an adult’s thumb.

The surface of this mushroom had beautiful blue ring patterns; gently pinching its stem, you could even squeeze out a semi-transparent mucus.

Lucien took out a blunt scraping knife and carefully scraped the semi-transparent mucus from the blue-ring mushroom, being particularly careful not to cut through the mushroom’s surface.

This mucus was highly poisonous, and if it contaminated the effective parts inside the blue-ring mushroom, the mushroom would become completely useless!

Moreover, since this natural toxin targeted nerve tissues, it could even contaminate a wizard’s spiritual power. Hence, spiritual power couldn’t be used to assist in the detoxification step; one had to be highly focused to ensure no mistakes were made!

After carefully removing the toxic mucus secreted by the blue mushroom’s surface, Lucien swung a silver dagger with speed, rapidly chopping the blue mushroom into fine pieces.

The cross-section of the blue mushroom was initially pure white, but as it was exposed to the air, its components quickly oxidized, turning the cross-section to a light blue color. Over time, the color deepened.

Without hesitation, Lucien quickly poured the preliminarily processed blue mushrooms into the crucible, and then he swiftly grabbed the nearby coldwater grass, squeezing out its light blue juice and pouring it into the crucible.

Gurgle, gurgle… As the juice of the coldwater grass was poured in, a large number of bubbles emerged in the crucible, and the two different substances began to react violently.

Lucien picked up a glass rod and began to stir, while his spiritual power reached into the “boiling” potion through the rod, acting as a buffer for the two active ingredients, allowing the reaction between the blue mushroom and coldwater grass juice to shift from their original mutual consumption to a slow and continuous fusion.

This process might have seemed simple, but it was, in fact, immensely taxing on spiritual power. Not only did it demand the pharmacist to maintain precise and delicate control over a long period, but it also had an extremely low margin for error. A minor misstep might lead to ultimate failure.

The fusion was still progressing slowly and steadily, and bubbles formed gently in the semi-finished potion in the crucible. The color of the potion was also gradually changing.

As time passed, Lucien’s forehead began to show fine beads of sweat.

Suddenly, Lucien’s temple twitched slightly.

Hisss—

With a slight loss of control over his spiritual power, the entire potion suddenly boiled over. The color of the potion turned blue rapidly, and a puff of black smoke emerged. Accompanying that was an odor resembling the smell of rotting matter.

“It’s a failure,” Lucien said with a touch of helplessness as he put down the glass rod. Instead of immediately clearing the failed product, he spent 1 point of Respect to appraise it.

[Item]: Unnamed poison

[Classification]: Potion · Poison

[Ingredients]: Coldwater grass, blue mushroom

[Description]: The failed product of a pharmacy apprentice’s attempt at crafting a Recovery Potion has a rotten stench. However, due to the reckless operation of that apprentice pharmacist, it greatly enhanced the poisonous effect inherent in the blue-ring mushroom, creating a minor toxin capable of causing mild diarrhea.

[Details]: …

Looking at the insultingly detailed appraisal report, Lucien’s mouth twitched involuntarily. He felt that the appraisal report was a bit too insulting.