Page 71

“Thank you for allowing the use of your space again, Ms Evelen.”

“It’s fine, just stick with the casual stuff.”

Syrus replied, “Fine then.”

Eva was going to work in Ash's backroom today; she wanted privacy.

“Do you need me to get anything for ya?”

Eva replied, “No thanks.”

“Fine then, will you be selling what ya making today?”

“If you want to buy them at a reasonable price.”

“Fair enough, you do you.” Ash shrugged, so far, a reasonable price actually meant reasonable. “Call if you need anything.”

“Will do.”

Eva spent a few minutes setting up the backroom with the equipment and laying out the ingredients she was going to be using. She brought her own ingredients and a couple of pieces own equipment that were better suited for the work.

[If I may ask, what are you making today, Lilly?] (Luna)

[Titain’Elo, commonly referred to as a strength increase potion, and Bristle Titch Dew, a healing potion.] (Eva)

[Fascinating names…] (Luna)

[Everything everywhere has weird names.] (Syrus)

[For the average consumer, they don’t really care about the specifics of the potion. After all, there are plenty of different ways to make a healing and strengthening potion. But each type of potion does have its own unique traits.] (Eva)

[Fair enough, I would be one of those ignorant consumers in this case.] (Syrus)

[A position not uncommon even among people who many would stereotypically think of as in the know.] (Luna)

Eva immediately started by chopping up five Amber Thorns and then smashing them in mortar. Once that was done, she set up two heating pots and placed half of the Amber Thorn paste in each. She added a pinch of salt and sugar and finally filled each with the distilled water she prepared the previous day.

Each pot had its lid closed and the boiling process started under a weak fire.

In professional use, potions of certain recipes were far more sought after. Even when buying potions for general use, having insight about potions would be a good thing, but most people simply didn’t know anything about the different brands.

Eva continued their conversation, [True, but I’m not making these potions one-to-one with the recipes I know of, but I know how and what to substitute.]

Luna asked, [Is that why you added salt to the energy potion?]

[Yes, the original ingredient for the variant I wanted to make was a Tandle Weed. A very salty plant that you usually have to drain the salt from first, but in this case I needed to add some on.] (Eva)

[Did you test this beforehand?] (Syrus)

[...Yes and no…] Eva paused. [I experimented a lot with recipes and ingredients that didn’t require mana… I wanted to at least not screw up those portions of the recipes.]

The ingredients Eva was going to use for today’s brewing session were Amber Tree Crystalized Mana Sap and Labma Beans, two items she had to buy, Able Roots, Simon Grass, and a tiny bottle of Bromk Sap.

She crushed the beans; chopped up the grass and roots mixed them together; and pressed the sap into sixteen chunks.

Once she was done with those tasks, she poured three-quarters of the first orange energy potion she made into the large bowl as the base, filling it halfway.

Syrus watched on and asked, [Okay, so I’m curious, why is Manipulation so important for potion making?]

Luna answered, wanting to let Eva continue focusing on her task. [Manipulation mostly comes from ingredients that have mana in them.]

[That but it is also a very important step when it comes to mixing ingredients for maximum efficiency.] (Eva)

Eva placed the crushed Labma Beans and the chopped-up duo into the pot and had Syrus turn the fire up to high. She was going to directly control the heat for this one. Eva placed half of the chunks of sap into the pot, and her Manipulation surrounded each.

[There is a saying that with the same amount of ingredients, an expert potion maker can make ten potions, while an ordinary one could only make five.] (Eva)

[Oh, I’ve heard of that. Just worded a little differently.] (Syrus)

[Do you know what is sometimes added to it?] (Eva)

[I’m assuming nothing glamorous.] (Syrus)

[That a piss poor, below-average potion can make fifteen.] (Eva)

[Diluting?] (Luna)

[It can be, but diluting isn’t actually looked down upon. Potions are made for a reason, and sometimes you simply don’t need a full-strength one to get the job you want completely done. It varies from potion to potion, but the maximum dilution percentage is two-thirds for a standard potion.] (Eva)

A standard potion was the standard size for potion, each being about fifty millilitres.

[Syrus, to answer your question about Manipulation.] Eva started toggling the fire. [The Crystalized Mana Sap is a very important ingredient in the recipe for Titain' Elo, but you can’t mix it with the base ingredients until they start to dissolve. When you mix in the sap, it must be at the same temperature as the mix. Otherwise, the sap will cause the liquid to rapidly harden and lose half the nutrients immediately.]

Eva poured the Bromk Sap into the mix. Quickly, the orange sap disappeared and the liquid of the pot dyed green.

[The simple solution many practice is to boil it in a separate pot, but you lose out on the effect of the saturated mana sap, greatly weakening the effect along with other issues. Ideally, the best way would be to boil the two halves together, but you can’t mix them until the Labma Beans have halfway dissolved.] (Eva)

[And that issue can be solved with Manipulation?] (Syrus)

[Yes, and it’s not the only use of it.] Eva added.

Eva’s mana had warped around each and every chunk of sap, but that wasn’t stopping heat from reaching them. But when the time was right, she popped the bubble.

She used her manipulation to mix the pot so their other hand could focus on the heat that had to be shifted. Eva also used her Manipulation to force the ingredients to evenly mix out, as there was a strong urge for them to group up and coagulate if they mixed too fast. She was also able to use Manipulation to move the liquid around to ensure everything was appropriately heated.

[Thanks for the lesson.] Syrus felt Eva’s mana move around in different directions and multitask, and that was ignoring the commands she was being given about the fire’s temperature.

[All good, I still have another potion to go.] (Eva)

[How many potions could you make with this batch?] (Luna)

[No dilutions? About sixteen, but these are far too strong; it would be hard to sell them at full strength version’s price. So, with fifty percent dilution with the energy potion, that would be thirty-two… I think I will have to make a few more batches of the energy liquid.] (Eva)

[Can you store it for later use?] Luna understood it could be sold as a potion on its own anyway, but she was unsure if it had to be fresh to be used as an ingredient.

[Yes, as long as it’s bottled, it will be fine. I’ll ask Ash if we can store them here; maybe even give her another discount in the process.] Eva smiled.

[You love giving discounts…] (Luna)

[Only when they are deserved!] Eva flushed with embarrassment. [It’s nice to sell them at an affordable price without the reason being their quality.]

Eva started the cleanup process, once she was nearly done.

Syrus asked, [On the difficulty scale, how hard were those potions?]

Eva paused and smiled, [Standard metrics… only about the medium difficulty.] Eva’s heart was jumping in her chest. [But that was my first time completing them, and it went great.]

Eva, for the longest time, didn’t even know if she enjoyed potion-making. Maybe initially she could’ve? But it was only now that she could say she enjoyed making them.

Ash heard the noise and walked into the room. “You done?”

Eva nodded. “Yes, thank you for allowing use of the space.”

“All good, as long as I get first dibs.”

“‘Course.”

Ash walked over to the table, seeing the batches of blue and red potions. “Wow, you made a lot.”

“Do you want to discuss business now?”

“Certainly.”

They spent the next twenty minutes discussing business. Eva gave a detailed written description of both types, the dilution percentage, and storage life. Ash bought three-quarters of everything and agreed to store the extra ingredients and energy potions for a further discount. She felt the discount was a bit much, but Eva insisted. They all discussed some ingredients that Ash could buy for Eva, as they were a bit hard for her to get her hands on.

Once they were walking home, Eva had an important question to ask Syrus. [Syrus, now that we have set up everything, can you spend some time training me?]

Syrus was hoping, with all the added interest in potion making, Eva would stop worrying about that, but because she hadn’t, there wasn’t much she could do.

[Sure, but let’s wait till tomorrow.] (Syrus)

[Fine by me.] (Eva)

The day ended without any more tasks to do, but now Syrus had decided what the hell she was supposed to teach tomorrow.