Isekaied Into An Eroge, Time To Have Fun!-Chapter 100: Alchemy (5)

I wasn’t able to ogle her for too long though since she turned back around with the many ingredients in her arms, so I looked back over at Sera and gave her another apologetic smile when I noticed her still glaring at me.

Eventually she just waved me off and shook her head in mild disappointment, though when we received our ingredients she did go over the recipe for the third time now with me, speaking quietly and getting her station set up the right way.

Doing the same helped me understand the steps a little more intimately before I actually had to do them, and that alone was a big help; mentally reviewing for a fourth time, I planned out each step and how it would take me only like... seven or eight minutes total to get this done.

Two of those minutes were just for waiting for the things to get done, so it was even easier than that... but I needed to actually do it, which was where the challenge was. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The recipe was simple, practically to the point that I think even a child could make Healing Salve without any issue whatsoever, but it was because of that simplicity that I found myself thinking it over in many different ways.

Were there different benefits to altering how it was done, how much of a benefit did perfectly prepared ingredients - or just higher quality ingredients in general - make to the potency of the Healing Salve itself?

How drastic was the compounding benefits of higher quality ingredients when we started making the more advanced potions?

Would high grade Healing Salve guaranteed mid grade potions at a minimum going forwards, or were there fewer interactions between them than I was thinking there would be?

I didn’t have a lot of time to think though since everyone else was getting started, so I laid out my Heartroot on the cutting board and took the knife I was provided, angled my left hand in a way that would keep the Heartroot steady, provide a place to ’rest’ the knife and allow me to make precise cuts without hurting myself, and then... got to cutting.

The Heartroot was maybe four or five inches long and about an inch thick, with a coarse outside and a squishy inside that ’bled’ constantly whenever you revealed it; going for thin medallions, I made quick work of the Heartroot and noticed immediately that it had an interestingly sweet scent.

Somewhat cloying too, but I wasn’t here for the smell nor did I really care if it smelt, felt or tasted bad since I wasn’t ingesting it; with it now in a bunch of medallions I scraped it into the mortar and grabbed my pestle, starting the process of mashing it down into that paste.

I was somewhat surprised when I realized just how much pressure I was going to need to mash it all down into a paste, the medallions providing a fair amount of resistance while also exuding most of their juices.

That meant I could push down too hard in fear of losing that juice, but I couldn’t just gently use the pestle either because then this would take forever, and as our Professor said any ingredient being just left around decreased its efficacy slowly but surely.

Finding that sweet spot took a few tries but I eventually got it, and after I found it it only took me another few seconds to get the paste I needed, which was scraped into the beaker in preparation for the mixing with the Bloodthistle Sap.

Measuring it out was a bit irritating but it happened, and after taking a long, painstaking look at the measurements I was quite happy with what I had done, so I moved on towards the next part of the recipe.

The red liquid was rather syrupy, so I needed to use the stirring rod to scrape it on out and ensure I got pretty much all of it out; I didn’t have time to worry about getting legitimately all of it out, and I had no idea how to do that without wasting time, so I just... settled for pretty much all of it.

Then I went ahead and stirred it the ten times that she told us to do, before I reached for the water and belatedly realized that it was just normal water... which meant I had to make my own Mana Water.

Imbuing water with mana shouldn’t be that hard, right..?

I had no choice but to find out, so I put my hands on either side of the beaker, closed my eyes and slowly, carefully pushed my mana into the Hubs on my hands, gathering it there and taking deep breaths as I regulated everything as best I could.

Pushing it out slowly and putting it into the water, I used the memory of what Professor Jezebyra had done to help myself understand what I was doing - visually anyways - and hoped that it was working.

After a few moments of that I opened my eyes and breathed out a long sigh of relief when I saw that the water was no longer crystal clear but instead tinged blue, though the shimmering was nowhere near as pronounced as it had been for our Professor.

It was Mana Water though, so I could move onto the next step, which was to take a half cup of this and pour it into my partially mixed concoction, where I then began to stir it twenty five times to get it blended up into that thick, shiny red paste.

Flicking on the miniature stovetop that was used for Alchemy, I got the flame to what it had looked like for our Professor before placing my beaker over it, allowing it to begin heating up for thirty seconds.

Counting it out slowly in my head, I was almost there when it started to bubble, so I took the stirring rod and hoped that it was now at thirty seconds, meaning I could stir it another ten times before it was left on for yet another thirty seconds.

When that was over I pulled it out and laid it on the table carefully, beginning to count down the minute and watching in interest as the paste went from crimson to ruby, looking far more fascinating and definitely magical in nature.

This was my first thing I ever made in Alchemy, and it was something that I could hopefully make many more times in the future and sell it off for the few Diadems it would be worth, which would slowly earn me enough to buy better ingredients to make more expensive potions.

The moment I finished was the moment that Professor Jezebyra came around to inspect me for the first time, and she peered over my shoulder, nodded once and murmured "Not horrible. Definitely one of the weaker batches, but a good first attempt nonetheless. That Mana Water is..."

I flushed with a bit of shame at that, which was noticed by the Eclipse Elf immediately as she blinked a few times before saying "It’s not that bad though! Still good! Good job! You just... have some more things to work on is all..?", which made me chuckle even as I just looked at my Healing Salve with a lot less enthusiasm than I had before.