D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2071 The Best Alchemist
Chapter 2071: Chapter 2071 The Best Alchemist
— Kat —
“IT’S ALL FUCKING FAKE!” screamed Appoline has she smashed the pot into the floor. They’d moved upstairs to perhaps give Appoline some access to ingredients… and that didn’t seem to be working out. She’d snatched a number of leaves off the various plants… and then snapped them in half or ripped them to pieces. Kat and Lily hadn’t really noticed in the fighting, and there was a decent amount of perfume on everything to make it harder to tell… but Appoline just needed a glance.
Appoline took in a deep breath, visibly trying to calm herself down. It wasn’t working the best, and she went over to the hose to try and get some water… but it turned out that wasn’t working either. Appoline kicked it hard enough to bend the hose pipe but not hard enough to shatter it or send it flying off. “Dammit,” hissed Appoline.
“I could make some water? Also we’re free to leave. They’re still setting up defences,” Kat said as she pointed at the walls around the greenhouse. They’d been completed but now it seemed like archers were carving little gaps for them to look through. She could also hear what might be another wall going up behind that. Cute but ultimately not that useful against someone who could fly.
Appoline shook her head. “No, no it’s fine. Or well, actually the water might be nice but I wasn’t going to drink it. Don’t really have time to see how your demonic energy influences the potion so they’re going to be unstable… but as pissed as I am at all this fake shit, I can still make a few things. Not as varied or useful as if they were real plants… but fake plants are still ingredients.”
Kat nodded, “Alright, so you want to brew something…sss?”
Appoline nodded back, “Yes, I’m just trying to work out how best to go about it. I’m sure I can make quite a few sticky bombs that will trap the defenders. Might have a few suffocate but that’s really not a concern for me. I’m mostly worried about if I can get a fire. Some of these fake plants are flammable sure but not all of them and I’m not sure there’s enough to get a proper fire going.
“I also only have the one vial… and these pots all have holes in the bottom. Not the best brewing equipment but perhaps manageable? Maybe I make a batch of sealant first and coat the pots? I can see that working…” mumbled Appoline.
“And this can all be done in a reasonable amount of time?” asked Kat, while pointing towards Appoline’s glowing neck.
Appoline however, wasn’t even looking in her direction nor was she paying any attention to the fact her throat was, arguably, still missing. “Yeah, yeah, it’ll be fine,” insisted Appoline. *Pretty sure I don’t agree with that… at all. How long do you think we should let her go crazy for? Do you think she realises that I can just fly away? Especially if you can shield us with your shadow or paper magic.*
[I… don’t know? I feel like she WANTS an excuse to attack them and doesn’t seem to consider us helping more? Or maybe she’s too prideful to believe she needs help… even when we’re literally rescuing her? For all that Appoline claims she’ll put up with Lin being smug about this I can practically see her launching an assault at Lin as soon as she’d healed. Perhaps even before.]
*Yeah we never did get a firm idea of what she’d prefer in that case either. If this takes too long and we need to get her somewhere to be healed who do we take her to?*
[Good question. I almost want to force her to answer it because if we make the decision, even if it’s the same one she’d make, we’re going to be berated for it. She’s going to be annoyed at us and I’d just rather avoid it.]
*Are you sure we even can? She doesn’t seem to be making much progress just circling the greenhouse here and occasionally picking up or putting down various bits of fake plants. Then there’s the fact we’re saving her. It’s not annoying her yet but once she’s safe? I’d be willing to bet we hear it then.*
[I’m trying not to think about that part.]
Appoline seemed to have determined which fake parts of the plants were sufficient to make fire and was now gathering them up. One of the big reasons Kat wasn’t stopping her, despite how dangerous this was making things, was that Lily would likely want to learn some alchemy eventually. Watching Appoline work would be good for her. Even in such an improvised setup, or perhaps because of it.
When Appoline noticed her audience, she gave a smug grin as if she’d just been proven right about something, and started to narrate. “Right, so not every potion needs fire either on a limited basis or a long term one. Despite that, it usually helps with the mixing and breaking down of the ingredients. Potions are usually potions and not… pastes or medical pills. They take extra steps most of the time.
“Here I’m being forced to use a pot instead of a proper cauldron, another concession. Cauldrons can be enchanted to more specifically heat different internal areas and clean themselves out. I’m going to have to account for the fact that these pots have real dirt in them, and thus it’ll be an ingredient regardless of if I like it or not. Additionally, shaped iron tends to have a hard to integrated into potions.
“It’s weird like that. Several other metals are able to incorporate much easier. Sometimes you want a gold cauldron to inject small amounts of that gold slowly as you make the potion, but we’re not trying to do anything complicated here… which of course makes it worse. The clay here will break down if I make anything too complicated or the fire is too high.
“Now, water, in this one,” Appoline pointed at one of the pots she’d cleaned out. Currently she was keeping the bottom sealed with her hand. Kat nodded and turned her hand into water and started pouring it into the pot. Appoline flicked the pot in such a way to send the water up into the air where a few drops ended up in her open mouth. She notable, didn’t touch the water with her hand to grab it out that way… but she was still using a hand to seal the bottom so perhaps she was just showing off?
“Hmm… alright good enough,” mumbled Appoline as she bit down on her finger, letting a bit of blood drop out. “Now, one of oldest ways of making alchemical solution is to combine water and the alchemist’s blood. My blood has been refined over years to be better at this, and some potions prefer different bases. Plenty of people also use monster blood but I find its better to use your own if you can deal with the pain and blood loss,”
Kat could tell Lily was super interested and decided to ask… but just to be sure Appoline wouldn’t get annoyed and stop the explanation Kat very visibly and obviously raised her hand after making sure Appoline was glancing her way. “Yes?”
“Why does using your own blood help?” asked Kat.
“Appoline glanced at the pot as she started to add a few bits of fake plants to the water. “Alright… so the simplest way to describe alchemy is that you use your mana to vibrate ingredients until they homogenise. Now it’s not really vibration and actual vibrations are used to make certain potions, so don’t get caught up in the wording. This is just the easier way to explain it.
“All potions need a base that’s usually a liquid so that it can more easily accept your mana into it. Gasses don’t allow you to easily hold ingredients and mana tends to escape from it as well. Solids on the other hand are more the realm of smithing techniques. Having your own blood in the water helps to make your mana integrate with it more easily. You can’t add too much, else it becomes part of the potion instead of the process, which involves… burning away the blood to imbue the other materials with magic.
“The difficulty in this comes with the fact that you need to apply different amounts of mana to different ingredients and vibrate or massage them with their own unique techniques… at the same time as your dealing with the other ingredients. This is why when teaching, the basic potions we make always have limited ingredients that all have similar… frequencies? You can essentially just teach them to energise the entire cauldron at once in exactly the same way. It give you an inferior potion but its easy, good for batches, and a nice way to test if the student even possesses the mana control necessary for the discipline,”
Kat raised a hand again, and when Appoline nodded, Kat asked. “Do people need different recipes because everyone’s mana is different?”
“YES!” cheered Appoline. “Most don’t pick up on that but even the most neutral of mana in your body is still contaminated by your affinities and other little things. It doesn’t matter early on but as you advance in your craft that becomes the main limiting factor. It’s why genius alchemists seem to have potions nobody else can replicate. Their mana is a crucial ingredient. It’s why I love my poisons.”
