After a week, Alex then prepared the ingredients used in Quenching Fire Pill. Of course, he asked his teacher since the one who gathered them all was the teacher. He only had the last ingredient needed for the pill.
"Teacher," he went to the dean's office to ask for the ingredients.
"What is it? Do you want to make the pill now?" The dean asked.
Alex nodded, then the dean pointed his finger to a box, "The ingredients are inside that box."
Alex's eyes widened since his teacher seemed like he had expected him to come and ask for ingredients. "Thank you, Teacher."
As he said that, he grabbed the ingredients and went to the courtyard. The dean was confused by his action. After all, Alex usually used his workshop to make pills. But this time, Alex went to his courtyard instead.
"This cauldron..." The dean was astonished after noticing Alex's new cauldron. The cauldron was red with a blazing aura around it and there was a dragon pattern on its body.
"Teacher... this cauldron is..." Alex forgot to tell his teacher about his new cauldron. Would the teacher suspect this new cauldron of his? After all, usually, the teacher was the one who made the cauldron for Alex and him to use.
"This cauldron is very good!" The dean finished his words and nodded.
Alex felt awkward, as he prepared himself to tell the dean, he was stopped. "Teacher, this cauldron..."
The dean cut him, "It's alright, you don't need to explain. I only need to know that this cauldron belongs to you, MY STUDENT. That's all."
"Teacher..." Alex was moved. Apparently, the dean had complete trust in Alex.
"Let's continue," the dean said.
Alex nodded, he brought all the ingredients with him. There were a total of 8 ingredients including his Fire Miletonia Herb. Alex closed his eyes and focused his mind on this moment.
A pure red-colored flame appeared surrounding his body. The flame gushed out from his body continuously and brightened up the courtyard. This was a new technique that he learned from the Intermediate Alchemy Technique.
Alex slowly opened his eyes. His expression was serious as he eyed the rising red flame. Due to the quality of his new cauldron, the Flaming Dragon Cauldron, it seemed that his flame was enchanted by the cauldron and started rising. Although Alex was surprised by this, he couldn't be bothered by this at the moment. This was the power of the Super Rank item from the system. He started warming up the cauldron. This initial step only required a few seconds thanks to the power of the Flaming Dragon Cauldron. As soon as Alex's flame made contact with it, the cauldron enhanced Alex's flame.
Seeing the cauldron warmed enough, Alex waved his hand at the few medicinal ingredients on the ground in front of him. Alex used his Mana to grab the ingredients. Immediately, the red-colored 'Fire Miletonia Herb' slowly flew up and was thrown into the medicinal cauldron. The moment the 'Fire Miletonia Herb' entered the medicinal cauldron, the dense red-colored flame, and the medicinal cauldron swallowed it like a hungry wolf... no, more like a hungry dragon. After all, the name of the medicinal cauldron was the Flaming Dragon Cauldron.
Then, he saw the dragon pattern facing the top of the cauldron. It was like a dragon swallowing the medicinal cauldron, and coupled with the fire enhancement effects it gave, it created a stunning view. Maybe that was why this medicinal cauldron is called Flaming Dragon Cauldron. After the 'Fire Miletonia Herb' got inside of the cauldron, in an instant, the herb began to swiftly wither.
The dean's eyes stared intently at the process. This was a new process for him. Not to mention, he never saw Alex did this before. It was exactly as he had suspected after all that these techniques that Alex used were from the Intermediate Alchemy Technique. He stared intently at the interior of the medicinal cauldron. Although the flame within the cauldron was blazing, with his power he was able to sense that the temperature of the flame had been controlled fully by Alex.
Therefore, this tyrannical flame may have appeared like a blazing dragon that engulfed everything with its blazing flame, but it didn't incinerate the 'Fire Miletonia Herb' until it turned into ashes. Instead, the Fire Miletonia Herb slowly turned into red-colored liquid droplets.
"This..." The dean was very astonished that he couldn't even mutter a word. He continued to quietly watch Alex. He usually completely burned the medicinal ingredients when he was refining medicinal ingredients.
This could not be attributed to the ferocity of the flame. It could only be said that his degree of flame control had yet to truly reach the pinnacle. But he was confused, he practiced his control of flame for a few decades.
So, how could Alex surpass him with only a year of training? Was this not contributed to the ferocity of the flame but its control? What he didn't know was Alex completely trained differently. The Alchemy guide about flame control was a totally different way than what he usually did.
The alchemy guide from the system was very easy to learn. The alchemy guide could be described as a teacher that taught in an easy-to-understand way. Meanwhile, the method that the dean used was '1+1=3'. It was not even correct. Therefore, it was understandable why the progress he had was average and Alex could beat him within a year of practice. Although the flame was certainly also a factor, the most important factor was flame control. Alex's way was a straight line and the dean's way was straight, curve, turn, slope, etc., but it was definitely not leading you to the finish fast enough.
A red-colored liquid droplet was stored inside of the blazing medicinal cauldron. The energy contained within the liquid was so large that it made the dean speechless. This was the true medicinal refining. There was no energy loss when refining. If Alex used his previous flame control, this rank 5 herb energy might only retain half of its previous energy.
After refining the Fire Miletonia Herb into liquid, Alex started to add a bit of Mana. As soon as he added the Mana, there was a light gray vapor that started to leave the liquid. This light gray vapor was the impurities. Alex used to expel the impurities, but certainly not this way.
Usually, he expelled them using his element, but this time, he expelled the impurities using his flame control. After merging with his element, the process went very smoothly. The light gray vapor gradually left the liquid. Soon enough, the vapor was nowhere to be seen and the expelling impurities process had ended. This process took a few minutes. After seeing the complete liquid, Alex covered the liquid droplet with his fire and let it float nearby as he prepared to refine the second ingredients.
After Alex saw the complete liquid of Fire Miletonia Herb, he secretly felt relaxed. That meant his new technique was a success. He then refined the second medicinal ingredient. He tossed the 'Celestial Wood' to the cauldron. The refinement of the Celestial Wood was not any easier than that of the Fire Miletonia Herb or even higher. Due to the previous refinement, the time needed to refine this Celestial Wood was longer.
As soon as the refinement of Celestial Wood finished, he immediately tossed the third ingredient, the Star Root. The process took almost the same time as the Celestial Wood. Without stopping, Alex continued the refinement of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh ingredients. The process took more than an hour. Next was the last ingredient, the Rank 6 Monster Core. Alex tossed the rank 6 Monster Core. The energy from the Monster was the highest from the rest of the medicinal ingredients. Unlike the other medicinal ingredients, Alex didn't need to expel the impurities in this core.
This refinement took the longest time, even though Alex didn't need to expel the impurities. For this refinement, he needed to assimilate the energy within the core to the rest of the ingredients.
He tossed all of the ingredients into the cauldron. The energy within the core gradually assimilated with the rest of the ingredients. After about half an hour, all of the ingredients started to merge.
The merging process was different from the usual. This time, the merging process was very slow. The ingredients slowly fused to each other and the pill started to form. When the pill started to form, the pill size was around a tennis ball, Alex then divided them into two. But he felt that the size was still too big. He then cut them again into two. Then, four pills started to form. Soon the energy started to fluctuate, the pill almost finished. A bright glow was emitted from within it as the light gradually dimmed down and disappeared.
Succeeded!
Alex sighed in relief. This was a new experience for him. Although the process took longer than his usual way, this technique increased the success rate, so it wasn't bad at all. After all, this was the most important thing. Fast refining? Peak Grade? Those things had no use at all if he didn't even succeed in making the pill, especially since the higher the rank, the higher the rarity of the medicinal ingredients.
Alex checked the pills with the system.
[Updating]
Alex was surprised to see this notification. He never thought that the system would update at this moment. The update took only a few seconds.
[Update Complete]
[Congratulations Host for learning the true way of Alchemy. This is only a content update]
[Peak Quality Quenching Fire Pill (Rank 2)
Use: Refining the fire element in the user's body
Limit: 1]
"Peak Quality? Rank 2? I know what rank 2 means but what is this peak quality? Isn't it the peak grade?"
[Quality is similar to Grade. But the one that is universally used was 'Quality'. Host don't need to worry about it, it is only a naming difference, the meaning is still the same nonetheless]
"Then, why do you use 'Grade' for the previous one?"
[It was only for a newbie. After all, Host only learned the basics of alchemy and recklessly made the pill. But the Intermediate Alchemy Technique teaches Host the detailed way of Alchemy. If Host uses the previous technique in high-rank material, the success rate will be very low]
"... I will continue practicing this technique," then he looked at the stupefied dean. Alex was confused as to how to explain what was happening to his teacher. He sighed, "Whatever, I will just explain all of it."
"And now, there are four pills. I will take one, then I will give the rest to the others. The question is who will I give these to? Hmm... I will give one pill each to Firia, Teacher, and... oh right, Elder Sister Mia needs it too. Yep, I will give it to her," Alex nodded. After he became Alicia's boyfriend, the relationship with the rest of the family also became closer. He even called Mia with 'Elder Sister' now. But there was one miscalculation, he forgot about Sherry.