The shopkeeper brought the materials to the house along with special wood and she started practicing.
The flames from special wood could be easily controlled, that was the reason they call it special wood and there were many types that comes from different trees. They generally call the lowest grade of them as special wood.
She was very enthusiastic to know what alchemy means, so she put the furnace in front of her, she neatly arranged the herbs in line and she was so full of herself that she believed that she could make a pill on her first try.
She put the special wood and started the fire, which can be seen in her eyes too.
She put the herbs but they got burnt because she didn't know how to control fire that devastated her. She just saw in awe at how pathetic it was.
'No need to be so shocked host,' the system responded, 'you got arrogant after you opened your first petal.'
It triggered her anger, 'why didn't you tell me? Did you do it on purpose?'
'You have to learn things from your mistakes, so I didn't tell you but you first need to learn how to control fire, temperature and heat.'
Yuki sarcastically replied, 'Thank you very much.' The alchemy book she read had only information on how to make pills and techniques. It didn't specify how to control fire, how to condense pills etc.
'You can put those herbs back,' system guided.
'Are you trying to mess with me?' Yuki shouted as she just arranged them neatly.
'I am trying to guide you host. First, remember that this is not cooking, you need to use spiritual energy to control flames.'
'How should I do that?' Yuki asked by lowering her arrogance.
'First, you need to control flames while not putting anything, like that you will get an idea on how to do it, then put some normal grass or some stuff to check if you can extract the essence in them, after success, you can put actual herbs to make pills.'
Essence was the useful energy and matter of an item after taking out impurities and waste in that. Like how the energy and minerals in our food were taken by the body and the remaining waste was excreted. Here energy and minerals were the essences of food.
'Why didn't you tell this before? I am already in a lot of debt, now you are making me waste things.'
'I didn't know the host is so stupid to...'
'Ok, ok. Stop, I will try that,' Yuki interrupted.
The system purposely didn't say it so that she could remember things better by mistakes, if she learn everything at first attempt it would lead to arrogance.
She started to practice controlling flames, at first, she didn't get a connection to the flames but slowly she understood the flames and made a connection using spiritual energy.
After 2 days of persistence, Yuki got very good at controlling the flames. She manipulated the flame intensity, heat and temperature. She got overjoyed and jumped up by shouting, "done it, who in the hell do you think I am, muahahaha."
People who do yoga had high concentration and efficiency. No matter what they do, they would be good at that.
Her shouting made the servants and guards alert. Everyone came there out of concern for her but saw Yuki giggling like an idiot while shaking her shoulders.
Everyone got dumb folded and talked, "what is she doing?"
"She has been behaving weirdly lately. Do you think she hit her head?"
Yuki noticed them and got embarrassed. To cover it up she gave a casual laugh and asked, "haha, why did you come here?" she knew why they came so they didn't reply and she felt awkward.
One elder asked in seriousness, "Why are you acting like a monkey?"
That didn't bother Yuki, "I just learned how to control fire," she replied.
Everyone paused and looked at eachother to see whether everyone heard what they heard and got surprised.
"It's been only 2 days. How can you control the fire so soon?" The elder asked.
Yuki interestingly said, "I am not lying, let me show you."
She enthusiastically put in wood, everyone came near to observe it, Yuki controlled the fire and she also controlled the heat and temperature well, which left everyone in surprise. Even the elder felt joy.
Everyone talked, "it will take 4 to 6 months to control fire but she did it in 2 days."
"She is a real genius; she will become an alchemist without a doubt."
"That means our family will get alchemist." The servants started to celebrate in joy.
Elder got worried because if people knew about Yuki's fast progress she would get their envy and might try to assassinate her. It was common in that world to kill people if one thought they would surpass them.
So to suppress their excitement and not spread the news about Yuki, he strictly said, "stop it, it is just controlling fire, she didn't make a pill, extracting the essence from herbs is very hard and condensing them into pills is even harder, don't get your hopes high."
Everyone got disappointed and said, "Yes, just controlling fire is nothing," "let's go." Everyone went away. They could guess the elder was purposely sending them away. He didn't want anyone to know about her achievement as he wanted to get close to her so that in the future she would favor him.
Before when Yuki asked for herbs the elder was one of the people who opposed her but now he believed she had potential and wanted to get on her good side so that she would make him pills in the future by remembering his support.
"You not only controlled fire but it's very good control," the elder praised, "you are a true genius, so work hard, if you need anything come to me. Don't feel shy, we all are family." and went away.
Yuki sarcastically thought, 'Why do I need something for you? Aren't you the one who opposed me to using herbs from the shop? I really hate these kinds of people who suppress when I am weak and support when they could use me. Do they think I will just forget what they did like a good little boy?'
'Host, you are a girl,' the system reminded.
It triggered her anger and shouted, 'shut up.'
Aya was still there, she was worried about Yuki's health as she was not eating or sleeping well, "Young miss, you are not taking rest for 2 days, it's not good for your health."
"Relax aunt, I am a cultivator now," said Yuki while plucking grass, she was annoyed by her concern but she talked nicely, "I don't need to take much rest, you can go, I need to practice."
As a person from modern world, everyday was a battle with her own comfort, if she let the comfort won her then she was finished. But by nature Yuki was hard working person, so now she believe she should work hard every second because the task was given by the universe.
"But..." Aya was about to say.
"Don't bother me," Yuki said without concern for her feelings without even looking at her.
Aya felt dejected because she was taking care of Yuki since Yuki was born and walked away without saying another word. Yuki didn't feel any pity for her, as she was another person inside.
She used grass, leaves of trees and plants in the garden to test essence extraction.
She remembered her mother's cooking while doing it and her face became dull, 'I wonder what mom will be doing now? She must be devastated about my death. I wish someone got reincarnated into my real body and that girl whom I tried to save must have died too. I just threw away my life for no reason or cause. Forget it,' then she cheered herself, 'when you are in Rome be like a roman.'
Yuki started heating the grass, the system guided, 'first believe that you are that flame now, try to feel the grass with the flame. You can see that grass is getting burnt but if you feel close, you can see the grass is getting divided into a few parts. The waste is heavy so it will form below and the essence will form above.'
The grass got burnt, Yuki was excited to feel things she never felt before, so she took more grass and immediately put and started feeling that again. With system guidance, her practice became very easy.
After 3 days Yuki extracted the essence, 'good, I learned it well.' She didn't show arrogance anymore because she understood that everything in this creation would have its own essence that meant she was not special. Everything in this world had its own specialty, just because it didn't have any purpose to you, it didn't mean it was below you.
Until then she used to quench her emotions wherever she gets them but from then on, she knew everything was inside her, she decided to not give others the opportunity to control her.
Though she was dumb, she at least knew it wouldn't be easy but not impossible.
'Inner peace is the only way for a creature to be truly free from suffering, from now on I will strive for that. In the external world, many things will happen but we only get emotions when we notice them, so as long as I stop giving importance to external things, I can achieve inner peace. It's easier said than done though,' thought Yuki.