The Elixir workshop on the second floor was exclusively for the young master and young lady for refining elixirs.
Bang!
Black smoke drifted.
Lu Bei pulled out the black clay from the elixir furnace, cleaned it, and after taking a deep breath, began his first, hugely significant, attempt at refining elixirs.
The previous attempt didn't count; it was just to test the quality of the elixir furnace.
The result was disappointing; the low quality of the shared white-tier furnace caused his premium batch of Spirit Awakening Elixirs to be ruined.
After opening his personal panel, Lu Bei spent 10 skill points and quickly mastered the recipe and refining method for the 'Spirit Awakening Elixir'.
He chose the 'Spirit Awakening Elixir' over the 'Blood-supplementing Elixir' and 'Qi-Keeping Elixir', not because he wanted to reserve the last ten skill points for emergencies—ten skill points were too few, and wouldn't allow him to learn much of anything.
This choice was made based on cost-effectiveness. The Spirit Awakening Elixir had the shortest refining time and consumed the cheapest materials. Over time, it would also yield the most experience.
"Begin, the real first refining of an elixir."
Lu Bei held his breath and swiftly began his operations; soon enough, a faint fragrance wafted from the elixir furnace, signaling that the Spirit Awakening Elixir was about to be completed.
Bang!
The fragrance vanished instantly, the rising black smoke announced the failure of the elixir refining.
"Damn it, it's the low-quality white tier again!" Lu Bei grimaced, developing a profound hatred for anything of white-tier quality.
Failure was not a surprise; in fact, it was expected.
He had merely learned to refine Spirit Awakening Elixirs with skill points; he lacked any Elixir Tao skills or techniques. Each batch of Spirit Awakening Elixir had a 10% chance of yielding high-quality products, a 40% chance of being mediocre, and a 50% chance of failure.
And this was just because Spirit Awakening Elixirs were relatively easy to make, ranking among the easiest to refine.
On the second floor of the Elixir Workshop, next to Lu Bei's refining room, there were basic Elixir Tao materials by masters from the Imperial Sect, which could significantly increase the success rate of refining if studied.
Lu Bei couldn't begin that study yet; it required a minimum of 50 skill points. For now, he could only gain experience by refining Spirit Awakening Elixirs. Once his overall level increased and he gained enough skill points, he could begin studying.
Of course, he could also raise his favorability with Lin Bohai, help him as an assistant, and let the master take him under his wing and soar.
Lu Bei wasn't interested in that route. For one, it was a waste of time, and secondly, he felt ashamed of continually relying on others.
It was one thing to cling to Sister Bai's and Mrs. Zhu's thighs, which were fragrant and soft. But Lin Bohai's thigh...
A man should strive to stand on his own!
After ten minutes, Lu Bei harvested his first batch of Spirit Awakening Elixir since the total deletion. He extracted the white elixir clay, placing it on the coffee table to cool.
The high-level alchemists with systematic training had matching skills which allowed them to shape the elixir clay as they extracted it. Lu Bei had none of these skills, leaving him to manually mold the clay into spheres.
Thankfully, this wasn't a major issue. The refining room had tools resembling ice trays from a fridge, which could be used to mold the elixirs.
Eleven Spirit Awakening Elixirs were bottled. Due to loss during molding, it was one short of the standard twelve.
[You have completed a refining of elixir. After the grading of the elixir level and quality, you have gained 100 experience points. Since it was your first real elixir refining, an extra 2000 experience points have been added.]
"Awesome!"
Lu Bei's eyes gleamed as he used the 2100 experience points to upgrade his overall level.
Level: 4
Experience: 1450/1800
The increase in level didn't result in any direct attribute growth—the system alerted him that he gained 1 free attribute point and 50 skill points.
"Very well, this is a good start. I'll save these 50 skill points. When I have 100 skill points, I'll go study Basic Elixir Tao Knowledge." Lu Bei rubbed his hands and reached for the low-quality white-tier elixir furnace.
An hour later, five bottles of Spirit Awakening Elixirs were neatly lined up on the coffee table. After giving himself a brief moment to appreciate all his hard work, Lu Bei eagerly began to level up.
Level: 5
Experience: 50/3200
The system prompted him that he had accumulated 4 free attribute points and 110 skill points.
Lu Bei washed his hands and found Lin Bohai, who was sipping his tea, and expressed his wish to study advanced elixir refining knowledge. Without giving it much thought, Lin Bohai took out a set of keys and led him to a storeroom containing the basic Elixir Tao texts.
Since it's basic knowledge, there's no secrecy to it. For the Nine Bamboo Mountain's poor souls, it might be a treasure, but for the filthy rich and plentiful Imperial Sect, it's just a common teaching material circulating at the grassroots level.
Lu Bei browsed the shelves in the warehouse one by one and chose a book that required 80 skill points to learn - the "Emperor's Supreme Elixir Cultivation Skill".
How to evaluate the quality of a skill?
The common method among players is to look at the skill points required for a beginner. The more points consumed, the higher the limit.
But there are exceptions. After all, there are all sorts of characters in cultivation, and it's not uncommon to find authors who complicate things. They start deep and profound but end up being sloppy.
Some players have jumped into the pits based on their experience, cursing the author's ancestors while some players have found hidden gems, thanking the author's forefathers with great joy.
Generally speaking, the techniques that require a significant amount of skill points and experience in the early stages are usually not too bad.
"Emperor's Supreme Elixir Cultivation Skill Level 1 (0/100)"
Lu Bei spent 80 skill points and mastered the "Emperor's Supreme Elixir Cultivation Skill" in an instant. But in the eyes of his fellow practitioner, Lin Bohai, he simply flipped through a couple of pages.
He truly is a young lord from a wealthy family, with the same arrogant demeanor.
Lin Bohai shook his head in secret, locked up the warehouse, and went back to continue his tea.
After having acquired the Pill Nurturing Skill, eager for the experience gain, Lu Bei was so engrossed in alchemy that he quickly bid Lin Bohai goodbye and began his experience grind in his idling alchemy room.
In the later stages, the experience from making "Spirit Awakening Elixirs" is like a drop in the bucket for players. But in the beginning, especially for newcomers who haven't stepped into the cultivation stage yet, every point of experience is hard to come by.
Lu Bei vaguely recalls his boss at LSP mentioned that when the servers first came online, players realized that the elixir workshop was equivalent to an experience room. Many flocked to the Imperial Sect's many strongholds, offering to work for free without even asking for room and board.
They ended up being treated as troublemakers. Half were thrown into virtual prison, and the other half fled with their tails between their legs.
"Emperor's Supreme Elixir Cultivation Skill Level 2 (500/500)"
"Emperor's Supreme Elixir Cultivation Skill Level 3 (2000/2000)"
"Emperor's Supreme Elixir Cultivation Skill Level 4 (0/8000)"
Intelligence +1, Stamina +1, Intelligence +1, Stamina…
Shortly interrupted by Zhu Yan to have lunch, Lu Bei spent the entire day refining Spirit Awakening Elixirs for experience and successfully leveled his Emperor's Supreme Elixir Cultivation Skill to level 4, unlocking a new secondary profession.
Alchemist Level 1 (0/100)
Like a farmer, an alchemist is a basic secondary profession, which can be upgraded and transformed.
Unlike a farmer who can transition into the secondary professions of livestock farming, fishing, mining, etc., an alchemist is closer to the cultivation system. Upon reaching max level, they can transition to higher levels such as senior alchemist, grandmaster, and great grandmaster.
Similarly for Artifact Refining and Array Refining.
These three are highly respected secondary professions for both NPCs and players and accompany almost everyone throughout their lives.
Given the enormous potential of these three secondary professions and their substantial influence on the primary profession, they can determine the roles of healers, controllers, attackers, tanks, etc. Therefore, they are listed separately. Players, when doing tasks, can form temporary teams according to the main attack directions and special features of each member, adding more diversity to the game.
By the way, because of the team dynamics, the beautiful C language also becomes an advanced study.
Speaking of secondary professions, one must mention the three basic secondary professions - scholar, farmer, craftsman, and merchant.
The merchant profession is included just to make up the count, and only large guilds can handle it. Ordinary players should just dream on. The other three professions have many branches and can greatly impact the main profession. They can even provide bonuses to Elixir Tao, artifacts, arrays, and special skills.
For instance, the apothecary, a branch of farming, blacksmith, and painter, branches of craftsmanship, spy and generals, branches of scholars, etc. All can unlock hidden secondary professions after reaching max level.
In the choice of secondary professions, there was a group of players, though not many, who made jaw-dropping in-game accomplishments that filled the forum threads.
Among the branches of scholars, they dug up an extremely secretive and ancient profession - eunuch.
Although the transition was straightforward, simply undergo castration and enter the palace, but…
All one can say is that players truly are the embodiment of the fourth calamity, no secret job can hide from their imaginative minds.
——————
Book recommendation: Allies at the Edge of the Film World
Author: Riding with a Cane
As the title suggests, it's an unlimited flow type. It is a book that…
Okay, I'll stop pretending. I dedicate this book in hopes of success for my new book.