Two days after the assistant selection examination, the stir in the pharmaceutical department gradually settled down.
Meanwhile, in Sun Hecheng's personal production alchemy lab.
In the evening, the clock struck half-past nine.
Sun Hecheng sealed two potions that he had just concocted and stored them in the safe. Beside him, Bai Xiaowen was cleaning up the mess made by concocting potions.
"You're doing great," Sun Hecheng complimented.
It was a sincere and heartfelt compliment. He thought that Bai Xiaowen would need some time to get used to this workload, but in just two days, he and Bai Xiaowen had developed an unspoken, tacit understanding.
No matter how complicated the potion was, as long as he had previously concocted it once, during the second time they were concocting it, Bai Xiaowen would be able to prepare all the ingredients at the right time and place them at a location where Sun Hecheng could easily reach them.
He had good work performance, and he did not seem like a newbie at all. On the contrary, he was like an experienced assistant who had partnered with Sun Hecheng for many years.
Sun Hecheng recalled his previous assistant, Zheng Li. Zheng Li had been his assistant for five years before he was capable enough to be promoted to pharmacist. He was considered an experienced assistant, but compared to Bai Xiaowen, he was still lacking a little. He was not able to react as quickly in difficult situations.
Bai Xiaowen smiled shyly. "Master Sun, you can go back first. I'll prepare the herbs for tomorrow."
"You don't have to stay up too late. Just prepare and wash the herbs that I'll be using tomorrow morning. I'll put aside some time and prepare the herbs for the afternoon and evening," Sun Hecheng said. He did not forget that Bai Xiaowen was still a third-year student.
After Sun Hecheng left, Bai Xiaowen closed the door to the alchemy room and began to process the medicinal herbs for the next day. However, he did not only do the preparations for the next morning. Instead, he prepared the herbs that were going to be used for the entire day. His speed was very fast.
Compared to the other assistants, Bai Xiaowen's biggest advantage was that he could memorize the Encyclopedia of Pharmaceuticals. He did not need to look through the encyclopedia to learn how to deal with the herbs. This way, Bai Xiaowen could make thorough arrangements before dealing with all the herbs. Some herbs made a deadly combination if they were mixed together, so he had to handle those herbs separately. He would wash those herbs that could be placed together at one time. That would save him a lot of valuable time.
In just an hour, Bai Xiaowen had finished pre-processing the herbs for the next day and was ready to concoct the potion.
Bai Xiaowen turned to look at the experiment table. He was a little excited.
"Whether I can make a comeback depends on this!" he thought.
Bai Xiaowen carefully collected the scrap materials one by one. Then, he used evaporation, extraction, screening, and various other methods to process them!
Under normal circumstances, this waste would be thrown directly into the trash can. This was because different medicinal powders were mixed together, and the composition ratio was difficult to determine. It could not be used to concoct a new potion.
However, with Bai Xiaowen's Insight, he could clearly see the composition of the mixture and which herbs it contained. Combined with the knowledge Bai Xiaowen had learned in the pharmaceutical encyclopedia, he could use the most suitable method to separate it.
Bai Xiaowen separated the waste and extracted the medicinal powder. He did that in order to concoct a potion! He wanted to concoct an enhancement potion that he could consume!
Bai Xiaowen did not want to steal the herbs in the store. The pharmaceutical department had strict rules, not to mention that it was against Bai Xiaowen's conscience to do something like that. If he used waste materials, he would not have to worry about using it.
In the end, piles of medicinal powder of different colors were successfully separated!
Bai Xiaowen heaved a long sigh of relief and closed his eyes. Ten seconds later, he opened his eyes again. His gaze instantly became sharp, and his left eye emitted a red glow.
Bai Xiaowen stood up and walked to the counter as if he was following a special trajectory. His movements were mechanical and precise, looking like a robot executing a precise procedure.
If Sun Hecheng were here, he would definitely be taken aback by this sight. Bai Xiaowen's actions were a perfect copy of his concoction process!
What kind of powerful memory was this? Being able to speed read or having a photographic memory was nothing compared to this!
Half an hour later, Bai Xiaowen sat on a chair, looking incredibly tired. There was a potion placed on the test tube rack in front of him that emitted an intoxicating red glow.
[Enhancement Potion: Power of Ruby]
[Potion Grade: Grade 1 Level 8]
[Purity: 67% (Qualified)]
[Components: Iron Thread Vine 2.56%, Floating Pollen 4.41%, Full Moon Leaf 4.72%, Crystalized Dragon Bone Powder 7.81%, Water 80.50%]
[Effect: Permanently increases strength by 3 points.]
"Strengthening Potion: Power of Ruby! Drinking this will allow one to permanently increase his strength by 4 points. If it's placed at the front end of the shop to sell, it can be sold for at least 2 million yuan! Although the purity is a little low, this is made of unqualified potions. It's normal for there to be many impurities."
Bai Xiaowen closed his eyes as pride welled up in his heart.
Who could turn a pile of residue into a treasure and concoct an enhancement potion worth millions of yuan? Only he could do that! Even a senior pharmacist would not be able to do it if he did not have Insight!
Two messages entered Bai Xiaowen's mind.
"Sub-Class: Pharmacist activated. Current level: Pharmacist Level 1."
"Spirit attribute has increased by 3 points."
The two notifications snapped Bai Xiaowen out of his daze and he opened his eyes. He opened his personal interface and found that there was an additional "Class" column. There was only one sub-Class: Pharmacist Level 1.
Bai Xiaowen knew that pharmacists were divided into 10 levels.
Levels 1 to 3 were junior pharmacists, Levels 4 to 6 were intermediate pharmacists, and Levels 7 to 10 were senior pharmacists. As he got promoted in level, he needed to concoct a large number of potions to increase his proficiency in concocting potions. The higher the grade of the potion, his proficiency and speed will increase too.
Bai Xiaowen's Spirit had reached 7.9, which was higher than his Strength, Agility, and Physique combined!
"Should I drink this enhancement potion now?" he pondered.
Bai Xiaowen felt a little conflicted. From what he understood, enhancement potions could quickly increase a person's attributes, but there were also many side effects.
Enhancement potions would cause such intense pain that one's body would feel as though it was tearing apart. Those with weak mental willpower would directly fall into a coma, resulting in the potion effect being negated despite them having already drunk it.
Moreover, as the number of times he took the enhancement potion increased, the intensity of the pain would be doubled. For example, if the pain from the first potion was 1, then the second bottle would be 2, the third bottle would be 4… and so on.
Therefore, the first bottle of enhancement potion had the highest success rate. Of course, he had to choose high-level potions as much as possible in order to increase his attributes to the greatest extent. Fortunately, this potion, which had the Power of Ruby effect, had reached level 8, so it would be very effective.
However, the pain brought by a high-level enhancement potion was even more intense than a low-level potion. If he insisted on maximizing his attributes, he would be a goner if he failed.
"Forget it! I can't be afraid now. If I want to obtain strength, I have to pay the price! My Spirit attribute is as high as 7.9, so I should be able to withstand a Level 8 enhancement potion!"
According to the way things worked here, those who had a higher Spirit attribute would have a higher tolerance with regard to enhancement potions. Moreover, among the four major attributes, only the Sspirit attribute did not have a potion that could increase its value. If one wanted to increase their Spirit attribute, one needed to rely on meditation and a special kind of food.
Bai Xiaowen picked up the test tube and gulped down the potion.
A warm current flowed into Bai Xiaowen's body, and he could feel that his muscles were stretching and becoming more resilient. There was even a slight tearing sound.
What followed was intense pain.
"Oh my goodness, this isn't something that someone can casually drink. My strength is only 1.8. After drinking this potion, my Strength will increase by one to two times. Having such a huge leap in Strength attribute means that I will definitely suffer," Bai Xiaowen thought.
He was in such excruciating pain that sweat was coming off him in buckets. He was so thoroughly drenched with sweat that he looked very much like someone who had just stepped out of a lake. Bai Xiaowen was on the verge of fainting, but he gritted his teeth in determination, refusing to give in to the pain and pass out.
Fortunately, the pain disappeared almost as quickly as it came. Half an hour later, the pain passed, and Bai Xiaowen finally managed to catch a breath.
Another notification popped up.
"You have consumed an enhancement potion: Power of Ruby."
"Your basic Strength has increased by 2.7 points. Your current Strength is 4.5 points!"
Bai Xiaowen clenched his fist and swung it about in the small alchemy lab.
"Good lord, I feel like I can kill a cow!" he said.
He was not joking. Having a Strength value of 4.5 meant that he was four and a half times stronger than an average man in another time and space! If he underwent weight training, he could easily kill a cow.
However, the increase in his Strength also brought about some side effects. Bai Xiaowen stumbled as he walked and knocked over two chairs in a row. Having read the manual for the potion, Bai Xiaowen learned that the side effect of consuming that potion meant that he would not be able to control his strength temporarily. However, he knew that he would be able to adapt quickly to it. After all, in the Spiritual Energy Era, a human's memory and adaptability were very powerful.
Bai Xiaowen felt that it was a pity that the potion's purity was not high. It was only 67%, which limited the effectiveness of the potion. As a result, Bai Xiaowen's Strength only increased by 2.7, which was a far cry from the expected 4 points of Strength.
He thought, "I'll put the Strength-type Enhancement Potion aside for the time being. Next, I have to learn how to make Agility-type and Physique-type Enhancement Potions to increase my Agility and Physique attributes. Although the pain will increase greatly, my Spirit is very high. I should be able to withstand the pain for one or two bottles of enhancement potions."
"I have to do my best and ensure that my attributes exceed the 20-point threshold as soon as possible. That way, the world of the Awakened will not be far from me."