Chrysos worked hard and got the 70 potions all done in a day and some other potions he brewed for fun. By the time he was finished, it was noon. But he still has a lot of time to spend.
He looked around but he didn't have any idea what to do, or what he could do at the moment. He decided to learn more about Divinious.
Chrysos searched his memories and found nothing related to combat. It was like something was preventing him from accessing such memories. Since his old self's memories couldn't help him at the moment, his memories as Gerald however, could.
After all, after his mother's death, he was taught fencing, boxing, although he stopped when he was 19, horseback riding, and some archery lessons.
Even though he has knowledge of those, he isn't much better than anyone here in the Divine Lands. He isn't better at martial arts than a martial artist, he isn't better at archery than an archer, and he definitely isn't better than a swordsman in swordfighting.
His knowledge in fighting was mediocre at best. He only knows alchemy and that's it.
What worries him is that he knows how the Divine Lands work.
He knows that he is very weak compared to the top dogs of this world. He knows that he wouldn't survive easily if he stays this weak.
He needs strength. A lot of it.
As he leaned back lazily on his chair, his eyes darted towards the bookshelves and mused to himself..
"That's right, I'm an alchemist now.. maybe it's time to use this advantage of mine." Chrysos stroked his chin as he thought of inspiration. The cold metal of his golden fingers grazing his skin made it a little bit more calming for him.
In his mind, images, events, quotes, films, books etc. Anything about chemistry that he knew were things that he was using for an idea.
Then it hit him..
What can give him the best chances of survival using alchemy? Something better would be strength that he could integrate to his own body instead of a one time trick.
"Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.. It amazes me whenever I think about evolution and how it works." Chrysos was thinking about how interesting it is that humans aren't really strong, but they still overcame their hurdles by thinking smart.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." Chrysos recalled this quote.
If humans were strong and smart... would they have been unstoppable?
He had an idea.
"What happens if I borrow the strength of animals?" Chrysos wasn't that strong yet. Even though he drank a boar's muscle potion, his exercise only gave him 1% of a boar's strength which isn't really that big of an improvement. And another problem is if his strength became unbearable for his muscle strands, they would snap under his own strength.
The muscle potion merely widens the base for his strength. He was the one that had to build the structures to make use of it.
He had to strengthen his muscular strength and endurance. But that's easier said than done. He had to upgrade his human flesh into something evolutionarily better.
He stopped leaning on his chair and stood up to pick up books from the bookshelves.
Taking out one book after another, Chrysos was also trying to remember if he had the right material for it. "Wait, do I have books about the methods of a Blood Alchemist? I know that they're good at manipulating organic matter, especially for flesh and blood." Chrysos scrambled around his books and found nothing.
This didn't disappoint him though.
Using the only permanent strengthening method he has which is the Boar Muscle Potion is the only lead he has in order to research permanent strengthening.
Chrysos took the book where it contained the information regarding the Boar Muscle Potion and placed it on the table.
He studied the effects and properties of the ingredients.
The yellow tooth fruit is just an ordinary fruit, but when mixed with the blood cap mushroom that literally absorbs flesh, bones or anything that came from living matter, it becomes a mixture that kind of blends things together.
When Chrysos digested the potion, his bloodstream carried the boar-influenced cells and restructured his entire muscular structure in order to adapt to the human body. If he didn't use Divinious in the mix, it would've made him into a flesh mutant.
He began his experiment.
Plus, this would be a great way to spend his time to familiarize himself with this world.
"Alright, let the experiment begin.." Chrysos said with a golden gleam in his eyes.
...
Day 1
Using a mouse, he tested his prototype potion that can give a boar's muscular endurance. He discovered that the night rabbit intestines have chemicals that make cells neutral. For example, if a white blood cell made contact with a night rabbit's intestine chemicals, even if there's a bacteria nearby, they wouldn't react to it. Of course given that the bacteria is covered in said chemicals.
Apparently, it's what makes the potion harmless to the body so that it doesn't try to mutate everything as it's being swallowed.
He made the rat drink the potion and it didn't work. The rat mutated and it turned into a rat that looks like a boar.
It looked like a rat-boar hybrid. The creature still acted like a rat just with an altered appearance. The muscular structure was still that of a rat, but the outer appearance resembled a boar.
"It's still the first day, so the experiment being a failure isn't surprising." Chrysos jotted down on a small handbook.
...
Day 2
He added some extra ingredients and in theory, it should work this time.
Chrysos took a deep breath. "Okay, I hope this works."
He made the rat drink the potion and it started convulsing. It was a failure.
He found out that the rat just died.
Chrysos clicked his tongue before moving on with the research.
...
Day 3
He modified the recipe yet again and so far, he wasn't hopeful this time.
The rat's mutated muscles crushed its own organs. It was another failure.
"This isn't bad at all, a lot of future modifications can fix this.." Chrysos said to himself.
...
Day 10
Nadt came back with his wagon and Chrysos' ingredients were replenished.
No experiments for today
...
Day 23
The potion still had small defects, but it was slowly making progress. Chrysos remembered to stay physically active in order to strengthen himself and so far, he can exert 62% of a boar's strength.
And Nadt delivered fresh ingredients again three days ago. Chrysos gave him the potions that he brewed along his experiments so the cycle of receive and give never stopped.
...
Day 34
It was a success! The rat became evidently stronger and after observing it for a few days, there weren't any side effects. It was perfect!
"Yes!" Chrysos celebrated. "This took forever! Finally I'm done with that..." Chrysos rested on his chair and looked at the piece of paper on his hand.
Every time he saw it, he would smile uncontrollably. The feeling of accomplishment really made him happy.
And the best part is that he only needs to replace the boar's essence and bones with another animal's ingredients and he'll have the same muscular endurance as that animal. However, if he has an already strong muscular endurance, drinking an inferior version of the potion will obviously weaken him.
It also came with a painful side effect. Of course, literally having your muscles rearranged and readapted to your own body is painful.
Chrysos called the potion "Potion of Evolution."
It follows a specific naming pattern that helps him organize his potions.
Now, if he fully achieves the strength of a boar, he can fully exert its strength without having any injuries for overexertion and his muscles and tendons wouldn't be strained.
He began brewing once more.
The ingredients for the Potion of Evolution in the abnormal rank are,
-2 Brown Forest Boar's tusk. (Extracted)
-5 Blood Sap mushroom caps.
-800g ground bones of a Brown Forest Boar
-2kg Intestines of Night Cloud Rabbits.
-20ml Yellow Tooth Fruit Tree Sap.
-30g Red Poison Vine Snake Scales (Extracted)
-2ml Golden Tongued Lizard Tears (Magical Ingredient)
-10g Crushed Spirit Ore (Magical Ingredient)
-5 Medium Sized Leaves of Blazing Layered Herb
The procedure was simply just the same as the Boar's Muscle Potion, but with extra steps.
Chrysos extracted the Red Poison Vine Snake's Scales and poured its contents on a bowl. He gently put the Golden Tongued Lizard's Tears on the bowl and suddenly, it sizzled.
He put the crushed spirit ore in the sizzling mixture next, and it started to bubble violently. Next, he put the leaves of the Blazing Layered Herb on the bowl. The layered herb is called an onion back on earth.
After the leaves were put in, the sizzling stopped and the bowl was just releasing a straight unmoving mass of flames.
It was like the bowl was an entrance to hell.
He used his Divinious and blended the mixture together. The fire slowly shrunk and disappeared soon after.
Chrysos was left with a blue, diamond-like droplet of strange liquid.
Even by looking at it from afar, you would feel a strong concentration of Divinious coming from it. Chrysos called it a "hypertraining fluid"
If he made it without the snake scales, it wouldn't form in the first place and it wouldn't harden the muscles. Only after he added the snake scales did it work.
If this was the old Chrysos, he would've never thought of this recipe. However, with Gerald's chemistry knowledge combined with alchemy, it was a very great advantage.
The ideas he had were unique and unheard of.
He dropped the hypertraining fluid on the "Boar's Muscle Potion" he made prior to the hypertraining fluid.
And suddenly, the small blue droplet seemed to be alive and consumed the huge vat of the potion.
Chrysos was used to this sight and waited for a while. "This is the conversion process.. And even though the jug I used for the potion is large, the final product will be just around 5% of its mass."
The blue droplet absorbed the potion and turned the potion into other blue droplets. And as more blue droplets were made, the conversion became faster and faster. Soon enough, the blue droplet's colors were starting to have a reddish tint.
After consuming the entire potion, Chrysos was left with a small amount of orange crystalline liquid.
"Finally, it's done.."
With no hesitation, he drank the potion.
Bang.
He fell down and convulsed because of the pain he's experiencing.
"GAHAHAHA! IT HURTS!" Even though the pain was excruciating, Chrysos smiled ecstatically.
His muscles were being reformed each second, starting from his feet.
His legs were next, and then his waist, and then his chest, and then his arms, and finally his head. His muscle strands writhed like worms, rearranging themselves, shrinking and enlarging specific parts of his body.
Not only that, his lungs and organs were also evolving. His breathing capacity increased, his bones became tougher and stronger, and his eyes seemed to become sharper.
But unlike what he expected, 10 minutes passed but the pain wasn't stopping. Something was wrong.
"GAAHHH! WHY ISN'T IT STOPPING YET?!" Chrysos knew that something has gone horribly wrong for this to happen.
He thought fast and his heart sank. When he examined the potion inside his body using his Divinious, his fears were confirmed. "Oh no, it's not an Abnormal tier potion! Because of the Divinious it became a Rare tier potion with greater effects!" Chrysos knew that this was bad. Even though he was lucky that the potion became a higher tier potion by luck, things aren't as simple as that.
"Greater effects are good, but the pain will also be greater!" Chrysos knew he couldn't take any more of this pain, or else he'll die from the shock.
He stood up with difficulty and reached for his cabinets. He hurriedly grabbed a jar with a blue frog with black spots suspended in preservation fluid inside. He unscrewed the cap and took out the frog and licked it without hesitation.
He put the jar on the table and slumped down.
He couldn't feel the pain anymore. But, his muscles were numb and he couldn't move them. He knew that it's just too painful that he couldn't even move them. If he was too late, he would've been paralyzed and he would've died from the pain.
Chrysos relaxed but he didn't sleep. Sleeping at this point was equivalent to death.
After an hour, Chrysos' eyelids were dropping slowly. He was exhausted.
He used everything he had left to stay awake to no avail.
He slept.
In his dream, he saw a boar.
" ... what the? ... " Chrysos looked at the boar and it slowly faded into thin air.
" ... what a weird dream ... "
He slept for a long time without any trouble. He didn't face any dangers at all, and the potion was indeed successful.
When he woke up, it was already morning.
He was surprised that he lived.
"I… survived?" Chrysos got up and examined himself. He clenched his fists and felt more power within them.
He punched, he threw a left hook, a right hook, and an uppercut. He felt great.
He stretched his arms and felt very comfortable. He kicked a few times and noticed that his kicks were quicker and stronger.
However, his happiness disappeared when he looked around his house.
He almost had no ingredients left. He only has 20 potions brewed from the usual 70 so it will take a while for him to recover his wealth if he relies on Nadt's help.
However, that didn't stop him from exercising.
Since he had no ingredients left to brew potions, he might as well practice some basic fighting skills and exercise until Nadt arrives.
And so, his days were filled with nothing but training.
…
Eight days later...
Nadt arrived with his wagon as usual.
"Chrysos! I'm back!" Nadt got off his horse and knocked on the door.
Chrysos stopped doing push ups and put on his clothes. He opened the door and saw Nadt.
"Alright, I have your ingredients. Just give me the potions and I'll be off." Nadt smiled.
Chrysos scratched his head awkwardly and said, "I only have twenty potions made."
"What? why?" Nadt was shocked. He wasn't expecting this at all.
"An accident occured.." Chrysos didn't want to expose the fact that he had been experimenting during the past few weeks and became more powerful than how he was before. After all, keeping your cards hidden is what he saw to be the superior tactic in fantasy shows and games.
Nadt sighed. "I can only give you a small amount of ingredients then.. according to our deal, this is how it works." Nadt frowned and gave him one sack of ingredients.
"Actually, can I go to the city with you?" Chrysos said with a smile.
"Wait, why?" Nadt wasn't sure why Chrysos would want to leave his home. That was different from the Chrysos he knew.
"I decided that I would like to live in the city." Chrysos laughed.
"Well, sure I guess? But where are you going to stay? You don't have a residence there." Nadt didn't reject his request.
"Hmm... I have my ways." Chrysos didn't speak any further.
"Okay, whatever you say man." Nadt shrugged.
"Great, I'll just pack my stuff, it won't take long." Chrysos said as he went back inside the cabin.
Chrysos brought multiple spoons, glass bottles, vials, his water dispenser, and his cauldron with him.
He didn't hesitate to grab as much as he could to the point of making his backpack into a more stacked version of what it was before. He really didn't want to leave something useful behind as much as possible.
After that, he took one last look at his cabin before closing the door.
He walked towards the wagon and got on. "Let's go."
Nadt responded and brought down the reins of his horse, "Okay! Hiyah!!"
The wagon began to move towards Ironmountain.
Chrysos was going to have a fun adventure.