"First thing first, is this your first time performing alchemy?" Ryker nodded, making the man sigh.
"So you must be rich to be able to afford the fees I put up. No matter, you already paid it so I will just teach you the best I can. After all, I'm the kind of person that will do my best if I get something out of it,"
Ryker's eyebrows twitched at the proclamation but he decided to ignore it, focusing more on what the man would teach him.
"Alchemy is all about turning raw ingredients into pills or potions, which seem to be easy, but it's not. You can't just pour the ingredients into the cauldron and hope it will create a pill. The first thing you need to do is to prepare the ingredients.
I will teach you how to concoct potions first because it is much easier for beginners with no knowledge of alchemy. Potions are considered easier because even if you screw up, at least it won't be ruined completely and you could still salvage it.
The quality will drop, yes, but at least the chances of you finishing the potion are higher than saving a pill. The recipe I will show you will be a simple healing potion recipe. There are thousands of Grade 1 Healing Potion so I won't bother telling you the name as they all do the same thing, just with different materials.
For this recipe, you will need four ingredients. Two of them, Clear Berry and Hook Fruit, don't need to be prepared first. As for the other two, Light Grass and Blood Orchid, you need to prepare them.
For the Light Grass, you need to chop them to pieces first before you can put them inside the cauldron. Be careful though as it sometimes shines at you and you can risk losing your finger.
As for the Blood Orchid, you need to extract its essence. Pluck the petals of the flower and then boil it. Then remove the flower before putting the essence inside the cauldron, understand?" he nodded at the man.
"We'll see if you understand it by practicing. There are enough ingredients to concoct the healing potions five times. I will first demonstrate to you,"
The alchemist then began to show him how it was done. Ryker could only watch with awe as the man was able to perform the preparation easily, showing how much time he had spent performing alchemy and the skill he got out of it.
When the man poured the first ingredient, he continued his lecture, "The order of the ingredients is important as different ingredients react differently to different ingredients. So follow the recipe to the letter!" he put his words into it.
Then he started the formation, throwing Genesis Stones into the formation. "Fire control is the most important part of alchemy, something that even eclipses the preparation of ingredients and order of ingredients.
If the flame is too hot or too cold, then the ingredients won't be able to form into the desired form. You need to pay extra attention to the fire when you doing alchemy," he told him.
"As for knowing when the flame is too hot or too cold or just perfect, you need to watch the cauldron and use your divine sense to check it. The flame is perfect when the concoction doesn't bubble like crazy or doesn't have any reaction.
The other reason I choose potions over pills is because you could get used to getting the temperature right while seeing it. As it would make my explanation much easier. When you create a pill, the cauldron is usually closed so you won't be able to observe the changes.
When you get used to the flame and able to get the flame to the perfect level, then creating a pill will be easier, not easy, but easier at least," hearing his explanation, Ryker felt himself being enlightened.
He observed the cauldron more diligently, as he knew if he missed something then he could make a mistake during his very first time in performing alchemy. He watched as the man threw in the last ingredients before he caused the flame to rise.
He watched in awe as the liquid inside changed colors, from red to white, yellow, before it stopped at blue with a slight whitish. The man then used his qi to pour the potions into different vials, stopping only when the cauldron was empty.
Ryker watched as the man arranged the 8 vials before pointing at each one of them, "If you are able to perform perfectly, all of the potions will look good. If you don't, then there will be one or two potions that will have a different look,"
The man took out two vials, one was blood red in color while the other one was the same, though there were some black objects making up half of the vial.
"This is what happened the concoction is not perfect," he pointed at the vial with the black object, "This is a defective product that would likely cause some severe side effects to fools that try to consume this. This happened when I made a mistake when making a Genesis Grade 6 potion. One of the 5 vials is a defective product,"
He then stores the two vials back into his storage ring before looking at him with a stern gaze, "The most important thing about alchemy or any other profession, if you want to succeed in it, is both talent, hard work, and perseverance. If you lack any of it, then you won't get too far in said profession.
I want you to finish the ingredients, and make as many potions as you can. Even if you fail the first and second batch, I want you to keep on doing it. Maybe in the third batch, you will get something right but you will only know if you don't give up, you hear me,"
Ryker nodded vigorously. Despite the man being just an expert at the 7th Stage Genesis Source, the way he is passionate about alchemy makes him respect the man even more.
"Unfortunately for you, I need to make some pills for a commission. So, you need to continue without me. I want you to use three sets of ingredients. As for the final set, that's when I come back so I could observe the process," Ryker gave a sign he understood.
Seeing this, the man gave a quick nod back before exiting the room, going to finish the commission given to him. As for Ryker, he took out the ingredients before he started his first alchemy session.