[Ancient Calendar: 6 April 0001]
Inside a small room, a young man woke up from slumber and started staring at the wall. After a few moments he came back to his senses and mumbled.
"Stats!"
[User: Kai
Age: 19
Ki: 146
Profession: Apprentice Alchemist
Innate Ability: Devour
Heavenly Gift: Clear Mind (F), Heighten Senses (E)
Skills: Fire control (F)]
"Good, if I continue at this pace, my Ki will surely reach thousand by the end of the year." Making plans for his future, Kai got up, left the room and headed toward the public bath.
"Have you heard, Tai recently underwent his fourth Heavenly Trial."
"What do you mean, have I heard? I was there when it happened. Let me tell you, it was epic. When the Heavenly Pressure descended I was sure he was going to die."
Along the way Kai heard people discussing the recent events.
After taking a bath at a public bathhouse, Kai headed for work.
While walking to work, Kai thought about what he had experienced in the past three months.
The Earth was selected to take part in the Ascension Program and everyone on Earth was teleported to this world called The Ancient World.
From the information everyone got, this program was started by His Majesty to make his Verse stronger.
The program in simple terms, is a Battle Royal. Around 20 worlds were selected for this round of the program.
The rules are simple: hunt monsters to power up and then fight against other races.
When there are only five races left the program will conclude. The winning races will get some gifts and they will be teleported back to their world.
In the three months, while everyone was hunting monsters to become stronger, Kai started working at an alchemy shop.
As he was lost in his thoughts, he arrived at his workplace. The Honey Pill shop, one of the two alchemist shops in town.
"Kai, you are early. Here is your task for today." As Kai entered the shop, a small fairy came floating toward him. After handing him a small piece of paper, the fairy flew away.
Taking the piece of paper smaller than his palm, Kai headed toward his Alchemy room.
"Let's see, what's on the brewing list today?" Entering the room, Kai brought the piece of paper closer to his eyes, so he could read it.
[Brewing List
Name: Kai
Date: Year 0, Month 4, Day 6
Task: 25 Basic Vitality Pills, 3 Essence Boost Potions.]
"25 Basic Vitality pills and 3 Essence Boost potions. An extra Essence Boost potion, if my brewing list kept increasing like this, it wouldn't be long before I have to work 12 hours a day."
Reading the brewing list, Kai complained a little and then started the refining process.
He got all the herbs needed for the Basic Vitality Pill and put the furnace on the fire stones
After preheating the furnace, he threw Whispering Fern into the furnace and slowly increased the intensity of the fire. Using his Gifts [Clear Mind] and [Heighten Senses] he carefully extracted the essence of Whispering Fern.
After successfully extracting the essence, he drained the content of the furnace into a bowl. Then he filtered the essence and carefully placed it all in a jar.
After repeating the process four more times, he got two jars full of Whispering Fern essence which is enough to refine two sets of Basic Vitality Pills.
Knowing that he had enough Whispering Fern essence, Kai thoroughly washed the furnace and put it back on the fire stones.
He increased the output of fire stones to the maximum and waited a few minutes, then he lifted the lid and threw a batch of Sunlit Blossom.
Soon, the Sunlit Blossom's started shining brightly and then he poured one jar of the Whispering Fern's essence into the furnace.
With the addition of Whispering Fern essence, the Sunlit Blossom's started emitting a blinding light. Knowing his eyes couldn't handle such intense light, Kai quickly put the lid back on the furnace.
Then he controlled the fire stones to sometimes turn down the heat or to sometimes turn up the heat.
The process lasted for half an hour, and during this time, Kai didn't relax for a moment. He knew slight carelessness could lead to him blowing up the furnace. Thankfully his Gifts helped him a lot.
Although the Sunlit Blossom looks like a small beautiful flower, when it becomes in contact with high temperature for a long period of time it has the tendency to explode.
So, Kai had to control the temperature carefully to ensure it didn't exceed a certain limit. Fortunately, his recently acquired Gift [Heighten Senses] came in handy.
As the hard part was over, he put the fire stones on low setting and opened the lid to take a peek inside.
"Good, Sunlit Blossom and the essence of Whispering Fern are fixed. Now, I just need to add 100 ml of Elemental essence and then I can rest."
Standing up, Kai walked toward the cabinet. As he opened the door, the cold air instantly hit his face.
"Ah, here it is. It seems I am almost out of Elemental essence. Before leaving, I will tell Miya."
He took a bottle of Elemental essence and poured 100ml of Elemental essence into the furnace. After closing the lid he adjusted the heat output of the fire stones to the minimum and finally took a break.
After resting for while, Kai took out a book titled [Basic Herb Weaving] and began reading.
After an hour or so, a strong aromatic smell started emitting from the furnace. Kai put down the book and opened the lid of the furnace.
After checking, he turned off the fire stones and poured the thick paste into a mould. Kai shaped the pills and checked each one of them.
[Basic Vitality Pill
Grade: Low
Effect: +1 Ki
Description: A Pill for increasing Ki. Taking too many might lead to stomach problems.]
All the pills looked the same, but one pill caught Kai's attention.
[Basic Vitality Pill
Grade: Mid
Effects: +2 Ki
Description: A good Pill for increasing Ki. Taking too many might lead to slight stomach ache.]
"Ah, a mid grade pill. It's the third one this week. Good, all that reading is finally paying off."
Happy about his progress, Kai put all 17 Basic Vitality Pills in a Pill Jar and started working on his next batch.
He repeated the same process all over again and finally two hours later he finished refining all Basic Vitality Pills. Unfortunately, in the second batch, there was no Mid grade pill.
In total he made 32 Low-grade and one Mid-grade Basic Vitality Pills.
After putting away the Basic Vitality Pills, Kai thoroughly cleaned his furnace and set it aside.