Inside the medicine making room at the Marichaton home.
Ivan was staring at the glass dish on the flame, not daring to blink.
The flame burned the bottom of the glass dish, causing the temperature inside the dish to continue to rise. The fish-swallowing algae fruit seeds inside became hot and red, like boiling metal. He added a drop of scorpion tail glue oil at the right time.
"Pah."
There was a slight sound, like thunder in his ears.
Ivan stepped back quickly, and a series of clicking sounds were heard on the workbench.
In the glass dish, the addition of scorpion tail glue oil seemed to trigger something, causing the first fruit seed to explode, followed by other fruit seeds exploding in succession. Waves of black and red poisonous smoke rose up, covering the area around the workbench.
"Oh, failed again."
Ivan was not surprised.
He hid in the corner with a mask on his face for a while. When the poisonous smoke stopped increasing, he skillfully used a homemade sprayer to spray disinfectant to clear the poisonous smoke that was trying to spread. After a while, he opened the window to let in the air.
He had just turned around when a head popped out of the window.
"Ugh—I feel dizzy."
Sean poked his head out and took a breath of the smoke that was being exhausted outside. He felt his head become dizzy.
"Serves you right." Ivan looked back at the scene and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He had drunk the antidote beforehand, but his brother Sean hadn't. If he wasn't confused, who would be? He was just asking for trouble.
After all, he was his brother, so Ivan had to open the door and go to the backyard, where he found that Padgy had already helped the man to the side.
A trace of discomfort flashed across Paddy's face, and she whispered, "I tried to persuade Sean, but he didn't listen and insisted on getting so close."
"Drink all."
Of course Ivan didn't believe it. With her ability, it was easy for her to suppress Sean. But she didn't say much. She handed each of them an antidote. Sean was not seriously poisoned because he had cleaned it with disinfectant.
After Sean used the antidote for a while, his symptoms of confusion were relieved.
"I'm going to rest now."
"I'll help you."
The two siblings didn't dare to go closer to the door and hurried away making excuses.
After sending away the two people whose curiosity could not be suppressed, Ivan returned to the alchemy room.
"It seems that this method doesn't work. I still have to add spider flower claws first and mix them in bitter mantis whiskers to maintain the balance--" He calculated the failure just now, picked up the pen and made a cross on the notebook, eliminating one plan.
An hour later, a muffled sound was heard again in the alchemy room, like a fist hitting a quilt.
Undoubtedly, he experienced another failure.
fail.
Fail again.
Failed again and again.
This has become Ivan's main daily routine these days, with money spending like water.
"Almost. I want to see what's missing from these plans."
After dozens of failures, Ivan felt that the time was right and used the level 2 light of wisdom without hesitation.
In an instant, he became a different person. His understanding and spirituality were greatly enhanced, his eyes were shining, and he seemed to be able to see through the mysteries of most things.
"I understand. Take the seeds of the fish-swallowing algae fruit, add the juice of the fish-swallowing algae fruit leaves, mix it with pine stone foam, then add spider flower claws and bitter wheat mantis whiskers, and finally add a trace amount of red rock powder and scorpion tail glue oil. That's it."
Ivan did not dare to slack off. He quickly took out various medicinal materials and arranged them together, starting a new round of experiments.
He knew the reason and vaguely realized that replacing the water vortex potion with the type of medicinal materials did not necessarily mean success. It also involved the refining techniques, such as decocting, calcining, melting, pounding, mixing, simmering, and so on.
A slight mistake can lead to a huge loss.
He couldn't relax at all.
Accompanied by a pungent smell, Ivan realized that he had failed again.
"Not even close."
There was no dejection in his tone, but instead a sense of eagerness to try, because he had made so much progress compared to before and he saw hope for success.
After cleaning up the workbench a little, he took out the same herbs and started the second round of exploration.
The Level 2 Light of Wisdom lasts for 4 minutes, so he must hurry.
After a moment, the effect of the light of wisdom dissipated, and the refining in his hands was nearing completion.
"Sure enough, it's still a little off. I should have lowered the heat a bit, and added the scorpion tail glue oil more quickly."
Ivan stepped back quickly, and a small cloud of gray smoke rose from the glass dish. The gray smoke quickly dissipated, revealing the liquid medicine in the glass dish.
The azure liquid medicine was like a piece of blue amber, but unfortunately there were a few gray-black filaments floating on it, which made the medicine fail.
At this moment, although he was extremely tired, he was in particularly high spirits.
"Forget it, let's pack up and fight again in a few days."
Ivan discovered that the main ingredient, the fish-swallowing algae fruit, had been used up and needed to be purchased again, but he had previously spent all his savings, including some money that Biman had supported him with.
It was just a matter of saving up a few more days. He had failed dozens of times and was not in a hurry for any particular moment.
[Pharmacy: lv2 (33/200)]
[Knight's Breathing: lv1 (17/100)]
[Linguistics: lv1 (5/100)]
He was busy exploring and didn't notice that his pharmacy experience points had increased by more than ten points, which was less than he expected.
Walking out of the alchemy room, Paggie told him a piece of news.
"Brother Ivan, Miss Church will visit our house tomorrow."
"Who invited you?"
"It's Brother Paul."
Ivan gestured to show that he understood.
Miss Church is the daughter of the country baron mentioned by Beeman. She came to Flying Fish Harbor to visit relatives, and for some reason Paul fell in love with her and is pursuing her.
The next morning, Ivan came to the Bat's Eye Clinic. He needed to make money by refining medicine, otherwise his research would not be able to continue.
As for the swordplay hall, it is difficult to increase blood and energy using the rushing breathing method, so there is no need to go there too often.
He was refining the medicine as usual. As soon as he started, he realized that his skills had become more proficient. It was much easier than yesterday's refining.
He continued to make medicine from morning to 2 p.m., earning a full commission of 3 gold coins, and then rushed to the west of the city to attend Gaoganda's ancient language class.
"Mr. Ivan, the class will begin."
Mrs. Halaya is a one-on-one private tutor. Ivan is the only student in each class, and his academic progress has always been quite fast.
After the course, Mrs. Halaya invited him to tea and they chatted for a while, during which she repeatedly praised his talent in linguistics.
Mrs. Halaya got to the point: "Mr. Ivan, I have a suggestion."
Ivan said: "Please speak."
Mrs. Halaya smoothed her hair that was messed up by the wind and said slowly, "You have reached a certain level in learning the ancient language of Gaoganda. All you need to do now is to slowly accumulate vocabulary. It is not efficient to continue taking this kind of class, so I suggest that you change to another language."
"You are such a kind person."
Ivan thought, no wonder it has been so difficult to increase his linguistics experience points recently.
Mrs. Halaya added: "If you agree, the tuition fee can be discounted by an additional 1 gold coin."
In terms of time, it seems a bit disadvantageous. Thinking of his current tight budget, Ivan couldn't help but said, "No problem, but I need to take a few days off and come back to visit after a while."
To Mrs. Halaya, this sounded like a polite refusal.
In the face of her slightly disappointed gaze, Ivan said goodbye to his wife without much explanation and said he would come back in a few days.
(End of this chapter)