"Good! Good! Good!" Krewen applauded enthusiastically, his face creased with a smile, "You truly are a born bartender, not only piercing through the essence of things at a glance but also adapting to the situation, instantly grasping two major essences. What remains is a matter of technique. Would you like to give it a try?"
Gaven gave a wry smile and shook his head, "Teacher, you overestimate me. Understanding the principles is one thing, but actually doing it is another. Not to mention anything else, just take emotional control, I find it hard to reach your level, Teacher. If I can’t even stir my own emotions, how can I influence others?"
He knew himself best, his earlier success was the result of stacking multiple Special Abilities, not truly like Krewen, who could control and simulate various emotions.
"You’re smart one minute and confused the next," Krewen said with a smile, "Why must you follow my old path to the letter? Why not create your own bartending methods? I have advantages you don’t, but you also possess advantages I lack, that ability to manipulate Negative Energy.
Moreover, you have Ghost Grape Wine. If Ghost Grape Wine can evoke others’ emotions, why can’t it serve as a catalyst to inspire your own?
You could completely use it as a supplemental wine to reduce the difficulty of bartending.
Expanding the uses of Ghost Grape Wine—isn’t that exactly what you want?"
He had been so fixated on learning Krewen’s method of effortlessly controlling emotions that he forgot his own strengths.
Nothing is achieved in an instant.
Especially his abilities, which might or might not involve his Professional Ability or Special Ability.
Before mastering another’s ability, he could use the conditions at hand to mimic, and when the time is ripe, new abilities would naturally emerge.
Just as Krewen said, doing so would also help expand the market for Ghost Grape Wine. Even if he truly established a theme bar in the future, he would have far more options than just Heart-Viewing Cocktails.
Not only could he use Ghost Grape Wine as a supplemental wine, but other bartenders could as well.
If it really works as Krewen said, and Ghost Grape Wine allows those bartenders to reach higher echelons of bartending sooner, they would definitely clamor for it, carrying it with them as a holy bartending artifact.
Gaven saluted Krewen again, "Teacher, you’ve opened my eyes. Previously I was fixated on achieving perfection in one step but forgot to start by exploring my own strengths. I think I know what to do now. From now on, the bar is mine, I believe I have a lot of trials to conduct."
"Good, I look forward to your performance." Master and apprentice switched places and roles again.
Krewen watched Gaven with eager anticipation, eager to see what level his impromptu apprentice could achieve today.
Perhaps he really had introduced a remarkable entity to the bartending industry, bringing unprecedented innovation and impact to the trade.
Once behind the bar, Gaven began to adjust his mindset, shielding both his true purpose for this journey and the external noise.
In this respect, he had a unique advantage, given that he was a Psychic Sorcerer.
Luckily, he found himself entering a state of concentrated Spiritual Energy.
It was a unique mental state where one’s conscious mind became unprecedentedly focused, and Spiritual Energy was particularly active, making it easier to cast some rather special and potent spiritual Spells.
Due to Gaven’s low Professional Level as a Psychic Sorcerer, entering this state was pure luck—managing it once or twice out of ten times was already quite good.
When random thoughts were cast aside and his mind entered an ethereal state, his thinking became more active than ever.
Krewen’s bartending techniques, ingredients, and the states he achieved were replayed in his mind.
Everything else was fine; the main challenge was emotional control.
If he were to mimic Krewen, he definitely couldn’t learn it in a short time, but when it came to using Negative Energy, that was all too simple.
He just needed to think of something irritating and then use the Shadow to draw in the Negative Energy.
An insignificant issue could thus enrage him beyond control, with fury soaring far beyond what a Flame Fury Cocktail could invoke.
Yet, he couldn’t let this emotion control him; he had to master it.
This was an extremely precarious condition.
One side was raging furiously while the other was utterly calm.
If it were merely about controlling emotions, it would be very difficult, but when he began bartending, with an outlet for this energy, his movements became bold and uninhibited, as though he wasn’t wielding a cocktail shaker, but rather a different kind of weapon altogether.
His bartending movements already differed greatly from Krewen’s.
This included the order of ingredients because Gaven needed to introduce a supplemental wine that Krewen hadn’t used before—the Ghost Grape Wine.
Both the quantity and timing required Gaven’s own judgment.
This time, Gaven didn’t make any plans and simply followed his instinct.
His experiences with the Gnolls and Golia taught him that in matters with no absolute right or wrong, following one’s instinct often leads to the most correct choices.
Whenever he felt his anger was about to spiral out of control, Gaven would draw a little bit of Shadow Wine, channeling some of his emotions into it, but not pouring it all at once.