Siderius and Ashe returned to their hideout. Different from two weeks ago, their hideout had seen much improvement. The two makeshift shelters became two small triangular tree lodges that were much more resilient than before.
There were also a lot of survival structures around. More drying racks under the shade. A few water collectors made from carved wood. The campfire had a wooden tripod on top of it which could be used to hang a pot or roast animal meat.
Siderius and Ashe also dug out small caves where they stored their precious items inside with boulders to be used as the lids. This would stop animals from stealing their items or food.
"Do I have any other lessons today, Master?" Ashe turned to Siderius.
"No. I do, however, sense that your soul is coming very close to enlightenment." Siderius said.
Ashe nodded with glee. "I know, Master. I can feel it too. I will be meditating for the rest of the day, trying to reach Silver!"
The path of becoming an Alchemist was in her grasp. Once she would be an Alchemist, she could do all kinds of things like Siderius. This made her excited and nervous at the same time.
All those years without a clear path to the future. But now, she knew exactly what she needed to do.
As Ashe sat down beside the campfire to walk the Truth-Seeking Path. Siderius picked a different corner to make his tonic.
He removed the boulder of one of the storage caves and took out a tightly-sealed clay bucket. Inside the bucket was full of ale. He had ordered Kraus to buy it from the inn inside Mucktown. Ale was surprisingly expensive. The entire bucket cost Siderius a silver and twenty bronze coins in total. This must be because of the food issues Mucktown had been having.
That left Siderius with sixteen silver and ten bronze coins left.
There were also other sealed buckets in the alcohol cave. After receiving the ale, Siderius had acquired yeast.
He didn’t leave it alone but scoop some of the yeast out to make another type of alcohol.
Each alcohol presented a different type of tonic. Ale was for anabolism tonic. Rum was for purging tonic, like the Fire Antibiotic that Siderius had used to make Carsten’s cure.
For health tonic, rice wine was needed. It was very easy to make as well, with a bit of rice and fermentation, Siderius could acquire rice wine given enough time.
The other buckets inside the caves were fermented rice wine. It should be ready to be used for health tonic soon.
Other alcohol required specific ingredients which Siderius couldn’t get his hand on at the moment so he didn’t try to make them.
Siderius opened the seal and let the aroma of the ale expand to the air. The ale of this world was a bit low quality so in these two weeks, Siderius had improved it. Now it was sufficient to be used for the anabolism tonic.
Siderius dropped a leather sack down on the ground. Inside, something alive was squirming. When the knot of the sack was open, a small wolverine jumped out of the sack and tried to scratch him. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
Siderius grabbed its neck in a quick motion then pushed it to the ground.
The baby wolverine that had lost his mother. Leaving this beast alone in the wild would guarantee it a death sentence so Siderius had brought it back with him.
He wrapped a leash around its neck and tied it to a nearby tree. Even now, the tiny beast was still growling at him, no hesitation for a battle with an enemy that was much bigger than it.
"Your kind really is relentless, huh?" Siderius whispered.
He tossed a piece of meat to it and left it on its own. He intended to raise it to full adulthood then release it to the wild. It’s the least he could do for this orphan.
As for the dead wolverine, Siderius had already buried it after taking what he needed. Usually, he would have made use of every part of the animal but considered butchering and eating the beast in front of its baby would be too cruel.
After all, Siderius didn’t want Fate gnawing at his back for disrespecting its creation.
He was heartless. But he had standards. Besides, he did not lack food or leather.
Siderius placed a bloody piece of cloth on the ground. Inside it were the heart of the wolverine, the important main ingredient to make Stamina Anabolism, and a few other organs.
The other Sub Reagents, a nutritious water plant and earth plant had been acquired.
The earth plant was a bulb with bright yellow color, similar to a lemon. So Siderius named this the Lemonbulb.
The water plant was difficult to find, surprisingly. Siderius tried to examine the previous blueroot lily but it didn’t have any nutritional value at all and wasn’t fit for the Anabolism.
Another plant Siderius found was called Gray Rose, a type of flower that lived in caves that had quite a good water concentration. Still, it had too little nutritional value to be used.
It was until Ashe suggested a unique vegetable that people in Mucktown used as food that Siderius had found a replacement. This vegetable was called bluemantle, a plant with light blue color in the center of its leaves.
"System, register new tonic recipe. Name it Wolverine Anabolism V2."
[REGISTERING NEW ALCHEMY RECIPE]
[WOLVERINE ANABOLISM V2]
Then Siderius typed in the ingredients. There was a wolverine anabolism recipe already back in his old world so this was a second version.
Ale (Base) + Wolverine’s Heart (Main) + Lemonbulb (Sub) + Bluemantle (Sub) + Calcium (Binding Agent) = Wolverine Anabolism Tonic (Product) + Unknown (Residue) + Unknown (Byproduct)
Then it was the experiment. Siderius still had quite a lot of salt left. He drew a Salt Directing Agent to support the alchemical reaction.
Then he placed a bowl in the middle of it.
Siderius had extracted Calcium previously and stored it in small crystallized salt containers. He placed a handful of Calcium crystals next to the bowl.
The ale bucket was beside him, ready to be poured in for each attempt.
The lemonbulb and bluemantle were also placed next to the seal.
Siderius prepared three different versions of the lemonbulb. One had the bulb crushed into small bits. One had the bulb cut into thin slices. The last were large pieces.
Bluemantle was prepared a bit differently. Siderius had its leaves, roots and bodies separated into three groups.