Show Me the Money

Chapter 152 – Refining the Potion

After paying Bai Xiaosheng093 100 gold coins, Fatty obtained the necessary information on the Flowing Moon Tung Fluid. Indeed, just as Fatty suspected, the Flowing Moon Tung was a very common tree that grew just outside of Vermilion Bird City. Its fluid was of little use and was practically worthless, which is why no one had ever wasted their time auctioning it.

Using the info he got from Bai Xiaosheng093, Fatty ventured to the southern region of Vermilion Bird City where a forest was located. The Flowing Moon Tungs grew in this forest.

The Flowing Moon Tungs resembled the Wutong tree but wasn’t as big. Rumor had it that every full moon, the Flowing Moon Tungs would scatter drops of silver liquid as if it were crying to the moon, attracting many people to come sightseeing. This silver liquid was one of the ingredients that Fatty needed for the Royal Winged Ant Poison.

Tonight wouldn’t be a full moon, but Fatty didn’t have time to wait until the next full moon. Therefore, he employed the usual method: he slashed out a few wounds on the Flowing Moon Tungs and cast harvest on the fluid seeping out from those wounds.

Each tree provided only around ten vials of fluid at most. Nonetheless, there were more than enough Flowing Moon Tungs for Fatty to harvest the amount he needed.

At this moment, all three ingredients for the Royal Winged Ant Poison: Royal Winged Ant Venom, Gold Essence Orb, and Flowing Moon Tung Fluid, had been fully gathered. Fatty thought he could start refining it now, but after some checking, he was upset to find out that he needed to be at least an Intermediate rank Apothecary to be able to do so. Indeed, Fatty was still a less-than-novice Apothecary for now.

There was no other choice but to level up his alchemy rank. Luckily, Fatty wasn’t a wasteful person. He never threw away the various materials and ingredients he had acquired and was leaving them in a massive pile in his bank.

Snake Gallbladder, White Cogon Root, Colorful Butterfly Poison Sac, and many other materials were available in Fatty’s storage. He quickly bought several cheap formulae from the Auction Hall, then slapped on one of them to learn how to refine medicine.

“Ahhhhh! I still have to buy a cauldron!” Fatty almost went berserk. It’s only refining one poison! Why do I have to go through so much trouble?

Fortunately, Fatty hadn’t left the Auction Hall. He searched through the list again and found a cauldron--

Redflame Cauldron: A medical cauldron that can refine intermediate medicines. Starting bid: 1500 gold coins. Instant deal: 3000 gold coins. Bidding ends in: 20 hours.

“More money again!” Fatty almost went in a rage as he thought of the Royal Winged Ant Poison. For the preparation to refine it alone, Fatty already had to spend sixty to seventy thousand gold coins, including buying the formula. If the effect after refining isn’t as good as advertised… “Lord Fatty, Lord Fatty will hang my neck at Star Fantasia company’s entrance,” Fatty shouted painfully as he bought the Redflame Cauldron with a trembling hand. 

Finally, I’ve gathered enough. Fatty sighed inwardly.

There were many things to pay attention to when refining medicine. Not only the ingredients, but even the environment of the refinery was specific as well. Fatty’s face was ugly as he paid 1000 gold coins as rent for a purpose-built room for refining medicines in Black Tortoise City.

Refining rooms had ranks as well, and this one belonged to the lowest type. There was nothing in here aside from a stone table and a stone stool.

Fatty placed the Redflame Cauldron on the table and lit up a fire under it. Feeling a heat wave sweeping across his face, Fatty waited until the cauldron glowed red. Then, he tossed all the well-prepared ingredients in it, starting the refining.

This time, he was making medicine that can restore health called the Vitality Pill. The ingredient needed being the White Cogon Roots that Fatty once gathered a great deal of during a past mission. After turning in 200 strands for the mission, he was left with around 1300 strands, which was more than enough to use.

“Refine,” Fatty pointed a finger at the Redflame Cauldron. A flare rose up from inside the cauldron and devoured the White Cogon Root. The herb spun around for a bit before quickly dissolving into liquid.

“Isn’t this a little too easy?” Fatty stroke his chin as he looked at the whirling liquid.

Boom. As if responding to Fatty’s doubt, the liquid emitted a bang and burst out into a rain of hot liquid drops, sizzling as they hit the ground.

Some landed on Fatty’s face as well but luckily weren’t enough to deal any real damage to him and destroy his face.

Ding. System Notification: Unfortunately, refining has failed. +100 experience, +0 point to Alchemy.

“Screw you! Even if you hate Lord Fatty, you shouldn’t act like that,” Fatty wiped the herbal liquid off his face and threw more ingredients in the cauldron.

The second try went very well. In only ten minutes, 10 White Cogon Roots dissolved into liquid and any unwanted elements were removed from it. With a ding from the system notification, the liquid condensed into five to six herbal-smelling pills that fell into Fatty’s hand.

Fatty put the pills into a glass vial, then poured out one of them to examine. This pill was white and at the size of a sugar bean, just right to conveniently toss into one’s mouth.

Vitality Pill: A low-rank pill, restores 50 HP per second for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

It was indeed a low-rank pill. Even someone with low HP like Fatty wouldn't bother to look at the trivial 50 health per second health regen.

One successful refinement increased one exp point to Alchemy, while a failure got zero. To sum it up, a hundred successes was a must to rank up his Alchemy skill to Intermediate.

With a pained expression, Fatty kept tossing more ingredients into the cauldron, starting an arduous refining process.

Ding. System Notification: Congratulations, you have succeeded. Gaining 8 Vitality Pills, +100 experience, +1 point to Alchemy.

Boom.

Ding. System notification: Unfortunately, refining has failed. +100 experience, +0 point to Alchemy.

An unknown amount of time passed as an extremely tense Fatty refined. After Fatty using up all of his White Cogon Roots, Snake Gallbladders and some Colorful Butterfly Poison Sacs, his Alchemy finally ranked up to Intermediate with a pleasant notification ding. Naturally, Fatty was now a proud Intermediate Alchemist.

“I can finally refine the poison.”

Fatty took out the Royal Winged Ant Poison and poured it in the cauldron, then added the Gold Essence Orb and Flowing Moon Tung Fluid in specific proportions. After that, he carefully lit up the fire.

The Redflame Cauldron slowly heated up, wildly spinning the three ingredients inside. The Royal Winged Ant Poison was the first to dissolve; the light green liquid became viscous and pure after being filtered of unwanted elements. This liquid formed a puddle that floated at the top of the cauldron.

The second was the Flowing Moon Tung Fluid. The silver liquid gradually shrank in the extreme heat into a silver ball of liquid, then merged with the Royal Winged Ant Poison to form a liquid with silver cover and green core.

The Gold Essence Orb was a little hard to dissolve. Around half an hour after the distillation of the first two ingredients, the Gold Essence Orb finally softened and dissolved into a golden liquid puddle, which then merged with the silver-green liquid.

Dissolving the ingredients was only the first step. The second was to harmonize the three ingredients’ effects so that they could perfectly merge, which required great patience. Fatty had to cast Alchemy nonstop and each time helped the liquids blend a little. After casting eighteen times, the mixture was finally combined and ready for the next step.

The third step was purification, which was also performed through casting Alchemy. With each cast, a halo landed atop the cauldron and condensed the liquid mixture a little, removing a bunch of waste. Gradually, the liquid became sticky and formed a solid medicine.

The last step was harvesting. Fatty stretched his chubby hand and cast Alchemy at the cauldron. The condensed medicine suddenly spun up, then poured itself into the vial next to the cauldron.

Ding. System Notification: Congratulations, you have succeeded. Gaining a bottle of Royal Winged Ant Poison, +1000 experience, +10 points to Alchemy.

“Finally!” Fatty wiped away the sweat on his forehead. It actually took him an hour to refine one bottle of Royal Winged Ant Poison.

Fatty held up the vial and observed the yellowish-green liquid inside. The formerly sticky mixture had become a diluted liquid.

Royal Winged Ant Poison: Paralysis. Can be smeared on a weapon. Paralyzed target will lose all ability of action for ten seconds, during which the paralysis will not wear off even if the target is attacked.

Fatty nodded in approval as he looked at the effect, which was exactly like advertised on the formula. But an hour refining a bottle just for that 10-second paralysis seemed a bit unworthy.

The thought only flashed through Fatty’s mind before he quickly erased it. While you can respawn in-game, it didn't mean you could die as you please. Each level takes a tremendous amount of effort to attain, so dying recklessly means throwing away all of that effort in vain, which is sinful behavior.

Resting for a while, Fatty continued to make another one. Each refinement required him to cast Alchemy several dozens of times, but a success gave him a mere ten exp points to Alchemy. This greatly upset Fatty.

Fatty logged off to have breakfast and exercised himself, then went back to refining. After going at it for a whole day with numerous failures, he finally produced 15 vials of Royal Winged Ant Poison.

Looking at the display of 15 vials on the table, Fatty massaged his aching hip as fear lingered in his heart. This hard and delicate work is definitely not for someone as brutish as Lord Fatty. I should do less of this kind of stuff from now on.

While he was exhausted, Fatty was very proud of himself when looking at these 15 vials that could paralyze the opponent for 10 seconds. Retrieving the potions, Fatty decided to visit Vermilion Bird City to acquire the Firewalk Book.