After Emery was done harvesting all the Caracas Flowers, he quickly returned to the apothecary institute with the aid of the portal.
As tired as he was, there was no time to rest. He ran with all his strength towards the room housing Master Grom's potion crafting equipment and prepared his apothecary tools. His body felt tired, but his mind felt as alert as ever.
This lab did not just allow him to use the equipment. As one of master Grom's disciples, Emery had the right to access free ingredients. Although most of those provided were common tier 1 ingredients that were relatively easy to find, the cost certainly added up and for a poor student like Emery, such access was already quite the privilege.
Emery concocted the potion carefully, his brows furrowed in concentration as he did each of the steps in a meticulous concentration. After the process was done, Emery held a small test tube containing a bubbling, greenish liquid in his hand with a proud smile.
His hard work, combined with access to new ingredients and better lab equipment, all culminated in the creation of an acid potion with higher potency.
[Acid Potion – Tier 2]
[Originality Level: 2]
With a spring in his steps, Emery showed the result of his hard work to Cedric. However, all the hopes he had were dashed as Cedric shook his head. Though the acid potion was good, it was not a suitable ingredient for the gene serum as it was not strong enough. For the replication process, he needed a tier 3 potion.
Cedric decided to lend Emery a hand and they worked together to grind a massive, red-colored plant with a texture similar to rubber. After boiling the plant and extracting its juices, they ended up with a small tube's worth of deep red, sticky liquid similar to blood. They added a small drop of the liquid to the potion, turning the bubbling green acid potion into a shade of deep vermillion.
The plant was a higher-tier one and could be used to increase the potency of Emery's acid potion.
[Red Acid Potion – Tier 3]
[Originality Level: 1]
"Actually, Emery…" Cedric started while playing with the tube of red acid in his hand. "I think you should make this acid potion for your project in the third exam. If you can somehow increase the originality by another level, passing would be easy."
Emery nodded, agreeing with the suggestion. He had spent many hours experimenting and finding the best ingredients for that potion. If his hard work could be useful for something else aside from the gene serum, he would be ecstatic.
"Ah, by the way, Emery, it costs 50 spirit stones in ingredients to create a tier-3 acid potion. How many spirit stones do you have? I would need to make 30 to 40 of these potions to continue the experiments."
Ah, yet again, spirit stone costs came to Emery and blocked his progress. Advanced as this world may be, some aspects of it were still the same as Earth – namely, the price tag required to do anything at all. Cedric's question reminded Emery of the Wellenstein Faction's offer of 100.000 spirit stones just for joining.
However, Emery knew, now was not the time. His last visit to Dumas's planet gave him some ideas on how to get more spirit stones. But first, he needed to make sure the senior who gave his time for free for his sake had enough materials for his experiment.
Emery decided to get more spirit stones by selling his potions. The tier 2 potions he made could be sold for 150 spirit stones, while the tier 3 ones could be sold for 200 spirit stones.
At this moment, his storage had around 90 Caracas Flowers. He used half to make tier-2 potions; and was enough for 22 potions and, as a result, Emery earned 3300 spirit stones by selling all 22 of them.
Emery gave the remaining 45 flowers to Cedric along with 2250 spirit stones so he could continue his research.
Emery busied himself by using the rest of the spirit stones he earned to create as many Freezing Potions as he could. The potion was only tier-1 and almost all the ingredients were available in Master Grom's facility. Thanks to that, he was able to create one Freezing Potion for as low as 10 spirit stones each.
He spent the next three days hunched over in the lab, creating one potion, storing it, and repeating the process all over again. He merely rested to sleep a little or to get a bite to eat.
With 100 extra freezing potions in his storage ring, Emery was excited to return to fight those ugly creatures.
Emery spent his next day on Planet 14722 hunting more Dumas lurking beneath the tunnels under the hill. Thanks to all the Freezing Potions he made, Emery could explore the tunnels without fear.
Crack!
One bottle flew from his hand and several Dumas were frozen in one shot. He smashed the frozen creatures with his blade and he obtained some more yellow spirit stones.
However, Emery did not come here just for the purpose of hunting the creatures. He continued searching while killing Dumas along the way and gathering stones. Right before he used up his last Freezing Potion, Emery came across another cavern filled with reddish flowers glowing in the darkness.
The light reflected on Emery's eyes, glimmering with satisfaction. This was definitely a great solution to his spirit stones problem. From what he had seen so far, in one day he would be able to kill 100 Dumas and that amount was enough for him to clear one cave.
If he sold what he obtained from the Dumas, along with the flowers after he concocted them into acid potions, he would get a total of 9000 spirit stones and 7000 spirit stones, respectively. Though he would probably have to spend quite some time making the potions, he would consider that time well-spent.
As they said, time flies quickly when you are having fun or when you are busy. Emery didn't realize that his 5 days of personal studies were over. Emery had to return back to the elite class area to attend his mandatory class lectures.
As usual, they sat at Emery's dining room table to discuss their current plants. After some thinking, Emery decided to tell his friends about his current endeavor and asking them if they would like to join for some spirit stones.
Julian was currently occupied with matters involving the Hartlight Family, while Klea still had to finish her training under Grand Magus Ororo. But the other two Thrax and Chumo decided to join after they finished the 5 days lectures.
During the next 5 days of mandatory study, after the half day lectures, while everyone else spent half the day doing duels, Emery spent his time in the apothecary institutes making more potions. He concocted all the 100 Caracas flowers into Tier 2 acid potions and sold all of them. He then used all the profit to create as many tier 1 freezing potions as he could.
Day 76.
Emery, Chumo and Thrax went together into Planet 14722, each with their own weapons ready, while Emery also carried the 1500 bottles of Freezing Potions he finished. Within the next two days, what happened could be described as a Dumas massacre, with corpses littering the ground and the three of them collecting everything.
Chumo and Thrax arranged with Emery to receive 2 spirit stones for every 1 they received – in other words, Emery was entitled to receive 50% of the spirit stones they earned as he provided them with the potions, while the two of them split the remaining 50%.
At the end of the second day, right as they ran out of potions, Emery was 75.000 spirit stones richer and he was able to bring home around 300 more Caracas Flowers for concocting his acid potion.
His acid potion was not only a source of income, it was also a chance for him to improve his recipe in hopes it would reach tier 3 originality.
Thanks to the massive amount of loot they obtained, Emery decided to spend his days in the apothecary institute in order to continue his research and make more potions. Every morning, Chumo and Thrax would come for more freezing potions and they brought back Emery's share of spirit stones later in the day.
This arrangement became a good business model for them. Chumo and Thrax would receive around 30.000 spirit stones total every day by killing 300 Dumas and half of that amount would go to Emery's pocket.
If he had more time, this arrangement would have made him rich and gave him a promising future. Unfortunately, their time in Magus Academy would end soon and they would have to settle their own problems back on Earth.