More peaceful days passed and everyone in the settlement was now wearing thick fur clothing to keep themselves warm against the cold breeze. A roaring fire was being fed dried firewood by Emery inside Granny's hut stone furnace, which stretched into the roof to blow out the smoke.
In his day-to-day life, Emery spent most of the hours he had in learning how to make his own concoctions with Granny's help. She had given him various recipes, which he followed with and was successful in brewing effective potions. This time though, he felt like with the help of the spell fragmentation and spell from the Path of Apothecary, he was confident he could make his own recipe.
The universal flora knowledge helped him understand the classification of plants, their properties and their effects whether good or bad. With this information, Emery mixed and matched the properties of each herb to either create a more powerful concoction of Granny's recipes or create a whole new potion that had an entirely different effect despite being made from the same ingredients.
He learned various methods of drying, brewing, grinding, amongst other things in order to bring out the properties Emery wanted to achieve in concocting the potions he needed. Some of these methods were listed in the parchments his mother had about alchemy, which the late-scholar from his now burned estate had helped him with, but some methods were entirely new ways from Granny's own personal experience. Although Emery could be considered a fledgling in this field, his dexterous hands and experimentative nature caused him to learn more with each day that passed.
After every successful potion he had concocted, Emery used the analyze spell from the Apothecary to find out the effect of the potion without needing to test for the experimental results. It was a whim when used the spell fragmentation afterwards, but it turned out to be a good idea since he found out that he could retrieve the essences of a potion, which he started using more frequently to use the same ingredients again in a different manner. Although the spell didn't extract all the ingredients' essences used and became less each time, it still helped him to not immediately run out of ingredients to experiment with. It went without saying that Emery only used this skill whenever Granny or Lanzo was not around, else how would he be able to explain such supernatural occurrences?
Every once in a while, Emery sometimes presented to Granny the potions he had made, and she was extremely impressed on how her new student had a natural talent in alchemy. She, herself, could understand the combination Emery used because she knew the ingredients by heart, but she was still surprised by the new ideas Emery brought to her.
Another month had passed and little snowflakes were falling from the sky above. Emery sat by the fire, eating freshly baked bread, while looking proud of himself at the medicinal items on the alchemy table he had made over the course of his apprenticeship under Granny.
He used the analyze spell first on the first item that had green paste-like content.
[Healing paste]
[This is a paste that can be applied to external wounds. Once used, the open wound would be disinfected and the body's natural healing capability would close the and dry the wound twice as fast.]
The difference between this healing paste compared to Granny's was that Emery's dried the wounds twice as fast, unlike the one from Granny. He then used the analyze spell on another container that also had green liquid inside.
[Stamina potion]
[A potion full of various nutrients that the body needs. It is used to re-energize lost energy of a person's body within a few moments. Be warned, it is bitter.]
Emery made several of these medicinal items since the ingredients were quite easy to find and able to cultivate easily. These two items were things that he and Granny believed to be at their most optimal stages. They heavily focused on these because the general usage would be most helpful in their day-to-day lives, especially in the winter where most of the food would come from hunting even if they had a plentiful amount of food in the storage.
The next two medicinal items had red and blue in its contents. They were actually still in the process of being experimented further, but they were at least useful in their own ways. The first was actually a paste, like the healing but it had quite a different property.
[Strength paste]
[Once applied to the parts of a human body, it could stimulate the muscles in the part it was applied to, increasing muscle strength twice of its normal capability. Be advised, the increase is temporary and cannot be used repeatedly because it would damage the muscles.]
[Cleansing potion]
[Drinks that can remove harmful bacteria and toxins in the body.]
Emery had no idea what the term bacteria was but based on what he had read so far about the properties of each ingredient, it seemed to be something minuscule that couldn't be seen with the naked eyes, which were harmful to the body.
Both of these medicinal items required a lot of blue powder which they had a limited amount of. Emery wanted to try out a couple more things he had in mind, but with Granny beginning to be more strict with the blue powder's usage, he had to keep to himself and respect her wishes.
In the afternoon, Emery took the time to show how these medicinal items were made to Granny and Lanzo. Seeing the new techniques Emery had done, Granny grew increasingly interested in Emery's method. She somehow had an inkling of them, so she still mentioned some side effects of this blue powder.
"Interesting, interesting… Where did you get the idea from?" asked Granny, taking a look at the freshly grounded ingredients.
"Just a lucky guess, Granny," answered Emery, blushing a bit.
"I believe that alchemy is a method of finding order within its chaos, but you�� it's like each of these techniques and functions you keep on mentioning are proven and tested methods. You really are talented and loved by nature," said Granny with a warm smile.
Emery laughed, if he could only share his abilities, maybe it would be more beneficial to everyone in the world. But for now, he was satisfied that he could share at least the knowledge on how to produce these medicinal items.
"May I ask where I can find more of this ingredient?" Emery said, pointing to whatever remained of the blue powder.
"It's better for you not to know where it came fr—" answered Granny but a sudden fit of coughing stopped her from speaking.
Lanzo came immediately and rubbed her back.
Emery went to get a warm drink and said, "Your coughing seems to get worse. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Granny issued a weak smile after drinking. She said, "Haha… you're a good boy, Emery. But there's nothing you can do to help me."
"It's always like this in the winter, Emery. Sadly, her condition doesn't seem to get any better," said Lanzo, still rubbing her back.
Emery observed Granny from head to toe. He couldn't help but notice how she seemed to be getting thinner every day. He placed another firewood in the stone furnace, hoping the rising temperature inside the hut would at least ease her coughing. She then went inside her corner of the hut, probably wanting to rest.
Once Granny had left, Lanzo approached Emery and said, "Good stuff you're making here, Emery!"
"Thanks, Lanzo," answered Emery, stirring the cauldron to make more of the stuff that seemed to at least ease Granny's fit of coughs.
"By the way, can you keep this between us? I actually know where the ingredients come from. Granny told me about it a long time ago," whispered Lanzo, closing the lid of the blue powder.
Emery's interest was piqued. "Sure, I'll keep quiet about it."
"Actually…"
Lanzo then told the reason why Granny was reluctant to tell about the origin of the ingredient. The blue powder was taken from a place she had called the Forbidden Forest. It was a dense forest located west of Mitshire, about a day's walk. This forest was filled with huge trees, stretching for an unknown distance, which resulted in some tales telling that those who had gotten lost became evil spirits wailing for eternity because the sun's light could never penetrate its soil. Hence, it was also called the Evernight Forest.
"You better not think about going there, you hear me? They say all those who enter never return and become food for the dangerous monster lurking inside."
"What kind of monster?" asked Emery, not flinching an eye. He wouldn't say he was immune to being scared, but after what he had seen in the Magus Academy's world, monsters were not a new thing for him.
"Are you crazy? What kind of question is that! All those who have seen it never survive the encounter!" exclaimed Lanzo with eyes widened in disbelief.
With a blank face, Emery answered, "Lanzo… If no one survives, then where did the story come from?
Lanzo had no answer as he stared with bewildered eyes at Emery. He coughed and said, "Anyway, you should come with me to the town tomorrow. The folks there need help delivering this season's tribute to the king."
The city in question was of course the Lioness Kingdom's main city where the Lioness's Royal Palace stood.