After spending way longer than necessary to comfort the crying futa alchemist, we eventually completed our gathering of the herbs without running into any other problems.
Surprisingly, not even bandits showed up to disturb us and here I was being fully prepared to deal with them.
Escorting her back to her shop, she brought me to the back of her shop, telling me that she wanted to teach me some alchemy no matter what.
Seeing that I was indeed interested in learning alchemy anyway, I decided to take her up on the offer.
I realised the back of her shop functioned as her workshop with all the stashes of ingredients stacked neatly on shelves and three cauldrons placed side by side in the centre of the room.
Two of the cauldrons already had something inside them that she most likely was going to use later on for her potion making, so we went to the last cauldron that was located on the far right.
Lisa laid out several herbs on the table beside it, looking especially excited for some reason.
“Ehehehe~ It’s my first time teaching someone so I’m a little excited!” She giggled, gesturing for me to come closer. “Let’s start off with taste testing some herbs!”
I looked down at the herbs she had placed in front of me. There were a few that looked like blades of grass, one that looked like a mushroom, a few flower petals and another that looked like a piece of bark.
“Umm… Are you sure this is standard procedure?” I asked a little worriedly.
I mean… You’re asking me to put some random stuff into my mouth… I know I have the [Iron Gut] boon which makes me immune to any poisons I ingest, but I just want to know if this is normal for people training to be alchemists to do?
“Ehehe~ This is how all alchemists start off with Miss Aster! You first taste a few to understand the effects of some herbs and then you learn to mix them together to get different effects! For example, this here is the Milgras herb!”
“It has healing properties, right?” I offered, remembering what my [Screen] told me the last time I scanned it.
“Oh! I guess Miss Aster has used it before?”
“Not really, I did a few quests to gather it before and I was told about its properties.”
Lisa giggled, “That’s right! It’s one of the key ingredients in crafting a healing potion! But in an emergency, you can also chew on it for a minor healing effect too! Not as good as an actual potion of course, but it can at least help you ease some pains!”
I picked up the blade of grass, “But how does a normal person find this? It looks like a normal blade of grass to me.”
“Oh, that’s easy! Here! I even have a blade of normal grass handy just so to show the difference!”
She actually pulled out a blade of grass from her satchel to put on the table. Why did she even keep something like that?
Lisa then moved the two side by side, “Of course the grass would look different from place to place, but Milgras herbs look the same no matter where you go and there’s multiple ways to identify it. One is through the smell, take a whiff!”
I picked the herb up and sniffed it.
Oh, it actually smells like mint! I guess this was what Katsuki relied on to find it!
And the grass… Just smells like grass I guess.
Lisa giggled, “Now, if you don’t want to press your nose into the ground to smell each and every piece of grass, you can actually just feel the blade of the herb. There’s a distinct texture compared to others.”
I did as she told and yep, there’s like these soft bumps along the body that you can definitely feel which is distinctly different from a normal blade of grass.
“Now try tasting it!” She insisted.
I did, realising that the herb not only smells like mint but also tastes like one. I’m not putting the grass in my mouth though.
A while later, I felt a cooling sensation well up from within my body, which must be the healing effect of the herb.
Lisa grinned at me, “What do you think?”
“It tastes very cooling I suppose?” I remarked, not really sure if that’s the way to describe it.
“Yep! That’s the Milgras herb for you! Try this one next!”
She passed me another herb that looks like a bunch of reeds.
“This is another common herb,” She explained, suddenly excited. “These grow commonly around river banks and are used in making stamina potions!”
[Laltras Herb – A herb that restores stamina slightly when chewed on. Used in stamina enhancing potions.]
“A Laltras Herb?” I muttered, reading out the status that I got from my [Screened].
“Oh! As expected of Miss Aster! You must have also needed to gather this herb before, right?”
I decided it would be too troublesome to explain so I simply nodded.
Lisa clapped her hands together, “Well, these are unique so you can’t exactly mistake it for anything else. Have you tried tasting one before?”
“Not really, should I try this too?”
She gestured for me to go ahead and so I did… And promptly spat it back out.
“Wuarrgh! It’s so bitter!!” I groaned, sticking my tongue out in an attempt to get rid of the taste.
She giggled and passed my another Milgras herb to get rid of the taste which I accepted gratefully. Surprisingly, it worked really well and the mint taste completely got rid of the bitterness of the herb from before.
“Ehehehe~ That’s another use for the Milgras herb~ It helps cleanse the tastes of other food you eat so it’s also used in several food recipes~”
“Bleh… That’s interesting, but I would appreciate some warning next time…”
“But Miss Aster just looks so cute I can’t help myself!”
The alchemist then picked up another herb, this one looking more like a root of a plant. Actually, it looks quite similar to ginseng.
[Toras Herb – A herb that absorbs the mana in the earth which can be chewed on to restore mana slightly. Used in mana potions.]
“The Toras herb!” Lisa introduced it excitedly. “These grow in dark places and also anywhere that has an abundance of mana. They’re a spell caster’s best friend really since it helps restore mana and they are actually quite sweet! You can–“
I didn’t even wait for her to say the rest before putting the herb into my mouth.
Ahhhhh!! It really is sweet! They taste sort of like caramel! Yummy!
I turned to her with a hungry look, “More?”
“Oh no, you better be careful with this one, Miss Aster! It’s not good to eat too much of these! I’ve heard how some spell casters actually get addicted to these, so they are the only ones I do not recommend eating except in an absolute emergency. Thankfully the addictive properties are lessened considerably in its potion form!”
Ugh… Ok, it’s one thing to eat sweets and another to become an addict. I should remember that these are technically drugs and thus should be treated as such.
Lisa then went ahead to bring out something I recognised as a mortar and pestle.
“Now, let’s try making your first potion, Miss Aster! First, tear up and grind the Milgras herb here until they are paste!”
It was my first time using something like this so Lisa guided me in using the tool, nodding when I managed to do as she had instructed.
“Waaah! Miss Aster might be talented in Alchemy too! Geniuses really are on another level! You’re already using it so familiarly!”
Honestly, that should most likely be [Machine Learning] doing the job for me, otherwise I might still be fumbling with it even now.
I thought we would be using the cauldron but she brought out a smaller pot and directed me to put the crushed herbs inside it.
She then took out a few other things, saying that they act as binding agents and activators.
“There’s multiple variations of these, but they all serve the same purpose of enhancing, activating and binding the effects of herbs together! For this one, we’re using some honey and the skin of an orange! This also serves to change the flavour of the potion too!”
I tilted my head, “And what if we don’t use these?”
“Well… Technically you don’t actually need them but they taste bland so I always make use of these~ Plus! It does help enhance the potion a little! Maybe by like… Five percent?”
Ok… Seems like this is an entire branch of alchemy by itself already…
“Ehehe~ Now we just need some water! Could Miss Aster summon some water to put inside it?”
I’m guessing that she might have wanted to see me use my spell to which I obliged.
“I command the water to form under my direction. [Aqua Ball].”
The fist sized water dropped into the pot, filling it completely.
Lisa then brought it to a stove and casted a simple fire spell.
“Umm… How did the spell go again… Ah! I command the spark to ignite my target. [Ember]!”
A small flame lit up the firewood underneath the pot which ignited it to a roaring flame.
“Now once it boils, Miss Aster just needs to pour your mana into the pot and the potion will be made! Go ahead and try it!”
I did as she instructed, though I wasn’t sure how much mana it needed so I relied on my gut instinct to just pour a steady stream of it slowly until Lisa told me to stop when I noticed the water changing colour from clear to red.
She lifted the pot by the handle and hung it on a hook chained up on the wall, allowing her to use it to tilt the pot at an angle to pour its contents into a funnel that had a pipe leading to a glass vial she had prepared beforehand.
Once the contents were emptied, she picked up the vial and looked at it with a critical eye before turning around to present it to me.
“Congratulations Miss Aster!! You did it!!”
[Lesser healing potion]
Oh wow… That was actually easy.