The Herb King

Chapter 8: Making Pills

Talent [Alchemist] Level 1

– You can now create common pills. The quality of the pills will depend on your control and mastery of refining.

Skill [Pill Fire Control] Level 1

– You have basic control of your Pill Fire.

Leric laughed joyfully when he saw the two prompts in front of him. Now that he had his Pill Fire, he can start refining pills! However, his eyes were stuck on the new skill he just learned.

“Can I also use my Pill Fire to attack?” Leric thought to himself as he imagined a much stronger flame to emerge in his hand.

Just then, a fearsome golden flame that was about as big as a basketball suddenly appeared on top of his palms, scaring him out of his wits, but this golden flame only manifested for a second before it vanished.

.....

Leric breathed heavily as he sprawled on the floor with a pale face. He felt that the world essence in his Hegel had almost been emptied out, making him feel slightly uncomfortable.

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“Damn! What was that? Luckily it disappeared immediately or my mom’s clinic would have been burned to ashes.” Leric still had lingering fears as he recalled the fearsome golden flame.

When he calmed down, Leric stared at his Status Screen and he saw a new skill.

Skill [Flame Manipulation] Level 1

– You can now summon the power of fire.

Seeing this new skill, Leric’s eyes shone with delight. “I should recover and start refining the pill for father. It would be difficult to explain if someone sees me here.”

He then sat up straight and took a few more herbs from the stock room and began absorbing world essence from the herbs by eating them crazily.

Chomp! Chomp!

Leric swallowed the grounded herbs down his stomach and directed the world essence to his Hegel.

After less than ten minutes, Leric opened his eyes from his meditation and gathered the ingredients he needed to refine the pill for his father.

“We don’t have books about alchemy recipes so I could only make my own pill recipe based on my past knowledge. These herbs have the largest amount of world essence within them. I should be able to create a pill with these.” Leric closed his eyes as he absorbed the knowledge brought by his new talent [Alchemist].

When he opened his eyes, he felt that he had been refining pills for many years! However, he also felt a bit of a headache after taking in all those information.

After the pain subsided, Leric studied the ingredients in front of him in great detail before taking an old and unused cauldron that he found in the stockroom.

He summoned his Pill Fire and a small wisp of dark obsidian flame emerged on his palm. He then used his Pill Fire Control skill to move it beneath the cauldron.

After heating up the cauldron, Leric grabbed an herb and placed it inside the cauldron. He then covered the cauldron with the lid and placed his chubby hands on top of the cauldron as he channeled his world essence. This process was called the refining process. It is the first step of pill making and it is also the easiest step since it doesn’t require a high level of control.

Pill making has a total of three major steps. The first step was the refining of the ingredients. In this stage, the herbs would be refined and their nutrients and world essence would be extracted from them. The second step was the fusion of the refined nutrients from the ingredients. This step was a bit more difficult since it requires a finer level of control in one’s Pill Fire. Some nutrients might be gone if the control level is mediocre. The last step is the coagulation of the mixture. This step is when the mixture would be formed into a semi-solid to solid-state. This is also the most crucial step in pill making and failing in this step would result in a trash pill or what Alchemists refer to as herbal dregs.

At this moment, Leric had already refined all the ingredients and he was already on the second step. Beads of sweat covered his chubby cheeks as he began fusing the nutrients of the herbs.

The old cauldron shook lightly after being subjected to the intense heat of Leric’s Pill Fire.

Upon seeing this, Leric reduced the heat of his Pill Fire by half. He then slightly opened the lid and he saw that the fusion of the nutrients was almost done. He then put the lid back and focused his attention on the fusion of the herbal nutrients. He could feel that the world essence in his Hegel was already reduced by half, but Leric wasn’t anxious. He was confident that he could complete this pill!

After the fusion of herbal nutrients, Leric willed his world essence and began coagulating the mixture. If one could see what was happening inside the cauldron, one would see that the viscous liquid mixture was slowly forming five small spheres. The semi-solid spheres then slowly solidified into a more perfectly rounded shape.

Leric heaved a huge sigh of relief as he slumped on the floor while wiping his sweaty face. A few moments later, he eagerly stood up and opened the lid of the cauldron.

Five dark green pills can be seen inside.

Leric hurriedly grabbed the pills and placed them in his palms. He could still feel the heat coming from the pills, but it was bearable.

“Hehehe! Now it’s done! However, I’m still not sure if this could help my father reach Level 3 Esper. Should I try eating one?” Leric muttered to himself as he picked up one piece among the five pills. After a moment of hesitation, Leric popped it inside his mouth and swallowed it down his throat.

It was warm. He thought to himself. He then became a bit alarmed when he sensed the huge amounts of world essence gathering inside his body.

“This...”