Chapter 80

There are some who say they want the protagonist to become powerful, and I do too, but I want to write a story that is a bit more logical. Of course, the protagonist will definitely become powerful.

As the cherry blossoms danced in the wind, Misaki opened the old diary and read the words of the promise written there.

Cook had no idea how difficult it was to refine the secondary invisibility potion. With the help of the magic eye, Cook found that refining the potion was like cooking in a pot; as long as the color was right, the next ingredient could be added. Therefore, Cook successfully refined it twice. As for the quality, Cook had no way of knowing how to distinguish it.

Cook looked and saw that refining two bottles took more than an hour. There was no way around it; the process for the secondary invisibility potion was too complicated. Cook felt a bit overwhelmed, not because of a lack of strength, but because using the equipment always felt awkward. Cook looked around and his eyes lit up.

Cook quickly took out a large flask, ten times the size of the one used earlier. Cook cleaned the flask and heated it with fire, then added ten times the base liquid for the secondary invisibility potion. However, as soon as Cook opened the magic furnace, which was also large, he heard a voice that made him almost drop the materials on the ground.

Seeing it was his mentor, Lyle, Cook felt uneasy but weakly replied, "Mentor, I'm refining a potion!"

"Refining a potion? Do you need such a large flask for that? Do you know how precious this large flask is? Not to mention, will you even succeed using it?" Lyle asked angrily. Refining potions is easier with smaller quantities, as it allows better control over the reaction time, thus increasing the success rate. With larger quantities, the heating and stirring are never uniform, and with the complex process, the only outcome for Cook would be failure.

Cook scratched his head and weakly said, "Mentor, this way, I can make more at once, right?"

"More! What good is it if it doesn't succeed?" Lyle said angrily.

"Don't daydream anymore. Refining potions requires strict procedures. Don't think that a few successes mean you can skip these steps; it will be detrimental to your future growth." Lyle sternly told Cook.

Cook, feeling reluctant, weakly requested, "But, but I want to try once."

"You! You! Fine, you can try once. If you succeed, I won't say much about refining in the future. But if you fail, you'll have to listen to me from now on." Lyle was furious at Cook's words. Lyle, known as the mad mentor, was not mad in other aspects but was fanatically dedicated to the procedures and research of potion refining. Anyone who violated them would surely ignite Lyle's anger. Lyle was already fuming, but considering Cook's talent, he decided to let this boy know his limits.

Cook felt relieved and patted his chest, promising, "Mentor, rest assured, I will succeed."

"Hmph!" Lyle thought Cook's words meant, "Mentor, rest assured, you won't be able to control me in the future," so he coldly snorted and watched from the side.

Cook poured out the base liquid from the flask. After some time, the concentration and temperature of the base liquid had changed. Cook then cleaned the large flask, added ten times the base liquid, and weighed the required materials, also ten times the amount. Cook placed a crystal rod beside him.

Cook took a deep breath and looked at Lyle, saying somewhat embarrassedly, "Mentor, your gaze is making me nervous."

"You! Hmph!" Lyle, hearing this, coldly snorted and left. If Lyle stayed, Cook would have an excuse if he failed, so Lyle decided not to give Cook any excuses.

Seeing Lyle leave, Cook put on his goggles. His robe already had defensive capabilities, and he put on gloves before starting the refinement. Due to the large quantity of the potion, Cook had to lower the temperature of the magic furnace to ensure the heat slowly and evenly penetrated the potion. Both of Cook's hands were busy; his right hand either shook the flask or stirred the potion with the crystal rod, while his left hand held the next material to be added.

The temperature in the room was extremely high due to the magic furnace. After just ten minutes, Cook was drenched in sweat, but he had no time to wipe it away, focusing on the reactions in the flask. Based on the colors seen through the magic eye, he decided whether to heat or stir. It took Cook ten minutes to complete three steps.

Lyle, on the other side, watched Cook through a crystal ball. Seeing Cook clumsily stir the potion with the crystal rod, Lyle coldly snorted.

"Puff!" Cook slowly poured the material in his left hand into the potion, causing a violent reaction and making the flask jump.

"Damn, I added too much this time. The reaction is too intense," Cook cursed, using his right hand to hold the flask firmly.

The intense reaction finally subsided, and Cook felt a burning pain in his right hand. However, he continued to add materials and stir with the crystal rod, while the magic eye continuously monitored the reactions in the flask.

"This kid is actually going to succeed," Lyle muttered, looking at the color of the potion in Cook's flask. Despite being a hundred meters away, Lyle's powerful mental energy easily observed the fluctuations in Cook's potion. Many times, Lyle's mental perception indicated it was time to add the next material, but Cook would stir a bit more before adding it. Sometimes, Lyle thought it was time to stir, but Cook wouldn't stir at all. Despite this, Cook was almost successful, which surprised Lyle.

What puzzled Lyle even more was that Cook didn't show strong mental fluctuations. Alchemists need mental energy to supervise the entire process of potion refinement, which made Lyle curious about how Cook managed it. It wasn't due to magic, as Cook's magical fluctuations were too weak to support a spell.

In fact, Cook's weak magical fluctuations were due to his aura automatically circulating, slowly absorbing wood element from the surroundings. As mentioned earlier, sensing another's magical fluctuations involves sensing the elements they can absorb. Since elements cannot overlap or merge, any fluctuation in one element causes fluctuations in others. Cook's use of the magic eye emitted magical fluctuations, but some of the elements were absorbed by his circulating aura, making his magical fluctuations appear weak.

"Clank!" Cook finally completed the refinement process. This time, he noticed some silver, fluorescent-like spots in the potion, unlike the pure gray color of the previous two bottles. Cook felt uneasy and his eyes hurt from using the magic eye for too long. His nerves, which had been tense, suddenly relaxed, causing him to feel dizzy, and the crystal rod in his hand hit the lab table.

"How did it go, did you finish refining?" Lyle asked, standing behind Cook.

"Done!" Cook immediately filtered out the impurities using a specialized filter, and soon ten bottles of potion were placed on the lab table.

"Hmm!" Lyle looked at the potions, picked up one, and walked to his lab table to begin the evaluation.

"Whoa! Impossible! This can't be!" Lyle stood up from his lab table after just a minute, muttering to himself, and quickly took all the potions Cook had just refined.

"High quality! High quality! It's actually high quality!" Cook, standing nearby, heard Lyle's excited shout and felt much more relaxed.

Lyle quickly evaluated all twelve bottles of potion. The ten bottles from Cook's second refinement were all high quality, while the first and second batches were only good quality. What surprised Lyle even more was that Cook's success rate was 100%, while Lyle himself had only achieved a 20% success rate during his demonstration yesterday.

"Zagot, what is the highest success rate for the secondary invisibility potion?" Lyle asked loudly.

"Mentor, it's 45%!" Zagot, who had been standing guard, immediately answered.

"What about the good quality rate?" Lyle asked again.

"About 5%!" Zagot answered.

"And the high quality rate?" Lyle asked again.

"Probably, probably around 0.5%, with a maximum of 1%." Zagot scratched his head, finding this question difficult to answer.

"Ah!" Lyle sighed. Cook had broken the record with a 100% success rate, where only a few percent were good quality and the rest were high quality. Lyle felt like banging his head against the wall, especially since he had personally watched Cook refine the potions.

"Alright, find someone to escort Cook back. Give him a bottle of spirit recovery potion and some wood element magic cores from the A section of the warehouse." Lyle sighed and instructed.

"What... spirit recovery potion? And magic cores from the A section?" Zagot suspected he had heard wrong. The spirit recovery potion was a special potion supplied internally by the guild, unavailable for purchase, and extremely expensive. The magic cores from the A section were all high-quality, top-tier cores.

"Hmm!" Lyle only nodded. For alchemists, the price of potions was not a big deal, just like how a chef wouldn't starve.

Zagot knew better than to ask more and went to prepare the items for Cook. At this moment, Zagot vaguely heard Cook ask, "Mentor, how many points do I get for today's work?" Zagot felt like spitting blood.

"Hmm, come tomorrow. Ten high-quality secondary invisibility potions, two good-quality ones. As for the points, it depends on the buyer's offer." Lyle answered without looking up.

"Then, I'll take my leave, Mentor." Cook, hearing this, felt a bit uneasy but decided to leave.

"Cook, these two items are from your mentor. Take good care of them." Zagot escorted Cook back to his residence and left after giving him the items. Unbeknownst to Cook, Lyle had increased the security level of his residence, replacing the old lady with a strong man, and increasing the number of guards from two to six.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" As soon as Cook entered, he heard loud bangs. The room was in a terrible state, with furniture and the floor destroyed.

"Cook, Cook, you're finally here. Little Lei went berserk." The first to see Cook was Lori, whose clothes were in tatters, revealing large areas of white skin and a glimpse of silver undergarments.

"Ah!!" Cook quickly rushed upstairs and found Little Lei crawling forward, holding a large iron pillar, which was clearly from the staircase. Connie and Mitch were screaming and running around, and Little Gray was scared stiff. Little Lei giggled, clearly finding it a fun game.

"Bang!" Little Lei's chubby fingers almost embedded into the iron pillar. She swung it, and Cook watched as a beautiful wooden door was shattered.

"You little rascal!" Little Lei, sensing Cook, dropped the iron pillar and crawled to him. Cook saw that her clothes were torn but her soft skin was unharmed. He picked her up and pinched her cheeks, saying with a sigh.

"Hehehe!" Little Lei giggled when Cook pinched her cheeks. At this moment, Cook noticed that not only were Lori's clothes torn, but Mitch and Connie's were also in tatters, clearly at a disadvantage in their game with Little Lei.

"Haha, haha! Haha!" Seeing the three and Little Gray all disheveled, Cook couldn't help but laugh.

"Smack! Laugh, laugh at what?" Lori, annoyed, tapped Cook's head. The three women quickly returned to room 807 to clean up, and Little Gray followed Mitch in a panic. Little Bad and Big Mouth, who had been hiding, were also scared by Little Lei. Martha, trembling, finally came out of room 806, clearly terrified.

"Look at you, a girl, and you're so dirty." Cook, while giving Little Lei a bath, said. Little Lei seemed to enjoy playing in the water, splashing it around. After bathing Little Lei, Cook quickly washed himself and brought her out, dressed in a new set of clothes. To be honest, for an ordinary person, Little Lei's clothes would cost a lot each month.

"Hey! Dunks, what are you doing here?" Cook, seeing Dunks on the sofa, asked in confusion.

"Hehe, I came to see if you were back. Why are you in 806? I went to 808 to find you, but no one was there. Luckily, Martha said you were in 806, so I came over." Dunks smiled and asked.

Cook also sat on the sofa and fed Little Lei the already prepared milk, answering, "No problem, just switching rooms with them."

"Did it go well today?" Dunks, without pressing further, asked about Cook's work.

Cook looked at Dunks, wiped the milk from Little Lei's mouth with a towel, and answered, "It went pretty well, I successfully refined twelve bottles of potion." Cook didn't mention how many he had refined in total.

"Hehe, not bad. Refining twelve low-level potions in half a day is a decent success rate." Dunks, an alchemy apprentice, chuckled, thinking Cook had refined low-level healing potions, which have only three ingredients and a high success rate, almost 80%, and experienced alchemists can achieve over 95%.

"Yep, not bad." Cook nodded, knowing the secondary invisibility potion was a low-level potion, as clearly stated in the potion list.

"Keep it up! Cook, by the way, did Lyle mentor refine any potions today?" Dunks asked mysteriously.

"I don't think so, he seemed to be supervising me the whole time." Cook wasn't sure if Lyle had refined any potions and found Dunks' curiosity a bit odd, but if Dunks had any intentions, Cook would pay attention.

At this moment, Martha came over, handed Cook a box, and said, "This is what you just brought back."

"What is it?" Lori, who had just finished bathing and changed into a new mage robe, asked. Once you wear a mage robe, you don't want to wear anything else. The mage robe automatically removes odors and dust, making it a favorite among girls. Even with a lot of dust, a mage's body remains clean. The mage robes in the academy also have functions like maintaining a constant temperature and fresh air, making them very popular among mages, especially female mages. Lori's mage robe was finely crafted, being the disciple of the Unrivaled Guild's leader, though it wasn't obvious to others. Mitch also benefited from this.

"It seems to be a recovery potion and a magic core, a reward from Lyle mentor." Cook scratched his head, not quite remembering.

"What a large magic core! It's probably level 7 or 8!" Lori opened the box and took out a large, egg-sized green magic core. Magic cores are round (cough, if they were diamond-shaped, the magic beasts would probably be in pain! Hehe!), and when Lori took it out, the room was filled with a life-giving aura, making everyone feel incredibly comfortable.

"It's an 8th-level magic core, and it's a wood element, life-type. Wow... No, no, impossible!" Dunks, seeing the large magic core, leaned over to take a closer look. Dunks carefully examined it and then saw a potion bottle inside the box, emitting a silver glow. The bottle was as thick as a little finger and as long as a little finger, but its cap was golden with silver text and lines. This type of bottle is called a gilded crystal bottle or a magic-sealed potion bottle, used for special potions.

Lori, seeing Dunks' reaction, took out the potion bottle and opened her mouth wide, as the magical glow from the bottle suppressed the magic core's light. Lori, Mitch, and Connie all gaped.

"Cook, what is this potion?" Lori, after a moment, asked with wide eyes, holding the potion bottle tightly.

"It's, it's a spirit recovery potion or something like that." Cook, recognizing the potion's unusual nature, finally remembered its name.

"Bang! Boss, really, it's really a spirit recovery potion?" Dunks, shocked by Cook's answer, bumped into the table and asked in disbelief.

Cook thought for a moment and nodded, confirming, "Yes, Zagot repeated it, and the magic core was from the A section of the warehouse."

"Heavens, heavens, what did you do?" Dunks stood up, staring at Cook with wide eyes.

"What? Is it valuable?" Lori weakly asked.

"Valuable? The spirit recovery potion is a combat potion, a life-saving potion. Drinking it instantly restores mental energy. Think about what it means in a battle. And this is definitely personally refined by Lyle mentor. Heavens! It's priceless, even my grandfather doesn't have such a potion quota." Dunks shouted loudly.

"I'll keep this, and the magic core is yours!" Lori waved her hand, and the spirit recovery potion disappeared, while the magic core was thrown to Cook. She had no use for the wood element magic core.

"Space magic equipment!" Dunks was stunned again, staring at the ring on Lori's finger.

"Yep! From my teacher!" Lori proudly answered, having long wanted to show off but never had the chance.

"Teacher!" Dunks was shocked; in the entire Mage Guild, only a handful of people could afford a space ring.

Lori, curious, smiled and asked, "Cook, what did you do today to receive such a valuable gift from Lyle mentor?"

"Just successfully refined twelve bottles of potion, two good quality, and ten high quality." Cook shrugged and answered.

Dunks listened carefully. When Cook mentioned good quality, Dunks agreed, "The good quality rate for low-level potions is decent. What? High quality? Ten high-quality potions? What potion did you refine, with a higher high-quality rate than good quality?"

"Secondary invisibility potion." Cook answered calmly.

"Secondary... Bang!" Dunks repeated the words and then fell to the ground, his head hitting the floor with a loud thud.