I'm a proper student; I only take nine kinds of potions every day.

Chapter 130 The crucible made from my own flesh and blood is amazing!

Everything is ready.

Ivan suddenly looked around at his crucible, then realized that he didn't have a laboratory alcohol lamp at home.

However, this did not deter him, and he saw Ivan walk directly into the kitchen, which was less than two square meters in size.

At this moment, an old cast iron stove stood in the corner of the kitchen.

The furnace opening was blackened by soot, the sheet metal was covered with rust spots, and the air intake knob was loose.

My mother used to cook rice on this stove all the time, and she would be covered in sweat in the summer heat.

In winter, little Evan likes to sit here by the fire while studying.

However, those heartwarming scenes are now completely a thing of the past.

Ivan sighed and placed the brand-new crucible on the stove.

Then they put some wood and coal into the furnace.

He turned around, picked up the kerosene bottle, and dripped a few drops of kerosene into it to help it burn.

Hey!

Flames instantly rose up, illuminating the dimly lit kitchen.

"Hmm—is the fire too strong?"

Ivan crouched down and adjusted the air intake knob, only to find it too loose to stay in place.

"Simple."

He picked up a piece of wood, split it in half with his copper fingernail, adjusted the intake valve, and then inserted it into the gap to secure it.

The flames immediately shrank considerably.

The coal in the furnace crackled and popped, and waves of distorted heat rose continuously.

"First, refine the energy potion."

Energy potion, its positive effect is to temporarily increase one's spiritual strength, and its side effect is to reduce electrical resistance.

He first took out the materials David had given him and neatly arranged them.

A banshee's eyeball.

The eyeball was a strange purple color, about half the size of a fist, and its surface was moist, like a peeled lychee.

One hallucinogenic poisonous mushroom.

This thing is brightly colored, just like the ones in cartoons, with a bright red canopy covered in eye-catching white spots.

A piece of old choir shoe sole.

The material is black and hard, and the overall wear is severe. It is barely recognizable as the sole of a child's shoe, with dried mud still in the gaps.

Base solution: water.

"This material is really exotic."

Ivan sighed and began to operate according to the steps David had taught him.

The first step is to add the base solution.

He picked up the kettle and poured a little water into the crucible.

"Hmm—too little. The heat from my stove is much stronger than that of an alcohol lamp. This little bit of water will probably evaporate in a minute."

Thinking of this, he poured all the water from the kettle into the crucible, filling it to halfway.

"That's about it."

The second step is to infuse spirituality and establish the framework.

Ivan closed his eyes and held the two handles of the crucible in his hands.

"I want to create a potion that can enhance spiritual power."

As he determined his direction, he clearly felt a special connection between his palm and the crucible.

The crucible is responding to its own desires and intentions.

It was Evan's first time concocting medicine, and he was very cautious, not daring to do anything reckless.

With the target framework set, he infused a wisp of inspiration into the crucible.

The third step is to add the core materials.

"Put the banshee's eyeballs in and simmer over low heat until they melt."

Ivan picked up the purple eyeball; it felt cool and slippery to the touch, and the more he looked at it, the more it resembled a giant lychee.

"Tsk, it looks so delicious, I'll have to try it sometime."

He swallowed hard and put the eyeball into the pot.

The eyeball sank to the bottom of the water and dissolved rapidly under the immersion of hot water.

The purple substance quickly dissolved in the water, turning into a pot of purple soup.

The fourth step is to add auxiliary materials.

Ivan picked up the brightly colored hallucinogenic mushroom and the dark, old shoe sole.

After staring at the two things for two seconds, he suddenly spoke.

"Damn! No wonder this recipe looked so familiar."

"Add a few poisonous mushrooms, and an old shoe heel—isn't that a vicious summoner? It's quite a fitting description; both involve using a cauldron to cook something ruthless." (Note 1)

He made a joke and put the two ingredients into the pot one after the other.

Just as Evan was about to start mixing, he realized that he didn't have a sophisticated and professional mixing stick like Dr. Forem.

So Evan casually took a metal spoon from the cupboard and started stirring it in the crucible.

By this time, the mushrooms and shoe soles had melted one after another, and the solution at the bottom of the pot had turned purple.

Stirring with a spoon accelerates the dissolution of the ingredients.

The color of the entire solution gradually turned into a thick purplish-black.

Two minutes passed.

As Evan stirred things up, he discovered a problem.

"Damn! Too much water was added."

At this point, the solution concentration is clearly insufficient. According to David's description, the solution should have already begun to thicken at this stage.

But the soup in front of us was clearly too bland and watery.

He decisively turned on the air intake knob.

"After simmering over low heat, it's time to reduce the sauce over high heat."

Once it received sufficient oxygen, the flames in the furnace began to burn fiercely, and the temperature at the bottom of the crucible rose rapidly.

A dozen seconds later, the solution began to boil violently.

Various bubbles gurgled and surged, accompanied by rising water vapor, and an indescribable, strange smell wafted over.

It smelled like a mixture of rotting flowers and burning rubber.

Ivan stirred the mixture while carefully sensing its properties.

"Um?"

Suddenly, he felt as if he had been electrocuted.

A peculiar fluctuation emanated from the crucible and traveled to his palm.

A message that needs no translation is conveyed instinctively: it's time to reduce the heat.

Ivan immediately reduced the air intake, and the bubbles in the bubbling soup gradually subsided.

A minute later, that feeling returned.

The message this time is: speed up the mixing.

Evan immediately picked up the iron spoon and began stirring faster.

Two more minutes passed.

The solution became increasingly viscous with continuous heating and stirring, and surprisingly, the previously purplish-black color turned into a transparent one.

The third wave has arrived: Take it out of the pot now!

Ivan did not hesitate.

He didn't even need heat-resistant gloves; his hands were directly coated with copper, and he simply lifted the crucible by its sides.

Then he turned around and quickly poured the viscous solution into a pre-prepared bowl.

You're done!

Turning around and putting down the crucible, Evan looked down at the finished product in the bowl.

Slightly viscous, with a syrup-like texture, semi-transparent, and spicy in taste.

"That's pretty much what David said."

"But David also said it would have a hint of amber."

He examined the liquid in the bowl carefully; it wasn't amber, but rather purely translucent.

"Amber should be the color of a buffer. I didn't add any buffer, so it's normal that there's no amber color."

Thinking of this, Ivan's lips curled up in a smug smile.

"Looks like it worked!"

He turned to look at his crucible, its outer wall blackened by the coal fire, reached out and touched the handle, getting his hands covered in soot, but he looked satisfied.

"You're truly my own flesh and blood, amazing!"

At that moment, he finally understood how important a suitable crucible was.

I finally understand why those potion recipes are full of vague, empirical terms.

A handful, viscous, some, a small amount, appropriate —

Because everyone's circumstances are different.

The furnace temperature is different, the thermal conductivity of the crucible is different, and the freshness of the materials is different —

This resulted in the lack of a unified standard, forcing everyone to rely on themselves.

The key to its success lies in a crucible that can provide real-time feedback.

Those three fluctuations were the crucible telling him that it was time to turn the heat down, to stir faster, and to take it off the heat.

"No wonder Dr. Forem treats his cauldron like his own wife."

"You can remarry if you lose your wife, but if you lose the crucible, all your hard work of ten or even decades will be in vain."

Thinking of this, Ivan touched his chest with one hand and his buttocks with the other.

"Your efforts have paid off, with my pecs and ass."

"You can rest in peace now."

"If it weren't for those instinctive prompts transmitted by this cauldron, this potion would probably have failed eight hundred times already."

Thinking of this, Ivan sighed.

"If I knew my eyeballs were boiled like this, I reckon that banshee would come back to life, crawl out of the pot, and slap me across the face."

After his exclamation, Ivan picked up the plate and gulped down the viscous liquid inside.

The moment it went into his stomach, a strange scream exploded in his ears!

The voice was incredibly sharp and piercing, carrying with it a chilling resentment.

"Goodness! They actually came looking for me."

At the same time, the pungent taste of the potion hits the nasal cavity.

It felt like taking a huge bite of wasabi, incredibly stimulating.

[You have consumed a fast-acting energy potion. Effect lasts: 1 hour.]

[Effect: During the duration of the medicine's effects, Spirituality increases by 40%. Spirit +1.]

Does this reverse the side effects?

"Twist!"

[Reversal progress: 12 hours.]

As the power of the Nine Dragons was activated, the horrifying screams in my ears vanished instantly.

But that pungent feeling is still there.

"Holy crap! This smell is awful! No wonder it's made with old shoe heels!"

At this moment, Ivan's face was truly covered in snot and tears.

"This potion tastes absolutely amazing."

Duo Duo coughed for a minute before he calmed down from the pungent, spicy smell.

"As expected of the version without buffer, it's incredibly powerful."

The potion takes effect extremely quickly, comparable to an intravenous injection.

The same negative effects appeared first, and were then suppressed by the power of the Nine Dragons.

After taking the potion, Evan immediately felt his brain being enhanced.

It has nothing to do with IQ, but rather a feeling of becoming more robust.

He went into the washroom and looked in the mirror.

In the mirror, his eyes emitted a pale yellow light, not very bright, but clearly visible in the dimly lit bathroom.

"This kind of enhancement is different from spiritual vision enhancement."

Vision is a field of vision, the ability to see as many hidden layers as possible.

Spirituality is a kind of spiritual energy, which is consumed when casting spells, and also serves as a buffer against spiritual impacts.

"The nature of spirituality should be similar to sanity and rationality. The effect of this thing is to make me less likely to go crazy."

"The basic version without buffers provides a 40% boost, plus an extra 1 point of Spirit?"

"If this were the intermediate or advanced version, wouldn't it be like taking off overnight?"

Evan became more and more excited as he thought about it, and he looked at the reverse progress bar on the panel.

"12 hours, the oral version without buffer is double the reversal time, normally it should be 6 hours."

"What if it's absorbed through the rectum? The overall effect doubles, and the reversal time triples, it should be 18 hours."

"What if it's injected? The effect doubles, and the reversal time is five times longer, that's—60 hours?"

"Does a basic potion only take 60 hours to produce?"

"No, no, the limit for this stuff is rectal absorption; injection is too slow."

After figuring out the situation, he began to think about the practical uses of this potion.

"To enhance spiritual insight, one needs to look at things that can drive people crazy. Looking at those things will reduce spirituality, which is to say, rationality."

"In other words, this potion is specifically for taking when you're about to do something reckless. First, max out your sanity, and then go see those indescribable things."

"It's like putting an insurance policy on your mental well-being."

Evan nodded: "Okay, that provides a basic guarantee on a spiritual level."

After finishing the energy potion, Ivan turned to look at the remaining ingredients for the purification potion on the stove.

Taking advantage of his current hot streak, Evan immediately began a new crafting process.

Learning from the previous experience, Ivan didn't add too much water this time.

The amount of solvent in the crucible should be only one-quarter full, just enough to cover the material.

Thanks to the intense heat of the cast iron furnace, which far surpasses that of an alcohol lamp, and the fact that less water was used this time, the entire refining process took only 5 minutes.

Three fluctuations emanated from the crucible, and with each precise operation, the potion was successfully refined.

This is a blue, transparent liquid with a refreshing minty scent.

Purifying Potion: Its positive effect is to continuously purify low-level curses and negative buffs from the body.

Ivan carefully poured it into another clean glass and examined it closely.

"Both potions, a success!"

He patted the crucible, blackened by coal ash, his face full of a confident smile.

"From this day forward, I, Evan Ludwig Arkham, am also a Potions Expert!"

S