By this point, Draco's concoction was about to enter full swing. He had already begun methodically placing the various reagents into the cauldron, and they naturally reacted when put under fire.
The cauldron began to shake a little, which was a normal response to such a heavy brew. After all, Draco usually relied on Worldly Energy to suppress the violent reactions of the different materials placed within while strengthening them and assisting them in fusing.
Without it, he was as vulnerable as any other Master Rank Alchemist when making Epic stuff. This was one of the reasons that despite there being no limit on the amount of those with a Master Rank Tradeskill in any given Tradeskill, there were very few Epic items about.
The average Master Rank crafter had only a default 10% success rate and whatever technique they used also added on a bit of fluff. If they had titles or other methods, that was fine too.
But this was very unlikely, as Draco represented an extreme. If one was to talk about the Master Rank Tradeskill crafters in this small world, then with their overpowered old era techniques that gave anywhere between an extra 20-30% success rates, then that would make sense.
After all, the level 5 Refined Star Technique gave the same amount as these old era techniques. If that was the case, then the new era techniques were not that great, right?
This was a fact. Draco had naturally seen many new era techniques in action during the previous timeline and his estimate was that they only increased the success rate by 5% at the highest.
This was why Draco had never bothered to interact with any other crafter on the main plane. They simply could not yield him any benefits in terms of growth, while just one fart from him could enlighten them for decades!
And that was why this current scene was occurring, since these natives of this world who used those old era techniques would be able to help push him to level 6. So, as they watched him craft, Draco was carefully assessing everyone with his Control.
To suppress the chaotic concoction, Draco had to control the heat and flow of the fire, and stir the mixture in a very precise and specific manner that promoted fusing and volatility dispers.e.m.e.nt.
In this regard, the Refined Star Techniques was far above an old era method. With the foundation that was Control, Draco's timings were simply god-like, and the concoction that looked like it was continually going to explode seemed to just teeter on the edge, but never really went over.
To the onlookers, it was like being thrust on a super-fast roller coaster. They were left breathless as they watched this epic and extremely suspenseful concoction, their minds still and their bodies frozen as they watched without daring to interrupt.
Even Natasha looked on in silence, her fists clenched as she hoped it would succeed. While she might dislike Draco for his forwardness and aggressiveness, she would hate to see his work fail.
This was the respect of one Tradeskill master to another.
Draco felt the bars that had jailed his Refined Star Technique from ascending to the next level begin to widen slightly, allowing it to squeeze a tiny bit of itself through.
He had gone through hundreds of techniques in the Tradeskill Library and had memorized them fully. He had also understood many of them at first glance, so he was basically integrating them into his own technique at the moment, strengthening and perfecting it.
This slight improvement made a small smile appear on his lips, but he was now at a crucial stage of the concocting process. The poison had finally formed, and it was a dull grey color that seemed to radiate the intent to wear down all life into nothing.
Many onlookers had to step back in fear from the menacing aura of the poison, as it seemed to want to turn them into rotten slag on contact. Draco paid no mind to this and used Worldly Energy to gather up the poison into 10 bottles.
He did not use his State of Being, but the Cause and Effect Theory to do this, shocking all the onlookers. After all, every being relied on their State of Being and a slight amount of their willpower to move Worldly Energy in crafting or combat.
To see someone use their mind and willpower alone to do the same, and to do it so effectively, made the onlookers have a mind explosion. If Draco's actions up to this point had slowly given them ideas for directions of growth through gentle suggestions, then this was him using a mallet of enlightenment to smack their heads!
Many felt their minds broaden and their own limitations slowly fade away as they understood that their way of handling collection of Worldly Energy was extremely flawed!
Using State of Being made things easier, but less precise! Using the mind made things harder, but much more perfect in terms of functionality! This meant little for combat, but made all the difference for Tradeskills!
In combat, one did not need to care about how precise their Worldly Energy manipulation was, they only needed the biggest comically large spoon to scoop up as much of it as possible to fuel their skill or technique.
In Tradeskills, the more precise your manipulation of Worldly Energy, the higher the quality of your product and the higher the success rate. This was not limited to Alchemy alone, but every Tradeskill under the sun.
Draco then placed these ten bottles into his inventory and turned to the enlightened onlookers. Those who had already exhausted their enlightenment did not even bother to say thanks, but quickly rushed to their stations to get to work.
Draco chuckled when he saw this and wasn't bothered. After all, his purpose here was to enlighten them and watch them as they performed their own works so that he too could enlighten himself further.
As one could expect, those who were able to finish their enlightenment the fastest were mostly Alchemists. They had been able to grasp a lot more than the others due to the fact that it was the same Tradeskill that Draco practiced, so they began their own concoctions.
Draco did not watch one specific person, but rather the group as a whole through his Void of Perfection. His bonafide mental domain was far better than a mere eye, and could allow him to monitor everything within a certain range to a very sharp degree.
Movements, breathing… even physical makeup could not escape his senses. It was the perfect method to execute this complex task, and its yield was amazing.
By allowing Draco to view the different techniques and implementations of many different Alchemists, he felt those bars that constrained his Refined Star Technique widen even more.
When discussing bottlenecks for techniques, there were two types. The first type was one that came due to a lack of experience. These usually came about when a person had a wealth of ideas and directions to pursue for their techniques but did not know how to grasp them.
In order to solve this, one needed top practice the technique repeatedly and in different environments to iron out the kinks and walk along a stable direction, increasing the might of the technique as well as the users own proficiency in it.
This was arguably the most common limiter for techniques that was seen in most training media or even in real life. As they say, practice makes perfect.
However, there was a second type of bottleneck that was rarer but much more troublesome to deal with than the previous one. This was a bottleneck brought about due to a lack of ideas or directions to follow.
Solving this was easier said than done. The person in question had usually reached the pinnacle of their technique and exhausted all paths of development, yet they wanted to take it further, to evolve the technique to a higher grade.
The question was: How?
One could picture a technique to be like a tarred road in the middle of an abyss. If one fell down the sides, they would fall into oblivion, so they could only walk forward on the road before them.
As such, they either had to follow the road before them – for external techniques they learned from others – or they could build the road as they went – for self-created techniques – forward.
No matter what, at a point, they would run out of materials to extend the road or just become lost in the abyss. In such a situation, how does one move forward?
This was the bottleneck that stumped Draco. He knew that there was a way ahead thanks to his innate talent, but he didn't know how to build a bridge to get him there.
Now though, with the influx of ideas from the Tradeskill Library, he now had a way forward. He was now limited by the first type of bottleneck, which was a need for practice and consolidation.
He could get by on his own, but Draco knew that using the natives as a grindstone would not only be faster, but more efficient when taking the big picture into account.
As such, he spent the next hour watching these crafters work on their new ideas and experiment on their new paths. Due to the nature of the Void of Perfection, Draco was able to capture their movements with perfection.
This was not as perfect as being placed in a first-person point of view like when he was learning designs in the Personal Workbench. Still, it was somewhat close enough as he was able to experience their developments as they went along.
Considering that this included more than a hundred people at the least, Draco's harvest was not as simple as an addition of theirs onto his. It had a multiplicative effect and his eyes continued to brighten.
With a smile, he smacked Natasha on the buttocks to wake her up from her daze as he walked out of this work area to head to another. The fellows here were busy working on their new ideas, so he didn't want to waste too much time here as he had already grasped the paths they planned to take.
Natasha, who had been in a daze all this while, was jolted out if when Draco slapped her thick butt. She scowled deeply and almost attacked him, but suppressed her indignation and followed him quietly.
Draco entered another work area and repeated his actions from before, but he focused on a different potion recipe. Also, he integrated his new ideas and learnings when he crafted this time, and he felt his Refined Star Technique rise by another 10%.
If his innate talent's measurement was correct, then he should currently be at 30% of level 5, and he would soon break into level 6. He just needed to continue what he was doing, and he would soon reach his first minor goal for this Unique Quest.
After watching him, the natives here were also enlightened, and not in the same way as those before. After all, Draco had used slightly different methods due to his understanding, which also yielded different ideas to these onlookers.
Once they worked, Draco once more withdrew his 'payment', which was also slightly different from what came before, so his harvest was slightly similar, but unique enough that he got something to work with.
Draco left this area and moved onto another one to do the same thing. This process repeated itself, with him increasing the rate of growth for his Refined Star Technique which each work area he 'enlightened' until he finally broke through to level 6 about 3 days later.
Draco closed his eyes to feel his new understanding, as well as the benefits the Refined Star Technique brought him as a whole. Draco was surprised to note that the new level was vastly different compared to the previous 5.
Whether it was due to his understandings from the old era techniques or it was already pre-planned by his innate talent, this new level not only increased his success rate, but also boosted speed of refinement as well as the quality, reduced material wastage and increased the final yield.
In essence, it gave all the different types of benefits that were scattered across different techniques for Alchemy all in one!
