Teacher Hala manifested a humongous holographic screen and on it were materials, their description, uses, and names. Above it, there was a potion and its recipe to concoct it.
“Today we will be continuing our practice of rejuvenation potion.” Teacher Hala clarified while eyeing Felix, “Since concocting this potion is one of the requirements to get the Apprentice Potioneer License, we will be mostly working on it with some other potions on the side this semester.”
“Alright, close your eyes and enter the UVR’s version of the lecture hall by using the link on the screen.” Teacher Hala was the first to sit on her desk and close her eyes.
With great familiarity, the witches placed their heads on their hands and logged in as well. Felix looked around him for a second or two before copying the link and using it to log in after them.
When he opened up his eyes, he realized that nothing changed. He was still in the same chair and in the same lecture hall. Everyone was in their places like they were still in reality.
The only difference would be the newly emerged lab next to the teacher Hala. It was almost identical to the one Felix saw during his Elemental Potion Concoction.
Two long tables, one filled with glassware while the other had materials, vials, and equipment placed in an orderly manner.
There was a wooden circular table sandwiched between them. A bronze cauldron was placed above the hole in the center of the table.
“Although I have already given you a demonstration, I will do it again since a new student had joined us.” Teacher Hala said.
The witches didn’t complain about the arrangements since it was always a learning experience to see a senior witch concocting a potion. They could learn something every time.
Meanwhile, Felix nodded his head in appreciation to Teacher Hala and entered a focused state, not wanting to miss anything.
Although he read and even practiced a bit in the UVR, he was still struggling to succeed continuously in concocting the easiest potion since there was no one to guide him.
Lady Sphinx didn’t bother to give him even a single piece of advice.
“Listen well, the 1st step that needed to be prepared is always the catalyst.” Teacher Hala lifted a long glass tube that was filled with green liquid and continued, “This is the essence of the commonly known Marmador Grass. It is going to serve as the catalyst in our potion.”
Teacher Hala placed the glass tube in its place, not wanting to explain any further what those terms implied or how to extract the essence since that would need at least a couple of hours.
She didn’t know if Felix had read books about it or not, but she wasn’t planning on delaying the class just for him.
Thankfully, Felix didn’t laze around in the journey but read tens of books about the concoction process.
Hence, he understood that the catalyst was going to be used to incentivize and increase the chemical reaction between the main ingredients and the subsidiary ingredient.
Each potion had its own perfect catalyst that had been discovered after thousands of trials and tests.
Just like the Elemental Potion, the purity fountain drops were the catalyst in its concoction.
“After we finish preparing the catalyst, we move on to preparing the rest of the materials.”
Teacher Hala placed the green tube in its holder on the glassware table and went to the preparation table.
On it, there were the known materials for Rejuvenation Potion.
The main ingredient was a leaf of Dire Boxwood. It was a big yellow leaf with black dots on its entire surface.
The subsidiary ingredient was three feathers of a Fake Vermilion Bird. They were placed neatly on the table.
“Just like you get taught in the Materials Preparation Class, you need to cut the leaf into tiny pieces and place them in a bowl.” Teacher Hala explained while cutting the leaf meticulously like a world-class chief.
When she finished, she moved on to the three feathers and removed the vane from the calamus.
Then she threw the calamus of each feather away while the vanes were mixed together with the pieces of the leaf in one bowl.
“After mixing them carefully, you leave them together for 2 minutes.” Teacher Hala walked back to the glassware table and took the catalyst.
“To make your concoction more efficient, you need to pour the catalyst in the empty cauldron right now.” Teacher Hala opened up the bronze cauldron’s lid and poured the green liquid inside.
Then, she turned on the fire and closed the lid on it. Felix understood that this step was required in possibly every potion concoction.
Catalyst needed to be always thrown first and prepared to receive the rest of the ingredients so the reaction would occur instantly.
“It takes exactly two minutes for the catalyst to be fully heated and prepared.” Teacher Hala clarified, “Hence the moment the leaf’s pieces finish absorbing healing properties from the vanes, you could straightaway start the concoction.”
Felix nodded his head in understanding as he had read that this was the method used by most witches who concoct bulks of rejuvenation potions.
There was another method but only master potioneer were capable of pulling it off.
In a short while, Teacher Hala opened up the lid and threw the mixture inside. Instead of closing the lid, she whipped out her tail’s eye and brought it closer to the bubbling green mixture.
Felix and the rest instantly switched their focus to the holographic screen that was synchronized with Teacher Hala’s tail’s eye.
The screen was currently displaying the microscopic world of the mixture!
However, it wasn’t static at all but moving left, right, up, and down with a terrifying speed, making it almost impossible to see what was going on.
However, no one seemed bothered by their inability to see the process as they knew that when teacher Hala finishes, she would play it back in slow motion.
Thirty seconds later…Teacher Hala switched her vision to her normal eyes, making everyone focus back on her. She immediately closed the lid and increased the fire to the limit.
Felix noted down everything she was doing since all of those steps were a must to make the concoction turn successful. Especially the time!
It needed to be respected down to the second! Hence, teacher Hala turned off the fire exactly five seconds later while opening the cauldron’s lid in one single motion!
Whoosh!
Greenish smoke surged from within the cauldron and spread throughout the area, making the witches near the caldron enjoy a fragment filled with life and vigor.
Teacher Hala smelt this fragment so many times she was numbed to it. Thus, she went to the glassware table and picked an empty spherical glass potion.
When the smoke cleared, she lifted the cauldron with both hands and poured a lustrous greenish liquid inside the potion in a steady manner.
A few moments later, the potion was filled to the brim. Teacher Hala placed the cauldron in its place and closed its lid.
Then, she held the potion before everyone and said calmly, “If you have any questions about the external process feel free to ask before we switch to the internal process.”
Whoosh!
Every witch in the class turned their heads to look at Felix like he was the dumbest person in the class.
Felix’s lips twitched but he didn’t raise his hand to voice a question. He didn’t have many troubles with external concoction since it wasn’t really that hard for rejuvenation potion.
What he was finding difficulty with was the internal concoction that was based on the microscopic world.
Upon seeing that no one was lifting their hands; not even Felix, teacher Hala placed the potion on the table and clapped her hands twice.
“Pay attention to the screen.” Teacher Hala mentioned while glancing at Felix, “Rank 1 potions are the easiest to concoct for a simple reason. You are not required to tamper with the molecules of the ingredients. But simply supervise the mixture and destroy the Microorganisms that are refusing to die by heat.”
Felix understood this much and even memorized the Microorganisms types and some of the common one’s names.
For the types, there were bacteria, archaea, protozoa, algae, fungi, viruses, multicellular animal parasites.
Each type had characteristic cellular composition, morphology, mean of locomotion and reproduction. Most of them could be easily killed by either heat or extreme coldness.
But the ones found in the materials used for the concoction were too tough to be killed by normal means.
Each material could host potentially millions of those microorganisms since they were rich in elemental energy, attracting them like bees getting attracted to flowers.
If they couldn’t be killed to clean the materials completely, the potion concoction would be affected negatively since they would be merged with the mixture.
For potions that require meticulous steps and recipes, their existence made it impossible for them to succeed.
The only way to destroy them without affecting materials at all was by controlling mental energy at a microscopic level.
Any other method that was tested resulted in the materials getting affected.
Felix read that the Metal Race was still working to this day on creating a substance that could totally get rid of those microorganisms without leaving a trace like the Witches Spiritual Eyes.
So far, nothing was heard from this project.
But if it succeeded it meant that other races would be able to concoct basic rank 1 potions!
But only rank 1 potions since from rank 2+, the Potioneers would be required to interfere in the reaction itself above killing those microorganisms.
That’s why Expert Potioners and above were a league on their own compared to Apprentice Potioners!
