Roy glanced at the Copper Coin Allen had tossed him.
This wasn’t a Copper Coin from the Laine Kingdom, but a strange coin with a Seven-Pointed Star on one side and two Crossed Swords on the other.
’What is this guy up to?’
Although he didn’t know what Allen was plotting, Roy didn’t waste time dwelling on it and simply put the Copper Coin in his pocket.
After waiting in the hallway outside the great hall for a few minutes, he returned and told Tony that he was going back to his bedroom to practice his Breathing Technique.
Tony didn’t say anything, just patted him on the shoulder and gave him a look of encouragement.
Apparently, Tony had misunderstood something, likely due to Kidd’s previous bullying.
Roy couldn’t be bothered to explain, so he just nodded and left the hall.
Although the banquet wasn’t over, the parts that involved him were.
The rest of the evening was nothing more than eating, drinking, and merrymaking.
Unlike commoners’ parties, during the latter half of a noble’s banquet, nobles who were interested in each other would, with a silent understanding, begin to engage in more intimate interactions.
The host of the banquet would always turn a blind eye to such situations.
The host only needed to ensure that no guests were harmed during the event.
What the guests did in private was none of the host’s business.
Of course, this was all on the premise that they didn’t cause trouble for the host.
Take those intimate interactions, for instance.
If guests took a liking to each other and consensually decided to pursue a deeper connection, the host wouldn’t interfere.
But if someone were to force themselves on another, the host would be obligated to step in.
Generally speaking, this rarely happened.
After all, this was the host’s domain, and the guests would more or less show them some respect.
「In his bedroom on the second floor.」
Roy locked the door and windows.
The next second, with a single thought, he vanished from the bedroom and appeared in Chaos Square.
He didn’t start his Cultivation right away. Instead, he took out the Copper Coin Allen had given him.
His idea was simple: to have Chaos Square check if there was anything strange about the coin.
If the Copper Coin wasn’t as simple as it appeared, Chaos Square would provide appraisal information, just as it had with the Memory Crystal Ball.
After toying with the Copper Coin in his hand for a minute or two and receiving no information, Roy walked over to a pile of junk in the corner and casually tossed the coin into a box.
Then, he took the Memory Crystal Ball, returned to the center of the square, sat down, and began cultivating the Purgatory Dragon Meditation Method.
He was just over 400 Skill Level points away from breaking through to Tier Five with his incomplete Purgatory Dragon Meditation Method.
Once that happened, he would have mastered four Will Runes and could begin attempting to create Basic Potions.
The Level of a Meditation Technique was a little different from that of a Breathing Technique.
Only by breaking through to the next tier could he perfectly recreate the previous tier’s Will Rune in his mind.
To put it simply, only when the incomplete Purgatory Dragon Meditation Method broke through to Tier Five could Roy perfectly meditate on and form the fourth Will Rune.
Before then, his Meditation on the fourth Will Rune would be missing certain details.
Time passed, bit by bit.
「Several hours later.」
Notifications for a Skill Level increase and a level-up appeared in Roy’s vision, visible only to him.
[Purgatory Dragon Meditation Method (Incomplete) Skill Level +463]
[Purgatory Dragon Meditation Method (Incomplete) has leveled up!]
[Purgatory Dragon Meditation Method (Incomplete): Tier Five (45/10,000)]
’Finally, Tier Five!’
Looking at the level-up notification, Roy sighed to himself.
Over the past half-month, he had imagined the scene of himself creating Basic Potions more than once.
Yet, only now had he finally met the minimum requirement for creating Basic Potions.
That’s right.
He had only just met the minimum requirement.
Closing the notification panel, Roy stood up and stretched his limbs, then carried the Memory Crystal Ball back to the pile of junk in the corner.
After putting away the Memory Crystal Ball, he took out a small box of Potion ingredients and the Deer Hide Briefcase containing his Alchemy Vessels.
He didn’t open the briefcase or the Herb Box right away. Instead, he pulled out a table he had prepared long ago from the junk pile, moving the table, the Deer Hide Briefcase, and the Herb Box to a corner on the other side of the square.
Once the table was assembled, he lifted the Deer Hide Briefcase onto it, opened it, and took out the Alchemy Vessels one by one.
Beakers, test tubes, a test tube rack, graduated cylinders, dropper bottles, weighing bottles, round-bottom flasks, conical flasks, a distillation flask, a mortar, a crucible, a funnel, a separatory funnel, a dropper bottle, a bulb condenser...
After reading through *Basic Potion Making: From Beginner to Expert*, Roy discovered that the vessels Wizards used to craft Potions were very similar to the common equipment used in chemistry experiments on Blue Star.
It wasn’t just their appearance and function that were similar; even their names were alike.
Glancing at the Alchemy Vessels on the table, Roy opened the Herb Box, took out the only seven sets of ingredients for the Basic Healing Potion, and placed them on the table.
He had only one goal for the night: to make the Alchemy Skill appear on his Skill Proficiency Panel.
If he could successfully craft a single Basic Potion, that would be even better.
Regardless of which Basic Potion it was, as long as he successfully crafted one finished product, he would be considered an Apprentice Alchemist.
After arranging the ingredients for the Basic Healing Potion, Roy didn’t immediately begin crafting. Instead, he stood in place and took deep breaths, relaxing his mind and body.
’If I’m too nervous the first time, it could create a mental block and affect my future performance!’
Once he had completely calmed himself, Roy mentally reviewed the recipe for the Basic Healing Potion, going over the crafting steps and important notes several times.
Only after confirming that he had memorized all the details did he take the first set of ingredients and, following the recipe’s instructions, begin the official crafting process.
Grinding, purifying, dissolving, heating, filtering, blending, extracting, separating...
Unsurprisingly, Roy’s first attempt ended in failure.
After disposing of the failed, half-finished product, he mentally reviewed the process, summarizing the reasons for his failure.
Although he had known from the start that Potion crafting required Spiritual Power...
...it was only after he actually started that he understood how difficult the process was, which the book had described in a single, understated sentence.
When conducting chemistry experiments on Blue Star, one could use scientific instruments for assistance.
But now, the only thing that could assist Roy in crafting Basic Potions was his Spiritual Power.
Besides using Spiritual Power to observe and help different ingredients fuse, he also needed to use it to draw out the effects of certain materials.
After summarizing his previous failure, Roy picked up the second set of ingredients and began crafting the Basic Healing Potion once more.
As time went on, set after set of ingredients was consumed.
Before he knew it, Roy had failed five times, leaving him with only the last two sets of ingredients.
Although the Basic Healing Potion was the easiest Basic Potion to start with, it wasn’t so simple that one could succeed casually.
Roy didn’t dwell on the previous five failures. After summarizing his latest mistakes, he picked up the sixth set of ingredients.
He was now mentally prepared for all seven sets of Basic Healing Potion ingredients and all five sets of Basic Vitality Potion ingredients to end in failure.
He didn’t know if he would be able to successfully craft a Basic Potion tonight.
However, his intuition told him that the Alchemy skill was about to appear on his Skill Proficiency Panel.
「Half an hour later.」
Roy stared at the completely cooled, pale red Potion before him, a look of surprise on his face.
’It... worked?’
Just then, a notification about his Alchemy Skill Level appeared in his vision.
[Alchemy Skill Level +53]
[Alchemy: Tier One (53/1000)]
...