The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 268: Ink

More lumps formed inside the cauldron than usual, as the fungal tar Percy had added to the concoction had greatly raised its viscosity. The good news was that the lumps caused by the mud mana were much easier to dissolve than the ones which emerged due to the healing potion itself.

The only problem was telling the two types apart, which he needed to do before deciding the best way to handle them. Sadly, that would only come with experience. Or cheating.

‘Man, this would be so much easier if I had my eyes...’ Percy grimaced.

Turning the heat off, he waited a few seconds for the bubbling mixture to calm down. Only about a quarter of the potion remained, settling into a gelatinous substance he had to scrape off the base of the cauldron. His heart bled seeing how little had survived, especially since it was already the ninth week of the course.

Sure, a 25% yield would be considered good if he was brewing cultivation resources. It was enough to produce a single dose of elixir, or a core-cleansing pill, and thus not lose any money in the process. However, that was only acceptable for novices, and only because handling beast mana was a three-step process at minimum.

When it came to simple potions or potion-adjacent products like the olive-coloured gel he was currently pouring into a vial, ruining three quarters of the material was downright embarrassing. Maybe not for the other students – most of whom were still struggling with the first of Dugris’s objectives – but certainly so for Percy.

He knew he could easily raise his yield to over 60% in a week even without his mutation if he devoted all his time to this. Sadly, each alchemy session only lasted a few hours, so he hadn’t actually spent that long in the lab.

‘In any case, this should be enough for Dugris.’ he shrugged, seeing the guy nod at him in approval.

And the alchemy teacher wasn’t the only one to have finally taken notice of Percy’s progress.

[Congratulations! You have mastered a new alchemic principle: Restructuring!]

Reading the notification, he let out a sigh of relief. His Status hadn’t registered the new principle back when he brewed the healing pill, and for good reason. Unlike the other principles he’d mastered in the past, restructuring was multifaceted, involving several types of alchemic transformations.

Succeeding at one of them was hardly enough to be considered a master. Of course, brewing two kinds of products wasn’t that much better – there were still all sorts of things Percy had yet to touch, such as inhalables, soluble tablets or turning non-liquids into potions.

But it was more than enough to understand the common features that transferred from one transformation to another. Plus, he’d read much of the underlying theory pertaining to the other products, even if he had yet to put all of that into practice. Evidently, that had pushed him past some invisible threshold in the eyes of his Decree.

‘This is good. Or will be, at any rate…’

Once he brought the principle back to his main body, he’d have an easier time exploring the rest of its intricacies, thanks to his eyes. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t help him with the final part of Dugris’s challenge.

“Excellent work, Leo!” the teacher exclaimed, oblivious to his thoughts.

The other students, too, abandoned their own failed concoctions, surrounding Percy. Looking at the glowing gel swirling inside the vial, they broke into applause, honest smiles painting most of their faces. Well, except for a couple of kids who’d still hoped they stood a chance of beating him. Their expressions were a touch sourer, as Percy’s latest achievement had finally burst that bubble for good.

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“You still have 6 weeks until the end of the term.” Dugris continued, ignoring the other students. “Are you feeling confident about it?”

Percy pondered the question. Strictly speaking, it had taken him under two thirds of the course to get through the first two objectives. Based on that alone, he should be optimistic about his chances. Especially considering that the first week had been wasted on Dugris’s test.

That said, things weren’t as peachy if he looked at it from a different angle. After all, the gel had taken him twice as long as the pill to complete, for a very simple reason. The mud mana required for the gels was a composite affinity, introducing more variables into the process than the earth mana needed for the pills. All things considered, completing the final objective in time was going to be tough.

“Succeed or not, I’ll do my best.” he ultimately said.

“A good attitude to have. What are you going to try next?” Dugris asked.

This time, Percy didn’t need to think about it, having made his mind up weeks ago.

“Tattoo ink.”

The teacher raised an eyebrow upon hearing that.

“You know that’s actually one of the toughest products, right?”

Percy nodded.

Tattoo ink was in many ways similar to gels, as it also involved mud mana. In fact, this was exactly why Percy had even worked on gels in the first place – to lay the groundwork for this.

The only difference was that tattoo ink required a very precise viscosity to work. If it was too thick, it wouldn’t flow through the needle. If it was too thin, it would scatter under the skin before it had the chance to coalesce, getting absorbed by the body prematurely. That meant that he had to be extremely careful with the ratio of the secondary ingredients to get it right.

“I trust you understand how troublesome they are to use?” Dugris pressed him again.

Besides the difficulty in brewing them, applying tattoo-based potions was a challenge in and of itself. From what Percy had read, he would have to inject the ink between the first and second layers of his skin, allowing it to settle there. It was a tedious and time-consuming process he’d have to undergo for every potion he wanted to prepare.

Even worse, the tattoo wasn’t permanent. Granted, it would easily last a year before degrading, but it would eventually disperse on its own and get absorbed by the body, wasting the potion completely.

‘Yet, the upsides outweigh the downsides in my case.’

It was the perfect way to use his mushroom-based potions, as they would be far more effective when injected directly into his body. It would also be easier to use them in the middle of a battle, as he’d only have to focus some of his own mana into the tattoo to break it and force it to be absorbed.

At least, it was more subtle than having to drink a potion and wait for it to take effect in front of his opponent. Overall, he figured that having the ability to discreetly use a more potent potion at a moment’s notice made up for the effort required to brew and draw the tattoo.

The only thing he hadn’t been sure of was whether Synchronization risked activating the tattoos by accident. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken him long to learn that his worries had been misplaced. After all, the Felmarans had a boosting art of their own, so they’d naturally considered this. Apparently, the passive mana flow permeating one’s body wasn’t enough to trigger the tattoos – one had to actively gather a larger amount of mana on their skin.

“Yes, sir. I’ve thought long and hard about this. I know it might not be the easiest way to win your challenge, but I appreciate how much I can learn from the process.” Percy replied, lying through his teeth. He couldn’t exactly explain his real reasons behind his decision.

Dugris just patted his shoulder, not saying anything else. After checking the time, he called the class over, letting the kids go.

Normally, Percy would have headed straight to the cafeteria, to have lunch with his friends before hitting the library for the rest of the day. However, he had decided to skip all that today, having something more urgent to tend to.

Entering his room, he dropped his stuff on the desk, before sitting cross legged on his bed. As much as he would have liked to put more work into Alchemy or Pre-casting, the end of the term was getting closer by the day, so there was one more thing he needed to squeeze into his schedule.

Inhaling deeply, Percy drew as much mana as he could into his core, before pushing the rest into his channels. Picturing the vibrant gales on Micky’s plumage, he tried to recall the correct pattern for the boosting art, and to adapt it to Leo’s physiology.

At first, he made several mistakes. Sometimes, he drove the mana into a dead-end and he had to forcefully expel it from his pores before it did any harm. Other times, he found that his body was missing some of Micky’s channels entirely, having different ones in their place. Whenever that happened, he had to adjust entire sections of the pattern, to resolve all the emergent conflicts. But no matter what, he persisted, knowing he didn’t have long to master the spell.

‘7 weeks until they bring in the guest lecturer… I need to have Circulation down by then.’