A week went by after Alex asked Alicia and Firia a date. Then he continued his practice all the time. After a week, he was summoned by his teacher.
"You finally come back huh... I thought you are going to practice more even if I call you to come here."
"Umm, I'm sorry, Teacher."
"Whatever. The ingredients for the Crystal Pill are in there."
Alex nodded, "Thank you, Teacher."
"Sure. Is there any pill that you want to create again?"
Alex contemplated for a bit and then shook his head, "Not for a while, I guess. I still have some rank 1 or rank 2 pills. But I have no use of them. I mean, the pills are just to 'Increasing Nose Length' or 'Increasing Hair length..."
"Now that Teacher mentions it, maybe we can make some of these beauty pills. There are three of them, Hair Maker Pill, Smoothing Pill, and Conserving Skin Pill. They are used to lengthen the hair, smoothen the hair, and conserve the smoothness of your skin. I knew the ingredients for Alchemy aren't cheap, so these three pills can give us some money. These three pills' ingredients also have a monster core in them. With a monster core as the ingredient, the resulting pills are usually larger. That way, we can make a few pills with one set of ingredients. That will lower the cost," Alex explained.
"Hoho... interesting. Let's do that,"
"Let me write the recipes first. Oh, and there is another one. The Berserk Pill."
"Berserk Pill?" The dean frowned.
"Yes, the pill will make one tap his latent potential, boost the user's strength twice for a few minutes. But once the effect is gone, the user will be significantly weaker."
The dean's eyes widened. "Th-that pill will be very useful in the battle."
"With this pill, one can overturn the situation," Alex nodded, "There are three ranks of this pill, which are 1 to 3. Rank one pill is useful for those in rank 3 or lower. Rank 2 pill is useful for those in rank 6 or lower and rank 3 pill is useful for those in rank 9. But there is an adverse effect of this pill. If a rank 3 warrior uses the rank 2 Berserk Pill, his body will explode because of the pill energy."
"Fumu," the dean nodded.
"Let me write all of the recipes first," Alex picked up a few papers and started writing. After a while, he checked all of them once again before handing them over to his teacher. "This is the recipe."
The dean looked at them one by one. "These three Beauty Pills' ingredients aren't that rare. I can find all of them in a week. This Berserk Pill, as expected. The ingredients for rank 1 and rank 2 Berserk Pills aren't that hard to find. But this rank 3 Berserk Pill is a bit troublesome. I will try to find it first."
Alex nodded, "Then, I will take these ingredients with me and refine the Crystal Pill first."
The dean nodded.
Alex grabbed the ingredients and went to the courtyard. He found Alicia and Firia were practicing together. Sherry was lying on a couch, sleeping. When Alex came, she immediately opened her eyes and jumped off the couch.
"Wuu! Wuu!" Sherry looked at Alex with glimmered eyes. She was telling him that she wanted to eat.
Alex looked at Sherry and shook his head, "I'll make the pill first, I will give you the flame after I finish."
"Wuu!" She reluctantly agreed and went back to the couch.
Noticing Sherry's sound, Alicia and Firia who were practicing stopped. Alicia immediately ran toward Alex and asked, "Are you going to practice again?"
Alex smiled and shook his head, "No, I am going to make a pill for you now."
Firia nodded, "Should we leave the courtyard?"
"No, you don't need to. Although I need to ask you to leave the field, you can stay here with Sherry a bit."
"Can we watch you?" Alicia asked.
"If you want to," Alex nodded.
This was the first time they watched Alex making a pill. Usually, Alex made them in the dean's workshop. But because of his new technique, he decided not to make the pill there again. In case he destroyed the workshop since it needed a more complicated process.
"Wuu! Wuu! Wuu!" Sherry let out a sound while pointing her paw toward an empty space beside her. It seemed like she was telling them 'Stay there, don't get too close, Master's flame is so blazing. And also be quiet, do not disturb him.'
Alicia and Firia had a weird look on their faces. They somehow managed to understand what Sherry said. They slowly walked over to the spot that Sherry pointed at.
Alex already set up all his ingredients. After he checked all of the ingredients once again, he looked at Alicia, Firia, and Sherry once again.
"Wuu! Wuu!" Noticing Alex's gaze, Sherry immediately raised her paw, Alex knew what it meant. Sherry told him, 'Good luck, Master!'
Alicia and Firia also understood what Sherry said. They immediately shouted, not wanting to be outdone by it, "Good luck, Alex!"
Watching their interaction, Alex giggled a bit. He then closed his eyes to focus his mind. After a while, he slowly opened his eyes. He raised the cauldron with Mana to below his chest level.
A dense translucent red flame flared up from the inside of the cauldron. Because of the previous Quenching Fire Pill, Alex's flame intensity went up a notch. The bright red flame raised from the cauldron. Because of the dragon pattern that faced the sky, it looked like it was breathing flame. Alex continued doing this for a while, and the cauldron started to warm up.
After the temperature had risen enough, Alex waved his hand. The first ingredient, 'Ice Fruit' flew up and was thrown into the cauldron. In an instant when the 'Ice Fruit' went inside, there was a spark of temperature.
Due to Alex's flame temperature, there was a sudden drop in temperature. The Ice Fruit fought back and released its cold attribute. It happened only in a flash. Alex immediately raised his flame once more and completely suppressed it. Though Alex raised his flame, he was very careful in his control as to not damage the medicinal herb. He raised his flame temperature to a precise degree.
Alicia and Firia were dumbfounded by this scene. This was the first time they watched Alex make a pill. When there was a sudden drop in temperature, their jaws dropped. They knew that it was caused by the fruit in front of them. They also noticed that Alex immediately suppressed it. Alicia felt a little dread in that clash. The energy released from the fruit was far stronger than her own Ice Energy. Alicia didn't know that the Ice Fruit in front of them was a rank 6 medicinal herb. The ice energy released from it was enormous.
Contrary to her, Firia was shocked by the other thing. She was shocked by Alex's suppression. When Alex raised his flame, she felt an elemental suppression from Alex's flame, it was like a commoner looking at a king. She already knew that Alex's flame was extraordinary, but not to this extent. She thought that the gap between them was closed when she took the Quenching Fire Pill. She felt that her fire became much stronger after she took the pill. But, not only the gap wasn't closer, it was even wider.
"Firia, do you notice his flame control?" Alicia asked after observing Alex closely.
Because of the elemental difference. Alicia didn't feel much suppression from the flame. Though she felt the flame was very tyrannical, that was all to it. So after carefully observing him, she knew that Alex controlled his flame temperature to a precise degree. Because of this, she decided to ask Firia who has the same element.
Firia's eyes widened when she heard Alicia's question. Now that she asked about it, she realized that Alex flame's control was very precise. She asked herself, 'What if I am the one in there? Can I control that sudden spark of Ice Energy?' The quick answer is no. She shook her head bitterly, "My control was far below him."
"Don't worry, you will feel better if you think of him as an abnormal person," looking at Firia who was bitterly shaking her head, she decided to console her.
"Wuu! Wuu!" Hearing the noise they made, Sherry immediately warned them. 'Keep it down!'
They were dumbfounded. They looked at each other with a weird smile and bitterly shook their heads. Sherry was more careful than them. If only they knew what Sherry's actual thought was, they probably would cough blood.
Sherry's actual thought was like this, 'If master fails, he will be in a bad mood. If he is in a bad mood, there will be no food for me.'
Alex who completely ignored his surroundings moved to the next step. The fruit started to melt down into a blue droplet and left the blue fruit to wither. He threw the withered blue fruit and continued refining the blue droplet. He raised his flame once again and soon, a light gray vapor started to rise from the droplet. He slowly expelled the impurities within the blue droplet. The process only took around ten minutes. Because of the Quenching Fire Pill. He could expel these impurities faster.
After finishing the first medicinal herb, he covered the liquid with his flame and immediately refined the second medicinal herb. He continuously refined the medicinal herbs without rest for two hours before he finally refined the last ingredients which were the monster core.
Alicia looked at him who was continuously refining. She was worried. She asked Firia again, "Firia, won't he exhaust his Mana for continuously using his flame?"
Firia shook her head, "No, he only uses a bit of his Mana at a time. His control enables him to continuously use the existing flame to continue."
"Maybe... we should practice our control more?"
"Yes, we might need to practice our control more," after looking at Alex's efficient way, she drew that conclusion.
"Wuu! Wuu!" Sherry once again reprimanded them.
They scratched their cheeks embarrassedly.
The refinement of the monster core didn't take too long. The energies from all ingredients assimilated perfectly while circling around Alex. From another point of view, the ingredients looked like dancing with Alex as the center. After the assimilation process was finally completed, they flew into the cauldron and started to merge with each other. Alex kept his flame while waiting for this process. After a while, the pill embryo started to form. As usual, the size was bigger than the normal pill and Alex divided them into three.
"The pill is ready."