Chapter 3:
Let’s Make Potions!
ONCE AGAIN, I WAS IN MY BEDROOM READING Introduction to Alchemy: Part 1. But today I sat at my desk properly. After all, I planned to make my very first medicinal potion today.
I was beginning to feel like a real Alchemist, so I couldn’t help but sit up nice and tall!
“Let’s see, the potion ingredients are healing herbs, magical herbs, and water…”
How am I supposed to get those?
I decided to walk out to the gardener’s shed and ask Dan, the gardener.
“Hello, Dan,” I called out.
Dan looked surprised by the sudden tiny visitor. “Oh, Miss Daisy! Do you need something from me?”
“I’m looking for healing herbs and magical herbs. Do you know where I could find them?”
Dan gave me a puzzled look. “Well, the fastest way would be going to town and buying some from the herbalist,” he said.
Hmm, in that case, I’d need Mother’s permission.
Since it was the afternoon, I figured I would find her in the parlor, and there she was, doing embroidery with Elly.
“What is it, Daisy?” Mother paused and looked up from her work.
“I want to make a potion, but I need healing herbs and magical herbs,” I explained. “I asked Dan where to get them, and he told me they sell them at the herbalist shop.”
Mother looked a little troubled when I told her this and tipped her head to the side. “You’re only five years old, darling. I think you’re a bit young to go shopping in town.”
She paused to think about it, but then Elly interjected with a suggestion. “Shall I go buy them, Mistress?”
Thanks to Elly, I now had six bundles of healing herbs and three bundles of magical herbs. But…
“Hmm. These aren’t fresh,” I murmured, gazing at my newly acquired herbs while I walked back to my laboratory.
Healing Herbs
Quality: Normal (-1)
Status: Some time has passed since these were harvested, and they are slightly wilted.
Magical Herbs
Quality: Normal (-1)
Status: Some time has passed since these were harvested, and they are slightly wilted.
I’d have to figure out how to obtain higher-quality ingredients later.
Back at my laboratory, I thoroughly rinsed the herbs and then dried them.
In Introduction to Alchemy, Part 1 it said that healing herbs and magical herbs should be extracted in a 2:1 ratio with water. I followed the instructions and roughly chopped the herbs into pieces small enough to fit into a beaker, added water, sealed it, and let it sit overnight. Naturally, I used distilled water for the process.
The next day, I decided to Appraise the mixture.
Hmm? It didn’t make a potion?
Potion ???
Quality: Extremely Low
Status: Diluted. Almost no active ingredients were extracted. Drinking this would have no effect whatsoever.
What does “Potion ???” even mean?! I wondered. Wait just a minute here. I followed the instructions exactly! Do I need to stir it up or something? I tried stirring it with a spoon.
Potion ???
Quality: Extremely Low
Status: Still diluted. Almost no active ingredients were extracted. Drinking this would have no effect whatsoever.
So it wasn’t enough to follow the book’s instructions?
Maybe I made some kind of mistake somewhere. Maybe trial and error was a necessary part of learning Alchemy.
Hmm… Did I need to grind the leaves into a paste? Wait until they were completely dried out? Pour hot water over them like tea? The more I thought about it, the more options I thought of to try.
Wait. Come to think of it, I’ve only read one of the books Father bought for me. Maybe if I read the other three, I’ll find the answer?
I put the remaining herbs into the slightly damp underground storage cabinet and then went back to my room to read the other books.
✦ ✦ ✦
I decided to go back to the basics and read all the books. But even after I got through the second one, I still hadn’t found the answer I was looking for. Reading the third one after that seemed like a daunting task. After all, I was still only five years old; I couldn’t help having a short attention span. That was why I decided to read the third book in the parlor for a change of pace.
“Shall I make you some tea?” asked Kate, the maid who was supervising my experiments today. She’d seen me reading in the parlor and come over to see if I needed anything.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to spill anything on my precious books. Thank you though, Kate,” I declined with a smile.