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After relaxing on the grass plain for a while, I parted ways with sis and returned to the Starting City of Michelangelo.
“I wanted to do something else,” said Sis. Sis was truly a beta tester, and even amongst the players, she was called the most fore running player.

And she would really rather explore the new areas that were closed during the beta period than to kill time around the starting city.
And because of that, we parted ways.

“Now then, what should I do?”
It’s still a while before the agreed time with the people who invited me to the game, my classmates and also my best friends, Yuuki and Kouya.

Should I play around with Alchemy until then?
I have item drops from the slimes that I slayed earlier anyway, so let’s try transfuse it.
Following were the loots from the subjugation of the slimes:

『Slime Jelly』× 1
『Slime Core』× 5

Looking at the item quantity, it seemed like Slime Jelly was a rare drop.

“Hmm…”
I immediately took out the “Copper Scale” to check whether the drop items were valid Alchemy materials or not.
I refrained from experimenting with the Slime Jelly since I only have one of them.
It might be a rare drop after all. Might.

I put a slime core on the left side plate to check whether or not I can convert it up.
When I placed it, the scale started tipping.

As I expected, it can be converted upwards.
I continued putting more and more on the same plate. I hoped to have enough to upper convert it, but… even after putting all my 『Slime Core』s, the scale didn’t reach an equilibrium.

“It’s too few for an upper conversion huh…”
I moved a slime core to the right plate to check if I can lower convert it.
Only one should be necessary for a lower conversion.

“Lower Conversion!”
However, Lower Conversion didn’t activate.
“Lower Conversion!”
I called it out once again, but nothing changed on the “Copper Scale”.

This must mean that 『Slime Core』cannot be lower converted.

“Uuun….”
Even though I have gotten some new ingredients, how disappointed.
Well, these things happen.
Alchemy is really challenging.

It was a notification for a friend message from the effeminate guy from the skill shop, George.

I can hear a frown naturally growing on George’s freaky voice.

George is a god.

George is a saint!

I dashed towards George’s ☆ Skill Arts Shop.

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“Here it is♪”
I arrived at the ‘arts’ shop and received a few alchemy tools.

“Thank you very much.”
After expressing my gratitude, I immediately check the tools’ description.

When I received the rod from the effeminate guy, I get a strange feeling.

“The Alchemy ability『Mixing』huh…”
“Let’s see. Little angel has only learnt the Alchemy skill recently, so mixing is still beyond you…”
“You’re right… I have only learnt 『Conversion』.”

“I heard that Alchemy is painful to nurture. If you invest skill points into Alchemy, then that’s fewer points for combat skills.”

According to George, skills can be categorized into three categories.
The first one is combat skills. Magic and martial skills fall under this. The second one is production skills like blacksmith and cooking. The third one is hybrid skills, a skill that can be used both in combat and for production. Alchemy falls under this skill.
“When it comes to hybrid skills, even though they are useful, their level are a little hard to raise. Having said that, rather than putting precious skill points into alchemy, a wild card, it is recommended to invest in combat skills and production skills instead. Right now, players that invest a large amount of time into Alchemy… is none.”
“The scarcity of skill points… huh.”

I have completely forgotten about it. When I level up to level 2, I received 15 skill points!

Can I learn “Mixing” if I put these points into Alchemy!?

I immediately start to allocate 1 skill point to Alchemy.

“Hmm.”
“Is there something wrong?”
“Ah, no. I am allocating skill points into Alchemy.”

Hmm. I learnt an ability that I can use together with Upper Conversion and Lower Conversion.
I invest additional points into Alchemy.

“Ooh!”
“Oh my, did you learn a new ability?”
Ignoring the effeminate guy who is grinning while watching over me, I read the ability’s description.

Increase the failure rate of “conversion”..?
Hmm. It is another ability that uses MP.
I might need to spend some level points on MP in the future.

My remaining skill points is 11.
Let’s keep investing more.

“I finally got it!”
“Oh my. Did you understand something?”

My remaining skill points is 7.
In conclusion, I had to spend 8 points into Alchemy in order to learn Mixing. It can’t be helped.
However, the proper way to do alchemy has to be mixing!
To get a new item by mixing ingredients together!
I’m getting excited.

“Let’s start mixing!”
I exclaimed loudly to George.

“Eeh? You already learnt Mixing!? My friend who also has the Alchemy skill told me that it would take a week though.”

Probably that friend of his went through the slow path, to increase the Alchemy level by proficiency.

“I put skill points into it.”
“Little angel… are you sure you don’t want to put them into a combat skill?”
“Yes.”
I will put combat off for later. Let’s try Mixing for now.

I took out the alchemy tool, “Copper Mixing Cauldron”.

The Copper Mixing Cauldron looked like a regular copper bulky cauldron.
Inside the cauldron, there was pitch-black liquid, with grains of sparkle in it. They looked like a night sky with twinkling stars.
It’s as if the night sky itself was in it.
It looked like I only need to throw the mixing materials in it.

These two new materials here may be “mixing” materials.

The description of『Slime Jelly』doesn’t have any info related to Alchemy, but『Slime Core』’s seem to have one..

“A good affinity with liquid…”

Liquids that I have on hand would be those that I created with Alchemy before,『Sewer Water』× 5,『Muddy Water』× 12, and『Water』× 10.

Firstly, I dropped the Slime Core into the “Copper Mixing Cauldron”.
I looked into the cauldron, and there was no apparent change to the night sky view.
Next, I took out “Water” from my item storage. And before I pour it into the cauldron, a change started to appear.

Cloudy smoke started to come out of the cauldron.
The sparkle of the liquid dulled and become dreadful.

“Hmm?”
I didn’t know what this mean, so I trickled the water into the cauldron.

An assist log appeared, giving me directions.
I start stirring with the “Mixing Ladle”

“Uh-huh..?”

A stream of system logs came at me out of nowhere.

Heat control?
Is there even a way to regulate that… oh, there it is.

There are a “Strong”, a “Medium”, and a “Weak” button on the cauldron (LOL).
It looked like a simplified version of induction heating.
Right now, it seem to be set to medium heat.

So, control the heat while… keeping watch of the cauldron…

The smell… nothing noteworthy.
The color is… cloudy night sky.
The appearance… no particular change… no, it started bubbling!

Uh, is this that thing, where I have to time my stirring when it is boiling, so that the content won’t get burnt?
Furthermore, should I shift the heat to low?
Let’s both stir it quickly and lower the heat for now.

And then the stickiness… no change in particular.

“Hmm, you are babbling.”
“You look like a cute little witch!”

I return my attention back to the cauldron on George’s giggle.
After a while, red fume started blowing out of the cauldron.
And after that.

Whoosh! A lot of red smoke came out of the cauldron at once.
Looks like the ingredients inside were burnt.

“Are you for real…”

My “Water” and “Slime Core” was…

“Does that indicate that it failed?”
“Ye-es…”
“Oh my. Please cheer up.”
“But, my precious slime core was…”
“Well, success is preceded by failure, don’t they say?”
“sigh”

“You know, this Clan Clan game has a lot to discover. People only become adventurers because there are undiscovered places. Solving riddles you already know the answers to, or going to places you’ve seen before, doesn’t impress you very much, does it?”

He has a point.
We are in an era where we can see places we have never visited before from the comfort of our homes thanks to the advancement of science.
On the contrary, only rich people and travelers would think of going to places unbeknown to humanity.

“It’s good that you can run into wonderful discoveries in Clan Clan ♪”
His both eyes, painted with very shocking pink eyeshadow, were bobbed up and down, winking at me in a very George way.

Failed “Mixing” was also a discovery. That wasn’t wrong.

“Alright, let’s start “Mixing” again!”

I recovered from my dejection and “Mix” for the second time.

The next mixing ingredients will be…
Let’s choose ones that won’t hurt me even if it’s wasted.

I guess I should use the downgraded “Water”, the “Sewer Water” instead, huh.

I pour a “Sewer Water” into the “Copper Mixing Cauldron”, which gurgling out of the bottle into the cauldron.

And the next ingredients will be…

I suddenly thought back to the change in the contents of the synthesis cauldron that occurred in previous attempt, when I tried to put in the second material.
“Could it be that the material matter?”

To test that theory, I look into the cauldron that I have poured two bottles of “Sewer Water” into. The view in it is even darker and cloudier than usual.
This result should have been expected. This dark clouds, as if it were about to rain.
I might have chosen my ingredient badly.

Next, I dropped “Pebbles”, the downgraded version of “Chipped Stone” into the cauldron. The view inside the cauldron was polluted even further

“Hmmm…”
……what ingredient would be a match with “Sewer Water”.
Ah, there’s that one!

The “Clear Leaf”, an upgraded weed. That name might imply that it can purify sewer water.
When I let go of the “Clear Leaf” to let it fall into the mixing cauldron, the inside returned into a beautiful night sky.

I feel like this color is a good color.
Maybe, the weather inside is related to the mixing success chance. It implied the compatibility of the ingredients after all.

If it is clear, then it has a high chance of success.
If cloudy, then it’s going south.
If it is raining, then it failed.
Maybe it’s like that?

Holding onto that hypothesis, I put two handfuls of “Clear Leaf” into the cauldron.

“…it’s grass, which is usually decocted over low heat if I remember correctly.”
I set the heat to low, and I stir it slowly.
The night sky view inside the cauldron was getting dominated by the brown color from “Sewer Water”.

This… what should I do? Is it fine if it has this color?
Furthermore, the cauldron started to simmer and boil.
In the end, the brown color turned into a beautiful shade of green.
Hmm, this… is this the purification of “Sewer Water” by “Clear Leaf”? Did it do it?
I keep the heat as is but stir it quicker.
I somehow felt that grass shouldn’t be left to boil for too long and let it break down.
Do I need to finish mixing the grass before it boils for too long?

Inside the cauldron, the green color was dominating the brown color, and it immediately turned into pure green.

Furthermore, blue smoke was coming out of the cauldron.

“Hmm?”

Soon after that──

“Ooohhhh”
“Oh my, looks like it succeeded this time.”
With a giggle and a smile, George lovingly congratulated me on my success.
It felt a little weird, but, well, it isn’t like I’m unhappy about it.

“It’s finally here…”
An essential item in any RPG, potion. And the ingredient for that thing is in my hand!

“What is it? I wonder what material did you make~?”
“Seems like it is a potion ingredient.”

“Oh my? I did feel like I have heard that making a potion ingredient is time-consuming.”
“Nn. Can you tell me more about it?”

“If I remember correctly, if you manage to “Upper Convert” “Water” three times successfully, you can get the base ingredient of potions, “Pure Water”.”

Upper convert “Water” three times…
I have learnt that “Water”‘s upper conversion is “High Quality Water”, but I need to convert it two more times, I guess?

So it would be “Water” → “High Quality Water” → “?” → “Pure Water”

Each step of conversion, “Water”‘s in particular, takes 10 units every one time, so in order to convert it thrice in order to make “Pure Water”… wouldn’t I need 100 units of “Water”…?

The “Purified Water” that I made just now was made with “Sewer Water”, a failed product of “Water” upper conversion, so…
“There’s still a long way to go…?”
“True. That’s why Alchemy isn’t popular.”
George sighs wistfully.

I see.
It takes a lot of effort even to make a potion.
There’s no other way to make an upgraded version of “Water” than to synthesize anything I can lay my hands on to make potions huh.

“Haa…”

In the face of the prospect of needing to gather one hundred units of “Water” in the future, the “Purified Water” I have is now worthless.

Well, since that seems to be the case, let’s throw it into the mixing cauldron.

“All right then, what else should I mix next?” I said that to myself in order to encourage myself.
“That’s the spirit, little angel ♪”, interjected George.

As George continued to cheer me on beside me, I held up the second material to be put into the ‘mixing cauldron’ over the mixing cauldron. Currently, the cauldron’s inside looks like it is cloudy and raining.
I decided on my last remaining slime core as the material.

There’s no avoiding it, so I drop the “Slime Core” into the “Copper Mixing Cauldron”.

It’s now a clear starry sky.

“Ooo-”
As expected of an item that is said to have a good affinity with liquid.
However, it should have been cloudy back then when I mixed “Slime Core” and “Water” together. I wonder if this means Slime Core is more compatible with “Purified Water” than “Water”?

Anyhow, I have dropped the Slime Core into the cauldron.

Let’s start Mixing it.
The “Slime Core” right now looked like a blue pebble.

In other words, if it isn’t hot enough, it won’t melt and mix with the “Purified Water”. And with that, I raise the temperature of the “Copper Mixing Cauldron”.
As I imagined, the Slime Core diluted, and the blueness spread inside the cauldron, mixing with the green color of the “Purified Water”.

It looked okay at first glance. Green smoke came out along with a bubbling sound.
As if I was cooking something and burning it, I had a sense of premonition and lower the heat of the “Copper Mixing Cauldron” until it is at weak heat.

Gradually, the bubbling sound stopped along with the green smoke.

Maintaining that situation, I slowly stir the content. Inside the cauldron, it steadily turns into clear emerald green color, and blue smoke start arising.

Apparently, whereas red smoke signified failure, blue smoke signified success!

“Ooohhhh! I made it!!!”
“Oh my, congratulation ♪”

Hehehe.
An Emerald Tear eh.

As expected, Alchemy is wonderful.
I don’t know anything about the Ancient Heavenly Dynasty, but I may have restored one of its legacies, maybe.

In the face of Alchemy, flow of time is insignificant. No, I, Taro, the upcoming great alchemist, will transcend even time.

Fuwahahaha.

Isn’t this a good result?

My path to master alchemy has only started from here.
It is only my first consumable item, but I have managed to resurrect a dynasty. That’s fitting for me.

“Very happy, are we? By the way, did another ingredient turn up?”
It was like a bucket of cold water was dumped onto a great alchemist who has transcended even time. Don’t ruin my moment, you effeminate man!

“It isn’t an ingredient. It is a fully-fledged item, a potion that succeeded the will of past time.”
He. You ******* wouldn’t be able to understand the beauty of Alchemy.
“Haaaa~~………”
As I expected. Alchemy is the ultimate embodiment of wisdom, you guys can’t even master a micron of it.
“…Nn?”
The effeminate guy continued staring at me while smiling.
“What?”
“Eeer… can you repeat what you just said? ♪”
“I said, I just made something that’s like a potion.”
“Hmm…”
George’s eyes suddenly bulged out and his mouth open agape.
“Haaaaa!?”
His eyes bugled out so much I wondered if they would pop out or not, and those same eyes are looking at me. Those eyes, as if saying that he can’t believe it, made me feel bad. I wish he would stop it immediately.
His falsetto is also disgusting.

Somehow, my vigor as an Alchemist was thrown over with a damp towel.

“Eh, wait a minute. If you made a potion that easily, then there wouldn’t be any need to buy expensive potions from the NPC. Are you serious? If you are, then it would be revolutionary!?”
People tend to be like this.
If I get excessively praised for nothing big, then, on the contrary, I would feel uncomfortable.

“…it isn’t something that big. As you can see, it is just something made with the beginner alchemy skill.”
“EEEEEEEEH!?”

George, you are noisy.
But well, how do say this?
Now you see the greatness of Alchemy, haven’t you?
I don’t know why, but I feel a little happy.

“Wait wait wait, I have never heard of anyone making a potion this early into the game, you know!?”
What are you talking about, George?
Didn’t you look over me and witness it with your own eyes?

The fact that I managed to make a potion with “Mixing” is also thanks to you, you know?
You first gave me the first Alchemy kit, “Copper Scale”, and then you gave me “Copper Mixing Cauldron” and “Stirring Pole”.
I haven’t forgotten the favor I owe you just because you are an effeminate man, just because you have thick makeup, just because you have a punch perm.

I don’t think I can repay the favor I received from George, albeit grossly, with something as dull as this, but I want to show my gratitude in my own way here.

“George-san.”
“Yes!? What could it be, little angel? Now that I look carefully, it really is a potion, isn’t it?”

This is the true charm of online games, communication between players.

It’s a shame that the first person I communicate with was an effeminate guy, but it was nonetheless a happy event.

“George-san, you have taught me a lot of things.”
“Nn?”

“You also gave me some Alchemy tools.”
“Yes?”

“This is a commemorative item of the first time I made a decent item with Alchemy.”

I took out a sparkling green bottle and held the “Emerald Tear + 1” out towards him.
“Please accept this.”

The item has been given away.
George, who has confirmed it through his log, has his mouth open even wider than before, I can even see his uvula.
That’s an impressive reproduction detail from the Clan Clan side. I’m impressed, but I still feel disgusted by him.

“What’s with this potion?”
“What, you ask. Look.”

Don’t make me say it out loud. It isn’t that big of a deal.

“… I, I shall take this with gratitude.”
I scratch my cheeks and mumble, looking in the other direction.
Just hurry up and take it, you effeminate *******.
I’m getting embarrassed over here.

“A green potion… not to mention, it cures 180 HP in an instant. Impossible… Can I really take this!?”
“As I said, I’m giving it to you!”
“A potion that I have never seen before! And it is the first item little angel made to boot! George is really touched ♪”
George was exaggerating it, and is tearing up happy tears. He also rubbed his cheeks on the bottle and kissed it.

“I’m making this my treasure. Aan, I should display it in the shop. Ah, but then fake versions of my memorial with little angel might pop up ♪ I’m troubled.”

The spectacle of George squirming frankly was like poison to the eyes. I’m starting to regret giving him the potion.

However, again, I can make this “Emerald Tear” immediately anyway, so I’m fine with giving it away.
“Please use it however you like.”

Leaving the tripping George as is, I left “George’s ☆ Arts Skill Shop”.

The weather outside is nice.

“Fuu…”
I stretch my body.
Everything except my heart is feeling great.
I felt this refreshed and cheerful not because I made him ecstatic by giving him the potion, but from the exhaustion and satisfaction after synthesizing. Yeah, it is unmistakable.

“Now then, it’s about time to meet Yuuki and Kouya.”

I have been a little reluctant to meet them after the poopfession incident.
Not to mention, I’m worried about their reaction when the two of them see this silver-haired young girl character, a far cry appearance from my appearance that they are used to seeing.

But, I think it’s fine. We are talking about those two.
We are inside a game too.
I believe I can manage…

I start making my way to Michelangelo’s Clock Tower, our meeting spot.

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1. Taro used a masculine me here. Not sure why.
2. I may change this name later if there’s a better one.