Professor Zou pointed at another chamber above the vial. It led into a diagonal-facing tube that pointed toward another large chamber. “This tube is a condenser. Typically, a non-magical apparatus is used to cool this chamber, gradually re-forming the mana into a liquid state. It gradually drizzles down the tube into the collection chamber, here.”
The professor pointed at the last chamber in the diagram. “If you have succeeded, the elixir will be collected here. There are numerous points of potential failure. If you were incorrect about the original composition of your mana, the potion is toxic. If you mixed it with the wrong distilling agent, your potion is toxic. If you mixed in an extra drop of the distilling agent, your potion may be toxic.”
She steepled her hands in front of her. “And, for all this effort and risk, a basic enhancement elixir,” she raised the first vial she’d shown us, “will not raise any of your mana types by a single point. You would need to drink these elixirs for weeks to see any noticeable effect. Stronger elixirs exist, of course, made by Citrines and Emeralds. The least expensive of them are sold for hundreds of gold. The greatest elixirs are often traded for artifacts or entire plots of land.”
...So, that approach was going to have to be put on hold.
I considered asking about the liquid that I’d taken from the inside of the tower, but I wasn’t comfortable sharing its existence with a teacher that I didn’t know. I decided I’d try to do a bit more research on the water on my own first, and I’d approach her or one of the other teachers about the fluid later on.
On the positive side, I was more excited about the capabilities of alchemy than I ever had been previously. Just the existence of permanent enhancement potions was a potential for changing lives. If I could find a way to make these enhancement elixirs in a more efficient manner than the established methods, I could not only make a fortune — I could potentially change society.
Of course, I hadn’t even made a single basic potion yet, so that kind of thing was a long way off.
The class did lead me to another important discovery, though. Something the teacher mentioned casually at the end of the class.
“If you’re desperate for a method of strengthening yourself, go to the market and purchase iros fruit. They are a natural food that contains a small bit of gray mana. Eat one each day and you will grow strong in time.”
I did some research on that. Most sources agreed that they worked, but it was very slow. So slow that some sources disputed that the fruits themselves were doing anything, since people could grow stronger mana pools from every day activities.
Still, the fruits were cheap, so I started adding them into my diet. I also learned about other fruits that were said to contain other forms of mana and, grudgingly, I turned on my attunement for a few seconds to look at each of them in the market.
They did glow. Faintly, very faintly, but they did glow.
I bought lavris fruit by the bunches. They supposedly contained a little bit of mental mana, and any of that might help. They looked a little weird. A bit like apples, but with blue skin and more juice. They tasted fine, though. More like a peach than an apple, but tolerable.
Now that I knew about them, I started noticing a lot of other students were doing the same thing. The fruits weren’t served in the cafeteria, but I often saw people walking around with them, or even bringing some with them to regular meals. Apparently, my idea wasn’t revolutionary, but that was fine. As long as it worked, it didn’t need to be.
By the end of the week, my mental mana was up to 27. The gain was much bigger than what I’d been getting per week up to that point, so the fruit was helping... but not enough to catch me up completely.
If I wanted to hit Carnelian before I went back into the tower, I still needed a better plan.
***
The next weekend, I arrived on time at Professor Vellum’s office as she’d directed me.
She wasn’t there.
I sat in a chair next to her door, studying with the expectation that she might never arrive, for a good half hour before she finally deigned to show up.
Vellum walked right past me without a glance, unlocking her door, and stepped inside.
I rolled my eyes, waited about a minute, then knocked.
“Come in.”
Vellum sat behind her desk, sipping from a steaming cup of tea. She hadn’t had the tea with her when she entered. “Well, well. You’re actually here. I confess to a bit of surprise. Perhaps you won’t be my greatest disappointment.”
I sighed, taking a seat in the chair across from her. “I’ll endeavor to be at least your second greatest disappointment, then.”
“Ah, that’s the spirit.” She gave me a wry smile. “I can appreciate a bit of ambition. Now, what are we studying today?”
I pursed my lips. Wasn’t she supposed to guide the lesson?
No, of course not. This was Vellum, she wasn’t going to make anything simple.
“We’re going to work on elemental shielding sigils.” I reached into my bag, withdrawing a few pieces of paper with sketched-out rune designs for a few ideas on how they might work.
She tilted her head at the papers, glanced them over, and looked back at me. “Because you got a little torched in the last test? Pfft. Don’t bore me, Corin. You’re being reactive with that, not proactive. That means it’s only going to solve a very specific problem.”
Vellum shook her head, setting her cup down and pointing at one of the papers. “This won’t work.” She flipped it right onto the floor, looking at the next one. “Better, but the central sigil is wrong.” Flip. “This one is worse than the last one, but the third sigil is interesting.” She slid it back toward me. “You can finish them on your own.”
I picked up the discarded papers from the floor. “Thanks.” I folded them gingerly and set them back in my pouch.
“Now, what are we going to study today?”
I frowned. I didn’t know exactly what she was looking for. Something more like the sword, with unique or hard to find runes?
That wasn’t what I wanted. I spat something out without even thinking about it. “I want to make something that continuously makes me stronger.”