Arcane Innovator

We were standing in the dimly lit basement of my mansion. The flickering flames of the oil lamps cast long shadows across the rough walls of the spacious chamber.

I was leaning against the work table in the middle of the room as I silently observed, with slight amusement, Theo's bewildered reaction to the healing potion I had just handed him.

"This is...?" Theo scowled at the small vial as he carefully examined it from every angle. He then uncorked it, and with a slight hesitation, he briefly sniffed it before taking a small sip.

He then widened his eyes as he looked at me in utter disbelief: "It's a genuine potion, yet it doesn't bear any mark... Wait, are you trying to say it was you who made it?"

"That's right..." I smiled smugly at him as I pointed my finger at the potion in question.

"Like I said, I found a way to make potions without the formation... But I also found that making them one vial at a time like it is normally done is still quite slow, so I decided we would make them in large batches in this cauldron here and then fill them into the vials afterward."

Theo blinked a few times before looking at me like I was an idiot. "Is this some sort of elaborate prank, or are you actually serious?"

He then pointed at the vial. "If you truly made this potion, you must very well know that from the moment the potion is enchanted, it becomes extremely volatile... The essence contained within it will quickly dissipate if it comes into contact with the air. That is why it can only be stored within the vials, which are made from a special glass..."

Theo then sighed and shook his head. "And even then, the essence will slowly seep out, rendering the potion useless after a few months... so what you're suggesting is impossible."

I simply smiled and beckoned him to come closer. "Well, that would be true; normally that is..." I said as I pointed at the cauldron.

"Do you see that pipe leading out of the bottom? We will brew the herbs in this cauldron and then drain the elixir through the pipe leading into this closed vessel that has enough volume for exactly 200 doses of potion," I explained.

The cauldron was slightly elevated on a stand, with the connected vessel sitting much lower, so the whole process relied simply on gravity without the need for any pumps or such.

I then pointed at the shiny metal vessel. "See this vent at the very top? This is where we add this." I said as I put on a glove and retrieved a small white pellet from a container under the table.

"What is this? I never saw anything like it..." Theo looked at it with a puzzled face.

"This, my friend, is what will make this whole thing possible." I smiled brightly as the pellet slowly melted, turning into a cloud of white mist right before our eyes.

It was nothing else but good old dry ice. When I set out to acquire shares in several of the city's businesses earlier this year, one of them, to my surprise, turned out to be a mead brewery. It was a very prosperous establishment, supplying mead to many of the city's inns and eateries.

As a partial owner, I had no trouble gaining access to their cellars, where they fermented the honey, which in turn gave me this brilliant idea in the first place. All I needed to do was compress the carbon dioxide-rich air and then simply freeze it with my magic.

The biggest issue was figuring out a way to keep it cold enough so that it wouldn't vaporize on its own. With some trial and error, I made a double-layered container, filling the outer layer with dry ice as a coolant while keeping the rest in the inner layer frozen.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned back to the bewildered Theo and continued with the explanation.

"You see... this is a very rare magical substance that I read about in a certain ancient tome... It is believed to be the condensed breath of an ice dragon that lives in the boundless reaches of the Northern Wastelands. You can't imagine the lengths I had to go to acquire it..." I quickly spewed out some bullshit so that I could keep my know-how a secret.

And it seemed that it worked perfectly as Theo looked at the speck of dry ice with an almost religious reverence. 'Hmm, maybe it's working a little too well...'

"Ehm, anyway..." I cleared my throat. "After we add the substance to the vessel through the top vent, it will rapidly cool the elixir so that we can start injecting the essence into it almost immediately afterward... It will also release a special gas that will replace the normal air as it is slightly heavier." I said, pointing at the vessel.

"Is that so...?" Theo replied thoughtfully, yet his expression betrayed that he didn't quite understand my explanation one bit.

I smiled mischievously. 'Well, it doesn't matter if he understands the whole process; actually, it is much better if he doesn't...' I thought. What he actually needs to do is quite simple, and I'm sure he will get it after we make a few batches...

Then I pointed at the last part of the assembly—the part that I was the most proud of and also the one that Master Gorin had the most trouble making. "And lastly, this is the injector," I said.

At the bottom of the infusion vessel was another pipe leading slightly downward. It then split into several smaller pipes, each ending with a peculiar protrusion with a long needle sticking out of it.

"The finished potion will then flow through this pipeline into the injector," I said, pointing at the part in question.

"At the end is a small container, exactly the size of a potion vial. When it is filled, you simply close this inward valve and place a vial under the needle while opening this little valve at the end of the injector, filling the vial through the injection needle," I said proudly.

I had to order those injection needles as well as the valves separately from a goldsmith who made them out of copper for quite a hefty price as it required very precise craftsmanship.

Technically, I could have simply made a single valve at the end and then filled each vial manually, but doing it that way in the dimly lit basement would almost certainly assure some amount of spillage, as well as slow the whole process down. This improvement ensures that each vial will have the exact same amount of the precious liquid...

"But even if this by some miracle worked the way you are describing it, you still didn't say how exactly you intend to perform the essence infusion. Do you realize how much essence something like this would take?" Theo interjected with clear suspicion in his eyes as he finally broke out of his stupor and reversed back into his typical eloquent persona.

"That's a secret..." I winked at him. "But I know a mere word would never convince you, so what would you say if we gave it a try and made a batch of potions together? You can then see for yourself if it is real or not..." I smiled at him confidently.

Theo looked at me for a long time, contemplating it, but then his curiosity outweighed his reservations, and he reluctantly accepted.

'Perfect...' I thought as I went to another room where I stored all the necessary supplies. I told Lily earlier that I needed a break from my studies, so I had plenty of time today to thoroughly test out my potion-making factory. I already tested out some individual parts on their own, but never the whole assembly as the final piece—the injector arrived just recently.

I took the required amount of herbs and distilled water, which I had already prepared in advance, and promptly began to make the elixir. Since Theo knew I was an Aspirant, it made the whole thing a lot easier, as I could freely use my magic to quicken the whole process.

Soon the whole basement was fully permeated with an unmistakable scent of umbrifila as the steaming elixir changed its color to a deep amber one, signaling it was done. I then promptly opened the valve, thus draining the cauldron's contents into the infusion vessel.

I quickly added the dry ice and then waited a bit until I could sense it cooling off by touching the wall of the vessel.

'Alright, now is the hard part...' I thought as I fully concentrated on the task at hand. This will be the first time I try to infuse an amount equal to 200 potions at once.

Theo curiously observed me, but I didn't pay him any attention. 'It's not like he could find out what I'm doing just by looking at me...'

I closed my eyes and focused on my essence, gently guiding it into the vessel. I widened my eyes in slight surprise. It was actually not too different from infusing a single potion...

I realized that the mental strain was about the same; the only thing different was that the process itself required a much higher amount of essence than usual—about two hundred times more, to be exact.

However, I couldn't help but smile. 'If I learned one thing over the years I spent living here, it was how to control large amounts of essence thanks to my almost constant battles with the local monster population,' I thought amusingly.

Within a few minutes, it was all but finished. I felt a little bit drained, but nothing that would inconvenience me too much. Since the vessel was closed off, I wasn't able to see how it turned out. Not until we filled it into the vials, so that was exactly what I set out to do.

Without wasting any time, I opened another valve at the bottom of the infusion vessel, letting the liquid into the injector, before promptly filling one vial with the finished potion and quickly corking it.

'It worked!' I realized, full of happiness, as I carefully examined the crimson liquid. I then filled another vial and handed it to Theo to try it out.

Theo stared incredulously at the unassuming vial. He looked as if his whole world had suddenly crumbled before his very eyes.

But then he snapped out of it and exclaimed with unrestrained excitement, "This is revolutionary...!"

I chuckled with amusement as I went to examine my own sample. I did the same as I had many times before. I carefully uncorked the potion and sniffed it. Not noticing anything out of place, I then took a sip.

"Huh?" I furrowed my brows in confusion. 'Wait a minute...' The potion itself tasted the same as always, but there was something off about it... and it took me a moment to realize what it was.

'It's fizzy...' I widened my eyes in sudden realization. Not wanting to draw any premature conclusions, I promptly made a shallow cut on my finger with a knife before dropping a few droplets of the potion on it, quickly noticing it worked just fine.

Then I looked back at the vial before taking another sip. I thoughtfully rolled the peculiar liquid around my mouth, 'Hmm, interesting... I thought amusingly. I guess I just invented a fizzy healing potion.