Numerous glassware were scattered around every corner, making the room messy. This seemingly crowded room was Merlin's temporary laboratory.
Every Spell Caster needed a laboratory – whether it was for formulating potion or researching runes or even constructing Spell Model, having a laboratory was essential.
The most basic requirement of a laboratory was absolute silence and safety. Merlin's simple and crude lab obviously did not meet these requirements. Spell Casters of Fourth-level or above could build a separate wizard tower in the Dark Magic Region and use one of its floors as their lab.
In fact, Wizard Leo stayed in his lab all year round. Located at the top of the tower, Wizard Leo spent more than ten years setting up the lab to perfection.
However, Merlin only needed his lab for potion-making and this room was enough.
"Matrix, start formulating Magic Monster Potion!"
Merlin took a deep breath and immediately activated the Matrix.
"Beep. Mission established! Checking the ingredient list for Magic Monster Potion..."
The Matrix began working in an orderly manner according to the pre-set steps. Firstly, it sorted and counted the potion ingredients. The ingredients for formulating Magic Monster Potion were rather extraordinary, and there were eighty-nine different kinds in total.
The Coagulation Potion formulated by Merlin the last time only consisted of eleven kinds of ingredients. It was nothing compared to Magic Monster Potion that required numerous rich and precious ingredients.
Merlin had already known almost all of these potion ingredients through Wizard Howl, but there were too many and it made the process very cumbersome. It took Merlin a few hours to put all the ingredients together on the long wooden table.
Next would be processing the ingredients – some were only needed in a tiny fraction, some needed to be grinded into juice, and some even needed to be dried out.
Therefore, the preparation work before potion-making already took almost half a day of Merlin's time.
However, at the prompt of the Matrix, Merlin still completed the preparation of formulating potion perfectly. Besides, to facilitate the continuous preparation, Merlin actually prepared four portions of potion ingredients.
"Phew..."
Merlin heaved a long sigh and whispered, "I'm finally ready!"
The preparation before potion-making was already very complicated. If there was no Matrix, perhaps Merlin would have been unable to perform a detailed preparation even if he studied the course for a few months.
The most important aspect in formulating potion was the details where it determined the success of formulating a potion. A tiny flame, a drop of water, and etcetera would affect the result of the final product.
It was only by relying on the Matrix that Merlin could try formulating such complicated Magic Monster Potion in a short period of time.
When all preparations had been done, Merlin followed the procedures listed by the Matrix to formulate the potion, one step at a time. First heating, grinding, adding water, drying, etcetera. After a series of steps...
Finally, the Magic Monster Potion was formulated. However, further examination was needed to determine if the formulation was a success or failure.
"Matrix, check if it meets the criteria of Magic Monster Potion."
Merlin has previously used the Matrix to record the color, composition, and so on of Magic Monster Potion, just so the Matrix could utilize the information to verify the potion.
"Beep. The result shows there's a color difference of six percent, perhaps due to an unknown change so it's not recommended for use!"
The mechanical female voice of Matrix rang again. Merlin was concerned as he stared at the Magic Monster Potion in his hand.
Potion formulation was a very delicate matter. Even if there were just subtle differences in color, there could have been many undetectable changes which took place where a good potion could have easily been turned into a highly toxic potion.
Therefore, an apothecary would be able to formulate potion and also identify the potion to confirm its safety. Numerous accidents had occurred where many Spell Casters just followed the procedures blindly.
Therefore, although the Magic Monster Potion formulated by Merlin only had six percent difference in color, which was really difficult to observe with the naked eye, this slight color difference basically indicated the potion was unsafe for use.
In other words, Merlin's first try in formulating Magic Monster Potion had failed.
The reason for each failure had to be noted. Fortunately, with the help from the Matrix, Merlin could recheck each of his steps to figure out what went wrong.
It took a lot of effort to locate the cause since the process of preparing Magic Monster Potion was overly complicated.
Finally, a few hours later, Merlin found the reason. It seemed that the failure happened because he did not dry the moisture on one of the potion ingredients promptly during the formulation process.
Merlin forced out a smile and shook his head. Despite strictly following each procedure in formulating the potion with the help from the Matrix, a minor mistake could result in failure.
"I'll start over!"
Merlin took a deep breath, and once again, threw himself into the process of formulating potion.
One time, two times, three times...
Beyond Merlin's expectation, after spending two days in the room making potions, he failed to produce it three times in a row.
There were three consecutive failures in two days! Merlin even began to suspect if it was useful to have the Matrix strictly controlling the potion-making process.
However, in the end, in his fourth try, Merlin finally succeeded in formulating Magic Monster Potion, as verified by the Matrix.
"Phew..."
Merlin heaved a sigh of relief and his tensed body relaxed immediately. Only until then he felt exhausted, hence he quickly began to meditate.
After the meditation process, Merlin realized that his Mind Power seemed to have increased. Although it was not obvious and it felt slightly different from his usual meditation, he felt that his Mind Power had definitely increased significantly.
"I didn't expect that the act of formulating potion will help increase Mind Power."
Merlin grinned in delight, then took the successful Magic Monster Potion in his hand. The dark green potion looked strange and peculiar in the transparent glassware.
"It took four times to make a successful potion... But this is already considered a very high probability!"
Merlin stared hard at the Magic Monster Potion in the glassware. According to the silver-haired old man's animal skin roll, Magic Monster Potion was extremely difficult to formulate successfully.
The exact probability for success was not stated in the animal skin roll, but Merlin found some of the silver-haired old man's transcripts inside the ring, in which he devoted a lot of space to describe the distress of preparing this Magic Monster Potion.
The silver-haired old man once collected more than ten portions of ingredients after a painstaking process. He spent about a month's time in a secret place formulating Magic Monster Potion and without exception, all his efforts ended up in vain.
After all, Magic Monster Potion was a very complicated potion. Even if it was prepared by Wizard Howl, the success rate would not exceed ten percent. Hence, Merlin's chance was unusually high.
"Magic Monster Potion needs to be consumed in a stable state of Mind Power."
Merlin remembered some taboos about consuming Magic Monster Potion – those with unstable Mind Power were not encouraged to consume it. Therefore, Merlin had no choice but to take a few days off ready himself for consumption of Magic Monster Potion.
…
Five days later, Merlin felt that his Mind Power had reached its peak and he was ready to consume Magic Monster Potion.
Magic Monster Potion enabled the silver-haired old man of poor qualifications to acquire the Mind Power of a Third-level Spell Caster. This alone was enough to prove the extraordinary strength of Magic Monster Potion.
However, these kinds of potions could have strong effects on Mind Power. One careless move and it could be counterproductive. Therefore, there was still risk in consuming Magic Monster Potion, and one would need to practice caution while doing so.
Soon, Merlin adjusted his state and consumed Magic Monster Potion. Suddenly, he felt his entire body floating in the air. It was as if there was a gush of heat that flowed through his mind. The rapid expansion was making him extremely uncomfortable.
This feeling lasted for a few hours. Even meditation was not able to calm it down, hence Merlin had no choice but to endure it silently.
A few hours later, the discomfort in Merlin's body disappeared. He took a quick check at his Mind Power. The observation put Merlin in a great shock as his Mind Power had increased by almost thirty percent!
A thirty percent growth in Mind Power was almost equivalent to the result Merlin would acquire after meditating for half a year.
"Wow!"
Merlin could not help but be surprised. He tried hard to suppress the excitement surging in his body. If he was able to formulate more Magic Monster Potion, then he would yield an effective result than an Intermediate-level Meditation spell.
Unfortunately, there were only two portions of ingredients left for Magic Monster Potion in the silver-haired old man's ring. Merlin did not dare to use it simply, fearing that he might waste these precious potion ingredients.
Seeing as his Mind Power had increased by thirty percent, the idea of constructing a First-level spell rose in Merlin's mind again. In fact, this thought had long been in the back of his mind, but it had not been carried out because his Mind Power was not strong enough.
Now, with Magic Monster Potion, Merlin's Mind Power was almost infinitely close to a Second-level Spell Caster's. With such an expansive Mind Power, there would not be a big issue even if his attempt to construct a First-level spell ended up in a failure.
There were only about ten days left to the Dark Magic Region conference, and Merlin was eager to improve his strength!
At the thought of this, Merlin immediately activated the Matrix.
"Matrix, start analyzing the Spell Model of First-level Furious Flame!"
First-level Furious Flame was the Spell Model selected by Merlin to construct based on Fireball.
During his time in the Dark Magic Region, Merlin gradually learned more about Spell Models. Choosing the right spell was essential, especially in the time of an upgrade.
For example, one would have to construct a First-level spell based on a Zero-level spell in addition to constructing a First-level spell Model which was the most suitable for the Spell Caster. It was also necessary to look at the compatibility between this specific Spell Model with the Zero-level spell which had been simulated in the Awareness.
The concept of compatibility between spells was another complicated issue. It required complex calculations and long-term derivation to determine the compatibility rate between two Spell Models.
Due to this reason, numerous Entrance-level Spell Casters were not able to level up as First-level Spell Casters. Without a certain compatibility, the conflicts between spells would eventually lead to instability of the Spell Model even after a successful construction.
It was exactly because the Zero-level spells in Laurinka's Awareness were incompatible with the Furious Flame's Spell Model that she kept failing to construct it. That eventually left her no choice but to leave the Dark Magic Region.
However, Merlin never had to worry about the compatibility between Spell Models. He knew that the Matrix was the best at various calculations. As long as it was among Spell Models, anything could be calculated and analyzed, before acquiring a compatibility rate.
Merlin only needed to choose a spell with the highest degree of compatibility and ensure it was within the absolute safe category.
"Beep. The analysis is over. A total of 113,650 Spell Models have been reconstructed!"
The voice of the Matrix sounded again. Based on the original Furious Flame's Spell Model, it had reconstructed more than eleven thousand Spell Models for Merlin to choose from.
This time, Merlin exercised more caution in his selection. In addition to the stability of Spell Model, he had to select a Spell Model which had a higher compatibility with Fireball's Spell Model, so the process to construct a First-level spell would go smoothly.
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