Guild Wars

Chapter 189 - The Art of Brewing

Draco’s achievement shocked Richmond, Zaine, Hikari and Riveting Night. Even though this was Zaine and Hikari’s first time witnessing Draco try to move Worldly Energy with his will, they were more sensitive to it than Riveting Night.

Both of them had been born with a high State of Being, whereas Riveting Night only gained hers through a potion.

They couldn’t ’see’ the tendrils and whatnot, but they could certainly sense them. They felt that Draco had gathered all this Worldly Energy without directly using his State of Being, which shattered their worldview.

Riveting Night was surprised because the change was so great. Draco had gone from struggling with just a wisp of Worldly Energy to being able to pull such a hefty torrent, though he was tired out right after.

Richmond ended up being the most stunned. He knew that it took time for most pinnacle talents - like the old him - to discover their own cause and effect theory. It had taken him almost 5 days, and his predecessor had taken 7 days.

Draco here took about 3 days. Did that mean that Draco’s next student would learn it within a day? And what about that one’s successor...

Richmond cast such miscellaneous thoughts out of his mind. Instead, he nodded and patted Draco on the shoulder.

"Well done, lad. Now, we’ll spend some time refining your theory. You should be able to implement it in split seconds, as well as for varying means."

"Of course, you can’t learn all that in one day or even a month. It will take time and repeated use in extreme scenarios to hone your technique until it becomes almost autonomous."

"For now, try to gather the Worldly Energy into a small ball and hold it for as long as you can," Richmond said while casting a restoration spell on Draco.

Draco nodded and restarted. He went with the relevant cause, which was ’Because I am a Black Dragon’ and the specific effect, which was ’Worldly Energy gathers into a small ball before me’.

As such, it took almost 5 seconds for a small greenish-blue ball of miasma to form before him. It was about the size of a baseball, and it hovered before Draco languidly.

Even though it did nothing, Draco began to sweat profusely. His face was locked into a serious expression as he hardened his will.

He had to maintain his cause and effect on the world for the Worldly Energy to remain under his control.

It took about a minute for him to reach the point where he was shivering like someone pulled out of a freezer. Draco lost control of the Worldly Energy ball around that point, flopping to the ground while panting.

There was so much sweat on his face that his eyes were blurry and he could barely see. However, he could really feel like he was making progress. It was hard to describe in a quantifiable way, but he just felt more... solid.

It was like he had been an inconspicuous existence all this time, something that was just a small cog in a very large machine. Now that he was strengthening his will and his control over the world, he felt like he stood out.

Richmond folded his arms. "One minute is a good starting point. Let’s continue this practice until you can manage to persevere for five minutes. Then we’ll be done with the cause and effect practicals."

Draco nodded and rose to his feet again, revitalized after Richmond had cast a restoration spell on him. He once again began the same process, with almost the same result at the end.

Richmond once more alleviated his fatigue - both mental and physical - with a single spell, allowing the fellow to try again. Draco also didn’t hesitate to put himself through the torture of exhausting himself to the point where he couldn’t stand, over and over again.

Zaine, Hikari and Riveting Night were equally entranced by this sight. Draco, when he was utterly struggling against something, was beyond enticing. They felt their cheeks turn red and their legs locked slightly.

It was the equivalent of man was watching a hot babe in yoga pants working out at the gym, though the attraction value was slightly different.

By the time the sun was about to sleep, Draco had completed his task halfway. Now, he could maintain that small Worldly Energy ball for nearly 3 minutes, which was pretty impressive.

Richmond closed the lesson for the day. He then left to wherever it was that he holed himself up while Draco’s party returned to the castle.

After they left, Richmond skipped over to the servant’s quarters, his bum shifting left and right from glee. His face was rosy and had a very charming smile, but anyone who knew him would find it terrifying.

"Oh, maids~ Your darling Richie is here~"

The maids of the Rank 7 Castle felt their blood freeze as they heard the call of the devil. Some of them tried to flee, but it was futile.

Richmond was far above whatever they could handle. The old man had already appeared and seen them.

They could only lower their heads and huddle together in fear.

"Such lovely maidens! As you know, I am here to *cough* inspect your *cough* attributes. It is for the good of my darling herald, who is your Lord!"

Richmond’s words, if taken at face value, sounded heroic and clean. But these maids would no longer be fooled by his tricks! They had listened the first time and had experienced a very trying experience.

"Come now darlings~ Do not be afraid~," Richmond said soothingly. His hand reached to the nearest maid, who was a light-skinned woman with extremely nice thighs under her formal maid attire.

Richmond’s eyes curled into malevolent crescents and his smile became unholy as he drooled a little.

"Uncle Richmond will be gentle, heh heh."

The maids all cried out one thing in their hearts. "Lord Draco, SAVE US!!"

........................

Meanwhile, Draco was trying out the Brewing Tradeskill for the first time. He had gone to the brewery of the Rank 7 Castle, marveling at the amount of equipment needed for this one Tradeskill.

It wasn’t like Cooking where all one needed was a certain number of utensils and some simple ingredients to work with. Brewing was a very complex activity that had been part of human life since the very beginning.

Draco was currently a level 1, 0% Amateur Brewer, so he intended to milk the Tradeskill crafter here for all his worth. God knew he paid enough for their salaries.

The Brewer NPC was called Carlo and he was a burly man who looked, Latino. His healthy brown skin and a serious facial outline made him seem like a no-nonsense fellow.

Carlo was a man of few words. Even when he spoke to Draco, it was mostly short lines or grunts. He had barely spoken more than 10 words in one sentence since Draco met him.

Draco took it with a grain of salt though. Everyone had their quirks and whatnot, and if someone didn’t like to talk too much, they probably had their own reasons.

Carlo agreed to show Draco the basic of the brewing process, after giving him a basic recipe, which was;

｢Tasty Beer – Recipe

Rank: Common

Use: Brewing

Ingredients:

1. All-Grain Batch size: 12 liters

2. Malt grain: 2.5 kg

3. Hops and Worts: 6.7 g Graff, 3 g P.o.r.nia, 20 g Lizo

4. Yeast｣

Draco then watched Carlo go through the process slowly.

First, he steeped the grains. Carlo carefully filled his brew kettle with water. As he boiled it, he then steeped the grains within for around 20 minutes, until the water reached 170°.

After this was done, he removed the grains, allowing the water to drip out of the grain bag and into the kettle.

"Don’t squeeze your grain bag as you don’t want to extract tannins, which may give your beer unwanted flavors," Carlo spoke in his deep and rough voice, which was the first time he actually strung together a longer sentence.

He brought his brew kettle to a boil. Once it reached the optimal state - which seemed to be a rolling boil - he removed it from the heater and added the malt extracts.

Once the extract was dissolved into the contents of the brew kettle, he returned to a boil by placing it on the heater.

"The Hops now need to be added at various intervals. Be careful not to let it boil over when the hops are added, as that would just waste everything you did."

The seriousness of which he said this showed that Carlo despised anyone who botched up his sacrosanct process of Brewing, so Draco smiled lightly and paid even closer attention.

"Refer to your recipe as to when exactly you need to add hops to your boil. Some vary in timing and quantity, so one false step and your brew can end up ruined through improper control."

Carlo said this as an add-on, which alerted Draco that this sequence was probably one of the cut-off points for Brewers.

"Now, you have wort, which is also known as sugar water. Make sure to cool your wort as quickly as possible. This can be done in one of two ways;"

Carlo gestured to a sink filled with cold water. "An ice bath."

Then, he gestured to a tool that was meant to be inserted into the pot. "A wort chiller."

"Which one is better?" Draco asked thoughtfully.

"A wort chiller is the most effective way, but either will get you the desired results," Carlo answered with finality, returning to the brewing process.

Draco nodded and watched Carlo cool down the brew and the wort to room temperature. He then poured the cooled wort into the fermenter.

"Some brew kettles have a valve for easy transportation from your kettle to your fermenter. For example, the Legendary rank brew kettle and fermenter in this Castle allow for a perfect transition without losing quality, quantity or temperature." Carlo explained while his hands continued to move.

He added water to bring the level of the brew to a higher volume. Then he aerated the wort by splashing it around in its container.

"Yeast needs oxygen, and splashing your wort will help. Although the brewing kit here can handle that easily, it is best to do everything oneself."

He then added the yeast. "Dry yeast is the easiest, as you don’t have to prepare it beforehand."

He carefully sanitized the yeast pack, as well as the scissors, before cutting the corner off the yeast pack in order to pour it into the fermenter.

Carlo then tightly sealed the fermenter, added a fermentation airlock, then stored the brew in a cool, dark place.

When he turned to face Draco, his expression seemed much lighter than before. Brewing was one of the things Carlo really loved, and teaching someone else how to brew was a new experience to him.

It didn’t matter that Draco was his Lord. In the Brewery, every man was equal before the brew.

"Ales should stay at 68° to ferment properly. Remember this. Now, you try the recipe I gave you." Carlo reluctantly moved away from the brewing kit and watched Draco like a hawk.

Draco smiled and learned the recipe before prepping the ingredients. He made sure to sanitize everything carefully, as that was one of the most important steps for brewing.

He then went through the same motions as Carlo, with a perfect mechanical accuracy. Everything was measured perfectly and placed evenly. With Control, Draco could monitor this with ease.

His Void of Perfection had allowed him to capture every little detail of the brew, while his Body of Godliness was what facilitated the perfect motions. Both of them combined to show the kind of mechanical accuracy that only a robot should have, not a human.

Carlo watched this with bulging eyes and a disbelieving look. The Lord had told him that this was his first-time brewing, so why was he moving about like a Master Rank Brewer?

Of course, Carlo noticed that Draco copied his movements to the tee, but he refused to believe that someone who was ignorant of brewing could perfectly emulate his movements after just one viewing.

This was true though. Even if Draco had the Insight passive skill, it didn’t guarantee that he could learn anything in just one attempt. It just made learning faster relative to his own intelligence.

The reason Draco was able to emulate Carlo in one attempt was due to the Void of Perfection. He had perfectly captured Carlo’s movements while he had activated it.

This was one of the reasons everyone Draco met in the real world suddenly turned from fierce tigers to fearful mice when they found out that he was a Control master.

Draco and Riveting Night hardly used it seriously, so its actual value - relative to the common man - wasn’t shown. But it was in a moment like this that its fraudulent nature showed.

As such, Draco completed the brewing process perfectly, placing his own brew into the storeroom to allow it to finish the fermentation process. This would take about two weeks on average, and this could not be mitigated unless he reached a higher Rank.

For Carlo, this would take only 2 days, but Draco would have to wait the full period.

When Draco turned to the fellow, his eyes were shining. Carlo was quite frankly shocked that his Lord was this much of a talent.

He had only come here out of his desire to take brewing to its limits, but he now respected Draco like he was the illegitimate child of a God of Brewing.

Draco saw Carlo’s worship and also nodded genially. He had a gained a new sense of respect for this Tradeskill after going through the complex process.

Just like all those in his age group, he had always bought alcohol or beer without knowing how strenuous it was to make it.

Now that Draco knew, he found that his view towards beer - and alcohol in general - had greatly changed. It wasn’t something that was created to get drunk on, but a drink meant to bring satisfaction.

Of course, that didn’t mean that others wouldn’t drink too much of it, but that wasn’t a problem. It was only his job to brew it. How his consumers chose to drink it was up to them.

Draco didn’t use Aether Crystals here as he did in Cooking, because Brewing was significantly harder than Cooking. As said earlier, every Tom, D.i.c.k, and Harry could cook.

The process earlier showed this clearly. Just how many people could brew effectively?

With Cooking, you would gain immediate results, be they good or bad, but with Brewing, even the smallest misstep would only reveal itself in two weeks.

How many would have the patience to wait so long and how many of those would continue this craft to learn from their mistakes?

Not to mention that there was one more stage that came after the fermentation which was even harder - bottling.

Carlo went and took out a brew which had finished fermenting from the storeroom. He wanted to show Draco the complex bottling process and Draco activated his Void of Perfection to capture the movements perfectly.

"First, cleanse everything: your bottles, bottle filler, bottle caps, bottling bucket, and any transfer hoses you plan to use. Use a bottle brush on your bottles."

Carlo carefully sanitized and cleaned everything meticulously. His movements were precise and slow, giving Draco an even better chance to observe.

"Boil your priming sugar in water. After it cools, add it directly to the bottling bucket."

Carlo then opened the kettle and placed some sugar in it, which he quickly set to a boil. After it reached boiling point and completely melted into the water, he took it off and cooled it down.

Carlo transferred the brew from the fermenter to the bottling bucket through siphoning.

"Make sure to leave as much sediment in the fermenter as possible."

Carlo then filled the bottles. He attached a bottle filler to a hose, then the hose to a bottling bucket spigot. He then opened the bottling bucket spigot and pushed the bottle filler to the bottom of the bottle.

"Always fill each bottle right to the top. When you remove the bottle filler, it will leave the perfect amount of space at the top of the bottle."

Carlo finished up by capping the bottles with a bottle capper. He then placed the bottles in a cabinet that was in the storeroom.

After all, the bottles had to be at room temperature for roughly another 2 weeks - If Carlo was at Draco’s level - but for him, it would only take 2 days. The purpose of this was to give the beer some time to carbonate.

Carlo brushed himself down and got to cleaning all the tools and equipment he used once again. His meticulousness left an extremely good impression on Draco.

Although he planned to fire all instructors once they stopped being useful, perhaps he would make an exception for Carlo.

Draco left the brewery after studying the bottling process. When his own brew was done two weeks later, he would come and finish up the process.

It was clear that Brewing required more time than other Tradeskills, so its leveling should at least be faster to compensate for that.

He returned to his bedroom where Hikari and Eva were discussing something serious in hushed tones. The moment they saw him enter, they shut their traps, and Draco smelled foul play.

They both smiled innocently when they saw his scrutinizing gaze, which was an extremely pleasant sight for any individual to see, regardless of gender.

What were this Sun Goddess and White Dragoness up to?

Since they were intent on not giving up the gall, Draco let it go. The trio entered the bath and cleaned each other down playfully before going to bed.

Hikari lay on one side of him, while Eva lay on the other. The two clung to him tightly, making Draco smile bitterly.

Why did he feel like one of those bland protagonists from those harem anime?

As he looked to his left and right, with the symmetrically perfect face of Eva on his right, and the gentle yet slightly firm face of Hikari on his left, he had to admit that his status was incomparable to those protagonists.

After all, the kind of beauty that lay on both sides of his body were not something that any mortal should dare to claim to have seen. Yet here he lay with not one but two of them.

Draco pulled the two closer, and they were surprised at first, but they smiled and lay into his embrace with happiness. Even as their eyes closed and they began to enter the realm of sleep, they still held those pure smiles.

Draco also felt the fatigue wash over him as he went to sleep. In this life, he was extremely content with how things had played out so far.