The Insider System

Chapter 118: Why Is It So Complicated Pt.1

Lake followed Master Nancom over to a vat that was around half the size as the big one they had been standing next to while he was showing what his skill could do. "This is where you will be making the catalyst while I get the ingredients ready. Once you are finished tell me and I will start the poison brewing and after a few rounds of you watching we will see if you think you can help."

Lake nodded to tell Master Nancom he had been listening whenever Nancom looked towards him. "Ok now that you know the process we will be taking I will show you how to make the Catalyst. The first part is easy. All you need to do is pull this lever to add the fluid. It's blood so don't be surprised when you smell it, also there is a mark to tell you how much to add."

Lake had known lots of potions used blood as catalyst, so he didn't think it would have caught him off guard but it was still nice to know beforehand. "After that you need to add these three powders. This part will also be easy because there will be no reactions, and all you need to do is stir it up as well as you can. Feel free to inspect all the ingredients if you want to know what they are but I don't think it will be necessary for you to know so I won't waste my time going into detail."

It seemed Nancom had already formed some expectations in his abilities which he hoped he could match. "Next comes the part where you'll actually need to use your skills. This ingredient here will bind to all the things already in the mixture, but it won't stabilize it so you will be dealing with four reactions that happen all at the same time but with the control you showed earlier you will be able to slow it down to whatever speed you think it should happen at."

When Master Nancom looked back at him for a while without saying anything else Lake asked. "Is that all?" Master Nancom handed him a long spoon he guessed he would be using to mix and said. "Yes, the two you are replacing had the brewing time down to ten minutes but that was after two days of practice and they failed about 40% of the time so even if you need to take more time than them as long as you don't fail I'll consider you a huge improvement."

After Nancom said this he walked away not giving Lake enough time to answer. It was a good thing because all Lake could have said was something like, leave it to me, and he didn't want to have to say that. Getting up on the steps that would allow him to see inside the vat he would be brewing in.

After he could see the bottom, and the mark that told him when to stop adding the blood, he pulled the lever until it was full. After he saw the amount of blood he was working with he couldn't help but wonder what kind of monster it came from, and the amount of them it would take to get this much of it.

Using inspect a name of a monster he had never heard of came up. It was called a Mason Troll and while he had heard of trolls in his last world there was no way to know if any of that information was correct or not. He guessed it didn't really matter how they got the blood because they had it but he was pretty sure these trolls must be pretty big.

Getting ready to add the next three powders, Lake inspected them real quick to see what they were. None of them were plant ingredients, and they were three of the exact ingredients he had been grinding up less than an hour ago. Dumping them in Lake could tell the stirring process was going to be a little difficult because as soon as the powders touched it the blood started to turn to what looked like mud.

He thought he had failed from the sudden change, but when it didn't get any worse he figured this must be exactly what the blood was supposed to do. Using the information he knew about trolls from his last life and how they usually turned to stone in sunlight he guessed their blood turning into mud was correct.

It also made their name make more sense since Masons made things out of stones and bricks. After about five minutes of vigorous stirring, Lake used his skills to see if the ingredients were stirred in correctly, seeing a nice even consistency, Lake inspected the next powder to see he was finally dealing with a plant ingredient.

It was an odd ingredient though because it was level 0 meaning it was seeds ground into a powder. The name of the seed powder was odd as well, Nisysis seed powder. Lake got the feeling Nisysis was the name of a monster for some reason. If he was right this would be the first time he saw an ingredient that was from both a monster, and a plant at the same time.

He had wondered if there were plant monsters that would have the level based alchemy effects like other non monster plants had. He also wasn't sure how a level zero ingredient would be able to do anything if it wasn't from a monster unless there was something about seeds that he didn't know yet, but he was getting ahead of himself. There was no way for him to confirm this at the moment.

Pouring the powder in Lake got ready for the strong reaction that master Nancom had warned him about by activating Poison Control. Feeling the powder and the mixture he had already made were both poisonous or at least his skill could control them like they were, Lake got them under control and started to slow down the reactions that were happening where the powder was laying on top of what looked like dirt at this point.

Doing his best to stir the dirt around while controlling the reaction, Lake tried to see if he could understand the kind of effects this catalyst he was making had through the feeling it was giving off. He was pretty sure this was something he could do with the use of distill. He focused on the strongest of the reactions of the four that were happening.

He could tell it was the reaction between the blood and the seed powder but not really what effect it was going to make. After a while of not really getting any information he felt one of the weak reactions that was happening was starting to end, so Lake switched his focus to it to see if its increased stability would allow him to tell what it did.

Lake could kind of feel something but it wasn't something he understood. The moss-like hair that he had ground earlier and the seed powder had made some kind of weird poisonous energy that didn't feel like what he usually dealt with. He guessed this was the difference between a normal poison and something designed by a Master.

He was starting to get excited to see the part that came after this that Master Nancom was going to start after he finished with the catalyst. He was sure it was going to be a show that would really let him see what a master was capable of. When the next of the four reactions ended Lake once again moved his attention.

This was the reaction between the seed powder and what was ground up talons from some kind of lizard called a Fire Mouth. Lake could kind of tell what kind of abilities something called a Fire Mouth Lizard would have, but he didn't think that ability would come from the talons, so he didn't know what kind of effect it would have on the Catalyst.

Just like last time all he was able to tell was it had formed an odd kind of poison that seemed to be about to burst as soon as he did anything else to it. The next reaction was the same with him not really being able to tell what it did past it being slightly poisonous. With that all he was waiting on was for the reaction between the blood, and the seed powder.

He could see why it took the other two ten minutes to brew because with him slowing it down it took almost 15 for it to finish. When it was done other than a visual change where the dirt like substance got slightly slimy, he was unable to even really tell that there was a fourth energy inside the catalyst that he had just made.

Turning around to Master Nancom Lake said. "I'm done." Master Nancom seemed to also be finished with whatever he had been doing and walked over to look into the vat. "Good job. Now get out of the way so I can get to work." Lake nodded and stepped aside to see Nancom lift the whole vat up using some form of magic, and pour it into the larger vat that he had been getting ready while Lake worked.