novelraw Chapter 126: Basic Level Alchemy
Chapter 126: Basic Level Alchemy
Back at the Mage Tower, Li Wei sought a technique to purify the Mithril.
After some thought, he realized only two fields offered a solution: Alchemy and the Alchemy Skill.
Their domains overlapped, yet they were also independent.
Clearly, purifying materials fell within their overlapping domain.
The Mage Tower sold both Basic Level Alchemy and the Basic Level Alchemy Skill.
Only Official Mages were permitted to purchase them.
Coincidentally, Li Wei had revealed his strength not long ago and become an Official Mage.
Otherwise, he would have had to hesitate and choose between spending the money or revealing his strength.
"Holy crap, Basic Level Alchemy is this expensive?"
Li Wei’s eyes widened as he looked at the price on the list.
Basic Level Alchemy Purchase Price: Three hundred Contribution. (Requirement: Official Mage)
Li Wei pondered, ’Is it worth paying such a huge price to learn Alchemy just for the remaining ten percent of the Mithril?’
’It is!’
’The road ahead is long, and there will be many uses for Alchemy.’
’What’s more, once I’m proficient in Alchemy, it can become a tool for making money.’
’This is just an initial investment. It’ll pay for itself sooner or later.’
On the other hand, the value of that ten percent of Mithril was likely no less than three hundred gold coins.
The current price for 99.9% pure Mithril was 7.5 Gold Coins per gram.
If the weight of the purified Mithril exceeded 400 grams, it would mean that learning Alchemy would actually turn a profit.
If he could further improve his Alchemy skill and purify the Mithril to a purity of 99.99%,
the price of Mithril would skyrocket to 15.6 Gold Coins per gram.
The value would double instantly.
Li Wei left the Mage Tower, planning to sell the easily disposable Demon Cores for cash first.
He needed to scrape together three hundred Contribution first.
Li Wei kept the Ant King’s Tier Three Magic Core, but he would sell the remaining nine Demon Cores to the Treasure Basin Commerce Association.
"Mage Li Wei, hello. Is there anything I can help you with?"
"I’m selling a few Demon Cores. Could you take a look and see how much they’re worth?"
"Of course. Please, follow me."
The shopkeeper led Li Wei upstairs into a private VIP room.
Li Wei had been here a few times before, always to purchase Elemental Crystal Stones.
He took out two Tier Two Magic Cores and seven Tier One Magic Cores and placed them on the table.
The shopkeeper picked up a Demon Core to examine it, then pulled a magnifying-glass-like object from his pocket to inspect it further.
A short while later, he had finished inspecting all the Demon Cores.
The shopkeeper put away the Demon Testing Mirror and divided the nine Demon Cores into three piles.
"The proportion of Magic Element in these Tier One Magic Cores is less than fifty percent, so their value is on the lower side."
He said, pointing to the pile of Demon Cores on the far left.
"I can offer you four Gold Coins for each. What do you think?"
Li Wei nodded. "That’s fine."
The shopkeeper pointed to the three Demon Cores in the middle and said, "These have a higher content of Magic Element. Seven Gold Coins each."
He then looked at the two Tier Two Magic Cores on the far right.
"The Magic Element content in these two Tier Two Magic Cores is extremely high. They’re practically perfect."
"I’m willing to offer forty-five Gold Coins for each."
Li Wei nodded. "Let’s settle the bill."
The shopkeeper stepped out for a moment and returned with a small money pouch, which he handed to Li Wei with both hands.
"Here you are. A total of one hundred twenty-seven Gold Coins. Please keep them safe."
Li Wei took the pouch and left. Once outside, he transferred the Gold Coins into his Spatial Ring.
He thought to himself as he walked.
’It seems the value of a Rock Demon Beast’s Demon Core is truly astonishing.’
’A Tier Two Magic Core with nearly full Magic Element is only worth forty or fifty Gold Coins, yet the purchase price for a Rock Demon Beast’s Demon Core easily reaches over a hundred Gold Coins, regardless of its Magic Element content.’
Li Wei also understood that the one hundred eighty Gold Coins he earned from selling the Rock Demon Beast’s Demon Core to Tanya had been a bit of a high price.
Even a Tier Three Magic Core was only worth about that much.
Returning to the Mage Tower, he cashed in his money to top up his Contribution.
He purchased Basic Level Alchemy.
He received an incredibly thick book.
Alchemy Manual
Back in his room, Li Wei leafed through the Alchemy Manual and discovered the entire book was divided into two parts.
Basic Level Alchemy and a catalog of alchemical resources.
The catalog of alchemical resources took up a fifth of the book’s thickness, nearly a hundred densely packed pages.
Some of the alchemical resources listed could be borrowed directly from the library.
The books listed in these hundred or so pages were all knowledge passed down by Alchemists over thousands of years.
All sorts of Alchemy Formulas, alchemical theories, alchemical principles...
Learning Basic Level Alchemy was just the beginning; using Alchemy required much more in-depth study.
Learning Alchemy from top to bottom would be too complex and take too long.
Li Wei flipped directly to the section in Basic Level Alchemy about purifying the essence of materials.
"Fire Refining Method, Extraction Method, Transformation Method, Filtering Method."
"The four purification methods of Basic Level Alchemy correspond to substances with different properties, each requiring a different approach."
"For the vast majority of metals, the Fire Refining Method is the simplest."
"The Fire Refining Method is divided into two types: the Inner Fire Refining Method and the Outer Fire Refining Method."
"Inner Fire Refining Method: requires one to gather Fire Element to create a Melting Furnace and smelt the material. Its characteristics are complex operation, extremely high difficulty, good purification effect, high control precision, and it is limited by one’s own Level, making it impossible to purify High Level materials."
"Outer Fire Refining Method: involves finding a suitable external heat source to create a Melting Furnace and smelt the material. Its characteristics are relatively simple operation, low control precision, average purification effect, suitability for purifying large batches of materials, and it is not limited by one’s own Level. Even a Basic Level Alchemist can refine High Level materials."
’The Inner Fire Refining Method has lower requirements. It’s more suitable for me,’ Li Wei thought.
He began constructing a Melting Furnace according to the book’s instructions.
The Melting Furnace for the Inner Fire Refining Method is primarily composed of Magic Elements and Spiritual Power. The size of the Melting Furnace depends on the Alchemist themself.
The intensity of the fire also depends on one’s own strength.
[Basic Level Alchemy (Tier Zero)] 1/10000
His proficiency increased slowly.
It took Li Wei over two hours to successfully construct his first Elemental Melting Furnace.
He stared speechlessly at the ball of Fire Element gathered in his palm.
"This is an Elemental Melting Furnace? What’s the difference between this and the Fireball Skill?"
With a thought, he conjured a Fireball in his left hand.
Li Wei carefully sensed the difference between the two.
The Fire Element within the Fireball was more violent and explosive.
It looked the same as the Elemental Melting Furnace on the outside, but its interior was a chaotic mess that couldn’t tolerate any foreign objects. It would explode on contact.
The Elemental Melting Furnace had the appearance of a Fireball, but it was hollow inside. The Fire Element was stable, continuously releasing heat to warm the materials within the furnace from the inside out.
Limited by Li Wei’s own strength, the temperature of the Elemental Melting Furnace was not high.
It was far from meeting the requirements to purify Mithril using the Fire Refining Method.
There were two ways to increase the maximum temperature of the Elemental Melting Furnace.
First, by increasing his own strength.
Second, by raising his Alchemy Level.
Neither could be accomplished overnight.
Li Wei chose a third option.
To modify his Fireball Skill, turning a Fireball into an Elemental Melting Furnace.
The temperature of a Charged Fireball would definitely be high enough.
It could even incinerate the Ant King’s carapace to ash; melting Secret Silver Ore would be a piece of cake.
If he could just figure out how to convert a Charged Fireball into an Elemental Melting Furnace, he could solve this problem directly.
It would save him a lot of time by avoiding the need to cultivate Basic Level Alchemy from scratch.