Chapter 135 – Potion Brewing

Mo Lan: “…”

Usually she was the one motivating the other young witches. Being suddenly motivated by her upperclassmen’s attention felt quite novel indeed!

While the young witches were competing over their magic progress, Potions class had finally advanced to its second phase: potion brewing.

Potions class was held in the largest red building of Greenhouse No. 1.

“Before we begin, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the vessels used in potion brewing.

First is the crucible. Crucibles come in many materials, but the most common are metallic ones—they conduct heat quickly and distribute it evenly.

What you have on your desks is the most basic small brass crucible.

A small crucible like this is perfect for small-dose potions! One batch can produce two to three bottles at most.

Once your potion-brewing magic level increases, you can switch to larger crucibles for batch brewing.

This long-handled brass spoon is used for stirring and ladling potions.

Finally, there are the vials for storing potions—most are made of glass or crystal.”

Lady Amisha introduced the brewing tools on the desk one by one.

There were really only three items: a crucible, a long-handled spoon, and vials.

After her solemn introduction, she added:

“If conditions are particularly harsh, you can substitute an iron pot or even a clay pot for the crucible, and a tree branch for the long-handled spoon—it just takes more time and effort to brew.

The vessels and tools for potion brewing are important, but not that important—magical crucibles with special effects being the exception, of course.

For non-magical items, what matters most is actually our own potion-brewing magic.”

Mo Lan was no longer surprised by this. It was very consistent with the nature of witches who once had nothing and could only make do with whatever was at hand.

“The essence of potion-brewing magic is actually the process of using magical power or mana to strip the active components from magical plants, then heating and boiling them to fully dissolve those components in water.

So the talent for potion-brewing magic is actually determined by your talent in Plant Magic, water magic, and fire-element magic—with Plant Magic talent being the most important, followed by water magic, and fire-element magic last.

There are three basic potions to learn in first year: herbicide potion, insecticide potion, and recovery potion.

All three have very low talent requirements for potion-brewing magic. Basically every young witch can learn them.

Which one would you like to learn first? I’ll demonstrate it for you!”

Amisha asked.

Originally there wouldn’t have been this choice at all. It was only because she’d seen the young witches pushing themselves so hard lately that she asked the extra question.

To squeeze in more magic practice sessions, they were actually eating Breadfruits for real! Even grimacing from the sourness, they still competed against the progress bar.

Sure enough, the young witches answered in unison: “Recovery potion! Let’s learn the recovery potion first!”

“Alright!” Amisha picked up the plants on the lectern. “The main ingredients for a recovery potion are belladonna, daisy pistils, and liquid grass juice.

Step one: clean the crucible.

It’s best to use the Cleaning spell. Any residual impurities could affect potion quality.

Step two: add purified water to the crucible. For one portion of ingredients, use one vial’s worth of water.

Step three: use magical power or mana to infiltrate the corresponding parts of the potion ingredients. Note—the magical instruction at this point is: extract the potion essence from the corresponding parts of the ingredients.

Wrap the potion essence with your magical power or mana and slowly merge it into the crucible.

Sometimes you’ll also need to use the Flame spell to heat it, helping the essence dissolve into the water. For a recovery potion, you start by cold-merging the liquid grass juice essence, then use the Flame spell to heat until the liquid in the crucible boils three times, after which you add the daisy pistil essence.

After the liquid has completely cooled, add the belladonna essence and simmer on low heat, stirring with the long-handled spoon as it simmers.

At the stirring stage, some witches find the stirring takes too long and will Attune the long-handled spoon—like controlling a cleaning tool or kitchen utensil—letting it stir on its own…”

Lady Amisha demonstrated as she explained.

At first there was steam rising, but gradually the steam grew less and less until it disappeared entirely. After about three seconds, the potion liquid suddenly puffed out a small white ring—like a veteran smoker blowing smoke rings—and only then did Lady Amisha stop stirring:

“Done! That potion mist ring just now is the sign of successful potion brewing. At this point, the liquid has completely stabilized.

Once it cools naturally, you can bottle it.”

Mo Lan had watched Shana’s mother brew herbicide potion and insecticide potion when she was little.

But whether it was Shana’s mother or Lady Amisha’s demonstration just now, in her eyes, it all looked quite similar to making a thick soup.

Fortunately, though, the witches’ potion ingredients were all magical plant essences—no spiders, earthworms, toads, or anything like that.

The potion they brewed was simply a pot of herbal decoction.

After Lady Amisha’s demonstration, she let the young witches try it themselves while she supervised from the side.

The first thing Mo Lan did was study the crucible, long-handled spoon, and crystal vials on the desk. Then she asked Lady Amisha to show her crucibles and long-handled spoons of different sizes, and made one {Witch Crucible Set} card and one {Vial Card}.

The {Witch Crucible Set Card} contained small, medium, large, and extra-large crucibles with matching long-handled spoons.

One {Empty Vial Card} held one hundred empty crystal vials.

While crucibles and long-handled spoons didn’t require prolonged Attuning like kitchen utensils, farming tools, and cleaning tools—they could be swapped out anytime without issue—having a card still made them more convenient to carry around.

Mo Lan hadn’t learned Spatial Magic yet and couldn’t create spatial cards capable of storing anything and everything. She could only rely on the cards’ built-in item-storage function to make various tools easier to carry.

They were just ordinary brass crucibles, so the production cost wasn’t high either.

The other young witches also selectively purchased a crucible card.

Most bought small crucible cards, while those with better potion-brewing talent bought the set cards.

No young witch bought the vial cards—those were consumables, and the Academy provided free empty potion vials.

After switching to the small crucibles and long-handled spoons from their cards, the young witches began brewing recovery potions.

Those who could convert water elemental force used the Cleaning spell to clean their crucibles directly, while those who couldn’t used the Spring Water spell to rinse theirs, then wiped them dry with a clean cloth.

From cleaning the crucible to adding one vial’s worth of purified water, Mo Lan had no problems at all.

But when it came to controlling her mana to extract the liquid grass juice essence, she hesitated.

She’d been watching Lady Amisha brew the potion from a distance earlier, and hadn’t been able to clearly see what the liquid grass juice essence actually looked like.

There was no liquid grass on Earth, nor any films or shows related to it.

The Earth memories in Mo Lan’s mind couldn’t help her one bit.

This time, just like the other young witches, she would have to rely entirely on imagination to direct her mana.