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"I'll only tell you once," the apothecary said and motioned. "You will need one leaf of Marci plant, the root of fire ginseng… boil them down and… merge with wood and fire element…."
The apothecary's tone was neither fast nor slow.
It was a week later when the apothecary decided to teach Yuna how to brew the potion.
Yuna jotted down attentively the apothecary's words and demonstration.
"I will demonstrate once, and the rest is up to your own practice." The apothecary paused and gave a side look at Yuna. "You can use the ingredients only thrice. It's not like I'm doing charity to let you waste my herbs."
Yuna nodded her head and jotted down to the tee everything the apothecary taught and did.
This was the opportunity she vied for the protagonist in lieu of her own; therefore, Yuna, although sullen, gave her MAX attention to it.
Cannot waste anything!
Looking down at the runic symbol at the bottom of one of the furnaces, Yuna asked, "Is it necessary to use fire and wood element runic symbols to draw in fire and wood elements?"
The apothecary raised her brow. "If an elementalist can concisely draw in and direct exactly the needed amount of element, runic symbols obviously will not be needed. However, who can differentiate the elements? Even a one-type elementalist who can only absorb one type of element could not differentiate their element from the others…."
The apothecary said a lot of words, and Yuna came to a quick conclusion that almost all elementalists could not differentiate elements, much less even see them.
Then what would that make of Yuna, who could see and draw in just the kind of element she liked because she could see them?
It seems I am going to be a rare case,
Yuna thought concisely.
Lets' not reveal my differences unless it can't be helped.
Drawing attention most of the time was never a good thing, and Yuna felt that her case was a very sensational one too. Yuna shivered at the thought of being a sensation.
She was not strong nor did she have a formidable background to protect herself from jealous people.
"I see… Thank you."
The apothecary's lips hooked up in a not-so-nice way and said, "Those are all mentioned in the elementals book. Those are basic information in the book."
"Oh…."
Yuna said, putting on a nonchalant appearance while her inner self screamed wildly with regret.
Yuna also really wanted to smack the old lady for constantly bringing up the snit bits of content inside the elemental book, not forgetting to give her a gloating look while doing so.
Because you are an old hoot with one step close to a grave, I'll tolerate you!
Yuna thought arrogantly like a loser.
Ignoring her regrets, Yuna concentrated on watching the demonstration of the apothecary.
Hmm…?
Yuna took notice of a ball that was not an element entering the potion.
Yuna labeled them as impure filament, as when she absorbed them inside her body, she noticed that it made the other elements turbid, so she consciously blocked it when it tried to enter her body again afterward.
Did those impure things need to be integrated inside a potion as well?
"Is the potion that is being submerged in elements pure?"
Yuna asked in a roundabout way. She could not simply ask why impure filaments needed to enter the potion as well.
The apothecary was still brewing the potion and did not stop her hands as she said, "It cannot be said to be 100% pure, because even the runic symbols fail to filter all the impure elements. The highest-grade runic symbols used to create potions can only filter about 60 to 70% of the impure elements. The one I'm using is mid-grade, which can filter 40% of impure elements."
"…I see."
Yuna seemed to unknowingly discover her transmigration benefit. The method she chose, the path she took by copying the way of novels, worked way beyond her imagination.
"It's your turn now. Like I said, only three stalks each."
"Tch… stingy."
Yuna took a deep breath and stood beside the furnace.
Her first try could still fail or not be up to par, but her second try had to pass because for her third stalk of ingredients, Yuna planned to plant them—because where could she get the money to buy the stalks every time she needed them?
She had observed that her wood element could improve the vitality of plants, and the stalk she carefully selected had roots still intact and could be planted.
Yuna first boiled fresh water and slowly put in the herbs.
The water ran through various pipes and stayed in certain furnaces. Yuna attentively lowered or heated up the furnace according to what she wrote down, and when she reached the runic element place under a certain furnace, Yuna removed the runes and started to attract the elements by herself while blocking out the impurities.
When the potion was finally brewed, Yuna poured it into a small glass bottle and presented it to the apothecary, who was busy making another potion on the other side and did not bother to instruct Yuna from the sideline.
Not the best teacher, as you can see…
The apothecary took the potion, examined it carefully, and said, "For a first-timer, it's not bad, although the Mai leaf was boiled too long, and the fire was too intense when dropping the Niuma petal…."
The apothecary said a bunch of things, which made Yuna bewildered as to how she could tell all those small differences just by looking at the potion.
Finally, the apothecary tasted the potion.
"…Hmm…?"
Somewhat suspicious, the apothecary once again took a sip. "Huh…?"
This time, she drank the whole potion and exclaimed in incredulity, "How can the purity exceed 40%? It was only a mid-grade runic symbol with 40% purity as the maximum… No… this potion is definitely more than 70% purity…."
The apothecary's expression became serious and cast a grim look toward Yuna. She glanced at the runic symbol that was moved away and then looked back at Yuna.
"I know how to differentiate elements."
I can also see, but you don't have to know that.
Yuna explained.
"…There is always an exception where an elementalist can differentiate elements, but… You can filter impurity?" The apothecary asked, not even believing her own words.
With a straight face, Yuna said, "I must have gained an additional passive ability aside from being awakened as an All elementalist."
Yeah, what a perfect excuse. Yuna nodded her head in approval at her smart excuse.
The apothecary sharply looked at Yuna, and Yuna, who received the scrutinizing gaze fearlessly, asked, "What? Isn't that a good thing? You jealous? Be jealous all you want. It's not you who can filter impurity anyway."
The apothecary stayed silent. She looked at Yuna and slowly nodded her head. "Yes, madly jealous."
Being able to achieve higher purity in potions was the aspiration and desire of every potion maker in the world, but they could only rely helplessly on runic symbols. While high-grade runes were expensive and provided higher levels of purity, they could never seem to pass the threshold of 70%.
"Heh…."
"Go home." The old lady needed time to calm herself after the shocking new discovery.
If… those at the capital came to know…
"Suree… enjoy reveling in your jealousy."
Humming a tune, Yuna, in a good mood, left the apothecary store.
Transmigrator benefit is sweet.