There is an old saying: "If you're going to do something, then do it thoroughly."
As scattered, restless thoughts churned in Arya's mind, her ideas gradually aligned into something clear and actionable. Despite barely sleeping the previous night, she refused to let fatigue hold her back. After all—during a Mana Tide, who in their right mind could sleep peacefully?
Fueled by excitement from her earlier inspiration regarding the Magic Barrier, Arya decided that sleep was unnecessary. Research was far more important, and if she was going to conduct research, it naturally had to be within the field she excelled at most.
Although her time dabbling in Alchemy had been brief, the intense period she had recently spent blending potions had granted her a rather solid grasp of the basic dosage patterns and ingredient ratios required for Magic Potions in this world. She understood what should work, what would likely fail, and how far she could push her current abilities.
However, Arya was well aware of her limits. She knew that producing a potion capable of healing her crippled legs was not something she could manage at this stage—not with her current level of skill. Even setting aside the immense knowledge and experience needed to create such a potion, the materials alone presented an insurmountable barrier. She didn't believe for a moment that common E-grade ingredients—materials practically scattered everywhere—could ever produce a potion strong enough to bring her legs back to life.
Since she couldn't aim for the best outcome, she could only settle for the next best thing.
And for that, she needed Roy.
"Arya: 'Do you have any corpse samples, blood, or bodily fluid from Azure Jade Mayflies? Also White Dandelions and Romo Flowers?'"
Roy blinked in surprise at the sudden request. "'Yeah, I have five Azure Jade Mayfly corpses, around twenty kilograms of Romo Flowers, and… maybe three or four catties of White Dandelions. Rogers probably has more.'"
As a businessman, Roy always kept track of what others around him had in stock, especially when it involved someone who was friendly with Arya. And since Arya was asking, he didn't hesitate to expose Rogers' supplies.
"'Give me all of it,'" Arya said simply.
Without another word, she turned and headed toward Rogers.
Rogers hadn't had a good night's rest in days. Even though she possessed a Magic Potion Arya had crafted—something she obtained through Roy—her situation was pitiful. Living alone, she didn't even have an alarm clock. Every time she drifted off, she forced herself to avoid deep sleep, too afraid that her exhaustion would make her miss the crucial moment to replenish the energy in her defensive shield.
She didn't dare lie down in bed at all. Instead, she sat curled up on a bamboo chair, dozing lightly. Whenever she accidentally slipped into deeper sleep, she would eventually fall off the chair, jolting awake and then staying alert for nearly an hour before she could safely continue her routine.
This cycle repeated endlessly. Within just two days, dark crescents formed under her eyes.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
Right as she tossed into another moment of light sleep, the crisp sound of a message notification chimed from the Magic Desk in front of her. Rogers flinched violently, jerking awake. The blanket slipped from her shoulders and fell to the floor.
When she saw the message sender—the "big shot" herself—her fatigue evaporated instantly.
"Arya: 'How many White Dandelions do you still have?'"
"Rogers: 'Around thirty kilograms, I think. Do you need them, big shot?'"
"Arya: 'Yes.'"
"Rogers: 'Wait there, I'll send them over.'"
Rogers didn't hesitate. She dug through her storage space, pulled out all the White Dandelions she had purchased earlier from Roy—originally intended for tea to balance her meat-heavy meals—and transferred every last one to Arya.
She didn't know what Arya needed them for, nor did she care. Helping Arya meant helping herself. Rogers understood that perfectly well.
Once she obtained all the necessary ingredients, Arya officially began her research and development stage.
Her goal wasn't a curative potion—she wasn't attempting to heal her legs yet. That project was far too ambitious for now. Instead, she aimed to develop a potion that could temporarily reduce her body weight to zero, allowing her to float as if she were using the Light Body Technique she possessed as her Talent.
After her previous fall, she finally understood that over-reliance on her Talent was dangerous. The ability had awakened through the interface of the Magic Desk—more accurately, it had awakened through the intervention of the Karim World's Will. It was a gift, a cheat, something freely handed to her rather than earned.
And because of that, Arya didn't fully trust it.
If her Talent vanished suddenly one day—if the World's Will simply took it back—she would be helpless again, unable to walk, unable to leave her bed. She couldn't risk waiting until after that happened to begin researching a solution.
Compared to healing potions, functional magic potions were far easier to develop.
So, late at night as she reviewed her notes, her determination to create such a potion solidified.
The most crucial principle of alchemy was attribute equivalence.
Fire-attribute ingredients produced fire-attribute potions.
Water-attribute ingredients produced water-attribute potions.
Thus, to develop a potion similar to the Light Body Technique, she needed materials derived from creatures with natural floating abilities.
Floating and flying were fundamentally different—and the Azure Jade Mayfly was the ideal candidate. The arm-length magical creature could float in both air and water. With its two pairs of translucent wings and its hybrid plant-and-insect attributes, it fit her requirements perfectly.
Supplementing that with White Dandelions and Romo Flowers—plants whose seeds naturally drifted on air currents—gave her a strong starting point.
Of course, Arya didn't stop there. She prepared additional herbs and magical creature parts to test additional combinations. Her plan was simple: exhaustive permutation and combination testing until she found a viable formula.
She gathered every fragment of stone on the ground and tossed them under the large tree, clearing her workspace. Then she retrieved her small stone tablets and a collection of enamel mugs she had not touched in a long time. After taking out a bottle of ink, she began writing serial numbers on each mug, preparing them for the brewing process.
For every combination she tested, she meticulously used a cloth-wrapped charcoal pencil to record the mug's serial number and the exact ingredient ratio in her notebook. Her carefulness bordered on obsessive—but precision was everything in alchemy.
Although one hundred enamel mugs sounded like a lot, they weren't nearly enough considering the sheer number of possible ingredient combinations. Luckily, Arya was no longer the clueless, desperate survivor she had been when she first arrived on the Karim continent nearly a month ago.
She had already mastered Basic Drawing, Basic Semiotics, and Basic Magic Circuit Studies, which meant she could now construct a more advanced Alchemy Array than the simple circles and triangles she had used before. Her current array significantly reduced potion brewing time and even slightly improved the resulting quality. Its only drawback was that it was far more troublesome to draw.
Fortunately, the quantity she needed was manageable.
Five hours later, the first batch of brews was complete.
After letting the dregs settle, Arya used her appraisal glasses to evaluate the hundred mugs glowing faintly with golden light. She filtered out viable formulas, then moved on to secondary and tertiary production cycles.
Every time she finished a batch, she replenished the energy of the Magic Barrier before continuing her work.
She refused to take risks—not during a Mana Tide.
After three full rounds of testing and screening, Arya finally produced the result she had been working toward.
She picked up the warm mug, inhaled the faint herbal scent, and examined the glowing label displayed through the appraisal glasses:
[Crude Magic Potion – Lightness (E-)]
Effect: After consumption, the user's body weight becomes zero. Duration: 10 minutes.
Description: An unconventional potion that has never appeared in historical records. After all, few would bother creating something solely to float in midair. However, it may be surprisingly effective in combat—watching an enemy helplessly drift upward could be quite entertaining.
Arya smiled faintly.
It wasn't a cure for her legs.
But it was a start.
And a start was exactly what she needed.
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