nyslfriends Chapter 5 Potion Residue
Chapter 5 Potion Residue
The next morning, on the two underground levels of the Oak Crown.
Walking through the dark passage, a plaque on the wall reads: No. 43, Waste Recycling Room.
Su En stopped in her tracks, and the two freshmen beside her stared at the tightly locked gate, looking at each other in bewilderment.
The door lock flashed a warning red light, and one could vaguely sense the presence of some kind of magical restriction.
"Sorry, I've been so busy, I forgot you came to report!"
From the end of the passage, an apprentice with messy, bird's-nest-like hair hurried along, carrying a leather bundle under his arm.
"I've been looking forward to your arrival for a long time. I haven't slept for almost a month."
Morris muttered something casually as he removed the restriction on the door.
It sounded like a complaint, but no one dared to respond.
After he affixed a card-like identification plaque, the red light on the door receded back into the wall like a startled fire serpent.
"I'll register your access permissions in a bit, and you can open the door with your ID badges from now on."
The moment the door was pushed open, a mixture of sour, scorching, and some indescribable, fishy-sweet smell wafted out.
Su En instinctively held her breath, and the two freshmen next to her immediately covered their noses.
"You'll get used to it. Welcome to the recycling room."
Morris walked in without looking back and casually tossed his leather bag onto a table piled with clutter.
"Once you've stayed here for a full month, you'll discover even more interesting things."
Suen stepped over the threshold, his gaze sweeping over the waste recycling room located beneath the wizard tower.
The space was much larger than he had expected, about half the size of a square.
The dome hangs high, with several thick tree roots hanging down from the ceiling, their surfaces covered with dense magical runes that emit a ghostly green glow.
This is the root system of the Oak Crown, and also one of the magical veins of the entire Wizard Tower.
Unlike the stone wizard towers he remembered, the Oak Crown seemed more like a giant tree with life.
The room was dimly lit, with the only light source coming from a few crystal chandeliers on the wall, whose fluorite had dimmed to the point of almost going out.
Morris gently chanted the incantation, and as the difficult, mysterious syllables rang out, the dim fluorite gradually regained its power, and Suen's vision instantly brightened a bit.
In the center of the recycling room was a wide conveyor belt, which was now stationary, its surface covered with mottled dark brown stains.
The starting point of the conveyor belt is connected to a thick metal pipe on the ceiling. The pipe opening is sealed with a semi-transparent film, and you can vaguely see liquid flowing slowly behind it.
"This is the waste pipe of the potions workshop," Morris said, pointing to the pipe. "Every Tuesday and Friday, failed potions are discharged from here. Your first task is to purify the waste before it enters the transfer tank."
He walked over to the conveyor belt and patted a metal device that was about half a person's height.
"Pour the waste liquid into this container and wait for it to be purified."
Suen noticed that the device was covered with verdigris rust, and a fist-sized purification crystal was embedded at the top, with several strands of light slowly moving inside the crystal.
"It is activated by injecting mental energy during use, and it will process the waste according to the set rules. The purified waste liquid must meet the third-level discharge standard before it can enter the next process."
As he spoke, Morris pulled a well-worn register from under the table and opened it to a page.
"This is an emissions standard comparison table. I will check it weekly, and if any exceedances are detected, your monthly allowance will be deducted."
Suen's gaze fell on the booklet, its yellowed pages densely marked with various indicators in ink: residual magical energy pollution must be less than 10%, active substance content <10 marks, corrosivity not exceeding level one...
Morris noticed his focus and glanced at him again.
"According to the Oak Crown's subsidy standards, you will receive 20 Magic Stones for completing your work on time each month."
After saying that, he turned and walked to the other side of the recycling room.
There stood three huge metal tanks side by side, each as tall as two people, their surfaces covered with a layer of white frost.
The bottom of the tank is connected to a fine network of pipes that flow into a more complex device.
As soon as Su En approached, he felt a chilling aura seeping from the tank, creating an eerie temperature difference with the scorching heat emanating from the incinerator at the other end of the recycling chamber.
"The potion recycling tank is the most important piece of equipment in the entire recycling room."
"Even after purification, the residue from failed potion-making processes still retains a significant amount of effective ingredients. For example, even if a bottle of failed dragon breath potion is scrapped, the waste liquid still contains the essence of fire dragon bone powder and at least 20% of magical solvent. It would be too wasteful to simply purify and discharge these substances."
Morris opened the observation window on the side of the recycling tank, which contained layers of fine filters, with different colored rune matrices suspended above each filter.
"You need to recycle materials according to the manual and keep the recycling rate above the qualified line."
He paused, seemingly considering his words.
The shorter freshman next to him whispered, "What if...we can't reach that level?"
"If you don't meet the requirements, you'll either have your pay docked or you'll have to work overtime to find a solution yourself."
Morris shrugged. "I suggest you start memorizing the information in the manual now, at least figure out the ingredient lists of common potions."
Suen remained silent, his gaze fixed on the rune matrix of the recycling tank.
The Crown of Oaks is renowned for its potions, and among the official wizards who preside over the Wizard Tower are many masters of potions.
As a wizarding art, potion-making holds a pivotal position.
"Wizards cannot live without potions, just as fish cannot live without water."
The inscription carved on the gate of the Oak Crown, in simple language, conveys the importance of potions.
The calming herbal ointment he bought with a loan is a type of low-level magic potion, an important aid for meditation during the apprenticeship stage.
However, potion-making involves a vast amount of knowledge, has an extremely high barrier to entry, and relies heavily on experience accumulation, making trial and error very costly.
Many people prefer disciplines with lower barriers to entry, such as alchemy and engineering, or choose more cost-effective skills such as leatherworking, tailoring, and forging.
"But for me, that's not a problem at all."
The hourglass of time gave him countless opportunities to try and fail, which gradually accumulated into advantages.
This near-cheating advantage makes mastering potion-making not only important, but also the best way for Suen to maximize his cheat ability.
He silently memorized it and continued following in Maurice's footsteps.
At the far end of the recycling room, there was a furnace.
The furnace body is cast from black iron and is shaped like a coiled giant beast, with two rows of sharp, tooth-like metal plates inlaid at the furnace mouth.
The furnace door was closed at the moment, but the dark red light and scorching heat shining through the cracks indicated that it was still running.
"The incinerator mainly processes various non-polluting wastes to provide energy for the living facilities of the Wizard Tower."
"Furthermore," Morris's tone suddenly turned serious, "it is strictly forbidden to throw any biological material containing active ingredients into the furnace. Last time, some idiot threw in a piece of bloodthirsty vine root that wasn't quite dead yet, and half a ton of thorny vines sprouted in the furnace, almost bursting the pipes."
The three nodded silently, indicating that they would definitely remember it.
After explaining the precautions, Suen and the other two tried to get started with the work under Morris's guidance.
Suen was responsible for pre-processing and classifying the potion residue that had undergone reduction treatment in the potion recycling tank, referring to the manual.
It sounds complicated, but in reality, you only need to use your mental energy to activate the potion recycling tank, wait for the processed products, and then sort them into different categories and place them into storage containers.