(Brendan POV)
"Well?" Lian Li prodded me impatiently at the side.
I sighed, "It's just missing the tears now, I can't do anything else without it."
She tried to peer into the cauldron, stopping when I blocked her with my arm.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, the smell is frankly quite terrible," I warned.
She raised an eyebrow at me, "You seem to be just fine breathing it in just a few moments ago."
"I was not breathing it in, I had a bubble of air around me while I was making it. A standard Technique to have as an alchemist."
"Interesting… Unfortunately, I don't have the skill for that. Alchemy, I mean," Lian Li muttered.
I shrugged, alchemy by itself isn't really that hard, but the concentration and knowledge one needs to be an effective one is quite immense or else one might just be stuck at making stamina pills and potions for their entire career.
I've learnt quickly from Master that creating the complicated alchemical concoctions does not necessarily require the alchemist to have a large amount of Quarks, the alchemist could get that from another source if they need to.
What the alchemist needs is the perfect control over the Quarks within the cauldron to mix with the ingredients itself.
A normal Practitioner would be used to the explosive type of control over their Quarks to create the biggest Techniques they could.
Alchemists, on the other hand, would be more focused on the most minute of control over the Quarks involved in their alchemical processes, the exact opposite of what normal Practitioners would do.
With the two conflicting types of control, one would be hard-pressed to find an alchemist who was also an accomplished Practitioner at the same time.
Of course, Master was one such exemption to that rule, as expected of Master. I swear, the more I learn about Him, the more I am convinced he is not mortal at all.
Master even stated that if an alchemist has a perfect understanding of the ingredients, one could even substitute the ingredient for Quarks that would have came from said ingredient being broken down in the caudron.
That piece of information was, in actual fact, an unproven theory amongst all alchemists since it was said to be impossible to completely understand an alchemical ingredient. The Quark formula that makes up existence was never cracked and without it, it would not even be possible to substitute a grain of sand.
And yet, Master had done it in front of me, casually brewing a potion using nothing but His own Quarks tossed into the cauldron. Master made it look so easy you wouldn't have thought this was something that was supposed to be impossible to do.
If any alchemists hear of this fact, I have no doubt they would come crawling on all fours to beg Master to teach them.
And yet, here I was, still struggling to achieve the same result with the very God teaching me. If that was not embarrassing, I don't know what is.
Lian Li made a face at me, "Well, it's almost time for Cai Hong's nap so how much time do you need before it's done?"
"It will be done before dinner, you don't need to worry about that part," I assured her. "We just need to worry about whether Master will once again be handling those idiots' food."
"That won't be a problem either," Lian Li stated with utmost confidence. "We can just have our kitchen staff add in an additional course for them if it comes down to it. But Master should be occupied with the other girls anyway."
I admit I did not think of that.
"On that note, where did the other staff go? I noticed the place was quite empty aside from us?" I asked, making sure the cauldron's content isn't boiling over.
"Oh them? They went to deal with the coachmen those idiots arrived with," Lian Li answered casually.
I narrowed my eyes at her, "Wait… All of them went to do it?"
She nodded, obviously confused why I was asking such a question.
"You do realise how devastated they are going to be when they find out their absence caused Master to lower Himself in front of those idiots... Right?"
The fact that her eyes widened slightly told me that she most definitely did not think about it.
I sighed, but before I could offer her a solution, the door to the room was swung open.
I turned expecting to see Manami and Cai Hong but instead, it was Master Himself carrying the loli dragon into the room.
"Oh, hi. Hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Master greeted us with his bright smile.
"Not at all, Master," Both Lian Li and I shook our heads quickly, trying our best to hide our surprise.
Master nodded before depositing Cai Hong in her bed, the little girl already fast asleep with a big happy smile on her face.
Master had a piece of paper in his hands too, which looked like a childish drawing of Master giving a loli dragon headpats.
I turned to look at Lian Li, only to see the golden haired girl giving me the same worried look that I had.
Master tucked the little dragon into bed before turning to face us again, his eyes darting towards the cauldron.
"So… What are you making there?"
It took me a moment to think up of something, "I was… Experimenting on some new things."
"Oh? An original recipe? How interesting. Do you need any help from me?"
I shook my head quickly, "Oh, no, Master. This erm… I want to try it out by myself, see how much I've learnt, you know?"
"Yes! Brother Brendan has shown quite a lot of progress already, I think he'll be able to make quite an interesting one by himself!" Lian Li added enthusiastically.
I was panicking inwardly at her words. Now I'll need to make something to impress Master with! What am I supposed to create?!
Master looked at me with an impressed face, "Oh? Now that's interesting. Do tell me when you're done, I'm curious on what you're going to make. Try not to blow anything up, ok?"
"Ah… Umm… If it's not too much trouble," I added quickly before Master left. "I… I need some dragon tears if it's possible?"
Master raised an eyebrow, "Dragon tears? You must be making something quite potent huh? Don't tell me you are trying to make a gender change pill?"
My eyes widened, "That… That's actually possible?"
I'm pretty sure that such a pill was also recorded as being impossible to make since the human body was a difficult thing to alter with so much details involved. Most of the initial tests had the subjects turning into something completely not human at all and even the ones that sort of worked only caused their bodies to grow or lose their respective private parts without changing anything else.
A complete gender change pill has not been created to this day and coupled with the fact that a Practitioner could do it via Techniques, it was just not practical to make a pill for it. With all these factors, the experimentations on those pills were eventually abandoned and even the most dedicated alchemists still have yet to crack it.
True, the Practitioner would need to be at probably Advanced or Master level in order to do it, but that's beside the point.
And the fact that apparently Witches can do it with a Spell too but that's not a well known thing anyway.
Master nodded, "It's quite simple really, you already have one of the key ingredients figured out. I won't spoil you, but the second one is quite close to the first one and quite frankly, unobtainable by you at the moment. Well, that's not accurate. You can obtain it but I definitely won't allow you to."
My eyes went towards Cai Hong and Master caught me doing it.
"Go find your own dragon," Master admonished me. "I'll substitute in the dragon tears for you, but see if you can figure out the rest."
Master stepped up to my cauldron and poured in His Quarks without hesitation, the entire cauldron shaking for a moment when it was filled with His energy.
"There, that should be more than enough. Have fun, don't get hurt," Master waved before leaving the room.
I let out the breath that I had been unconsciously holding in, "I… Was not expecting that."
Lian Li raised her eyebrows at me, "If you're interested, Diao Chan can just turn you into a girl with her Spell."
"I am not interested in that," I seethed. "You don't even know how much Master has broken the conventions of alchemy right now."
"Oh? As expected of Master," She praised with shining eyes, not at all understanding the weight of what Master had just revealed to me.
Well, she's not wrong.
"Good news is that Master gave so much of it that I do not need to dilute this for everyone now," I commented, peering into the cauldron. "So you'll get your wish of having them all suffer."
"Great! Let's start then!"
On that note, I'll still need to figure out that gender change pill since Master is expecting that of me now. Somehow I feel like I'll lose if I both succeed or fail...
