Alright then.
Perhaps they were right.
Lan Qingyou, who didn't understand much about business, didn't dwell on it.
However, in alchemy, she would never abandon this theory, as her mastery of the craft over this period had made her a firm believer in it.
This theory became even more apparent during her recent attempts to create new potions.
Simply put, only a one-to-one fairness could bring a potion to its most perfect state.
This was evident even in the difference between the stockpots she used and a dedicated alchemy crucible.
One could maximize a potion's efficacy, while the other, no matter what methods or compensations were used, always produced a slightly inferior result.
Even a difference of a single point was still a difference.
Alchemy is sacred!
Lan Qingyou looked up at the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle and clenched her fist.
In the afternoon, Li Huai joined the chat.
He also had a title, but Lan Qingyou wasn't surprised by this. After all, compared to the others, Shang Chuan was the one who was more unexpected.
【Death, Li Huai, Male, 31 years old, Title: ‘The Storm’s Commander’.】
His arrival pushed the already lively atmosphere of the chat room to a new high.
Everyone was exceptionally kind to him.
It wasn't for any other reason than hoping he would test their hypotheses.
Of course, this was all based on the premise that he was willing and that it wouldn't harm him.
Thus, as a newcomer who was supposed to give return gifts upon joining the group, he ended up receiving even more things under the encouragement of the researchers.
For instance, Chariot gave him armor, the Empress gave him tomatoes, Wheel of Fortune gave him an orb, and the Magician gave him a deck of playing cards.
The High Priestess was even more extravagant, directly giving him various magic stones that could fill an entire belt.
As a successful third-generation entrepreneur from Blue Star, Li Huai naturally understood their intentions.
But it didn't matter.
After all, the privilege of using these researchers' items for free and then providing feedback wasn't something everyone could enjoy.
He had done similar things before.
Most importantly, these items were genuinely useful to him.
Although they couldn't compare to his own talent, they might produce unexpected effects at a critical moment.
Over the next few days, Lan Qingyou spent her time attending classes with Professor Seymer, absorbing papers from the forum, and crafting potions.
In short, her days were very fulfilling.
Of course.
To give her teacher a little taste of success, Lan Qingyou would occasionally impart some of her own insights and theories to him.
For example, Albert’s catchphrases, “Alchemy is omnipotent” and “Alchemy is about equivalent exchange,” made the old man so happy he barely knew which way was up.
He became even more diligent in his teaching.
“Speaking of which, it seems mana crystals have another use... what was it?”
Looking at the wooden box containing two hundred mana crystals sent by the High Priestess, Vivian, Lan Qingyou fell into thought.
She was certain she needed mana crystals for something else.
But after receiving so many at once, she suddenly couldn't remember!
What was it?
Hmm...
Why bother thinking! She could just go to the storage room and check!
So, Lan Qingyou immediately went to her storage room, which had become temperature-controlled thanks to the Spring of Repose.
After rummaging around, she found quite a bit of stockpiled food.
However, because there had been no temperature control before, many items that seemed shelf-stable had already spoiled, emitting an unpleasant odor.
“Whoa! It’s only been half a month and it’s already turned into this. Tsk tsk.”
While lamenting, Lan Qingyou used cards to pack up all the boxes of spoiled food and tossed them under the tree.
After searching for another ten minutes, she finally found the familiar glass jars.
Instantly, Lan Qingyou’s memory was jogged.
Butterfly pupae. Yes, that was it.
Now that her herb field was established, the butterflies could pollinate the herbs once they hatched.
What did the Monster Encyclopedia say about them again?
It seemed they needed to be hung with the large end up in a damp, dark, sunless, semi-enclosed space, with one mana crystal for each butterfly pupa.
That was a bit tricky!
Aside from wooden boxes, she didn't have anything else that could be considered semi-enclosed...
The key was that they had to be hung, and the wooden boxes didn't have any hooks.
What to do in such a situation?
Ask the all-powerful group members, of course!
So she went directly to Chariot to order a hundred needles and several hooks.
Such items were far too simple for Chariot, Olf, and he provided them for Lan Qingyou in no time.
She used the hooks to poke a few small holes in the sides of the box to ensure ventilation, sprinkled some water from the Spring of Repose on the bottom, and finally inserted the hooks into the lid of the wooden box. The setup was more than half finished.
The rest involved using the needles to string the butterfly pupae and mana crystals together and hanging them from the hooks.
Since the mana crystals she had were flawed ones, Lan Qingyou added an extra one for safety.
The twenty-odd butterfly pupae used up about fifty mana crystals.
But it didn't matter. Now that she had a source for mana crystals, she could just have the High Priestess make more for her whenever she wanted.
Moreover, she couldn't even use that many anymore.
One hundred mana crystals were enough to upgrade her shelter to level 5.
Thinking about how fifty thousand points of energy could last thirteen to fourteen hours, Lan Qingyou couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.
After all, not having to force herself to get up during sleep to recharge the magic shield core was worth more than anything. Who wouldn't want a good night's sleep?
As for moving, Lan Qingyou had considered it.
But now that the most critical mana crystals for the upgrade were in hand, all that was left was to wait for Shang Chuan to gather the materials for her.
Under these circumstances, Lan Qingyou felt it would be better to wait until she reached level 5 before moving the items from the third floor to the fifth floor.
She would just be lazy for now; after all, she didn't have the time to move things twice.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
On this day, specifically the day before the mana tide was due to arrive, Shang Chuan finally managed to gather all the materials she needed.
Originally, Lan Qingyou thought that since they were just ores, it should be easy.
Unexpectedly, it was precisely these ores that had stumped Shang Chuan.
Particularly the Orichalcum, gold ore, and obsidian.
She thought they would be easy to collect, only to find out after searching for a long time that there were no Orichalcum veins or gold veins in the Abandoned Land at all.
And obsidian had always been sold by Li Huai.
The key was that this guy hadn't gone to the volcano to dig for obsidian lately because he was busy with ‘testing’.
So they had been constantly urging him.
In the end, the guy managed to get ten thousand pieces of obsidian for her in half a day, and even found some gold ore.
Well, finding gold ore in a volcano was actually quite reasonable.
Rate on N.U.
