Chapter 246 - Phantom Potions

The purification process of the contents that Timothy had concocted in the cauldron, was as simple as it was complicated. In the grand scale of things, he wasn't building rockets here, for example, so one couldn't consider the process to be too complex, and in simple words, he was just purifying a combination of two gases here, nothing more. It wasn’t a ground-breaking task, however, if he was to be successful, there was still a minimum requirement of MQ that he had to meet, no matter how insignificant the task may be itself!

The requirement towered at four-hundred and fifty points of MQ for this task, and he had crossed that requirement by exactly one-hundred points, so he could carry on with the purification process without restrictions. If he had visited this city a couple of months earlier, then he would've failed to meet the requirement indefinitely, which would've enthralled him to do stupid things afterwards, but luckily that was not the case.

Anyway, in order to start the process, he had to perform something called a Paternal Projection. As the name suggested, he had to create mana channel patterns out of thin air, and in this case this was difficult, because there wasn't an empty entity, or a vessel, in other words, that would help contain his work!

Tim had to create a halo-like ring, an inch above the cauldron, and that itself wasn't good enough to replace an actual vessel, so his task became at least twice more difficult than he had expected. It was mandatory to focus, because Lena insisted that any tiny mistake could blow them up here!

Timothy took the risks as a grain of sand, and went into work. He created a pale, wide, and internally hollow circle on top of the cauldron, and this halo-like circle was to behave like his second pair of hands for him!

“Go in slowly, you don't need to rush the purification process.” She guided him.

The ring stretched out these four arms afterwards, and they sank within the cauldron. These arms then created tens of smaller arms, branches to be exact, and as the branches stretched out, the gas within the cauldron finally started to purify!

It might take a while to purify the entire cauldron, because Timothy was pushing his abilities to the maximum already, but he was eager to succeed! It was really difficult to project mana channels without a vessel to hold them, so he was straining himself to keep everything together! He felt as if his muscles were straining, even though he didn't have any muscles to begin with in this phantomized form! He couldn't rush, even if he wanted to.

The impurities within the cauldron evaporated before they could float to the ceiling, and the dark-red color of the concocting gas lost its feistyness, adapting a more pale, white color by the passing second. After two hours of hard work, spreading the branches of mana channels as far as he possibly could in order for them to whip the impurities, the concoction was finally purified!

One would even confuse the gas with liquid after so much work was put into it, as its contents weren't transparent either, but that was not the case, this was not liquid. This was gas at its best, purest form, and it was an episode of handy-work away from being harvestable!

“You did a better job than I expected,” Lena complimented, “Not only did you purify the gas, but you amplified it too! It's worth the equivalent of three soul fractions now, even though we had been aiming for one or two. I can hardly fathom how your understanding of mana channels reflects so well here in the ghost world, but it's really impressive- You must have had a lot of practice?”

“Not to brag, but I created hundreds of slaves out of nothingness, flesh and all, with an ability that I created myself. So yes, I can say that I had a lot of practice, hehe.” He added.

“You have all the rights in the world to brag, then! You inspire me to go back to my frog body and improve my MQ through physical matters as well, my intuition didn't lie about you!” She continued to shower him with compliments, looking him in the eye.

Lena caught herself staring at him too long, so she regained her composure, and then said. “We're not done yet. You have to make the gas bottle-sized, and consumable now, you need to condense it.”

Lena then taught him what kind of patterns he was supposed to use to finish off the product. This next step was a lot less complicated than the previous step, because he just had to put a few bottles into the cauldron, and create a sort of mana-based pipe within it, which then sucked the gas in, and he did this almost effortlessly. Afterwards, he drew a net within the bottle, which both kept the gas together, but also condensed it, allowing for even a tiny bottle to fit a vast amount of purified gas!

Once he put a cork on the bottle, the product was finished! He created his very first phantomized/gas based potion which would improve one’s phantomized mana quality upon consumption, and this was something that he wouldn't have ever thought of doing, nonetheless accomplishing! Lena was a very good teacher, without a doubt.

Anyway, he managed to fill up two more bottles afterwards, and emptied the big cauldron with these three bottles alone, simply because he had condensed the gas as thoroughly as he could. Now, these potions were to be stashed away for a year, because they had to ‘ferment’ in order for them to be more useful. Aged potions were the best potions, and most of them were more effective the longer they were stashed away!

Timothy was quite successful today, and started learning a craft that was entirely new to him. It was a bonus that Phantom Alchemy wasn't considered dark magic, because he felt that he wouldn't be able to stomach it if it was considered dark. He lucked out!

Anyway, after he made the potions, Lena offered. “Do you want to stay with me for a while? I can teach you a lot more about Phantom Alchemy, and you should understand that this is an offer that I wouldn't just give to anyone. Stay with me, let me teach you, and perhaps you will credit me when you become an Arch Mage one day?”

“Ah, you lab-coat folks and your credits…” He joked, “Sure thing, I have a couple of days left before I should get back to my body, so sure, I'll hang around for a bit!”