The cold winter wind blew relentlessly, the air carrying a bone-piercing chill.
On a small open square, Leilin was bare-chested, practicing Cross Sword techniques.
The muscles on his chest had begun to take shape. While the lines weren't especially pronounced, they flowed with a sleek, lean quality that gave off an impression of sharp efficiency.
Rising slash! Upward cut! Thrust! Every move was flawless, as precise as a textbook example.
When Leilin finished his training, Anna, who had been waiting at the edge of the yard the whole time, hurried over and handed him a white towel.
Leilin wiped the sweat from his body while pulling up his data.
"Leilin Farell, Second-rank Apprentice, formal Knight. Strength: 3.1. Agility: 3.3. Constitution: 3.2. Spirit: 4.7. Mana: 4.0. Status: Healthy."
"Chip, how did today's training go?"
"Analyzing! The subject's Life Energy improvement has reached its ceiling. No increase detected in any parameter!" The Chip's emotionless voice came through.
"So this day has finally come," Leilin murmured with a sigh. "Getting this much attribute growth was already good enough. Putting any more effort in would be diminishing returns. From now on, I can stop this kind of Knight training. After all, all that's left is maintaining combat proficiency and keeping my skills sharp. With the Chip, I can stay at peak condition indefinitely!"
After finishing his morning Knight training, Leilin rested briefly, and once he'd adjusted his condition, he threw himself into a tense round of experiments.
Inside the laboratory, Leilin placed a purple leaf into a beaker, added a spoonful of dark green liquid, and lit the burner beneath it.
Bright yellow flames licked the bottom of the beaker as purple bubbles steadily rose to the surface.
"Chip! Record this — the 145th material experiment. Substitute materials: Hofu Purple Leaf, Nino Root!"
"Recorded!" The Chip's voice responded, carefully documenting the various medicinal properties and changes occurring in the experiment.
Over this stretch of time, Leilin had already conducted well over a hundred experiments, and the simulations run through the Chip numbered in the tens of thousands.
"This is it! I have a very strong feeling — this time it will succeed!"
Leilin stared at the green and purple gases swirling above the beaker and muttered to himself.
Using materials accessible to ordinary people as substitutes for a Wizard's potion primary ingredients was an absurdly ambitious idea, and the obstacles it presented were countless.
Moreover, while the materials for each experiment were mostly things that could be bought with gold coins, some auxiliary components could only be obtained by Wizards.
Those were the ones Leilin had purchased at the Wizard market, and they were nearly depleted now.
If not for the Chip, which allowed him to run massive numbers of simulations, Leilin's current supply of materials would have been nowhere near enough.
The materials for just a few preliminary experiments alone would have bankrupted him.
Clatter!
The purple leaf inside the beaker had completely dissolved, and the green liquid turned partially translucent.
"Now!" Leilin widened his eyes, grabbed a glass rod and inserted it into the beaker, stirring in the opposite direction. A wisp of Spiritual Power crept carefully along the rod and into the solution.
As the seconds ticked by, Leilin's expression grew increasingly tense, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
Tinkle! A light chime rang out from inside the beaker. Numerous black specks appeared in the center of the pale green liquid, spreading outward in all directions like tiny insects.
Leilin's expression didn't change. His hand moved with phantom-like speed, tossing a red pearl from a nearby petri dish into the beaker.
Crack! As the pearl hit the liquid, the black specks inside the beaker rapidly faded. The pale green liquid quickly lightened until it turned completely transparent.
"Success! Substitute primary ingredient for the Azure Potion has been achieved. Estimated replacement of 45.8% of primary ingredient efficacy."
The Chip's notification sounded exceedingly pleasant to Leilin's ears at that moment.
"Tens of thousands of experiments, with the Chip's simulations and calculations, and it finally worked!" A smile spread across Leilin's face as he clenched his fist tight.
At the same time, Leilin felt a deep appreciation for just how difficult it was for an Apothecary to improve a recipe.
He had the original formula, plus the Chip to run simulations and save him enormous amounts of time and materials, and it had still taken this long to produce a single improved recipe. If it were his senior apprentice Merlin, he likely couldn't have borne the initial material costs at all — even with his family's backing!
After all, repeatedly pouring precious materials down the drain to chase a hope of less than one in ten thousand was not something a rational Wizard should ever do.