The next morning was basically a repeat of the previous. The only exception was his father replacing his mother. Kael got the cauldron from his mother, stocked its wood, set it afire, then dumped out his backpack next to it. Sorting out the three herbs and removing the damaged parts he ended up with, 14 stone coat, 85 bupleurum, and 85 cinnamon.

Iradin looked over Kael’s herbs and told him, “Set aside 5 stonecoat, and 10 of the other two into piles for later in the day. Now separate out 20 piles of bupleurum and cinnamon. Store the other 9 stone coat and 55 of the other two for a rainy day. You are going to be making two powders. The first is a minor body strengthening powder and requires 2 bupleurum and 2 cinnamon. The other is a skin refining powder and requires 1 stone coat, 2 bupleurum, and 2 cinnamon. Bupleurum and cinnamon are used for almost all body strengthening powders, but in fewer amounts, as you advance.”

“Ok dad, since the boxes will only hold about 10 pounds each, how about I store 40 parts of the secondary herbs and make some extra powder for the other kids.” Looking at his son, glad he still had a kind heart he agreed. Kael was happy because he got to earn more experience with little waste.

Starting to grind up the herbs as he did the day before; Kael did not have to prod his over talkative father much to get explicit details.

Error, soul failed in refining materials, material damaged by 20%. Waste reduced by 60% due to talents, 12% material saved.

Experience will be granted at the end of refinement.

As he finished baking the herbs he got the same notification he had just received. A waste of 16% in both refining portions was not too bad for a first try. He also gained 5 experience, multiplied by 2 for 10 talent exp.

After pouring the baked herbs into a box and grinding them down again he got another message.

Congratulation, you have created a new object: Minor Body Strengthening powder. Mortal tier alchemy production, total dose available for creation, 5.

First refinement wastage of 8% (Grinding)

Second refinement wastage of 8% (Baking)

Item creation, initial potency of 125. Potency wastage of 20, remaining potency of 105. Base doses of 5, no waste of overall potency, 25 potency per dose.

Converting 105 potency, remaining 4.2 doses. Each dose value of 2 experience, soul granted 8(x2=16) experience to alchemy talents.

Quickly getting the hang of it, Kael was making 5 doses by his 3rd attempt. It also may have helped that he finished his quality subcomponents talent at the end of his 2nd attempt. Raising it to rank 4 with talents earned, than to rank 5 with karma talents, it seemed a little bit broken of a skill. Deciding to work on subcomponents under production, he went back into a focused daze of crafting. As his experience rose, so did his skills. He was so zoned in he missed his notifications as they changed.

Soul succeeded in refining materials, material damaged by 0%. Waste reduced by 120% due to talents....

Soul succeeded in refining materials, material damaged by 0%. Waste reduced by 140% due to talents….

Soul succeeded in refining materials, material damaged by 0%. Waste reduced by 160% due to talents. Bonus, fine refinement +30% useful material.

Experience of 3 (x2 talents =6 +30% refinement bonus =8) granted to the alchemy talent tree....

When Kael realized all of his components were gone he was a little shocked. Thinking back to the last message he was so excited he could almost not contain himself. The bonus was not just on materials, the excess materials meant more doses, which also meant more experience. Finishing them up, he had his production subcomponents only 20 experience away from finishing rank 4. With karma that basically meant he was done with it.

Looking up, his father and mother were staring at him again. “What did I do now? They all seemed ok, I was just focused” Kael said to them.

His mother replied, “You did nothing wrong son, you just got faster and faster as you went. Except for the last step, that was always consistent. It was just odd.”

Thinking of this Kael thought, Shit, a 100% and 60% boost in speed, that should be half the time, then 60% of the time. So 10 minutes would be 3. When I finish it would be 10-minute refinement in 2.5. That’s only on the herb processing, not their combination.

Iradin broke up the awkwardness. To him it did not matter if his son was a freak, he was just proud. “Ok son, the next is the skin refinement powder, it is the same but with stonecoat. Let me walk you through it...”

After his first refinement, he got the exp to get his subcomponents to rank 4. Spending the karma to get rank 5, his waste reduction was now 200%. That meant 50% bonus refinement or a whole lot more herbs for refinement than he should have. Specifically watching for the notification he began the second set.

Soul succeeded in refining materials, material damaged by 10%. Waste reduction by 200% due to talents. Bonus, fine refinement +48% useful material.

Experience of 7 (x2 talents =14 +48% refinement bonus =21) granted to the alchemy talent tree.

Trying not to scream Kael finished his item creation.

Congratulations you have created the object: Skin Refining Powder. Mortal tier alchemy production, total dose available for creation, 5.

First refinement wastage of 0% (Grinding)

Second refinement wastage of 0% (Baking)

Item creation, initial potency of 140. Bonus 48% materials. No potency wastage, remaining potency of 140(+48%=207).

Base doses of 5, no waste of overall potency, 28 potency per dose. Converting 207 potency, remaining 7.4 doses.

Each dose value of 3 experience, soul granted 21(x2=42) experience to alchemy talents.

Taking a deep breath, Kael finally lost his shit. Jumping up and screaming, he bounced into his stunned mother's arms. Breathing deeply again to try to get control of himself he quickly came up with the perfect excuse. He said, “Count the doses..”

His parent had been watching his refinement getting better and better, but to make 7 doses of super-refined herbs with the parts of 5 doses was only something heavens defying talents could do. Looking at his parents as they reseparated out the powder for the third time, he finally let go. Laughing he said, “How is it, are we going to be rich or what?”

Shooing his parents away he finished up the last 4 sets of herbs. While refining he looked over his talents, deciding to take efficiency from the production tree, it would reduce the subcomponents needed for crafting later. When finished he had made 38 doses of skin refinement medicine. A few of those were thanks to the 10% per rank reduction in materials needed from efficiency. Considering his lack of talents for the body refinement powder he actually ended up with 210 of that too.

His parents seeing the extra amount of powders he had were not entirely sure what to do with it all. It wasn’t like wound healing powder, only children or people with really bad talent could use them. Thinking for a while, his mother had a strange smile creep up on her face. “Tomorrow morning take 5 doses of skin refinement and 30 doses of body refinement powder over to Matu. Tell him it is for Raen and it should help her in the early stages of body refinement. Keep 8 of the skin refinement and 30 of the body refinement for yourself.

Your father will head into an iron ranked town a few days from here. He can sell the remaining parts there. In the meantime, Kael go out into the forest and collect as much bloodthorn and hoelen you can find. If you see sage or shiso pick that as well.” Kind of surprised, Kael did not question his mom, he just got his backpack and left.

“Varah, what are you thinking about?” Iradin asked.

“Not much, just Kael's future. I know how to make better healing salves, I am just not good at it. While he is out and about take some of that beast meat and hog meat. Go try to trade the other villagers for bloodthorn, hoelen, sage, and shiso. The hoelen is 4 parts to 1, the rest is 1 part to 1. I know Matu takes in herbs for a lot of fixes he does. If all else fails, bring him the piece of black iron you were going to use for Kael, and trade it to him.” Looking at his wife with some doubts as she never put anything over her son, Iradin just nodded his agreement and left."

Kael returned to his home at about 7 pm, when it had just fallen completely dark. Coming in he was surprised to see his father with a pile of herbs in front of him and even more ceramic boxes. As Kael sat his pack down next to his father, Iradin said, “Tomorrow Matu is going to teach you blacksmithing, it was part of a trade agreement, don’t disappoint your old man.”

“Ok dad, well here are the herbs I have.” Kael turned his pack upside down, dumping out a large group of herbs. He told his parents, “I found 10 bloodthorn from a patch I spotted last month. I left some there so it grows back. The sage and hoelen I had to go a bit farther out for, I found 32 pieces of hoelen and only 18 pieces of sage. As for Shiso, it grows in large bunches so I found 54 pieces.”

Iradin looked up at him saying, “Good! That makes our total 20 bloodthorn, 82 hoelen, 48 sage, and 54 shiso. Your mother is going to teach you some new things, so I am going to BBQ some food out front.”

Alavarah looked at her son and told him, “Separate the hoelen into 20 groups of 4 and match 20 sage to it. Then separate the bloodthorn, sage, and shiso into 20 equal parts. Here is the 9 stone coat from earlier with 18 bupleurum and cinnamon. Store the other 2 hoelen, 8 sage, and 34 shiso over in the boxes with the 37 bupleurum and cinnamon.”

“First make the skin refining powder. After that make minor recovery powder with the hoelen and sage. The minor recovery powder is good for internal injuries but heals slow. Following that you will make wound sealing powder with 1 part bloodthorn, 4 parts hoelen, 1 part shiso.”

Hearing his mother's words he words he was a little-confused asking, “Mom, shiso is the metal element, while bloodthorn and sage have a wood element. Why is it in there?” Smiling Alavarah said, “The shiso balances the bloodthorn and sage making it easier to refine.” Snorting at this Kael said, “Mom, it is only there to reduce the potency, making it easier to combine, it will be better without it.”

Looking at Kael’s confident face she replied, “You can try one time if you fail that’s it though”

Grinning, Kael thought about the talent experience gained while picking herbs. He was already at Rank 3 efficiency and more than half to rank 4. Beginning his refinement he was excited for the results.

Congratulations you have created the object: Skin Refining Powder. Mortal tier alchemy production, total dose available for creation, 5.

First refinement wastage of 0% (Grinding).

Second refinement wastage of 0% (Baking).

Item creation, initial potency of 140. Bonus 50% materials. No potency wastage, remaining potency of 140(+50%=210).

Base doses of 5, no waste of overall potency, 28(-30% due to talents =19.6) potency per dose.

Converting 210 potency, remaining 10.71(11) doses. Each dose value of 3 experience, soul granted 33(x2=66) experience to alchemy talents.

Finishing with a grin on his face. After the herb refinement of his 3rd skin refining powder, he already reached the next rank. Immediately using a karma to max it to rank 5, he finished at 50% reduction. Finishing off efficiency, he started working on speed. Continuing the last 6, even with the experience reduction his talents were skyrocketing. He earned 6 points into speed so quickly he was worried he was overlooking something. Storing the 127 doses of skin refinement powder, he began working on the minor recovery powders.

The minor recovery powder he was pretty sure he could do without the shiso as well, but he did not want to annoy his mom so he kept his mouth shut. With a total potency of 125, and 10 per dose he started cranking them out. He ended up with doses of 37 and 38 instead of 12 to 13. Even with .5 base experience per dose, he made 375 exp in the first set, and 300 the second set. Finishing the 20 sets of herbs off with 750 doses of recovery powder. Adding the 270 exp from refining them, he made 945 exp.

Finishing the speed talent and using a karma to crank it to rank 5, Kael put a point in quality. Unfortunately, powders are too low in rank to be increased. Dropping 4 talent points into the success talent he was now rank 2, with +40%. Tired from all the work and annoyed with keeping track of karma talents, he dropped 2 karma talents into the production and quality crossover skills.

Production - crossover: Increases the speed one learns a skill/technique by 1% per mortal talent points spent.

Quality - crossover: Increases the chance of making a breakthrough to a higher level of a skill/technique by 1% per mortal talent points spent.

Deciding to finish his refinement he would calculate his bonuses in the morning. Starting the refinement of the wound sealing powder without the shiso he was extra careful. Upon finishing it he received an interesting message.

Congratulations you have created a new object: Perfect Wound Sealing Powder. Mortal tier alchemy production, total dose available for creation, 10.

Enhanced potency by 40

First refinement wastage of 0% (Grinding).

Second refinement wastage of 0% (Baking).

Item creation, initial potency of 80(120). Bonus 50% materials. No potency wastage, remaining potency of 120(+50%=180).

Base doses of 10, no waste of overall potency, 8(-50% due to talents =4) potency per dose. Converting 180 potency, remaining 45 doses.

Each dose value of 1 experience, soul granted 45(x2=90) experience to alchemy talents.

Congratulations, for perfecting a recipe you were granted 50(x2=100) experience.

Standing up in ecstasy, Kael shouted, “Look mom! Without that crude shiso it’s potency was enhanced, it came out perfect, which reduced waste and the material required. It’s 45 doses instead of 8!” Not sure how to handle this, Alavarah just patted her son’s head, told him it was late and he should continue. Finishing up the refinements, Kael pushed his remaining mortal talents, Quality, Success, and Material Nature all to rank 3. Granting a 30% quality bonus, 60% success rate bonus(note, 60% of current skill bonus), and 30% material interactions knowledge bonus.

Rubbing his eyes, Kael stood up and walked upstairs. Loudly mumbling something about needing to be up in 4 hours to learn blacksmithing, he left everything for his parents to pack up.

To his parents surprise they ended up with 900 wound sealing powder, 750 wound recovery powder, 152 skin refinement, and 150 body refinement. Taking 2 doses of skin refinement and increasing Kael’s stock to 10, they had an even 150.