Gerald felt a deep sense of disappointment towards the result.

He picked up the ruined potion sludge and closely examined it. "Looks like the powder absorbed my Mana instead of enhancing the potion. That supposedly happens if the water content in the potion is too high…" He pondered, trying to get a feel for the situation.

"Ah…" he slowly exhaled, "If only I could get those extreme filters from Earth. Separating water from the solids would be so easy. Instead, I have to be a cook and play with this stuff for hours."

He was starting to consider if potion-making was even viable in the long run. If you were lucky, you could probably make two or three potions each day. And that would give you 40-50 silver profit. But even that required you to have extreme efficiency and close to 100% success rate in brewing.

"There is so much wasted time here and it would probably slowly make you go insane if you would have to take care of such a boring process all day, every day…"

Having no good ideas for solving the problem, Gerald decided to take a walk in the city to clear his mind and to familiarize himself with the place even more.

As he was strolling on the street, Gerald noticed that there was a distinct lack of horses and carriages. In fact, the roads were really clean and tidy with no animals or beggars walking around as one might expect of a medieval city.

To satisfy his curiosity, Gerald explored the place in more detail. It turned out that Geldern actually had a weird law that forbade any form of public filth in its center. For that reason, the suppliers for the city had to use the back streets to distribute the goods to different shops.

Horses and donkeys had their stalls on the outskirts of the city and all sorts of other dirty businesses were also made there. It was not the best system, but it guaranteed that the city would stay clean.

Satisfied with the discovery, Gerald continued his aimless walk through the city.

Deep in thought, he unknowingly came up to a water fountain in the city center. The constant sound of the running water had a calming effect, allowing him to completely empty his mind, letting his thoughts wander.

Watching the constant swirls near the drain, he closed his eyes and let his mind feel the feeble flow of Mana in the water. The minuscule changes were so random and disorganized that Gerald started injecting his own Mana to steady the water.

The swirls and ripples at first resisted the external forces, but after he sent a stronger will, the surface of the water calmed down, and it became flat, like a mirror. It felt as if it were all under his absolute control.

With a thought, he could change it to any desired shape. It was similar to simple spells, but also much different.

To cast a spell it was required to understand the nature of the Elements and also the outcome. The process didn't really matter.

It was the exact opposite of what he was doing now. Gerald completely focused on controlling the process, with no concrete goal in mind.

He was just like a child, learning about the world by playing. The only difference was that instead of using his hands, he was using his mind.

As he was playing around with water, changing its shape, his eyes suddenly opened wide and a smile formed on his face. He got the inspiration for his alchemy problem.

He released his mental grip over the fountain and the water was finally able to flow normally again. Luckily, people around didn't notice this bizarre phenomenon.

Inside his room back at the Guild, Gerald was performing an experiment that required all of his attention.

He took a vial filled with water and dropped a few drops of ink inside. Now the simple but complicated experiment could begin.

The goal was simple. He just had to remove half of the liquid, but it had to be pure, untainted water. He used ink instead of the actual ingredients for potions. It was good enough to learn how to control water on the molecular level.

The principle was simple, but without a powerful microscope to see what he was doing, it was basically as if he were going in blind.

Every action he did, had to be imagined to the smallest detail in his mind. It was an exhausting process at first and the results were less than desirable.

Thankfully, he learned from each mistake, and after dozens of tries, he was finally able to extract pristine water from the murky liquid.

It took him a few more tries before he was confident enough to move on to the real stuff.

After a short break, he once again extracted the juices from the Healing Roots. This time he did not even attempt to use the heat to remove the water content. Instead, he sat down, with a beaker of bright red liquid on the table in front of him.

As he injected his Mana inside, he had to be careful not to excite the healing properties in the liquid. Slowly, drops of water separated from the rest and lazily rolled over the edge of the beaker, dropping on the table.

A few long minutes passed, and Gerald had a forehead full of sweat. It was finally time to once again combine Pure Ether Crystal dust with the unfinished potion.

Gerald was exhausted and he barely had any Mana left but he still continued with all his might. If he gave up now, his previous efforts would be for nothing. Once again, he released his conciseness to guide Ether dust to bind with the potion.

This time, it was a success. The dust bound with and also encased the healing particulates on the molecular level. Although he couldn't see it, Gerald felt the slight change.

He took a good sniff of the potion and a satisfied smile emerged on his face. The aroma was quite sweet and overall pleasant, reminding him of honey pastries.

"Success! I finally managed to create a Healing Potion!"

Gerald was in an extremely good mood. It took him the whole day, but he did it. He created a Healing Potion and it didn't even take half an hour to complete it. The process was about ten times faster than the conventionally used procedure.

After a short break to calm his mind and recharge his Mana, he was ready to start with the plan.

"Now…" he clapped his hands together and smiled, "It's time to get to work!" He pulled out the rest of the herbs and began with the intense work, deep into the night.