Chapter 246: Chapter 246: Brewing Potions- Wait, did I cook or not??

Theo looked at Elysia for a moment, and then at the instructions on the table.

There were no ingredients on it yet, but soon enough, three uniformed people arrived and began distributing equipment and raw ingredients, along with some tools, to assist them.

Theo read through each point one by one and realized how astounding this world was with each passing line.

There was a small cauldron in front of him that had no fire beneath it whatsoever.

But there was a small rock-like slate below it. It looked like it was kept there to keep the heated cauldron away from the wooden desks.

When Theo read through the instructions, he couldn’t help but smile.

’They are so easy, but some of the things need better attention,’ Theo thought before pressing the small compartment at the bottom of the cauldron.

Before it started getting heated up—by whatever method it used that Theo didn’t know about—Theo poured in all the water given to him slowly, as instructed.

By the time he was done, the cauldron was already hot enough to make the poured water start sizzling.

It surprised Theo, as not even ten seconds had passed properly.

There needed to be a two-minute wait before he could put anything in it.

In that time, Theo took the dehydrated roots of some plant whose name was tough enough to speak out loud.

He kept it in the mortar and pestle, which seemed to be made of white marble. There were even instructions on how he had to grind the roots.

Theo swerved the pestle around in a circular motion; his sword training had made his wrist nimble enough to do it without any problem. It started giving off a charred firwood smell soon enough, which made Theo not want to breathe for a while.

But looking around at the other students, they weren’t having it any better. Some smashed the pestle on the roots again and again, while others tried swerving but stopped every now and then, only to grunt after seeing no results.

Theo kept on going for a minute before he moved the heavy pestle up and saw the ground roots with satisfaction. He moved them to another small bowl and kept it aside before going to the next thing with speed.

The next minute he had, he plucked all the petals of a beautiful flower—even he felt bad for ruining it. It was just that beautiful.

Each petal was reddish at one end and blended into a bright yellow color that screamed royalty.

When he plucked them, he quickly placed the petals in the mortar and started swerving again, only to get results within ten seconds this time.

Theo had to halt for a moment too; his wrist was now hurting due to swerving it so many times.

It made him annoyed, as he had trained with the sword for some time now, which made him imagine his wrist strength to be better than this, but apparently, that was still not the case.

When what was left was just a paste instead of petals, Theo kept it inside the mortar before moving toward the cauldron, which was now hot enough that the water was not only shimmering but also bubbling from the center to the sides.

At the right time, at least according to him, Theo poured the ground roots inside the cauldron and backed away.

It was explicitly stated in the notes to get a few steps back as the reaction could get intense.

And the notes were right. Small droplets of hot water started popping out of the cauldron, making the others who weren’t this far into the steps look back and snicker, as if thinking he had done something wrong.

Yet he nodded when the water droplets stopped coming out, and he saw the color of the water turn light brown, the same color as tea.

Soon enough, he poured the paste of the petals into the mixture too, which this time didn’t give any reactions.

Within a minute, the color changed from light brown to yellowish.

’It looked better before. Now it’s disgusting.’

According to the notes, there were a few steps still left before the concoction was ready.

Theo took a large scooper-spoon-like tool and moved a lot of the concoction into a smaller bowl this time, where he had to use the pestle again, only a smaller one, to not break the bowl, according to the notes.

He moved gently, which was hard for a guy like him who practiced swordsmanship.

The bowl creaked a few times, but his process was going really well.

This time, the pestle was being used to reduce the pulp in the concoction to a smaller form.

When he felt like it was done, Theo had to use a pinch of a powder whose name too was long enough for him to ignore it instinctively. It might have been the Merrick genes he had.

He stepped back and removed the trail of sweat from his forehead before taking a deep breath.

"You’re already done?" Elysia asked from the side.

"I hope so."

Elysia went back to complete her concoction, and surprisingly, she was quite far from reaching the last step.

He looked around and saw many were still attempting it, while some were sitting leisurely as if they were done ages ago.

When he looked up and at the instructor’s table, his eyes stabilized, and he was stunned for a moment before he gave a polite smile.

The instructor was staring at him, her eyes sharp enough for him to notice them from this far.

To make matters worse, she got up and started moving forward. But in relief, Theo saw her stop at a student who was at the closer seats.

She looked at the concoction and smelled it once before telling something to the student in a light voice, making him wince and get back to making another batch.

Theo frowned when he saw her look at him again and then at the other student who was done.

This was going to be a long class, as it was not even the last production one.