Chapter 119 - Alchemy Competition 7
The white cat, Luna opened her eyes, looked up, and asked, "Why are you suddenly in heat Rina?"
"Ha... You know me, Luna. I detected someone interesting. After seeing so many people, it was extremely difficult for me to be interested in anyone." Caterina said.
"Ah yes. It's been a few hundred years if I'm not mistaken. Why? Do you want to bring him to your bed like others you found interesting before? Isn't he too young?" Luna looked at Leyvi's direction.
"Are you saying I'm too old? I'm still tight okay? He already has a few women beside him, it doesn't matter if he's young. He's a fully-fledged adult. And he's my type too, nice body and manly!" Caterina licked her cherry lips.
"You are going to traumatize that kid you know. Did you forget? You couldn't find a partner because your sexual appetite is too high, you couldn't stop until you orgasm. How many men had to endure being sucked dry because they couldn't handle you. They all couldn't get it up because of you afterward." Luna reminded her, trying to save Leyvi's manhood.
When Caterina was young, she had a long line of men courting her. One day, she found someone interesting among the men pursuing her and got into a relationship.
However, for some reason, it wouldn't last long.
Later, she would find someone interesting and get into a relationship again. However, the same thing happened.
After many more similar cases, people finally found out the real reason behind all the failed relationships from some credible testimonies.
Caterina was a monster in the bed. It was extremely hard to make her orgasm and she would be in a trance riding her partners until they went limp. In most cases, they go limp forever from the trauma. Even the ones who successfully made her orgasm still wouldn't dare to be with her.
And so, she had been single for thousands of years. Although she was well aware of the situation, she kept bringing the men she found interesting to bed with a positive outlook that maybe they could accommodate her.
As time passed, she had achieved many things in life but it was harder and harder for her to find someone interesting because she felt that she had seen it all. She felt most of the things around her were boring now.
Unexpectedly, after a few hundred years, someone actually made her interested again and he was just a Foundation Building young man.
"Don't worry, I will restrain myself this time," Caterina reassured while smiling at Leyvi.
"Huh? She's smiling at me." Leyvi said.
"Who's smiling at you?" Nala asked. Is there a fellow exhibitionist flashing at Leyvi somewhere in the crowd? She can compete.
"That cat lady over there on the cat chair." Leyvi pointed with his mouth.
"Husband, there's nobody there," Layla said, while the rest nodded.
What? Leyvi was confused. She was definitely there, even winking at him. Since they couldn't see her, Leyvi didn't say more. Maybe she's a ghost.
Fuck! Kid. I know that you're abnormal, but you're abnormal to the point of catching her attention! Should I warn him? If this kid went limp forever, his daughter might not be able to have a child. Magnus was anxious.
A few moments later, Magnus calmed down. Kid, good luck. If your manhood survives, I will build a statue of you in our territory, if not, maybe you are not worthy of Selene after all.
After an hour's break, the Alchemy Competition resumed. The first-round ranking was replaced with an overall points ranking for all contestants.
1. Norin Homun 100
2. Anda Leyan 90
3. Ori Oregano 80
4. Amelina 70
5. Natalie Clover 70
6. Victor Goldstone 60
7. Mia Fafifa 60
8. Asmondol 60
9. Lars Vomil 60
10. Sarah Goldstone 60
Ori was still grinding his teeth seeing Anda's name above him.
"Alright everyone, since the warmup was done. Let's proceed to the second round. For the second round, we will be having the contestants compete in the ingredients refining aspect." Elder Godari announced.
"In our current standard alchemy procedures, we have five main steps from the beginning to the end, which include Extracting, Containing, Refining, Mixing, and Forming. For the audience that lacks knowledge about all of these terms, I will explain briefly to you so you have an idea of the things that would happen later on." He said calmly.
Although he didn't have to trouble himself explaining to the audience, he felt that it was a good idea for them to know a little bit about the process.
Having some context about what they will be seeing later might enhance their spectating experience. And some of them might be interested in starting alchemy. After all, one of the purposes of the Alchemy Conference was to promote alchemy.
"The first main step in alchemy is Extracting. What do we extract? We extract the essence of the ingredients. How do we extract? We extract by heating them and then using the extraction technique to collect the essence together."
"The second step is Containing. This step will start immediately after extracting the essence until the product is completed. Using a containing technique, the essence will not be able to escape the cauldron and prevent the essence from being contaminated."
"If alchemists are not proficient with a containing technique, it is the same as wasting ingredients, they would get a lower yield due to the escaped essence. On the other hand, if it got contaminated, the essence might become unusable."
"The third step is Refining, the theme for the second round later. While containing the essence, alchemists will control the flame at a suitable temperature and use a refining technique to remove the impurities that came together during the Extraction step. It will also increase the potency of the essence."
"Why refining is important? Because it will be the major factor in determining the quality of the alchemy product. The higher the degree of purification, the better the quality."
"After all the ingredients have been refined, come the Mixing step. In this step, you have to mix the purified essences together according to the correct ratio, temperature, and sequence. This sounds easy but unfortunately, it's not."
"There are two types of mixing. One is non-reactive and the other one is reactive. All of the alchemy products with non-reactive mixing are considered easy products. The essences just mixed together and then you can proceed to the Forming step."
"On the other hand, reactive mixing is very hard and could cause an explosion, especially if your containing technique is weak. Some mix has mild reactions and some mix has violent reactions."
"After the reactive mixing, you can't go the Forming step right away, you must do the Refining step again. Why? Because in a reactive mixing, there are unwanted sub-products that were formed. So, we have to remove the impurities again. Only after this can we proceed to the last step which is the Forming step."
"In this step, alchemists only have to shave the mixture in the cauldron into the final alchemy products, such as pills, elixir, paste, or any suitable form."
"And that's how the average alchemy process happened. Some alchemy products might have more or fewer steps but we don't have to go further right now. So....What does everyone think about alchemy?" Elder Godari asked a rhetorical question.
The crowd started to make noises and talk among themselves after the explanation from Elder Godari.
"Damn, it's so hard to be an alchemist. No wonder there are so few of them."
"They had to do so many things at once while I couldn't even juggle two balls properly."
"Sigh, I looked down on them thinking I could do the same if I had a fire spirit root. Turned out that I'm just ignorant."
Some of the crowd reflected on their viewpoints toward alchemists, some with fire spirit roots felt like they could become alchemists and some idiots couldn't even understand what Elder Godari talked about.
"Ah....so that's how it was done." Leyvi nodded, showing some understanding.
"Mr. Leyan, you never know how the alchemy process works? You never watch Sister Anda doing alchemy?" Selene asked, somewhat surprised. She didn't have fire spirit root so she couldn't learn alchemy but she had seen her brother doing it many times.
"Selene, father-in-law had approved of us so you don't have to call me Mr. Leyan anymore. Just call me Leyvi. As for your question, yes I don't know at all. I never even try to see Anda do it because I'm not interested. Hahaha!" Leyvi was still in a good mood after Anda got second place in the first round.
"Ah...I see. I understand Ley-Leyvi." Selene stuttered a little, suddenly shy.
Magnus and Madam Goldstone rolled their eyes hearing Leyvi. Can you not flirt around her parents?
After the chatter subsided, Elder Godari's voice sounded again.
"For the second round, we will provide the contestants with a newly created fire-controlling technique and a similarly newly created refining technique. You will be given 12 hours to learn both of these techniques and you must use them to refine the essence that we prepared for you."
"The ranking and points given for the second round will be decided based on the purity percentage of the essence."