Chapter 1553: Alchemy Battle

Translator:

Exodus Tales

Editor:

Exodus Tales

Chapter 1553 – Alchemy Battle

Despite the confident look Shi Feng gave her, Melancholic Smile couldn’t help her concern. However, since Shi Feng had decided, she could only watch this competition play out and hope that the non-internal members wouldn’t occupy too many of the top-ten positions.

Letting internal members learn Basic Alchemy Techniques?

When Youlan overheard the conversation between Shi Feng and Melancholic Smile, she could not help her smile.

She had worried for Silent Aspiration since he’d be competing against so many Advanced Alchemists.

Now, however, she breathed a sigh of relief.

If it were only a matter of Basic Alchemy Techniques, Silent Aspiration had already learned a few. Although Basic Alchemy Techniques were indeed precious, with her position in Underworld and the resources she had collected, she had managed to help Silent Aspiration learn three such techniques.

Moreover, Basic Alchemy Techniques could only help alchemists solidify their foundation. It wouldn’t help them much when improving their actual technique standards past a certain point. When comparing technical standards, there was little difference between an alchemist who had learned three Basic Alchemy Techniques and one that had learned four. The difference would only show itself when players attempted to create their own unique potions.

With the Basic Alchemy Techniques Silent Aspiration had learned and the wealth of experience he had gained while dabbling in the alchemical arts, he should have a high chance of securing first place in this competition. With this, she could, more or less, prove to Zero Wing that her group could be useful. Otherwise, in the event that the Blackwater Corporation targeted Zero Wing because of her people, Zero Wing’s members would look down on her group.

Meanwhile, in the Alchemy Rooms on the top floor, both the Advanced Alchemists and the Intermediate Alchemists had begun to refine the materials on their respective workstations.

For the competition, every alchemist had been given 100 sets of materials. Moreover, rather than some extremely valuable potion, they only had to create commonly used potions.

The Intermediate Alchemists had been asked to create Fire Potions. As for Advanced Alchemists, they had to create Frozen Soul Potions.

Although the Fire Potion and the Frozen Soul Potion were common items, their production was more difficult than other portions of the same rank. They were quite suited for testing alchemists’ production techniques.

Shi Feng had also chosen these two potions for the assessment due to the Eclipse Gate. Any player that visited the Eclipse Gate would need them. The Frozen Soul Potion, in particular, could grant a small amount of Ice Resistance and waken freezing. These effects were particularly useful when fighting the Eclipse Gate’s ice-type monsters.

“It seems there is some level of difficulty to this assessment.” Taking a look at the materials before him, Silent Aspiration realized that he had to craft an Advanced Potion.

Once the alchemists were in position, Melancholic Smile announced the competition’s start through the team chat.

The alchemists took action immediately.

They are all quite skillful!

Shi Feng nodded in satisfaction while he watched the display showing the Advanced Alchemists’ competition venue.

Every Advanced Alchemist had clearly come prepared. As soon as the competition had begun, they had entered a state of total concentration, ignoring everything around them as they focused on concocting their potions. Their actions were fast and precise, without any excess movement to waste their time.

Not only were these alchemists required to maintain a high success rate in this competition, but they also had to maintain a high production speed. With only one hour, it was impossible for the alchemists to go through all 100 sets of prepared materials. The main goal was to see how many potions the alchemists could produce within a fixed time and at what success rate. This way, the outcome would be obvious for all to see when the competition ended.

“Master Aspiration is really impressive. He refined the materials so quickly,” an Advanced Alchemist behind Youlan exclaimed as he watched Silent Aspiration’s performance.

Although he, too, was an Advanced Alchemist, his rank had been average among Underworld’s Advanced Alchemists. In a competition between 80 Advanced Alchemists, he had little confidence of ranking among the top 10. However, Silent Aspiration was different. Even in Underworld, only one other Advanced Alchemist had been capable of competing against Silent Aspiration. That alchemist had also been an elder with decades of alchemical experience.

Meanwhile, Silent Aspiration’s refining process was meticulous and natural. The Frozen Soul Potion’s production had very high requirements. If the refined materials weren’t sufficiently pure, the system would determine the potion’s failure, yet Silent Aspiration refined the materials nearly twice as fast as the other Advanced Alchemists in the competition and still fulfilled the system’s requirements...

Just where did the Guild Leader find this alchemy expert? His production speed is actually on par with Silent Wonder’s.

Silent Aspiration’s performance even surprised Melancholic Smile.

Silent Wonder was one of the Candlelight Trading Firm’s top Advanced Alchemists. She’d even rank near the very top of all of God’s Domain’s alchemists. Melancholic Smile envied the woman’s talent. Fortunately, she was a forger, but an alchemist.

Yet, Shi Feng had actually found another Advanced Alchemist that could rival Silent Wonder.

When Melancholic Smile thought about how the Candlelight Trading Firm had two such impressive individuals, she became even more confident of competing in the Apocalypse Empire and the Black Dragon Empire.

Even the Candlelight Trading Firm’s alchemy is so strong?

Meanwhile, Youlan couldn’t help but be astonished by Silent Wonder’s performance.

The Candlelight Trading Firm had risen to fame due to its forging standards. It was likely that no power in Star-Moon Kingdom could surpass Candlelight in forging. Even throughout God’s Domain, Candlelight’s forging standards would rank at the very top. After all, based on the information she had collected in Underworld, she knew that the firm had at least one Master Forger–Black Flame.

Master Lifestyle players stood at the apex of God’s Domain’s current subclasses. Based on the reports she had received, there were only three players that had been confirmed as Master Forgers in God’s Domain, including Black Flame. Moreover, among these three people, one had only been promoted recently.

She had never expected the Candlelight Trading Firm to be so impressive in alchemy as well. Furthermore, Silent Wonder was still so young...

Although Youlan herself was not an alchemist, she could still tell that, aside from Silent Wonder, the other Advanced Alchemists’ standards were very high. If the Candlelight Trading Firm continued to grow at this pace, it would definitely become a powerful force not to be reckoned with in the future.

Time passed quickly. The Intermediate and Advanced Alchemists in the Alchemy Rooms entered their own worlds as they focused on creating their respective potions. Before they knew it, the one-hour time limit ended.

As an ear-piercing alarm rang in the Alchemy Rooms, every alchemist stopped what they were doing.

“Time’s up?”

“Please let me get into the top ten this time!”

Some alchemists in the competition venues worried as the reluctantly parted with the partially concocted potions in their hands. Some players confidently set their tools down and waited for the supervisors to tally their scores.

“Alright, everyone enter the venues and tally up the crafted potions and used materials. Once you’re done, send the results to me directly,” Melancholic Smile instructed the NPCs outside the Alchemy Rooms’ entrances.

In God’s Domain, as a Shop’s star-rank rose, the intellect of the Shop’s NPCs would increase as well. These NPCs could then help players with a larger variety of tasks. However, this improvement came with a price as the Shop would have to pay higher salaries. Fortunately, the increased expenditure was no problem for the Candlelight Trading Firm.

Following which, the NPCs entered their assigned Alchemy Rooms and collected every alchemist’s results. They then transmitted the information to Melancholic Smile.

A short moment later, Melancholic Smile had the results for the 244 Intermediate Alchemists and 80 Advanced Alchemists. Immediately, Melancholic Smile had the system filter the information, and she quickly obtained the competition’s final ranks.

At the same time, the various alchemists left their respective Alchemy Rooms and regrouped in the Special Alchemy Room Shi Feng occupied. After entering the room, they watched Shi Feng and Melancholic Smile with hopeful expressions.

“I wonder who will rank among the top ten this time?”

“I’ll definitely be one of them! My performance was exceptional this time!”

“I wonder who will get number one?”

“It should be Silent Wonder. She’s been improving like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve heard that she has already invented a new Advanced Berserk Potion. Only, she hasn’t successfully crafted the potion thus far.”

Everyone was curious and confident about the competition this time, and they couldn’t help but chat quietly as they waited.

“Alright, quiet down. I’ll announce the results now,” Melancholic Smile declared.