A substance genuinely connected to magic.

What exactly did that mean?

In a sense, if you make a substance genuinely connected to magic, does that make you a Potion Maker? And what did it mean to have the so-called talent or qualifications?

Tori had been thinking about this ever since she returned from Blackwater Town.

She hadn't even asked the old village chief. If what Ethan had said was true—that Potion Makers tested their own apprentices this way—then that alone said a lot.

Perhaps the old village chief hadn't passed a test like this back then.

Of course, he might be able to help her a little—but when Ethan's bright, refreshing smile came to mind, Tori felt a little unwilling to ask.

She'd just pretend she was a genius.

She started thinking about the problem.

Substances connected to magic. For now, she could think of about three key points.

First, materials connected to magic. Red peppers, for example, or moon grass—raw ingredients everyone knew were used to make Potions.

Second, a method of preparation connected to magic. Based on her own suspicions, Tori wondered if making Potions involved things like magic spells or magic circles.

Third, a way of using magic. Perhaps you had to infuse the substance with mana while using it—but for now, she wouldn't make that her main focus. She'd never heard of anyone needing to use mana to drink a Meditation Potion. And it would be easy to check: she could just ask Boris, the village chief's grandson. If all else failed, Tori could even buy a few Meditation Potions herself and try them out.

But she still wanted to save her money. If she really managed to get the recipe for a Miniature Meditation Potion, she'd try making one herself.

Besides, she didn't need to get much stronger right now. Her daily meditation really did increase her mana, and she enjoyed the process.

She could now produce a tiny flame or a small ice spike. They couldn't do any damage, but they were already a little useful in everyday life.

The first thing she decided to try was a method of preparation connected to magic.

It wasn't that she was too cheap to buy ingredients for certain Potions. She'd decided to take things one step at a time, even though she suspected that making a substance connected to magic—something that could be called a Potion—would probably require both magical ingredients and a magical method of preparation.

She turned her attention back to the remaining ingredients for rat poison at home.

What if she added mana while making the rat poison—

So she tried burning the plant ash with her little flame, freezing the poison orchids and Radet vines with ice magic, then dissolving them in water condensed with magic.

The process used up a lot of her mana, but she restored it through meditation, treating the whole thing as part of her training.

At last, she made another batch of rat poison—

She picked two rats of similar size from the few she had left and fed one ordinary rat poison, the other rat poison made with mana. The result proved there was no difference.

It had failed.

Even if a magical method of preparation was involved, it definitely wasn't the kind she'd tried.

Could it really be magic circles?

Everyone knew about them. But Tori didn't know how to draw one, and neither did Xilika. She'd said it was a profound field of study. Besides, magic circles weren't very useful to low-level Mages.

Tori decided to put the question aside for now.

She didn't want the village chief to know that she might be able to get her hands on a recipe for Miniature Meditation Potions. That Third Young Master might look harmless, but he definitely wasn't a simple person.

And when it came to something so tightly guarded—

She should be happy just to have the chance. Even if she decided to tell the old village chief, she ought to ask Ethan the next time they met before making up her mind. If she went around Ethan, he might resent her if he found out.

And if she went to see Ethan without being able to make a magical Potion—or at least something that might be connected to magic—he might think less of her. Right now, she was like a job applicant in an interview, with Ethan as both the boss and the HR manager. He held all the cards.

She had no choice but to consider the question of magical “ingredients” first.

Actually, she had access to quite a few ingredients connected to magic.

Red peppers, moon grass, ice mint, grain-scented grass, poison orchids—

But she didn't think she could make a Potion with just those few things. Besides, when it came to red peppers, did she need the fruit or the roots? Or some kind of extract? Every ingredient raised questions like that.

And those were only plants—plants she could get her hands on. What about animals? Insects? Take “bone worms,” for example: a rather hideous kind of worm that appeared in corpses. She'd heard they could be sold, too, but they were extremely aggressive, and a large enough swarm could kill someone.

That was why Tori hadn't tried to catch any before. Then there were oil toads. She'd heard their skin was worth quite a bit, but after running into one by the river, Tori had decided she probably couldn't take one on.

It wasn't impossible to ask someone else for help.

But that would cost money. Or leave her owing someone a favor. Tori wanted to avoid that if she could.

Think it through, Tori.

You're not just a resident of this world. You also possess the great wisdom and wealth of another world. You should conduct your experiments scientifically.

No matter how powerful this world's magic was, it was still a feudal society. The important thing was how you thought.

After thinking it over for a while, she decided to try making distilled liquor first. Using it as an extraction solvent was one idea she'd come up with, even if it might not be concentrated enough—

But it was the only method she could think of. Ethan's requirement was that it could be anything, beneficial or harmful—as long as it was a substance connected to magic.

The principle behind distilling liquor was simple enough: alcohol and water had different boiling points. When you heated the original mixture, the alcohol evaporated first. Then, after it condensed, you had liquor with a higher alcohol content.

Usually, after processing it like that once or twice, you could get liquor that was seventy or eighty percent alcohol. Anyone who wanted to drink it would need to dilute it with water—

But what about the equipment?

Brewing liquor was already a slow process, and the distilling equipment would be another heavy burden. Still, she decided to get started.

While working in the fields with her mother, Tori also asked her to help make some bamboo tubes and wooden barrels to use as conduits and containers. It was slow going.

She'd already spent a good portion of her pocket money on grain to use as fermentation ingredients. The brewing was underway.

“Tori, there's nothing wrong with making liquor—but I've heard that if you aren't careful, what you brew can turn out strange. It might make people sick if they drink it… You need to know what you're doing…”

“It's fine. This is in the village chief's notes. I'm just trying it out.” Tori looked at her mother. “If it works, we can sell it, right?”

She wasn't planning to sell high-proof liquor, only ordinary liquor. Even if she managed to make the strong stuff, she might not be able to keep it.

Come to think of it, most liquor in this world was probably made from fruit like grapes. They likely hadn't seen much grain liquor.

None of that was especially important for now. She didn't believe Potion Makers in this world used extraction to make Potions. There had to be another method.

She held a red pepper in her hand.

Honestly, the red peppers in this world were much prettier than the peppers in her old world. They looked like jade, and felt faintly warm in her hand. She could sense a little mana inside them.

Not much—far less than the mana she had herself—but it was definitely there.

How could she draw out that mana? Or maybe she could extract that tiny bit of it… She turned the question over in her mind.

Wasn't that little bit of mana the reason this ingredient could be used to make certain Potions?

Tori stared at the red pepper for a long time. Then she took a bite.

A burning heat spread through her mouth. Then a wave of warmth seemed to travel through her whole body, raising her temperature. She knew people in colder places sometimes ate peppers to keep warm—but this was way too intense! The chili powder she'd had before hadn't been this hot!

Tears were about to spill from her eyes.

Who said you could just slice up a red pepper and eat it? Were the nobles in the city monsters? Or was there some kind of preparation you were supposed to do first?

At any rate, everyone in the village ate red pepper powder—

She forced herself to finish the whole pepper, despite the heat. Her mouth and tongue felt like they were about to go numb. Still, she struggled to enter a meditative state, hoping to observe the changes in her mana…

It didn't work.

It was so spicy that she couldn't meditate.

Her gaze fell on the red peppers at home that hadn't been taken out to sell.

If she got used to eating spicy food, would the heat of red peppers become no big deal? Then could she meditate and observe how that tiny bit of mana in the pepper moved and entered her body?

Come to think of it, this could sort of count as training—

Training in how to enter a meditative state under any circumstances.

She tried to look on the bright side, though she had to admit it was a little forced.

There was no other choice. She'd just have to do it this way.

Until she managed to make her high-proof liquor, this was the only experiment she could try. At least this village had little of everything else, but plenty of red peppers.

Every household kept some red peppers. As long as she paid, she could always get her hands on a few.

She entered a miserable stretch of days: eat red peppers, then force herself to meditate. On the fifth day, she finally succeeded.

Of course, Tori felt no joy at her success just yet. Her butt hurt.

She hoped mana training would make her body healthier. Otherwise, she thought she might have to see a doctor.