Pandora Unchained B1C63: Thankless But Lucrative

Mr. Primrose took his time in evaluating Sorin's answer. The white snowflake-like powder was now dehydrated. He peeled off a sheet of filter paper from the filter flask's funnel, then carefully knocked the dry contents into a pouch, which he weighed and labeled before placing on a shelf. He then took a seat by the waist-height lab bench and gestured for Sorin to do the same.

"What if you were wrong?" Mr. Primrose quizzed. "What treatment would you recommend to guarantee success in eliminating the poison from the patient's body?"

"There are many treatment options," said Sorin. "And to my knowledge, no treatment would guarantee success. Moreover, you only asked about the poison. I can only recommend something with further knowledge of the patient's situation or other symptoms.

"More to the point, is this a question of treatment methods or the symptoms? Because symptoms were what you inquired about, not treatment options. I could use the symptoms and descriptions to recognize the poisons utilized and even formulate an antidote. Still, I'm afraid this would do little good for the patient by the time a physician realized what was going on."

"Well said," said Mr. Primrose with a tight smile. "By the time the physician came to us for help, it would be too late. Because that's what we do, Mr. Kepler: We study poisons to better understand them and, therefore, better assist professionals in their work. This includes physicians. This includes the Governor's Manor. This includes the Adventurers Guild.

"We are not assassins. We do not sell poisons to the unqualified. We do not formulate cure-alls. We do not diagnose patients. Full stop.

"Apothecaries only fill out approved orders to make a living. This includes orders requested by a physician's official prescription and those vetted by the Alchemists Guild. Private dealings are strictly prohibited. The only exceptions that can be made in your case are poisons for self-defense and to support your profession. You can brew poisons for you and your teammates, but no one else. Understood?"

"Understood," said Sorin, realizing that he'd barely passed the man's test. There was no need to question Sorin's knowledge of poison because, as a physician, half his education revolved around the subject.

"Your relationship with the Medical Association and your relatives doesn't interest me one whit," said the man, walking up to a desk. He opened it, revealing an emblem that resembled an alchemist's cauldron emblem, except that it had a slightly green tinge and had a snake wrapped around the cauldron, baring its fangs. He tossed the emblem to Sorin. "I am merely instructing you on the rules of our profession absent any other factors.

"If you one day regained your status as a physician, unlikely as that is given their views on poison users, you will be able to skip several steps. But the rules will not change.

"I understand," Sorin reiterated. "I will hold myself to the highest of standards and adhere to the rules of the Apothecary profession."

Mr. Primrose nodded. "That covers most of it. You may use this workshop if you keep it clean. You may only use this workshop in the guild, as it is the only one that is properly equipped to deal with poisonous explosions or other incidents, up to and including two-star poisons. Do you have an earth flame?"

"I do," said Sorin. "Though he is a living creature. Will that be a problem?"

"A beast flame," said Mr. Primrose. "How interesting. No, it won't be a problem, as long as he abides by the rules of the laboratory and doesn't eat inside the laboratory." He then gestured to a board where several papers were pinned. The board was separated into two sections. The one-star section was the largest of the two. "There is great demand for poisons of late, so feel free to take on any commissions you are capable of concocting. Feel free to read any books you see in the reference library. You may also take on private commissions directly from physicians. However, these must be reported to the Alchemists Guild for due diligence."

"May I perform experiments?" asked Sorin.

"You may," said Mr. Primrose. "Though I advise you to not bite off more than you can chew. Otherwise, I'll be left with the unfortunate task of picking your bones and melted flesh off the floor and sending your remains to the furnace for cremation."

"You may also come to me for advice, though I must warn you – until the demon tide is over, my time is limited. Speaking of which, I still have 50 kilos' of veridian ash poison to make by day's end. Its concoction is troublesome, so I'll be isolating a portion of the laboratory until I'm finished. You may now do as you please." The man then hopped off his bar stool and walked over to a corner of the laboratory. A mana shield sprang up, separating the room's airspace.

Sorin quickly recovered from the ease of his assessment and looked around the lab. A large shelf of ingredients was located near the entrance. Sorin had assumed these ingredients belonged to Mr. Primrose. Still, when he saw an inventory sheet and price list next to the highly poisonous ingredients, he realized that this was simply the toxic ingredient dispensary and storage space. The ones found for sale on the first floor were merely the least lethal of the bunch.

The inventory sheet and sign-out system were self-explanatory. Sorin or any other alchemist or apothecary in the Alchemists Guild could buy ingredients on credit. The cost of ingredients would be directly deducted from the reward when turned in. This was fortunate because Sorin was low on funds and wouldn't be able to invest much upfront.

The mission board was of particular interest to Sorin. The number of 1-star commissions wasn't small; roughly half the commissions were helpful in medicine, while another half were poisons that he recognized as being applicable to adventurers.

There was also a brightly labeled request in a prominent position on the board. An open mission for unlimited amounts of lung rot powder and scorching bramble ash? Thought Sorin. The mission was issued by the Governor's manor, so Sorin could only assume these were in preparation for defending the outpost during the demon tide. A similar mission was issued on the two-star board for Veridian Bone Corroding Ash, the long-form name of the veridian ash poison Mr. Primrose was concocting.

Sorin decided to focus on medical missions to start off. He was sensitive to the costs of such ingredients since he was used to purchasing them for his clinic. How lucrative… That was his first impression of apothecary missions. Too lucrative. Don't they know how easy this stuff is to make? The failure rate is basically negligible.

Sorin wasn't a qualified alchemist by any means. He needed the proper flame control and knowledge of herbology required for the profession. But that didn't mean he was utterly ignorant of poison-crafting methods.

In general, an alchemist's success rate ranged between one success per three potions brewed and one success per two potions brewed. Potions that were made often might have a higher success rate, on the order of 2 successes per three potions brewed.

The margins generally reflected this. Failing twice but succeeding once would allow a one-star alchemist to roughly break even. If they wanted to make money doing alchemy, they would need to increase their success rate.

But for poisons, it was different. Everything was costed on the same principle, but the difficulty in brewing them was much lower. Sorin had a broad knowledge of different poison concoction methods thanks to the Ten Thousand Poison Canon and, therefore, knew that poison concocting was significantly easier than potion making.

Success was almost guaranteed for creating 2-3 poison blends. Even complex poisons requiring 10 or more ingredients had failure rates lower than 33%.

"Here's your meal ticket, Lorimer," said Sorin, pointing to the board. The small rat poked his head out of Sorin's chest pocket. "I know you hate being a beast flame, but if you can suffer through it, I'll split my earnings with you 9:1." Lorimer squeaked in protest, but Sorin shook his head. "I'll find an earth flame to rent if you don't accept. Choose wisely."

Thankfully, Lorimer was still a rat and as such, was a terrible negotiator. He didn't know that renting an earth flame was extremely expensive and accounted for roughly 25% of an alchemist's expenses. A 10% cut was a steal of a deal for Sorin, further increasing his already lucrative margins.

The simplest poisons are small money items, but at my level, they're the most efficient to make, thought Sorin. They don't require a lot of time, so I can mix them up in an hour with time to spare.

One-star alchemists and apothecaries were limited to small quantities of reagents. A cauldron was the typical quantity used to measure potions. Up to ten potions could be extracted from a single cauldron, and the success rate was based on the quantity of extractable potions rather than the success of an individual cauldron.

Having made his decision, Sorin picked up the first mission, 5 cauldrons of crimson juniper extract. This poison was helpful in treating liver corruption. There was a high demand for this poison in the clinics, and the Alchemists Guild was often behind on orders, forcing patients to wait until their conditions worsened and the treatment was no longer as effective.

The main ingredients for the poison were 100 millilitres of liquified mana extract, ten mature blood juniper cones, five grams of crimson fire bark, and 3 drops of condensed sun extract, which the Mages Guild produced via sun-converging spell formations.

Sorin signed out the ingredients from storage and grabbed a mortar and pestle, a cauldron, and some fire essence crystals. Lorimer adopted his position in the earth's flame formation, keeping a fire essence crystal at the ready in case he ran low on energy.

Preparing the poison was extremely easy. Sorin measured out the liquified mana extract and added it to the cauldron, leaving it to Lorimer to increase its spirituality. Meanwhile, he used the mortar and pestle to grind the juniper cones and crimson fire bark, taking care to wash them carefully between uses.

Once the liquified mana extract began to glow healthily, Sorin directly tossed in the two ingredients into the cauldron and used his mana to extract the poisonous ingredients from their powdered forms and into the liquids.

Extraction is the most essential part of the process, thought Sorin as he worked. Failing to extract enough poisonous ingredients will result in a reduction in the total amount of active poison produced.

Fortunately, Sorin's cultivation technique was extremely overbearing in this regard. By consuming a small amount of each ingredient, he was able to mimic these poisons in his mana and, therefore, exert additional influence on them.

He also had a second advantage: the Ring of Poison Manipulation. Thanks to the ring he wore on his left hand, Sorin was able to enhance his connection to the poisons and further facilitate the extraction process.

It wasn't long before the potion began glowing with a crimson light, which Sorin carefully nourished with Lorimer's flames. Thirty minutes later, the potion's glow reached a peak. Sorin stopped heating the solution and brought it over to a separatory funnel.

He then poured three drops of condensed sun extract into the funnel then mixed the solution thoroughly. A small, gritty film formed atop the funnel, which Sorin separated from the final potion by draining out the bottoms. In the end, he was left with 98 millilitres of crimson juniper extract.

"Your control isn't bad," said a voice from behind Sorin. Sorin jumped when he saw that Mr. Primrose was standing behind him.

"Aren't you supposed to be concocting something, Mr. Primrose?" asked Sorin.

"I had a bit of downtime and thought I'd see how you were doing," said Mr. Primrose. "And please, call me Alexis. Mr. Primrose is what strangers call me. We're not strangers anymore – we're coworkers."

"Many thanks for the feedback… Mr. Primrose," Sorin said. He just couldn't get around to calling him Alexis. "Do you have any recommendations?"

"At this level? No," said Mr. Primrose. "Your poison control can probably allow you to manipulate up to five poisons at similar success rates. If you want to maximize your profits, I suggest going for slightly more complex poisons. On the other hand, you may want to clear some backlog for the clinics. As a former physician, I'm sure you are more sensitive to their needs than others."

"I'll give it some thought," said Sorin. "At the very least, I know this poison is in high demand. I'll clear our four more cauldrons before the end of the day and make my decision then."

"You're free to do as you wish, of course," said Mr. Primrose. "Clearing out the backlog will only take a few days, anyhow. And I don't have any time to spare to concoct such low quantities of low-grade poisons."

Alexis returned to his own side of the workshop, leaving Sorin to tally up his profits and losses. One cauldron is roughly 90-100 mL, thought Sorin, jotting 88 gold down as the reward for 98 mL of extract. My costs were roughly 23 gold in ingredients, leaving me with 65 gold as my commission.

Even after Lorimer's 10% cut, this was a huge profit. It wouldn't be long before he'd saved up enough for his 9th poison.