Master and Apprentices: Rise of the Cheat Potion Maker #2
Master and Apprentices: Chapter 1

Last time on Rise of the Cheat Potion Maker, Nate, our peace-loving overpowered hero was summoned to a world called Mondra. He appeared in the town of Kyushu of the Kingdom of Merridon. Ignoring the system’s urging of choosing a hero class, he decided to go with the potion maker class instead. This world already had a hero anyway. Wait, wait, wait, you already know this. Let’s skip the basics.

Previously: after reading the letter of his redheaded apprentice Mandi, an indirect plea for help, he decided to set off for the city of Wingston to quickly scoop her up, even at the risk of encountering the Red Star, Mandi’s mother. A very powerful flame-wielding magician. Magicians are feared strongly throughout the land for a reason…

So, Nate’s job as the potion maker continues! Get Kyushu fully out of its high inflation, rescue his third apprentice, conquer his projects and new systems, and all while keeping his presence hidden. However, there are things happening around him, out of his control. What kind of disasters will our peace-seeking hero get himself into?

I awoke to the smell of some delicious breakfast cooking and then realized my fiancée woke up before me again. Dammit. As much as I wanted to show off my old world’s cooking, if Milia awoke first, she’d always make sure I got up to an orchestra of mouthwatering goodness. Don’t get me wrong, I taught her some recipes from home, the meatless ones, such as pancakes, hashbrowns, fruit-based breakfast turnovers, and other things. Since Milia was a vegetarian, understandable for a dryad, she’d not so much as consider meat on the menu. However, she understood the human body and its cravings for protein, so she never had any problems with us enjoying meat around her. We did have a sunlight wolf, a kitten, and a griffin for pets, after all. In fact, Wolverine emerged through the door, tail wagging as the wolf cub hopped onto my chest.

He was getting slightly bigger, but we’d only had him for almost two months, replaceing Wolverine as a baby and the potential lunch of a demonic beast. By the way, Wolverine and Cheetara the kitten were spirit beasts. Beakwing the griffin was something called a magical beast.

The system greeted my mental vision with my current progress as a cultivating magician, ignoring my desire to just keep to a peaceful life and making my damn potions.

Nate

Class: Potion Maker. Secondary class: **Divine Master Magician**

Magician rank: 3rd realm of the Lesser Dragon.

Class rank: Special Rookie Potion Maker.

Ability: Can make up to SSS and divine-grade potions.

Power: Crushing Strong.

Defense: Emboldened Steel.

[Mana core realms consisted of: Mortal, Beginnings, Novice, Initiates, Adjusting, Midcore, Highcore, Lesser Dragon, Saint, Higher Dragon, King, Emperor, Master Magician.]

[Class upgrades consist of: Initiate, Rookie Potion Maker, Established, Inspired, Seasoned, Veteran, and Master Potion Maker. As you progress, you will unlock new potions and even special methods of brewing.]

After this came the dense gold core, but despite the accelerated auto-cultivation of my mana, I felt like I still had a long road ahead before even scraping the surface of that. Something told me the system was going to make me care about progressing my realms, whether I desired a peaceful life or not. If the mysterious secondary class—that I had a sneaking suspicion was not supposed to exist—had a say in it.

I had a last name by the way, being from Earth and all, but decided to change it here in this world. This new last name would be the start of my legacy I guess. Think about it. How cool is it to essentially name yourself? Kind of. The system would probably not recognize any changes to my first name. But that wasn’t a problem. It was something I held dear from the old world anyway. My old clothes too, though I didn’t wear them anymore. I couldn’t risk getting them damaged, stained, or burned by a freak chemical accident. Despite being in this world for only a couple of months or so, my cultivation of mana progressed extremely fast, even at a request to the system to slow it down just in case of any consequences. The system had no fucks to give and controlled all of my cultivation in my stead, preventing me from ignoring it. On top of having superstrength and superspeed upon arrival to this world, I also had one, and only one, spell which evolved whenever the system felt like it was time to evolve it.

I yawned as I got out of bed. Today would be the day I’d finally put the ice crystal I earned from the A-ranked dungeon to use. Cold storage, also known as a refrigerator in the old world. Thanks to the run in with a powerful boss monster, a fallen angel, we acquired some amazing loot. But I’d never take my happy ass back into that dungeon again. Fuck that. Banded with the hero’s party, we pushed ourselves to the limit to take her down. The dungeon respawns bosses after a day, and while she challenged me for a rematch, I declined it.

You failed to kill me once and you’ll never get another chance. I only wanted the ice crystal anyway. But this brought forth another important ordeal. The S-ranked dungeon in the depths of Milia’s forest. What kind of absolute insane loot would one get from clearing it, assuming it was possible in the first place? Would God appear and personally forge you a sword that outshone even the heavens? Or in my case, gave me a potion that granted wishes? One could only imagine! Not that I had any idiotic plans to go on a suicide run any time soon, no thank you! That, of course, meant we’d have to put up with the creepy aura that bathed Milia’s forest for a while longer. In reality, even if we wanted to clear it, we simply weren’t strong enough. Thank fuck there was no rush. Milia and I weren’t adventurers. We were shopkeepers.

After confirming my stats, I closed the prompt and stretched.

“Good morning, Wolverine. Who’s a good boy?” I gave my wolf a scratching beneath his chin and his head pats. The white-furred sunlight wolf loved his head caresses. I could hear Milia calling Cheetara in the front room. Or Cutie, as she called her. She had nicknames for all of them.

I brushed my teeth first in the bathroom, before heading to the outhouse for a good ol’ morning tinkle. At the moment, we had somewhat of an ancient Roman style of plumbing. At least, I thought it was from old Rome. Pipes running water from a fantasy-clean water source with various filters installed to keep it clear. Magic, of course, did plenty of work, especially when it came to heating water, pots and pans, and even the cauldrons we produced our potions in.

“How should we start, now that we have the ice crystal?” Milia asked after we finished breakfast.

“First, we’ll redirect the river water that runs in here that’s acting as our temporary coolant,” I said. “I can pull the stopper and a bit of the hard part’s taken care of. I’ll have to do some digging and whatnot. After that, we’ll need a sturdy container more than twice the size of a man. From there, we secure the ice crystal inside and it’ll keep everything cool. If we’re able to mess around with its temperature, we’ll have both a fridge and a freezer. Cold storage and ice storage, that is.”

“Ah!” Milia said, patting a fist against a palm. “That’s actually quite brilliant. I wonder if the wealthiest nobles have access to storage like this?”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they do,” I told her. “They wouldn’t make it easy for the everyday common man to get their hands on an ice crystal.”

Milia nodded. “Should we start with Wanda’s gift now, or do you want to pick up Mandi first?”

“Let’s check out the spirit coin cost first,” I said. “I haven’t gotten the chance to play around with the thing because I was so tired. I did set up the new chemistry set in the lab.”

[Supreme Brilliant Ice Crystal. Item rank: S. Item quality: Superior. Emits extremely powerful ice mana. You may turn up to three ordinary rocks into servant ice crystals that won’t require a charge for a year.]

[Magical Master Area Building System. Item rank: S. Item quality: *Supreme Extraordinary. You may keep track of your buildings, gardens, projects, and systems through this artifact. However, to upgrade anything, you will need spirit coins and meet certain requirements. This is a direct gift from Wanda, only capable of being handled by a master magician and anyone they designate.]

I pulled the red cube from my storage ring. It felt somewhat cool against the palm of my hand and let out a barely audible hum. Suddenly, an interface projected from it. My eyes widened, feeling a bit at home with something that resembled technology, but not too much. Nothing could compare to my new peaceful life with a lover, pets, and numerous ways to make a name for myself, magically or physically.

[Welcome, Divine Master Magician Nate, current owner of the MMABS.]

Milia looked mesmerized and so damn adorable as she tried to touch the hologram. If I had a camera, this would totally be in the wedding album.

“How does this thing work?” Milia asked. “I can feel divine energy radiating from it, pulsing like a heartbeat.”

I willed the interface to load the next screen. There, it gave me selections. At least the system seemed to be fine with showing Milia everything. Normally, this would be classified information, right? Then again, I wasn’t sure how to explain the system in my head without sounding like a lunatic. She had no idea about modern technology nor computer interfaces.

[Current options. Buildings. Tools. Garden. Forges. Equipment and Devices.]

[Projects: 1. Farm: Acquire animals and feed from Mandi. In progress. 2. Cold Storage: Select the food storage box from the Equipment and Devices option. In progress.]

There were basic pictures accompanying each option. I selected Equipment and Devices.

“It… somehow knows about the cold storage,” I said.

“This is astonishing,” Milia said.

[Equipment and Devices. Currently unlocked:

1. F-ranked Food Storage Box. Price: 2 spirit coins.

2. F-ranked Sled. Price: 1 spirit coin.

3. F-ranked Water Wheel System. Price: 5 spirit coins.

4. F-ranked Mana Gathering Machine. Price: 60 spirit coins.]

[More options will become available over time or triggered by unseen events. You may be notified. As you become a better mentor to your apprentices, become a husband to your lover, and truly feel what is like to own the land, you may replace special options appearing.]

That prompt appeared in my head, of course, but I summarized it to Milia. Her expression went thoughtful for a bit.

“With spirit coins, each of these items are considered pricey,” Milia said. “It feels weird for them to be classified with such a low rank.”

I selected the food storage box. A hologram of it appeared in front of me and wherever I directed my hand, it followed. Excitement rushed into me. To think this ridiculously amazing box could make life hundreds of times easier… at the price of a fucking fortune apparently. Sixty spirit coins for an F-ranked mana gathering machine! If copper was the lowest valued currency, spirit coins would be this system’s version of platinum or diamond.

“Let’s deal with the water first,” I said. “It shouldn’t—”

“Let’s just… do things the easy way. I’ll just command the earth to direct everything where it needs to be,” Milia said.

“Works for me,” I said.

And so we headed outside with the pets following and quickly restructured our waterflow system. Milia made it look so easy, her coordination, her precision perfect. She commanded the earth through unique dryad magic and the river actually moved. I could imagine from an above view, it would look like someone was manipulating things through Photoshop, perhaps cutting and pasting.

I grinned at Beakwing, whose beak was agape.

“Amazing, isn’t she?” I told the griffin. I nearly shuddered thinking about the sloppy job I would’ve done by hand.

Beakwing huffed in agreement and let out a low sound. Cheetara chased Wolverine’s tail a bit, then rubbed against Milia’s leg. The dryad picked her up and continued to manipulate the land while playing with Cheetara.

After the green-haired woman with golden eyes finished, we went back inside, and activated the cube. I placed the holographic fridge-shaped food storage box where I wanted and selected confirm. Well, Milia did, because she wanted to try it. The sight of unknown technology had my fiancée giddier than a kid on Christmas morning.

The food storage box simply popped into existence. A prompt confirmed things within my head.

[You paid two spirit coins for the Food Storage Box. 48 spirit coins remaining.]

I opened the box and holy shit, it looked exactly like a fridge. If Wanda or whoever was responsible for this were here, I’d give them a side eye. But probably a hug. The slot for an ice crystal was obvious.

First, I turned a rock into a servant ice crystal, then installed it into the slot. The inside of the fridge immediately cooled, almost colder than a modern refrigerator. Milia excitedly started helping me place our jars of food inside.

“I’m most excited for cold wine and fruit juice,” she said.

A knock on the door signaled the arrival of my two apprentices, a blue-haired eighteen-year-old girl named Harmony, and a redheaded seventeen-year-old half-dwarf boy named Lucas. They were about the same in height, Lucas being tall for someone with dwarven blood.

“Good morning!” Harmony greeted. “We were hoping to tag along.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I said, gaining a pout from the teenager. “I’m pretty sure her family’s not going to be happy with their daughter eloping with randoms.”

“I’m not arguing against any days off, but I’d like to start working again,” Harmony said. “Being out here is really peaceful. It’s nice to be away from the town.”

“I have to agree,” Lucas said. “At first, the weird… aura or haziness coming from the forest made me feel uneasy, even a little scared. The peace of the garden allowed me to get used to the feeling.”

I nodded, agreeing with them. Somehow, living this close to the S-ranked dungeon’s aura and by extension, the Axem’s aura, built an immunity within me. That explained how Milia, along with the fairies and strange critters of the forest, were able to live peacefully.

Dungeon bosses couldn’t leave dungeons, places that were basically other worlds or dimensions, perhaps even pocket worlds. The structures were a mystery even to the natives of Mondra. Some believed they were created by Wanda, a goddess worshiped in this world, others toyed with the idea of ancient magicians. The whole ‘ancient people creating impossible things and dying without a trace’ still bugged me, by the way.

I glanced at my apprentices for a while longer and then sighed. “I’ll make one batch of each potion. Handle with care, also tend the garden like usual.”

“You mean it?” Harmony asked, eyes shining. “You’ll let us run the shop?”

“I’m giving you a test run,” I muttered, which prompted a giggle from Milia. “Don’t throw any parties in here. Wolverine will tell me.”

“Finally, I feel like a real shopkeep now,” Harmony said. “A right apprentice, instead of a part-timer.”

“You really are a handful,” I said, patting Lucas on the shoulder. “Harmony’s in charge as the head apprentice. Make sure she doesn’t blow up my shop.”

Lucas laughed. Harmony rolled her eyes and greeted the spirit beasts. “Hi Cutie, hi Woofy.”

At least Lucas used their proper names. Maybe he should’ve gotten the promotion. Deciding everything was all in order, I whipped up the potions on our standard menu.

Rather than stall any longer, I finally took a look at the requirement to create the God Flame potion. The description was rather simple.

[Upon consumption, you will have full control of fire. You will also be immune to fire, magma, and even solar magic.]

[Ingredients required: Two leaves of a screaming demon baby plant, two leaves of a hissing plant, a health potion, sky serpent samples, Rowbear samples, four spice-heavy common or higher herbs. Simply boil all of these together in a brew. You may want to use the highest quality of spice herbs available unless you enjoy bad-tasting potions.]

I couldn’t believe how easy this potion was. Sure, this would be impossible for normal potion makers and most magicians, but thanks to holding up the party during the dungeon run and collecting defeated monster samples, I had everything I needed. The fiery Rowbear was certainly the battery behind this concoction.

“Eh… Is it a coincidence that I received this recipe when needing to go to Wingston?” I asked. “The Red Star’s supposedly a powerful fire magician.”

Words like that would’ve made the old Harmony shudder. Instead, a look of determination and fire emerged in her eyes. Lucas could learn from his senior. She was quite strong, potentially a prodigy. Her extra training with Milia encouraged the girl to push her limits. It wouldn’t surprise me if she felt like someone behind in a long race and did whatever it took to catch up.

We’d ask her to slow down, build a foundation, but hell, what did I know about mana cultivation? Not much aside from what Milia taught and the books I’ve read.

“Sir Nate, I’ve been meaning to ask, but I’ve never seen you meditate,” Lucas said, his curiosity already beginning to get on my nerves. Okay, not really. In fact, I decided to throw him a bone.

“Let’s just say my cultivation method is different,” I said. “If you work hard enough, practice, whatever, you’ll come to understand it. Hell, you’ll start to sense it.”

Normally I’d admit to being full of shit, but this time everything I told him was true based on my studying, experiences, and even things people said.

When you were sent to another world, you’d often replace yourself lost in thought, wondering what was out there in the unknown. I also wondered why the system was so intent on getting me to essentially power-level through the realms.

After bottling up the potion of God Flame, I turned to Milia. “Are you ready to go get our little redheaded princess?”

The dryad smirked. “Let’s get her.”