Chapter 123: Alchemy And Drugs

Chapter 123: Chapter 123: Alchemy And Drugs

A week after the hacking attempt on his computer, Derrick packed up his things and officially moved into the warehouse.

Rebecca didn’t really want to let him go at first.

She worried about him staying in such a huge place all by himself, but she understood he needed space to focus strictly on his work.

Still, he wasn’t completely isolated.

Rebecca, Cassie, and Beth dropped by to visit him from time to time.

Whenever Beth came over, the two of them couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

It never took long before their conversations turned into soft touches, stolen kisses, and getting real handsy around the workshop.

Around that time, Derrick noticed something interesting about the garage.

While looking over the warehouse setup, he discovered a hidden surveillance system.

It was wired up and sending a live feed straight to Keira’s phone.

Derrick turned it off whenever he was working or whenever someone came to visit.

He didn’t mind her watching him, but if those recordings ever fell into the wrong hands, it would cause serious trouble.

A whole month went by after he moved in, and a lot of things changed.

The wild energy inside his body finally stabilized and smoothed out.

He got a complete handle on controlling his Enhanced Energy without any struggle.

With the help of his All-Seeing Eyes, guiding the power through his body wasn’t even that hard to do.

Besides working on his internal energy, Derrick spent his extra time building custom hardware and software.

He designed and built his own smartphone from scratch, linking it directly to the supercomputer mainframe back at the workshop.

The phone became his mobile control station.

He even added a unique design feature to it.

With a quick flick of his fingers, the screen could extend into a wide display or retract back down into a compact phone whenever he wanted.

On day 40, Derrick decided it was time to put his alchemy gear to the test.

He placed an order for a large batch of unranked herbs.

Once the shipment arrived at the warehouse, he unpacked the raw ingredients and set them up on the workstation.

This wasn’t the first time he had made pills on his own.

He had been experimenting with his cauldron ever since he first got it.

"It’s not real alchemy if you have to rely on gas fire to heat up the cauldron," Derrick muttered to himself.

"Now that I have Enhanced Energy, I just need fire manipulation techniques, and I can finally create pills on my own like real alchemists."

"But before I do that, I should try this equipment as well."

Derrick arranged the unranked herbs neatly across the broad steel table, organizing the spirit grass, bitter-root, and blue-stem leaves into distinct piles.

Unranked herbs are tricky to work with, Derrick thought as he picked up a dry, brittle leaf.

Most alchemists call them useless trash because they’re packed with so much waste, but waste is really just raw energy that hasn’t been cleaned out yet.

He flipped the main power switch on the refining furnace.

The heavy machine hummed to life, warming up with a steady amber glow.

He fed the herbs into the grinding chamber, where internal blades pulverized the plants into a thick, dark paste.

Let’s see what this high-grade gear can really do, he thought to himself.

Derrick closed his eyes for a brief moment, took a steady breath, and activated his All-Seeing Eyes.

His vision shifted instantly, making the thick steel casing of the furnace fade into a translucent outline.

Inside the inner chamber, he could see every tiny particle of the herbal paste.

Bright, glowing threads of natural energy were tangled up with dull, black specks of waste matter.

Derrick placed his palms flat against the heat-control plates.

Instead of relying on the machine’s default buttons, he guided his Enhanced Energy straight through the sensors.

If the temperature spikes even two degrees, the energy inside the blue-stem leaf will break down, Derrick calculated.

I need to keep the heat perfectly balanced and fluid.

His internal power flowed smoothly from his fingertips into the chamber.

The dark paste inside began to sizzle, turning into a glowing, bubbling liquid.

With his All-Seeing Eyes, Derrick watched how the tiny black specks of waste reacted to the thermal shifts.

There you are, he thought. Now get out of the way.

He sent a razor-thin pulse of Enhanced Energy straight into the liquid.

The pulse vibrated through the chamber, popping the specks of waste and flicking them up toward the exhaust vent, where they burned away into harmless grey smoke with a light crackle.

Most alchemists had to rely on pure guesswork, hoping they cooked off impurities without destroying the medicinal properties.

Derrick didn’t need to guess at all—he could see the waste vanish in real time.

Once the liquid was crystal clear, he focused on bringing it all together.

Time to lock it into shape.

Derrick flexed his fingers against the control panel, wrapping a tight net of his own energy around the glowing liquid core.

The liquid spun rapidly, pulling inward like a drop of water in zero gravity until it shrank into a tight, glossy sphere right in the middle of the crucible.

Lock it in now!

He sent a quick burst of intense heat through the furnace walls.

The outer layer of the sphere hardened in a flash, trapping every drop of pure essence inside.

HISS!

The pressure valve released a heavy cloud of sweet, herbal-scented steam, and the main hatch slid open smoothly.

A dark green, polished pill rolled out onto the metal collection tray, glistening under the overhead lights.

Derrick picked up the warm pill and held it up to inspect it closely.

"No cracks on the surface or blemishes," Derrick said, turning it around in his fingers. "What about the purity levels?"

He walked over to the purity meter on the side and turned it on.

Derrick set the pill cleanly on top of the scale that measured impurities.

The digital display flickered for a moment before locking onto a number.

91%

"Ninety-one percent? Right on the first try?" Derrick smiled, feeling genuinely elated. "This equipment is really next level."

He looked back over at his traditional setup with a confident spark in his eye.

"Now, on to the cauldron..."

But before Derrick could step away, Silly Bot popped out of thin air right beside him.

"Sir, you have received an invitation on your official Company Email ID," the Pseudo-AI reported.