Chapter 148: A Private Demonstration

"Come in..." Max said as he opened the door to the laboratory.

Yennefer followed him inside, looking around curiously.

The area directly in front of them was mostly just a staircase, which seemed to lead toward the living quarters. Yennefer glanced to the side and finally got her first proper look at Max’s laboratory.

It was surprisingly well-organized.

The entire lab was quite clean, with hardly anything cluttering the counters. Aside from a few machines, there wasn’t much sitting around. She recognized some of them, including the quality-checking machine she had seen before.

At the center of the room stood a large cauldron, connected to what appeared to be a magic array beneath it.

Yennefer’s eyes lingered on the setup for a moment.

For a laboratory belonging to someone as careless as Max, it was far more organized than she had expected.

But this one was different from the one she knew.

The array beneath the cauldron was far more intricate than anything Yennefer had seen before. Dozens upon dozens of runes covered its surface, some large enough to be clearly recognizable while others were so small and tightly packed together that they almost looked like fine writing.

They weren’t simply arranged in a single circle either.

Several layers of circular formations overlapped one another, with smaller circles nested inside larger ones. Triangular patterns connected different sections of the array, while stranger geometric shapes filled the spaces between them. Thin rune-lines ran from one formation to another, crossing and branching in precise patterns before connecting back to the central structure beneath the cauldron.

Despite the sheer number of runes, nothing looked randomly placed.

Every symbol seemed to have its own position, with each circle, line, and geometric formation fitting together like pieces of an enormous puzzle. From a distance, the entire thing almost looked like an intricate piece of magical machinery drawn directly onto the floor.

Yennefer found herself staring at it for a few seconds.

It was complicated.

Very complicated.

Yet somehow, all those countless runes came together to form a strangely beautiful and perfectly balanced structure.

"Let’s go upstairs first. I’ll give you a proper tour of the lab later..." Max said, already halfway up the stairs.

Then he added amusingly, "Though it’s not like it’s that big..."

Yennefer nodded as she followed him upstairs.

"Is this your personal lab?" she asked.

Max nodded, already knowing why she was asking.

"My mentor’s lab is more like a full-on industrial complex. You know, like those huge places they use to make cars and other big stuff..." he explained.

He’d actually researched it before. Normal potions didn’t require anything remotely that large, but the stronger the potion, the more ridiculous the requirements became.

For example, potions capable of extending someone’s lifespan—not just preserving the body, but even extending the lifespan of their soul—required cauldrons so enormous that they could be as large as trucks.

And the amount of ingredients required was equally absurd.

A single batch could require so many herbs that the same quantity of ingredients could be used to produce thousands of Minor Healing Potions.

So compared to his fake mentor’s imaginary laboratory, this place was practically nothing.

"So, you’ve actually been to his lab? Where is it?" she asked hopefully.

Max didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he walked over to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of water, and turned back toward her with a small smile.

He took a drink without saying a word.

Yennefer’s eyebrows slowly curled downward in annoyance.

"Don’t tell me..." she muttered, already sounding irritated.

"I’ve been there many times, but I can’t tell you where it is," Max finally answered.

As he spoke, he poured her a glass of water.

Yennefer looked at the glass suspiciously for a moment before finally taking it from him.

Max looked slightly annoyed this time.

"It’s not drugged, if that’s what you’re thinking."

That immediately made Yennefer look relieved.

A vein practically popped at the side of Max’s head from irritation as he watched her. She still gave the water a suspicious sniff before muttering, "With all the things you’ve done since I met you, you really can’t blame me for being a little suspicious..."

Max didn’t really have an answer to that, so he simply took the empty glass back from her.

"Need some more?" he asked.

Yennefer shook her head and sat down in one of the dining chairs. As she looked around the room, she noticed that even the living area was surprisingly clean.

Her eyes eventually landed on the laundry basket, where a few pieces of women’s clothing could be seen mixed in with the dirty clothes.

"Where has Zerena gone?" she asked.

"Back to the city to do some things. Gods know what..." Max replied casually.

He opened the fridge and looked through its contents.

"Wanna eat some egg fried rice?"

"Nah..." Yennefer shook her head. "I already had lunch before you came to the store."

"Well, I’ve eaten too..." Max said, turning toward her with a wide grin.

He glanced toward the stairs before looking back at her.

"So... you want a tour of the lab, or should we check out the bed first?"

He casually pointed toward the bed.

Yennefer’s eyes immediately narrowed into a glare.

"To the lab..." she said, getting to her feet.

As she stood, a rather unpleasant thought crossed her mind.

*’Why the hell did I come upstairs in the first place?’*

She had already learned that being alone with Max anywhere near a bed was practically an invitation for him to start causing trouble.

And somehow, despite knowing that perfectly well, she’d still walked straight into his bedroom.

*Brilliant, Yennefer. Absolutely brilliant.*

She shook off the thought and headed toward the stairs.

"Let’s just get this over with and see if you really made those A-grade potions," she said, already walking down.

Max followed her downstairs, looking amused as he watched Yennefer head straight toward the cauldron.

She was already studying the array he’d built around it.

"Did that mentor of yours make this?" she asked.

Max shook his head.

"Nah, it’s my creation. He gave me the basic design, though. After understanding how it worked, I made this one myself."

He glanced proudly at the array as his fingers were already starting to fiddle with a few of its settings.

"It’s more complicated than the one he suggested, but it works pretty damn well for me..."

Max looked rather proud of himself as he continued adjusting the array.

Yennefer, meanwhile, could only stare at it in shock.

Yennefer remained completely silent as she stared at the array.

The longer she looked at it, the less sense it made.

She recognized individual runes here and there, along with a few familiar formations, but the overall structure was far beyond anything she had expected to see in a personal laboratory. Countless strings of runes had been woven together around the cauldron, branching into different sections before reconnecting with other formations.

There were circular layers nested inside larger circles, triangular formations intersecting with them, and smaller arrays positioned between them to control different parts of the brewing process. Some sections appeared to regulate mana flow, while others seemed connected to temperature, pressure, and the movement of the ingredients inside the cauldron.

At least, that was what she assumed.

She couldn’t actually understand most of it.

That alone was enough to shock her.

Every beginner potion maker started with a simple array. A basic formation with only a handful of functions was more than enough to help control mana, maintain temperature, or stabilize a brewing process.

As their understanding improved, they would gradually add more formations and learn how to connect them together.

But even experienced potion makers usually kept their arrays relatively straightforward.

Complexity wasn’t automatically better.

The more runes an array contained, the more difficult it became to control. A single incorrectly connected rune could interfere with the entire formation, causing the mana flow to become unstable and potentially ruining the entire batch.

And Max’s array...

It was massive.

There were so many runes packed into it that Yennefer couldn’t even begin to count them.

She found herself wondering how long it had taken him to construct something like this.

Then she noticed what Max was doing.

He wasn’t standing there explaining every part of the array to her.

He wasn’t carefully checking each formation before activating it.

He was simply fiddling with it.

His fingers moved casually across several sections of the array, making small adjustments here and there as though he were operating a machine he had used a hundred times before.

Then, almost without warning, the entire formation lit up.

One section after another activated in rapid succession.

Mana began flowing through the countless strings of runes, racing from one formation to another before branching into smaller channels. The circles beneath the cauldron illuminated, followed by the triangular formations around them, until the entire array was glowing with a steady, synchronized flow of mana.

Her suspicion faded away that instant.

If Max could really create an array this complicated, just as he claimed, then what was stopping him from creating A-grade potions?

For the first time, she began seriously questioning whether his claim about being able to make them was actually an exaggeration at all.