Chapter 16: Potion Brewing Time
Drones were perfect workers; they had the highest possible effectiveness, and they never got tired or wanted a wage. They didn't need anything, just a magical power to keep them going, and that was no problem, as the ambient magic level in Underworld was very high. After exactly one day, the underground complex was done.
Not as high as the dimensional worlds of some Pantheons, but it was still enough.
"Excellent. Architect, how many Drones could these little guys produce within one day?"
I asked as I looked at the production line, which was currently being constructed by Drones.
[50 Drones. While Drones are intelligent enough, they can't do the runic inscription and matrix creation processes as fast as experienced runemasters.]
Said Architect in my mind. Arachne Drones were small; they were around half a meter tall and one meter in length.
"Good... then start the production. We need as many of them as possible. Their utilization in the war would be immense. They could easily serve as either cannon fodder or construction force."
I said as everything started to move. I was aware that my little creation would become hot merchandise among the nobles that would want to obtain suitable cannon fodder force to save their soldiers. The production cost of one Arachne Drone was cheap, and I wasn't planning to sell them at high prices for many reasons.
One of them was that part of my plan was to have as many of them on the battlefield, another one was to gain allies, and another was just a long-time investment in the devil species as a whole.
"Architect, start compiling a list of enemies that are to be disposed of during the Great War. We don't need unstable elements in the future, Baator."
I said with a malicious grin as I commanded Architect. The list included various nobility and houses that were known for their incompatibility with my ideas for unification.
As I watched the Arachne Drones working like some hardworking bees for several next hours, I was notified by Architect that the potion formula was finally calculated, at last.
"Can we go to the brewing process already?"
[Yes. The first thing to do is to dissect the corpse, which Drones would do.]
As I took out General Level Monster Ape's corpse, the Architect and three drones immediately started the dissection process. They worked extremely fast as they separated the monster's skin, flesh, bones, blood, and organs.
It was no wonder, as Architect was directly controlling the little ones, and after one hour, the entire process was done.
[You will need only blood, heart, and bones, especially the bone marrow and Nuclei.]
I took everything Architect told me and went to the cauldron. Nuclei was a crystallization of magical power that monsters created upon reaching the General Level. The main usage of the nuclei was either in Alchemy, as a power source, or amplifier with spellcasting.
[First the blood, then add in that dragon blood you bought and mix it together. It needs to be refined and compressed into 1/100 of what it is currently.]
There were tens of liters of blood boiling in the massive cauldron as I was infusing my Demonic Energy with the cauldron, regulating the process, where the blood would basically compress, or rather the energy from the blood would be compressed.
This step took more than 10 hours till the cauldron was almost empty, and only a small part remained. When I looked at the blood that was boiling there now, I felt the energy from it, as it was practically radiating and shining to all sides.
[Use the Heart Blood of that Ape and drop in the Nuclei. Activate the runic stimulation to the maximum. Afterward, add an extract from the Demonic Flower and other herbs I had prepared for the potion.]
As Architect was instructing me, I noticed behind me was Arachne Drone, with the rest of the resources the Architect was talking about. Various vials, with an extract from rare herbs that were bought by my subordinates for this potion.
Heart Blood was a special type of blood that was located in the heart and was practically the source of bloodline and strength of the blood in the body. If Heart Blood is forcibly extracted from a living person, he had guaranteed dead in most cases.
I added all Heart Blood that the heart of the General Level Ape could provide me and dropped the Nuclei of the monster into the cauldron. At the same time, I quickly activated the runic matrix over the cauldron, which started regulating the huge energy storm that was taking place in the cauldron, as I dropped Nuclei of Ultimate-Class being into a pool of liquid full of magical power.
Thankfully, the runic matrix controlled it perfectly for my heavenly or devil's luck, and nothing bad happened. Cauldrons tended to explode rather often. After I added those extracts from various herbs, I closed the cauldron and left it be, for the next day, as Architect instructed me to do.
"I wanted to ask, what is the difficulty of this potion?"
[This thing could be classified as Master-Level Potion. If not for my precise calculations and instruction, you would have never brewed it.]
Answered Architect, with only what I can call... pride. Still... he was right; pioneering was exactly that hard if you have something like A.I. Chip with impossible advanced A.I. that calculated every possible step and navigated you through the entire process. Still, I will stay with my runes, I didn't mind creating some potion from time to time, but it isn't my thing.
One day passed, and Architect said I needed to check up on the cauldron as time passed. When I opened it, I was surprised that what was left, approximately 100ml of pulsating black-crimson liquid, was located on the bottom of the cauldron.
[Now, just bring some vial, fill it, and leave it to rest in a magically saturated area for another day. Afterward, your potion is officially done.]
Instructed me, Architect.
When I asked why the resting part, he answered that the potion could absorb ambient magic right now, so it would boost up the quality by some amount if I left it in a magically saturated area.