So — where does the creation of the Elixir of Intellect even begin, if we exclude the preparatory stage I'd already completed? Naturally, with another preparatory stage: drawing the curtains and switching on a red light. Thick, uneasy half-dark flooded my tiny apartment, turning it into something between an alchemist's lab and a maniac's darkroom. Luckily, my makeshift apartment lab was already set up on the table and the instructions were engraved in my memory, so we start with the extraction of Phantasmine.
The pollen of the Phantom Orchid isn't a powder, as an untrained observer might expect, but a pollinium — a single waxy mass. In the case of the Phantom Orchid, it was blinding white with a faint pearlescent sheen. I carefully plucked it from the center of the flower that had materialized from my inventory using tweezers. Of course, apart from the crimson glow of the lamp, there were no other light sources in the apartment.
I placed the waxy pollinium on a small set of lab scales. The display froze: 57 mg. That fell within the 50–70 mg range required for one dose of the Elixir of Intellect, so I pressed on. With that in mind, I transferred the weighed pollinium into a perfectly dry, sterile 50 ml flask, then used a graduated cylinder to measure out exactly 20 ml of isopropyl alcohol. Its sharp, clinical scent hit my nose for an instant as I added it to the flask.
I turned on the dry heating block and set it to warm gradually over 5 minutes from 30°C to 40°C, then hold at 40°C for the next 10 minutes. Placing the flask into the block, I waited, peering occasionally to see whether the pollinium had started to break down. In theory it should dissolve, tinting the alcohol with a barely perceptible opalescent hue. My nerves were taut. Fortunately, on the tenth minute the process began, and five minutes later, when the heating block clicked off, I poured the resulting solution into a centrifuge tube and started the machine. The room filled with a rising, monotonous hum.
Five minutes later all insoluble particles — wax, flower debris, dust — had settled into a dense whitish sediment. I needed only the clear liquid on top, the supernatant, which I carefully siphoned off with a syringe into a new sterile flask. That was the purified Phantasmine extract; I immediately added exactly 5 ml of colloidal silver. The solution reacted at once, turning slightly cloudy — a good sign that my steps were correct. Before the nearly final, most important stage, I placed the flask in my inventory, then filled a deep bowl with cold water, added salt and ice, and returned the flask with the extract to reality.
A small box containing one charged quartz crystal appeared silently on the table. Using ceramic tongs I lifted the crystal — it seemed to buzz with an almost imperceptible tingling — and pressed it to the outside of the flask standing on the table. I didn't dare perform the operation in my hands for fear of destabilizing the crystal's charge. Everything should work now. I hoped.
The crystal's vibrational field penetrated the glass and triggered the chain reaction I expected. First the liquid went heavily cloudy, turning milky. I waited patiently, holding the crystal to the flask and feeling the air thicken around me. After roughly three minutes the liquid began to clear rapidly, like fog dissipating in fast motion, and about a minute later it became perfectly transparent — pure as water. A faint, fresh smell of ozone spread through the apartment, another sign the activation had succeeded.
Without removing the crystal from the glass, I picked up the flask with other tongs and submerged it in the prepared ice-salt bath. There was a soft hiss. The sudden temperature drop locked the elixir's unstable molecular structure into a stable form, making it suitable for use and storage. A minute later I withdrew the flask from the ice bath, returned the now-depleted crystal — which had reverted to ordinary stone — to its box, and drew about 25 ml of the potion into a lightproof glass vial with a syringe. Done. The Elixir of Intellect was officially ready, and the system agreed.
[System]Created a potion of Common complexity — "Elixir of Intellect." Difficulty: Normal. Gained +200 OP!
Huh, finally. I did it. So much effort, so many expenses, so many plans and ambitions focused on this elixir the System aptly called a potion — and here it was in my hand. I wanted to drink it right then and there, but I held back. Not the time... Besides, I still had to make four more doses, so I stowed the vial in my inventory and continued the "potion-brewing" process. Heh.
[System]Created a potion of Common complexity — "Elixir of Intellect." Difficulty: Normal. Gained +150 OP!
[System]Created a potion of Common complexity — "Elixir of Intellect." Difficulty: Normal. Gained +100 OP!
[System]Created a potion of Common complexity — "Elixir of Intellect." Difficulty: Normal. Gained +50 OP!
[System]Created a potion of Common complexity — "Elixir of Intellect." Difficulty: Normal. Gained +40 OP!
The system really slashes rewards for successful but repetitive actions. It's annoying, but I'm used to it: even with the cuts I netted +540 OP from five Elixirs of Intellect, bringing my total balance to a dizzying 685 OP. A sum I couldn't have dreamed of a couple of days ago, although reality sobered me fast. It wasn't enough for three spins of the system wheel — only two: one for 200 OP and one for 250 OP. The third, at 300 OP, was out of reach; I'd be left with 235 OP, and a hundred of that would probably go to unlocking the Muscle Stimulator (unless something more interesting dropped from the system).
Thinking it over once more, I decided that was the best option. But tomorrow. Before the spins and further planning I would definitely take an Elixir of Intellect. Why tomorrow? It was late; after productive, successful work I was heavy with sleep, so better to rest and approach this with a clear, well-rested mind. Agreeing with my own iron logic, I finally switched on the regular light, cleaned up the traces of my improvised chemistry lab, and collapsed into bed.
Sunday morning greeted me with the same incredible surge of energy and motivation as the day before. After a quick shower and breakfast I pulled an Elixir of Intellect from my inventory, downed it in one gulp, and waited. The effect came fast. It was like a veil lifting from my eyes and cotton being plucked from my ears — the world sharpened, thoughts that had only been fast became lightning-fast, organizing themselves into perfect logical constructs. Feeling an unprecedented lightness of mind and the sense that I could achieve anything, I didn't waste time and opened the system, activating the first spin for 200 OP.