"Alright — three grams of Dragon Bone Powder, then 120 milliliters of Berry Juice pressed from wild Dragon Eye Berries."
"Two Sun Golden Flowers. Extract the essence from their stamens, divide into exactly three drops, and add them to the mixture one at a time."
"...Then stir gently for five minutes — steady pressure, nothing too rough — to let everything bind properly. Once done, seal it and leave it to rest for ten minutes."
"Last step: simmer the finished mixture over medium heat for fifteen minutes. And that's it!"
David let out a long breath and stepped back from the workbench, dabbing the sweat from his forehead. He held the small vial up to the light. The liquid inside gave off a faint red glow, shifting gently as he tilted it back and forth.
He set it down and exhaled again, almost disbelieving.
"That wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. I really am something."
In his other hand was a well-worn notebook — not from this world, but from somewhere else entirely. Another Pokémon world, different from his own, where Pokémon medicine and Poké-alchemy had developed along a completely separate path. The notebook had belonged to a master Breeder from that world, and it was the crystallization of that person's life's work.
Of everything David had pulled from last night's ten-draw, this was the most valuable item by a significant margin.
He was starting to wonder if he had used up all his luck somewhere else.
After the golden light of the draw had faded, what appeared were mostly materials — rare enough, but not the kind of thing that made you jump out of your seat. Nothing spectacular. Still, the guaranteed-pull mechanism had come through for him, and this notebook was what it had delivered. He could live with that.
David had started studying it first thing that morning. Today was still a holiday, and while he had planned to take it easy and skip training, sitting around doing nothing wasn't really in his nature. With a full free morning ahead of him, researching the notebook seemed like exactly the right way to spend it.
His background in Breeding wasn't shallow. He had mastered Energy Cube preparation and basic potions a long time ago, and had even found ways to weave potion-making into cooking — developing what could only be described as a Pokémon world take on medicinal cuisine. He really had become the sort of Breeder who couldn't cook without it being nutritional, and couldn't train without it being scientific.
That aside, this notebook was something else. It felt less like a reference guide and more like an inheritance — the accumulated knowledge of someone who had spent a lifetime pushing the limits of their craft.
The sheer volume of content was staggering. Thousands of potion formulas were recorded within its pages, ranging from the most basic stamina recovery recipes all the way up to advanced compounds with highly specific and unusual effects. Refinement techniques, preparation methods, notes on ingredient compatibility — it was all there, laid out in careful detail.
For David, who intended to pursue Breeding alongside his career as a trainer, this was about as good a reward as he could have hoped for. His family had collected similar materials over the years, but they couldn't compare. The difference in the developmental direction of the two worlds had led to an enormous gap in knowledge. David's family's Breeding references certainly didn't include thousands of distinct potion recipes.
If he could fully understand and master the notebook's contents, he would be able to call himself a master alchemist without any exaggeration.
With that in mind, he had gotten to work early. Drawing on his existing foundation, he had quickly grasped a portion of the notebook's content and decided to try his hand at one of the formulas right away.
The one he had chosen was the Dragon's Breath Potion.
He held the glowing vial up again, watching it pulse faintly. Whatever its effects turned out to be, the appearance alone was first-rate.
According to the notebook, the Dragon's Breath Potion was designed to enhance breath-based moves used by Dragon-type Pokémon, with a particularly strong effect on Fire-type breath attacks. It was a natural fit for Salamence, and David had selected it with that in mind from the start.
The rest of the team hadn't been forgotten either. He had already earmarked an Illusion Potion for Zorua, a Mental Potion for Kirlia, and an Iron Potion for Growlithe — each one carefully chosen to suit what they were working on.
The catch, of course, was that some of the ingredients listed in the Dragon's Breath Potion formula simply didn't exist in this world. The names meant nothing to him. He had spent a good chunk of the morning cross-referencing the described medicinal properties against what he actually had available, substituting ingredients where the characteristics matched closely enough.
From his first experiment early that morning to the finished vial now sitting on the table, it had taken nearly the entire morning — and the formula he had ultimately used was already different from the original, adjusted with his own substitutions. That meant he couldn't fully predict what the result would do.
The safest option was to have it tested first.
His mother's lab was the obvious choice. She had the equipment to run a proper analysis, and more importantly, David trusted completely that nothing he brought there would leave without his knowledge. There would be no risk of the formula slipping out.
He wasn't going to let his Pokémon consume anything he hadn't verified. That was just common sense.
He set the vial carefully on the table and rolled his shoulders. The morning's work had left him tired in a quiet, satisfied sort of way. He checked his phone — just past nine o'clock.
David gave the small makeshift lab one last look before heading out. He had unofficially decided to call it that. Then he turned and walked toward the kitchen, stomach growling, already thinking about breakfast.
The rest of the day could wait a few minutes.