Tough Exterior [Solo | Research]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

Pain.

It was a word that was increasingly associated with the rise in levels. As one got stronger, one could venture into more dangerous areas, places where one is less certain to make it out without so much as a scratch. It was this increasing danger that led to the prevalence of a factor known as pain: it hurt to be hit, and there was nothing they could do about it unless they moved faster and struck harder than their foes could. Health could be restored, but pain was a constant, and as existences who were previously just ordinary people, pain was something that was hard to ignore. From a life of relative comfort in the midst of technological advancements to a medieval setting where they had to fend for themselves, it was a harsh change in environment, especially for those working adults who only had to survive in an office environment and worry about inconsequential things. Every hit dealt was a reminder of the pain to survive in this game world.

Obviously, there was nothing they could do to remove this pain, except if they could somehow prepare something which grants permanent damage and status debuff immunity. An impossible dream, but it was through this impossible dream that weaker projections could sprout from. It was there that he found inspiration to work on a potion which strengthens defense.

Defense was usually the job of the armor. When something deals damage to an Adventurer or Person of the Land, their armor protects them to some extent, and the rest of the damage gets transferred to the bearer of the armor. Obviously, the armor cannot defend against all damage. Obviously, he was not at the stage where he could create a potion to do that, especially since the constant discovery of the properties of new herbs had yet to point in that direction. It was, however, not impossible at this current stage to create a potion to draw upon and reinforce the properties of one's skin.

Skin is soft. Skin is malleable. A product of evolution, comprising of a few layers of tissue to perform multiple functions for the body. It is the first natural line of defense Adventurers and People of the Land held, and thus it was what needed to be strengthened in his current endeavour.

He had done his research. Borrowing a few books from a library helped him to identify creatures with strong hide; the property of tough skin he intended to recreate. He had looked into their feeding patterns, drawing similarities in the types of food consumed where possible. He had then went on to work on acquiring each of these ingredients, which ranged from the humble handful of herbs to the bones of certain animals. Initially, many of his potions were solely based on herbs, but over a long period of time, he realized the medicinal properties of animals: bones, flesh, skin, organs. Just like in the old world, all of them held their own value, and it was up to him to be able to extract this value from the ingredients. Gelatin, now mass produced, was something he had yet to use, and given the properties he was trying to induce, it was imperative that he try to use those materials in his work.

~

Word count: 550
Total word count (Pharmacist): 550
Notes: Post 1 of 3 for researching [Stoneskin Potion]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

The day before, he had obtained the ingredients he had intended to use. This morning, he had begun the experimentation phase. The experimentation phase consisted of him repeating various volumes, and temperatures (through the use of a water bath) in order to find something that works. He needed to find an equilibrium point between the two substances such that minimal materials were wasted; such a thing would cost a lot in the long run. Most ingredients responded well to heating and titration, though in some rarer cases, cooling was needed. Earlier tests to attempt to dissolve gelatin in several solvents, under room temperature, failed to prove very effective; thus he simply lit a flame and occasionally stirred and added more gelatin until it was completely saturated.

Once that was done, he filtered out the filtrate using a filter funnel lined with filter paper, something which was recreated quite recently. Instead of returning the filtrate directly to the jar containing his supply of gelatin, he simply kept it lying on the filter paper to one side of his working area. Fortunately, he had left the window to the room he was using closed, so the wind would not dissipate the powder as it dried. He would probably need to rinse the powder with a little cold water and rub it between two sheets of filter paper in order to purify the substance.In the event the substance had been contaminated by his tools, this would minimize the spread of contamination. It was, at least, a purifying technique used in the old world.

Once the solution for the base was done, he proceeded to prepare the titrate. Made out of herb extract pressed directly out of the herbs, it was more costly than gelatin due to the preparation of the herb itself. Most apothecaries were not relatively new to the concept of herbal extracts: They usually had a jar of two of the stuff in each store. However, Adventurers were quick to use up the meagre supply, which took months on end to ferment. As a result, the high demand, but low supply of extract led to soaring prices, though people were already beginning to prepare their own extracts. Gelatin, on the other hand, had a higher supply, since bones were much more easy to acquire and the preparation process was much shorter. The supply of gelatin was essentially more elastic than that of the extract, hence the gelatin was cheaper.

He diluted the extract with water, swirling the flask it was contained in to ensure that it held a uniform concentration. Once that was completed, he poured the diluted mixture into a burette, which hung from a retort stand not unlike some kind of Chemistry experiment he used to do in school.

If only it were as easy as a school experiment, though.

~

Word count: 472
Total word count (Pharmacist): 550 + 472 = 1022
Notes: Post 2 of 3 for researching [Stoneskin Potion]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

Hours went by, though unfortunately not in a flash. Unlike what some people may want to believe, trial and error was a painful task, one which required patience and precision. The patience to accept failure and try again, as well as precision to ensure that everything went exactly as one envisioned it to be. A combination of the two will lead to the correct formula, and justify the time spent working on the project, with every failure increasing the burden of finding success.

Each time a prototype was completed, he would test it on himself. The ingredients itself were not of a particularly high quality, thus even if he could somehow form poison from the ingredients, he would not kill himself, but merely sustain some damage. As was the case, none of the prototypes had harmed, and while some provided the desired effect, he found that various concentrations provided various degrees of functionality. Through that discovery, he drew at rough sketch of the effectiveness against the volume titrated, and quickly pinpointed the ratio: 3 units of gelatin solution to 1 unit of extract solution.

Once he had ascertained this find, he tested it using a stronger ingredient (which was also more expensive). It worked, and as he examined the effects, he noticed that his skin held a greyish white coloration to it, perhaps due to the gelatin material used. The solution itself seemed to be a grey precipitate, similar in appearance to the weaker potion.

He stretched his arms, then swung them around. His movements seemed a little stiffer than before. Perhaps it was because the toughened skin would not give way as easily as the more supple skin he was used to. As the effects wore off, he wondered how he could solve that issue. But perhaps that was for someone else to do. For now, he should finalize the potion's creation procedure and confirm the effects on others.

~

Word count: 320
Total word count (Pharmacist): 550 + 472 + 320 = 1342
Notes: Post 3 of 3 for researching [Stoneskin Potion]