166: Chapter 166 Making Potions

As time passed, Charlie, who was lying on the ground, slowly woke up.

Upon seeing Nie Ning processing official documents, Charlie suddenly jolted awake and checked his spatial equipment.

As something he used frequently, he knew its contents like the back of his hand and naturally noticed that the items inside had been touched.

But after a thorough inspection, nothing was missing except for the potion he had given to Nie Ning. For a moment, he couldn't tell what Nie Ning was actually trying to do.

"Now that you're awake, get out of here. Don't be an eyesore."

Nie Ning spoke while flipping through documents.

"Then I shall take my leave."

Although Charlie was full of doubts, he wanted to be with Nie Ning even less, so he turned and trotted out of the office.

Following Charlie's departure, Nie Ning summoned Lida and gave him that bottle of potion.

Lida was both surprised and delighted upon seeing this; he hadn't expected Nie Ning to actually obtain a potion.

"Thank you, my Lord! Thank you!"

Lida was so excited he wanted to kowtow to Nie Ning, but he was held up by Nie Ning's wind power.

"Don't bother with those useless things. Just serve me well after your promotion."

"Adjust your state. Let me know when you're ready to advance, and I'll take you into the Wizard Tower."

At this point, Nie Ning suddenly paused: "Do you have a First-Tier defensive spell you can imprint?"

Conventional wizards were different from him; it was best to imprint a defensive spell to ensure their safety. After all, only by staying alive could one have a future.

"Uh, I have one..."

Lida said with some hesitation.

It wasn't that his defensive spell was particularly good, but rather that the one he could obtain was only the most basic kind.

Its advantage was that it was quick to use, serving as a means for wizards to actively increase their defense, but it wasn't suitable for becoming an imprinted spell.

Seeing this, Nie Ning shook his head slightly and took out several books.

"You have a fire attribute, right? See if there's anything suitable in here."

These spells were gifts from Okima. As a First-Ring Wizard at the peak of her level and decades old, she had collected quite a few spell books.

Because of his exotic beast skills, Nie Ning basically only kept them for reference.

After all, his time was limited. Learning conventional spells was just a waste of time; if he was going to learn, he had to learn high-power spells.

Hearing this, Lida thanked him profusely with gratitude, then took the spell books with trembling hands and began to flip through them.

Nie Ning sighed inwardly at this.

As a transmigrator, his personal perspective was different from these people.

This was why when Audrey helped him back then, although he was equally grateful, he wasn't this agitated.

He had even shamelessly tried to become her disciple to squeeze more benefits out of Audrey.

Lida quickly finished selecting his spells, so Nie Ning gave him a few days off to go back and prepare properly.

...

Over the next half month, Nie Ning did not go out again.

Now that his Knight strength had reached its peak, he needed to craft the potion to promote himself to an Earth Knight.

However, although he had the potion recipe from the Blood Flame Knights Association, actually making it proved quite difficult for Nie Ning.

The Healing Potions and such he had made before were relatively simple, so at that time, Nie Ning felt that alchemy wasn't difficult.

Only when he started making real potions did he realize the two were on completely different levels.

Nie Ning researched for several days in a row, and each time all his efforts were wasted because of a tiny mistake.

Left with no choice, Nie Ning decided to try making First-Tier wizard potions first to test the waters and gain some experience.

The learning effect was better than expected, and Nie Ning soon mastered some basic alchemy techniques.

Except for one ingredient that was too scarce to continue refining, he produced a total of three First-Tier wizard potions from over twenty sets of materials.

Uh...

Though it was a bit wasteful, at least he succeeded...

Fortunately, he still had materials for the Knight potion. Only a tiny bit of the main ingredient, the ghost spirit silkworm thread, had been wasted; he could still manage another eight to ten attempts.

Hard work paid off, and finally, with only two chances left, Nie Ning managed to craft the corresponding potion.

This was thanks to the lower difficulty of crafting Knight potions.

If it were a Second-Tier wizard potion, the success rate would be infinitesimal, and he could only use materials to grind for proficiency.

During this half month, Lida's first promotion ended in failure, which left Nie Ning completely dumbfounded.

Clearly all preparations had been made; there should have been no reason for failure.

In the end, it could only be categorized as a mindset issue.

Lacking the courage to risk everything, constantly thinking about what would happen if he failed, combined with how easily he obtained the promotion items, caused Lida's mindset to lose balance, making him unable to effectively control his Spiritual Power.

Regarding this matter, although Nie Ning didn't care in his heart, he appeared very displeased on the surface.

He began to put pressure on Lida and made him prepare for a second advancement.

In truth, Nie Ning had no choice, as Lida was the only peak Witch Apprentice in The Federation.

But if he failed the promotion again, it would only prove that Lida was not destined to be a wizard.

Because the further one goes, the slimmer the chances of advancement become.

Nie Ning wasn't running a charity; he wanted Lida to advance so he could be helpful. Two chances were already the limit of what he could give.

After all, this was an opportunity most apprentices dreamed of; providing two potions was already doing more than enough.

The consequence of failure was that Lida would remain an apprentice, forced to watch others take high positions, becoming wizards and his superiors.

Anyone with even a bit of ambition would know what to do at this point.

Either give it your all to fight for a bright future, or live a mediocre life and die in obscurity.

Fortunately, Lida did not disappoint Nie Ning the second time. After resting for a week, he finally successfully promoted to a First-Ring Wizard.

The rest was easy to handle.

Without giving Lida any time to rest, Nie Ning tossed him two spell books and then sent him off with materials to find other wizards to trade for magic stones and other things he needed.

After all, this was his original purpose; he naturally wouldn't let Lida stay idle.

Once he finished squeezing the nearby wizards dry, Lida could take his place in guarding Ska City, and he would be free to do other things.

...

With Lida gone, Nie Ning began his preparations to promote to an Earth Knight.

Compared to a wizard's promotion, a knight's promotion was relatively simpler.

Strong Spiritual Power could suppress violent combat qi, and combined with his recently improved powerful physique, failure was almost impossible.

If this failed, then...

Then he would just try again.

Since he made the potion himself and wasn't dependent on others like Lida, Nie Ning had no psychological burden at all.

The only problem was that he didn't have much ghost spirit silkworm thread left. The consequence of a failed refinement would be a delayed promotion and a waste of half a month's time.

This was something Nie Ning could not accept, so this time he must succeed and cannot fail!

...