I decided to head back to the mansion first and eat breakfast. It was a typical English breakfast with hot coffee, which I happily consumed.

  "My lady, what are your plans for the day?" Jane asked as she poured the coffee.

  "I'm planning to get stuck in my laboratory," I replied. Jane's hand trembled slightly, causing the coffee to overflow.

  "O-oh… is that so?" she said nervously.

  "Don't worry, Jane — I'll come back before dinner, so pack me some lunch."

  "Yes, my lady," she replied, her voice slightly relieved.

  Jane had always been concerned about Josephine's tendency to starve herself for days to finish a project. It was so bad that she was often severely malnourished — but her dedication was undeniable.

  "Oh, and just to be sure — if anyone looks for me, tell them I'm out shopping, okay?"

  "As my lady commands."

  I picked up my extra-large lunch box and headed toward the laboratory. Today was going to be a very taxing day — the process described in the book was extremely strenuous, to the point that even an expert might give up. But I graduated as a chemist, and Josephine was well-versed in alchemy.

  The first hour was spent cleaning the entire lab because it was incredibly dirty. If Walter White saw this, he would definitely faint.

  I should have brought Jane to clean with me.

  Next, I ventilated the room manually — a makeshift vent and open windows to let in fresh air. After that, I carefully prepared the ingredients needed for the Philosopher's Stone.

  In the novel, Josephine liked to hoard alchemic ingredients because of her tendency to create things, both practical and impractical. The impractical side was her schemes, which usually ended in failure. The practical side was her innovations — inventing products to sell through her business ventures alongside her fashion boutique.

  Such a waste, honestly.

  Another of her less desirable habits was collecting rare alchemic ingredients like some sort of eccentric collector. Most of her wealth went down the drain because of it. But it was one of her "healthier" habits, relatively speaking.

  Anyways…

  There were four main components to the stone: Elixir of Life, Crystallized Wisdom, Purity of Heart, and Universal Harmony. All of them were equally fucking difficult to create.

  First — and the longest to create — was the Elixir of Life.

  In a flask, I put a high-quality mana potion as a base and boiled it over a blue flame. Next, I finely chopped a thousand-year ginseng into a pulp then into a paste, adding it to the base. I sacrificed a branch of the world tree along with its leaves into the mixture. After that: dried goldenseal — which only grows on the peaks of the north — ground diamond dust, a byproduct of many healing potions but only available in small quantities, nectar of immortality from the Arbor of Metamorphosis, and the ambrosial fruit, which only grows on the celestial spirit tree every thousand years.

  Ugh, how expensive. That was Josephine's genuine thought — and mine too, even with her wealth behind me.

  After mixing it thoroughly, I left it simmering for eight hours. It was an unnecessarily long process, but I cut it in half by incorporating condensation. I left it simmering overnight with a mana flame and moved on.

  Next was Crystallized Wisdom — more of a resonance stone. This had to be done meticulously.

  First, I harmonized a transmutation circle by adding red gems, white gems, and a blue gem. This summoned the crystal gate, said to be one of the most mysterious phenomena in the realm of alchemy.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Finding these materials was particularly a pain, going by Josephine's memories.

  The Water Asteroid — a stone that requires a perfect balance of mana, time, and energy to form properly. The water contained within it had mystical properties; the flowing appearance was more of an illusion, a mirage of some sort.

  I placed a wind essence within the gate — a rare and difficult material to procure, harvested in a way only a few could master. The gate reacted immediately, becoming a vortex that sucked in the surrounding wind before settling into a calm, grey storm gate.

  Next, I sacrificed the Water Asteroid with teary eyes, carefully feeding it to the gate, which gracefully accepted it — taking on a swirling pattern and stormy features. Complete. A storm gate.

  I began feeding it raw materials in the correct order.

  First, the tears of a sphinx — a beast found guarding the tomb of Tutankhamun, the first pharaoh. Then the celestial quill feather, normally the hardest to obtain, as the divine beast of the sky only appears every thousand years to deliver an oracle. Occasionally it bestows a feather as a gift, and I had found one sitting in a gift shop near the countryside.

  The Echo of Oracle was next — a byproduct of divine oracles given by the cathedral from the gods. Securing one was against Josephine's wishes, but since it was a rare alchemic ingredient, she had obtained a few regardless.

  The rarest and most irritating to acquire was the Mysterious Library Dust, which required burning books from the Ethereal Library — a monumental historical site. Josephine had literally stolen them from a high-security location.

  After feeding the library dust to the gate, it reacted violently — floating into the air as lightning spewed from it, rotating rapidly. Fortunately, it was sealed in, so I only had to step outside the room. After spinning for a while, a bright flash enveloped everything — and once it faded, a light encased in what looked like a diamond dropped where the gate had been.

  I slowly approached and picked it up.

  Crystallized Wisdom.

  What an expensive material. I wished I had some kind of appraisal tool, but those were rare. I pondered this while eating the sandwiches Jane had packed.

  It would be convenient to have sub-space storage or appraisal magic.

  "Isn't that just like a game?" I sighed.

  Of course, this wasn't a game — it was a novel, and those constraints made everything harder.

  The easier, the better. My lazy self couldn't agree more.

  "Time to get back to work," I said, stretching and bracing myself for the next nerve-wracking ingredient: Purity of Heart.

  Unlike the first two, this one dealt with a concept — trying to capture something intangible.

  I moved to the mana fusion chamber. Focus was everything here, or it would be impossible to capture their essence.

  By placing the Begging Bowl of Bodhi — a legendary figure of a religious sect who attained enlightenment — I obtained the "Tears of Compassion."

  Next, I used the cowrie shell born from a swallow to obtain the "Hallowed Dewdrops."

  Then came the Robe of the Fire Rat, made from rats who offered their hides in plea for forgiveness for eating the crops. This robe was the first and last of its kind, and because no one knew its worth, I bought it for cheap. I infused it and obtained the "Essence of Forgiveness."

  The last component — and the hardest — was the legendary Jewel from a dragon's neck, located at the reverse scale. Obtainable only by "seducing" a dragon. Disgusting as it was, I had secured the "Radiant Ember of Love" from it.

  The final step was fusing all the essences with a powerful catalyst. Using a magic circle, I infused them with the branch of the Hourai tree — which violently turned a rainbow of colors. This branch was even rarer than the world tree, but it couldn't be helped. I placed all the essences inside and added the trigger: the Arrow of Eros. Josephine had originally intended to use this on her father.

  As everything fused, orbs surrounded the magic circle, progressively building into a rainbow spark.

  It reminds me of that certain gacha game.

  Then — a bright light engulfed the room. When it faded, a gem of a weird shape sat where the circle had been. I laughed hysterically, like a war veteran waking from a nightmare.

  "Is this just a fucking saint quartz?"

  I stored it away before it could remind me of anything further.

  "Purity of Heart" — obtained.

  The last and arguably easiest component was Universal Harmony.

  Your typical alchemy process in a large cauldron. I filled it with mana potion and mixed while adding a fire gem, water gem, wind gem, and dark gem. I boiled it with a blue mana flame, then transformed it green by adding dryad dust and left it to simmer.

  Base done. Now I just had to add the rest: Harmonic Crystal Shard from the Harmonic Mountains, Zephyr's Essence from Zephyr the guardian beast of the North, Aqua Vitae from the world spring, a Phoenix Feather from the immortal flaming bird, Heartstone from the deepest vein in the earth, Hallowed Light from a dying angel, and Death's Robe from Death himself.

  After mixing it all with an adamantite ladle, it made a soft poof — and I scooped out a gem full of rainbows, roughly the size of a large marble.

  Universal Harmony. Got it.

  I returned to the distilling station and found the elixir already done. I strained and filtered it meticulously, and there it was — a glistening potion with a dark red hue.

  The Elixir of Life.

  I wiped the sweat from my brow and slumped into a chair.

  "Phew..."

  Exceptionally tiring — both physically and mentally. I sipped the dark coffee Jane had given me earlier and began inscribing for the final part.