"flame oil (Hidden Recipe)": When applied to weapons or projectiles, it causes the target to display a fiery form and inflict flame damage.
Flame damage is one of the most effective damage types against dark creatures, so its effect goes without saying. This effect alone is already impressive, but its special effects are even more remarkable.
A weapon coated with flame oil directly gains a flame effect, with rolling flames, which looks incredibly cool.
In his previous life, this recipe was recorded in a Weather-related book in the Vik University library, hidden within a chapter describing frost monsters. It wasn't discovered by players until many years later.
The first to master this recipe was none other than Leandro de Pesa, the child of the plane of the game, an Alchemy genius and a Meteorologist fool. A large part of his popularity in his previous life was due to the flaming greatsword shown in promotional videos, which was simply too cool.
Leandro de Pesa has not yet enrolled, so this recipe has clearly not been discovered, which is one of the reasons Zhou Ning has been pushing his Alchemy skills these past two days.
If he could get this recipe after all this hard work, it would be worth it!
After tidying up the Alchemy Laboratory, Rosie had already arrived for her shift. This long-legged girl was quite diligent; not only was she a teaching assistant like Zhou Ning, earning 5 vikta in monthly allowance, but she also worked part-time at the school's Alchemy shop, being incredibly competitive.
Zhou Ning greeted her with a smile: "Good afternoon. Do you have anything to eat?"
Rosie:... She covered her pocket with a wary expression.
However, Zhou Ning eventually got a red bean cake from her and, in return, treated her to a cup of black tea. Zhou Ning had ordered this from Mrs. Turing, who had someone deliver it every midday.
After a pleasant afternoon tea, Zhou Ning got up to leave, returned to his dorm to retrieve the books he had finished, and headed to the library.
As usual, Zhou Ning returned the books at the library and then went to the shelves containing Weather-related books.
As one of the top three libraries in all of Blystone, Vik University's library had an incredibly comprehensive collection on Meteorology. The forum in his previous life wasn't very clear, only mentioning a Weather-related book written by Roger Moore, but the problem was that Roger Moore was a famous and prolific writer from a hundred years ago, and he had written a total of four books.
Looking at the four thick Meteorology books, Zhou Ning only regretted that there was no forum or bullet comments here for him to communicate with others.
Carrying a stack of books, he found a place to sit down and slowly began to read.
In the game "Apocalypse," there were three ways to learn recipes: one could be taught by others, discover them from recipes, or unearth them while reading. With good luck, perhaps a certain passage in an ancient text might just be a rare recipe.
He read three books without any reaction, though his Meteorology proficiency was continuously increasing.
It wasn't until near the end of the fourth book that he finally received a prompt:
[You have learned Meteorology (Beginner). You have comprehended the skill [Weather Observation]!]
[You have comprehended the recipe [flame oil]!]
[You have comprehended the recipe [Sleepless Potion]!]
"flame oil (Hidden Recipe)": Requires flame flower, fire scale fish oil, crystal bottle, and sun orchid root for refining. When applied to weapons or projectiles, it causes the target to display a fiery form and inflict flame damage.
"Sleepless Potion (Hidden Recipe)": Requires snake flower, thorn grass, and fish gill grass for refining. After consumption, it makes you energetic and eliminates the need for sleep.
"I finally learned it." Zhou Ning clenched his fists, his face filled with excitement. This could be considered a heavenly start. The [flame oil] goes without saying, and if the [Sleepless Potion] could be sold to factory owners, it would surely be very popular.
Flame flower and sun orchid root are common herbs and not expensive. Fire scale fish oil is slightly rarer, but it costs less than 5 currency, and Zhou Ning has enough money now.
Looking at the sky, it was already approaching evening.
Zhou Ning went to the Alchemy shop at school, spent 20 currency to buy 2 sets of materials, and another 4 currency to rent an Alchemy Laboratory. He eagerly began crafting.
Unlike the low-level potions he had made before, this flame oil was not only very difficult to make, being one of the more challenging intermediate Alchemy products, but he was also spending his own money, so no amount of caution was too much.
"Hoo..."
Exhaling a turbid breath, Zhou Ning's nimble hands swiftly lit the alcohol lamp. He didn't know if it was because his Agility had reached 13 points, but Zhou Ning's movements became increasingly agile, with both his left and right hands equally balanced. He methodically ground the herbs, pouring them into the beaker along with the buffer, and began to heat it slowly.
The work procedure was tedious and also tested one's luck.
[You have completed an Alchemy concoction. Quality is 7. Concoction failed. You gained 26 experience and 1 proficiency point.]
Five minutes later, a burnt smell came from the beaker. A trace of annoyance flashed across Zhou Ning's face. It failed!
With only one set of materials left, Zhou Ning forced himself to calm down.
He methodically heated the beaker, the potion boiled, and after adding lead salt and other stabilizers, he heated it again. The entire process was smooth and flawless. A few minutes later, a prompt appeared on his panel.
[You have completed an Alchemy concoction. Quality is 72. You gained 46 experience and 2 proficiency points.]
It finally worked! Zhou Ning let out a sigh of relief.
In the test tube was a tube of deep red liquid. After it had completely cooled, Zhou Ning poured it into a crystal bottle.
When he focused his attention on the test tube, the panel gave a prompt:
"flame oil (Normal Quality)": When applied to weapons or projectiles, it causes the target to display a fiery form and inflict flame damage.
The quality was acceptable.
After a slight hesitation, Zhou Ning poured the tube of flame oil into a small bowl, took out a bullet from his inventory, and carefully dropped it into the flame oil to soak.
He didn't know if it was an illusion, but as soon as the bullet was soaked in the flame oil, a burst of fire immediately appeared.
Zhou Ning moved quickly, flicking his wrist to pick up the bullet again. Around the bullet, a ball of flame was clearly enveloped, but this flame was only a special effect of the flame oil; in reality, there was no sensation of heat at all.
"Special Item:.45 ACP Caliber Bullet."
"Attribute: Burning."
"Description: A bullet soaked in flame oil, imbued with 13-25 points of flame damage."
"It really works!"
Zhou Ning looked at the burning bullet in his hand with some excitement. It had just been an idea before, but after trying it, he knew it was truly possible.
Next, Zhou Ning threw in 8 or 9 more bullets, and after a while, he picked them out one by one.
A total of ten bullets all became special bullets.
When he tried to throw in the eleventh one, he realized that the half-bowl of flame oil had been used up.
Two sets of materials bought for 20 currency, a laboratory rented for 4 currency, calculated at a 50% success rate, meant 24 currency for 10 special bullets, which was a bit expensive.
However, this cost would continue to decrease as his proficiency increased.
Zhou Ning took out the ivory-handled Colt M1873 revolver, ejected the cylinder, and loaded the ten flaming special bullets one by one.
He could now be sure that if he encountered a monster similar to Marien again, he should be able to deal with it quite easily... After returning the rented Alchemy Laboratory, Zhou Ning realized it was raining outside. Due to special Weather conditions, all facilities in the school provided umbrella lending services. Zhou Ning borrowed an umbrella from the Alchemy shop. He then bought a few pounds of bread at a roadside store and walked towards the dormitory.