Kevin Carpenberg was hard at work in the lab.
Ever since he obtained the desired material from Mitro yesterday, he had thrown himself into the experiment.
The process was going quite smoothly—the material was indeed an extremely rare and peculiar substance.
It turned out to be a perfect fusion agent, almost as if it were tailor-made for the Copper Scale.
If used as a fusion agent, at least half of the potions Kevin currently had on hand could see varying degrees of quality improvement.
Moreover, the two types of materials that had previously failed to produce the desired effects due to the lack of a suitable fusion agent—both of which also triggered intense desire—finally had a real chance to be crafted into a satisfying final product.
Today, Kevin was fully rested and in peak condition.
The alchemy station materialized before him.
He placed the pre-prepared materials onto the platform.
Gold Scale: Twin-Wolf Shed Horn
Silver Scale: Moon Milk Opal
Copper Scale: Unknown Petal (Dried and Crushed)
[Effect: Qi becomes more sensitive to emotions and will, providing precise feedback.]
"With the Qi I've cultivated so far, this should be enough," Kevin assessed silently.
This time, he was using some of his rarest materials. He only had one set of each—the shed horn and the unknown petal.
Failure would be an enormous loss.
However, based on his understanding and application of Nen over the past few months, he believed his current Qi reserves were sufficient for the task.
Even if some instability occurred during the process, it should remain within a tolerable range.
Kevin took a deep breath, his Qi erupting suddenly before he instantly entered the state of Zetsu.
All of his Qi surged into the potion machine.
The scale plates began spinning rapidly—so fast they became a blur, with only a faint afterimage visible.
Half an hour passed, and sweat began to bead on Kevin's forehead.
After an hour, his face had turned pale and was soaked with sweat.
At the ninety-minute mark, Kevin looked completely drained. His eyes half-closed, he had to prop himself up on a nearby table just to stay upright.
He couldn't hold on much longer.
The real trouble was that Kevin had no way of knowing how much longer the brewing process would take.
During potion crafting, the alchemy station remained in full operation until the moment of completion, without providing any feedback.
His vision darkened, and he could only cling to consciousness with sheer willpower.
Just a little longer.
According to his calculations, even if the required Qi was more than he had anticipated, it shouldn't exceed his limits by too much—it had to be almost done.
Hold on. Failure would be too costly.
Crack!
The moment he heard that crisp sound, Kevin used every last ounce of his strength to extract the potion.
Thud—
He collapsed instantly, his strength utterly spent, passing out cold and slamming hard onto the floor.
As Kevin lost consciousness, the alchemy station vanished, and the potion he'd pulled free dropped to the ground.
Fortunately, the potion bottles Kevin carried were specially made—he had paid handsomely to have them custom-forged—so the bottle didn't break.
It wasn't until nighttime that Kevin slowly regained consciousness.
His entire body was wrapped in exhaustion and weakness—an utterly miserable state of depletion.
He struggled to his feet, trembling, and took several slow steps to reach a nearby cabinet.
From it, he grabbed a few potions and poured them all into his mouth. As the liquid coursed down, his body began to recover rapidly.
These potions weren't anything advanced—they were merely concentrated recreations of modern medical drugs.
There were potions for treating fever, providing nutrition, and balancing physiological states.
Fifteen minutes later, their effects had taken full hold.
Kevin finally stood up again, feeling at least somewhat better than before.
He picked up the potion that had fallen to the ground.
The final product inside the bottle was a pink-purple liquid, with twinkling specks of light floating within—dreamlike and mesmerizing.
Kevin sat on the couch.
"Glad it worked out in the end. That was cutting it close… But I think this potion is still just C-rank. That's probably the upper limit for this level."
Kevin's potion evaluation system didn't rely solely on ingredients or effects. A key metric was the time and amount of Nen he expended during crafting.
Take D-rank and C-rank potions, for example—the difference in Nen consumption was vast.
A month ago, crafting a D-rank potion took Kevin no more than ten minutes.
At the time, a C-rank potion took him an average of over an hour to make.
If his Nen were to be quantified:
A D-rank potion used at most 1,000 units of Nen.
A C-rank potion required over 5,000 units—more if the potion was stronger.
By Kevin's estimation, this new potion had consumed nearly 10,000 units of Nen.
According to his classification, a potion that used over 10,000 units of Nen should qualify as B-rank.
However, he believed his total Nen reserves hadn't even reached that number yet—so the potion couldn't possibly be a true B-rank.
Thankfully, the new potion didn't break that threshold, and he had just barely managed to complete it.
Looking at the potion in his hand—how strong was it, really?
Kevin couldn't say for sure, but it was undoubtedly unique: it enabled his Qi to respond to emotions and willpower.
Qi inherently had this capability, but the potion seemed to amplify it.
The exact enhancement remained unclear.
Possible uses? Perhaps using one's Qi to detect another's emotions? Or to sense hostility?
But considering its short fifteen-minute duration, the potion would likely only shine in very specific scenarios.
"I'll call this one Emotion Sense Potion," Kevin murmured.
Regardless, he had succeeded in crafting a brand-new potion and confirmed the kind of effect [A Moment's Dream] could achieve.
That alone was enough to satisfy him.
"Now that it's clear, it's time to start constructing my Nen ability."
His primary goal in making these potions was to explore the limits of his Nen ability.
Specifically, whether he could imbue his Qi with special properties or induce transformation.
A functional Nen ability wouldn't just reveal itself.
The residual experiment logs and fragments of memory in his mind had no relevant information.
Most likely, his original, under-trained body had simply lacked the capacity to craft high-level potions.
And the Power Potion didn't align with his ideals—it essentially just stimulated and strengthened the body.
What he truly wanted was a change in the Qi itself.
That was the answer he sought.
And it was absolutely critical.
Over the past three months in the Heavens Arena, aside from combat training and studies, Kevin had spent most of his time watching fights.
Specifically, fights that took place above the 200th floor.
These were battles between Nen users—but they didn't happen frequently, usually once every few days.
Kevin never missed a single one.
The only reason was so that he could sit in the stands and use Gyo to observe the fighters closely with his precise Nen control.
He'd deduce their Nen categories and speculate on the exact effects of their abilities.
Then, by examining the outcome of the battles, he would deepen his understanding of the Nen theory he had learned from Biscuit.
This allowed Kevin's understanding of Nen to advance rapidly in just three months—and develop into his own interpretation.
Observation, analysis, synthesis.
These three words seemed etched into his mind.
His knowledge of Nen, awareness of his own nature, and familiarity with his cheat ability—all three wove together.
And they were leading him toward creating the Nen ability he had always dreamed of—one that aligned with his original purpose.
A Nen ability that matched his talent, overcame the flaws of his body, and became something uniquely his.
And now, the final piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
He had determined the direction for his Nen ability and even formed a preliminary framework.
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