Black Onyx - Forgotten Magic

Then he waited…and nothing happened.

Well, actually, almost nothing happened. The Mana Potion didn't restore his personal Mana, it just increased the recovery rate by about ten times.

At first, he needed about half a day to recover, but now, he would only need one hour to recover completely. When he came to this conclusion, Gerald laughed, "Hehe… This is soo…useless!"

What followed was about a hundred different curses for every family member and ancestor of the Potion.

After the anger came sadness. Gerald almost felt like crying and complained, "How is this shit going to help me? What monster will give me an hour of free time to recharge my Mana? This is so stupid!"

When he finally calmed down, he placed his hopes on the second, stronger Potion called Greater Mana Potion. This one also required Mana Root, but also Morning Dew and Stoneroot. The first part of the process was the same as for the normal Mana potion, just the rest of it was somewhat complicated.

Actually, you could take the already-made Mana Potion and just add other ingredients to increase its potency. This time Gerald failed a few times before he finally succeeded. After testing the Greater Mana Potion, he discovered that it increased the recovery rate by fifty times. Now he would get full Mana in just about fifteen minutes.

Of course, that was much better, but still not good enough. Besides that, because the potion became more potent it also lasted much less time. In fact, it lasted only around ten minutes. Just enough to give him 5 LIS worth of Mana.

"Damn… still not good enough. I need to get at least 1 LIS every minute, otherwise, I can't make use of this…" Gerald still wasn't happy with the results. The problem was that he had quite a low capacity for Mana and his recovery rate was also extremely slow.

Of course, compared to other humans it was quite good. Since the Mana capacity in humans would usually go from 1-10 LIS, he was on the higher end of the spectrum. Also, most other people needed a full day to recover, while he only needed ten to twelve hours.

'It appears I really need to find God's Blood and make some Mana Elixirs,' is what he thought before putting Mana Potions aside. There was another herb that he collected, called Wolfweed. It was a great supplement for stamina. If eaten raw it would remove some of the fatigue from the body.

Further refined into a Potion it would become even more amazing. One small vial would give you energy for a dozen minutes. It might not sound much, but that energy would not be exhausted no matter what.

Humans could sprint at their max speed for around ten to twenty seconds if they were trained properly. However, with this Swiftness Potion, a person could run at their top speed for the entire duration. Similarly, if an exhausted soldier drank it, he could continue fighting at his maximum capacity for ten more minutes.

Thinking about it, Gerald decided to focus on Swiftness Potion instead. These Potions did not exist in the world at the moment. The recipe that was lost for the past ten thousand years was about to resurface.

Gerald was almost drooling just thinking about the possibilities. 'A new and amazing Swiftness Potion, able to save your life in a pinch! Unlimited energy for a whole ten minutes!' That's how he imagined the potion advertisement to be.

"Hehehe…" he chuckled with a greedy smile on his face, "I can already see the mountains of gold I will make with this Potion. Who said making money was hard? Hahaha…"

The people that were walking around outside his room at the moment were probably thinking he went crazy or had too much to drink. Either way, they stayed as far away from his room as possible.

"Wolfweed juice, a few leaves of Reignweed, and a pinch of Ether dust with a bit of help from magic, and voilà. It's done! I don't even have to be careful about the ratios. It just changes the properties of the Potion a little." Gerald was extremely pleased with himself when making the Swiftness Potions.

Among all the Potions he made, the Swiftness Potion was the easiest to make. Before the sun went down, Gerald already made a few dozen of them. Now what was left was just to sell them and collect the profit.

Of course, he didn't want to be recognized so he bought a cheap cloak and made a fake beard from horsehair. Bending down a little bit, making his back look crocked he became a completely different person. He also made his voice more hoarse. It was not like many people knew him in Geldern, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

With his new look, he quickly went to the Burning Bottle to sell his creations. But soon he came out with a dark look on his face. Without looking around much he went to the next Alchemy shop…

***

Not even twenty minutes after Gerald left his room, he was already back. He took off his cloak and fake beard and threw them on the bed in anger.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" he was hammering on the wall with his fist. "I should have known! Of course, nobody would know this potion after ten thousand years! I even got an offer of thirty silver! Fuck!"

He sat down in anger and frustration. All that hard work and excitement was for nothing. It was so irritating when you had an amazing product, but nobody to sell it to because people were all too ignorant.

Even after he explained the effects of the Potion, the most anyone was willing to pay for it was thirty silver coins. This was such an insult to him.

A potion that could save your life being worth measly thirty silver? That was an absolute insult to the master who made it. Even the Bottled Thunder, the potion that just exploded when mixed with another substance, was worth one gold each.

"Hmm, I will have to try another approach. Maybe I should spread gossip about this potion first?" Gerald murmured to himself. Obviously, he would first have to get people interested in his products before he could sell them for a high price.

Either way, Gerald needed to increase his combat ability, before making any drastic changes. It was absolutely predictable that some people might want to get the recipe from him. They might want to kidnap him, torture or just simply blackmail him.

He had no backer in this world. Nobody strong who would support him, nobody to rely on.

That's why he decided to first observe other warriors fight and try to imitate them. He also needed to get more experience in fights against monsters.

Sitting on his bed, he looked across the room and his sight landed on the crossbow. It was a simple weapon that he looted from a bandit. Although he took it everywhere, he didn't actually use it. It was not that it was a bad weapon, it was just that it was too different from modern crossbows Gerald used to train with.

That gave him an idea. If he couldn't increase his Mana and use more spells, he could just shoot his enemies with arrows until they come close and then finish them off with magic.

Gerald stretched his body and yawned, "Alright, I will have plenty to do in the coming days… I need to get some well-deserved rest."

Not long after Gerald had already fallen asleep. Once in a while, he even chuckled, as he was dreaming up more amazing and insane plans for the future.