Chapter 389: Chapter 389: Alchemy
Unnoticed.

More than two months have passed since the “Secret Stone Incident”, and Han Dong has become a seasoned second-year apprentice in Mysticism.

His knowledge of the library and Mysticism has almost reached its limit at this stage and any further learning will provide minimal advancement.

The level of the “Little Demon Eye” is directly linked to Han Dong’s brain.

As long as the Faceless Skull hasn’t upgraded, the Little Demon Eye can only remain in the stage of “Scroll Two – Eye Print”.

This also means that in order to gain strength, it can only be through Fate Points… Han Dong even has the faint sense of hitting a bottleneck and a growing urge to Break the Breed.

Breaking the Breed will have to occur step by step, Han Dong also tries to slow his pace.

Therefore, he spent these two months concentrating on a side job in which he is very interested.

Alchemy.

The technology level of the Holy City is stuck in the first industrial revolution.

Due to the existence of higher life forms, only a very small number of people live in an enclosed city under restriction.

The main problem is not the development of technology, but how to obtain the power to confront the life outside the city from the Fate Space.

The technology is much less developed than the world where Han Dong lived before.

The preservation of Alchemy is a good example of this.

Alchemy is essentially ancient chemistry, where human understanding of chemical reactions is only restricted to appearance (without achieving a microscopic level).

However, due to the existence of magic and supernatural powers in the Holy City, the development of Alchemy is different there.

Alchemists perceive various chemical reactions from the perspective of magic, thus deriving a unique technology tree from the world where Han Dong lived before.

Preparation of various potions is essential.

High-efficiency potions derived from Alchemy can provide instant energy replenishment, life recovery, and physical enhancement.

Some more advanced potions can further enhance combat power, magic, and even produce direct combat effects, providing great survival hope for the Knights entering the Fate Space.

In Han Dong’s extensive study of Alchemy, the most important aspect is “symbols”.

The alchemists in Holy City won’t write any chemical equations, nor do they know what those are.

They combine alchemical reactions with their own magic, expressing it in an abstract “symbol” form.

For example, the symbol for the preparation of an active drug is [Я].

Simply draw a formation with this symbol, or wear gloves with the symbol printed on them.

Prepare the raw materials according to the ratio. Through the drive of Alchemy magic, you can replace the activation energy required in a chemical reaction and make it happen directly.

It seems simple.

In reality, the drawing of symbols is a science in itself.

The library houses a book on “Symbol System” of over a thousand pages and nearly a million words, illustrating the details of symbol drawing.

Simultaneously, Alchemists must control magic during the Alchemy process; uniformly or explosively drive “symbols”, the precision of each step will affect the final quality of the Alchemy product.

For some high-level Alchemy products, many “symbols” need to be realized through “overlap”, “series” or “complex fusion”, which correspondingly involves multiple driver steps.

Once a mistake is made at some point, it can lead to the failure of Alchemy, or even a serious accident.

Because of the specificity of symbols, alchemists in the Holy City specialize in a certain type of Alchemy mode.

…

During Han Dong’s study and memory of basic symbols, he wasn’t affected by this set mode.

After all, in Han Dong’s brain, the periodic table of elements and a large number of reaction equations already exist.

If he had enough time, Han Dong could even invent his own symbols based on some equations, and make products that the Holy City had never heard of.

However…Once Han Dong chose the path of a second major, it meant that his ‘time’ would be squeezed dry.

Therefore, Han Dong had no choice but to focus on making money rather than scientific research.

After investigation, all kinds of medical potions and energy potions are basically saturated.

Moreover, the potions made by a novice Alchemist like Han Dong might not meet the required purity and thus cannot circulate in the market.

However, Han Dong quickly identified a blind spot in the market.

“Pressure”

A problem that a human at the current stage cannot avoid.

The main source of stress comes from a mental level.

Witnessing the indescribable faces of creatures outside the city,

Hearing a terrifying whisper implanted in the cerebellum,

Or suffering from pollution trauma on the brink of death,

Even after purification by Holy Light, the mental stress in the brain still exists, like a nightmare swirling in the brain layers, which, if not vented in time, can lead to insomnia, hallucinations, self-harm, and eventually suicide.

In a certain sense, it is somewhat similar to “depression”.

The potions in Holy City that deal with stress relief are extremely complicated to prepare, often involving more than ten “symbols”… the final potions are very precious and expensive.

Typically, these kinds of potions are given to important personnel within the Knight Regiment for use during ‘expeditions’.

In Han Dong’s memory, there are many molecular formulas and production processes for anti-depressant drugs.

After all, when he was preparing for postgraduate exams in his previous life, he practically wore out the edges of the “Pharmaceutical Chemistry” textbook.

There is an easy-to-prepare antidepressant that Han Dong has in mind for large-scale production… If it proves effective and can be mass-produced, continuous funds will flow into Han Dong’s pockets.

Moreover, another affordable stress-relief potion would be available in the Holy City.

…

“Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT)

This is widely present in mammalian tissues, particularly in large amounts in the cerebral cortex and synapses, and is a messenger that produces pleasant emotions.

Serotonin affects almost every aspect of brain activity: from regulating mood, energy, memory, to shaping a person’s outlook on life.

Research indicates that people with lower 5-HT levels are more likely to suffer from depression, impulse behavior, alcoholism, suicide, assaults, and violent behavior.

I even suspect that people who have suffered ‘contamination,’ their synthesis rate of 5-HT in the brain is severely impeded.

Try to make a drug through alchemy that can catalyze and increase the synthesis of 5-HT in the human brain.

However, it would probably be extremely difficult to prepare a multi-ring structure compound in this era… Even if it passes the laboratory test, it will definitively not be easy to mass-produce.

Let’s give it a try… If it’s successful, not only will I gain enormous economic benefits, the pressure situation in the whole Holy City will also improve.

Lets try and borrow the funds for the experiment from Mr. Dumps first.

When the product is ready, we can apply for research funding from Mr. Black White.”

Han Dong wrote down all the molecular formulas of anti-depressants that he could remember.

After purchasing a batch of benzene substances, he immediately used Mr. Black White’s privilege to go outside the city.

This time when heading out of the city he naturally took Dumps along, or rather he takes Dumps with him every time he goes out… As the project sponsor, Dumps must be pleased.