Unchosen and Fire were standing in the circular obsidian room that was Fire's potion lab, today would be Unchosen's first brewing lesson. Fire had set up a schedule for Ambigious, TehLulz and Unchosen himself. Unchosen still wasn't sure what he would call the "days" passing in Fire's base, "sleep cycle" seemed the most fitting, in the end he decided to simply refer to them as days and be done with it. The schedule was that each day someone else would come with Fire to train in their specialized field, the others were encouraged to go to the library or train in combat, freeZe had lessons every second day. Ambigious and TehLulz had told Unchosen that they would be sparring in the training room until he was done.

Fire began his lesson by asking: "You are a doctor in real life if I understand correctly?"

Unchosen nodded. "Technically I started off by studying chemistry but I just somehow ended up in medicine."

"So I assume that I don't have to tell you much about the more basic safety precautions you need to take here but I'll just be on the safe side. Always wear your alchemy clothes when doing any work with potions or ingredients, I'll give you yours shortly. Also, when you mix things together, always make sure to know what exactly you are mixing. Many things don't react at all but some that do aren't very pleasant. Also, before trying out a new potion on yourself, use it on a projection, they react in the same way humans do. This is important because some potions have almost irreversible effects, I do have many antidotes here but by far not every possible one. Also, if you drink the wrong thing you might find yourself going on a fantastical interdimensional journey and I'm not talking about hallucinogens here."

Unchosen replied: "Got it."

Fire said: "Good, now let's give you some clothes to wear."

With those words Fire opened a drawer and took out a white coat and white pants, similar to the clothes he was wearing. In addition he took out a pair of gloves and a face mask.

"Those should fit you. Wear those every time you have a lesson here or do alchemy in general. The face mask protects your eyes and in addition filters out hazardous gasses and particles."

After Unchosen changed into his new clothes they were ready to begin.

Fire explained: "You can keep your gloves and mask off for now, today I'll mostly teach you about the basics and brew a few potions that are safe. In every future lesson the protective gear is a requirement."

Fire then lifted several large books onto the central table of the room. One design was familiar to Unchosen, the book was titled "Fire's Potion Journal Fifth Edition", the others were completely new to him. One had the title "Standard Ingredient List", another one "Extended Ingredient List", several more had similar names, different lists of ingredients or reactions and one book which seemed to contain information about brewing techniques and equipment.

"Those are quite the books there." Unchosen said.

He was no stranger to extensive specialized literature but this was very specialized and there was a whole lot of it.

Fire answered: "A large part of an alchemist's work is documenting what they are doing and reading through other alchemists' documentations. Those documentations are called 'Potion Journals', as you can see, this is one of mine. In it I wrote down different recipes, experiments and other things that could be useful to another alchemist. It has been revised and extended multiple times, replacing old recipes with new, more efficient or easier ones. The old ones are still in there in case someone lacks the ingredients for the new version or needs the older version of a potion for one reason or another. This also means that with each edition the book gets thicker."

Unchosen asked: "Are those published as well?"

Fire said: "They certainly are. Experienced alchemists earn a surprising amount just from the sales of their journals and even the journals of novices are sometimes useful since their lack of experience can lead to accidental discoveries that a more experienced alchemist wouldn't have made. The journals are mostly sold to other alchemists but also to people who aren't alchemists themselves but want to make their own potions. All at their own risk of course."

Fire then said: "It's time for your first potion. It will be a fairly simple one that is safe to brew. This particular potion is plainly known as the 'Novice Potion' because its only real application is to teach how to brew. It doesn't have any special effects, it just tastes like oranges if done right."

Unchosen laughed. "Let's get to it then."

Fire turned a crank and an opening appeared in the middle of the table. Fire also opened a cupboard to get a medium sized, cauldron shaped glass container. He placed the container next to the hole. Then he poured a glowing powder from a pouch into the hole and put the glass container on top and poured in water until it was half-full.

He explained: "The instruments and containers used in alchemy are made from diamond-glass, which is nearly indestructible. I'm using blaze powder to heat the water since it gives off a much more stable temperature than burning fuel. It's basically this world's substitute for a Bunsen burner, only that its acquisition is a bit more difficult."

Unchosen nodded.

Fire continued: "Every potion needs a base, in regular Minecraft the only base available is the one using nether wart, the Awkward Potion, but here we have many more. The quality of the base determines how complex the potion can be and how potent its effects are. Nether warts can be used as a base for almost any potion but more specialized bases often achieve better effects. For this potion we will be using nether warts though since it is only for demonstration."

Following Fire's instructions Unchosen carefully cut some nether warts into small pieces and threw them into the now boiling hot water. The pieces slowly dissolved, losing their red color. The water largely remained unchanged apart from a small difference in how it bubbled.

Next Fire instructed Unchosen to go and find two ingredients in the storage. Unchosen walked out of the laboratory into the storage corridor, he was supposed to look for "dried swamp blossom" and "dungeon moss". The moss was quickly found since Unchosen had seen the label earlier. The blossom did prove to be a little more difficult but since the ingredients were alphabetically sorted it also didn't take him too long. As he looked into the drawer, he recognized them as the round blossoms of the plants he and the others had eaten in the swamp. He returned with each ingredient in a separate bowl.

Fire said: "Nicely done. Now you need to powder the swamp blossom and slowly add it to the base."

Unchosen asked: "Just a question, back in the swamp Aurone said that those blossoms contain a weak poison… paralysis I think. What about that?"

"That's what the dungeon moss is for. It is resilient enough to grow near active mob spawners, most other plants are affected by the strong magical aura of spawners but dungeon moss isn't. Along with this it also is resistant to most poisons. It absorbs them and turns them into something that isn't poisonous anymore, in the case of swamp blossom this results in the orange flavor. It's remarkable that this conversion works even long after the moss has been harvested."

Unchosen said: "Interesting."

Unchosen then used a diamond-glass pestle to turn the dried swamp blossom into a fine powder, then he slowly tilted the bowl while gently stirring the base potion. As the powdered blossom came in contact with the liquid below, it quickly turned green.

Once all of the powder had dissolved, Fire gave more instructions: "Next you must wait for the liquid to cool off, just take the cauldron away from the blaze powder. For this you should wear your gloves, the glass is very hot. By the way, the green color comes from the strong pigments of the blossom, they are also used to create green dye if cactus isn't available or too expensive in the area."

After following Fire's instructions, Unchosen waited for the liquid to cool off. Once cold, Fire told Unchosen to just dump the whole bowl of moss into the potion. As the moss touched the liquid, it dissolved quickly, changing the color of the liquid to a darker green.

Fire announced: "It should be done now."

He then proceeded to use a large pipette to put some of the potion into a vial, then he drank it. Fire gave Unchosen thumbs up and then gave him another vial with the green substance. As Unchosen drank, the expected orange taste filled his mouth and fortunately no numb feeling was in his tongue afterwards.

He laughed. It seemed like he had successfully made a green liquid that tasted like oranges. It was a start for sure.