“You mean, this?” Gantz pointed at one of the bottles—a huge bottle which was filled with a sparkly light blue colored liquid. He then lifted the bottle up into Bear’s view.

“This is a healing potion. Intermediate rank. One small flask can cure external injuries entirely. This big bottle is just a bundle that I’ll put into several smaller flasks later.”

Bear blinked his eyes slowly; curious.

“Why is the color like that?”

“The sparkly blue?” Gantz replied. He then gave the bottle in his hand a little shake, causing the thick liquid inside it moved around according to motion. “It is made by the infusion between medicine and alchemy. I think the color is like this to reassure the users that it’s not something dangerous to them. People’s perception of potions is majorly influenced by their colors, you see. A beautiful color like this won’t look hazardous to the eyes.”

Bear nodded his head. The liquid inside that big bottle—which could probably fit in his entire one hand—exudes a sparkly blue color, a hue that he wouldn’t expect a mixture of healing properties to have. Bear stared at the bottle yet again, still in awe with its pretty glisten.

“Will Bear be able to make it like this too?” Bear said to Gantz, while thinking about the beautiful color.

Gantz fell silent, astounded by Bear’s question. He suddenly giggled.

“So that’s what you’re interested in.” Gantz monologued. It was heard by Bear, but Bear only flapped one of his ears, wondering what Gantz was talking about.

“It’s nothing.” Gantz reassured. He then placed down the potion bottle on the ground beside the other potions, as he said, “Alright, because you have saved me and even healed my injuries, I will teach you alchemy freely. Do you have affinity towards Mana, perhaps?”

“Mana?” Bear asked, repeating Gantz’s question. He saw Gantz picking up a long stick and start drawing a circle on an empty spot on the ground nearby.

“Yes, Mana. Alchemy is one of the branches of magic, which is associated to the creation of an item from the fusion of several items. To make sure that the process of alchemy is a success, one would need an affinity to Mana.” Gantz explained, while he completed a what seemed to be the drawing of a magic circle.

Bear nodded understandingly.

“Here. This is the most basic magic circle used to perform alchemy. It usually only fuses three items at most. More fusion means more complicated magic circles.” Gantz placed the stick down after he finished drawing. He then motioned Bear to come closer to him.

“First, your paw, please.” Gantz extended his hand to Bear. Bear—without hesitation—placed his paw on Gantz’s dark green hand. Gantz then chanted something as he drew a symbol above Bear’s paw. A few seconds after that, Bear saw his paw exuding a blue aura.

“Thank goodness.” Gantz heaved a relieved sigh before cracking a smirk. “It seems you have some Mana in you.” Gantz then paused to think. “Is that what amplifies the healing properties for that goop, I wonder?”

Meanwhile, Bear looked at his glowing paw in awe.

“Now then, shall we start with the basics of alchemy?”