Kael's training days continued…
Even though he failed to make the energy drink on his first attempt…
His determination to create one hadn't faded yet.
Day after day, training after training, weeks turned into months countless sessions of physical,Tan'Mara and sword training sessions had passed. And every night, Kael continued trying to perfect the energy drink. He even ignored and abandoned his inventions from Book X machines that didn't use Might energy to move around, just to focus on creating this drink.
Every ingredient, every material, every hour he spent each night…
Every race he asked for help, every cooking method he tried…
The energy drink failed every time.
Yet… each failure brought him closer and closer to the desired result.
But still… it felt far from perfect…..
"Ugh… we're not there yet!"
Thud!
Kael slammed the glass bottle onto his wooden work table after drinking the failed energy drink.
Then, he quickly wrote down the attempt:
Energy Drink Attempt #35 Fail…
"I don't understand… I heated the broth correctly, I added the salt properly, and I even monitored the whole process… Why can't it mix properly…?"
Kael muttered, frustrated
He looked at the ingredients in the glass bottle, they were still not mixed well.
Kael stood up from his chair, while Brasskert, Reyvik, and Volgran who had always been with him during this Tawan Aspect training watched as he got up and walked out from the backyard to the front.
"I'm gonna take a walk…"
Kael told his friends, even though he walked away right after.
Reyvik, Brasskert, and Volgran were confused.
"Awooo… Kael must be really disappointed," Reyvik commented.
"Yeah… humannz neva do that before… He might be too tired…" Brasskert added.
As Kael walked into the night street outside his wooden two-story house, the street was filled with the glow of energy flame crystals infused with Might. Some day races were still lingering around, even though the moons had already risen. Today, there were only ten moons compared to last month which have full fifteen moon , so the NoctaMarket did not appear tonight. Kael would have to buy all the ingredients from the street if he wanted to make the energy drink again.
Kael looked at his surroundings and murmured to himself,
"Haaaah… it's so hard… I already fixed the salt and water boiling part, already fixed the damaged broth, and I even properly managed the fretia ginger cut into small, detailed pieces but somehow the liquid still isn't mixed well…"
"The liquid still has three layers… the honey at the bottom, the broth and salt in the middle, while the vegetable oil is on top… No matter how hard I stir or mix them, they still separate… and what's even worse… it smells weird and tastes a bit weird too…"
Suddenly, as Kael walked, he saw many day races starting to close their street vendors and stalls slowly.
Since the NoctaMarket was closed tonight, the day races took advantage of it by closing their stalls a bit late even though only a few night races came by.
Kael's eyes lingered around, observing the various races until something caught his attention.
"Hmm? Isn't that paint…? Why are there so many colors of it…?"
Kael watched from afar as a seller from the Faundrakin lizard race and a green slime Elemarit were closing their stall, which sold various colors of paint. On display, they had placed medium-sized glass jars, each labeled with the name of a color.
As they were about to close the stall, the Faundrakin lizard and her green slime friend picked up a clear glass jar labeled "Purple." But instead of directly pouring in purple paint, they added two separate colors red and blue into the same glass container.
At first, the paint remained separated.
Then, the female Faundrakin stirred it with a brush.
Slowly, the colors began to blend… changing into purple.
"Woah… I didn't know that two colors could turn into another color… I guess I need to pay more attention to art rather than just complicated inventions sometimes…"
Kael thought to himself.
"But I tried that before… I tried mixing all the ingredients at once, and it still didn't mix well with each other…"
Kael continued walking a bit further from the paint stall. Then, the white brick pathway began to curve upward slightly.
It was a hill.
Kael didn't mind as he kept walking.
At the top of the hill, he looked down and saw a huge rectangular house with many windows. Five ovens made out of black stone stood outside, with smoke rising from above.
From afar, Kael could see a few males from the Etherian and Durvakians race baking bread in the ovens bread they planned to sell tomorrow.
The aroma of freshly baked bread hit Kael's nose.
"Hmm… it smells so good! I wanna watch them making the bread! Hehehe… we never know, I might get free bread!"
Kael grinned, then slid down from the side of the curved white pathway.
It was like a hill with a grassy ground, making it easy for him to slide down toward the baking house.
Shhhhs! Thud!
Kael landed at the bottom of the hill.
In front of him was the bread-making house. Through the open windows, Kael could see inside filled with many female Etherians and even a few Durvakian females, all working together to make the bread dough.
Kael then walked slowly, trying to enter the hectic bread-making house.
Then he saw the open door.
He entered anyway, and to his surprise, no one even noticed him maybe because they were too busy, and Kael was small compared to them.
Inside, chatter and the sounds of hands kneading dough echoed throughout the space.
"Go get more flour for this!"
"Water… we need water, Teps!"
"Aight… coming!"
Kael walked toward the middle of the bread-making house. It was separated into departments one open, one closed divided by a glass fence.
"Wow! This place is huge!" Kael commented.
On the open right side was the bread-making department, while beyond the tall, see-through glass divider was where they made sweet pastries.
"Wow… this side looks so much more colorful!"
Kael pressed his face directly against the glass.
"How can I get inside? And… everyone seems way more serious and quiet on this side… A few of them are even wearing cooking uniforms…"
"Hmm…"
Kael looked around for any possible entrance to the pastry section, but he couldn't find one.
"Sigh… I guess I'll just watch from here…"
Kael kept his face against the glass barrier.
A few female bakers passed by him, busy with the bread-making, while Kael's eyes caught a pattern a pattern in how people were making pastries, cakes, sweets, and even sugary desserts.
"Hmm… they don't directly put all the ingredients together? Like the eggs and flour first… then the sugar and butter…"
"Interesting… and each has its own measurement? I thought they just put all the sugar to make it taste good…"
Kael murmured, then flicked his finger.
"Aha! That's it!"
Kael didn't waste any time. He ran out of the bread bakery and rushed up the hill, heading back to his backyard.
Where all his friends were still sitting on the wooden chairs.
"Awooo! Kael, where are you from?" Reyvik howled as he saw him.
"Just taking a walk, Reyv… but it's all good now… I know exactly what to do!"
Kael grabbed the ingredients and every size of glass container he could find.
And now… it was time to fix it.
Kael opened the Z Book again, the one that contained the energy drink recipe and looked at the image carefully. This time, he finally noticed something…
The glass sizes of each liquid ingredient were different from one another.
"Yeah… I understand it now… This sketch isn't random size… this is the measurement!"
"For one month, I've been failing constantly… and delaying my first machine from the X Book…"
"But after I complete this energy drink… I will focus on that machine as soon as I finish this…"
Kael's gaze shifted to the unfinished machine, covered with a cloth.
"Alright… first, we take the measurement…"
So first, shown in the sketches is the glucose, which is in a large glass container.
Kael poured all the glucose syrup and honey mixture into the huge glass container.
"Alright… next is the electrolytes, which is only a small glass… then the broth, one medium glass… then the fruit juice, also one medium glass… while seed oil and fretia ginger are both half a small glass."
"Alright… now I have all the ingredients in different measurements…"
Kael placed all the ingredients side by side on his wooden working table while his friends watched him doing everything by himself.
"Okay… now I need to mix these ingredients one by one, like I saw the bakers do in the bakery…"
"But… I don't know which one is supposed to go first… there are too many possibilities in this mixing…"
Kael went silent.
He stared at all the ingredients for five full minutes.
Then he flicked his hand.
"Alright… I understand this now… but I might fail. This is just my assumption…"
"First… I need to mix these two… glucose syrup and honey mixture with the seed oil…"
He stirred slowly… Kael was now relying purely on observation, copying what he had seen in the bakery how they mixed oil with wet flour to form dough.
"Then I need to pour all the same density… this broth… this electrolytes… and this fruit juice alongside this ginger… but I will not make the same mistake… I will copy exactly what the bakers do…"
"One by one… ingredients… while stirring…"
"First… the electrolytes combine with this broth slowly…"
Kael poured the electrolytes water into the large glass container, then slowly added the broth water into it while stirring.
As the electrolytes glass began to empty, Kael didn't immediately pour the fruit juice. Instead, he continued stirring for a few more minutes… before slowly adding the fruit juice while still stirring.
The smell was different from all his failed attempts, and even the color wasn't dark anymore. It was like a middle point balanced.
Kael smiled, knowing this time it was different.
After a few minutes of stirring, the consistency of the drink became clearer and smoother, no longer separating or dark.
But now came the hard part where Kael needed to combine ingredients that either floated or sank, which is the mixture of seed oil and glucose syrup.
Kael thought for a moment.
"This one needs to be stirred slowly and evenly… and it may take a long time…"
"But… don't expect me to be unprepared for this…"
Kael grabbed his toolbox and placed it on the table.
THUD!
He searched through his toolbox…
"A tool… where did I put it… I don't quite remember," he murmured.
Then suddenly—
"Aha!"
He pulled it out.
Kael held the tool up. It had a handle and gears on the side, with another handle on top. In front of it was a metal blade shaped like a fan three blades attached together.
"This is a spare part for the fan in my room… I modified it into a small fan… but I think this can also be used to stir all these ingredients since it fits the size of this bottle."
Kael placed the tool inside the glass bottle. The three metal blades sank into the mixture.
He began turning the handle.
The blades connected and started spinning, stirring the liquid mixture slowly. The ingredients began to blend more evenly as the rotation continued.
As the fan blades spun inside the glass jar, the liquid's color started to change it became lighter than before. The smell also improved compared to all his failed attempts.
"Good sign…" Kael murmured as he continued spinning the handle until everything was fully mixed.
Finally, he stopped and pulled the tool out, immediately looking at the liquid.
"Well guys… this is it."
He spoke to Reyvik, Brasskert, and Volgran.
"If this finally succeeds… this is the first energy drink in the entire realm…"
"After this is complete… I will immediately go and build my machine that I left for months…"
Kael then grabbed the glass bottle and slowly drank it, as his friends watched nervously.
But for the first time in all his attempts… this time Kael actually finished the drink.
"Haa… it's… not that bad actually."
Kael smiled and looked at the empty glass bottle.
"Alright guys… I think I can say that we successfully made not a perfect energy drink, but at least it's drinkable. And it gave me a basic taste… and I can feel a bit refreshed…"
"Sure, there's still so much I can add into this energy drink… like plants, herbs, or fruits that grow beside Might crystals. I know I can't be affected directly by Might ability or Might crystal, but if there are plants or herbs that have already absorbed Might, I might gain a few benefits from it."
"Since this is the first energy drink in this realm... and one of the first official project that completed alone beside the camera and the electric shoes... Even though both of this constantly broken.... I called this energy drink... Tenalung... Since this is the first invention where I successfully do it alone... with little help from my friend"
Kael placed down the glass bottle and immediately pulled out a blueprint. He also opened the X Book, flipping to the first pages. He placed both side by side with his blueprint.
"Alright guys… I don't want to waste any time. Tonight… I will officially start this project."
"Awooo!" Reyvik howled. "Kael, what about the other invention? The bomb?"
"Oh yeah… about that."
Kael flicked his finger.
"The bomb is actually pretty easy to make, Reyv. I already saw the blueprint, so… it's not that hard actually. I can make it while working on this machine."
Kael stood up from his chair, bringing his blueprint and X Book toward his unfinished machine, still covered by a black cloth.
He pulled the cloth away, revealing the chunk of unfinished metal structure beneath it.
"Yeah… let's finish this thing…Even this might take a year or two…."
End of Chapter
Author notes sorry for the late updates I have some issue going on right now but I think I already manage to overcome it. Will update more consistent after this ')