Astral Apostle

Chapter 168: Picked Up A Treasure (1)

The Empire’s workshop at the Hunter’s base mainly focused on three technical routes. The processing of mutant beast equipment, the production of blood potions, and the production of hunter potions.

In the internal management structure of the workshop, there were three Governing Officers at the highest level. They were one main boss and two deputy bosses. The two deputy bosses were in charge of the technical aspects, promoted internally by the craftsmen. The main boss was in charge of the administrative and executive aspects. He was a minister from the Royal Court who led the place on behalf of the Empire.

The three technical routes each had a Managing Director. Below them were the Directors of the development teams in each route, followed by the team leads of the individual development teams, which were divided into different types of products. In addition, each product group would have its own craftsmen and apprentices. The workshop’s words for the various positions in their workshop were naturally different, but this was a definition that Zhou Jing had made according to his own understanding. To him, it was more intuitive.

Sura was one of the Directors responsible for the hunter potion route. Under his arrangements, Zhou Jing got to know his colleagues and was then assigned to a development team that included the production of pain-reduction potions. He officially joined the Empire Workshop.

Many of his colleagues were curious about this famous “Aphrodisiac Apothecary.” So when he passed by, they would always look at him with a judging eye.

Sura instructed the development team lead to help Zhou Jing integrate before leaving, leaving Zhou Jing and the guy staring at each other.

The team leader’s attitude was neither cold nor warm. Their dislike was obvious. However, because the workshop had decided he could not object, he could only take in a new team member and throw the target mission to Zhou Jing. He casually introduced the work area and workflow before throwing him aside.

The pharmacists from the development team did not welcome Zhou Jing’s arrival. No one wanted to get to know him. After a simple greeting, they ended the conversation and ignored Zhou Jing. Their original small circle tacitly ostracized Zhou Jing, a newcomer.

On the one hand, it was because Bill was young. On the other hand, it was because of his reputation as an aphrodisiac pharmacist. Many felt that it pulled down their status, so their first impression was naturally not good.

Zhou Jing did not care at all.

This was nothing. Zhou Jing would screw them over with his skills. These people would only dislike him even more.

Zhou Jing read his mission list carefully before he curled his lips, “That’s it?”

The annual quota was mainly for the production of missions. The potions produced were determined by the responsibility of each development team. A development team could apply for more workload, which would be distributed to the craftsmen in the group. Therefore, the mission indicators of the various workshop members were different.

His mission this year was to create 300 bottles of pain-reduction potions and 200 bottles of injury-suppression potions… He had yet to learn the latter, so the workshop directly gave him the formula.

“I only need to make 500 bottles of potions a year… Is this a place for retirement?”

If one were to split it evenly, the workload would be less than two bottles a day. This seemed quite efficient.

Zhou Jing could make 20 to 30 bottles of medicine in a day, and this was after considering the time he had to look after the shop. If he made them 24 hours a day, he would be able to complete the quota needed for the mission in 10 days.

“This place looks like it’s operating in full swing, but I didn’t expect it to be so leisurely. When I came in, I saw those hardworking craftsmen. Could it be that all of them are pretending to work hard but are actually slacking?”

Zhou Jing complained in his heart.

After pondering for a while, he roughly understood what was going on.

It was not that everyone was idle, but that their development team was idle. Their team lead probably never applied for a larger workload, leading his team to slack off yearly.

In addition, the various herbs and materials provided by the Terra Empire were limited in supply. Therefore, they were provided to the various development teams only according to the mission indicators.

Moreover, although Hunter Potions were also consumables, they were only used during hunting Mutant Beasts. Therefore, the consumption rate was not high, so there was no need to accumulate too much of them. Moreover, there were many styles. When the hunters were dispatched, they had their own choices. This reduced the need for all kinds of potions. In the end, they were made according to needs, and the annual quota was the pathetic quantity stated.

Zhou Jing couldn’t help but think of Jason’s third enhancement, on how he went to claim a blood potion and found that no one was interested in it. After witnessing the inside workings of the workshop, he understood the situation.

The workload at the Empire’s workshop at the Hunter’s base was not heavy at all. What was really important was the development of the new formulas.

However, it was not easy to develop a new formula. It was estimated that such an indicator mission would not fall on ordinary craftsmen unless they applied for it themselves.

“So as a newcomer to the workshop, I only need to be in charge of the most basic production indicators… Heh, looks like you’re not making things difficult for me.”

As the craftsman could apply for missions on his own, it was very difficult to make someone be a complete benchwarmer. Even if the team lead did not like him much, he would not deliberately make things difficult for him by increasing or decreasing the number of missions he had to take. After all, the lead would be responsible if anything went wrong.

A place like this… He really liked it!

As long as he applied to increase his job scope, he would be able to obtain the materials needed. This was simply a treasure ground for craftsmen to practice.

No wonder those craftsmen were all so busy. They had probably taken the initiative to apply for new quotas — to use the nation’s resources to improve their skills. Who would not be willing!

“I have to abuse this to the maximum!”

Zhou Jing’s eyes lit up. Without another word, he went to the administrative department to ask about the rules.

The first thing to do was to accept a mission. If one did not have the formula for this product, the workshop would directly provide the formula.

However, everyone could only accept three missions at most simultaneously. They could only accept more after they completed the previous three. This was to prevent anyone from accepting a large number of missions at the same time and failing to complete them in the end.

If they didn’t complete enough missions, their merits would be deducted, and they would be kicked out of the workshop. Therefore, even with such generous conditions, most of the craftsmen did not dare to accept it casually.

The workshop’s production missions had basically all been distributed, leaving only some missions for research and development of formulas and improving existing formulas. As for the task of improving the potion formula, there was a huge backlog, and almost no one cared about it… because it was too difficult.

Zhou Jing’s eyes, however, turned red at such a large quantity available, and he wanted to complete all these missions.

However, after some thought, he did not immediately accept the mission to improve the mutant blood potions. Instead, he accepted another mission to improve the formula of the hunter’s potion, filling up his Key Performance Indicators alongside his other two basic production missions.

He was not blindly confident just because of the [Item Analysis Function]. For the sake of caution, he decided to first complete a few simple missions to accumulate merits in exchange for the basic knowledge of the blood potion. He would first study the differences between blood potion technology and ordinary potionology.

Only then would he clearly understand the difficulty of improving the formula of the mutant blood potions. He could then accept the missions and obtain the relevant formulas… After all, only those who had the ability to complete them could continue to use them.

As for the ordinary missions, they were not difficult for him. He did not even need much time.

The factor that prevented the other craftsmen from crazily accepting the formulas was their learning ability.

Just knowing the formula was not enough. One had to be proficient in the production process. It would take a month or two for a normal craftsman to go from rusty to proficient in a new formula, allowing the success rate of the potion production to stabilize at a passable level. A more complicated formula would take even longer.

However, this was not a problem for the third apostle, Bill. If he sped up his training, he would even be able to master it in two to three days. Coupled with his talent and support functions, his success rate in making potions was almost 100%. The chances of making strengthened potions were many times higher than that of those skilled craftsmen.

Zhou Jing blinked rapidly.

“There’s only one problem to worry about now… If I learn too much, I won’t be silenced, right?”

...

After entering the Empire Workshop, the third apostle, Bill, was finally on the right track. He stayed in the workshop for the next few months to complete missions.

He had hired someone to take care of his apothecary in the capital. Occasionally, he would take some time to make some energy potions to replenish his supplies. In total, he had already earned thousands of silver coins.

After farming missions for several months, Zhou Jing completely displayed Bill’s talent in pharmacology. He completed more than ten missions and improved a large number of hunter potion formulas, becoming the most well-known person in the workshop.

The other colleagues were shocked. They had never seen a pharmacist with such exaggerated efficiency. Improving the formula was as easy as improving a cooking recipe for him!

In just a few months, this newcomer’s results were comparable to the years of work of an entire development team—he was a genius!

Originally, many craftsmen looked down on a pharmacist who chose to sell aphrodisiacs. They were quite dissatisfied with the decision of the upper echelons of the workshop to invite Zhou Jing to join them. They were shocked to discover that the upper echelons had good foresight.

This unusual situation made many craftsmen think that Zhou Jing must have done something behind the scenes to get such results. However, no matter how they investigated, they realized in despair… This was really his natural talent.

Even the few publicly acknowledged workaholics in the workshop did not dare to have any thoughts of competing against such inhuman work efficiency.

They would not win, not at all!

The workshop’s backlog decreased one by one every few days, and a sense of anxiety spread among the craftsmen.

If this continued, all the missions would be completed by this newcomer? Then where would they go to accept new missions? Would they really have to slack off and retire?

Don’t, Brother Bill. Please stop. Leave us some missions!

Most of the craftsmen became extremely anxious because of Zhou Jing. They were originally carefree, but now, they had no choice but to speed up their work, wanting to snatch the few remaining missions.

However, the higher-ups of the workshop were overjoyed.

Back then, when they invited Zhou Jing to join, they thought highly of him, but they weren’t desperate to hire him. It was just to recruit talents from outside as usual and integrate them into the workshop system to contribute to the empire.

However, they did not expect to hit the jackpot this time!

This time, they had really picked up a treasure!

The higher-ups of the workshop were amazed by Zhou Jing. They were even urgently discussing whether they should promote him to the Expert level… It was extremely rare for a craftsman who had only joined the workshop for a few months to receive such an honor.

However, before the higher-ups of the workshop could finish discussing, Zhou Jing had learned much about the blood potion through his accumulated merits. He felt that he had accumulated enough and finally carried out his plan to move his attention toward the blood potion route.