HP: Alchemy? Nah, It's Crafting

○( ＾皿＾)っ Many thanks to Tripp Webster, Victor Gonzalez, Harsha Dantuluri, and ONE PE.01 for their Patronage!♥♥

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"This place sure is… quaint."

After escaping from the marketplace, Kasenhis and Lupin barely had time to catch their breath before spotting police cars speeding toward them, sirens blaring.

"Oh, hell. Back to the hotel!"

Without hesitation, Kasenhis teleported away, while Lupin fumbled to pull out his wand—BZZT!—and vanished with a loud whoosh.

...

"Here, drink some water. Once you're done, we're heading straight to Uruguay's wizarding market."

Lupin chugged down a bottle of water and gave Kasenhis a deadpan look.

"Then why didn't we just go there in the first place?"

"Proper wizards don't mine. And wizards only use crystals for divination. I was hoping to go straight to the source to make things easier."

Kasenhis unfurled a detailed map on the table.

"All we have to do is look for an area with no buildings, but a lot of people. That's probably where wizards gather."

Lupin leaned over and watched as Kasenhis used two fingers to shrink and adjust the map's view, zooming out until the entire country of Uruguay fit on the screen. His jaw dropped.

"What the hell is that magic?"

"Talent and hard work. Found it."

The two made their way to the hotel rooftop. Kasenhis pulled out a shimmering, pale purple glow—the magical essence of an invisibility potion.

As for why he was extracting just the magic instead of drinking it like a normal person…?

Well. That was just how he did things.

Ahem… Clothes still needed to be worn. Extracting the magic from the potion allowed their clothes to turn invisible as well.

Very user-friendly.

Before long, the now completely invisible duo rode their flying brooms to a mountain range far from the city.

"This is Uruguay's wizarding market?" Lupin was confused. The wizarding world's productivity… wasn't great, meaning that, strictly speaking, wizards still relied on the Muggle world to survive.

A proper wizarding settlement, built in the middle of nowhere like this? He'd never seen one before.

"Well... If this isn't a secret underground fortress of some mysterious organization, then this has to be the place."

Kasenhis walked ahead, map in hand, while Lupin held his wand at the ready, following closely behind.

Soon, they came across massive treehouses scattered throughout the area, with a large clearing at the center, densely packed with market stalls.

"There aren't that many people in Uruguay, but there sure are a lot of wizards." Lupin was surprised by the sheer density of the crowd.

"Let's head in and take a look."

They walked deeper into the market. No one stopped them.

Nice.

Good community.

After circling the market over and over again, Kasenhis and Lupin finally admitted defeat and approached a vendor, resigned.

"Excuse me, but… why doesn't your market have any magical crystals?"

"It's useless. If anyone wants crystals, they just go to the mines and pick them themselves. They're worthless anyway."

Kasenhis and Lupin exchanged glances. "Mines?"

"The Muggle mines. Just wait until no one's around or slap on a Disillusionment Charm and walk right in," the vendor explained.

"You don't sell them here?"

"I have some, but I can't understand why anyone would actually buy this stuff. It's completely useless."

As he spoke, the vendor Disapparated, only to reappear moments later, carrying a massive stone sphere.

"Crack this open, and there's your crystal."

"Lupin, pay up."

After his previous experience, Kasenhis had no intention of pulling out his little pickaxe to chip away at the crystal himself. Instead, he quickly gestured at Lupin.

"Just… give him something for courtesy's sake."

In the end, Lupin haggled with the vendor for ages, before finally handing over a whopping three Galleons.

Kasenhis immediately took the stone egg aside and gently tapped it with his diamond pickaxe.

With a sharp crack, the stone split open, revealing the beautiful, transparent crystals inside.

Without hesitation, he chipped off a small fragment and placed it on the Arcane Workbench.

"Water-aligned Mana Crystal… hmm? What's this purple one?"

Just as Kasenhis was about to revel in the joy of obtaining a Water Mana Crystal, his eyes caught a faint streak of purple that seemed out of place.

He tapped it lightly with his diamond pickaxe and chipped off a small piece.

"Earth-aligned Mana Crystal..."

Kasenhis was just about to straighten up and celebrate when Lupin quickly pressed him down.

"What's wrong?"

"You figured it out, didn't you? You were about to go ask the vendor where he found this stuff, weren't you?" Lupin didn't answer immediately but instead questioned him back.

"Yeah."

"Then wipe that grin off your face, look a little disappointed, and maybe even let out a sigh before you ask."

"Oh… right. That actually makes sense."

Kasenhis nodded, coughed twice, and forcibly suppressed his excitement before heading back to the vendor.

"Sir, where did you find that stone egg?"

"Just go to Amethyst Mine. Any Muggle around here could point you to it."

"Would you mind marking the location on my map?"

Kasenhis pulled out his magical map, quickly turned off the feature that displayed moving red dots representing people, and handed it over to the vendor.

The vendor pulled out a quill, marked a small dot on the map, and said, "It should be around here. The shallow mine crystals have already been claimed by Muggles. If you don't want to get caught—or if you're looking for higher-quality ones—you should head for the deeper sections of the mine."

"Thank you, generous sir."

Kasenhis quickly rolled up the map, tucked the crystal stone egg that Lupin had been eyeing into his ring, and hopped onto his Z9 broomstick.

Without wasting any time, the two of them took off, soaring towards the mine the vendor had marked.

Before long, they arrived near the mine, cast Disillusionment Charms on themselves, and casually strolled right in.

At some point, they even switched into camouflage gear, all while being passively observed by a group of unsuspecting Muggle miners.

As they ventured deeper and deeper, the artificial mining lamps became sparser and dimmer. Kasenhis waved his wand and cast Night Vision Charms on both of them.

Soon, they saw them—stone eggs identical to the one the vendor had. If not the same, then definitely identical.

"Prioritize the ones with magic, the purple ones. I think I came across a book in Hogwarts' library about crystal cultivation—we just need one crystal seed to start growing more ourselves."

"Got it…"

Lupin used a Severing Charm, and Kasenhis wielded a diamond pickaxe.

Before long, one stone egg after another cracked open. Most contained Water-aligned Mana Crystals, and naturally, every last one of them was stuffed into Kasenhis' Ender Ring without hesitation.

As for whether this would end up stuffing his office full of crystals again…

Absolutely not!

For some reason—whether the mine layer was too shallow or something else—most of the purple crystal stone eggs turned out to be non-magical.

The ones that did contain magic?

All Water-aligned Mana Crystals.

After some painful reflection, Kasenhis finally understood!

Since it's called Earth-aligned Mana Crystal, it only makes sense that it would be buried deep in the ground.

So…

CRACK!

"Whoa! A Purple Legendary Drop!"

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