Chapter 72: Beginning of Jiang’s handcrafting

The true essence of alchemical products, as mentioned before,
is that they are magical power sources—made by extracting mana from various materials through alchemical methods and synthesizing it together.

These power sources can then convert the witch’s own mana input, producing all kinds of miraculous effects.

So then, what’s the power source of an alchemy workbench?
And why can’t low-tier alchemists work once they leave their workbench?

【Stability】.

“Although alchemy benches have all sorts of auxiliary features—some high-end ones can even improve product quality—their core function is only one:
to make the extracted material mana stable and prevent it from volatilizing.”

“For personal use, I can customize all the other features however I want…
So, let’s add a levitation platform to temporarily hold materials,
a spatial pouch for storage,
and a dust filter to prevent contamination.”

As Jiang Cha muttered to herself, she scribbled and drew on her notepad.

This project was completely different from the Focus Glasses she’d made before.
That product only needed to realize a single function—no need to plan how mana sources linked up, where the runes were carved, or even design the product’s appearance.

But a low-tier alchemy workbench was far more complex—
itself a compound alchemical product built from multiple mana sources,
and involving knowledge across mechanics, alchemy, and potionology.

That meant the girl had to design everything beforehand:
where to inscribe runes, how to structure the mechanical parts,
and most importantly, how to realize the functions of the alchemical modules.

Among all low-tier alchemical products, it was one of the most technically demanding types.
Even with Jiang Cha’s superhuman calculation ability,
it was still easier to just draw the plans out directly.

“The functions I want are simple enough, and I don’t need intelligent control systems…
Alright, this should do.”

The alchemy benches sold on shopping sites these days all came loaded with tons of add-ons—
one-click drying, automatic water filling, and the like.
The higher-end models even had fusion systems to boost success rates.

Some even had internet connectivity, letting you browse videos while doing alchemy.

But to Jiang Cha—and honestly, to most alchemist witches—
those functions were utterly unnecessary,
and sometimes never used even once after purchase.

In fact, that “online alchemy bench” actually reduced success rates.

It was like a mobile gamer buying a phone for its powerful processor,
only for it to also come with a super high-end camera—
a camera that might only be used a few times in the phone’s entire life,
but still bumped the price up a whole tier.

Purely a marketing gimmick to jack up prices.
Terrible value for money.

But building it yourself was a whole different story.
Jiang Cha could strip away every single unnecessary feature
and create a workbench that was purely functional—refined to the extreme.

It was like removing the luxury camera from a smartphone
and replacing it with the simplest one possible.

Technically and mechanically, she couldn’t match the big manufacturers,
and by all estimates, her self-made bench should have been bulkier and less efficient.

But because she eliminated all those useless add-ons,
her workbench actually ended up smaller.

That was mainly because the number of inscribed runes dropped dramatically—
fewer inscriptions meant a smaller device.

Normally, an individual craftsman couldn’t compete with industrial-scale production,
and handmade products often turned out more expensive.
Jiang Cha had originally chosen to make her own because she had a materials quota from the Alchemy Club—
which was basically free.

But when the product was finished,
she realized it was less than half the price of buying one!

“Guess those witch capitalists really are ruthless, huh?”

The girl grumbled under her breath.
Witches might have consciences, yes—but only a little bit.
That was the perfect summary of witch capitalism.

If she hadn’t made one herself,
she never would’ve realized just how much markup those online stores had!

As a purely practical type, Jiang Cha’s alchemy bench ended up looking either too pink and cute, or plain, bulky, and utilitarian.
Every part of the design served a functional purpose—no aesthetics whatsoever.

Still, since it was something she’d built with her own hands,
it naturally looked perfect to her—
just like how homemade food always tastes better.

The more she looked at her freshly finished bench,
the more she liked it.
She couldn’t wait to try it out.

With that same momentum, Jiang Cha also made a potion workbench for her potion studies.

Its essence was similar to the alchemy bench,
and it even used the same techniques—
the only difference lay in the mana sources,
the specific materials used.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to brew mental potions using an alchemy bench before.

With her previous experience, she easily completed this one too.

“As for mechanical assembly lines… those are better bought than built.
And buying them still isn’t as good as handcrafting the products directly.
It’s not like I can run industrial-scale production anyway—
my little shop’s all about custom orders.”

The Mechanical sub-discipline was different from the others by design.
It had two main goals:

1. Designing assembly lines for mass production.

2. Building weapons, like what He Meng was currently specializing in.

But Jiang Cha’s shop was meant to be a typical witch’s boutique—
never intended for mass production.
The Focus Glasses were already being mass-produced by the Alchemy Club.

As for mechanical weapons—
if you weren’t producing them in batches,
a witch’s own craftsmanship was just as fast as any assembly line,
and often even higher quality.

After all, for witches, the whole point of assembly lines was simply to save labor and cut costs.
For truly high-end products, handmade work still ruled supreme.

Just like in the 21st century—
even in an age of technology,
many precision machines and instruments still had to be handcrafted by master machinists.
No matter how advanced automated lines became,
they still couldn’t match that level of precision for premium products.

But the future was promising, and progress was fast.
That’s why Mechanics stood as one of the major professional disciplines among witches.

“Yeah… better put off intelligent assembly lines for now.
Next up, let’s look into golem workstations.”

“Core functions: 【Reinforcement】, 【Stability】, and 【Assembly】.
The key lies in material handling…
It’s different from alchemy or potion-making—those are about extraction and fusion,
while golem crafting focuses on stabilization and assembly.”

“Then this part should go here,
and the enchantment runes need a big adjustment…
the outer design should also look more like a proper workbench…”