Peter's eyes jumped back and forth between the note and the vial of strange liquid, "Bullshit. There's no way..."
He frowned. There was a way though, wasn't there? First off, the vial appearing without waking him up. Then there was the note in English, a language he only knew because of memories from his past life. Even if someone from this world could sneak into his room and miraculously knew about English, what about the description of the Essence? He'd spent some time looking at Essences and while the Mad Doctor was pretty broken, it wasn't quite as broken as say the Essence of the Archmage, which made the one who drank it into a magic god instantly. Or, you know, any of the Essences that literally granted divinity. Compared to them, Essence of the Mad Doctor was mediocre.
Grabbing the vial and holding it up closer to his eyes, Peter studied it until he made up his mind. He could only see three possible outcomes. One, the potion was poison and he would die. Two, this was all a sick joke and nothing would happen. Three, it was real and drinking it would give him access to an unbelievable ability. Two out of the three meant he would survive while the third would mean death. Not that he would mind death all that much, really. He didn't want to die, necessarily, he just didn't have much to live for either.
With his mind made up, he popped the cork out of the vial and gave it a sniff. It smelled purple... which was extremely weird. He shrugged his shoulders, lifted the vial to his lips, and downed the entire thing like he was taking a shot of Tequila, which he really missed. The liquid was cool on his tongue and tasted like like the sound of bubbling liquid. The instant it hit his stomach, he felt different. There was no massive influx of information or mind splitting headache. Rather it was more like he was remembering something that had always been there.
For example, when he looked down at his chest and stomach, he knew he was badly malnourished, not a surprise. What was a surprise was he know knew, in detail, the damage the lack of a proper diet was doing to his body. He currently estimated that he would only live to the age of thirty, if he was lucky he'd reach his forties before succumbing. He needed something drastic to fix his health...
Just thinking that triggered another portion of his ability and he did get something like a rush of information. It was strange though, instead of a bunch of information all at once, he was presented with a list of different potions he could concoct that would cure the various issues of his body when drank. Nourishment potions, muscle re-builders, intestinal repair, and more. Even a potion that would give him all the nutrients he would need for an entire day.
Out of curiosity, he picked the nourishment potion. Suddenly he knew exactly how to make the potion as if he'd been making it his entire life. Equipment, ingredients, steps of production, exact effectiveness, and more were just there, in his mind, and ready to be used. It seemed so... simple. Like a child should be able to do it. There was a problem though. He didn't have the required equipment to make the potion, to make any potion.
He needed a cauldron, or just a big pot.
But first... He lifted his hand and suddenly he was holding a plain looking leaf. Only it wasn't any ordinary leaf, it was a leaf from a fully mature Mandrake, the kind whose scream could kill. Peter hummed in appreciation at the ability to conjure any ingredient he required for his work. He planned to abuse the hell out of this!
He chucked the raw Mandrake leaf into his mouth and began chewing on it. It tasted... well like a leaf. However, it had amazing medicinal properties and nutritional value. It wouldn't do much on its own, but it also wouldn't hurt his body in any way. He just didn't want to leave it laying around or let it go to waste.
Now that he had his new power, a whole new world of options had opened up before him! He tempered his excitement, not wanting to get ahead of himself. He needed to fix his body first. His body was his temple and it was in terrible disrepair. He needed to get started on that an to do so, he collected all of his savings and stuffed the money in his pocket. He grabbed a shirt and tossed it on before leaving his room.
Without wasting time, he made his way to the general goods store and bought a couple of things. The most important were three pots sized at one, three, and five gallons. He also grabbed appropriately sized wooden spoons, a small paring knife, and a cutting board. If one didn't know better it could be assumed he was going to cook things. Honestly? That wasn't too far off the mark as making potions had a lot in common with cooking. It was just more elaborate.
With his purchases made, Peter left the town and headed toward the uninhabited center of the island. In his youth he'd done a lot of exploring and found a spot that would be perfect for what he needed right now. Just two hours of walking led him to a small clearing near a gentle waterfall that fed into one of the smaller tributaries that made up the river that fed into the city. Behind the waterfall there was a nice cave that was tilted slightly up keeping it nice and dry.
It wasn't perfect, but it met his main needs, privacy and a place to sleep. The small river was just a bonus as it worked as a place for him to bathe. Originally, he planned to use the river as a source of water for his potions, but he realized water was an ingredient and he could conjure pure glacial water in obscene amounts whenever he wanted. Hell, he could conjure water heavily infused with mana or even mana so concentrated it became a liquid!
Peter set his pots and other objects to the side and began conjuring pieces of wood from nothing. Each piece he conjured radiated life and vitality to a high degree but he just calmly piled it all up. He was one hundred percent certain that if the Norse pantheon existed within the One Piece world, he would become their number one enemy for what he was about to do. After all, using piece of the world tree Yggdrasil for firewood? That had to be a grave insult.
Once he had the fire ready to light, he used two larger Y shaped branches and a straight branch to make an area he could hang the small one gallon cauldron from. He then conjured glass bottles of pure spring water and poured the water into the cauldron. Liquids all came in bottles and he kept those bottles to refill with potion when he was done. Sadly, they were just plain bottles with wooden corks so they weren't the best. They were, however, free and that was precisely within his price range.
Once the cauldron was filled with enough water, he conjured flint and steel. They, along with anything else he could imagine, were considered ingredients because of a simple potion most people might have heard of, a Potion of Iron Skin. One of the main ingredients for that potion? Iron! But, as the Mad Doctor, he could make alternative versions of that potion using any material he wanted, steel, Mithril, Adamantium, whatever tickled his fancy. That made all of those materials free to conjure whenever he wished!
He quickly lights a fire under the cauldron and calmly watches as the water warms up. Once it begins to steam he starts conjuring ingredients and dropping them into the water. Using one of the smaller wooden spoons, he carefully mixes the brewing potion in specific patterns to get the most out of the magical ingredients. He's also very careful to maintain the temperature of the water at just steaming and not letting it get to the point of boiling. It would be a lot easier using a gas burner that would give him more control, but his Essence given skill made it significantly easier to maintain even over an open fire.
It takes nearly an hour and over fifty ingredients, but soon his first potion is completed. What sits in the cauldron is a thick brown goo that reeks like sweaty socks. Nothing about his power said the potions of ultimate power he could make would have a pleasant scent... or taste. He knew that the potion he was about to ingest would have a horrific taste, but it was necessary if he wanted to reverse his malnutrition and get the body he would have had if he'd lived a better life.