Sadly, my hoped for discussion on Alchemy with Mal didn’t happen, at least not during the evening. By the time the introduction of her team was done, it was time for her to head off and for us, to head to bed. But she promised to answer a few questions in the morning, if I did likewise. Exchanging knowledge was always a good thing, so I happily agreed, before following Sigmir to bed.

After a quick breakfast, we split up, each of us doing their own thing. The town was secure enough that we didn’t need to move as a group and even Sigmir decided that listening to Mal and me discuss Alchemy and Magic was not really what she was interested in. She had offered to accompany me, but the bond between us allowed me to feel her lack of enthusiasm. Not wanting her to feel bored, I had thanked her and sent her off to do some shopping, or rather, to check with the local smith if they could do some maintenance on her gear.

And now, it was only me who was knocking at Mal’s door, though Lenore was resting within her Hallow, just as interested in the discussion as I was. Again, it only took a short time of waiting, before I was allowed in. Mal looked similar to the day before, only the apron was missing and her hair was somewhat frizzy, giving her the appearance that she had just woken up.

“Good Morning.” I greeted her, enthusiasm at learning about a fundamentally different form of magic, seeping into my voice.

“Mornin’.” she mumbled, the contrast stark, making me think that she only picked Alchemy because it was likely the discipline that would have the easiest time to produce coffee. “Come in, we can sit and talk while I have some coffee.” She stepped back to invite me in, gesturing to a nearby door. Inside the room, there was a simple, metal stove, a fire merrily burning within, a tea-pot sitting up top and a kitchen-table.

“Take a seat. Do you want some coffee, too?” Mal asked, stepping into the room behind me.

“Sounds good. I’ve yet to try that on Mundus.” I accepted, before seating myself, watching her bustle around, pouring the water from her pot into two mugs, adding some powder.

“Takes about five minutes, the taste is somewhat…” she paused, stirring the liquid in her mug, “eh, it’s an acquired taste.”

For a moment, I wondered why she would drink it, if it had such a unique taste, or why anyone was going through the effort to get used to peculiar tastes within Road to Purgatory, but in the end, it didn’t really matter.

“So, Alchemy. Could you tell me a little about the basics? Assume I know nothing.” I asked, stirring the cup in front of me, a part of me already curious how it would taste.

“The most basic explanation would be, to use the unique, magical properties of some material to create or enhance certain effects. Those effects can range from the most basic, smoke from burning material, to the incredibly powerful. Legends speak of the Elixir of Immortality, so you can see, there are no real limits. And of course, anything in between, from explosives to curatives.`` Nodding at her explanation, I tried to incorporate it into the framework of magic I understood so far. Where it fit, what it meant for other conclusions I had drawn previously, but I needed to know more before I could do that.

“So, could you make a Mana Potion? Or rather, a potion that recovers Astral Power?” I asked, knowing that such a thing was possible, it had been offered to us by the Winter Wolves after all, but I was curious if she could do it.

“Iffy, to be honest. There are ways to either directly recover a certain amount of Astral Power or to increase your Astral Power recovery for a time. The first requires someone to charge the potion beforehand, basically binding their own Astral Power into the potion, to be used later. There are a couple of problems with that, so let’s leave it for now. The other is possible, but you need a bunch of rare ingredients and it’s difficult to make. I only know the rough recipe, due to quests to collect certain materials, not the details and definitely not the procedure.” Her explanation, again, made sense and I could already guess at some of the problems with the direct recovery potions, the similarities to my Blood Magic quite obvious. Given that using Blood Magic released Miasma, I could only guess that there was a similar problem, when using Alchemy to store Astral Power.

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I was about to ask about Healing Potions, the logical other side of the coin, with Stamina Potions making up a third side, when Mal gestured to me that the coffee was ready. Curious, I took a sip and had to carefully control myself, to make sure I didn’t immediately spit it back out. If not for the fact that Mal had taken a large gulp, right before I had taken my sip, I would have suspected her of either pranking or trying to poison me, but that seemed far-fetched. The taste was simply vile.

A quick glance to my Interface told me that I was under a buff, the effect similar to my Bullet Time, only with a much smaller magnitude. Where Bullet Time increased my mental speed by almost a factor of ten with my current attributes, the coffee-buff only increased it by five percent, but in turn, the coffee-buff lasted for two hours, with the demerit of increased stamina consumption when using Astral Power.

“I don’t think this is a taste I’m looking to acquire.” I decided, the positive effect of increased mental speed simply not worth the torturous taste.

“Eh, to each their own.” Mal shrugged, taking another gulp from her cup. Wondering if dwarves had special taste-buds, or maybe no taste-buds at all, I shook my head, pushing the cup away before deciding to show off, just a little.

A quick, magical flex created a beautiful, ornate mug, made from clear Ice, with a tinge of silver to it, before the cup started to fill with a glowing, silver liquid, from the bottom up. Without careful control, the freezing temperature of the Liquid Moonlight started to cause mist to billow away from its surface, filling the mug and spilling over the sides, gliding downwads while it mixed with the surrounding, warm air to vanish again. The whole thing made for a wonderful spectacle, and when I took a gulp, Mal’s eyes turned quite wide.

“That…? What?” she looked completely flabbergasted.

It took a bit of effort to keep my features utterly serene and I helped things along by taking another sip.

“You have your tricks, I have mine. I would offer you some, but I’m afraid it would be very much detrimental to your health, unless you have a high affinity for Ice Astral Power or incredibly high Vitality and Endurance. Otherwise, you would most likely die.” I warned her, giving her a moment to gather her thoughts.

“Anyway, you said curatives are possible. What about the classic Healing Potion?” I asked, bringing our talk back to Alchemy. The speed at which her face fell was quite impressive and she let out a soft growl of annoyance at the question.

“I’m trying, okay?” she grumbled, before letting out a slow breath. “Jekyl asks every time, after we had some down-time. Not like recipes grow on trees and a universal curative is amongst the most interesting things an Alchemist can make. I mean, I can do a bit of healing by directly infusing a potion, but that only works if I directly administer it, they can’t really take them out, if I have to stay behind because I have to log out for work.” she complained, giving me a bit of insight into the party dynamic.

“Why don’t we focus our discussion on Healing Potions? I have a bit of insight into the magical side of things, though limited in scope, and you might be able to get some clues on how to tackle the problem. If a universal Healing Potion is even possible, I certainly can’t just cast a spell that simply cures, no matter what the problem is. My Healing Magic works only with direct application and focus, I need to mentally control and direct things. The sort of Healing Magic you are talking about might be within the domain of Divine Casters but even they have to do some directing. At least that’s what Olivia told me.” At my explanation, a frown appeared on Mal’s face, her mind digesting my words.

“There are, I’ve seen one.” she insisted, before asking a few more questions about the way I healed, which I answered without giving away too many details and we were off to the races, both of us asking detailed questions of the other, trying to find answers to our own questions that might be hidden within the other's mind. Neither of us fully understood the connections between our disciplines, but connected they were and we both wanted to know more. And so, we kept discussing, regularly refilling our respective drinks as we talked.