There were a lot of skills listed. Including some that looked plain stupid. Like the [Lusciuos Hair] skill. All it did was give you good, thick hair. Who in their right mind would take such a skill? Not me, that's for sure!
And then there were super cool skills, like [Dense Muscle]. Contrary to my first impression, it did not increase strength but made it harder to chop you in half. Then there was [Blood Bag], which seemed super creepy. But it was basically just resistance to bleeding out. The skill gave you lots of blood.
Actually, that skill could be pretty good for vampire food. If vampires even existed in this world. I’ll have to ask Gladgleer later.
One thing I noticed was all these skills seemed to be vitality-based. And that was indeed a requirement to learn the skill. A person had to have vitality. How did I know that? Because the skills just give me a general feeling when I stare at one too long. Much like if you stare at a person, eventually they will ask you what you are doing, so too will the skills give you info.
Now, I was very tempted to pick up one of the other, much cooler-sounding skills. Unfortunately, it seemed that Gladgleer wanted me to get some kind of flesh skill.
Bluegh. Even the name sounds gross.
This did bring into question if Gladgleer was perhaps evil. And also what plans he had for me. After all, picking up some orphan to train to be an alchemist? So random.
But, I'm no ripe orange myself, so whatever.
Now. Flesh. Flesh. [Tasty Flesh]? No. Also, ew. [Blue Flesh]... Why? Just why?
[Flesh Cauldron]. Now here it is! Hmm. The requirements include vitality, novice alchemic knowledge, and a flesh brew potion. I assume that is what Gladgleer had me drink just before. Looks like a skill that allows me to make potions and such inside my body.
That is strange. No other way to put it, just straight-up strange
//
You of obtained [Flesh Cauldron] Tier l Hybrid skill!
//
With the skill chosen, my vision rushed back to the bloody writing on the floor.
//
Name: Gladgleer
Age: 8
Tier: I (1/5)
Resource Pool(s): (0)
* Mana (0/0)
* Mind: (0/0)
* Vitality (0/0)
Skills: [Flesh Cauldron l]
//
‘-you will be taken to a different space in your mind. Wait. You already did it?” Gladgleer looked down at the bloody characters.
“Yup. So I guess it’s instantaneous? Interesting. Also, what happened to my vitality point?” It was gone, just showing a 0/0 where there used to be a 1/1.
Gladgleer sighed, like explaining anything to me was a pain. “The [Flesh Cauldron] skill is a hybrid, meaning both passive and active. It takes 1 point of vitality for the passive effect.”
Hmm. So passive effects permanently reduce resource points. I guess active skills just reduce them like 1/1 to 0/1 when used? Although it would be a pain to check if you were in the middle of combat. And how fast do points regenerate? Another thing I will have to test.
I also noticed that the cut on my hand was healed. Odd.
“Now.” Gladgleer took a knife and ran it across his palm, then grabbed my hand and placed the knife in it. “Make an opening.”
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Well, that’s gross. I grabbed a rag and wiped the blood off as well as I could. Then a slit my palm as well, for the second time in the last couple of minutes. Gladgleer grabbed my hand with his own bloody palm. As blood pooled in our hands, I felt something slither into my cut, causing me to jerk my hand back in surprise.
‘What the fuck was that?!” I shook my hand, causing some blood to spray off my fingertips.
“That is a compound strain that my master gave me, who got it from their master, and so on and so forth. I just gave you the 8th-generation strain.” Gladgleer began to bandage his hand and continued his explanation. “The strain can’t survive outside a bodily vessel. It is called the Pool Compound. It should be able to add a new resource pool for people. So far, it has mixed results, often killing the person. But it has been a multiple lifetimes work of mine and other Gladgleers before me.”
Hmm. Well, that seems like the best alchemic creation I’ve heard of so far. But 8 generations of work? And it’s not even done yet? Way too long!
“Sooo, how do you test if it works? Do you just grab someone, or buy a slave?” I questioned.
Gladgleer gave me a severe look. “That would go against the alchemic code you twerp. Not subjecting others to dangerous experiments is one of the first rules! Do I need to make you reread the alchemic code?”
I brought my hands up. “Alright! Alright! But who are these test subjects then?”
“Hahhh.” Gladgleer sighed. “That would be the alchemists themselves.”
I brought my finger to my chin. “So you’re gonna kill yourself?”
The geezer smacked me over the head with his good hand. “It isn’t guaranteed I’ll die you little gremlin! But it is the reason I passed the strain onto you, in the hopes it will be completed one day. And you better not share this information with anyone! If it got out what I’ve been working on, well, let’s just say that it won’t only be my head on the chopping block.”
“Oh.” I rubbed my neck. “So are you gonna do it?”
“Do what?”
“Try the pool compound.”
“And leave an eight-year-old girl in charge of my shop? One who has barely any experience in alchemy? Of course not!” Gladgleer sat up. “Now go get some sleep. You have much more to learn. Starting tomorrow we’ll begin your practical training in potions.”
As I sat up as well, the blood on the floor began to disappear, wisps of red vapour rising and then turning into nothing, blending with the air.
…
Practical training in potions turned out to be pretty hard without mana. It involved a lot of careful measuring using one of those old-fashioned balance scales, where you put something on the one side, and something else on the other, and see if the two sides balance out. In this case, I was using copper disks called Copper Weighing Coins.
I also had to do many other things, mix, stir, heat, cool, dry, crush, basically just normal chemistry. I would prepare the solutions, and then the geezer would look it over, his eyes gaining a glint to them as he used his [Alchemic Eye] skill. Then Gladgleer would do the mana part, which involved some strange tools.
There was a series of strangely shaped metal tools with arcane symbols etched into them. Some of the tools held strange crystals in the handles, or a vial of liquid. I was told that these crystals and liquids were necessary parts for the runes to draw energy through. That is what he called the arcane symbols etched onto the tool, runes.
The mana would flow out of Gladgleer, through the tool, changing as it went, and then into the alchemic creation. It turned out that alchemists didn’t do that much free-form magic, but mostly used tools.
I was also made to eat those hard-to-swallow levelling stones that left my throat feeling sore after. I had four more of the marbles, spaced out over four days. When I asked why not all at once, I was told that too many levelling stones at once would kill me. Sooo, that would have been better to know beforehand. What if I had found one of those marbles lying on the ground and just chucked it in my mouth? I could have died!
Then I continued to be fed the marbles, but this time I was informed that they were tier two levelling stones. So apparently there are tiers. So that means that there were five levels in the first tier. I assume that there will be more levels in the second tier, but I can’t assume that. There could be the same amount of levels, and I can’t ask Gladgleer, or else he just points me back to my work and doesn’t answer.
Ridiculous!
Thankfully, as time went on, the number of tier two levelling stones I was fed surpassed five, and this time they were spaced apart by two days. So that confirmed my theory. Higher tier, slower levelling!
After twenty days, Gladgleer confirmed that I was at the edge of tier two, having eaten ten tier-two levelling stones. I awaited the next tier of levelling stone, but it never came.
When I asked Gladgleer for more, he only said, “Do you think I’m made of money?! Tier three stones are expensive. If you want them, you’ll have to buy them yourself. Now get off my roof!”
Sullenly, I climbed down from my perch, jumping the last height and rolling along the ground as I landed. I had always been an avid climber and was thankful that I still had those skills in this body. Perhaps in the future, my boobs would get in the way, I don’t know. Hopefully not. Although I was thankful that I no longer had a major male weak spot, the balls. Gods know how many times people had managed to land a cheap shot on them.
In my pursuit of money, specifically the archaic currency of metal coins, I attempted another system blood ritual, to distribute my resource points into mana. That way I could make potions myself, instead of the geezer just giving me a few copper for every potion I assisted with.
Only to be scolded by the geezer in his familiar drab brown robe. “What in the low realm are you doing?!”
Low realm? “I’m doing the blood system thing,” I said while rolling my eyes. I didn’t think he was this stupid.
“You can only do the ritual once every six months, or you will be susceptible to the Abyssal whispers!”
I shrug my shoulders. “So?”
“So? So?! Does that not sound ominous to you?! Impatient people like you go insane every year from those accursed whispers! I have invested too much money and time in you for the church to scoop you up and put you in their prisons!”
Oh. Well, that sucks! I can’t wait that long.
Looks like I’ll have to look for other avenues of cash flow.