After the forceful dissolution of the Red Eye cult the thieves guild known as Misery's End was next on the chopping block after a handful of the higher ranking members confessed to being in contact with them and participation in illegal activities such as kidnaping, forgery, and murder just to name a few.
The leader of Misery's End was able to escape along with a handful of his subordinates after being tipped off by someone, the city guard is still looking into who has been leaking sensitive information and how long it has been going on.
Arthur had a very pleasant time after the cult was finally destroyed and after three days of monitoring was given authorization to go about his business without an escort. The first thing he did after classes and talking to Calavia was go directly to Georgius Calvus and his shop The Elder Nymph.
Upon entering the shop located in the bottom floor Aurelio who was manning the register at first mistook him for a customer. “Hello and welcome to- Arthur, welcome back. Master Calvus, Arthur has returned!” Aurelio shouted up the flight of stairs just a few meters to his right.
Almost instantly the sound of someone almost running down a flight of stairs could be heard and soon Georgius Calvus popped out from the stairs, his hair just as messy as the last time he visited. “Arthur, there you are! I was wondering when you would be back.” Calvus walked right up to Arthur and started shaking his hand.
“I heard all about that business with the self proclaimed vampire lord hiding in the old Sellic manor. You are the talk of the whole royal court, not many have such close encounters with so many vampires. So I need to ask you in person, not through a letter. Are you ready to become my apprentice and learn the art of alchemy?”
“Of course sir. I think I am ready to take a step back and learn something a bit less dangerous.”
“Oh, well if you don’t know what you are doing, alchemy can be pretty dangerous too. But don’t worry about that, I'll teach you everything you will need to practice and master alchemy on your own.” With a firm handshake, and Arthur signing a contract stating that until he finishes his apprenticeship Arthur would be required to complete tasks assigned by Georgius Calvus and he would also have the exclusive rights to buy everything Arthur makes during that time.
It was the same contract that Aurelio signed when he started his apprenticeship. The first thing Calvus showed him was his room to keep all his things and to sleep in at night. The room had a simple bed that was about the same quality as the one in the Free Parrot Bar when he stayed there.
“Now of course I haven't forgotten that you are attending classes in the mages guild for the time being, so I will only require you to work starting at 1:30 in the afternoon. This should give you plenty of time to get back here and do all the other little things kids your age like to do.”
“Thank you sir.”
“Now up to the second floor. I will give you your first alchemy set to mess around with up there.” After climbing up a short flight of stairs Calvus directed Arthur over to a set of alchemical apparatus that looked a lot like the ones he picked up and delivered here several weeks ago.
“Now these are a bit old, but they still work just fine for someone just learning the basics of the trade such as yourself.” Calvus walked over and handed the first alchemical device to Arthur that looked like a small bowl with a thick stick thing with a rounded tip made from the same material.
“This here is called a mortar and pestle. You use it to grind up wet and dry ingredients that can be used further with the other apparatus.” Calvus placed the mortar and pestle down and picked up the next that was a glass oval shaped object with an opening at the top and a long and thin glass opening that reminded Arthur of a nose.
“This is called a retort. You will use this to distil substances with a cup or other container using a small flame that you will have at the bottom here.” Like the mortar and pestle it was returned to its place before Calvus moved onto the next.
A small metallic object that was placed on the floor was the next in line. To Arthur it looked almost like a furnace. “This here is called a calcinator. Now I don’t expect you to need this for a while but you should still know what it does. It is like a small furnace but it is instead used for either ingredients or mixtures, very similar to baking in that regard. But remember, ones like these run on magic crystals and they can get real expensive.”
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Another device was brought up to Arthur, this one looked a bit like the retort but it had no place for a flame beneath it. “This is what you call an alembic. Like the retort it is used to distil things, but it does it without heat or a flame. This is important because not all substances react well with heat and some cannot be distilled with it or else they are lost. With this you can safely distil any substance, the only downside is that it can take a bit longer to use compared to the retort, so if you need something done fast and it can be done with a retort I expect you to use it.”
Arthur took a long look over all the equipment he was being gifted, familiarising himself with it all down to the last details. The mortar and pestle were likely to be the most useful of them all but the other most definitely had their place in an alchemist lab. “Thank you sir. When can I start using them?”
“Right after you bring back some ingredients for you to use. I can’t have you using up all my stock, how will I brew potions if I don’t have the ingredients I need?” Arthur was a little annoyed at first but he understood. Foraging for useful ingredients was a long and tedious task and would be costly to hire someone else to do it for him.
“Don’t worry though, this book covers all the important plants and fauna that grow in the Pelcester Forest to the south of the city.” Calvus handed Arthur a book titled A Guide to the Plant Life of Pelcester Forest. The book was about thirty pages thick and after a quick glimpse each page covered one type of plant explaining all it uses from beneficial to harmful.
“Just remember that I want that book returned back to me when you are done with it, you can take notes but that book is quite expensive even if it is only 30 pages long.”
“Of course sir, I will return it to you when I am done with it.” Arthur spent the rest of the day going over each hand every page while he sat on the bed in his room. He absorbed all the information of each plant and with his Photographic memory he was able to remember it all without taking any notes.
By the time it was dinner time Arthur had already finished the whole book and had every plant included memorised down to the last detail, so he went to look for master Calvus to tell him he had finished his task.
“You did it already!? Do you have some magic notebook that writes while you read or something!?” Master Calvus was understandably baffled by the speed in which Arthur had finished the book.
“I have a photographic memory. I don’t need to take notes, I just remember everything I see.”
“Oh. That makes a bit more sense. Anyways I was going to give you this book on foraging tomorrow, but seeing as you have finished with the first one I suppose I can just give it to you now.” Calvus walked over to a nearby bookshelf and after a brief moment found the book he was looking for. It was titled Practical Foraging V.1 and was written by a Caeda of Blackwood Grove.
“This is a detailed account of a master alchemist covering her early life when she was just a simple apprentice like you are now. She wrote all about the tricks she learnt about picking all the various herbs and other plants around here and a few other places within a day's walk. Oh, before I forget when you return here tomorrow in the afternoon I will have a list of plants I will want you to collect, and when you get back I will give you a simple recipe and have you brew me as many potions as you can.”
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Arthur spent a good portion of the night reading the journal he was given but he only managed to get about a tenth of the way before he needed to get to sleep. He still had classes to attend after all. When he did return from the guild after classes and telling Calavia all about his new apprenticeship he returned to find master Calvus waiting for him.
“There you are Arthur. I finally finished that list of ingredients I wanted you to get for me. I did add a bit just to keep our stock up but it's not all that much, I even got you a bag to carry everything in.” Calvus showed Arthur a leather satchel that had several little pouches for small ingredients to stick into.
“Thank you sir but I already have a dimensional bag I can put the plants I collect into.” Arthur showed Calvus by dropping and retrieving his sword from his bag.
“Oh. Well I suppose I can just give this to my next apprentice in that case. Oh and here is the list of ingredients I need you to get.” Arthur took the list that contained the plants that he and Calvus needed.
25 Healing Roots, 25 Abyss Sage, 25 Goblin Berries, 25 Witch’s Ivy, and 25 Knotweeds. They were all plants that were relatively common in the Pelcester Forest if you knew where to look. After buying some food just in case he would return late to the city, Arthur left for the southern gate to return to the forest once again to find far more ingredients than he did last time.
Instead of simply walking to the first like he did last time Arthur decided to instead jog there. It would save him a bit of time and he would be able to recover his energy while he foraged now that he actually knew how to properly harvest the plants he was looking for.