"What the heck is an Alchemist?"

Kris was sitting on the couch, scrolling through the Status document on her phone in one hand, a glass of wine in the other. Watching Bushra and I demonstrate various skills and powers seemed to have worn her down. I think the thing that shocked her the most was when I took a kitchen knife over to the sink and cut the top of my forearm. That really freaked her out. But her eyes widened even more at the sight of the wound slowly closing up and leaving only a line of dried blood behind, thanks to my old friend Swift Regeneration.

Bushra had watched closely, too. I could see her appraising the efficacy of the new skill she'd learned second-hand.

"Does it hurt?" she asked, curiosity and worry mingling in her voice.

"The cut stings – the skill doesn't prevent any pain," I replied, wincing. I watched the welling blood cease and the skin begin mending itself together. It was eerie. I shot a look at Kris, and her face was pale and brows knitted together in concern. "But the healing process itself doesn't hurt. It tingles a bit, that's all," I mollified.

After that, Kris looked like she needed a break to process everything. Since none of us had eaten dinner, I suggested pizza, and both women rapidly agreed. It had grown late. The night was as dark as the Bay Area gets with all the light pollution reflecting off the underside of the overcast sky. While no one said it out loud, none of us felt the urge to go out after living through (or hearing about) the events of the previous night. Fortunately, while I had limited groceries in the refrigerator, there was plenty of wine on hand. We'd collectively gone through one bottle of Merlot before the delivery man from Empire Pizza arrived. I was uncorking a Sangiovese when the doorbell rang with our order.

Now we were all sitting in the front room again, devouring large, foldable slices from Alameda's only New York-style pizzeria.

"Mmmmm," Bushra purred, "I may just be super hungry, but this is the best tasting pizza I've ever had."

"The former, definitely," I had no local loyalty. "Empire has a decent pie, but nowhere near the likes of Zac's, for example." I sipped from my refilled wine glass. In contrast to my words, I'd just finished my second slice. I was glad I ended up ordering a couple pies.

"Tony's in North Beach wants a word," Kris chimed in from the seat next to me as she polished off the final bite of crisp, yet chewy crust. "Besides, Zac's deep dish pie isn't really pizza, you can't compare them."

"I feel like the South Bay misses out on pizza," Bushra lamented. "Everywhere seems to be trying too hard to be upscale, or it's a chain," she mumbled between mouthfuls.

A silence settled in as we collectively compared the qualities of our regional favorites with the pizza before us.

"But seriously, what kind of class is Alchemist supposed to be?" Kris pierced the quiet with an almost plaintive cry. Taiga flicked an ear at her outburst, as she sat gingerly on the couch cushion beside my friend. Her tail was wrapped closely around her, the tip curled up like a candy cane. She had her eyes closed, but she seemed ready to bolt at the slightest movement. I suspect Bushra's earlier rampage this evening still had her on edge.

"Honestly, I'm not sure," I answered Kris. Bushra was looking on in silent confusion, and I explained for her benefit. "Alchemists are potion makers or transmuting lead into gold or something. It's not usually a playable class, outside of JRPGs. Like old school fantasy pharmacists." I was back in my lounge chair, legs crisscrossed beneath me as I tried to transcribe the last line of my Status page to the document Kris was reading.

Kris narrowed her eyes, as if willing the information out of the screen. "I'm a pharmacist?"

"I don't know what kind of class it is," I continued. "Alchemists could do all kinds of crazy things based on 'equivalent exchange' in anime and books. Or it could simply be a different flavor of magic-using class, like a wizard or a shaman. Or maybe they're like an artificer, making potions and grenades with varying effects." I wondered if I'd erred in not choosing that Improved Appraisal skill after all.

"Is this because I make my own skin cleansers at home?" Kris muttered to herself, but loud enough for both Bushra and I to hear in the quiet of the room.

"What, you make soaps?" Bushra asked out loud what I was thinking.

"Well, not soaps much anymore. I mostly make herbal masks and serums," Kris seemed a little embarrassed by the admission, but her voice strengthened as she warmed to the topic. "I make most of the skincare products I use now." She pulled her bag over across her lap and reached inside, pulling out a few small, unlabeled plastic lotion cases and bottles – the kind you might transfer liquids into to take on a plane. She began lining them up in a row on the coffee table. "I even tried making some toners and mists recently, too," She held out a particular bottle with a clear looking liquid inside and a spray nozzle on top. "The farmers market at the Ferry Building has a lot of varied, fresh ingredients from local farms. The things I make are cheaper than what you'd get at a store, and also feel a lot cleaner and healthier to use." She paused, looking down at the row of bottles before her as I goggled in surprise at this new facet of Kris' life I knew nothing about. I took one of the proffered containers and opened it to smell the contents. It was a thick, buttery cream that had a faint scent of roses. "I wonder if baking counts as well?" Kris mused, as I put some of the cream on my fingers and rubbed it on the back of my hand. It felt cool and refreshing, and blended into my skin evenly. The scent was present without being cloying, and it did feel like my skin was softer. I was impressed.

"I mean, what's a paladin, anyway?" Bushra chimed in, shrugging her shoulders and smiling in an attempt at solidarity.

"You got paladin?!" Kris turned and stared in affronted shock at Bushra, then swiveled back to shoot an accusing glare my direction. "She's a paladin?"

"Wha-at?" Bushra recoiled from Kris' outburst, confusion and concern washing across her features.

"Yeah, Bushra's class is paladin," I replied as I handed back the container of cream. "Seems like your straightforward champion-of-justice type of build." I grinned in mixed apology and humor at my friend's obvious envy.

"Do you study martial arts? Have a background in law enforcement or something?" Her eyes probed Bushra as she leaned toward her on the couch and interrogated Bushra rapid-fire.

"Uh, no, not really." Bushra was pressing her back into the arm of the sofa, pulling her legs up defensively to put some space between them. She glanced around as if looking for escape. "I took a class in Aikido once when I was young, but it conflicted with soccer practice so I dropped it."

Kris' shoulders slumped. "A pharmacist?" She repeated weakly, her lips pursed in a pout. "How come?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I looked back at the screen, unsure how to console my friend. "Should I select the class? That may give you more skills to choose from," I offered. Kris currently had few of what I now thought of as 'base skills'. The same greyed out magic skills I'd seen before were there, but none of the combat or stealth skills Bushra or I had access to.

Kris was silent for another moment, then nodded. I accepted the class. Immediately, the following additional skills appeared for selection:

Catalyst's Crucible

Metamorphic Adaptation

Empyrean Endurance

This still seemed like a smaller list than Bushra or I'd had. I quickly wrote them down in the doc, and turned to Kris.

"There's a smaller list of class-specific skills than I expected." Kris' mouth drew down in a thin line as she looked at the list. I tried to mollify her. "As I gained levels and chose skills, some different options became available. It's possible after you choose a skill, another, more advanced or related skill might appear." I told her about Aura of Inspiration and Improved Adept of Ages. "We might want to check again after you make each choice."

"Skill trees, huh?" Kris bit her lip.

I shrugged. "Or prerequisites. Not sure." I wanted to assuage her disappointment, feeling somewhat at fault.

In the end, Kris decided on Catalyst's Crucible first.

"Holy shit!" Kris yelled, her wine nearly sloshing out of her glass. A glowing menu of some kind appeared in front of her, like my Status window, but smaller. Kris could obviously see it, too. This was the first time a person other than me could see one of the Communion menus. I set down my glass and leaned over the couch trying to see the contents of the screen for myself, dislodging Taiga in the process.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Bushra asked, alarmed. Apparently she couldn't see the screen.

"It's a… menu?" Kris was staring wide-eyed at the floating display in front of her. She looked slowly over at me, and I nodded back in confirmation. "I can't believe it," she whispered.

"What?" I responded. "still not convinced."

"It's one thing to see things other people do," she began slowly, reaching out ineffectually to touch the screen, before withdrawing her hand. "It's another thing to actually experience it yourself." Kris closed her mouth and her gaze sharpened on the screen. The menu began to scroll down and different items were highlighted as she focused on them. "These are recipes," she muttered. "They have a ingredients and amounts, with directions for how to prepare and combine them." I watched as she scanned through a few of them. "What's this up here?" She pointed.

I looked where her finger was. In the top right corner of each recipe were two numbers. "This looks like a cost associated with making the recipe, followed by some kind of cost for actually using it?" At my urging, she opened a few others for comparison. "It looks like the recipes use Focus mostly to make, but have either a Health or Focus cost when using them." I saw Kris' blank look, and quickly pointed her to the Health and Focus attributes in her Status doc, with an explanation about how they related to Body and Mind.

"Hey, if you're both going to keep staring at nothing, I'm going to finish the wine." Bushra interjected petulantly, pouring herself another glass. I suspected she was miffed to be the only one left out.

"Sorry, Bushra," I said, returning to my chair. I looked back at Kris' Status screen. "I don't see that any new skills were added. Maybe you need to add some attribute points to unlock more?"

Kris reluctantly, closed the menu, then opened it again to be sure, and finally closed it once more before looking back at her laptop.

"Hmm," she pondered, "since the skill uses Focus and Health, I should add Body and Mind, right?"

"Right. How about adding points 5 at a time? Then we can learn any thresholds when new skills are added."

Kris nodded, and I alternated adding 5 points to Body and Mind equally. But unfortunately, even after adding 15 points to each, no additional skills presented themselves.

I could see Kris was getting frustrated, and I quickly suggested she try adding another skill from the two remaining in her list. She asked me to chose Metamorphic Adaptation, and we were both happy to learn it unlocked a range of new recipes to craft in her menu. It was unclear so far what each one did, but Kris seemed excited to try them out.

Even more exciting was seeing two new skills had appeared in her Status: Esoteric Tolerance and Preserving Distillation. I told Kris, and her smile grew. I was a little frustrated that we'd used up her attribute points first, and so missed the opportunity to confirm if there was an additional prerequisite, but maybe we'd have other chances. Of the new skills, 'tolerance' and 'preservation' were the terms that we could differentiate, and after more thought Kris opted for the former. We parsed through her crafting menu once more, and Esoteric Tolerance seemed to add a parenthetical note to each recipe representing a 3x increase in the duration of the potions that Kris herself consumed. For instance if a potion's effects typically lasted 5 minutes, it now lasted 15 minutes for Kris. Even better, choosing that skill unlocked three more: Aetherial Alleviation, Harmonic Resonance, and the unsettlingly named Explosions!

I saw Kris hesitate when she saw the Explosions! skill, but after a moment she told me to pick Aetherial Alleviation for her. Then I saw her frown.

"I don't think it did anything," she grumbled, searching her menu. "I can't find any… oh wait." Her face fell. "There's just a single new recipe." I saw her eyebrows lower as she read through the description. I leaned over to her again to see the text.

From what I could tell, the result worked similarly to the Paladin's skill Righteous Resistance, in potion form. After using the prepared mixture, the affected person could simply choose one effect to remove at a cost of 5 Focus. If you used it ahead of time, it lasted for an hour, during which you could chose not to be affected by a single status ailment of your choice, and then the effect ended.

All in all, the class seemed to be light on skills. But the versatility of the recipes she could create, combined with the fact that she could distribute them to others, was potentially insane.

"I dunno, Kris, with a bit of preparation, this class could be broken." I shook my head in awe.

A weird smile appeared on Kris' face as she scrolled through the screen, looking through the different recipes. "Heh heh heh heh," she cackled, and I glanced over at Bushra in concern. Bushra was looking back at me with the same expression.

> Name: Kris Dougherty

> Race: Human

> Class: Corporate Controller, Alchemist

> Level: 4

> Condition: Normal

> Disposition: Loyal

>

> Core Attributes

> Body: 60

> Spirit: 35

> Mind: 80

> Luck: 25

>

> Derived Attributes

> Health: 60

> Magic: 0 [max 35]

> Focus: 80

> Charm: 47

> Intuition: 70

> Will: 57

> Fate: ???

>

> Skills

> Divine Translation (Party), Inventory (Party), Catalyst's Crucible, Metamorphic Adaptation, Esoteric Tolerance, Aetherial Alleviation