“Go little Rockstar! Misty, Get those dummies!” Jordan commanded.
“No fair! Grant sprinted off, firing rapidly. There were 20 mannequins in the store they’d counted. They moved a couple to make both sides even.
Two of his first four blasts hit the closest mannequin and sent pieces flying. His next four shots missed entirely. Fuck! He took a breath and recharged the gun for five seconds.
Rockstar stopped three meters before the first mannequin and raised both fists at it. They rocketed off his wrist-sockets and hit the dummy square in the chest. The arms went flying in either direction and the rocks were embedded in the plastic chest piece.
“Nice shot!” Jordan called. Misty, the small water fox had blasted another off a platform and broken it into pieces when it hit the ground.
Blam!
Grant was leaning over a counter, using it as leverage to aim when he headshot the first dummy. It disintegrated, leaving the neck down.
Blam! Blam!
The torso and right leg burned away and toppled the mannequin into a pile. One more mannequin he could see from this vantage. He unleashed another barrage of shots. Only one of three hit, but enough to take it down from the hip. Grant pressed forward, looking back to see Jordan doubling his progress.
Rockstar had grabbed a mannequin by the leg and slammed it against the ground as Misty water blasted another to him. “Use that teamwork! Give Rockstar a helping hand!”
The small earth elemental punched, shattering the mannequin apart and leaving a rock embedded into the top of its head. Jordan realized she could see information about what was happening in the right side of her vision.
Rockstar (Rank 2) deals 9 blunt damage to Mannequin (Object)!
Misty (Rank 2) deals 7 magic damage to Mannequin!
Rockstar deals 7 blunt damage and 4 force damage to Mannequin!
Misty pushes Mannequin 12 meters with Water Blast (Rank 2)!
Rockstar deals 14 critical blunt damage and 6 critical force damage to Mannequin!
Jordan was feeling good, commanding her elementals and blasting the mannequins apart. It was the first time she’d had fun since she got her powers. Everything had been downright dreadful so far and she couldn’t say she wasn’t down about everyone being dead. But they could fix it, right?
Grant had moved forward, no longer having a counter to lean on. He relied on the stance Catria had shown him, but he was still missing a lot. His mana was down to half.
He regenerated mana equal to his Magic attribute, plus 20% of his max mana every quarter of an hour, or 15 minutes. That was 5 plus 12, for a total of just over 1 mana per minute.
That’s so slow, he thought compared to the video games he’d played. At least he had his knife skill. He pulled it from his inventory and wielded it in tandem with his firearm.
Blam! Slash! Blam! Blam! Stab!
He missed the first shot, ducking forward and slashing across the dummy’s chest successfully. The cut in the chest instantly withered and the chest caved in on itself. He unsuccessfully shot twice more, then he flipped the knife in his hand, pulled back, and whipped it towards the next target.
Mannequin (Object) takes 4 slash and 9 void damage from Grant (Void Knife)
Mannequin takes 2 slash and 8 void damage from Grant!
Jordan was surprised at Grant’s skill with the knife, considering his earlier accident with the Terror Bird. She could also see his damage and hits on her her sidebar. She had reservations of of his skill up to this point, if he had any or could be helpful.
Joran was still ahead. 8 mannequins down with 2 to go on her side and her elementals closing in.
The small water fox boosted Rockstar’s movement with a blast of water in the back! It flung him forward 12 meters almost instantly and he punched the mannequin across the room and into the wall. The arms and legs went scattering.
“Rock Fist on the last one!”
The earthen elemental stopped and put both hands out, fingers flat like an arrowhead.
Thump! Thump!
Both projectiles sunk into the mannequin. One right between the eyes and the other in the groin. It too, toppled. It was the final stretch now. Jordan had won, but if she could get Grant’s last one it would be a complete victory.
“Go, get that last one!” Jordan pointed across the store. It was a 15 meter jaunt. Both elementals ran their hardest, but Rockstar was nowhere near as fast as Misty. She got just within range and unleashed a torrential stream of water.
Slash!
Two kitchen knives flipped out from behind a clothing rack and caught the mannequin in the legs. It fell, the water blast surging overhead. The mannequin was laying face-down on the carpet with a two knives sticking out of its shin several feet away.
Grant finished it with the Void Knife. It skipped once across the ground and buried itself into the chest of the mannequin.
“Almost!” Grant shouted, panting. He was out of breath from running and slashing. I am out of shape, he noted to himself. “You win the battle,” he breathed. “but not the war.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get it next time.” Jordan teased. They had ended at the back of the store near the ‘All-Natural Health and Beauty section’
“Huh, that’s odd,” Grant stepped towards the wall of herbal products.
“What, the products? What’s wrong with them?”
“Nothing, no, some of them I can use in Alchemy. Ingredients I can use glow with a faint aura. I think gray is common and green is uncommon. That’s all I can see,” Grant replied. He grabbed a basket and went to work grabbing the green and gray ones.
“What do they do? Are we going to drink soap and makeup? Because that’s disgusting.”
“Well, no, you don’t have to drink them all. There are salves, oils, and other options.”
“OK, good. Thank god.”
“Alright, let's go,” Grant heaved his overloaded hand-basket. Nothing about carrying one of these was comfortable. He’d even found some 8 oz travel shampoo bottles he could put the mixtures in. Score!
* - - - - -
Catria was waiting, dressed in more winter gear. “Welcome back, how’d it go?”
“I won,” Jordan was grinning ear to ear.
“It was good, I’m not that great with this thing.” Grant held up the pistol. “But it was a good match.”
“Congrats,” she patted Jordan on the shoulder. “You’ll get used to it, just practice some more.”
“What is this?” Grant moved to the counter and held up a curved horn, black with a velvety texture. It was nearly as long as his arm and looked like part of a pair from its symmetrical curvature. “Maybe if you tell me about it, I can identify it or something.”
“Oh, sure!” Catria put a finger to her chin and wore a thoughtful expression. “Lets see, that’s from a creature called the Doomclaw from Earth 379. It stands at 4 meters with a bite strength of over 9000 PSI.”
“What's PSI?” Jordan asked.
“Pounds per square inch. Its a measure of how hard it can clamp down on you,” Catria replied.
“Is over 9000 a lot?”
“A human has an average of 200 - 300 PSI bite strength,” Catria added.
“Oh, wow, OK.”
“Did that help?” Catria asked.
Grant was busy imagining a hulking bipedal crocodile with massive jaws that could bite you straight in half. “No, are they magical? Have abilities that you know about?”
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“They could fire void beams from their horns,” Catria remembered.
You’ve identified and unlocked a Rank 4 ingredient!
Doomhorn Horn, Epic
The void-infused horn of a bipedal reptile. Adds void-related effects to alchemical creations.
“Oh hey, that worked.” Grant looked over to Jordan, “Can you have Rockstar grind this for me? Is that okay?”
“Sure,” Jordan handed him the horn.
Catria looked at the pile of things on the table. “I only sort my inventory when I run out of space. It’s a bad habit of mine. I have boxes and boxes of this kind of stuff back at my place.” The thought of sorting everything was just overwhelming. She’d do it when it absolutely needed to be done. “Use whatever you can. I’ll be tapped out of mana when we warp to the spike, so mana potions like these will help,” she gestured towards his Rank 1 and 2 mana potions.
“I can make more if I have the help grinding. It takes forever and I’m not the best at it, but these capsules,” Grant pulled out vitamins and supplements he’d picked up in the health aisle with Jordan, '' are already processed and have higher quality than I can produce right now. I’ll just combine them until I find something great or run out of ingredients.”
“Perfect. I am going to check the perimeter and make sure everything’s ready for the warp.” They had 13 hours left until the final decision was made. She’d been to one site before where a spike had been dropped. It had been a deep crater filled with a dense magical fog.
“Can we order pizza? I’m starving,” Jordan fell back into a recliner that Grant had shot through during his practice.
“Oh, I hadn’t even thought of food. I forget to eat so much that it hadn’t occurred to me,” Grant shrugged.
“Grant, you know the area, what’s nearby in terms of food?” Catria asked.
“Yeah but like, specifically pizza for me,” Jordan said.
“There’s a Pizza House down the street from here in the plaza,” Grant said.
“Can you visualize it for me? Create a waypoint that I can follow?” Catria asked.
“Let me try,” he focused on what the building looked like. He could see it in his mind, like a virtual tour. The front doors with the clear glass, the arcade machines in the corner, the front counter. His view switched to a street view and he visualized from where he was to Pizza House.
“Perfect, thanks so much!” Catria had a waypoint now. It was a couple hundred meters. “You guys rest and practice, I’ll secure the building and come back with food.”
Jordan quickly got bored. She wandered over to the counter Grant was working on and observed. Rockstar had finished grinding just a small bowl of the horn and was working on a tooth now. “Sooooo, whatcha making?’
“This should be a tonic,” Grant answered. “I don’t fully understand the rules of Alchemy yet, but each ingredient has an element value and an effect. You must meet a minimum value of an element to create an alchemical compound or you fail to make something concentrated enough to work. I have the values for a basic health and mana potion, but that’s all.”
“Yeah, that sounds like magic. I just learned about combining elements this morning when I got the Arcana skill. Now, I don’t know how, but I’m like an expert on it.”
“Like the information just gets downloaded into your brain and you just know?”
“Exactly. No idea how that works.”
Rockstar finished grinding the tooth and slid the bowl across the counter towards Grant. The small elemental could barely reach the counter. His next task was a dried-out red lizard tail.
“That’s gross, why did she have that in her bag?” Jordan was disgusted by half the things that were sitting on the counter. A couple looked like organs. She didn’t want to know.
“That’s a Fire Lizard tail, it’s apparently uncommon and it can create explosive effects when ground down. I won't know the exact properties until after its powdered and mixed.”
Jordan picked up the ground tooth Rockstar and focused on it. Three question marks appeared in her vision over it. “It just shows me question marks,” Jordan said, setting the bowl back down.
Grant picked up the ground up tooth and read the prompt. It was uncommon, so he could see the information without help.
Powdered Raptor Tooth, uncommon, average quality
The powdered tooth of an agile predator. Adds speed effects to tonics and boosts the restorative speeds of potions.
Wind 7
Earth 2
“How about now?” Grant asked, handing the bowl back to Jordan.
You’ve identified a Rank 2 ingredient!
Powdered Raptor Tooth, uncommon, average quality
She could see the information just as Grant could now that he’d read it aloud. It didn’t help with any of the other ones, though.
You have successfully created 1 dose of Fire Boost Tonic (Rank 1)!
Fire Boost Tonic (Rank 1), common, tonic
Increase the rank of all fire talents by 1 rank to a max of 3 for 2 minutes.
* Duration increased from 1 minute to 2 minutes (Long Grass Root)
You’ve learned a new recipe!
Fire Boost Tonic (Rank 1): Fire 20
“What do you think of this?” Grant handed Jordan a red liquid in an 8 oz silicone travel bottle.
“Oh, increase my rank? That’s how I was able to find you guys, by increasing the rank of my elemental to Rank 3 so it was big enough to ride.”
“You have a skill to increase ranks?”
“No, if there is a strong enough elemental force nearby I can summon stronger elementals. There was a mall that was lit on fire at the time, so I used the blaze to get a free rank by tapping into the fire element.”
“Huh, interesting, I didn’t know it worked like that. So if I could make a super hot fire, or if you had a dense enough crystal you could summon something better?”
“Yeah, I guess that might work. It would have to be a big gem, not like a ring or necklace stone.”
“I might be able to apply the same recipe to water as I did the fire tonic,” Grant said, sifting through the ingredients. The Waterfall Cress had a water value of 6, and he had purified water with a value of 8. There was a jelly-like substance with a water value of 7 but he was hesitant to use it. “This one would have your talents cost 50 percent more stamina or mana.”
Jellyzap Fish Gel, uncommon, average quality
The squeezed out insides of the Jellyzap Fish. When ingested or applied to the skin, Mana and Stamina costs for talents are increased by 50%.
Water 7
Lightning 3
“Oh, well, is that worth it for a rank up? 15 mana? I think so,” Jordan shrugged.
You have successfully created 1 dose of Water Boost Tonic (Rank 2)!
Water Boost Tonic (Rank 2), uncommon, tonic
Increase the rank of all Water talents by 1 rank to a max of 4 for 2 minutes.
* Talents cost 50% more base mana and stamina! (Jellyzap Fish Gel)
* Base rank increased from 1 to 2! (Waterfall Cress)
You’ve learned a new recipe!
Water Boost Tonic (Rank 1): Water 20
Grant handed her the bottle.
“What is this exactly?” Jordan asked, staring at the blue tinted liquid.
“Water mostly, I ground up some Watercress and soaked it before straining it. Then I added the jelly.”
“So leaf juice and jelly? That sounds awful. Am I going to be sick when I drink this?”
“I don’t think so,” Grant shrugged. “Alchemy potions don’t take on the flavor of their ingredients, the magic changes it. “
“Oh, so it's a mystery. Could be normal, could be gross. Fantastic.” Jordan rolled her eyes and put the Water and Fire tonic in her bag.
Rockstar slid the now-powdered lizard tail onto the table in front of Grant. It was a silky red powder. Way better than he could have done himself.
Powdered Fire Lizard Tail, uncommon, good quality
Can be used as a base for bombs. Highly flammable.
Fire 12 (10 base + 2 quality)
Air 4 (3 base + 1 quality)
“This says it can be used as a base for bombs,” Grant held the powder aloft. “But I don’t have any starting bomb recipes, so if I try I will have to wing it.”
“Well, let me think.” Jordan was in her menu. To Grant, it looked like she was staring off into space with a blank expression on her face. Complete deadpan. “I was thinking about my Arcana talent, and my Explosion talent, and if I could get the magic ratios for you.” Jordan’s face changed back to normal expressions.
“Oh, wow, I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I know a lot of things I didn’t know this morning,” Jordan shrugged. The arcana skill had filled in a lot of the gaps in her knowledge about magic and now it just made sense. “The ratio for my explosions vary. It’s 80% of the element you want, and 20% of the opposite to create a reaction fpr the base ones.”
“Like 80% Fire, 20% water?”
“Exactly. I think Water to Fire, Earth to Air, and Lightning is a pair with Metal.”
“The values so far have been 10 for rank 1 health and mana potions, and 20 for rank 1 tonics. If I aim for a 24 to 6, that’s an eighty to twenty split.”
“Go for it. What elements?”
“Fire and Water,” Grant answered. “The tail has a base value of 12 fire thanks to Rockstar grinding it to a higher quality. The Watercress has a value of 6 water and maybe another effect or the purified water for 8 with no effect.”
“You need 12 more fire,” Jordan was scanning over the items on the counter, but they meant nothing to her.
“I’m going to try and use the lizard powder twice. It’s my only option,” Grant admitted. “It might not work.”
“Yolo?” Jordan asked.
Grant stirred the volatile mixture and had Jordan steady the two christmas ornaments they found sitting in a box under the desk. When the first was filled he moved to the second and she capped the first. Then the second
You have successfully created 2 Fire Bombs (Rank 2)
Fire Bomb (Rank 2), uncommon, bomb
An explosive concoction that deals 5 - 15 fire damage to all creatures within 3 meters. Any creature hit has a chance to be blinded.
* Chance to blind (Waterfall Cress)
You’ve learned a new recipe!
Fire Bomb: Fire 16, Water 4
“So?”
“They work. Rank 2 fire bombs. They explode and deal damage to everyone nearby, but also have a chance to blind because of the waterfall cress.”
The prompt popped up in Jordan’s vision as she examined the bomb. Now that he’d told her, she could see the information and it wasn’t just three question marks. “Oh, I can see it now. It’s cool that we can share information. Did you find out the ratio?”
“We overestimated. It was 16 to 4 for a Rank 1.”
“A success is a success, so whatever.”
The next half hour didn’t go as successfully for potion crafting. He’d failed to make two salves and and an oil and was working on a fourth when the door behind them crashed open. Catria stood holding a large bag. Behind her was a massive hulking furry creature that stared at the two of them.