Chapter 28: “What’s in a Potion?”

“The Spirit Realm, ey?” said Medett, disgruntled. “There goes our range extending gadgets.”

“Troubling,” said Berem, holding Vish. “Tell us again about the exploit?”

“Gnarlroot_The_Eld elucidated me on the exact coordinates of a weak point in Alkali Hollow’s code integrity,” said Vick5. “I scanned to confirm, and hurled an incisive [Vial of Liquid Nano Bots]. The liquid seeped into the wall and maximized the exploitation.”

“And though I have explained it,” I said, “I am unsure where my connection with monster kind comes from. The Molar Soldier offered me his aid. Or someone did so using him as a conduit.”

“Our best lead could take us to Earth Clan territory, though,” said Relja, “so we came to you first. Also, Vick5 wants to be an Alchemist now, don’t you?”

“Undecided,” was his reply.

“Yeah, well,” Medett scoffed, “consider me undecided whether or not to learn ya! The Rogue may have taken the wisest course among you.”

“Time will tell,” I said. “But we now have a valuable informant.”

“No lies detected,” said Vick5.

“You must agree, sister,” said Berem, “that all the Karma and deity summoning stuff lines up with some of our theories about how we ended up here.”

Medett grunted. “How do we help, anyway?”

I observed Vick5 surreptitiously scan Medett and Berem. “As I suspected,” he said. “You two are test subjects?”

“Why is this person with you?” asked Berem through barred teeth.

Medett was casting a vine entangling spell. “Give me a reason not to,” she said.

“I am sorry,” said Vick5. “I cannot apologize on behalf of Telemoon because they are not regretful as I am.”

“We’re watching him,” said Relja. “He’s proven helpful several times already, or else we’d have ditched him too.”

“My goal is to prevent future experimentation in the Karmic Laboratories. Among others,” said Vick5. “My ethics no longer align with my former guild’s.”

“Maybe he can help us,” Berem said.

“Maybe he can help us all,” I added.

“As far as I am able,” said Vick5, “I will assist in any countermeasures necessary against Telemoon.”

Medett cancelled her spell. “Fine,” she huffed. “Let me ask again: how can we help while stuck here in the Tang Tree Orchard?”

“Give us a quest, mayhap?” I said.

“Good idea!” Relja smiled. “Give us something that’ll take us down into the valley.”

The NPC siblings glanced at one another.

“We learned something earlier today,” said Berem.

“Something crash landed in our home village,” Medett spoke, side-eyeing Vick5. “Walk with me, Eld.”

We ambled toward the river following a path between twiggy bushes, lichen-painted boulders, and flaxen canyon reeds. The din of flowing water swelled as we went. We picked our way down a steep granite crumble of pathing, using roots and rocks to grip and balance. Medett paused once we were close enough to the water to see mist. I wished to feel the cool sprinkles on my face, but could not.

With the other party members out of earshot, she confided; “I need you to confirm troubling news for me. We overheard a group of Root Mages earlier. They spoke of a tragedy in the valley. A monster. A metal monster. It fell from the sky, they said. And it broke apart, scattering across the valley. I heard one say that houses were crushed in my village. What could it be, Eld?”

“I know not,” I said, “but give me a quest and I shall take it. Do you know of Ursamigo?”

“Heard the name, yes,” she said.

“I received a message—or rather Azwold did—from Ursamigo the day before I was first summoned on Gnarlroot Hill. He helped with the vine part of the spell, it would seem.”

“All the more reason to visit the valley, ey?” she said. “Druid lands. Alright then, it’s settled. Here.”

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[You have received a quest: “Metal Monster Mystery”]

“Now, I know you think that Telemoon guy is here to help,” she said, “but you should know better. Don’t trust him.” She passed me an orange potion in a triangular, hand-sized vial. “I made something special for you.” Thin slivers of tangybark pulp swirled in its shimmery liquid. “You ever drink that other one I gave ya?”

I shook my head no.

“Worried it’ll drip right through?”

I nodded.

“Well it won’t. It’ll give you a new spell. A little extra defense when needed. Long cooldown of course, but hey, having a spell outside of your magic school is pretty handy, I’d say.”

“Thank you. What’s this orange one do?” I peered almost hypnotically into its smooth turbulence.

“Not 100% sure on that,” she said, “but I made it with fallen bits of Enttang.”

“I dislike games of chance,” I said.

“Which is why I’m sending you to the land of plant mages and herbalists with it. Don’t drink it! I need help completing the recipe.”

“Relja is an Herbalist and Alchemist,” I said. “Perhaps sharing this quest would be best?”

“I like her well enough, yeah. Agreed.” She pat my shoulder, then wrapped my clutches around the orange potion. “I’ll make it sharable, but only with her. Keep the Telemoon tagalong out of it.”

I nodded.

[You have received a quest: “What’s in a Potion?”]

“Alright, let’s head back,” she said.

“I want to be alone here a moment,” I said. “The flow of water may help me to think.”

“You want some alone time? After last time, I’m gonna have to say no.”

“Here,” I said, handing her Azwold’s binoculars. “Watch me from a distance if you must. But leave me.”

Medett hesitated, staring skeptically at me, then snatched the binoculars and clumsily climbed up through the rocks and sticks.

My path was unclear, but becoming clearer. I had toyed with the idea of the Remembering Ring, to try finding Azwold that way. It was met with unanimous resistance, however.

I needed to find the Grandfather NPC within the Spirit Realm, not only to garner help, but to determine just how badly Ralos had corrupted his coding. Ideally, when severing his piggybacking, Ralos will have left Grandfather in his default state. But how to get into the Spirit Realm at all?

If the famed Druid Ursamigo had lent his talents to Azwold’s purpose—summoning me—then it stood to reason he may know important information. But could he help us find a Spirit Realm entrance?

I already knew that the Cave O’ Whispers and the Remembering Ring were both Spirit Realm nexuses. Medett or Berem had mentioned a Grave Grove, and that a spirit harvest had taken place there in the valley. Another nexus?

My clarity of direction inexorably wended that way. More than one quest, a potentially powerful ally, more information about my own summoning, a mysterious metal monster to investigate, a weird potion to get opinions on.

I supposed the Spirit Realm would have to wait. I gazed into the river’s surface, choppy and foamed here, smooth and dark there. A fish darted below, iridescent scales refracting a rainbow, and as it passed I saw the clouds above the canyon reflected in the mirrory-dark of the water.

Tricks of the light. I wondered where DarkNeon had gone. Losing party members hurt. I consoled myself with the notion that she had vanished and reappeared on several earlier occasions.

I turned to see Medett sitting in a low, sturdy crook of an untended tang tree several fathoms above and behind me. She lowered the binoculars and looked away.

I departed the river’s bank and went to join her.

~<>*<>*<>~

Before venturing to Cloud River Canyon, I had opened the silenced mimic chest. Inside, I had found a lovely bracelet called [Shadow-Wise]. It provided a bonus to my Wisdom stat and a substantial cooldown reduction to any shadow spell I cast outside my Spirit school. I had received gold and experience, of course, but not enough to level up; no more “multi-level ding fests,” as the mage had called it. I had yet to recover the real treasure: my [Eld Molar], still wedged into the chest’s lower jaw where its dagger teeth had retracted.

“Go ahead,” Relja encouraged me.

“You have explained several courses of action,” said Vick5, “and we agree that the Crescent Valley seems most logical. But as you have stated previously, installing newly acquired lost bones furthers your epic questline. It returns lost memories to you as well, correct?”

“That’s the bones of it, aye,” I said.

“Then installing your [Eld Molar] may further inform us of our most logical course.”

“Indeed it may,” I said. In truth, I was uncertain—even with my new [Shadow-Wise] bracelet—how wise this dentistry would be to perform. I had yet to gain a lost bone in this mixed player/minion state. I could not be sure what would happen.

But more than that, the programming of the Eld character and my previous life as a player meshed in more confusing ways. Would taking the tooth make things better or worse? I could only know by trying, and so I had yet to.

“You must install the tooth,” said Vick5 with a disconcerting note of intensity. “I exist in a nerfed state, until we locate Azwold and secure his aid.”

“If I had a chance to remember how I got here,” said Berem, “I’d take it.”

“Me too,” Medett assured me with a nod.

“Okay, then,” I said, and began prying my [Eld Molar] from the chest. It splintered free of the wood, fibrous nerve roots wriggling. As my knuckly grasp drew closer to my jaw bone, the little roots reached toward me. I braced myself for a reconnection to long lost memories.

And then something shiny glinted in my periphery. Fast as a shuriken, it clanked against my [Eld Molar]. The tooth flew from my clutches and into the air.

Shocked, I glanced down and saw a throwing dagger lodged in a tang tree trunk. I went to grab it, but it dematerialized before I could.

When I realized my attention had been misdirected toward the wrong object, it was already too late. My [Eld Molar] ricochetted from a smooth boulder bend and plunked into the river, down among deep, hidden pebbles.

Befuddled and angered, I swung toward the blade’s directional origin. Though there was little cover there, I saw nothing. Once again, I grumbled at stealth’s unfair advantages.

I cast [Spell: Vision Wisps III]

My spectrum of vision widened dramatically. And though I saw all scenery much more true and vividly, nothing strange leapt out of the banished darkness. Nor did I see anything stealthed or magically invisible.

Wherever the dagger had originated from, its source was gone.

I looked to the party. Using an enchanted fishing pole, Berem was casting something I did not recognize. His emberfur fox wriggled as if strung on a line from the muzzle.

In a strange, sinuous dance, the fox became a hybrid; a fishfox.

“Don’t worry,” said Berem, leaning his pet out over the rapid, black water. “We can’t follow you far enough, anyway. Me and Vish will stay and find the tooth.”

I must have been holding a skeptical posture.

“Don’t worry!” said Berem. “I won’t make the [Eld Molar] into jewelry.”

“I’ll keep an eye,” said Medett.