Not too far away from the Merchant Square, there was a wooden shop. The structure was as old as the City itself. Just above the sturdy doors, there was a red shield and in its middle there was a drawing of a potion. Just another alchemy shop selling potions, but not quite. For a time the alchemy shop used to be famous and renowned, but that was before the Crimson Alchemist’s death. At the moment it was his daughter who was making the potions there, while she was good, very good, she wasn’t an Alchemy Master, not yet.
The father died when an experiment went terribly wrong; she was only eleven at the time. At that time she was present and only barely escaped the explosion. The unfortunate accident scarred her physically, magical fire melted the right side of her face, but the mental scars were much deeper.
Despite the unfortunate events, none of it broke her strong spirit. Time passed and she persevered, she raised the quality of her craft slowly restoring the previous glory that came with the Crimson Alchemist name.
Not too long ago a servant had brought her a message. It was written on a fancy parchment with fancy writing and laced with perfume.
“If only this could be a love letter, ah.” She sighed knowing that this was yet another call for business.
She started reading, and indeed it was. Some nobles required her expertise to identify the potions and set a fair price on them. A task most easy for the experienced alchemist that she was, but the pay was good.
“Ah…” She sighed again, not too keen on the prospect of human interaction, but she needed that money.
She wrote another letter telling the noble that she will accomplish the request today in the evening and handed it to one of her servants.
Well, then preparations are in order, “I need to get ready.” She opened a decorated metal box brimming full with powders, pastes and dyes, no this wasn’t alchemy stuff it was just make-up.
…
A fine dress adored her sleek figure. The fabric was light and smooth as the kiss of first love, and best of all it was vivid blue like a clear midsummer sky. It suited her quite well, she’ll make sure to write a letter of thanks to the tailor; but later.
Yet again she appraised her form in the mirror and the dress which accompanied her curves so well. The blue cloth was nowadays all the rage among the noble ladies. And the designs were going wild trying to outdo each other. She gave another spin while looking at the mirror.
“Audaciously MAGNIFICENT”.
She couldn’t get enough. The design and the fabric were so splendid that that scar on her face didn’t feel like it will be a problem, not at all.
“Daddy, aren’t I beautiful?” She spoke towards the opened closet.
Inside the closet, there was a preserved body, much like a mummy – dried and desiccated. The skeletal remains, of course, couldn’t quite reply so ‘Daddy’ remained peeking at her just from inside the closet.
“Ehem”, she snorted. “What do you know about fashion?” She asked offended. “You’re pretty much a fossil!”.
She stopped looking at the preserved remains, Daddy never knew how to compliment a woman, so instead she smiled back at the mirror.
“And it is enchanted.” She ran the hem of the skirt between her fingers. “With Magical Resistance no less. And Reinforced? How did they manage to cram that on such fine cloth is a MYSTERY! But I guess it is part of a charm.” She spun again and the blue cloth glowed purple ever so slightly. “ENCHANTED! Ha-ha.” She liked what she saw, “I’m ready.”
...
At the noble’s house, she was presented with crates of potions.
“Lady Crimson, would you be so kind and asses the grade of these potions.” An elderly man inquired politely.
The young noble, the one who invited her here, stood by his grandfather idly and just kept glaring at her scar. How rude!
“Of course, that’s why I’m here.”
She grabbed a random potion using [Identify] on it.
“Fertility Potion?” She raised an eyebrow, uncorked the flask and sipped at it. “Oh my…” It made her mind go pink.
“Has the old master tried this?” She looked at the ageing father.
He shook his head.
“Then you should, the mistress will be most pleased. I can assure you.”
“Do you think this will sell well?” A young noble asked anxiously.
“A peculiar potion like this?” She looked at the stone flask. “With the right marketing, sure.”
She scribbled her evaluation and effect of the potion on the parchment. “These are the effects and for the price…” She added a number to the parchment. “That is my estimation, but you should go for a slightly smaller price.” She stamped it with her Crimson Alchemist stamp indicating it as ‘approved for sale and consumption’.
The nobles looked at the identification parchment and read the description of effects. The young noble had developed a slight blush.
“Oh, my mistress will indeed enjoy something like this. He-he.” The elderly noble had an unsightly facial expression.
“Well then, let me go through the rest of the potions.”
She didn’t need to identify each and every one of the potions, only the different varieties. There were HP, Mana, Resistance potions and such and so.
“So the Fertility Potion is the most interesting.” She tapped at the stone flask. “Where did you get them from? They look like someone brewed them in the stable, but aren’t too bad in their purity.” After all, she didn’t build much of Toxicity.
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“I have an ongoing order with the Lamia Queen.” A young noble smiled proudly.
“Eh?”
“The most beautiful and dashing woman I’ve ever seen. You must have heard the rumours, no?”
She was still mighty confused. “I don’t know any alchemist with a name like that, a bit too AUDACIOUS to call herself a Queen, don’t you think? For a wannabe alchemist that is.” The potions weren’t that good...
The young noble clutched his fingers into fists. “How da…”
Luckily, the father grabbed the young noble by his shoulders, tightened his grasp to reprimand the fool and spoke, “Queen Lamia is a wife for the King of Spiders, surely you heard about him.”
“Oh! The Gala.” She heard about that, she even was invited, but never had any desire to visit something with such a large crowd and with so many eyes. “I’ve been too busy to catch up with saucy rumours, but yes now I get the gist of it.”
So the potions came from spiders… She had seen one of them in a random passing. Formidable monsters; she would love to harvest one for alchemical ingredients, but unfortunately the King Aurellius II edict was a well-known fact. Spiders must not be harmed or else!
“Well then, why doesn’t our Lady Crimson stay for dinner and catch up with all the saucy rumours? My wife knows a few.”
She tapped on the desk considering it. “Why not.” She was tired of the usual meals her discounted cook was cooking anyway.
Soon she found herself seated at the overly large table. Oh, these nobles do love to show off. The young noble kept staring at the bad side of her face. The scoundrel! But the old master and his wife (the mistress) were different, polite and respectful. It made sense that they were her Daddy's friends; good people really.
The mistress indeed was full of rumours and gossip. She wasn’t much into those things, but it was good to stay informed. So she listened nodding ever so faintly.
Finally, the starter meal arrived. And she was surprised, it was just some cut fruit on a platter. Did she overestimate the nobles? She expected something fancier.
“Lady Crimson, what is this glare and raised eyebrow about?” The Mistress half-scolded half-joked. “I assure you, these are good. Come on, give it a try.”
She gave a cautious nibble and was left pleasantly surprised. “So sweet. Delectably DELICIOUS!”
The old noble laughed, ”Yes. You won’t believe that this is meant for peasants.”
“Eh?” She was left dumbfounded for the second time.
The mistress began explaining. “The spiders are selling them dirt-cheap at the market.”
“A solution for the city’s food problem.”
Yes, she heard about the looming famine, and herself had eaten much less and much less fancy; partly a reason why she was here at the noble’s table. She continued munching on the fruit, one of her passive alchemist skills kicked in and her eyes went big.
“Wait, this is…” She started.
“What?” The nobles looked.
This was a magical fruit she was eating, a potential alchemy ingredient. It can’t be cheap! How come is this meant for peasants?
“TomGrape.” She spoke the name after the skill identified the fruit.
“Oh, yes it is. Did the Lady use her skill to identify it?”
She nodded.
“Unnecessary. Isn’t this obvious?” The young noble crossed his hands unimpressed.
“You don’t mind if I take a few home, for snacks that is?”
“Sure help yourself… Oh, look the main meal is here!” The mistress clapped her hands.
…
Daughter like father, every bit Crimson Alchemist. Well, maybe not as good as a deceased Alchemy Master, but still quite good. She was already at home sitting at the desk, on it was a sack of coins and a plate of fruits. Allegedly a peasant staple, TomGrape it was – she rolled it in her palm. An alchemical investigation was in order.
“Round bulbous yellow... Skin thin and leathery... *Hamph*” She bit into the exotic fruit again. “Sweet and juicy! But I know this already...” She waited for the passive skill. “Yes, the dastardly thing is a magical fruit!” And no one sane would sell magical fruits at dirt cheap prices. Or even use it to feed the masses. It just didn’t make sense.
“Either they’re stupid, or something else is going on.” She became suspicious of the fruit. “Daddy! She opened the closet. “I must investigate this MYSTERY!” She reached past the skeleton grabbing the thick leather coat, brimmed hat, and glasses. No, she won’t be playing a detective, this was just her work clothes. And yes she is going to her alchemy workshop.
“I wonder what properties are hidden in this orbous DECEIVER of the poor.” She stared at the mysterious TomGrape, “Don’t you dare explode on me. I won’t end up like Daddy!” she patted the thick leather coat, and there was a reason she had it made so thick.
“We cut this here… From that in this… Stir stir stir... And oomph! [Concentrate].”
She condensed the pulped fruit, expressing its lenient alchemical properties. With the concentrated slurry her other skill will help to identify the fruit’s true potential. A message floating in her mind informed her of the possibilities.
“Fertility Potion”, she tapped her thick goggles, “Potion of Satiety”, she took them off. “FleshMender Potion.” The last one was the most powerful and hardest to achieve.
“My-my, isn’t it quite something? I know the first already, the second is just boring. But the third...”
Just knowing the possibilities didn’t guarantee that she will be able to successfully achieve them, if the worst comes to be the experimental potion could explode as it did for Daddy, but she was willing to risk it.
“Try I will. I am the Crimson Alchemist! Daddy watch over me!”
She upped the flame on her alchemical burner evaporating the concentrated TomGrape Slurry, and then funnelled it through Alchemical Water and into a condenser. This was only the first step in a list of many. She’ll need to utilise most of her intricate equipment and quite a few expensive catalysts, and of course, she won’t stop short of perfection.
And after quite a while, days even... She wiped her sooty and grimy goggles off. “Look Dady, I have it! A brand new potion, uncatalogued and previously unseen.” She lifted the seated skeletal remains up giving him a big hug. “Are you proud? I know you are!”
The bones clacked as they danced spinning on the workshop floor.
“But let’s not get distracted,” She seated Daddy back to his chair. “let’s give it a try.”
Knowingly and without restrain she slashed yet another cut on her wrist with one of her prep knives; blood poured out of the shallow slash.
“On the wound or in my mouth?” She stopped to wonder but only for a second. “You’re right Daddy, taste test first!” It wasn’t just a taste, she gulped the whole thing down. “Hmm uncannily sweet and... [Toxicity +10].” She began to dry heave and cough, and then scream in pain as if her entire body was being rearranged from inside out.
That should not have happened because she had skills against poisons and other negative effects of potions. Worse, as painful as it was, aside from her mouth and eyes the rest of her body felt frozen as if paralyzed.
IMPOSSIBLE! She made sure there were no impurities, and the skills should have negated the negative side effects; they always did unless… This was meant to be.
It felt like an hour but the paralysis and debilitating pain didn’t last more than a minute.
“And I am... Fine.” She was relieved, refreshed even.
She looked at the now truly mended wrist. No not just a cut she had just made, but also the signs and scars of other cuts, the ones she’d made in her past, were also all gone.
“Illusion, a trick on my mind!”
This was simply impossible. Yes healing potions existed, and yes they healed injuries like these too. But quick magical healing still left scars, and a healing potion couldn’t cure an old scar or trauma of the tissue. Especially scars left by magic – those were known to be incurable.
“But this somehow...” It was able to undo what no normal healing potion could. “Daddy, this is... Unexpectedly MAGNIFICENT!” She grabbed the skeleton again and carried it back to her room and to the clothes closet.
On the closet’s door, on that mirror, she saw her reflection; the nasty scar on her face was slightly smaller. Shrunken and healed only if by a millimetre, but however small she couldn’t not notice a change so significant. “This is REVOLUTIONARY!”
Supposedly a magical scar like that would never mend and heal, she had much trouble with it ever since… But now here was proof it could be healed, and treated if ever so slightly.
“And they're selling that to... Everyone.” She gazed upon a few remaining TomGrapes on her desk.
“They must know of the fruit’s potential. They know! And I can’t be the only one...” She tried to wrap her head around this. “No this must be some kind of a test. I must meet those spider merchants myself. I must!”
She collected her things and rushed to the Merchant Square.