Zeke and Maeve manage to arrive at Naomi’s inn after a few minutes. The inn that is usually open till midnight was closed. That puzzles Zeke.
“What time is it?” asks Zeke.
“Close to 11pm.”
Zeke narrows his eyes and walks up to the door. He knocks on the door.
*Knock, knock, knock*
“Who is it?” a male voice, whispering asks.
Zeke is puzzled more, so he answers, “It’s Zeke. Open the damn door.”
The man is startled, and his gait grew distant from the door. Distant footsteps resound again but these ones were different. One could tell the difference between the two footsteps.
“Who is it?”
It is Naomi’s voice.
“Goddamn it, Naomi. Open the door.”
“Oh, Zeke. It’s really you.”
“Who do you think it is?”
“Hold up for a moment.”
Locks being open echo throughout the door. From the sound, one would guess at least 7 locks are on the door. The door opens slightly as Naomi peeks out to confirm it was indeed Zeke. She then opens it for them and hurriedly closed it after they were inside. On the inside, a bunch of people are sitting around the pub. They are Naomi’s people. Looking at them, they all have their weapons on their waists as if ready for a fight.
“What’s with the level of security? You know, if anyone walked in here, they’d think you’re probably hiding a treasure or something.”
“Well, it’s something like that. Follow me.” Says Naomi as she walks down the stairs to the basement.
Zeke is confused by Naomi’s actions and secrecy that it made even him a little nervous. Once they reach the basement, Naomi opens its door, and they enter. Jasper is the only one who is in the room. He has a sword on his waist like the rest and his hand was on the hilt of the sword for the whole duration Naomi had left.
He removes his hand from the hilt though after confirming it was Naomi.
“What’s with the tension in this place.”
Naomi nods at Jasper as he opens the safe that is hidden on the wall. From it, he retrieves four potions that shine brilliantly. It was the four potions Allen had traded with Naomi.
“The potions?” Zeke seems confused that all the tension is caused by these potions.
“I had these potions appraised as agreed.” Naomi says while lighting up her smoking pipe. Smoke gently rises like a wave as she blows out the smoke.
“And?”
Naomi then begins her story.
***
It was in the afternoon around 3-4pm. The potion appraiser finally arrived. He was a potion researched who was widely known throughout the kingdom. One of the best potion researchers and a potion appraiser. Doctor Henry Volta.
“Now, show me the potions lass.”
That’s all he said. He wore a white lab coat and had a huge briefcase in his right hand. His hair was black and messy. He had bushy eyebrows that stretched across his forehead. Dark circles were thick under his eyes, and he looked like he could close them at any second.
Famous as he was, Dr Volta jumped at anything that involved potions especially those he didn’t know anything about. He would participate in auctions just for the chance to witness potions found in Ruins and would ask whoever buys the potion to appraise it for them, free of charge.
This time, one of Naomi’s contacts recommended Dr Volta as someone capable and trustworthy.
Without much word exchange, Naomi quickly led him down to the basement.
Dr Volta didn’t know what kind of potions Naomi had. He was only told to come to Waham as quickly as possible, or he would regret missing this opportunity. Trusting the person who told him that info, since that person had provided him with information many times and hadn’t disappointed yet, he reluctantly came as quickly as possible.
The good news was that he was near Waham, to a village south that had a peculiar herb which tickled his curiosity.
Once in the basement, Naomi nodded to Jasper. Jasper opened the safe and took out the four potions. One shone in bright green, that was the healing potion. Another shone in pure blue, that was the mana potion. The third had a crystalline yellow, that was the booster potion. The last one was crystal clear, like water, but even water didn’t glow like this potion did. That was the rejuvenating potion.
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Dr Volta’s eyes lit up. He laughed maniacally like a mad scientist.
“Hahaha. Fascinating! Truly fascinating.”
He immediately pounced at the potions on the table, observing each one.
“Such brilliance. Such beauty. Such majesty. Kakaka.”
Naomi and Jasper looked at each other. They were wondering if bringing this old quack was the best idea.
“These potions must all be high-grade potions. Judging by their brilliance, they could be level 3.”
Naomi’s eyes opened wide. She knew that they were high-grade but not level 3.
“Are you sure about your observation doctor?”
“Of course not.” Dr Volta said as he chuckled slightly.
High-grade level 3 potions could only be found in ruins. Some families, like Royals or Nobles possessed a few of them since they were passed down within their families for generations. Some bought them at auctions at a hefty price.
So far, there wasn’t even a single potion alchemist who could craft them. Even the head of the Clifford Marquis family, Stacy’s father, known as the best alchemist in the continent, could only craft up to high-grade level two potions. It was rumoured that the Divine doctor possessed skills to craft them but he rarely showed his face in public.
At least once a year, he would auction at least three high-grade level 3 potions, including rare and special herbs. Nobody knew who he was, he only appeared and healed the people who benefited him and left. Even the Royals around the continent were respectful to him.
“It could also be above level 3.” Said Dr Volta as he grinned.
His words startled Naomi. There were no potions above level 3. So she couldn’t understand how someone can say something like that, even if it was a joke.
“Um, Doctor. Are you cert-”
“Quiet lass. This job requires my undivided concentration.”
Naomi couldn’t refute and just kept quiet. Dr Volta placed his briefcase on top of the table. He opened it and immediately after, a compartment within revealed itself. The briefcase was like a makeup box set. Instead of the slots being filled with makeup, lip stick and other cosmetic products. They were all filled with alchemic tools and herbs.
For some reason, the briefcase looked bigger on the inside than the outside. That was because, this briefcase was like a storage bag/ring.
“So, how does appraising potions work?” asked Naomi.
“Hehehe. There are various steps that need to be done to successfully appraise a potion.” Dr Volta said as he took out a monocle inside his briefcase, fixing it within his right eye.
“The first step is appraising the materials used. That can be done by using appraisal magic. But since I’m not much of a magician, this monocle will do.”
The monocle Dr Volta wore was a magic tool. It had the appraisal magic spell imbued in it. Whatever a person appraised, the information would show up on the monocle instead of it being sent directly to the brain. In a way, the person who used it needed to at least have some understanding about the material they were appraising to understand the information provided.
Dr Volta appraised all four of the potions and wrote down the ingredients used in each.
“This mana potion and healing potion have a few herbs that aren’t usually used in making them. Could it be a new recipe?” Dr volta mumbled to himself, grinning in the process.
“And the other two?” asked Naomi.
“These two, some of the herbs I recognise but some, I have no idea what they are. Hell, I can’t even figure out what kind of potions they are, kakaka.”
Dr Volta laughed. The fact that there were potions even he didn’t know fascinated him. His curiosity had reached its peak. Naomi’s expression darkened. If she didn’t know what these two potions were, then she couldn’t sell them.
“Don’t worry lass. We still have more tests to do. Believe in me. After I’m done here, we’ll know everything there is to know about these potions.”
After recording the ingredients used, Dr Volta took off his monocle and placed it inside his briefcase. He took out a pair of leather gloves and wore them. He also wore eyeglasses of sort. They looked like they had another smaller pair of glasses mounted on top of them. The smaller glasses served as a magnifier of sort.
They were also a magic tool which helped with focus. That wasn’t all Dr Volta took out. He also took out a concave looking crystal. On its side, it had various colours, 5 to be precise. The first colour at the bottom was blue, followed by purple, yellow, red and gold.
Dr Volta then started a monologue.
“Potions. They can be divided into 3 grades. Low-grade, intermediate-grade and high-grade potions. In each grade, the potions can be further divided into three levels. The reason for that division of levels is because alchemist have their own different techniques which produce different results, so the potions created weren’t equal.”
He opened the mana potion and its waft filled the entire room.
“Hmm, fresh. Which means it was crafted recently and not found in a ruin.”
Potions had different scents depending on how many years have passed. Some potions thrived with years, meaning that the longer it was left alone, the more powerful its effects were. On the other hand, there were potions which degraded/expired as the years went by.
This potion was fresh. Of course, only a nose of an experienced alchemist could discern that.
Dr Volta continued with his monologue.
“A way was found to distinguish potions by grade and level. And that was to measure their magical potency. Low-grade potions had a magical potency ranging from 20% to 25%. Mid-grade ranged from 26% to 30%. And high-grade ranged from 31% to 45%.”
“That’s quite a huge leap for high-grade potions compared to the others?”
“Yes. You see, if you were to compare a high-grade level 1 potion and a high-grade level 2 potion. Their effects are as huge as a mid-grade level 1 potion and a high-grade level 1 potion.”
“That huge!” Naomi’s mouth gaped open.
“Hahaha. This is called a Magical potency measurement crystal.” Dr Volta pointed at the crystal.
"The different colours show the magical potency of a potion. From Blue to purple, that is the low-grade. Yellow and red is the mid-grade and gold is the high grade. Depending on the brightness of the colours, we can then distinguish the level in that grade.”
Dr Volta took out a dropper from one of the slots in the briefcase. The dropper was made from a leach’s mouth. Dr Volta used the dropper and extracted a small portion of the mana potion. He hovered the dropper over the magical potency measurement crystal.
“With this, we’ll know its magical potency.”
He pressed the dropper, releasing a single drop from it. The drop of the mana potion slowly fell on the concave part of the crystal, contacting it. The crystal shone brightly as the colours from the side rose from blue to purple to yellow to red and finally gold.
Dr Volta’s eyes opened wide as he laughed.
“Hahaha, it’s a level three potion.”
As he was laughing, an unexpected thing happened. The magical potency crystal cracked.
“Huh?”
Dumbfounded by that, the crystal exploded into dozens of pieces. He gawked at his destroyed crystal. He couldn’t do nothing but blink.