My long ass journey to the mage tower was an enjoyable experience. After all, I forgot to ask Liam where it was because I assumed, he was talking about the mage barracks. I feel like a complete idiot.
I simply could not ask the guards where the mage tower was since that would be suspicious. So where did my failure bring me? It brought me back to the infirmary where Liam was strangely excited to see me again.
“Umm… Liam” I said while looking embarrassed. “Do you know where the mage tower is?”
“Oh, the mage tower. Why do you want to know?”
“Be-because…” well shit.
I panicked for 5 minutes trying to figure out an excuse, and to no one's surprise I could not come up with an excuse.
“You want to make potions, don’t you?” said Liam with a grim-looking face.
He caught me, I guess I should just fess up at this point.
“Y-yes,” I said with a face like a child being caught breaking a window accidentally.
“Well, well, well, I guess I could strike a deal with you.”
“Now that you caught me I gue- ehhhh???”
“You heard me; I want to make a deal with you.”
“What is that?”
“It seems like you’re knowledgeable in making potions, and I want you to make me a potion for me, in exchange I will provide you a cover story to why you need to use the alchemy station.”
“R-really?”
“Do you really think that you could simply waltz into the mage tower and use the alchemy station?”
I mean if I was honest, probably, since everything has been convenient to me so far, sometimes it feels like I am in a shitty power fantasy character in one of those light novels.
“N-no.”
“Well, I guess that settles it then.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have no choice, but to accept my deal, do you?”
“Y-yes you’re right,” I said with a disgusted expression.
“Well… I guess it’s time for me to show you where the mage tower is,” said Liam as he put on a satchel.
“I’ll follow behind, I guess,” I mumbled.
“Excellent. Now let's go.”
“Did you just understand what I said under my breath?”
“Call it a mother’s intuition.”
But you’re a dude.
“Eh??”
“Don’t worry about it. Let's hurry up to the mage tower now.”
“Oh… okay…”
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I followed Liam to the mage tower. It was in the northeastern sector of the prison, which was strange since that was where most of the prisoners are located. It was also far from where the guards were situated, which is usually in the western area of the prison.
When we arrived at the mage tower, or what I supposed is the mage tower, I did not expect to be so… I guess awestruck. The mage tower was a golden cage that surrounded a lever.
“I-is that the mage tower?”
“Yes, it is,” said Liam with a proud expression.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Isn’t it, I don’t know, a bit, lackluster.”
“That’s because it's actually an elevator.”
So it's one of those kinds of buildings.
“Oh… okay then,” I said with a disappointed expression.
“What were you expecting the mage tower to look like the mage barracks.”
“Y-yes.”
Liam chuckled then slapped me on the back, you know your stupidity reminds me of someone I once knew.
You don’t have to rub it in.
“I-I see.”
“Anyways let's go into the cage.”
When we entered the cage, Liam pulled on the lever, the ground shook for a little then the ground beneath us started sinking. As we descended, I felt the ground rumbling and heard the sound of hollow echoes. The cage then shut the doors as we started descending faster.
I inspected the lever as we waited for the ground beneath us to descend. It was a strange bronze color that contrasted the gold color of the cage. It had strange runic-like inscriptions on it. The lever also had multiple settings rather than a simple on and off toggle. Each setting most likely represented a different, which was dramatically different from the game that I remember. This was no doubt the work of someone from another world, just like the unique spells.
If they are other people who are just like me, people who are reincarnated into this world, there’s a chance they are also trying to exploit this system. Unlike me, however, I could not trust them, after all, I’ve seen what people do even with the slightest amount of power.
I then glanced at Liam before looking back at the lever. This man was clearly dangerous and plotting something with these potions. He was, without a doubt, using me to further his own goals, like I was using him earlier. Ironic.
I grinned a little, this world is everything I hoped for when I reincarnated, and some more…
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When the floor beneath us finally stopped descending. We were in a dusty room with rocks all over the floor. The ground that surrounded us was a strange dark blue color and the walls had gears made of a bronze-colored metal. There were inscriptions on the walls, but they were mostly cracked in some parts. The room was lit up by a strange glowing object that had a pure white light.
I looked around in a circle and I felt like my head was going to explode from information overload. Nothing in this room made sense…
Liam then tapped on the shoulder and pointed at a corner of the room. In that corner was a table that was glowing blue and green. There were particles and steam that matched the color of those glowing colors. I took a step forward. These steps felt heavy and my breathing changed. This room, why does it feel so different than the world around us?
I needed to focus on. This feeling should not bother me, I need to focus on crafting these potions. When I arrived at the alchemy station, I placed the ingredients on the table. I then used my fingers to signal to Liam to place his ingredients that I assumed were in the satchel on to the table.
“So, what do you need me to make?” I asked as he placed the jars of bees and dragonflies on to the alchemy table.
"I need you to make me some stamina potions.”
“I see,” I said as I placed my hand on the alchemy table.
A user interface suddenly appeared in front of me. I look back at Liam, no reaction. I then looked at the reflection of his eyes, there was no UI that was reflecting off his eyes.
I then looked forward and focused on the task at hand. I took a deep breath and then delved into my work. I pretended to do extra work than needed, while also touching other parts of the alchemy table. I needed Liam to believe that crafting potions was a lot harder than it looked.
Potion crafting in Dragonlord was the easiest way to gain experience since every 5 potions you made gave you 1 skill point, even after you crossed the 100 and 200 skill point mark. It didn’t matter what kind of potion you made, nor the quality of the potion you made as long as you crafted. Strangely enough, the developers never patched this, nor nerf alchemy level grinding.
When I saw Liam was beginning to look away from the sheer boredom of watching me doing menial and repetitive work, I then started interacting with the user interface.
Like in the game, the interface showed me what kind of potions I could make with the ingredients that I have. For the sake of game balance, which was rare in this game, you would have to discover the potion recipe first. However, the game by default, made health, mana, and stamina already discovered to be more friendly to new players. Which were the potions that I was crafting today.
I then hovered my hand over the words “stamina potion” and tapped it. Suddenly a bee and a dragonfly exploded into a ball of light and a green potion appeared in the middle of the alchemy table. I then held my fingers over the words, and it glowed. As I held it down I saw the bees and dragonflies explode, one by one. Each time the two of them exploded a green potion appeared in the middle of the alchemy table before all the ingredients were exhausted.
By the time I was finished with all the stamina potions I have successfully crafted 30 stamina potions in total.
“L-Mr. Liam”
“Yes?”
“Here are the stamina potions.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s not like I had a choice to make these.”
Liam then frowned. “Learn to accept it.”
I am going to kill this fool one day…
“Well since I’m done with the task you gave me; I am going to craft the potions I want to make now.”
“Go ahead, and don’t worry, I won’t look at what you are making,” he said with a wink.
I am seriously going to kill this fool.
I proceeded to craft my health and mana potions while Liam was inspecting the inscriptions on the wall. When I was finished, I managed to craft 50 mana potions and 50 health potions total, while having some dried roots remaining. I then placed all the potions into my inventory potions. Looking at my inventory screen, I checked to see how much IS I had remaining: {IS: 110/120}.
I sighed then I headed over to Liam.
“I’m finished,” I said with sparkling eyes.
He blushed before fixing his throat.
“L-lets head back now,” he said as he headed over to the lever.