As my clawed feet touched down amongst the blue-starred herbs, I pinned my mini-map to the bottom left of my visual field. Red dots speckled the map to keep track of the creatures I had marked as potentially hostile. Turning my attention outward again, I noticed Night wasn’t among the party.
“Mav, can you swap with Samir on watching over Shad? I would also like to free up Engli, and you will be able to monitor as well as protect them with your skill set.”
Kiara’s request wasn’t unrealistic but missing a key detail. “While that was true a year ago Kiara, I no longer have my martial skills. I am simply an alchemist, no longer a berserker. I will be able to keep watch and monitor them, but protecting us may be a stretch if we get swarmed.”
She paused in adjusting her hatchets and turned to me more fully. “Well reminded. I will wait to pull them until Scree is back so that we can keep an open line of communication. Fergi is out gathering components for you. I thought you would take advantage of crafting while guarding?”
“Yes, that would do me well. If Rakshasa is willing to stay, we would be aptly defended, even should the miniboss head our way.” I looked to the large bear to see her thoughts on the matter.
She plodded over to Shad and plopped down. Answer enough for me. “Thank you Rakshasa. I feel more secure with your presence.” I gave the bear a fond caress that turned into scratches in her preferred spots.
“That’s settled then. I’ll request Scree to fly between the two groups. We plan on making short work of this floor. If the elf wakes up, have them do some action that will trigger skill gain so they can get some contribution experience from the party.” Kiara strode away and Samir, Engli and Chad followed after.
I pulled open my interface to review my open quests. I skipped by the dungeon quest, sitting quietly in my party quest slot, and moved to the two I had acquired from Valen before leaving Helmsword - a crafting quest and a profession quest.
Current Open Crafting Quest…
Crafting Quest - Alchemy: Complete the potions and turn them into the Local Crafters Guide for verification of quality.
15 potions of minor stamina fill - 2 of 15 complete
10 potions of minor mana fill - 10 of 10 complete
10 potions of minor health fill - 0 of 10 complete
Reward: 350 Alchemy experience, 3 mid grade herbs
Profession Quest - Alchemist: Level up ten core profession skills to Journeyman - 8 of 10 complete.
Available Skills:
Potion Potency - Expert 1 - complete
Foraging - Journeyman 83 - complete
Elemental Manipulation - Journeyman 59 - complete
Herbalism - Journeyman 45 - complete
Brewing - Journeyman 43 - complete
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Acute Alchemist - Journeyman 37 - complete
Transmutation - Journeyman 27 - complete
Crafter’s Consultation - Journeyman 2 - complete
Stunning Salves - Novice 92 - in process
Component Extraction - Novice 87 - in process
Tinkering - Novice 35 - in process
Acquired Tolerance - Novice 22 - in process
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Reward: Profession upgrade from Novice Rare to Novice Legendary.
Reviewing some of my top profession skills, it looked like I could complete upgrading stunning salves while the rest of the party cleared the floor. Completing crafter-type profession quests wasn’t normally done during dungeon delves, but I had a distinct advantage in that I had joined and been a productive member of this party before I started this new profession.
“Rakshasa, let me know if you need me to do more than focus on crafting or if you need a break. I am very close to leveling my salves skill, and have a couple dozen potions to craft. I will start with the potions to see what Fergie returns with before turning to the salves.” Rakshasa nodded amiably and I started pulling my crafting components out of my vambrace.
Shad had successfully harvested materials on the last floor for stamina and healing potions. I pulled out the sphagnum moss and milkweed for the healing potion and the red mangrove bark and pieces of turtle for the stamina potion. As I was removing the supplies, I noticed I also still had some bogbean left and wanted to create a concoction of common sense that would buff wisdom stats.
I quickly got to work extracting the necessary components from everything and separating them out into areas for each potion. Like when I ate and had everything neatly divided on my plate, I liked my alchemical ingredients to have their own separate space. I watched my component extraction skill level as I broke everything down and had the satisfaction of leveling it after extracting from 47 moss, 84 milkweeds, 36 barks, 16 pieces of turtle and 15 bog beans. I only had a few more bog beans left to extract, so I finished those and rechecked my skill. It sat at a respectable Journey 7.
I looked around and assessed that I had spent a glass and a half working on breaking down everything. I checked in with Rakshasa, and confirming she was fine and there was nothing interesting to report I switched to combining and creating the potions. I excitedly, and carefully of course, brewed the minor stamina potions first since they took the longest to set and would need more focus than the healing potions.
So many reasons for my excitement - the scientist in me looked forward to comparing the stamina potions to the ones I made before leveling potion potency to expert. The jaded berserker part of me found validation in the profession switch with each successful crafting, skill level gain and quest completion. The teammate part of me felt pride in the concrete contributions. Yes, my chest swelled as I masterfully - at a journeyman level - performed my profession.
Storing the stamina and health batches, I turned my attention to the concoction. Leveraging tinkering, elemental manipulation and transmutation, I took the bogbean extracts and mixed them with an intellect potion and perception potion. Fortunately, I had several of everything because it failed time after time as I honed the ratio of the three main ingredients. Down to my last two bogbean extracts, I shouted in joyous triumph as I created the minor concoction of common sense!
Fergie popped into my field of view and chittered at me - both to admonish that we were hiding and to stop being so loud, but also apparently to fawn over the spoils they had harvested and brought back for me.
“Sorry Rakshasa, Fergie - I got a bit overexcited.” They both seemed quick to forgive, and I waited a few minutes to see if I had drawn any unwanted guests to my area. Seeing Scree silently wing by on one of his scouting loops, I decided I had gotten lucky and stowed the concoction.
I crouched down next to Fergie to review his findings with my analyze and herbalism skills. “Oooo, nice find here. Ah, yes these mushrooms will be very beneficial for a number of different crafts.” My interface was updating as I went through and I was tagging the ones I would want to keep out and which ones I would want to store.
He chittered and drew my attention to some roots and I narrowed my eyes and scanned them more closely. “Fergie! This is a rare find indeed. I’ll be able to make a salve for headaches and one for sinuses.” I continued energetically reviewing the ferret’s finds and praising his keen eye and careful culling which brought the pristine ingredients to my capable claws.
He rushed off again after I selected the ingredients for the sinus salve that would level my stunning salves skill and complete the requirements of my profession quest. Knowing time was against me to complete it before the rest of the party returned successful, I dove in gleefully.
Yes, I made the right choice when I became an alchemist. How many people could say they made concoctions of common sense as the highlight of their day?