“Yep,” Orion said. “I have over fifty-thousand Stim Leaf of Uncommon quality in my inventory. Want me to show you?”
“No need to make a mess.” Carl held his hands up. “I’ve seen what happens when someone dumps a lot of material out of their inventory. Somehow, I believe you have that much Stim Leaf on you. I’m not surprised, though I wish I was.”
“So, will you help me? Twenty-seven innocent lives depend on it, not to mention the critical quest I’m on…”
“I can tell you what to do with the potion, lad—I can’t make it for you, though. The mixture I’m working on is of vital importance, and will keep me occupied for the next few days.”
“What are you making, by the way?” Orion asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
“Something of the utmost priority. Don’t worry about it. I’ll get you all set up first.”
Carl walked off toward a shelf on the wall and examined some equipment before calling Orion over to carry it back to a workstation.
He set down a massive version of the heating element on the ground, then set a pot about the height of himself down on top of it. There was an equally comically sized glass stirrer to accompany the pot.
“Two steps,” Carl said. “Simple stuff. First, you need to concentrate and reduce all of those Uncommon Stim Leaf. This can be done with most ingredients to upgrade the quality. The golden number is about a hundred-to-one to refine an ingredient down to a higher rarity. So, one-hundred of your Uncommon Stim Leaf equals one Rare Stim Leaf, and you need thirty-to-fifty Rare Stim Leaf to make a batch big enough for the corruption cleansing potion you need. Fifty to be safe, so five-thousand Uncommon Stim Leaf. Are you following so far?”
Orion nodded.
“Good. This pot should be big enough to contain all five-thousand leaves, and it will save you a massive amount of time doing them all at once. After you’ve reduced the mixture down, the second step is to transfer it to the regular-sized cauldron on the workstation, and picture what you want the potion to be used for. This is the most challenging step, and will feel like what you did when making that Dark Vision Potion of yours. Allow your will and the mixture’s will to dictate what you do to create the potion. It might demand other ingredients. Follow your intuition and grab anything from that wall.” Carl indicated a section of wall that had a series of drawers, all labeled. “Questions?”
“You said there were two steps.” Orion rubbed his chin in thought. “Does that mean I won’t distill this potion?”
“That’s right. Because you’re refining the ingredients in the first stage of combining, after the potion is mixed, it doesn’t need to be distilled. Simply add the cauldron to your inventory when it’s finished. Crafting potions in this manner makes ‘bountiful’ potions. They have several uses, or as the System calls them, charges. A bountiful potion has thirty charges, one of which is consumed each time someone uses the cauldron. That’s why we need three-to-five-thousand Stim Leaf. In a perfect world, there will be zero wastage, and the thirty Rare quality Stim Leaf that we refine will provide thirty charges. If this quest is as important as you say, however, I would suggest providing an extra sixty-seven percent to allow for any wastage.”
“Which is why you said five-thousand Stim Leaf to be safe.”
“Precisely.” Carl snapped his fingers as he remembered something. “Now that I think of it, when you pocket the cauldron, take all the smaller equipment from that work station with you, too. It’ll be beneficial to have a mobile workstation to use while you’re out adventuring. Just know that anything crafted at mobile workstations has their quality reduced by one rank. This here is an Alchemy workshop.” Carl gestured around the room. “The benefit of using an Alchemy workshop is not having the quality of potions reduced. One last thing before we start. Do you have a few days?”
“Is that how long this is going to take?” Orion asked, getting the feeling this would not be as straightforward as Carl had implied.
“Three days, I’d say. Two days to concentrate, and a day to reduce, followed by an hour to mix the potion together.”
“I thought you said this was doing it the fast way?”
“Only three days to process fifty Rare Stim Leaf from Uncommon ones? That is a fast way of doing things, lad.”
“Fair enough. My friends might be busy for a few days, anyway. I’ll let them know, then get started.” Not wanting to waste any time, Orion thanked Carl, shot off a few messages, and began making the potion.
He put all five-thousand Uncommon Stim Leaf into the pot and added a dash of water. They fit with some room to spare. He then put the heat on a low setting and stirred the pot of leaves to make sure they were getting heated evenly. He could feel the will of the pot, and as he stirred the ingredients, the leaves slowly melted into a chlorophyll-green sludge that occupied a small area in the large pot. At Carl’s prompting, Orion filled the rest of the pot with water.
While the process was straightforward, it was time intensive. Despite the lack of sunlight, he could tell that most of the day had crawled by as he focused on concentrating the leaves.
All-the-while, Carl had been working on his own mixture in a beaker as he had been before. At some point, he walked over to Orion’s workstation, peering at him and the pot filled with green liquid.
“Alright. That’ll do for today, lad. Best to get some rest and continue tomorrow.”
“I can keen going, it’s not too difficult.”
“No, lad. You need rest. You’ll need to be sharp for the last step once all the leaves are properly refined, so no skipping sleep.”
And so Orion rested. He ate dinner, slept, ate breakfast, and was ready to go again. He went back to his workstation and accompanying pot, and slipped right back into processing the Stim Leaf. Carl had already returned to work when Orion had woke, and the old Alchemist was moving about his station, fussing over a single beaker again.
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Following the will of the pot and its contents, it was easy for Orion to know how to proceed with the Stim Leaf’s concentration. The leaves had combined with the water into a single viscous mass of liquid as it rested overnight, and he continued his work of the previous day.
Time flew by with not much difference visible to the contents of the pot. Despite this, He knew he had made great strides—it might look the same, but his senses felt a power radiating from the concoction.
He watched the potion with intense focus. Carl tapped him on the shoulder—causing him to almost jump out of his skin—to let him know it was time for food and rest. He ambled to the prepared plate, devoured his dinner, then fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
He woke on the third day and found Carl once again already set up at his workstation, focused on his work. Ambling over to the pot, Orion looked down at his mixture. It had solidified even further overnight, taking on a jelly-like consistency. As he turned the heat up and started stirring, it once again returned to a liquid. He closed his eyes and searched for direction from the pot and the mixture inside of it.
Not long after he began working, he felt a great need to reduce the concoction. He turned up the heat, stirring with fluid strokes to ensure none of the Stim Leaf mixture touching the side of the pot could get too hot and burn.
He continued with a steady pace until he felt even more of an urge, so he raised the heat again and stirred with increased vigor. This continued for the rest of the day, by the end of which the pot was at a rolling boil, the liquid inside a thick, dark green amalgamation. Steam was rising from the pot in a steady cloud, and he focused completely on the pot in front of him.
The color continued to darken as the contents of the pot further reduced, and it got thicker-and-thicker. His hands ached as the day passed by, his limbs stirring the mixture in the pot without end. He started losing feeling in his arms, and thought he might pass out soon.
Just a little bit longer…
He could feel it. It was right there within his grasp, he just needed to persist through the pain.
“That’s it, lad. Keep going,” Carl stood on a stool and leaned over his shoulder, inspecting what was happening in the pot, somehow not fazed by the steam billowing out. “You’re almost at the finish line.”
Orion withdrew into himself, closing his eyes and relying entirely on what the mixture was asking of him. His stirring increased even further to match the rising temperature radiating from the heat source. He lost all self-awareness other than the needs and desires of the concoction before him.
His arms ached. He felt as though they were no longer responding to his brain’s instruction as fatigue and exhaustion set in. Just when he thought he could go no longer, just as he thought he would fail—it was done. He felt it complete, like the last piece of a puzzle snapping into place. There was nothing left to do. He didn’t have a chance to feel any happiness or elation, however.
“Not done yet, lad!”
The panicked voice of the short alchemist snapped Orion back to his senses. Carl must have moved the pot, because his stirrer was almost knocked out of Orion’s hands when the walls of the pot shifted. He opened his eyes, disoriented and exhausted.
Carl had the giant pot in hand and was pouring the contents into the cauldron on the workstation in front of Orion. The dark green liquid now had a blue light radiating from it.
“Focus, lad! Come here!”
Orion stumbled over, senses still addled. What did Carl want? The mixture was finished—he’d spent all of his focus on refining the mixture, and it was done… right?
Part of his memory returned to him.
The pot… the pot is only the first step. I have to do something with the cauldron next, but… what?
Wracked with exhaustion, Orion wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep off his weariness.
“Push your will into it, lad! Shape the potion into what you want it to be! Tell it what you need!”
What was Carl talking about? All Orion needed right now was some sleep. He’d done enough, hadn’t he? He looked into the cauldron, seeing the dark green liquid. It still had a blue light emanating from it, but it seemed to dim by the second. A sense of urgency started welling up inside of him as the light before him faded.
He remembered a talking fox, and strands of memory began weaving into place. A fox, a corrupting slime, sick creatures, his friends… his friends were relying on him.
He remembered. A surge of adrenaline ran through Orion as his body did its best to wash away the fatigue and exhaustion.
With the power of the mixture inside the cauldron waning, there was no time to waste. He pictured the leaves healing the creatures of their corruption. He envisioned an all-healing elixir, one that would wash away the pain and suffering of any person or creature that ingested it. The image of healing-light pulsing into the cauldron before him sprung to mind, and he envisioned the same light pulsing out of the finished product, to flood the body of any sentient being ingesting it. A feedback loop of endless potential was what he envisioned—his light going into the cauldron, the cauldron’s light coming back into him.
He used everything he had, hanging on until the very end as he poured every last drop of his will into the mixture.
***
Carl watched as his apprentice pulled off the impossible. Well, the improbable. Carl was a man of science, and it was hard to deny the irrefutable evidence he had just witnessed. He worried Orion would be too fatigued after refining the Stim Leaf, and that his brother would win the bet, but his apprentice had pulled through in the end.
Just as I suspected he would…
The stable blue glow coming from the cauldron was all the proof Carl needed. Even knowing his apprentice’s latent ability, it was still stunning to see the lad’s iron will pouring out of him. Carl had seen will manifest before, and it was even a regular occurrence for his will to manifest as wispy strands when crafting—Orion’s will just now, however, was something entirely different.
Where Carl’s will was a trickling stream through the mountains, Orion’s was a glacial river. A torrent of thick ropes of light had rushed out of Orion’s raised hands and into the cauldron, though perhaps ‘rushed’ wasn’t the right term. It was fast, sure, but there was an order to it; the ropes had meticulous purpose.
A chill ran down Carl’s spine as he imagined coming up against such a will.
“Alright, you won the bet. Now help me with this lanky bastard.” Dave said, struggling to support the unconscious form of Orion.
Carl helped Dave take Orion over to his cot and set him down to rest before they returned to inspect the young alchemist’s work.
As they reached the workstation, the color of the light emanating from the cauldron grabbed their attention, and they both looked at it in shock. They turned and stared at each other for a moment before Carl let out a sharp cackle of laughter.
“How… what did he do?” Dave stared at the cauldron and light in question. It was no longer radiating a blue light, but a vibrant purple.
“That little demon! He made an epic grade concoction!” Carl’s eyes dancing with mirth.
“Out of a Rare mixture that was made with Uncommon ingredients?” Dave asked. “I’m not an alchemist, but even I know that ain’t right.”
“This world is changing, brother. This lad and the other adventurers are rewriting the rules as they please.”
Dave shook his head. “For someone to outshine even your Alchemy… I still think the creatures are less scary than these adventurers. What if he sets his mind to hurting the town instead of helping us?”
“Not this one. There might be some bad eggs among the adventurers, but you can rest assured this one’s heart is in the right place.”
“How can you say for sure this lad isn’t even a little evil? We’ve both seen good men do bad things…”
“You haven’t inspected the potion yet, have you?” Carl asked, smiling in delight at Dave.
Prompted by his brother, Dave inspected the potion.
Carl once again let out a cackle of laughter as his brother’s eyes did their best to jump out of his skull. Dave’s jaw dropped open as he stared in silence, causing the tips of his scraggly beard to scrape the ground.