Orion woke to a sore back, a headache, and a disgusting taste in his mouth. He sat up slowly, not wanting to aggravate his pained body any further. He was in a darkened chamber that had a multitude of glowing colors coming from different sources around the room.

With painfully slow realization, he remembered he’d been making a potion, and that he was in the laboratory below Concoctions by Carl. Looking around, he spotted Carl once again working at a station, fussing over a series of beakers.

He walked toward Carl, and the alchemist noticed Orion was awake and approaching.

“Good evening, lad. If you slept any longer, I would’ve had to charge you rent.”

“How long was I out?” Orion rubbed his bleary eyes, trying to ease the throbbing pain in his head.

“Two days.”

“Two days? I have to check on my friends.” Orion brought up his friend’s list, but had to close his eyes when a pounding in his head protested the action.

“Hang on, lad. They can wait five more minutes.” Carl opened the fridge on the workstation before him, pulled out a glowing cauldron, and put the beakers he was working on inside.

Orion looked at the cauldron. A steady purple light radiated from it, invoking a sense of awe.

“Is that…”

“It is.” Carl smiled at Orion, a twinkle in his eye. “Inspect it, lad. You’ve outdone yourself.”

Bountiful Potion of Miraculous Healing

Consumable

Epic

Charges: 40/40

This potion is truly a worker of miracles. It will heal any who drink it to full health, and cleanse them of all debuffs, including but not limited to: poison, corruption, exhaustion, curse, burn, etc. Limited to one use per day, per person.

As this potion was crafted by the inventor of this potion, quality has been upgraded from Rare to Epic.

Not much to add with this one, chief. It’s actually quite impressive that you pulled it off—on account of your vastly inadequate intellect, I mean.

“I… whoa... I invented it?” Orion looked at Carl, too stunned to think of anything else to say.

“Check your notifications, lad. Just how many skill levels did you jump with that stunt?”

In a daze, Orion checked and was met with a series of notifications.

You have created a new recipe: Bountiful Potion of Miraculous Healing!

Any Bountiful Potion of Miraculous Healing created by you will automatically have their quality upgraded from Rare to Epic. Epic upgrade: charges increased from 30 to 40.

You now have the ability to teach other alchemists how to craft: Bountiful Potion of Miraculous Healing.

You have advanced from Apprentice 2 to Journeyman 3 in Alchemy. Congratulations!

Due to your feat of advancing over 10 ranks in order to ascend to the next tier, your Journeyman skill has been upgraded.

New Journeyman Skill: Wandering Workstation

Cooldown: 6 hours

You are able to summon a fully functional, mobile Alchemy workstation. Anything crafted at this station will not be subject to the reduced quality penalty of a mobile workstation.

Congratulations! Like a high-school dropout peddling the hottest new pyramid scheme to other idiots out of a beat-up van, your mediocrity is now mobile.

“W-wow…” was all Orion could say as he absorbed the notifications.

He’d not only crafted something capable of healing the foxes and continuing his quest, he also discovered a brand new recipe that the System said he could teach to others? How did that work?

Crafting this new recipe gained him enough experience to advance over ten ranks, and doing so had granted him an insane skill. He wasn’t even aware you got a skill for reaching the Journeyman tier.

“Carl… why didn’t you tell me we got skills for advancing to Journeyman?”

“Y-you reached Journeyman?” Carl rubbed at his bald head with both hands. “And you ask me why I didn’t tell you? Because I didn’t expect that you’d do it within five minutes of arriving in this world, you little shit! You get a new skill when you break through to every tier, but forget that. What’d you get?” His eyes lit up, like a, well, like a crazed alchemist that lived in a secret underground cave.

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“It looks like I won’t be needing to borrow that equipment from you for a mobile workstation…”

Orion relayed all of his notifications to Carl, whose face seemed to go through the full spectrum of emotions.

“Don’t get me wrong, lad—I’m happy for you, but your existence is like the System spitting on me. If you had any idea how long it took me to get to Journeyman… ah, forget it. I’m more happy for you than frustrated at my failings.”

“Does reaching Journeyman mean you can teach me new recipes?” Orion took the Bountiful Potion of Miraculous Healing with care and placed it in his inventory.

“It does, but you’re probably better off if I don’t. You get valuable experience if you discover something by yourself. There’s plenty of Journeyman recipes for you to gain experience by discovering, and you don’t really need anything with what you just invented. You’ve essentially created a cure-all with that potion there. In fact…” Carl rubbed his hands together and a glint appeared in his eye. “… I was hoping you would teach it to me.”

Orion cocked his head. “Aren’t you worried about losing experience? You’d get more from creating it yourself, right?”

“I’m not a fool, Orion.” He let out a wry laugh. “I don’t believe I could make what you made if I had ten years to devote to it. I don’t have ten years to spare, and I could do a lot of good with that potion in the meantime.”

Orion didn’t even have to think about it. “Alright. I have a condition, though.”

“Naturally, I’d think you a fool if you gave it away for free. What do you want?”

“I want a third of the net profit, and I want you to charge an exorbitant price to adventurers that require it—not all of them have good intentions, and this potion in the wrong hands could come back to hurt me. I want the price to be accessible to them, while still being prohibitive enough that they can’t abuse it. Also, I want you to sell it at cost to townsfolk, if not give it away for free.”

Carl nodded along with the former points, but looked up sharply at the latter. “Free?”

“If possible. The townsfolk can’t come back to life like we adventurers do, and they can’t be healed in the temples in the same way we can.”

“Okay, I can do that… and don’t tell Dave that I said this, but you could ask for fifty, perhaps up to eighty percent of the sales, depending on how it sells. I like you lad, and I don’t want you selling yourself short. This potion is world changing.”

“I know. I can guess at some of the ramifications… but I think a third is more than generous, as long as you agree to provide it free or at cost to any townsfolk that require it. You taught me Alchemy in the first place, and I never would have discovered this potion if not for that. Instead of giving me more, I want you to set aside a further third of the net profits to provide free healing to them—leaving a third for you.”

“Deal. Thirty-three percent of net profit will be set aside to provide free potions, a further thirty-three percent will go to you.” Carl held out his hand.

Orion smiled at Carl’s mild finagling of thirty-four percent for himself. Orion shook Carl’s hand, content to give the man a small win in the negotiations.

A wave of energy welled in Orion’s abdomen, between his ribcage and bellybutton—the same spot which his power radiated from when traversing the maze of orbs so many days ago now. The energy built, then shot out through his extended hand and into Carl.

A look of understanding and awe washed over Carl’s face.

“Wow, that’s… I could have thought of that myself!” He rubbed his head in irritation.

“That’s it?” Orion looked around the room, expecting something to happen. “I didn’t think it would be so… automated.”

“The System recognized our bargain and carried out the conditions. If I go back on our agreement, the method will be stripped from me, and I’ll be punished horrifically.” Despite his words, a smile spread across his face as his mind wandered elsewhere.

“Being punished ‘horrifically’ seems harsh.”

Carl shrugged, returning to reality. “A man is only as good as his word. I won’t go back on my word, so it isn’t an issue.”

“Can you now teach the potion to others? I wouldn’t be opposed to you expanding your production if it meant healing more townsfolk…”

“No, lad. Definitely not. You can innately teach the potion because you created it, but for you to give teaching rights to me would require another System contract. Doing so isn’t usually done, especially for potions such as this one. Just the fact you gave me the ability to craft it is rare in itself. Usually, the creators of such concoctions would keep them to themselves, driving up the price and demand.”

“I don’t have any desire to do that, though. I care more about keeping adventurers and townsfolk healthy, though obviously the money comes into it.”

Carl rubbed his eyes. “I constantly forget you’re new here. It’s not just the money at stake. Now that you’ve taught me how to create it, you’ll get a portion of the experience every time I craft it. Now, what do you think happens to that portion of experience if I teach it to other people?”

“Oh! You would get a portion of that experience, or maybe all of it, as you were the one to teach it to them?”

“Right. It would be split down the middle. While you would still get half of the pie, you would get much more by teaching other people yourself. Regardless, I can handle making enough to take care of the townsfolk and the adventurers willing to pay the exorbitant price for it, so let’s not worry about teaching others for now.”

Thanking Carl for everything, Orion walked toward the exit to go find his friends. He was truly grateful to the short alchemist. Carl could have taken advantage of him multiple times, but had continued to act in good faith with him, despite the short time they’d known each other.

“Hang on, lad. Your potion was neat, but do you want to see something truly miraculous?” Carl pulled the three beakers from earlier out of his workstation compartment. “The thing I have been working on for this past week… it’s ready.”

Orion paused mid-step and returned to Carl, drawn in by the promise in his words. Carl pulled out a small box and spoke into it.

“Dave—it is ready, brother. Come.”

Within seconds, Orion heard the trapdoor slam open, and Dave arrived in the workshop faster than a man of his stature had any right to travel. The bald man skidded to a stop beside Carl and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

“I’ve waited so long. Please let this be the one.”

“I have a good feeling about this time, brother… this time, I have been successful.” Carl clapped Dave’s shoulder and nodded reassuringly.

A grin spread over Dave’s face, and he nodded back vigorously before staring at the beakers. Carl pulled a cauldron out of his inventory, and one-by-one, poured the beakers in. First was a light-blue bubbling beaker, then a light-yellow beaker filled with a flat liquid.

Finally, Carl poured in the third. It was a dark-green mix that seemed to boil despite not having a heat source. Carl held his hands over the cauldron, and Orion watched as faint wisps of what felt like the man’s will poured into the cauldron. Not long after, Carl retracted his hands, looking down at the cauldron reverently and inspecting his creation.

“Behold, the Elixir of Luscious Growth!”