CHAPTER 93 - SODA-LIGHTFUL I COKE-N'T CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT
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I went back to level 20, put all my stuff in my inventory, and made 29 [Staircases]. Since I wanted to descend as quickly as possible, I put Mr. Bear in [Travel Mode] and piggybacked a ride all the way to level 50. Using the puppet’s levitation power, we flew down at lightning speed noiselessly, which minimized the possibility of attracting mobs.
As we descended, the normal-looking earthen walls and floors gradually turned light orange, dark orange, then pink, with each color change denoting a difference in the power levels of the tunnels. The Chitinous Caverns were a magical place that became more unusual the lower one descended.
Mr. Bear and I stopped at level 50 where the walls, floors, and ceiling were made of pink marble tiles shot with silver and gold veins. Here and there, the marble tiles had fallen off, revealing bright pink soil. The overall effect was a bit much.
“I feel like I’m inside a womb or something,” I said to Mr. Bear.
Compared to the safe space at level 20, this one was five times larger. It was basically the size of three basketball courts, but one-third of the space was taken up by a pool lined with jagged pink rocks.
“Yes!”
I don’t know why, but I was a little afraid the spring wouldn’t be here. Taking an empty [Bowl], I dipped it in the spring and then examined the spring water. It was filled with tiny bubbles. I drank some of the cool naturally carbonated water to refresh myself, then got to work.
First, I needed to gather lots of soda water.
I went to my inventory, mentally clicked on the [Use] command on empty [Glass Bottles], then used the bottles with the spring. Ten bottles appeared at the edge of the spring, and I gasped in surprise as water shot out of the pool and into the bottles. When the bottles were full, I put them back in my inventory and used ten [Corks] on the filled bottles. The ten bottles of uncorked soda water then disappeared, and ten bottles sealed with corks appeared.
I repeated this several times before moving on to the next step.
Next, I needed [Kola Flavoring].
Though this item was now discontinued in Adventure Incarnate, it came as no surprise to me when I saw that I had it in my inventory. There were lots of discontinued items in Adventure Incarnate. That is to say, the developers often made one-off items that were made for special events, holidays, and so forth. GodIAm liked to collect rare items, especially discontinued ones, even if they were no longer useful, like the [Packet of Kola Flavoring].
Inside the packet were the soda flavoring ingredients: kola nut powder, brown sugar, orange zest, orange juice, lemon zest, lemon juice, lime zest, lime juice, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and vanilla essence.
The space on level 50 was a bit cramped, but I somehow managed to build the smallest log cabin in it. Filling a cauldron with water, I hung it over the fireplace to boil, adding in all of the ingredients except for the zest and juices. As I waited for the water to boil, I thought about the people I had left behind.
Were my apprentices all right? How worried were Fengying, Deming, and the rest of my staff? Shuye and Prince Baiyu were probably busy trying to look for me. By now, they must be investigating the teleportation stone.
Thankfully, the water started boiling just as I started feeling sorry for myself for being stuck in a dangerous place all alone. I stirred the water and moved it away from the direct heat to let it simmer for a while. It smelled like rich burnt caramel. Once twenty minutes had passed, I took the cauldron from the fire and placed a large cutting board under it before setting it down on the log cabin’s only table. I needed to let it cool before adding the zest and juices.
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In the meantime, I went back to the spring to gather more soda water to make [Kola-Kola Soda].
The soda wasn’t just a refreshing drink, it was a very useful item that functioned like an energy potion. Drinking a bottle of kola replenished one-fourth of a player’s energy bar, with a limit of one use per day. A player could drink more than one per day, but it only refilled one’s energy the first time.
Unfortunately, a few days after it was released, the [Kola-Kola Soda] was removed from the game. The update notes cited “balancing issues” while the rumor in the player forums was that the developers had gotten a cease-and-desist notice from a large multinational company because the name of the item, as well as the bottle and logo design, was too close to a famous brand of cola in real life.
A week later, GodIAm told me that the real reason was because he had found an infinite energy bug using the new item and informed the game’s developers about it. He refused to reveal the exact details to me, which was a pity because now I would really love to know it.
“Infinite energy sounds nice, doesn’t it, Mr. Bear,” I said out loud to my only companion.
The update made the soda water spring "inactive" by turning off its [Use] option. The sodas we had in our inventory were also replaced with [Commemorative Gold Bars] which looked and functioned exactly like regular [Gold Bars]. Of course, due to their relative rarity, [Commemorative Gold Bars] were worth one hundred times more than their regular counterparts. Even today, years later, I still winced when I remembered how I had accidentally smelted my rare [Commemorative Gold Bars] instead of the regular bars since the two variants looked exactly alike.
There was a life lesson to be learned there. Once “use item” had been clicked, it was impossible to cancel an activity that was underway. I tried it with the bottles. After clicking on “use bottles with spring,” I tried to cancel the action, but I could not.
A few hours later, I judged that the incomplete mixture had cooled enough and added the fruit zest and juices. Then I put the cauldron in my inventory and used it with an empty cask with a tap.
Lastly, I used the cask of [Kola Flavoring] with the [Bottles of Soda Water]. In the game, the bottles simply disappeared from the inventory and were replaced with [Kola-Kola Soda]. Here, the cask and bottles appeared on the floor of my log cabin. The corks popped out of the bottles and hovered above them as liquid flavoring flew from the tap into the bottles. The water glowed for a second and then the corks went back into the bottles, and I had my [Kola-Kola Soda].
Though my energy bar was still mostly full, I was too excited to wait and drank a bottle immediately. My energy bar was completely refilled.
“Wow, it tastes exactly like a Coke!” I said out loud.
I continued making more sodas. Though I was in a hurry to level up combat and go home, this was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. Who knew when or even if I would ever be able to return to this spring to make more energy potions?
Even so, I decided to limit myself to today and all of tomorrow to make more sodas. After that, I was going to focus on combat.
I made as many as I could, taking a break for lunch, and brewing up another cauldron of flavoring before going to bed. After the nights I had spent sleeping in tents, the log cabin was a very welcome upgrade. The bed, though small, was reasonably comfortable.
The next day, I spent all my time making more sodas, and at the end of it, I had 800. That should be enough since my apprentices and I only needed to use them during planting and harvest season, when our energy needs were higher.
That night, I could hardly sleep for excitement. Tomorrow was the day I was going to pwn those bugs!
CHAPTER 93.5
An excerpt from the journal of Shuye Skullcrusher, Guardian of the Ancient Hill Forest:
Finally, a stroke of luck! A pair of sweethearts from the Wolf Clan, who were in the Southerlands to hunt demons together in order to save up for their upcoming wedding, found traces of our missing human and followed the clues to a cave where they found the message “Violet is inside” carved on a surface.
My wife’s pregnancy isn’t too advanced yet, so she moved in with one of her sisters and allowed me to join the rescue party.
That part of the Southerlands only has weak demons, so I assured her I would be back very soon.