I walked back to the tavern and carefully peered in; thankfully, there was no Lisa lurking around. I slipped in unnoticed and casually walked to a private place in the back. It wasn’t a room, but a space with one table and a five feet tall wooden walls around it. I could still hear the conversation on the other side, but it was better than sitting in the open.

First, I ordered a pint of beer and bought another crate of wine and food for me and for Donovan. Where else to resupply than in a lovely tavern? Then I stacked all the cauldrons on the table; the waitress frowned, but hadn’t stopped me. As I inspected the cauldrons, I found a strange yellow crystal under them. After filling it with a bit of mana, a small fire lit just to warm the cauldron. Sweet!

According to the recipe, for the preparation phase I only needed to have Rodumbine on hand, so I took out the ingredients, but ten times the numbers. The recipe said I need to fill the cauldrons with water. Right, who casually travels with gallons of water? Me! I pulled out the big bottle from my bag and filled all the cauldrons, but not simultaneously. For the exploit to work, I had to choose five-second intervals.

When the water boiled, I threw the violet Alchemy thingies in. What are Alchemy thingies? The name officially was [Alchemy Reagent] but Alchemy thingies sounded better. The author of the recipe said that after the thingies turned bluish, I should throw in the crushed flower.

Crushed flower? Why that wasn’t in the preparation portion, you damn idiot?

Rodumbine was a flower with black petals, so while I was boiling the water I crushed it in my brand new handy mortar. System helped me count exactly five minutes, the color changed, and I shoved it all in. Then, I stirred as fast as I could, because I had to stir ten times as much. That left me exhausted more than a Boss fight. Terrific.

For my next step, I placed a one normal-sized potion bottle on the pub’s table. All alchemy bottles came in two types - normal, with a volume of 10 ounces and small only with a volume of 1 ounce. When the first potion turned green, I immediately used the ring, and the liquid in cauldron shrank.

Without a second to spare, I emptied it to the bottle. I had to do the same thing with other cauldrons in rapid succession. When I finished, I dropped exhausted to the bench and read the blue boxes with satisfaction.

[Congratulation! You have created the Agility Potion x10]

[Agility Potion]

Effect: +50 Agility for 10 minutes

“Yeah!” I jumped and cheered. My intuition was on point, it worked! The potion was originally a bigger one, so when I created ten smaller ones it merged and the effect was ten times stronger. Sweet. The downside was I had to create potions simultaneously; there was window only of ten seconds after the creation.

“Princess?” Lisa’s voice beamed from somewhere and her feet were quick; she came around the wall and hugged me as if I was some toy. “You are amazing! Thanks to you, we could clear the second Boss!” She squeezed me and kissed on my hair. My first reaction was to protest, but I couldn’t speak freely, it just sounded like a squeak. Right, because a beautiful girl held me this way, it was only a natural reaction.

“What’s with these ten cauldrons? Don’t you need only one?” she asked after a while of involuntary cuddling. I inwardly smiled, it felt so nice, even though she thought of me as a cute decoration.

“More-better. I am going to Duke’s ship. You coming too?” I asked her a question instead, because I didn’t want to explain her the intricacies of multi-alchemy. Well, it wasn’t my creation, I saw it in a video, but that was in five years from now. Everyone could think of it if they thought hard and then use the ring to exploit it. So maybe the system will fix it sooner than later.

“Oh, I would love to, Princess! I heard it is a hard quest. But I need to finish the dungeon,” she said in a dejected voice, but that elated me. No more of cuddling. Oh, no, that didn’t elate me at all. Why? No more of cuddling.

“I get it. Good luck, friend,” I said, and she kissed me on my hair again, nodded and returned to her table. Please, Lisa, kiss me more! With the goal to get more kisses, I peeked into her ‘room’ and people around her table waved at me. No way. I squeaked more, quickly returned, and resumed my Alchemy. Which resulted in 100 small potions - ten bottles for the emergency situations.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

My slow walking speed and dejected look revealed how excited I was when I entered my mentor’s lair. “Princess! Come sit with us!” a loud voice of Donovan welcomed me. Wonderful. Just wonderful. I nodded and came near the desk they were squatting around. A bizarre sight; tea party on the ground? At least they prepared furniture this time. After a brief consideration if I should just run away, I sat down and Donovan handed me a cold tea. Although it was cold on touch, it smelled like a ground mixed with blueberries. It tasted only as a ground though.

“So, what’s the story with you and Donovan? How did you meet?” I said; my glorious attempt at conversation.

“When my mother died, she wished for me to be a knight! Like in the legends, when humans were only a lower race!” Donovan yelled and took out his sword and waved with him in the air.

Before I could say how stupid he looked, Teorn scolded him, “Donovan, get that out of your head. The past is in the past. Hero, you are just in time. Duke’s fleet will be here shortly. I spoke with our harbormaster; you have one spot on the third ship. You need to convince the Captain, or Duke himself, to fulfill your destiny.”

“I knew there will be a catch. Wonderful,” I complained while sipping the tea. Too bad they hadn't added a rum into it, it would mask the taste of rocks. Blah. Before I noticed, the old man pressed himself on me from behind, patting my head.

“You will be fine, you are a Hero!” He peaked into my cleavage from the top view and I could feel his saliva on my hair. Fine. I emptied the rest of my cup onto him, even smashing the cup onto his head, which made him shrink back from me.

“Let’s go, Donovan.” Unexplainable anger was boiling inside me, and I fiercely stomped with each step. Why am I like this? I couldn’t understand my feelings, again. The not-yet-knight joined me just when I was leaving, as he hastily grabbed his stuff.

“Good luck!” the damn mentor shouted at us with a laugh and healed himself.

I hadn’t seen the river going through the Village until we wandered there with Donovan. The harbor was in a secluded area down and around the cute mountain. So when I first saw the river, I exclaimed loudly, “No way!”

Why? That was because the area was so busy, like the train stations during the rush hour. Hundreds, maybe even into thousands elves were running around, shouting, selling wares, boarding ships and whatnot.

The master of harbor was an older man with a loud voice. Every step we came closer to him, an anxiety replaced my calm feeling. I slowed down to a crawl and walked around aimlessly. Donovan blinked at me with a puzzled expression, and because he thought I didn’t see the unmistakable man, he grabbed me by my hand and dragged there. Wait!

“Mister Teorn said we can sail with the Duke!” His characteristic yell finally had a good use in this loud place. The master eyed us and nodded.

“That’s right. Wait,” he yelled as well. Terrific. As I was shielding my pointy ears, he called a young boy and ordered him to guide us. That was a good thing, because with hundreds of people around us, my concentration was abysmal. The sounds of countless people talking over each other, the sounds of ships, the ugly smell of rotten things... Everything overwhelmed the poor me.

The kid guided us to a big dock area, which was off-limits and supervised by the town guards. After the young guide proved we belong there, they let us behind a rope hanging on old rotting columns. We found a secluded place near the point where the mountain met the river and I finally rested by leaning on the rock.

“We are here!” The boy held out a hand and grinned. He wanted a tip? I looked at the Donovan, but he was admiring the female guards standing nearby. After I scanned the dirty boy, I gave him one silver, but judging by his widened eyes and thanking me ten times over, I overpaid again. Whatever.

“Don’t look at the girls and rather tell me, how long did you train?” I slapped Donovan on his back, which was a mistake. The armor was no joke, and my hand pulsated with pain.

“I have been in services of my master for over ten months!” he yelled and grinned at my cleavage.

“Don’t yell, and that wasn’t the question. What can you do? What sort of training have you had?”

“I followed my master! When I had to, I received a hit; he always healed me afterwards,” he said proudly. Damn old man! This kid was so useless.

“Show me how would you strike an enemy, okay?” I tried to stay calm and asked him in a neutral voice, and he nodded. His stance was nonexistent, he just stood like an idiot and swung sword without moving his foot or hip, or anything!

After I cursed the old pervert thousand times in mind, I said, “Let’s have a bet, okay?” I took out my staff and pointed it at him. I haven't tried the whip yet, and this wasn't the best place to train. “If you can stand for ten seconds, not fall even once, you will win. If you hit me even once, you will win.”

He eyed my staff with a scornful look. “What are the stakes, Princess?”

“When you win, I let you touch my butt. But if I win, I will call you Don and I will teach you the basics of swordsmanship.” He agreed to that uneven condition the moment I said his win prize. What a fool.

[You have used the Agility Potion]

[Agility increased by 50]

After I nodded to start the match, he took an initiative. The idiot moved the sword closer to me in his right hand and then thrusted it directly at my chest. Thanks to my great Agility, I side-stepped and gently touched the sword with a tip of my staff and directed his attack to the left. He almost fell and presented me with his wide open right side. I touched him with one finger, and that was enough for him to fall.

“Again!” he shouted as he scrambled back to his feet. So we faced again. For the entire duration of potion, I spared with him and defeated him every time, but I couldn’t understand his unyielding spirit.

“Okay, Don, that is enough. So, what do you think?”

He looked at me with eager eyes and said, “Your butt is amazing!”