A knock at the back door of my shop draws my attention away from the preparations for today's brewing sessions. I'm not expecting any guests so it's strange someone would knock there unless they were trying to scout the place out. That's especially true since my shop is closed on Sundays. There's no reason for someone to believe that I'm here apart from those who know I perform most of my brewing on weekends, not weekdays.

I walk over to the back door and tap a panel beside it. An image pops up on the panel, showing a woman my age with hair the green of grand oaks in summer and eyes the brown of rich soil. Kelsey's dressed in skinny jeans and a light green shirt with sneakers to match, her hair tied in a braid. Strapped across her torso is a leather baldric, a staff fixed onto it against her back. The top of the staff has a curved design, with a green-and-brown crystal set into it.

"Texting you wasn't an invitation to come over, Kels," I roll my eyes as I open the door.

"I know," Kelsey says. "But I figured, what better way to answer questions than to do it in person? Mind if I come in?"

"Sure," I gesture for her to enter and she does, then examines my outfit. "What?"

"Do you seriously dress like that for brewing?"

My current outfit is a pair of jeans, a medium-dark grey t-shirt, and a medium-light blue short-sleeved button-up over it, left unbuttoned in my usual style. Of course, I'm wearing a belt and sneakers at the moment as well.

This is her first time showing up while I'm actually doing alchemy, so I guess she wasn't aware that I don't change outfits like they do in modern alchemy labs. There, the alchemists wear lab coats and goggles in addition to gloves and special boots. I don't really find that necessary.

"These are normal clothes," I close the door and make sure the security enchantments are still active. "I only need my gloves for the actual brewing."

"Huh," she says. "Mind if I grab a se…or not. You don't have seats in here?"

"There's a chair at that table," I indicate a table outside of the brewing zone. "Just don't knock over anything there. Those are magic inks meant for scrolls and can be… problematic if spilled."

Their lids are on and the jars are sturdy, but I don't want to risk an accident. Learned the hard way that it's possible even with strong measures taken against it. Also learned in that incident just how badly magic inks can react with each other… at least I wasn't hurt.

"Got it," she pulls off her staff and leans it against the wall, then moves the chair over as I grab a cauldron and heft it onto the fire pad. "That's a big cauldron. And you have bigger, too."

"One hundred gallons," I say. "And the biggest one there is three hundred. I was buying new tools last night since I'm working with Tier 7 materials today and figured I'd get the full set, just in case."

"Working with Tier 7 materials?" She asks. "I take it you wanting to know what it's like as a freelance Rank 5 is because you Awakened sometime this past week?"

Kelsey and I met four years ago, shortly after she Awakened. Rather than meeting through my shop, we met outside of a Dungeon. It was a Category 1-1 Dungeon and she ran it solo, as a Rank 5 can do even at Level 1. There were a couple of porters to collect loot for her at the time, though there was still plenty leftover for scavengers to hunt.

I'd been contacted and asked about the scavenger job while she went inside, so I was there when she came out. She was a lot more shy back then – had only just Awakened a few days before – and wanted to be friends with the slightly-older boy who looked like he knew what he was doing.

It took some time before we actually hung out at all, but I found out before then that she kept asking if "the gentle-looking scavenger boy with the purple eyes" was going to be one of the scavengers for the Dungeon. That's what led to me asking if she wanted to hang out one encounter, and we've been friends ever since.

Since she's a registered Awakened who freelances rather than having joined a guild, I figured I'd ask her what it's like. I wasn't expecting her to come over.

"I Awakened on Friday," I tell her as I slip on a pair of snow-white gloves. "Did my Daily Dungeon then, then the Daily Dungeon and Weekly Dungeon yesterday, and my Daily Dungeon for today was before lunch. Going to brew up some stuff using Tier 1 materials first, then some potions using the Tier 7 materials I've obtained."

"Moving into doing Tier 7 goods as well?" She asks. "Not just starter?"

"I can influence the quality of the brews."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Isn't that a modern alchemy technique?"

"How they do it is one way," I say. "But I do it through a different method."

"Are you going to let me watch as we talk?" She asks. "Or do I need to be quiet?"

"I don't need absolute silence," I tell her as I move a crate of apple-like fruits next to my brewing station. "And my brewing technique isn't a secret or anything. Most traditional alchemists will use similar methods. How often are you called to do Dungeon runs?"

"Not very often," she answers. "Most are pretty weak and don't need a Rank 5 to handle, but I'm also Level 18 at the moment, so that means there are fewer that actually need someone at my level. When we get called in, we get paid just for doing the run itself so they want to make sure it's someone who could handle it but isn't too strong unless necessary."

"Just for the run?" I ask. "It's not based on the loot?"

"There's also earnings from the loot as well," she tells me. "But yes, they have to pay us based on the run. That's based on both the Dungeon's Category and our own Rank. If they pay a Rank 5 the same amount as a Rank 1, they'd get a lot of backlash so they up the price a bit."

"Even for the same Category?"

"Well," she says. "A Rank 5 who just Awakened receives as many points into their stats at a minimum as a Rank 1 would have built up only after reaching Level 14, or Level 31 when it comes to HP and MP. We need as much EXP to reach Level 2 as it takes for them to reach Level 12 and then some."

Those are all fair points.

"In other words," I say as I set down a basket of herbs. "They would be calling in someone who can solo-run the entire Dungeon. Someone who would likely be able to use that time to run something else."

"Exactly she says. "Which is why they also factor in our Rank for pay. We're basically the last resort for weaker Dungeons or Breaks."

"Makes sense," I say. "If I registered, how often could I expect to be called in? And how much wiggle room is there on that? I do prefer my shop."

"You have crafting-based Classes, right?" She asks. "The odds of it are very slim for craftsmen unless they have combat abilities. Craftsmen tend to not have much fighting ability."

"I have [Magic Craftsman] and the four highest mages."

"Okay, not what I was expecting," she snorts. "Well, that would normally mean you'd be called in if your abilities suited the Dungeon or Break for sure. Maybe once every three or four weeks? You'd only get a few months' worth of rejections before they revoke your license for failure to comply with the conditions."

"Would me being the Dungeon Baby affect things?"

Bad parents sometimes take their children into a Dungeon in secret, then abandon them there after completing it, preventing the kid from leaving. Unlike Daily and Weekly Dungeons, people aren't ejected after the post-completion timer ends. Instead, they're obliterated when the Dungeon closes.

I was found in a Rank 5-1 Dungeon as a baby, with all of the goblins inside dead. Unlike other cases, mine is surrounded in a bunch of mystery. The Dungeon was barely ten minutes old when the team went inside and no one saw anyone enter – yet every single monster inside was dead. The timer before the Dungeon closed was also fresh, though it was as if the Dungeon was cleared immediately upon appearing.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

It's the one and only case of an abandonment in a Dungeon where everything about it is filled with mystery. That's led to some rumors that I'm actually a monster in human form, though it doesn't really stop Awakened from using my shop when they learn about it.

"Do you want the honest answer?" Kelsey asks.

"I do."

"Nope."

"Nope?"

"I've heard enough while working with the bureau," she shrugs. "They're pretty sure you're human. Considering all of the resources here, I'm guessing your Daily and Weekly Dungeons are resource-gathering ones?"

"They have combat," I say. "But yeah, there's plenty of resources in them."

"That's because of your crafting Class," Kelsey tells me. "You can expect that to keep happening, so if your interest in registering is for obtaining resources, I wouldn't stress about it too much."

"Okay," I start moving some five-gallon buckets over to the near the cauldron I set up. "Is it okay to ask about your Awakening Dungeons? There doesn't seem to be much information on them when I look it up, especially not for Rank 5s."

"That's because we can't talk about them," she says. "We know enough that they're not typical Dungeons, and they are able to be completed without too much difficulty as long as someone actually tries. People who claim they're deadly and such are usually idiots who didn't put much effort in."

"Hold on," I say. "Why can't you talk about them?"

"Don't know," she shrugs. "Some sort of force keeps us from discussing them. We can research similar Dungeons to see if they match any of ours, but we can't actually reveal information about their setups. That's why we know that they aren't typical Dungeons – because no one's ever found a record of a Dungeon which matched one they did for their Awakening Quests – but really not much more."

"Strange," I decide to give it a try. "My Level 1 Awakening Dungeon was the same Dungeon I was found in as a baby."

Kelsey stares at me.

I stare back.

"You're serious, aren't you?" She asks.

"I am," I confirm. "After I completed it, I received a Title which grants me access to it as I please. It's apparently a Mythic Forest."

"A field of dirt… is a Mythic Forest?"

"I think something destroyed it," I shrug, then grab a bucket of low-strength essence crystals and move it to my alchemy work table. "The Title calls me [The Keeper of the Gate to the Mythic Forest] and that Dungeon is where I appear."

"That is… very strange," she says. "I've never heard of someone receiving a Title immediately, either."

"So that's not a Rank 5 thing?"

"No," she answers. "I wonder if it's related to you being found there?"

"That was my thought as well," I tell her. "So you really can't talk about your Awakening Dungeons? It didn't seem like anything tried to stop me."

"No," she says. "We're forcibly stopped by some force."

"Okay," I say. "Could you show me?"

"My most recent Awakening Dungeon," she begins. "Was some hilly fields filled with boars, the boss being a great, flaming bird with two pairs of wings. I didn't know about the second pair until after I destroyed the first and it whipped those out to keep flying."

Kelsey stares at me for a few seconds after.

"I didn't expect to be able to do that," she says. "I swear, Evan, I'm not messing with you. That's never happened before."

"I believe you," I tell her. "I've known you long enough to trust you on that sort of thing, Kels. Oh. And heads-up, but I am asking a few different Rank 5s I know about being a freelancer. It's not me not trusting you, I've texted several people already. So if you hear about me asking from one of our mutual friends, that's all that's going on."

"I figured," she says. "This is the sort of thing you should ask multiple people for information about. It would be strange if you didn't ask multiple. And if you didn't trust my answer and wanted verification from others because of that, there wouldn't be a reason for you to ask me. Or it would mean you don't trust any of us."

"Yeah," I say. "If the general consensus is that I shouldn't worry about registering, then I'll stay unregistered."

"The main perk to it is being able to run Dungeons," she says. "So that would be EXP and resources for you. You'll be able to get the materials and sell them as needed from your Quest Dungeons from the sounds of it, so I think the main reason for you would be to get extra EXP."

"Advancing quickly isn't really a concern of mine," I tell her. "I'll keep that in mind, though."

"Alright," she looks at the stuff I've moved around. "You only use one cauldron?"

"Yeah," I grab an essence crystal which is more faded than not. "In the labs, they generally use multiple pots, vats, or whatever, but traditional alchemy is usually all in one pot or cauldron, rarely in two or more."

I begin grinding up the essence crystal with a mortar and pestle, then dump the dust into a glass bowl before grinding up another. This repeats until I've filled the bowl with the dust of roughly twenty essence crystals, the powder a pale green.

Once that's finished, I place some reddish-orange crystals beneath the cauldron, then strike a match and touch the flame to one of the crystals. The crystals immediately light, then I use a poker to move them around a little.

Opening up one of the buckets, I examine the clear, very faintly blue-tinted water within.

[Mystic Spring Water] Tier: 1 Pure water from a magical spring, it is infused with magical energy.

Using mana spring water would be better for this, except it's more difficult to find in lower quality Tiers. Not having that just means I need to use more of some of the other ingredients.

I pick up the bucket and pour the five gallons of mystic spring water into the cauldron, then I set the bucket off to the side and dump the essence crystal dust into the water. With a long-handled ladle, I stir the powder into the water until both have dissolved, then add in another four buckets of the mystic spring water.

While that heats up, I begin using an apple-slicer on the manapples, which resemble granny smith apples that fade to blue at their tops.

[Manapple] Tier: 1 An apple with juices filled with mana. Stored Mana: 93 MP

A Tier 1 manapple of the most common size can hold up to 120 MP within it, though removing the core does reduce that a little. When I slice them, I dump the cores into another bucket. The manapple slices are dropped into a separate bucket from those.

After all four pounds of the manapples I purchased are sliced and their cores removed, I use a masher in the bucket to break up the slices further.

That's set to the side, then I pull some herbs out of a basket and set them down. They have slender stems that reach 6" in length, with thin, narrow leaves growing out of it all the way to the tip starting from about half an inch above the bottom, each of those roughly a quarter of an inch in length. The center vein for each of the leaves is blue in a much lighter shade than the green of the rest of the leaf.

[Manasprig Leaf] Tier: 1 An herb filled with mana. Stored Mana: 1 MP

Tier 1 manasprig leaves only have 1 MP in them.

I scrape the leaves off the stalks and dump them onto a cutting bored, then drop the de-leafed sprigs into the bucket with the apple cores. Once there's a suitable pile of the sprigs, I chop them with a knife, then scrape them into a bowl. I continue this until I've chopped up two pounds' worth of the leaves.

The last reagent for the potion are manacap mushrooms. At Tier 1, they contain up to 500 MP in their caps, which I separate from their stalks. I drop their stems into the dump bucket, then slice up the caps, dropping them into a bucket. With the caps being fairly heavy, ten pounds doesn't even fill half of the five-gallon bucket.

"I need to head out," Kelsey tells me after receiving a notification on her phone. "Shame I don't get to see the alchemy part, but a Rank 5-2 Dungeon just appeared and I'm the first on the list for them today."

"Alright," I tell her as I finish with the mushrooms. "Good luck."

Kelsey grabs her staff and leaves while I examine the solution in the cauldron, which is now touched with green rather than blue, but still only faintly.

[Essence Water] Tier: 1 Mystical water infused with magical essence, it is capable of drawing out magical essences.

It's ready to go, so I scoop out two cups of mashed manapple and dump it into the cauldron, followed by a cup of chopped manasprig leaves and two cups of chopped manacap mushroom caps. I stir those until the mixture starts to blend together, then I repeat this process, adjusting the amounts slightly as I work.

The green-tinted water begins to return to a blue color as I work, and as the essence water breaks down the reagents, the solids fade into nothingness. As a form of magic, alchemy tends to do as it pleases.

As I near the end, I determine by the color and smell of the potion that it will be a little too strong for my desire, so I add in a little bit more mystic spring water and essence crystal dust. I continue adjusting things until I'm satisfied, then touch a wand with a greenish-blue crystal at the tip to the fire magic crystals beneath the pot. Each one extinguishes when touched, then I examine the fluid in the cauldron.

[Mana Potion] Tier: 1 A potion of liquid mana, which immediately restores the user's MP when consumed. Mana Content: 200 MP per ounce

After factoring in the essence extraction and what parts of the reagents were liquified and which parts where completely destroyed by the alchemy process, there's roughly thirty gallons of the potion. I clean up my tools, then transfer the mana potion into five-gallon buckets meant for storing potion.

That's one crafting session down, but I've got more to do before the day's done. My shop will be well-stocked on some things this week.