Theo wasn’t surprised with the [Refined Dexterity Essence] he’d brewed. It was made from cultivated and aligned ingredients that had been distilled. It was almost the peak of his ability, missing twice the amount of cultivation and a few levels of alignment favor with Drogramath. But, as with all things related to Drogramath, establishing a relationship took time. Not that offering some herbs at his shrine every day was much of a relationship.
The alchemist brewed a sample of the [Dexterity Potion] and inspected it.
[Dexterity Potion]
[Potion]
Common
Created by: Belgar
Grade: Excellent Quality
Alignment:
Drogramath (Middling Bond)
Drink to enhance dexterity.
Effect:
+13 Dexterity for 1.75 hours.
Before, he had only brewed aligned, refined potions for stats. This one was aligned, cultivated, and refined. The difference between 0% cultivation and 100% cultivation for this potion was apparently an additional point in the related stat, and a quarter hour increase on the duration. Those were the small increases he was used to, but the result was still monstrous.
It took a while for the still to spit out enough modifier for Theo to experiment with. His new setup meant he could skip a few steps and end up with a better result. Even before examining the modifier essence, he could feel its alignment to an element. Everything about the essence seemed related to wind, from the way it swirled in the bottle to the scent it put off. The alchemist was unsure how he could have bottled the smell of the breeze, but there it was.
[Refined Elemental Wind]
[Essence Modifier] [Refined Essence Modifier]
Rare
Created by: Belgar
Grade: Great Quality
Alignment:
Drogramath (Middling Bond)
Alignment Effects:
Resulting modifier will be more effective.
High chance to add an additional modifier to the resulting potion.
2 units (liquid)
A refined modifier essence. Add to a completed potion to add the “elemental wind” modifier. Elemental wind is unpredictable. Consult elemental alignments for best effect.
That was unnecessarily mysterious. Elemental wind seemed just vague enough to be a good modifier, but that was hard to say. His instinct said it would make great defensive potions. Something about the elemental wind spoke to him, like flying away on a gentle breeze. He snapped out of the thought and set his sights on his [Retreat Potion]. He had a decent stock of the potions, since it was part of his escape plan. The alchemist mixed the [Refined Elemental wind] with his [Retreat Potion] and inspected the result.
[Retreat Potion]
[Refined Elemental Wind]
[Potion] [Modified Potion]
Rare
Created by: Belgar
Grade: Excellent Quality
Alignment:
Drogramath (Middling Bond)
One second after drinking, the imbiber will be propelled backwards. Distance depends on the quality of the potion.
At the end of this potions effect, the imbiber will gain [Featherfall] for 10 seconds. Imbiber will fall slowly for the duration of the effect.
A blast of elemental wind staggers all targets in front of imbiber.
Effect:
[Retreat] on self.
[Featherfall] on expiration of [Retreat].
[Elemental Wind Blast] casts in a cone.
The potion improved in every way, a result of the refined modifier essence. Everything those refined modifiers touched turned out better than they started. The investment Theo made into researching the refinement techniques and taking Zarali’s advice on improving his current setup, was worth it. This might have been the best pairing of potion to modifier he’d ever done, so he took a little time to appreciate his work. The egg in his bag swelled with approval.
While Theo was happy to have discovered the [Elemental Wind] modifier, there was a lot of work to be done. He considered which modifier would bring the best out of the [Dexterity Potion]. His new modifier might work, but he still considered which others would be nice. Having the potion in a pill form could be useful, but diminished effects on stats would turn adventurers away. They’d always want as much as possible. [Surge] could work, but he didn’t see how it could benefit an increase in attributes. His intuition said it would shorten the duration, but increase the amount of [Dexterity] increased. He rummaged through his row of [Dimensional Storage Crates] until he found an old flask of [Refined Surge] modifier.
The [Refined Surge] modifier complimented the [Dexterity Potion] well. They swirled in the new vial, bubbling and putting off a yellow-green vapor that shot up the vent in the ceiling. After a moment, Theo let the reaction calm down and examined the result.
[Dexterity Potion]
[Refined Surge]
[Potion] [Modified Potion]
Epic
Created by: Belgar
Grade: Excellent Quality
Alignment:
Drogramath (Middling Bond)
Drink to enhance dexterity greatly for a brief period.
Gain a small amount of dexterity when this effect expires.
Effect:
+26 Dexterity for 10 minutes.
+5 Dexterity for 30 minutes after initial effect expires.
Now that was interesting. The potion consumed most of the time to create a doubling effect on the bonus dexterity. He couldn’t tell if it was worse, or better though. If he drank the potion, it would more than double his current dexterity. He’d be zipping through the town for 10 minutes, but there had to be more than a few downsides. Suddenly changing attributes was disorienting. Even with 5 dexterity improvement he got from withdrawing items from his inventory wasn’t easy to handle. He’d have to leave it up to the adventurers to tell him if it was worth it. A sudden burst of strength, or vigor might be the difference between winning a fight and losing a fight.
The [Dexterity Potion] with the [Refined Surge] modifier led to a strange thought. How much [Intelligence] did it take to get the weird precognition powers that Khahar displayed? Or the absurd speed that Sulvan showed. Even with his relatively low scores, he could riddle the answer out. Cores often provided stats when they were leveled. A person’s overall level did matter, but it was only a single point into a stat every level. If he had 10 cores, all adding 10 [Intelligence], he’d have an extra 100. That was something to consider for core synergy. But Theo always thought of building himself like a generalist, getting the most from every attribute.
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It was too much to worry about for now, and he dismissed the entire idea. The only thing that mattered at that moment was that he had decent potions to enhance every attribute, and the means to grow them at 100% cultivation. Theo had enough [Refined Anti-Mage] to test those out, so he did so. He inspected the result after brewing the potion, a swirling mix of silver and green for his new [Dexterity Potion].
[Dexterity Potion]
[Refined Anti-Mage]
[Potion] [Modified Potion]
Epic
Created by: Belgar
Grade: Excellent Quality
Alignment:
Drogramath (Middling Bond)
Drink to enhance dexterity.
Creates a magic shell around the imbiber. Spells cast against the imbiber must perform a check. If the attacker’s primary attribute is less than the defender’s primary attribute, the attacker’s spell does half damage.
All damage halved is redirected to the caster.
Effect:
+13 Dexterity for 1.75 hours.
[Magic Shell (Dexterity Check)] for 15 minutes.
Failing [Magic Shell (Dexterity Check)] inflicts halved damage back to the caster.
This was what Theo expected from high-quality essences. [Anti-Mage] was the property that kept on giving amazing potions, all geared to stopping mages. The alchemist had little trouble from mages, excluding Uharis, but it was worth investing in. It was the most stable modifier, often producing the best results. If he wasn’t careful, customers might assume he was planning a secret war against mages all over the planet. It might be a title he could live with.
While he didn’t think the [Refined Elemental Wind] modifier essence would add much to the [Dexterity Potion], it had a clear elemental alignment. Since this was all a test run, he could part with more essence for the sake of experimentation. Even if the potion wasn’t useful, it would be worth checking out. Theo applied his [Refined Elemental Wind] modifier to another [Dexterity Potion], having to brew another of his attribute-enhancement potions to check the effect. He inspected the result.
[Dexterity Potion]
[Refined Elemental Wind]
[Potion] [Modified Potion]
Epic
Created by: Belgar
Grade: Excellent Quality
Alignment:
Drogramath (Middling Bond)
Drink to enhance dexterity.
Drink to increase speed scaling.
Effect:
+13 Dexterity for 1.75 hours.
For 1 hour, your physical speed scales 1.25 times better than normal.
The rules on the aligned modifier essences stated they might provide an additional modifier to a potion, but Theo had never seen it happen. If it could provide 2 modifiers, it did. He assumed the situation here was that the [Dexterity Potion] could not provide a second modifier for the [Refined Elemental Wind], and he couldn’t blame it. Raw [Dexterity] increased the speed of the user. It was hard to understand the effect, but it was significant. If the potion applied to all the user’s [Dexterity], then this was big. He set that aside in his mind as the possible biggest winner of the day.
Theo contacted Tresk about the potions, asking her which she’d rather have with her. Since the potions didn’t stack, something she claimed to have tried before, it came down to the situation.
The speed one wins out, Tresk said. The burst one sucks, and the anti-magic one is situational.
Theo made a mental note of that, and the pairings for the other attribute potions were clear. Each one would pair best with their respective elemental modifiers. That would unlock more potential for scaling improvements. He could imagine that [Strength] potions would scale with physical strength, [Vigor] potions with durability, but [Wisdom] and [Intelligence] were always a mystery. The alchemist worked a knot out of his neck, rolling his shoulder and cracking his back. He was hunched over the table for so long, it was well into the afternoon.
The store below would have to wait for some attribute potions. Theo spent a small amount of time brewing [Lesser Potions of Purification] from his leftover stock. He set one still to distill some [Refined Healing Essence], another to make [Preserving Essence], and the last for [Supple Essence]. Perg had not come around for more of her alchemical tannery supplies in a while, but she should have been getting low. He’d have to remember to swap them out at day’s end, distilling some [Purifying Essence]. It was hard to predict when an epidemic would spread through the town.
Theo’s governance core hit 14 as he was heading downstairs, something that no longer surprised him. He found Salire haggling with some people for gear and he waited for them to finish.
“Getting the hang of it?” Theo asked.
“Just about,” she said, giggling. “It’s kinda fun.”
“Yeah, Azrug seemed to enjoy it,” Theo said. He could sense his golems doing something abnormal, but couldn’t get the full picture through the lodestones. “How much money are you skimming from the store?”
“Enough to eat and pay my bills,” Salire said, running her fingers through her hair nervously. “Feels wrong to take more.”
“Ah, just set yourself a salary,” Theo said. “I don’t know what the hell to do with this store. Seems like it’s just a place to train new merchants.”
“Might not be a bad idea,” Salire said. “Just watch out. Azrug was talking about opening a general store.”
“Well, I knew he would,” Theo said. “You might become obsolete.”
Salire’s face flushed. She ran her fingers through her hair faster, rubbing the back of her neck as though it held all the stress in the world. “Do you think so?”
“Well, you’ll learn an important lesson if he does,” Theo said. “You can make this place more profitable. Lean into the strengths.”
Salire stopped rubbing her scalp, turning to him. She had a look in her eyes that said she had a plan. Theo just smiled back, patting her on the shoulder.
“I have some work to do,” she said, withdrawing a notebook from nowhere and writing frantically.
Theo left her there to figure it out. If he was telling the truth, he’d say he wanted nothing at all to do with the store. He enjoyed the work where he took orders, rather than just making whatever he thought people would buy. A test of Salire’s ability would be for her to shift the business away from that model, coming up with something truly amazing. Something to stand out when a hundred different shops popped up in town. He made his way to check on the smelter and the mine.
The alchemist found no differences in either industries, besides the production of [Drogramathi Iron Ingots]. He took one for himself, for future testing. The mine had a minor change. They’d boarded up the ominous room in the bottom levels. No one wanted to go down there with the creepy pedestal. They had more employees than ever, and they were digging tunnels themselves.
Theo made his way over to the sawmill next. A part of him just wanted his [Governance Core] to level more, but it was a dual-purpose visit. Beyond his wildest expectations, Sledge wasn’t there. When he asked the workers, they said she was off doing her [Fabricator] job, which pleased him. The second part of the visit was to check on the golems. He made his way to the top of the battlements, but he heard the shouts and jeers before he ascended.
“What’s going on?” Theo asked the adventurer at the post.
“Oh, uh,” they said, looking suddenly guilty. “Nothing, sir.”
Theo looked out over the battlements, finding a group of adventurers. Including Tresk. 2 of his [Lesser Rock Golems] were battling a single Ogre Snapper, surrounded by a ring of cheering adventurers. He watched as the adventurers threw coins on a log, placing bets on who would win. He let out a groan, narrowing his gaze on Tresk. She felt his eyes and turned, then vanished.
I thought you were running dungeons, Theo said.
No idea what you’re talking about, Tresk said.
Theo withdrew a [Reveal Construct] from his inventory, activated it and tossed it near where Tresk disappeared. She appeared, wide-eyed and crouched in the marsh. Instead of turning to face the alchemist, she ran into the marsh, waddling through the thick mud.
The battle was reaching its conclusion. Slowly. Theo sent a mental command to his lodestone network, summoning all of his golems. The fight went on for a few minutes before the snapper was overwhelmed by the mud golems. He laughed when the adventurers let out a groan. Some of them went to gather the coins from the log.
“I think those coins are mine!” Theo shouted, pointing at the pile of silver on the stump. The adventurers scattered.
Theo amended the commands for his golems, including a stipulation that if one golem was in trouble, they would all come running. They accepted his orders and went back to work, leaving the Ogre Snapper’s corpse where it was. Several moments later, an adventurer came to loot and skin the creature. Adventurers had a way of passing the time when they were bored.
There was something about that Half-Elf administrator that stuck with Theo. She seemed far sharper than the others, so he expected the farming issue to be resolved. The alchemist left the wall and headed for the farm. Another dual-purpose visit. There was a lot more activity at the farm, but not as much as he expected. Banu gave a brief report, stating they would do a lot better with the help. Theo silently blamed him for the failure, but with things growing quickly, he wouldn’t verbalize his concerns.
As Theo made his way north, through the farm, he realized his visit to the northern stretch of the town had three purposes. He spotted the sprawl of adventurer’s houses between the Sea of Zee and Rocktown. There were far more than before, which meant Stabby Groves was growing. More adventurers was better. As long as they didn’t waste their time betting on golem fights.
Rocktown was doing fine. Ziz and his guys were taking a break from the bridge and harbor job. They were handsomely rewarded, but they were used to that. The quarry was a goldmine of gems and rare stone. As long as their contact in Qavell was still buying stone, they were set for life.
“Doing alright, Ziz?” Theo asked.
Ziz reached out, grabbing Theo’s hand hard. “Doing excellent!” he shouted, trying to overpower the alchemist. “You’re a big strong alchemist now, aren’t ya?”
Ziz laughed, releasing Theo’s grip. The stoneworker’s [Strength] was still much higher than his own, leaving his hand and arm sore.
“Yeah, let me chug a [Strength Potion],” Theo said with a laugh. “See how strong you are, then.”
Ziz laughed again, loud enough to send the sound echoing off the surrounding hills.
“Come on in, have a drink,” Ziz said, gesturing to the growing stoneworker’s building.
The other 4 workers came and gathered in the small building, cracking open a keg of some swill. Theo admired that about Ziz. Their team should grow, but they were making so much money they didn’t need to. This was a bad business move, and after several drinks the alchemist got brave enough to share his thoughts.
“Yeah, well,” Ziz said, still laughing. “You’d have to be an idiot not to do that. See, we’re smart. Ain’t we, boys?”
The laborers cheered in agreement.
“We only need folks with the [Stonemason’s Core], so we’ve been buying them up,” Ziz said. “We’re modeling ourselves after the Qavelli army.”
Ziz meant that he and his crew were the core team, or the regulars. They’d give others a less-favorable rate, and call them irregulars. Although, the more Theo thought about it the more he realized that didn’t work well for Qavell. They were getting crushed in the Veostian campaign. He wouldn’t bring that up with them. He simply asked for another drink and demanded everyone toast the quarry.
The more Theo spent time with heavy drinkers, the more he wanted a potion that neutralized the effects of the alcohol. He’d need to steal some Sanchrin plants. Until then, he humored the laborers by drinking way less, but celebrating just as much.They were more than just a cornerstone of the town. They were his friends.