Vials clinked as I set the rack under the spigot. Slowly and deliberately, I sealed each vial over the nozzle and filled them as close to the top as possible. 23 vials were filled and stored in the cabinet, then I unclipped my pocketbook from the back of my belt and recorded it, then pushed a small amount of mana into the book and the old number over-wrote itself
Chaos venom 45 vials
A handy little tool I had made by an enchanter friend, I called it “The Alchemist's best friend”. It kept track of potions, pills, poisons, ingredients and as many recipes as I needed it to. With just a little mana, I could change anything quickly and easily.
I flipped to the ingredients page of the book and walked over to an empty wall, the ring on my right index finger flashed blue for a moment. Shadows coalesced into a simple wooden door, I opened it and entered a storage room full of herbs, liquids and other various alchemical ingredients and checked my stock against the numbers in the book. After I was done I exited the storage room and the door changed to a slightly darker wood as I closed it. When I reopened it, there was a garden lush with fresh plants. I walked through, noting down what would soon be ready to harvest and watering and feeding the plants as needed. As I did, I flipped to a blank page of the book and began writing a list of anything I was running low on.
Once I was done in the garden I came out and the door vanished into shadows once again.
“Jasmine!” I called out as I tore the list out of my book, the page immediately reforming completely blank. A young girl, dressed in a short, puffy, off-shoulder blue and white dress came through one of the doorways with a clipboard in hand. As I looked up at her, staring at the bright white bow tied to the back of her head, I had to bite back a reprimand about being so flashy, reminding myself I was only her alchemy teacher, and those Magi Academy teachers always loved to show off.
“Yes sir?” She said as she met my eyes. I handed her the list and started towards the still to start cleaning it.
“When you're finished with your current project, I need you to restock. And can you at least pretend to observe any form of safety? I know you're not working with anything corrosive but still.” I held back a sigh as I rinsed out and wiped down the equipment. Jasmine glanced down at herself and giggled a little.
“I do have a ward up you know.”
“Wards don't stop your dress from knocking things over.” She laughed again and moved back to the room she came from. I smiled a little, glad that she was able to joke and be so happy again, after the way I had found her several years ago. I shook my head as I placed all the pieces of the still back into place and moved to my room. I started picking up and strapping my equipment to myself, inspecting each piece as I did. When I came to my prized pieces, I looked at them with extra care, even using Identify to see the glorious Orange and Purple text of Legendary and Artifact grade gear.
Poisoners Fang
A dagger with a compartment to store a single poison and automatically coats the blade in it. If the dagger is inserted into a target the whole vial of poison will be injected. Increase the effect of poisons applied with this weapon
Stiletto of Entropy
When a target is struck with this weapon, physical, elemental and poison resistance is lowered slightly and leaves behind a mana needle. Each consecutive strike lowers each further
Dagger (soulbound)
This weapon is indestructible. While held, the wielder's strength is increased by the total of all other stats. Wounds inflicted with this weapon cannot be healed except by strong magical means. When this weapon strikes the killing blow, it absorbs some of the vital energy or the target, this energy can be used to heal the wielder or cause extra damage. Increase the effectiveness of dexterity and agility.
I strapped one dagger to my back, one to my left thigh, and tucked the stiletto into my leg guard. One of my rings flashed blue and an image of all the storage cabinets was projected onto my room's walls. I took out 5 health and mana potions and they vanished into my belt. I took a small case from my belt and filled it with 2 empowerment pills, 1 mana overload pill, 1 shroud pill and 1 anti-toxicology pill. Next, I filled the poison pouch with various vials and several wide thin ones made for dipping a throwing knife into. After checking myself over, making sure I hadn't forgotten anything, I ran my tongue across the seam of my false tooth then pushed out some mana and formed a new door and exited my lab.
As I entered a small house, the door behind me vanished. The house was mine in name alone, I didn't actually live here. My lab had everything I needed, including a place to sleep, with the benefit of no one else being able to enter it. The house of course looked lived in, with an alchemy lab in the basement that I used occasionally to keep up appearances. Knives and other weapons were also stashed around the house. Most people know who and what I am, but very few people know about my personal space ability.
Laboratory in the Shadows (upgraded)
A personal space carved in the shadows, that can be changed and upgraded based on the users' needs. Due to the magical augments to the space, environments for growing most plants have been allowed. Bonuses are given to potions, pills, poisons and plants cultivated in this space.
The only person other than myself who was able to enter it was Jasmine, my apprentice, but she and I were much more than that. Several years ago I had saved her from a bandit group that had captured her at a young age. When I found out her parents had been murdered I took her in and raised her myself. I had been teaching her alchemy and sponsored her for the Magi Academy. She's like a daughter to me now, and even though she only takes after one of my professions I always try to instill caution and preparedness into her.
I shook my head to get my thoughts back on task, first stop, the blacksmith.
As I approached the shop, I could hear clanging echo through the streets. Thankfully there were no Inns or libraries nearby, as I was sure none of those people would appreciate the noise. I opened the door and took a look around at the walls to see if anything new and interesting was on display. After a couple of minutes, a woman slid out of the back door and appeared behind the counter.
“Ah! Drake, good to see you.”
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“Good morning Robin.” I walked up to the counter and placed a hand on my belt. With a flash of light, a small bag of herbs appeared in my hand and I placed it on the counter. “I come bearing gifts. The famous Jade Tea of the Kalkarian Empire.” Robin's eyes lit up as she tentatively and carefully reached for the bag.
“Oh Drake, you spoil me so. Let me go put on a pot, you must share this with me.” Before letting me answer she darted into the back and emerged moments later with a bundle clinking in her arms. “While we wait for that, your usual order is ready. 35 throwing knives, 30 steel, 5 silver. 10 tungsten needles, and 4 shrapnel daggers.”
I opened the bundle and picked out one of the throwing knives, slowly inspecting it from top to bottom carefully looking over every bit of the top-notch craftsmanship.
“Excellent work as always Robin.” I took a bandolier from my bag and started filling it with the knives, then wrapped the needles to my arm. As I finished her kettle started whistling and she ran back for it.
“So, any exciting missions coming up?” She shouted as she, presumably, took the kettle from the heat and poured the tea.
“Nothing yet, but maybe that'll change. I have a meeting with His Majesty later today.” She came around the corner with 2 mugs of steaming green water, the tea actively dissolving into it.
“Well, I heard talks of an Artifact hunt in the north. Some kind of ancient tome with a legendary skill.” I waved my hand as she spoke.
“I have no interest in that, 9 times out of 10 those are skills that should remain in the past and have no synergy with skill sets of today's classes. But some fool always grabs them and gets killed thinking it makes them invincible.” I sighed loudly then blew on my tea before taking a sip. My expression changed rapidly as I looked at the drink. “Damn, that's amazing!” Robin immediately took a sip as well and her eyes widened.
“Gods damn, they weren't lying. This is the best tea I've ever had.” She smiled so brightly, it felt like the room's light dimmed just a bit. “Is there anything else you need?”
“Yes actually, one more thing.” One of my rings flashed and I pulled a bar of purplish metal from my storage space. “Jasmin is graduating this year, I want to give her something nice. I was hoping the best smith this side of the Dead Sea could make her a full set of adventurers' tools.”
“Oh Drake, flattery will get you everywhere with me, but is totally unnecessary. Being able to work with oricalcum is totally worth it.”
“And the coin too, right?”
“Obviously.” We both chuckled as I paid for my order and the tools in advance. Robin collected the metal and coins as I turned to leave. “I'll have the cup delivered back, and I'll try to come back with a good story.”
As I left the shop, I sipped the tea, sighing at the pleasant taste and aroma. I walked a little way down the street to the artificer. As I opened the door a voice called out immediately.
“Drake! You’ve come already to take my pride and joy away from me again!?” A gruff voice shouted from the table at the back of the shop where a short man was leaning over a bunch of pieces of some kind of contraption.
“I paid good coin for it, I believe that makes her rightfully mine. Not to mention, she wouldn't exist if I hadn't commissioned her.”
“Your logic means nothing to me.” He said as he stood up. Each of his eyes was enlarged by the magnifying goggles over his head. He lifted them up, clearly disoriented by trying to observe the world around himself with them on.
“Well, I’m afraid that’s just the way it works.” He chuckled as he walked towards me and he picked up his “pride and joy” as he called it. After extensive testing and use in the field, I dubbed it, Whispershot. A whisper-quiet, arm-mounted, retractable, automatic crossbow. It was an amazing piece of engineering that I paid a pretty penny for but was worth every bit. It had a compartment, like my Fang, that applied a vial of poison to the tips of its ammunition, a magical quiver that could hold up to 2000 bolts and was easily concealed beneath the sleeve of my cloak. At first glance, it could seem like it was just a fancy arm guard but this was by far my favourite weapon, besides my extraordinary daggers.
“She looks as beautiful as ever, Silva.”
“Isn’t she tho? I promise I didn’t change anything this time, just a tune-up and a polish.” I nodded and handed Silva his payment.
“You know, if you love it so much you can just make one for yourself,” I said as I started strapping it to my forearm.
“It’s true I could. But she would never see the light of day. You know I rarely leave my shop for any kind of adventuring.” I nodded at that. Most artisans weren’t also adventurers so making a weapon like this for himself would indeed be pointless.
“I know. Anyway, I can't stay long. I have a meeting soon and I haven’t even eaten yet.” I sipped at my tea again as I headed for the door, knowing that if I stayed much longer, Silva would talk my ear off.
“You be careful out there now, can’t have my best customer dying on me now.” I chuckled as I left heading to my final stop before my meeting.
The closer I got, the stronger the scent of cooked meat, baked bread and steamed vegetables got. My stomach growled as I took in a deep breath. I entered a shop with a bright blue and red sign and sat at the counter sipping my tea. As the cook turned around a smile grew on his face.
“Drake! Welcome my friend. What can I get for you today?”
“Any fresh fruit on hand?”
“Of course, of course, we just got a shipment of strawberries today.”
“Sounds great, and an order of scrambled eggs and ham as well.”
“You got it!” He turned and started giving orders to his workers and started expertly dicing the strawberries. I turned to look out the window as I sipped my tea. I watched the people mill about as I held the flavour in my mouth trying to discern what exactly was in it. It was blended so well that I couldn't pick out any one ingredient. My first thought was, that whoever made this better not switch to making something like poisons, or I'd be in trouble. My sense of taste was refined enough to pick out most poisons mixed with anything, but this was something else. At least it held up to the claim of simply being a new flavour they were simply called “Jade”.
As I wrestled with this a plate was placed down in front of me.
“So my friend, are you off somewhere exciting today? You've been in town for almost a month now, quite a while for you.”
“It's good to take breaks once in a while, I'm getting old you know.” He guffawed at that. “I'm actually on my way to see His Majesty after I eat.”
“Oh my, a summons from the Prince himself. Must be a good quest then.”
“That remains to be seen.” We chatted lightly as I ate my meal and finished my tea.
“Make sure this cup gets back to Robin will ya?” I placed down a few coins as I got up and headed towards the door. “I'll be seeing you around.”
“Goodbye, my friend, and good luck.”
As I came to the gates of the castle, I presented my summons to the guards before they could even open their mouths. One of them took it and read it, then opened the gate without a word. As I passed him, I snatched it back and put it back into one of my cloak's many pockets and they escorted me to the throne room. When we got to the doors the guards stood on either side of it. I stood for a moment taking in the grandeur of it before I put my hands on it and pushed it open.
The moment the light from the room started to hit my eyes, I felt a wave of killing intent aimed directly at me. As the doors swung open, I saw a sword descending directly at me. In a fraction of a second, I drew my artifact dagger and intercepted the blade. At the same time, 4 shadows coalesced around me and shot forth, resting sharp points at my attacker's neck. I smiled at them as they began to speak.
“Drake! What is a vile creature like you doing in the Prince's throne room?”
“Shouldn't I be the one asking questions since I have you dead to Rights?”
“Damien! Put your damn weapon away.” The Prince spoke from his throne, clearly annoyed at the man before me.
“But your Majesty. He…”
“I called him here, you fool.” As he sheathed his sword and took a step back, I let the shadows vanish as I put my own weapon away. “Now leave us. I need to speak to Drake alone.”
“But, your Majesty.”
“Now Damien.” he very reluctantly walked past me as I got further into the room. The doors closed as I walked up to the throne and the prince sitting on it.
“Your Majesty. What can I do for you.” I bowed slightly as I spoke semi-mockingly.
“You can drop the formalities, Drake, it's just us in here now.”
“An unwise choice with an assassin in the room with you, don't you think?” the owl perched on his shoulder hooted at me expectedly. I reached over and petted it gently atop its head. He laughed softly and rubbed his forehead.
“Despite what Damien thinks of you, if you wanted me dead, you could have done it a long time ago.”
“And why would I want my friend dead? So what did you call me in here for?” I said as I took a slight step back.
The Prince, Laurence, my oldest friend, looked me right in the eye with a serious gaze and spoke 2 words that sent my mind racing.
“It's time.”