For the past several months, Adama had been busier than a worker bee. But even the most diligent of fighters needed a hobby to keep them occupied and help them unwind. On Cradle, he had been a rather capable refiner, making pills to help finance his cultivation in between all the fighting and training. Gekai didn’t have pills, but it did have potions, and he found himself interested in their creation process. Normally, adventurers capable of mixing quality potions kept their techniques and recipes under tight wraps, lest they create future competition and harm their earning potential.
However, Adama had struck up a very friendly relationship with Miach Familia, thanks to Hestia’s connections and his own extensive patronage. He had asked for potion mixing lessons from the Familia’s only adventurer, Naaza Erisuis, but she had been reluctant to say the least. On the other hand, Miach, ever generous, had coaxed her into teaching Adama a lot of the basics and giving him some recipes. Adama had promised to keep buying from them no matter what, a promise he intended to honor, but his demand often couldn’t be slaked by their supply. Being able to brew potions would improve the sustainability of Adama’s adventurers, with his current predicament being a great example of that.
The swordsman took out all the medical herbs he had gathered and looked them over with a critical eye. His time was short, he was still learning mixing, and his facilities in the Dungeon weren’t great, but he was confident that he could make what he needed. Over the next couple hours, Adama poured all of his focus into grinding and processing his ingredients into the forms that they needed to be in order to make a basic antidote. He poured milky Whiteroot powder into crimson Gleanberry liquid, closed the container, then shook until it turned purple. Dexterous fingers transferred the purple liquid into a filter, where he removed the impurities, making the liquid turn a lighter shade of amythest. Then he added in ground Brightherb and submerged it in cold water. The reaction was exothermic, meaning that it gave off heat, and he needed to make sure that things didn’t get too hot, or the glass would shatter. Watching carefully, Adama was pleased to see the mixture turn the desired dark blue color, but it was a bit darker than he had expected. At this point, though, he could only cross his fingers and keep moving forward.
The final product was supposed to be a bright yellow, so you could imagine Adama’s consternation when the final reaction resulted in a dark brown sludge. Muttering to himself, he set the waste aside and reconsidered his process. He had thought that he'd followed Naaza’s processes to the letter, but it was possible that he hadn’t filtered the initial concoction sufficiently. Or maybe he hadn’t added enough Brightherb. His measuring systems weren’t as precise as he would like. He implemented these changes, among a few others, and ended up with a bright emerald final product. Without ultra-precise tools, Mixing was as much art and gut instinct as it was science, and Adama spent another few hours going through the processes again and again. Things became more desperate as his stores of ingredients whittled down to a third of what they were originally, but Tim kept a cool head and made just a couple of slight adjustments. He was close, he could feel it. It wasn’t until his stores hit a fourth of their original capacity, though, that his patience was rewarded.
Bright yellow liquid swirled merrily in his final beaker. It was barely enough for half of a normal dose of antidote, but it seemed to be of good quality. He continued with another process, trying to make minute adjustments to improve efficiency but continue his successes. There were still a few more failures, but Adama had created three full doses of antidote by the time his stores had ran out. He examined the final products with some muted satisfaction, before tucking them away and moving on. It was more success than he had found in his practice, but he winced a little at the fact that he had likely ground up 90,000 vals worth of materials for 15,000 vals worth of potion. Learning Mixing was expensive, but it would work out in the long run.
After this resupply, Adama moved out once again. The remaining items he needed could all be dropped from monsters on the 19th floor, which he had made sure of on purpose. He gave himself a good challenge when he dropped Battle Boar and Bugbear specific bait, given that hordes of those bruisers could be very dangerous, but it was nothing Adama couldn’t handle. The brawls he got into over the course of the next hours were something out of legend, and they shook the Dungeon with their sheer force. The swordsman was in heaven, having finally put aside all of his busywork and settled his most tedious challenges, he leaped and ducked and slashed his way through these straightforward fights whistling a tune in his heart. The Dark Fungus monster was thinner on the ground on the 19th floor, so he only needed to drink one more antidote before he found significant success.
Adama was almost bummed out to get his Battle Boar Tusk and Bugbear Nail within the first five hours of trying. With slightly less than a day remaining, he was far ahead of schedule, which he verified by marking his progress:
Quests
1. Priority! 24th Floor Rescue! Done? YES Reward: 210,000 val
2. Need, Bugbear’s Nail x1. Own x1. Reward: 105,000 val
3. Need, Lizardman’s Nail x3. Own x4. Reward: 220,000 val
4. Need, Firebird’s Feather x1. Own x0. Reward: 135,000 val
5. Need, Lizardman’s Scale x2. Own x2. Reward: 150,000 val
6. Need, Battle Boar Tusk x1. Own x1. Reward: 115,000 val
7. Need, Sword Stag’s Antler x1. Own x1. Reward: 130,000 val
8. Need, Teasanare’s Flower x3. Own x3 Reward: 245,000 val
Reward at full completion: 1,310,000 val
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The last of these items was the most difficult to complete of the various slayer quests, as Adama had concocted no brilliant strategy to lure the rare Firebird, as opposed to the Crystal Mantises. The best he, or anyone, could do would be to run around the 19th floor until they found their quarry. But as he examined his list, Adama couldn’t shake a certain frustration at that idea. Why should he have to do more aimless running? He was a warrior, not a courier. He had noticed that the sounds of his fighting had lured other kinds of monsters besides the ones he was baiting. He had even seen a few Firebirds over the course the last five hours, and the more he thought about that fact, the more his mind was settled.
Rather than seeking out his final opponent, he would wait for it to come to him. Adama would treat the rest of this expedition as an opportunity to train, and he would take down any Firebird that interrupted that training. His encounter rate of the flaming avian monsters probably wouldn’t be all that different with this method vs if he sought them actively. His path now chosen, Adama now threw himself into some of his most intensive training yet.
He would fight for several hours, retreat to the 18th floor to rest for 30 minutes, then throw himself back into the fray. This allowed him to maintain his peak condition while fighting for most of the time, which therefore allowed him to fight at his most intense for most of the time. The bodies of the enemies he took down over the course of the next 16 hours, when stacked on top of each other, could rival Babel in height. That might have been an exaggeration, but it was productive training to say the least. The only downside of all of this was that he still burned through his potion supply. He had just drunk the last of his healing, and he was down to his last antidote.
Potions or no potions, Adama’s heart was grinning, especially after his most recent encounter. Just as he had been finishing off the last of the Bugbears, a duo of Firebirds flew into the chamber and began assaulting him with their fiery breath. His poor dragon’s hide coat had been taking a beating recently, but it was still more than enough to render these fire breathing turkeys impotent. The subsequent fight was more formality than battle, but the aftermath was enough to make Adama nod in satisfaction.
There, on the ground, was a single burning orange feather. It had been dropped by the second enemy he finished off, and Adama tucked it away swiftly before putting the finishing touch on his list:
Quests
1. Priority! 24th Floor Rescue! Done? YES Reward: 210,000 val
2. Need, Bugbear’s Nail x1. Own x3. Reward: 105,000 val
3. Need, Lizardman’s Nail x3. Own x5. Reward: 220,000 val
4. Need, Firebird’s Feather x1. Own x1. Reward: 135,000 val
5. Need, Lizardman’s Scale x2. Own x2. Reward: 150,000 val
6. Need, Battle Boar Tusk x1. Own x2. Reward: 115,000 val
7. Need, Sword Stag’s Antler x1. Own x1. Reward: 130,000 val
8. Need, Teasanare’s Flower x3. Own x3 Reward: 245,000 val
Reward at full completion: 1,310,000 val
He had completed everything, and then some, and with several hours to spare. By his timing, he still had seven hours before he needed to turn everything in, and it wouldn’t take him more than four to make his way topside. Since he was already here, he decided to do one last training session, and he spent some time wandering around the 19th floor to find a new area with fresh enemies.
After just 10 more minutes of wandering, Adama stumbled into a small, open clearing. To his surprise, this clearing had more Dungeon water in it, in the form of a small stream that bisected the place. The little thing gurgled happily as it passed from one end to another and flowed down a path on the other side of the room, but Adama only had eyes for the clearing’s centerpieces.
There, near the banks of the flowing water, sparkled two ethereal silvery flowers. They were surrounded by more glowing blue moss than Adama had ever seen concentrated in one place, laid out in a carpet on either side of the central waterway. It bathed the room in a brilliant electric blue that caused the water to shimmer with vibrant color. The tips of the silver flower petals danced with little sparks of blue fire, and it took Adama a moment to realize that this was an optical illusion caused by the light of the moss. There was no wind to move them, but they seemed to shimmer indeterminately as he looked at them, the unusually strong light giving the flowers an otherworldly beauty. The Dungeon itself seemed to grow silent in the face of this spectacle, perhaps bragging about its uncanny artistry, and the only sound within this small room was the steady burble of its water. Subconsciously, Adama knew that no monsters would spawn here, the Dungeon having provided an unusual safe point beyond the designated rooms. Reflexively, he relaxed, just a little, and a bubble of tranquility hung suspended in the air. For an eternal moment, the whole world held its breath, and the only emotion that stirred the swordsman’s peace was his admiration for the room’s elegance.
“Maybe I should go home.”
He mused to himself, suddenly aware of how tired he really was. All the Dungeon recovery in the world couldn’t make up for a real night’s sleep. In his own home. Thinking about his home caused thoughts of Hestia and his friends to come to his mind unbidden, and he turned around and headed back up the tunnel.
He left the Teasanare Flowers untouched. He had what he needed, and they were too perfect to ruin.