Chapter 3: Alchemy

Noticing a customer already at the counter, Kaze stood to the side and waited for his turn. Once the customer started walking out the store, he approached Tharja and began to speak.

“I gathered the herbs you told me to.”

After saying his piece, he reached into his inventory and brought out ten Rialo and ten Metriun. Tharja grabbed the plants from the counter and examined them before speaking.

“Hmm, yes, this is what I need. Good job.”

The moment she said this, a blue box appeared, notifying me of my success.

Quest Complete!

“I guess I need to show you around town now.”

Tharja took a few seconds to store the herbs he gave her before heading out of her store when him in tow. As they walked out the doorway, the spotted beastwoman closed the store’s door and flipped the sign from open to close. Once this was done, she walked by Kaze’s side pointing out different things.

“Most of these houses are where people live, so they’re not that important. The important ones are a little ways down the street.”

They walked for about thirty more seconds before arriving in front of a store with a bag sign above it.

“This is the general store run by a man called Chris. He sells miscellaneous items such as tents, bags, food, etcetera. You can also sell the loot you get from monsters to him. Other stores will only take a specific kind of monster’s loot.”

Kaze would probably go here often so that he could sell some of his stuff. The monster he had fought in the forest had only dropped a copper coin and nothing else. He had only fought one though, so it made sense that he wouldn’t have a lot of loot. The next store they went to was right across from the general store. This one had a hammer and an anvil on top of it. Due to this, he could assume that this was the blacksmith.

“This is the weapons and armor store run by a blacksmith called Eryia. The stuff she makes is pretty good, so you should check it out if you’re interested.”

Once she was done speaking, Tharja turned around and headed back to her shop. The moment the two of reached the front of her store, she began to speak again.

“Last but not least, this is an Alchemist’s store where you can buy potions, poisons, and much more. The shop is run by me as I’m sure you already know by now. And with that, you have all the information you need to know about this town. Sadly it’s not as big as other towns so we don’t have things like tailors and cooks. Still, it’s a decent place to live if you ever think about settling down.”

As Kaze stood there quietly, he nodded his head periodically to show that he was listening. The town only had three shops but that was to be expected. He had picked a small town to begin in after all. If he started in a place like the capital, there would probably be taverns, guilds, restaurants, etc. Although having these would be nice, players came with the bargain. The bigger the town was, the more players there would be. He had only seen one or two players in this town, and he was glad. If there were only this few people here then he wouldn’t have to worry about all the monsters getting killed off while he did other things. If he started off in a big city, that would be his number one concern.

The two of them headed inside the shop before coming to a stop. As Kaze walked in the doorway, he was forced to keep his legs close together in order to get through the doorway. Although the doorway seems wider than normal, it was still a tight fit. But after a few seconds of twisting and turning, he was inside. Hopefully other places would have wider doors.  There were other races much bigger than him, and he wondered how they fared. Turning her head around, Tharja stared at him for a couple of seconds before speaking.

“Hey, do you want me to teach you a little about alchemy?”

The spotted beastwoman watched him intuitively as he thought about his answer. There was no reason to say no, and knowing alchemy would be a boon to him in the future. He would save quite a bit of money since he would be able to make his own potions rather than buy them. He would also be able to make poisons that would help him in battle. So the answer to this question was a  no brainer.

“Yes, please.”

“Good, not a lot of people interested in alchemy pass by and I’ve always wanted to teach someone.”

Kaze followed Tharja into the back of the store as she put a bell on the counter. The bell was so if a customer came in, all they would have to do was ring it, and she would be there to help them. As they reached a room filled with various pieces of equipment, the strong scent of plants and herbs increased. The smell wasn’t unpleasant, but it was strong. Wrinkling his nose, he watched as Tharja pointed to a piece of equipment that looked like a bowl and began to speak.

“This is a mortar and a pestle, you will need it in order to grind up the ingredients you use.”

Stretching his neck, Kaze got a good look at what the mortar and pestle looked like. Committing it to memory, he listened to what Tharja had to say next.

“These vials are used to hold water and the ingredients that you grounded up. You can use different sizes but I usually prefer the ones that are about four to five inches tall. I usually use sturdy ones for potions and fragile one for poisons.”

Taking one of the vials Tharja held up, he examined it from all angles. The vial looked like one you might see in a science lab. Once he was finished looking at it, he gave it back and waited for more instructions.

“The final thing we have is a burner that will allow us to heat up the mixtures we are creating. Some ingredients need to be at a certain heat in order to dissolve so this piece of equipment is quite important.”

With an interested look on his face, Kaze listened closely to what Tharja was saying. The task for creating a potion seemed to be quite complicated and some people would be discouraged away from trying out alchemy. He wasn’t discouraged though, quite the opposite. All these steps intrigued him and he wondered what type of concoctions he would be able to come up with.

“Any questions?”

“No, I’m pretty sure I understand everything.”

All she was doing was explaining, so it wasn’t that hard to understand. Still, he was about to get to the hard part.

“Good, now that I showed you what equipment alchemists’ use, I’m going to show you how to use it. Do you have any extra herbs on you.”

Nodding his head, Kaze pulled out all of the herbs he had gathered. On a nearby counter he placed ten  Ylose, ten Thistleclaw, ten Feroku, four Rialo, and four Metriun. The reason he still had some Rialo and Metriun left was because he had found some more on his way back to the town after defeating the Frogera.

Tharja glanced at the array of ingredients before picking up two Rialo and one Metriun. With Kaze watching, she placed the herbs in the mortar and pestle and began grounding them up. As she did this, she explained to him how to grind up the herbs. It turned out you couldn’t just mash up the pestle against the ingredients and hope for the best. Instead you needed to move it around in a circular motion and make sure everything was grounded up to the same size. It only took her about fifteen seconds to do this, but Kaze was sure it would take him way longer.

Once the ingredients were grounded, Tharja grabbed a funnel and poured the grounded up ingredients into a nearby flask. She told him that the funnel wasn't needed, but it helped pour the ingredients into the flask without spilling it everywhere. After tapping the bottom of the mortar a couple of times, Tharja placed the mortar and the pestle to the side.

Twisting a knob on a nearby burner, she waited for a flame to appear before placing the flask on top. Kaze looked at the burner curiously as it heated up the flask. How exactly did it run? Moving his head so he was looking at Tharja, he began to speak.

“How exactly does that burner run?”

He didn’t think it was electricity because he doubted that this small town had it. That was if electricity was even in the game.

“This one uses a small mana stone as fuel. This specific type is pretty expensive but I got tired of refueling my old one with wood and bought this after I saved up enough money.”

Nodding his head, Kaze turned his attention back to the flask that was heating up. As he watched the ingredients dissolve, Tharja resumed her teaching.

“Usually you would have to find the right temperature the ingredients need in order to dissolve. But since I used these two herbs before, I know exactly how much of each to use and how hot the water needs to be in order for them to dissolve.”

Once she finished speaking, she showed Kaze just how hot the water needed to be on the burner. He made sure to commit it to memory since he would definitely need it in the near future. The next two minutes or so went by quickly with Tharja telling him little tips and tricks that were bound to be useful in his alchemy endeavors.

Taking the vial of the heat, Tharja gave it a little swirl as she turned the switch on the burner. Kaze watched in fascination as the mixture began to take on a reddish hue until the whole thing was crimson in color. Tharja looked at the vial for a few seconds before handing it to him with a nod. Grabbing it gently, he gave it a good look.

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Potion of Health Restoration Description: A health potion made by a skilled alchemist. It restores a moderate amount of health. Effect: Restores 60 HP

Would he be able to make potions like this? Because if he was, that would be amazing. Whenever he was close to death, he could just drink this potion and more than half of his health would be restored. He tried handing her the potion back when he was done looking at it, but Tharja refused.

“It was your materials I used, so you should keep the potion. Plus I have plenty more. This is an alchemy shop after all. Try making a health potion for yourself. Use the one I just made as a guideline for what yours should look like.”

Nodding his head in agreement, Kaze placed the potion on the counter before turning to Tharja. He had something to ask and he wanted to ask before he forgot.

“Do you have a pencil and journal I can have so I can remember all of the stuff you just taught me?”

Although Kaze had good memory, his memory wasn’t good enough to memorize every little step and trick Tharja had taught him. If he had a journal, he wouldn’t need to remember this stuff because he could just look inside his journal whenever he was confused.

“Hmm, I think I do. Wait here.”

Kaze watched as Tharja left and returned a few seconds later with a journal and pen in hand.

“I’ll give you this alchemy journal and pen for one copper. This journal is different from other ones because it gives you a margin for recipes and has a lot more pages in it. This pen is just a regular old pen.”

In the end, Kaze agreed to the deal. He didn’t know if the journal and pen was worth a copper, but he doubted that Tharja would try to screw him over. Plus he had gotten a copper coin from the Frogera so he wouldn’t really be losing money. Reaching into his inventory, he grabbed out one copper coin and handed it to Tharja. Once she gave him the journal and pen, he began filling it up with all the information she had told him. It took him a few minutes to write all the stuff down, but it was time well spent. He would be using the journal pretty often in the future.

Placing the pen and journal on a nearby counter, Kaze grabbed two Rialo herbs and one Metriun herb. With Tharja observing, he placed the herbs in the mortar and began grinding them with the pestle. He made sure to grind the herbs in a circular motion. Whenever he did the wrong motion, Tharja would guide his hands until he was able to do it right. Once the herbs were grounded, Kaze moved on to the next step.

Using a nearby funnel, he poured the grounded mixture into a vial. Once all of it was in, he placed the vial on the burner and turned up the heat to the correct temperature. Now all he had to do was wait. Two minutes later, and his mixture was finally done. He gave the vial a little shake before examining it.

Potion of Health Restoration Description: A health potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It restores a tiny amount of health. Effect: Restores 20 HP

Sadly his potion didn’t heal as much health as Tharja’s did. When he asked her why, she told him that it was probably his alchemy level. Her alchemy level was pretty high since she had been doing alchemy for a while and his was pretty low since he had just started. The more alchemy he did, the better his potions would be.

Before the two of them could do anything else, a bell rang, signaling that a customer was here. Turning towards him, Tharja began to speak.

“Since you seem to have the hang of things, I will let you experiment with the remaining herbs that you have. Only use the equipment that I have showed you. You’re not experienced enough to use anything else. And if you break something you have to pay for it.”

Once she said this, Tharja headed upstairs into the shop. Placing his potion in his inventory, Kaze walked towards where his herbs were. The only potion he knew the recipe for was the health potion he had just created. Sadly he had used up all of the Rialo he had, so he would just have to experiment until he found another recipe. Still, he had a feeling that this was going to be fun. Just imagine the type of potions he could create!

The first combination he tried was one Ylose and one Metriun. Sadly this combination didn’t work and he was left with a failed potion. Looking around for a place to empty out the vial, Kaze noticed a sink with a biohazard sign on it. Pouring the mixture down the sink, he returned to his previous spot. The second combination he tried was two Ylose and one Metriun. In order to make a health potion, he had to use two Rialo instead of one, so maybe that was the case with the Ylose.

Potion of Stamina Restoration Description: A stamina potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It restores a tiny amount of stamina. Effect: Restores 20 SP

It seemed that his guess had been correct. Judging from past experiments, Kaze could assume he would need two of any herb and one Metriun in order to make a successful potion. This was only one method though, and he was sure to find more in his experiments. The moment he finished creating the stamina potion, this blue box appeared in front of him.

Skill Gained!

Alchemy Description: Allows the user to combine different ingredients together to make something new.  1% chance of created substance having better effects that normal. Skill Type: Passive Skill Level: 1 (0%)

Closing the two blue boxes, Kaze began experimenting with all of the herbs. It took him about an hour before he had used up all of his ingredients that would combine together. These were the results of his endeavors:

Potion of Paralysis Description: A paralysis potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It causes paralysis to whoever it hits for a few seconds. Effect: Paralyzes opponent for 3 seconds [Effect varies depending on level of opponent]

Potion of Prickly Poison Description: A poisonous potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It poisons whoever it hits for a few seconds. The person hit by this potion will feel a painful prickly sensation across their body. Effect: Poisons opponent for 5 damage over a period 5 seconds

He was only able to create two more new potions because Ylose and Feroku combined would only make a failed potion. Ylose and Thistleclaw however would make a paralysis potion while Thistleclaw and Feroku would make a potion of prickly poison. In the end he ended up having two health potions, one stamina potion, four paralysis potions and three poisonous potions. The only plants that were left with were Ylose and Feroku.

One thing of note that had happened was him getting poisoned when he was experiment. When he was grounding up the Feroku, a poisonous cloud had risen above the mixture and had taken a few health points away from him. It wasn’t that bad since it only did one damage over a couple of seconds, still it was unpleasant. There was nothing Kaze could do besides push through it, and push through it he did. He didn’t gain poison resistance or anything like that which was a bummer.

When he showed Tharja the potions he had made, she congratulated him with a slap to the back. It seemed that she was happy that her teachings payed off. She also agreed to let him use her workshop to create potions as long as he gave her a few when he was done. He didn’t have to give her any this time, seeing as how this was his first time creating potions.

In the end he agreed. The only way he would be able to craft potions was by using Tharja’s workshop. He had asked Tharja how much the alchemy equipment was and it was way too expensive for him to buy. He would need to figure out a way to make money if he ever hoped of having alchemy equipment of his own.

Thankfully Tharja would buy his potions but it would take too long this way for him to save up enough money. This was because Kaze wanted to keep some of the potions he had created. He was creating them for a reason after all. The only other thing he could think of was killing nearby monsters and selling their loot. While he was out there hunting, he could gathering plants for alchemy. The once he came back to sell his loot, he could craft potions before going out again.

Yes, this would be his plan. Plus he was itching for another fight.

AN: Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think about alchemy in the comments. Is there too much information about creating potions, not enough, or is it just right?