On our way home, we passed through the shopping district of our town. “Might as well pick some things up while we’re out,” my mother had said.
I had been keen on getting back home so I could start experimenting with what I had learned rather than shopping for groceries, but I should have known better than to make assumptions. The store my mother brought me to was not a grocer at all. As I looked around the magic shop, my eyes drank in all kinds of new and interesting things.
Sharma was speaking with the shopkeeper, an older woman who seemed pleasant enough. They had clearly known each other for some time. Meanwhile, I looked around at the various items. As the store serviced magic-using customers, the assumption was that all customers were literate, so items had clearly displayed signage with names and descriptions.
The first thing that caught my eye were some of the enchanted items. I had seen an enchantment skill when appraising Vorel, and had been curious about it. Most of the items on display had an inscribed magic circle on them, but unlike the ones I had seen until now, these magic circles had a second ring, and there was some kind of writing within the borders of the inner magic circle ring and outer second ring. It wasn’t something I could decipher, so I figured it either required advanced literacy, the enchantment skill, or possibly both. The descriptions on the signage explained that you could imbue the item with magic in order to engage the enchantment and draw out the desired results.
The items themselves were less interesting than the idea of enchantments. There was a shovel with a 4-point magic enchantment which softened the earth while digging, making it easier to excavate rocky soil. There were small lanterns with 5-point magic enchantments that created a soft glow overnight, basically magical nightlights. There was a kettle with a 4-point enchantment that boiled water using fire magic for traveling. There was a veil with a 5-point magic enchantment in gold that created a minor illusion to subtly mask your identity. Actually, that last one was pretty neat.
There were no fire swords or magic guns or super wind-powered bows, but maybe I would get to see those one day in a weapons store.
As I continued to browse the shop, something else commanded my attention. On a shelf there were several rows of small bottles with an interesting liquid inside. I grinned. The sign confirmed my expectations: magic recovery potions.
The existence of magic recovery potions told me a lot about the world. Whatever the reality of MP was, it could be recovered from an external impetus, presumably instantaneously. Back in my old world, your body could convert glucose into energy and ultimately, ATP, which allowed you to keep using your muscles, but that wasn’t an instantaneous process. Similarly, you could supplement with creatine which was also involved with energy for the muscles, but it was far from a magic potion. Your body could heal with vitamins and nutrients, but the process was slow.
MP recovery potions, combined with healing magic that I had experienced earlier, also suggested that HP recovery potions should be possible in this world. The fact that there were none here told me that either I was in the wrong shop for them, or more likely, the practice of making health potions was forbidden by or controlled by the Church to maintain their monopoly on healing.
What I was really interested in was something beyond either HP or MP. Both of these were points which reflected my health and magic in my stats, but there were other point systems that were much more important to me: experience points and skill points. If liquid MP could be synthesized, could liquid EXP? Liquid SP? This should become a top priority. Having an MP potion or two to study would be helpful.
After a little more time, my mother and the shopkeeper finished up their conversation, my mother made her purchase–a bag of some kind of powder, I didn’t catch what exactly–and we were heading out the door. “Wait!” the shopkeeper said before we got to the door.
I looked back and saw the scowl on the shopkeeper’s face.
“Your son has stolen some of my merchandise,” she told my mother.
A look of shock and fury came over my mother. “Pilus! How could you?!” she scolded me.
I put on my best innocent face. “What do you mean?” I said. “I didn’t take anything.”
The shopkeeper made a harumph sound and pointed at the potions. “There were 12 potions there before you came in. Now there are 10. Turn out your pockets, boy,” she said.
She and my mother gave me a once over, then combed through my clothes even closer. Confused, she asked my mom to go through her items again, and my mother even turned out her own pockets. Finally, the shopkeeper sighed and apologized.
“I’m sorry, I was sure I had 12 potions on display before. Either I’m losing my mind in my old age or someone else pulled one over on me.” She bowed her head.
Sharma tried to wave her off but the shopkeeper insisted on apologizing and my mother ended up leaving the shop with a second bag of whatever it is that she bought. I waved apologetically at the shopkeeper, who still seemed a bit suspicious, but who turned back and went to straighten up some shelves.
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I closed my inventory screen, which showed two MP recovery potions. Sorry Sharma, sorry shopkeeper. I’ll make it up to you someday, I thought. For now, I would make as much use of these as I could.
* * *
It had been a busy couple of days. I also didn’t want to slack off from my physical training just because I had hit level 2. Level 3 already beckoned.
I hadn’t thought that the Church’s cure would do anything, since I didn’t think I was actually afflicted by any status, but any fatigue I had from the previous night was gone. Perhaps it was just washed away with the adrenaline of the day, experiencing magic, and discovering MP potions.
Whatever the reason, when we got home I channeled my energy into exercise while my mother dove wholeheartedly back into her work. Once I was done I relaxed in the shade of the tree eating a collection of snacks from the garden. I wished I had more protein. I glanced at my inventory, which contained a few dead rodents and small birds, but I didn’t know how I’d prepare them, or even if they were edible. Well, the first step would be dismantling…
I paused, thinking. Would that be something within the scope of my metasystem? Some game inventories had the ability to dismantle items into base parts. Sometimes it required an additional tool or ability, but the existence of my inventory in the first place was already beyond explanation. Maybe I could do more with it.
Looking at my inventory, which was in grid mode, I tried to imagine myself clicking on an item, and a highlight appeared around it in my inventory. I tried not to celebrate early as I tried various options to do more than just summon an item. After failing with my mental keyboard, I tried to mentally “click and hold.”
A submenu appeared.
The options read “details” and “discard.”
I selected details, and two new popups appeared in rapid sequence. The topmost was a familiar sight.
Skill acquired: Appraisal(+)
What a great discovery. Advanced appraisal would have otherwise cost 10 SP to unlock, and I unlocked it with my metasystem alone. Since I only had 2 SP, I assumed I unlocked it for free, but I would have to double check to make sure it hadn’t cost my 2 SP first and then auto-filled the last 8 SP for free. First, I cleared the skill acquisition window, and looked at the second screen which came up.
Nodmouse (deceased)
The corpse of a nodmouse. Inedible.
Contents: Nodmouse bones, nodmouse meat, nodmouse offal.
This was interesting. If this was the power of Appraisal(+), I wondered if I could now appraise live beasts, too. Previously, I could only appraise humans. I dismissed the menu to check my own stats, but it looked largely the same, except for the upgraded appraisal skill. No new details.
The fact that the dead nodmouse in my inventory now displayed contents was also interesting. I selected it again, and now the options read “details,” “dismantle,” and “discard.” I selected dismantle.
The nodmouse disappeared from my inventory and was replaced with the three items previously listed as the contents of the whole item. I selected nodmouse meat and chose details.
Nodmouse meat
The uncooked meat of a nodmouse. Edible. No effect.
I summoned the mouse meat out of my inventory and looked it over. It was a small amount, but it looked like any other uncooked meat. The inventory said edible, but I should probably cook it first. Should I get my mother to teach me the cooking skill? That could probably wait until I had more SP. I wanted to use my first 2 SP on magic.
In the meanwhile, I dismantled the other dead animals in my inventory. Interestingly, once dismantled, I ended up with inventory items which stacked. While two dead nodmice acted as different items in my inventory, the metasystem dismantled them identically, providing me with indistinguishable sets of bones, meat, and offal, at least according to what my inventory was telling me. I also dismantled the birds (which were called “singbirds,” according to the appraisal) which turned into singbird-related bones, feathers, meat, and offal.
I also checked the details of the cherry tomatoes I had been enjoying for months now. The details caused me to raise an eyebrow.
Cherry tomato
A small, sweet, fruit. Edible. Restores 1 HP.
Contents: Cherry tomato seeds
Normally 1 HP wouldn’t be considered much, so an item that restores 1 HP isn’t very interesting. Now that I was level 2, I had 21 HP, but just a short while back I was level 1 with 10 HP. Was my total life energy then worth a mere ten cherry tomatoes? It was a bit baffling to think about. What made it restorative? Was it the sugars within? The vitamins? Could concentrated cherry tomato juice act as a health potion? As usual, I had more questions than answers. I also made note of the fact that I could break down the cherry tomato and gain the seeds, but seemingly would lose the rest of the fruit. Dismantling was a peculiar process.
Dismantling seemed like half of a larger process, which would involve item creation. I couldn’t seem to unlock the ability to do that at the moment. Would I need to level up my inventory skill first, or was I missing items which I needed as a prerequisite, or just overlooking something simple again? I ate some more cherry tomatoes as I pondered it all.