Seeds of Discordia

Liam walked through the town enjoying a mild breeze that gently caressed his face. The Yooperlite stone was almost fully dimmed as he turned down a quiet road full of specialty stores. Most of the stores were starting to close down for the day.

Liam approached one of the buildings, taking in all of the details. A light shown through the window revealing an open sign sitting in the corner. A sign with a picture of a beaker with bubbles flowing out of it read, “The Bubbling Potion.”

Liam took a breath in and slowly let it out before opening the door and walking in. He was amazed by what he saw and smelled.

On the wall to the left were two standing shelving unit that stood about halfway up the wall. One had vials of different sizes and colors. A sign hung above it of the shelves saying, “Weak and Minor Hp, MP, Stam Assortments.”

The other standing shelving unit held different sized clear bottles containing different shades of dark and sickly colored liquids with cork stoppers plugging them. Above the area was a sign that read, “Assortments of Weak and Minor Poisons.”

Long and short tables were spread across the floor with tins, paper wrapped around flowers and other herbal items laid across them.

Across the wall towards Liam’s right were more shelving units with empty glass vials, bottles, and alchemy tools.

A card sat in front of each product with writing on them saying what they were, with prices.

Liam looked at the wall in the back. It had more standing shelving units, but these ones were empty. There was a closed door to the left of the shelves. A long wooden ornate counter sat close to the back wall and had enough space to walk around it on both sides.

A figure was hunched over in the middle of the counter with stacks of paper spread out.

From what Liam could see it was a male with messy curly light blue hair. He looked to be much shorter than Liam from how long the males’ arms were and how small his hands looked.

Liam guessed he stood a little shorter than Roman. He also had a light blue mustache that was fully curled at the tips.

As Liam approached the counter, he could hear the man grumbling unpleasantly, “Go to the Tutorial area they said. It will be beneficial to you, they said.” He let out a displeased scoff. “Hardly anyone is interested in the Alchemic craft.”

Liam cleared his throat before saying, “Um excuse me.”

“If you’re looking for potions they are to your left. Same with poisons,” the man said without taking his eyes off the papers in front of him. His voice sounded a little high pitched but also a bit seasoned.

“I’m not here to buy potions or poisons,” Liam tried again. “I’m interested in learning Alchemy.”

The man stopped what he was doing and finally looked up at Liam. He gave him an assessing look. He frowned before asking, “Are you sure? It’s a tedious craft that requires a lot of patience.”

Liam nodded. “That seems to be the theme for all crafts, doesn’t it?”

The man stared at him before letting a grin form making his mustache curl a little more. “Ain’t that the truth. Alright, I can mentor you, but I can’t do it all the time. You’ll have to practice by yourself whenever you’re not here. Is that alright?”

“That works for me. When are you available to mentor me?” Liam questioned.

“I can mentor you around this time of day whenever you’re available. At the beginning of the day I work on my own projects and during Mid-day I focus on selling the wares. So, it’s best to come more towards the evenings where I can answer questions and guide you through new processes. Does that work for you?”

Liam thought about it. Blacksmithing in the morning and Alchemy at night? Not a bad schedule. He nodded as he said, “That works for me. I have another craft I work on in the early mornings so that is fine.”

A curious look grew on the man’s face. “What craft do you do in the morning?”

“Blacksmithing,” Liam replied.

“Bah,” the man scoffed. “Such a brutish craft. Let me guess. One of the short tempered males is mentoring you and causing you to question the craft?”

“No,” Liam shook his head. “My Blacksmithing Mentor is Fia.”

The man gave a shocked expression as he stared at Liam. “Fia is your mentor?” He brought a hand to his face and played with the curly end of his moustache as he muttered, “If that woman is taking initiative with mentoring him then...” He looked back at Liam for a moment before smiling wide and reaching his right hand out. “The name’s Galin. Galin of the Bubbling Potion.”

Liam reached out and shook Galin’s hand. “I’m Liam.”

“Alright Liam,” Galin started. “Let’s start your Alchemy training now. First, I need to know if you have gotten Field of the Crafter yet.”

Liam shook his head. “Not yet. I’m almost there though.”

“Hm…ok, not to worry. The magic you get for that will be needed for later. We can start by getting you the Alchemy craft first and go from there.”

“Ok,” Liam said as he watched the man turn, step down from a step stool he was standing on, waved a hand in a follow me motion, and instructed as he walked towards the back door, “Come with me. We’ll get you started in the back.”

Liam followed him to the back room and was shocked. It was a wide room filled with various alchemy tools. One table had small empty vials resting in test tube racks of various designs.

Another table had glass beakers of different shapes and sizes. Some of the weirdly shaped glass beakers rested on an open circular metal holder. These ones looked like a glass watering can with a cover on the top.

To Liam it reminded him of a high school chemistry classroom, but with a more fantasy-like feel to it.

The smaller beakers were empty while the bigger ones had liquids with a flame underneath them. At a glance, he noticed the small fire floating above what looked like a Bunsen burner.

However, the Bunsen burner-like object didn’t have a hose leading to anything with gas. It was just a thin metal shaft with a base and a turn knob on the side. The liquid inside was bubbling causing some of the liquids to jump up and roll down the angled part of the glass into an open beaker placed off to the side.

There were four open windows throughout the room allowing the smells to escape. Under a couple of the windows were barrels filled with stuff Liam couldn’t see from where he was at.

There was also a room off to the side with a sign on the door saying, “Caution. Poison Crafting area. Proceed with proper gear.”

“Now, before we start,” Galin started as he pulled a stool over to the table with the test tube racks filled with empty vials. There were some larger vials with a flat bottom that sat next to the racks as well. “Let me go over some of the basics.”

“Ok,” Liam said as he pulled out a notebook and pencil he got from Mercer earlier. He opened it and waited for Galin to continue.

Impressed Galin complimented as he nodded, “Taking notes is a great way to improve your crafting endeavors. It’ll help raise your Knowledge Theory and Practicality if you write down what your taught as well as what you learn when working on your craft.”

Liam gave a nod of understanding.

“Alchemy is the art of crafting both Magical and Non-magical potions, tonics, poisons, medicinal balms, and chemical creations.” Galin explained. “Most items made do not require magic, however if you wish to make Mana Potions, and Magic Potions; your mana is required. However, that is something we’ll cover when you get there.”

Liam nodded as he started to write.

“Alchemy can be used for many things and many who devout their lives to the study of it are coming up with new ways to use it. I won’t be going over advanced Alchemy with you, but instead the basics.”

Galin then pointed at the empty vials. “To get the Alchemy Craft started you will have to get the important and much needed Extraction skill. To get that you will need to fill a vial fifty-five percent of the way with clean water.” Galin then pointed to the window and instructed, “Grab a large vial and go fill it with some clean water over in that barrel under the window.”

Liam grabbed one of the flat-bottomed vials and walked over to the barrel Galin pointed at. He saw a wooden water dipper with a hooked end at the handle, hanging on the side of the barrel. As he grabbed it and slowly poured the water in the vial, he gauged the amount. He looked at Galin to see if it was right.

Galin nodded and then said as Liam walked back, “The amount doesn’t need to be exact. You just can’t have too much nor too little because it will affect the end result. After you practice and raise this skill, you’ll get a better feel for the amount you need.”

“Got it,” Liam said as he sat the vial down and wrote in his notebook.

“Now do you have any Shallow bells?” Galin asked. “If you don’t then that’s fine, I have some in stock.”

“I came across some in the dungeon earlier,” Liam replied as he pulled one out from his inventory and handed it to Galin.

“Good. Good,” Galin said before examining it. “Hm…This one was poorly harvested.”

Liam winced.

Catching Liam’s expression, he waved a hand and stated, “It is fine. Getting started requires poorly harvested items anyways.”

“Whys that?” Liam inquired.

“I’ll explain in just a moment. For now, pluck the head of the flower, snap the stem and then place the stem inside the vial,” Galin instructed.

Liam did as he was told. He then plugged a cork on it as Galin handed it to him.

“Now as we wait for that I’ll explain the fundamentals of Extractions and how it works in Alchemy here,” Galin started.

 Liam brought his notebook up and got his pencil ready.

“Extraction is separating certain compounds from an ingredient to a liquid. To do this you must soak a solid item in a liquid, like water for example, for a certain amount of time. The longer you soak it the more properties get extracted from the item. For example, 10 minutes of extraction can give a weak effect, 30 minutes can give a weak and so on and so forth. However, the item quality being extracted plays a part in how long it can be extracted before it becomes useless to wait for more. Poor items can only get poor effects and not higher.”

Galin waited a moment for Liam to finish writing. “Now I say useless, but it’s not what you think. You can keep the material being extracted in the vial for as long as you want, you just won’t get any adding potential from it.”

“Ah ok,” Liam said as he erased something and rewrote it.

“While we are waiting for this to process, I’ll explain the next part.” Galin stated as he turned his body and then pointed to the bubbling and boiling liquid transferring to another beaker. “Distillation.”

“Distillation,” Liam repeated quietly.

“The term Distillation or Distilling for short, here, is to purify your extracted liquid or any certain liquids by vaporizing it, then condensing it by cooling the vapor, and collecting the resulting liquid. To distill you must have both a base liquid, Water, alcohol, etc., and an extracted liquid. Mix the two into a Cucurbit.”

Galin pointed to the weird-looking glass beaker with the boiling and liquid. “Add a flame hot enough to get it to a boiling point and watch as the boiling purified liquids bounce and pour into a beaker or flask, depending on what you’re making.”

As Liam finished writing a chime echoed in his mind. He gave a shocked look. He read the notification as it appeared.

 

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“Congratulations! You have reached level 1 in the craft Alchemy!”

“Congratulations! You have reached level 1 in the skill Extraction!”

“Congratulations! You have reached level 1 in the skill Distillation!”

---

 

“I’m guessing from that expression you must have gotten it?” Galin smiled.

Liam smiled sheepishly back. “Yes sir, I did.”

“Good,” Galin said as he clapped his hands, stepped down, grabbed his stool, pulled it over to the closest emptied Distillation station, and said, “Now bring that vial over here and pour it through the hole of the Cucurbit. Then grab some clean water and add about three scoops in.”

Liam did as he was instructed. After he was done, he placed the lid back on top and looked at Galin.

“Now we will…,” Galin started to say until the door to the shop opened, and a voice called out, “Professor Galin, I’m back!”

Liam and Galin turned to see a wiry looking girl walking towards them.

She wore a black tank top with a pair of black skinny jeans torn in certain parts showing how slim she was. Her black ankle high boots covered the bottom of her jeans. A picture of a lime green liquid in the shape of a skull dripping down a red apple with smoke coming from the liquid spelling out the words ‘Wanna take a bite?’ rested on the tank top.

She had shoulder length strawberry blonde hair. Some of it hung over the goggles that rested on her forehead. She had beautiful chartreuse green eyes that almost matched the color of her tank top. A slim red lipped smile was on her face.

As she approached them, she saw Liam and gave him an assessing look. After a moment she gave him a mischievous smile that reached her eyes and asked, “Who’s he, professor?”

“Ah, welcome back Alicia,” Galin started. “This is Liam. He came to study Alchemy like you.”

Liam gave her a nod as he reached out to shake her hand.

Alicia looked at it for a moment before grabbing it and saying, “Welcome to the mad house.”

Galin looked at Liam and informed, “Alicia started yesterday. She’s my first apprentice, making you my second. So, she’s not too far ahead of you.”

“I’m interested in the poison craft aspect,” Alicia grinned. “I think it’ll help my class out.”

Liam gave a slight chuckle as he commented, “If that’s the case then remind me not to piss you off.”

Alicia gave him a once over and then with a playful smile and look in her eyes she teased, “I think you won’t have any worries there, but I’ll gladly remind you every now and then.” She then winked.

Liam blushed a little as he let out a cough.

“So, what made you interested in Alchemy, Liam?” Alicia asked as she brought both hands behind her back.

“Besides the fact that I find it interesting,” Liam started. “What really made me want to try my hand on it is I want to find a way to make potions taste better.”

Alicia and Galin stared at him.

After a moment Alicia let out a laugh. “I know exactly what you mean. These potions taste like the back side of a sweaty gorilla.”

Liam grimaced at the thought as Galin pressed his thumb and index finger to his forehead and shook it.

“Please tell me that’s not the sole purpose of why you want to learn alchemy,” Galin asked feeling disappointed.

“No,” Liam said. “Back on my world there are games that have alchemy in them. I played them and was fascinated by it. So, when I found out that I could learn it here, of course I wanted to.”

Placated by the answer, Galin looked at Liam and nodded. “Good answer.”

“That being said…,” Liam hesitated before asking, “Is there a way to change the taste of the potions?”

Alicia placed a hand by her mouth trying hard not to laugh.

“There is. But…,” Galin started.

Liam sighed in relief.

“I haven’t heard of any successful concoctions because many Alchemists find it not cost efficient when making them,” Galin added.

“I don’t care if it’s not cost efficient. I just want to get rid of that nasty taste,” Liam said with a shudder.

“The best way to do it is to add certain plants or minerals that only add flavors to the Extraction process,” Galin said as Liam wrote it down. “The materials that can be used though are expensive.”

Liam thought it over. “What do you mean by expensive? Can’t you just use something like Moss Mint?”

Galin gave him a perplexed look. He then thought it over as he began muttering to himself, “Can that work? Moss mint isn’t something anyone has found a use for yet. Maybe…” He looked back at Liam and answered, “You can try. I haven’t heard of anyone trying it with Moss Mint yet.”

Alicia looked at him. “Where did you find that at?”

“I found it in the dungeon I have been assigned to,” Liam responded.

“Which dungeon are you in?” Alicia asked.

“I’m in the Black Dungeon,” Liam answered.

“That dungeon will provide interesting ingredients,” Galin started. “If you can harvest some bones in it they can help in Alchemy, Rune Crafting, and Enchanting as well as Blacksmithing.”

“I got some of them from fighting the skeletons,” Liam said.

“Good. Hold on to those and when your Alchemy has grown some, I’ll show you what you can do with them,” Galin said.

“Alright, thank you,” Liam smiled appreciatively.

“Now let’s get back to the basics,” Galin said before looking to Alicia. “Alicia, can you light the burner please.”

“Sure thing, Professor,” Alicia said as she started to chant, “Come forth heat of flames and burn the pyre I set before you. Become the tool that will help in my endeavor. Light and Burn.”

A small fire appeared on Alicia’s index finger. She guided it to the metal rod under the Cucurbit and then moved her finger away.

Galin reached for the knob on the side and clicked it to the right making the flame burn a little hotter. He then said, “We call this a Bunsen Burner.”

That’s easy to remember since it looks like one from my old world. Liam thought as he wrote it down.

“Once when you get the spell Light and Burn you can create a small flame to place on it. This knob controls the temperature of said flame. You can put it out by turning the temperature down and blowing it.” Galin explained. “I know you started your blacksmith training and have probably seen Fia use this spell. I’ll clear up the question probably forming in your head. Yes, it’s the same spell. You can make the flame big or small from the amount of mana you use for it.”

Liam was shocked by this.

“The spell will produce small flames perfect for this at the beginning, but once when you get a better feel for it, you’ll be able to make a bigger flame for blacksmithing or light an outdoor fire for cooking.”

Liam saw the small bubbles start to rise up from the bottom of the container.

“Wait you’re also learning Blacksmithing?” Alicia questioned.

“Yeah, I’m going to look into other crafts as well to get a better feel for them,” Liam answered as he watched small drops of liquid roll down into the open beaker.

“Why would you want to do that? I was told that learning too much can hinder our growth,” Alicia stated as she eyed him.

“Don’t worry about it too much. It’s something I want to try,” Liam said as he gave her an even look.

“Okay,” Alicia said as she rolled her eyes. “I’m going to start my practice now. I’ll see around.”

“Alright,” Liam said.

“That’s pretty much it,” Galin said. “Once this is done pour it into an appropriate sized vial and cork it. Then Walla! You have a weak health potion.”

Galin then looked at Liam and added, “The minor and higher up Health potions require more ingredients, but this is enough for a weak one. Depending on how much you want to make you can extract more in separate vials and then combine them into a bigger cucurbit and then distill it for more Health potions.”

“Thank you for that,” Liam said.

“Don’t go thanking me yet,” Galin said with a greedy grin. “You can practice here whenever you’d like to, but I’d advise you to at least raise your Extraction skill when you’re not here. And for that you’ll need to purchase equipment. Of course, you’ll get an apprentice discount.”

Liam gaped at the short man. He then let out a sigh as he thought, Where’s Mercer when you need him. He shook his head before saying to Galin, “Of course, let’s see what you got.”