Tutorial Day 32

  After my first successful attempt at creating a Pill, I returned to my room, thinking I should experiment some more. It was in that mindset that I remembered to try and sell a Detoxifying Soldier Pill to Demonic Vault.

  It hadn’t been interested in the raw Herbs, and while I could sell Skins and meats to it—they would only earn me almost an identical amount of Mana Coins as they would Tutorial Points. In fact, it was eerie how similar the numbers were—almost always being identical or one and two points off.

  With that phenomenon, there was a chance that these Pills could earn me twenty-five hundred mC. I opened the Vault windows and navigated through them, though with a great deal more difficulty than when Smegma was with me. In the past, I had taken his help for granted. Now, in order to sell something to Demonic Vault, I had to open the Sell window—hold an object, and mentally ‘shake hands’ with the Skill.

  It wasn’t hard, but it was time consuming compared to selling Mana Crystals with Smegma around. Then, I just had to touch the object and Smegma did the rest. I will admit that buying items had gotten better without him asking me if I was sure I wanted to purchase it. Now it was just a screen, that I could click yes to.

  Now that same screen offered me a choice.

  It might not seem like a big decision, but it was also deceptive. The question wasn’t just a matter of which currency was better between mC and Tp. Because if I was going to put them both on a scale, I’d probably be leaning toward the wares Demonic Vault offered.

  The fact that the Tutorial seemed to offer only F and E-rank Skills and equipment made Mana Coins seem better. However, there was an argument that could be made that Tp was of more immediate use.

  Why?

  Well, here in the Tutorial I could take lessons and read knowledge that the Demonic Vault didn’t sell. For example, I could go find a trainer for Qi and Force here. I could get lessons in combat tactics, and probably different weapons. If I had enough Points, I could read the entirety of the Library in this very Academy—and maybe others.

  Simply put, mC could get me more powerful Skills, at a higher cost—but Tutorial Points could get me things I needed right now. Still, there was one larger reason I didn’t hit sell to Demonic Vault.

  Tutorial Points could help me discover how to get out of this Tutorial… Mana Coins definitely could not.

  I briefly considered attempting to ‘game the system’ by searching through Demonic Vault’s wares and seeing if there was anything that I could get a higher return at with the Tutorial Shop and vice-versa. However, without Smegma to do all the legwork, and with the evidence of most of the items I’d seen being of similar pricing to one another—I gave up the thought.

  Still, knowing I could sell Pills to Demonic Vault was a good piece of information, considering that I would likely want some more Profession Equipment or Gathering Equipment soon. For example, if I sold four Pills right now, I could buy a Lumberjack’s Axe from Demonic Vault.

  Then I could cut down trees myself for fuel. Or perhaps I could eventually buy the Enchanting Workshop, or Alchemical Lab. Those would be the goals of Demonic Vault as I took advantage of the training and knowledge here in the Tutorial with Points. I hoped I wouldn’t accomplish all my goals but considering people had been stuck here for sixty years…

  One step at a time, I told myself and began going through my notes, getting ready to create some Pills again.

  I didn’t bother looking for the containers that held the powders, and instead, tried to come up with combinations in my notebook first. The problem, as I could see it, was that Angry Fruit and Soft Dandelion were ‘compatible’ but not as Pills. As Potions or explosives, maybe—but not Pills.

  Yet, other than those ingredients, I didn’t have any other F-Rank Herbs or Fruit that I could find a synergy with each other. Well, other than Witch Hazel and Moon Stalk. The problem was that Witch Hazel and Moon Stalk also didn’t pair with these two reagents.

  So, I could use my notes from the Library to try and combine E-Rank materials, or I could just take on the mindless task of making as many Detoxifying Soldier Pills as I could.

  Sighing, I went with that option. Eventually, I’d likely get a Skill for Alchemy if I kept succeeding with Pill Crafting.

  * * *

  My lungs burned, as I coughed.

  Phlegm shot from my mouth. Snot ran from my nose, and my eyes watered. I was sitting in the doorway of my room, holding it open so I could vent the noxious gas I created—

  I didn’t know what I had done differently. I’d followed my notes perfectly—using the same measuring tricks to ensure a proper—

  Coughing consumed my thoughts again as my body tried to expel the thick, carbonized air that made its way into my lungs. The problem had all been made worse when the Magical Cleaning Enchant had stopped working. Looking into my room, I still couldn’t get a good view of my Cauldron—and the last one I had, made it seem like it was the exhaust of a particularly old diesel eighteen wheeler.

  “Go get the guards!” Someone shouted, as the black smoke billowed out the top half of my open door and began to fill the hallway.

  The Guards? Surely someone should be getting the fire brigade or something?

  Feet could be heard slapping against the stone floor from the general direction of the stairwell. Those sounds were further confused by the slapping feet coming toward me from someone on the floor.

  “You okay?” A female robotic voice asked.

  I tried to look at the speaker, but my eyes were so filled with water that I only saw the general outline of a person’s face. They had to be close, because the fuzzy edges took up my entire field of vision.

  “Once the guards head in and pull your Tray and Ashes—I’ll get you out of the doorway. Otherwise they’ll take longer to open the doorway, which will only cost you more Tp.” The robotic translator said directly into my ear.

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  “Thank—” I was once again cut off by my coughing. By the time I had control of my body again, people had already leaped over me, and the person who had asked after my health was dragging me further from the door.

  Once I was a bit further from the smoke, my eyes began to clear. It wasn’t all at once, but they did at least go from fuzzy to blurry. I glanced back at my room and found an outline of someone in the doorway, while a flash of Cleaning magic continually pulsed through the room.

  How had they gotten my ‘shower’ working again? I thought, blearily.

  “This is going to cost you, you know?” The girl said from her place slumped against a wall. I spun on her, thinking that she was going to try to extort me. She chuckled the only sound that wasn’t robotic. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not the one who’s going to be charging you, so, lose the scowl before I tweak your nose.”

  She pointed back the way I had just been looking. “The Guards have already begun to recharge your Cleaning Enchant, and they likely just used a few month's worth of Tutorial Points to get the room habitable again. That’s why we Craft in classrooms!”

  Her tone was robotic but I could almost hear a mild rebuke at my actions. What did a few months of Tutorial Points even mean? Ten thousand for Room and Board maybe?

  My eyes finally fully cleared, and I found myself staring at a small Indian woman. Her hair was black, and her eyes brown—at least, I was pretty sure of the black hair. The problem was that she was covered in soot, from head to toe. Her Saree held hints of red in it, down near the hem, but the rest had been blackened by the smoke.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, indicating her clothes.

  She shook off my apology. “It isn’t like my Cleaning Enchant isn’t working,” she answered with an overlaid chuckle due to the delay. “What were you doing in there?” She asked as a follow up. “It looked like a Pill Cauldron mishap.”

  My wince was answer enough, and the woman chuckled long before the translator gave me her words. “No wonder it got so out of hand. There are rooms toward the back of the Academy with hood vents. I still think Pill Crafting is a waste of ingredients—” she motioned back at my room and the two guards that were exiting. “—but at least with the vent hood you aren’t going to pay for mishaps.” She glanced back toward my room. “Well, pay any more than the loss of reagents, at least.”

  “Was that your room?” One of the guards stated in accented English as he strode over and stood above my slumped form. I nodded. He shook his head and touched my arm. Just like Claude had.

  The guard then stared at me incredulously until I realized my mouth had fallen open and I was wide eyed in shock—staring right back at him. He clearly took that as an insult or me questioning his actions.

  Once I averted my gaze, he scoffed. “This didn’t even have a multiplier applied to the charge because this is your first offense, according to the building. Do it again, and I’ll make sure you’re kicked out of here so fast your butt will catch fire as you skid off the stones outside! Ya hear me?!”

  His steady increase in volume was impossible to ignore. By the end, he’d gone full ‘Hollywood drill Sergeant’ and I was giving him my full attention in case he chose to attack me. So focused was I on the man’s insanity that I didn’t realize he’d asked me a question, until he growled.

  “Uhh! Yeah, I won’t!” I stuttered out, trying and failing to be assertive. I heard a small exhalation that could have been laughter from the woman nearby, but when I looked to her, she was regarding the guard. He reached out and touched her as though readying to ask a favor.

  “Thank you for the timely report, Shiva,” the guard said, his tone drastically different. “We already gave a reward to the runner you sent. Keep an eye on this one, will ya?”

  Shiva, clearly the woman’s tutorial name, nodded. “Will do, Sergeant.”

  Her last word was in English and bordering on pure, scathing sarcasm, but her paired salute pushed it over the edge. The guard’s teeth clicked together in shock, even as his face reddened. “Yes, well. Just make sure he learns his lesson—and maybe get him to a Healer.”

  “I think losing fifty-thousand Tutorial Points is a pretty good lesson…” I grumbled under my breath.

  “You better not be thinking what’s more debt, kid. I dont’ know what you’re mumbling but if this happens again, you’ll be working whatever job Maelstrom assigns to earn your way out,” The guard’s gaze snapped toward me.

  “Uh… yeah.” I backpedaled, realizing he thought he’d just placed me further into debt with the Tribe. “Just trying to clear the smoke out of my lungs is all.”

  The guard spun and rejoined his partner before they exited the floor, allowing my door to swing shut behind them. I turned to Shiva who was now openly laughing. When she saw my scrutiny, she grew a bit more subdued and explained, “Scott isn’t actually that bad. He just comes from a Military background in the States. He thinks that Punishment—with a capital P, is required to learn lessons. Thus, his holier than thou attitude.”

  “Oh,” I responded dumbly after the robotic voice finished. I looked to the stairs that the guards had departed down. “I guess that makes sense, and I definitely should have been using a classroom,” I groaned. Then I started to stand up, before a hand stopped me.

  “He’s right, you know,” Shiva said seriously. “If you inhaled too much of that smoke, you may need a Healer. Pill Smoke can be toxic in nearly any quantity.”

  “I’ll be okay,” I answered and then pulled out the Detoxifying Pills from my Necklace and showed the container to Shiva. “These are Detoxifying–” I cut off realizing I’d been about to reveal a product that didn’t exist in the Tutorial naturally. “–Uhh, Detoxifying and Soldier Pills. It’s what I was trying to make more of. Even if I inhaled too much, I’ll just take one of these.”

  “Smart man,” Shiva said, pulling out a stoppered bottle with ten pills inside. “Always keep some Detoxifying Pills nearby. You never know when a Potion you’re working with can turn deadly. What does the Soldier Pill do?”

  “It replaces the blood that the Detoxifying Pill burns,” I answered slowly. Had she not thought to pair the two together?

  “Where’d you get them?”

  “Made them,” I said with a raised eyebrow.

  “You made them?!” Shiva repeated, clearly skeptical from her expression.

  “This morning, before—” I cut off and indicated my room. Shiva’s thick eyebrows climbed to a few centimeters shy of her hairline. Her look was so incredulous that I asked, “What?”

  “You want me to believe that you succeeded in making a batch of pills and then caused—that,” Shiva responded, her robotic voice only carrying tone because of her actions.

  That made me blush, but I met her eyes and nodded. I had made them—and I had no idea what happened to cause the second batch to blow up in my face like that. Everything had seemed to be okay, until the green tinged smoke suddenly went red.

  “How can you have crafted these?” Shiva questioned, motioning to the Pills. “And be keeping them in a container that does nothing to maintain efficacy, while also not knowing about the idiocy of Crafting in your rooms?”

  “Wait, I thought these containers did preserve ingredients?” I asked, ignoring the rest of her questions, implied or otherwise.

  She gave me a look and then shook her head in exasperation. “How long have you been here?”

  “Thirty days, give or take,” I responded.

  “And you made those?” She asked again.

  “Yep,” I responded.

  “Either, you’re one of the best liars I’ve ever met. Or you are a savant or something. I guess I should stay on your good side till I find out which,” Shiva said. Then, she produced an empty white vial with a stopper. “Put the pills in here.”

  I pulled the stopper and transferred them over before closing it again. As soon as I did, the glazed pottery beneath my hands grew almost cold even as a blue label scrawled itself onto the surface.

  I kept my thumb covering a great deal of the label.

  The similarities between this Pill and perhaps the Potion Vials and containers I’d seen wasn’t lost on me. So, the enchants were different? Were they specifically targeted toward the product?

  Well, I thought, I suppose it does say that the containers preserve ingredients, not finished products… How much of these Pills’ Efficacy had I lost not having one of these ready?

  “Thank you,” I said, unsure what else to add.

  Shiva smiled and held out her hand. “I’m Shiva,” she introduced. “What’s your name?”

  “Br—uhhh—Shepherd,” I responded, catching myself just before I gave my usual response.

  “Well, Br—Shepherd, let me show you the fume hoods. Go get your Pill Cauldron,” Shiva said.

  She sighed when, instead of jumping to my feet, I winced. Exasperated, she asked, “What now?”

  “I don’t have a storage device large enough to get my Cauldron out of my room,” I admitted.

  Yes my Necklace of Holding could hold it, if it was the only thing in there—but I currently had the Borker Manes, and Rock Lavender Fruit container in there. And I didn’t just want to dump those out.

  She raised an eyebrow. “I bet you could have bought you one for less than however much that guard just charged you to clean up your mess…”

  Groaning, I rubbed my face with my hands. “Tell me about it.”

  Shiva sighed and then moved to a door five doors further down the hall. When she came back out, she had a very old and worn Bag of Holding. “This should work for now. Just be aware that it’s on its last legs. Any more damage and it’s likely going to stop working.”

  She held it out, and I took it, before studying the numerous burn marks, scratches and other damage to the thing. It was my turn to be incredulous as I asked, “What happened?”

  “Slimes, Bears, Tigers, Pumahs,” Shiva responded. “You name it and that bag has seen it. Saved my life once or twice. If you want to keep it, I’ll let you take it on layaway or trade for something worth ten thousand Tp.”

  Is that how people get away with purchasing things if they’re in debt?

  Considering that I knew that one of these could cost forty-thousand depending on the function, I thought that might be a good price, but couldn’t be sure. However, there was one oddity that easily stood out to me.

  “Why don’t you just get it repaired?” I asked, still studying the Bag of Holding.

  Shiva started to laugh. “I forgot how dense I was when I first got here,” she said as the howls without the translation played as background noise. “You can only repair gear purchased in the shop, at the shop.” She wiped tears of mirth from her face and added, “And even the repairs it does do, are pretty shit. Each repair made on a piece of gear degrades its rank.”

  “What?!” I said, immediately thinking about my Spear, which I had already repaired four times in the twelve days since I got it. It hadn’t got noticeably weaker in that time. Or I didn’t think it had…

  Shiva just continued to laugh.

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