All of my Herbs, and the Cauldron fit inside the worn, and rather beaten looking Bag of Holding. Together, Shiva and I moved through the Alchemist Academy, but even the direction she took at the start made me frown. Instead of going toward the stairwell I normally used, which needed a left turn from my doorway, Shiva had gone right.
And kept going a very long distance down the hallway.
It got to the point that we were passing doorways to rooms that I was sure couldn’t all be in use. Not with Fong’s initial claims of the numbers in the Tutorial. I guessed this building had room for quite a few more people, if more ‘arrived.’
Shiva opened a doorway that led to a stairwell that looked nothing like the one I was used to frequenting. In fact, if I was on Earth and saw this in a building, I’d assume it was for the cleaning staff, or ‘servants’ if it was in an older house.
For a moment I considered not following Shiva. Could this be a trap? No—no it couldn’t. We were in Town, and even shoving me with malicious intent would bring the terrifying Giants down on us. So, I descended behind her.
I wonder if fee-fi-fo fum would destroy the building just to get to the offender? Then I shivered at my own morbid thought.
We went down three flights, and arrived on the bottom floor. The hallway we exited into, reminded me of the Enchanter’s Building that I’d entered from the back door. I could see classrooms and small alcoves with desks and chairs, but for the most part, they were all empty.
“Why does no one work in these, if they offer all the same equipment?” I asked, truly confused why people would ‘fight’ for space in the front classrooms.
“Do you see any guards back here?” Shiva asked, which didn’t help my confusion.
“What does that mean?” I asked, even as I looked for the aforementioned guards.
Shiva gave me a look that mirrored some of the confusion I felt, but also seemed suspicious. “Are you not here, in hopes that Maelstrom will buy you the Mass Production Skill?”
It took a moment for the translation to come through. In response I simply blinked. Sure Fong had mentioned the Skill, and I’d even seen it, but the price was so astronomical that I couldn’t even imagine getting it. Nor would I want the Tribe to buy it for me. Surely that would put me in a debt that I’d never recover from.
“Umm, no?” I eloquently said when the silence started to make me uncomfortable. “I’m here to learn how to Craft. The place is called the Alchemy Academy…”
Shiva’s laughter made me stop speaking and simply let my sentence hang. The silence stretched as the translator did it’s thing. “The only teaching you’ll get here is from people ‘teaching a lesson’ by trying to take advantage of a newbie. Sure, someone might show you the absolute basics, but no one is going to show a rival something useful.”
“Okay, but what do the guards have to do with that?”
“Who do you think is reporting to Maelstrom about what goes on in here?” Shiva asked, her tone conveying just how stupid she thought I was. Even I was a bit dumbstruck by the fact that I hadn’t put the two disparate points together. At my wide-eyed dawning look Shiva shook her head. “Took you long enough. Why would there even be guards in here?”
Shit, what if one of the guard’s mentions me to the group that tried to kill me? I could only hope that my usual disguised appearance would help there. That and that since I’d done nothing outside my room, the guards would find me unremarkable. While Maelstrom wasn’t likely to care what I did–no one liked the attention of the ‘higher-ups.’ Right?
“To help put out fires while robbing law-abiding, innocent Alchemist’s of their hard-earned Tutorial Points?” I joked, hesitantly.
Shiva chuckled. “Try again.”
“Well, if I’m being honest? What’s stopping someone from stealing Herbs, or Fruit from the classrooms? Or just walking by and grabbing a beaker that’s left unattended?”
“Okay, they’re here for that as well, but they can’t actually do anything to you in the Town. It’s kind of a huge loophole. The ground Herbs and Fruits in the classrooms are protected by the System and we think everything else that’s purchasable within the building is as well. However, if you came by and took a Beaker from me, the guards can’t really do much to take it back or prevent it—but they would then get permission from somewhere to charge you Tutorial Points and transfer them to me. I get to set the price too. So, most people don’t try that nonsense…”
“Oh!” I said, starting to realize that they had some type of administrative power tied to the District or the Buildings. I didn’t get to continue that line of thought, because Shiva and I arrived at the Pill Crafting ‘Classroom.’
It was empty, which was kind of what I expected, based on where we were, everything I’d seen, and even the books I’d read on Pill Crafting. Eight rectangular alcoves lined the walls, creating a space with a lowered ceiling. The nearest alcove sat to my left upon entering, and I could see that under the lowered ‘ceiling’ there was a hollow space.
Perhaps it was a chimney with some sort of venting mechanism for fumes. Also inside the space were tongs, trays, molds and even stacks of various wood. This place was dust free, like everywhere else in the Academy, but I was pretty sure by the dryness of the wood—that no one had used this particular alcove, possibly the entire room, in a long while.
“Wood works like the Herbs do in the drawers. You likely won’t find much being restocked back here,” Shiva explained with a point at the massive island in the center of the classroom. The top had a few contraptions on them, like bowls, mortar and pestle, and even something that looked a great deal like a small scale from ancient times.
Meaning, no electricity. The setup looked kind of like the ones in old grocery stores that had a needle that moved, except this one wasn’t hanging, but on the table top. I smiled. This would definitely make refining my recipes easier. I moved closer to the alcove and was brought up short by a hand on my arm.
“Hold up,” Shiva said. “As soon as you enter, you’ll have to rent the space. So, I wouldn’t go in, at least, not until you’re ready. Most people prepare everything they need, then rent an alcove before mixing their ingredients, and getting to work.”
That order seemed off, which made me realize something. “Let me guess, those scales won’t work unless I’m renting an Alcove?”
“Correct,” Shiva said, then smiled and coughed politely.
What in the heck was that? It sounded so much like an usher, or bellhop looking for a—getting it, I blurted, “You’re kidding right?”
“Take it as another lesson; Nothing in the Tutorial is free. And you could even say no, but that usually doesn’t go well for you in the future,” Shiva said, as she touched my arm.
As per the agreement upon entering the Alchemy Academy, you have received 1 hour of lessons from Shiva.
1,000 Tutorial Points to pay Shiva.
You’ve purchased a Bag of Holding from Shiva for 10,000 Tutorial Points.
You’ve purchased a Pill Container of Freshness from Shiva for 1,000 Tutorial Points.
Do you accept?
12,000 Tutorial Points owed, would you like to pay in Points or Trade?
[Points] | Trade
“How much is one of these brand new?” I asked dryly, holding up the Bag of Holding. “And what would happen if I say no?”
“Don’t worry, the System won’t let me rip you off. At least not in that way. Both items are priced accordingly. Saying no puts you on a list on the boards near the entrance. Basically telling people you don’t pay for lessons.” Shiva smiled sadly, as her translated words caught up to her expression.
“Thanks,” I answered, very sarcastically. Then I considered if I should return the items back to her. Still, eleven thousand points for the Bag and Container, didn’t seem unreasonable.
I took a deep breath glancing between Shiva and the screen. Should I pay in Points or Trade? Everyone had assumed I was in debt after the guards charged me for the room. Plus, I’d already revealed a bit too much to Shiva. In the end I paid in Points. Since, I needed the rest of my Herbs, and Powders.
Shiva just smiled, and shook her head. “Don’t go too far into debt,” she warned before she gave me a thumbs up and spun on her heels. Her words meant that I could theoretically go into debt purchasing or getting lessons from people in the Academy. That was good to know, and also negated my earlier concern of her realizing how many Points I had.
Once she was gone, I shook my head. I guess I should have seen all that coming with her name being Shiva—the Hindu God of destruction. I felt like I had actually gotten off pretty easy, when I looked at it from that perspective.
Still, considering I’d been charged fifty-thousand Tp for my earlier husk up. A thousand for a quick tour, was a pittance. Assuming Shiva had told the truth, which I figured, she had no reason not to—I’d actually got a Bag of Holding and Pill Container for a relatively good price. Sure, I could have found this place on my own, but honestly she had given me more than just a tour.
Still, I did sigh at my Tutorial Point total. It was a pretty sudden decrease.
Tutorial Points: 18,770
Not unrecoverable—but definitely an unfortunate loss for something easily preventable.
Shaking my head, I moved to the table and started preparing to attempt to make another batch of the Detoxifying Soldier Pills.
* * *
It took three more burned batches and a visual study of a nearby Rental Pill Cauldron for me to realize what was going wrong. When I simply supplied Mana to the compass rose on my Cauldron, the connection dots lit up in different random patterns after a node filled. The only reason the Rental Cauldron helped discover this, was its clear lack of the compass rose and the conduit-like lines the dots made once Mana filled them.
Thinking back on my first failed batch, I realized something more. The patterns of light from the vents at the top of my Cauldron had been different from my first successful set of Pills. Both times, I’d looked inside and had seen the green fog start to swirl, but what if the different pattern of the green light meant that the failed attempts had the smoke swirling in a different direction?
Or, in a drastically different pattern…Patterns I can create with the compass rose…
Closing my eyes, I visualized what I had seen on the first batch of Pills. The first swirl had been cyclone-like, and so had the second. But the lights on the ceiling and now in the classroom weren’t spinning in the same direction. Did that mean I could change the pattern of the smoke inside the Cauldron using the compass and obtain better results? Or, in this case, after multiple failed attempts, for successful results.
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What each pattern meant, or why swirling smoke mattered in making a Pill, was a total mystery to me. I considered heading to the Library to try to discover an answer, but the Rental Cauldron disabused me even further of that notion. If a Cauldron without the compass rose was what people used here—they might not even have the problem I was currently facing.
For the thousandth time, I wished Smegma was here to give me a withering stare. Then explain what I was missing. Still, I had a theory—and once my Mana Pool was full, I was going to test it out.
Thankfully, my frustrated break in the form of throwing out bad Pills and testing the Rental Cauldron, had already allowed most of my Mana to refill.
Thinking I’d start from the basics of basics, I swapped out my Cauldron for Rental one in the alcove. Then I finished my preparations in the Pill Tray, getting the Rental Cauldron ready for a test run.
Mana Pool full I sat down in front of the Rental Cauldron, and then placed the Pill Tray inside. I didn’t want to waste ingredients but I truly needed to know where I was going wrong.
Instead of sending Mana down the straw to this Cauldron, I returned to my visual of the Starship Energize, and had it create a pathway over to the node that represented the Rental Cauldron Enchantment in my Mental Universe. I already knew it wasn’t a compass rose like mine. To my surprise as my Starship grew closer, I discovered that the Enchantment on the Rental Cauldron was on the base of the massive oven-like creation. It was seeming to be dead center between the feet.
I held my breath, as the Energize made its final approach.
My exhalation came in a rush when the connection formed. Two smaller nodes popped into existence. I blinked, starting to believe that my earlier visual inspection for the compass rose was flawed. These two nodes looked a heck of a lot like the aforementioned. However, these ones only had a simple north, and south.
Still, that wasn’t everything. Unlike the nodes of the compass rose on my Cauldron, these two nodes were colored. One was red, and the other blue. They didn’t feel like two separate Enchantments, and they also seemed to radiate a desire for Mana to me.
Why am I not surprised? I mentally grumbled. My Cauldron is a husking greedy Mana-witch. What did I expect from a Rental one…The damned thing makes me feel like some stereotypical TV-dad handing over money to their kid for lunch and the brat takes my wallet instead…
Hesitantly, I moved the Energize to the northern red node. Once it connected to the red star, I instantly got a feeling of understanding. Heat. Moments later, the Starship made the connection to the blue node. I discovered a somewhat opposite reaction for the blue star.
Cold? That wasn’t quite it, but it was something similar.
I glanced out of the alcove to my Cauldron and hoped it had a similar Enchantment I hadn’t discovered yet. Then I shrugged. This was still an experiment…
That, of course, left a rather large question. How was Mana going to add heating or cooling to the oven? There was one way to find out…
I sent Mana to the red star and saw it grow. One point had doubled its size, and after ten points, it seemed huge in comparison to the blue star beneath it. Now, why had it accepted Mana when there was nothing burning inside—
A wave of dry, hot air hit me in the face, causing me to open my eyes and stare at the Cauldron. It was radiating visible heat into the room. No smoke exited the top, but it was definitely heating up. I scrambled to open the front door of the Cauldron and extract the Pill Tray before the extreme heat damaged my ingredients.
Once it was safe, I checked the top of the two trays for wood. Maybe someone had left wood inside after the last use.
My hand started to reach for the tray just to be sure, but even with my leather gloves I could feel that the Cauldron would now be too hot to touch. I was instantly glad that I’d acted so quickly to save the Pill Tray and my ingredients.
Closing my eyes, I checked on my Mental Universe and found the red star shrinking in size. It had likely gone from ten drops of mana to about six. Curious, I tried something, and pulled the remaining Mana back to my pool.
It worked.
Opening my eyes, I checked on the Cauldron to find it was already ‘less’ hot. Still too hot to touch—but definitely cooling naturally, like a barbeque with the propane just turned off. So, was the trick of the red star in the supply of Mana?
I still had another node to check.
Mentally I commanded a drop of Mana into the blue star.
The blue screen popped up and I blinked. So, I’d need to feed the heating star with Mana to burn while the blue one would try to counteract it? That seemed extremely inefficient. Still, I mentally confirmed the temperature and waited for some cooling to take place. Nothing happened.
Eventually the Cauldron cooled down enough that I was able to check the drawers. They were both empty. Telling me that I hadn’t burned anything to create the heat. So, the Rental Pill Cauldron was more like an oven that used Mana?
I considered moving back to my Cauldron but decided against it. I needed to understand what these red and blue stars were before I tried to find them on mine. So, I placed ten drops of Mana back into the red star.
Opening my eyes, I held out my hand, and did feel the Cauldron getting warmer. When it reached the point I’d call it ‘hot,’ I returned to my Mental Universe to see how the blue star intended to keep the temperature at three hundred and fifty.
The blue star pulsed, growing and shrinking in a steady beat. As the ‘beating’ slowed, a tendril of Mana would get sent to the red star, which would brighten for a split second and then stop. This pattern continued for long minutes.
Was it like a simple analog on off command that was maintaining the temperature?
I opened my eyes and reached my hands out to the Cauldron. It was radiating a steady heat that felt similar to what an oven might give off if it was at three hundred and fifty degrees.
So, the blue star didn’t cool by actively cooling. It truly was the analog on off for the red star.
With the Enchantments still running, I looked into the drawer that had the mesh bottom and was meant to hold burning wood. It took me pulling the tray entirely out, and looking into the empty space for me to find the source of the heat. I discovered a small blue flame hovering in mid air. Some quick mental geometry told me that it would be burning right in the center of the grated shelf if I put the drawer back in.
My hand holding the drawer started to get hot, and I put it back in, even as I considered what this discovery meant. I looked at the wood—was it unnecessary?
Then I considered the blue star. It only had one point of Mana in it, and I could see it slowly consuming it. How much could it hold?
I sent Mana into the blue star until it reached ten points and refused to accept anymore.
I then pulled the Mana out of the red star back to me again. Did that mean I could use the blue star as a Mana Battery, and have ten extra points of Mana to use? I tried to pull the Mana back from the blue node, and it refused to obey.
“Dammit,” I complained, and opened my eyes. It had been worth a try. In theory ten points of Mana wasn’t much, but it could have been useful for an additional Heal or Cleanse or something.
Wait, would my Pool even refill to fifty with my ten Mana sitting in the blue star?
It didn’t take long for me to sigh in relief when my Mana reached forty-one points. It would seem that the Mana in the blue node was no longer considered ‘mine.’ When my Mana was full I reached out my hand to the Cauldron again, and found it sufficiently cooled.
It was time to try Crafting the Pill without wood to burn. I still had a few questions but figured I’d need to be Crafting something to have them answered. First, should I put Earth Root in the fuel drawer? Or should I just try Crafting the Pill without anything in there.
I was leaning toward placing the Earth Root shavings in there because why else would the drawer exist? I could have the wrong conclusion that wood wasn’t needed, but it felt more right to think that things like the Earth Root and perhaps the Aromatic Tree Toes were meant to be used as parts of the ingredients in the process.
I took another glance at the Demonic Cauldron, and shrugged.
Start with the simple one in front of me.
The Rental Cauldron confirmed that other Alchemists didn’t use an Enchantment like the compass rose on my Cauldron. An Enchantment that could eddy or move the currents of wind or smoke. So, I figured I needed to create a baseline Pill using the Rental Cauldron to see what my ingredients and the correct heat application created, before I tried fiddling with my Cauldron’s Enchantment.
Checking my notes reminded me of the mixture, cook temperature and timing for the Detoxification Pill. Then, using the red and blue suns to maintain the temperature, I placed the Pill Tray back in the oven.
One difference still existed between the ‘recipe’ and my method. I was still going to burn the Earth Root shavings, instead of mixing those shavings directly into the Pill mixture. So, I opened the fuel tray and placed the amount of a full Earth Root inside.
Green smoke began to fill the oven chamber, and I placed the chimney cap on while opening the vents slightly to keep most of the Earth Root Smoke inside the chamber.
Every few minutes I ensured that the Mana in the red sun was topped up—and waited. Perhaps thirty to forty-five minutes later, I finally started to smell a sweet aroma in the room. I’d only used about seven points of Mana into the red sun over that time.
I hurriedly pulled back the recently topped up ten points—shutting the Cauldron ‘off.’
Pulling out the tray with the tongs, I moved to the table and opened the hinged top to dump out my Pills. The good news was that they hadn’t burned. Reaching into a cabinet, I grabbed a Pill Flask and paid the thousand Tp to use it. Then, one at a time, I put the Pills inside before stopping it.
Even though it wasn’t a great result, it was still a success. I smiled and wrote it down in my journal. Then I waited for my Mana to refill and the tray to cool. In that time, I mixed another batch of the ingredients and started to get excited. It would be interesting to see just how much better the Demonic Crafting Tool could make the Pills, with the same ingredients
When I was ready again, I first swapped the two Cauldrons and then sat down in front of the mine.
I crossed my metaphorical fingers, and returned to my Mental Universe and the Energize. To my surprise I didn’t need to create another pathway for the Cauldron in front of me. I simply had to command the Starship to port over. Once it was at the Enchantment Node for the Demonic Cauldron, I held my breath, hoping that the red and blue stars would appear.
They did, and they were even in the same place at the base of the Cauldron, between the feet.
Mentally, I confirmed the temperature setting using the blue star. It was still three-fifty. With a thought, I pumped ten points of Mana into the red star. The red star lit up bright for about forty seconds before the blue one started pulsing, telling me the Cauldron had reached the desired temperature.
Just in case, I fed the red star one more point of Mana to keep it full and then opened the oven door, and put in the second tray of pills. I followed that up by opening the fuel tray and placing another single serving of shaved Earth Root inside.
Again, the green smoke started to waft into the Oven. Mentally, I connected my Mana with the straw method to the compass rose and felt the Cauldron begin to drain my Pool. A light I hadn’t noticed before. It was right under the oven door. The light blinked once and then started to increase in luminosity.
Just as a point of Mana was about to be consumed, I directed my Mana to the eastern node of the compass. The first light solidified and another one directly to the right of the first blinked. I figured if I was going to experiment with a pattern, and my goal was a tornado-like spiral—then I’d make a circle. Each point of Mana I pushed into the eastern node on the compass filled a light.
After each light was filled, I continued east. To my surprise the intake and vents opened and closed minutely along with the pulsing blue star. However, the vents closed more with my movement of the white line of lights around the cauldron.
On the tenth such eastern choice, the circle of lights connected back to the node at the start. The line glowed a brighter white and the lid of the Cauldron hovered up to cap it without me needing to intentionally think about doing it like my first attempt.
The intakes opened wide, before the vents did too, and I smiled. Something was definitely happening.
The green smoke inside was already circulating, but now began to twist and howl, creating a tornado. This wasn’t the same pattern as before, and the smoke also looked paler, but it hadn’t turned black either.
So far…
Which was another fist pump moment in my opinion.
Far sooner than even half an hour, I smelled the far stronger hint of the cinnamon-like sweetness. That meant the concoction was finished. Again, I pulled out the tray with the tongs. Then I rushed to the island and purchased a second Pill Flask.
Dumping the Pills onto the island’s counter, I used a pair of metal tongs to individually place them within.
“Well, isn’t that interesting?” I said, mostly happy I’d bettered the result from the Rental Cauldron, but upset that I’d somehow made a worse than my first fluke of an attempt Pill.
The pattern made ingredients create an entirely different Pill, so all I have to do is find that pattern to make a Soldier variant?
Thinking about it, I returned to the Cauldron and pulled out seven drops of my Mana from the red star, before returning three of them to the blue one to refill it.
My notebook and pen got a bit of a workout as I jotted down all my discoveries. Then, I returned to my Cauldron to clean it out and try again.
When I pulled the ash-tray, I discovered something I hadn’t been expecting.
With a bit of a twitch, I recalled that this would also exist in the Rental Cauldron I’d experimented with. I moved to collect it.
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