Combining the contents of the six vials takes a moment as his territory control scoops up every last drop from five of them into the last. Gathered together, the bottom of the vial has enough liquid to form a layer instead of a drop. Not much, but Ally nods when she sees it. ‘That should be enough to get something. Probably not the pattern or even the recipe for it, but you might have the chance to improve the myconid’s poison. Oh, and deconstruct the vials before they can unsummon themselves. Being in your dungeon gives you more time to work with because of all the power in the air, but not that much time.’

Doyle nods and gets right to it. First, he deconstructs the five loose vials. Or rather he tries to, but as his skill touches them the vials blink out of existence. ‘Well, that didn’t work. Ally, you said they are summoned, would that stop me from deconstructing them or something?’

Ally frowns, ‘It shouldn’t? It might have to do with them being provided by an associate of gods. They might really want those vials back in one piece. There probably is some giant store room full of empty glass vials somewhere that gets pulled from.’

Doyle’s core dims as he takes a moment to think. Something at the back of his head was ringing. ‘Ally, when a used vial disappears, does it take the residue with it?’

Ally takes a moment to think about it but can’t remember. ‘I don’t know the answer to that. If I had to guess though it should. I’ve not heard of anyone complaining when people throw used vials to the side. At the very least, some of my aunts would have raised a ruckus when any of their boys would take something and toss the vials on the carpet.’

Doyle brightens up and nods, ‘I think I know what the alchemy gods get out of the vials. No one bothers to empty the vials completely. I bet when a vial goes back to wherever they go the contents get examined. Any new potions, any special recipes, all this and more should be getting analyzed by those gods. Alchemy seems like one of those things where secrets are held so tightly an alchemist wouldn’t even give even a hint to their god. Sure this wouldn’t provide the techniques used to make the potion. Let me try something.’

Doyle focuses on the last vial that has the potion left in it. With his territory control Doyle freezes the space within a meter of it. Next he puts in a dungeon rule that forbids summons from being prematurely dismissed. ‘Okay, that should do it. Ally, can you think of anything more I could do?’

Ally looks at the vial and frowns, ‘Not off the top of my head. With the space locked down and a rule in place that should do the job.’

Doyle nods and doubles down on his control. Ready, he first moves the potion to a stone capsule so it wouldn’t disappear when he tried to get the vial. Then with a flourish he activates deconstruct on the vial. However, unlike when he normally uses the skill, the vial doesn’t get absorbed instantly. It hangs there with sections fuzzing out as it tries to unsummon.

A great pressure comes down on the barrier between the void and his first floor. Doyle doesn’t give up though and keeps his skill running. The pressure ramps up but slowly, starting at the rim, the vial unravels. It takes time, but he has deconstructed the vial.

A system message comes up but before he can read it there is a loud bonk coming from outside of his first floor. Ally and Doyle both turn towards the noise as another bonk can be heard. Doyle dims as he opens up a screen to view what is going on. Just in time to see a young looking lady wearing a leather vest over a lab coat with a shocked look. The lady takes a deep breath and frowns before she tries to enter the floor again but is stopped and there is a third bonk.

The person shakes thier head and sighs before knocking on the first floor’s dimension. Inside they can hear the knocking and in front of Doyle a system message pops up.

{A junior alchemist goddess would like to hold a conversation with you. Would you like to:

Use a portal to allow them in

Turn them away

Meet them in a safe neutral ground}

Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘Well I advise we go with option three. I’m going to guess they really don’t like what you did there. Just include me.’

Doyle rolls his core to the side, ‘You think? But yeah, I don’t want to let him, but if I turn him away, the next person who comes by won’t be so junior.’

Doyle switches to normal telepathy, ‘[Me and Ally want to meet them in a safe neutral ground.]’

At first nothing happens but then outside the god nods their head and with a flash all three of them appear in a featureless white room. Ally looks around and nods, “Good, we aren’t here physically but rather as projections.”

Doyle frowns and turns his head towards her, “How can you tell?”

Though before she can answer Doyle brings his hand up to cover his mouth and Ally smiles. “Well, first of all, you’re not in the shape of a dungeon core at the moment. Here, take a look!” And she waves her hand, bringing a mirror into existence in front of him.

Doyle looks himself over and doesn’t know how to react. While he has taken on a more human form, he wouldn’t call himself human. The first big difference is that instead of skin, his body is still made of the purple crystal that his core is. Besides that, his body is very undefined, more like a manikin. The only defining features are his face, and even that is vague.

He runs his hand down his cheek, “Huh, is this a projection of who I am or is the system just projecting a good facsimile to facilitate talking to others.”

Ally laughs, “I’ll tell you when we get back to the dungeon. Right now we should probably deal with the elephant in the room, or I guess I should say cow.” And she laughs even more.

Doyle turns to the goddess and raises an eyebrow. The goddess who had looked like a well-dressed lady now looks more like a large cow with golden markings. The cow huffs and she shifts back into her human form. Not completely however as she now looks like an anthropomorphic cow in a lab coat. Though the leather vest is gone and Doyle realizes that it had looked a lot like the cow’s hide.

With a sigh, the goddess shakes her head. “Well, a little early for someone like me to show up here. Though seeing as you are an awakened dungeon would explain it. Anyway, I’m here to bargain with you over not messing with my association’s vials. We are willing to give you a selection of potions in exchange for not absorbing them.”

Ally with an angry glare is about to go off on the goddess but Doyle holds his hand up and stops her. Then he turns his hand towards himself and stares at it for a second before speaking up. “Huh, hands are really way too convenient for gesturing with. That aside, let me take care of this. Before I make any deal, I will run it by you, but I have to stand on my own feet.”

Ally rolls her eyes, “You aren’t prepared for dealing with a goddess.”

Doyle laughs, “I would be worried if I was dealing with some ancient being.”

The cow goddess crosses her arms and pouts, “What do you mean by that?”

Doyle shakes his head, “I’m not the best judge of age, but you aren’t an elder god and not just because you are a junior goddess. Though mainly I’m going by how shocked you were outside my dungeon. You looked genuinely surprised that it was a dungeon you got sent out here for.”

The cow goddess pauses and then sighs, “I told them I wouldn’t be good at this. But still, do you want that deal?”

Doyle laughs, “No.”

She tilts her head to the side, “Okay? Any particular reason why so I can do a better job next time. Oh, and what would make you be willing to take the deal? The other gods and goddess don’t exactly want me to come back without the agreement. It isn’t cheap to whip up those vials so we can send them all over the universe.”

Doyle rubs the bridge of his nose, “Well, first of all I caught the fact you just offered potions without being specific. That could mean anything from a large quantity of godly mixtures or more likely it could also mean three variants of a potion that makes sour food taste sweet.”

“Besides that, you revealed much too much info, especially with that last bit. Now I know the fact that you have to make the deal and that me not eating the vials is a very important subject. You even admitted that it wasn’t cheap to make the vials, which seeing as you belong to an association of gods, says something despite how many such vials there must be out there.”

His cutting critique caused the most pitiful display of puppy dog eyes to be turned on him. It doesn’t bother Doyle, but still he holds up his hands, “Now I didn’t say I was going to rip you off. I can understand how valuable the vials are by what little I saw of a system message when you showed up.”

She sighs, “But that means I won’t be able to afford whatever you want for your promise!”

Ally can’t help herself at this point, “Doyle, give the girl some slack! She has been put in a very hard spot by this.”

Doyle snaps his fingers, “That reminds me, we don’t actually know what you would like to be called! What would you like us to refer to you by?”

The cow goddess sniffs, “Why not just ask for my name?”

Doyle shrugs, “I’m new to this whole deity thing and didn’t know if it would be rude. Plus, sometimes a person’s name isn’t what they want to be associated with.”

She rubs her eyes and slumps against the room’s wall. “Names aren’t too important to deities. When a person prays to us, all that matters is that they are thinking of use. Anyway, you guys can call me Moota. That’s what all the other gods and goddesses call me. My actual name is a little hard for anyone who isn’t a cow to pronounce.”

Doyle nods, “Fair enough, so did you used to be a cow or some form of animalistic humanoid.”

Moota looks up and shrugs, “I was a golden alchemy cow that was worshiped by everyone on my planet. After a while this raised me up to where I am now.”

Doyle frowns, “With all the gods vying for worship, I figured it would be hard for something like that to happen.”

Moota laughs, “Not every planet gets bombarded with dreams from the heavens. My planet was much worse than the one you are attached to. Even from the void, I could sense that there were already some minor herbs growing on your world. Over a thousand years after the system had integrated my planet, there still wasn’t enough world energy in the air to form dungeons or grow herbs.”

“The fact I was born there in the first place is a miracle in and of itself. A golden alchemy cow can turn even normal herbs into potions through our milk. Even the weakest healing potion was a godsend to the natives of my planet, and so they worshiped me. Sure, a god or two had gotten a following in passing, but my potions were real when the other gods didn’t do a thing for the world. Within a few years, everyone on the planet worshiped me. If it wasn’t for how weak my planet was that would have been enough to rocket me to being a full god. But, well, here I am.”