"I see." Li shrugged. "Guess she must have come from really far out. Although the old man has never been too good on details about where she came from. I'm not even sure he knows."

"Wherever she hailed from, she was taught right," said Iona. "Though I must say, her name, Aine, is quite odd. The name of the veteran here, the old man, Thane, I believe? A name quite common for the human tribes of the tundra wastes far north, even beyond the Republic. All the other names you in Soleil are typical of southern humans, though the western hinterlands do have their own unique culture and names."

"So where does that name come from?"

"It is of forestborn tongue." Iona pointed to Li. "I knew you were foreign to our ways from your name. It is, as I understand, from that of eastern humans. But not at all one of forestborn origin. I should guess that for Aine, though human, she came from a culture very much seeped in worship of the forest, but beyond that, I cannot say much else. Yet it is still heartening to see that there are humans still that know to tend to the earth the right way."

Li took note of the fact that there was no such thing as a forestborn tongue in the game. Everything was just named for whatever sounded coolest under the developer's eyes. When the four gods of the game and all the magical beings and creatures came to this world, they not only spread the magic of the game, but also developed their own unique cultures over the years.

"You never talked with her? You must have found some sort of curiosity or wanted to know how she got to know what she knew."

Iona corked another elixir and giving a faint shrug, her slender shoulders moving ever so slightly up. "No, not really. It may seem difficult to believe now that you have caught me in such lifted spirits, but once, I was quite the spirit of caution. I believed that there were ever adventurers out there to hunt me, and so I kept as you would say a low profile. I feared that Aine would have enough knowledge to know who and what I was, and so I stayed in the city where she and her husband did not venture much."

"Smart. Also means I won't have to worry about teaching you how to not stand out."

"Oh yes, blending in among the humans is quite the art form I am familiar with. To know to lay low and do nothing as the wilds burn away, to know that with the slightest disturbance, my head will fly, to know that even though there is nothing to live for, I still push myself to live if only to spit in the face of the elves that believe that the forest spirits are no more."

Li looked at Iona. She was expressionless, almost like a machine as she corked away, looking down at the elixirs as her fingers nimbly handled them. "I didn't mean to bring up any old scars."

Iona glanced up at Li and gave him a short smile before returning to work. "Do not apologize for me, O guardian. I was merely wallowing in self-pity. I find it therapeutic sometimes, yes. Perhaps it is a mortal thing, something I have picked up from consuming one too many human souls, but it is nothing related to you. Rather, it is with you that I now find hope. And there we are – done with the dozen."

Li panned his gaze across the work table. There were a dozen elixirs ready, neatly stacked into two rows of six. Their multi-faceted bases twinkled as sunlight hit them from the open stall, illuminating the bubbling crimson liquid within. He went to the table and took one of them in his palm. It felt warm and emanated with an energetic pulse, as if by merely touching it he wanted to go out and exercise.

"Perfect," said Li. "And not a single failed elixir either. None of them dissipated."

Li smiled as he placed the elixir back into formation. To be honest, he had been a little nervous about starting things out. Although he always tried to present himself with a cool confidence, he could not deny that he felt like he had accomplished something wondrous. It was the same type of pride he felt when he saw the berries grow under his care.

Iona bowed her head. "I should think not, no. We are forest spirits – nature will never shy its bounty away from us."

Li narrowed his eyes and gave Iona a quizzical look.

Iona explained further. "The mortals prattle on and on about this dissipation phenomena, even believing it as some immutable law, but in reality, magical essence flies under their touch because they are not in communion with the wilds.

Before, when the mortals learned directly from us, herbalism was considered sacred. A way of life and thought. Before they even touched what sprouted from the earth, they had to spend years living in the wilds, developing some sense of connection with the nature around them. The slow and methodical elixir creation method that we use is a mere extension of that teaching. It forces more time and more attention to the nature that one uses."

She shook her head. "But now, the mortals simply have to memorize a few facts to pass a sham of an exam to have the right to be a herbalist. And they wonder why the magical essence of the wilds leaves them, unfamiliar as it is with their cold, unfeeling hands and minds."

"You mean to say that what we did right now, it succeeded only because we have an innate connection with nature?"

Iona cocked her head. "Yes, indeed. We can both feel the beating of life, no? Then we are already far more in communion with the green than any mortal can dream of. To us, no piece of nature may reject its gifts."

Li looked at his hands, at the various stains and smells that had etched onto the gloves already from his hardwork today. He felt a little cheated, somehow. It wasn't the pure hard work of his own to hands that had gotten him this far. It was the racial abilities of his forest spirit form.

But he took in a breath and buried away his disappointment. It was still a day of honest work, and he could appreciate that. Whether he succeeded or not was secondary. And regardless, there was more work to do.

He couldn't start up a stall selling only one product.

"Let's shelve these and get back to work," said Li. "One more batch. Something to boost offensive abilities again."

They took the bottles and placed them on a rack inside a cabinet under the display counter which held the same preservation rune as did Old Thane's pantry, ensuring that the elixirs stayed in stable storage.

"What do you have in mind?" said Iona as she finished putting in the last elixir.

"If I had to get in these adventurers' heads, then I should think something like an [Rage Drop] would be pretty useful." Li went to the work table and took a few wraith peppers in hand. "If they want to put out a lot of damage, then that's their best bet."

Li recalled the different tiers of items. Common, magical, rare, mythical, godgiven, and celestial in ascending order, with celestial tier items reserved only for those who had finished new game+ cycles. From what he could tell, the average level of this world, at least for humans, would not exceed 60. That meant that the highest tier of elixir they would ever see would be mythical.

He knew from Aine's notes that mythic elixirs did exist. She knew about them and had hypothesized how to create them, but they were, as their name suggested, in the realm of sheer myth and legend. She could only ever guess what ingredients and what procedures were needed.

99 percent of the time, though, elixirs never exceeded the Magical tier. To that end, he figured that [Rage Drop], a magical tier elixir derived from wraith peppers that massively increased one's attack and spell damage in exchange for taking significantly increased damage, would be quite useful.

It was one of the most efficient spells for lower leveled characters, allowing them to dish out damage several levels above what they were supposed to, and it was a popular favorite among speeedrunners of the game's campaign who knew how to avoid taking as much damage as possible.

Iona furrowed her brows. "[Rage Drop]? Are you certain about that?"

"Why not? Give a ranger or mage a dose of that, protect him well enough, and he's going to be putting out twice the damage he usually does." Li refrained from using levels to accentuate his point. The denizens of this world, from he could tell by speaking with Old Thane, did not know the concept of levels.

"In theory, yes, but mortals are very much fearful beings for their lives are so fragile. Just a little pressure-" Iona flicked her hand as if swatting something away. "And they are gone. If I may very humbly suggest, using the goblin grass tubes to distill a batch of [Bloodlust] would curry more favor with the mortals."

Li nodded after he gave it some thought. "I think I see where you're getting at. Since these adventurers only get one life and one try, they're always fighting with the fear of death at their backs. Especially since resurrection is such a rare thing, even among higher-level, I mean, the strongest beings. Elixirs that dampen their fear and boost their mental strength like [Bloodlust] would let them push through their fear and let them fight better, whereas [Rage Drop] is only ever going to make them more conscious about dying."

"That is precisely so, yes."

Li had to admit that it made sense. Perhaps because he was so powerful, or perhaps because he was so used to playing the game, but he was thinking purely in terms of game-mechanic efficiency. In the game, players could just chug [Rage Drop] because there was no fear of death. At the worst, there was just a failed fight or boss encounter, but nothing so permanent as death.

Here, where life and death intertwined with the magic of the game, items were sought after not only for their pure efficacy, but for the mental comfort they could give.

Li looked out towards the stall's display where he could see the outside world. The sun was high, almost ready to start winding its way down. "Then let's get on it. Clean the goblin grass tubes out and make sure there's no gunk inside of them. Pare them open on four corners and crush their juices out on a bowl. I'll get the cauldron ready and clean the purification equipment. We'll need the distiller for this one."

Iona was already on it, her figure rushing to the pile of green, pot-bellied tubes.