I wanted to start learning how to cast fireball, but I had other things to do, like check in on the next (and last) shop in Rockstack.

The alchemist shop had the same sign hanging off the front as the alchemist shop in Threewells, a staff with a ball spinning around it. This one had two balls and I couldn’t remember if it was the same for the last I’d seen. Maybe it meant something?

There was light within, so I pushed open the door and came to a stop in a small waiting area. To my left was what looked like a clinic with one of those faerie looking people buzzing around on four wings, they looked like a boy-faerie, but I couldn’t quite be sure. To the right was another door and next to it a window set into the wall with a counter jutting out, like a drive-through window at a fast-food place only probably not at all like that.

The faerie person buzzed over, then landed daintily by the entrance of the clinic. “Can I assist you, human?” he asked. The voice was definitely a boy’s.

“Eh? Ah, yeah. I’m looking for a Dylan. I have alchemical stuff to sell. Plants and things.”

The faerie nodded quickly. “Of course. Just one moment then,” he said before taking to the air and casually drifting to the window and knocking on its frame. “Dylan, you unprofessional oaf, you have a customer,” the faerie said. He turned back to me. “He should be with you momentarily. Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

“Ah, maybe? I’ve never met someone like you, but you seem nice. What’s your, um, species?”

One of the faerie's little eyebrows perked up. “I’m a Sylph. Try reading a book if you find yourself lacking in knowledge, it might help.” He looked at me for a while. “Maybe more than one book.”

I watched the Sylph flutter back to his side of the clinic and held back a huff. That had sounded positively rude, but maybe Sylphs were just naturally brusque, and the advice itself wasn't that bad. Maybe there was a Planeswalking for Dummies book out there?

I ambled closer to the window and peeked into the next room over. It was a mess. There were tables and counters all over, all of them covered in pouches and jars full of glowy stuff and boxes that had been labeled with things, then had those labels scratched out and replaced by others in sloppier and sloppier handwriting.

There were tools too. Alembics and what looked like bunsen burners, kettles with long necks and glass bottles with loopy tubes sticking out of them like something from a mad scientist’s wet dream. There were racks to the side filled with finger-sized bottles that had paper labels with things like ‘health’ and ‘water resistance’ glued to them.

I couldn’t decide if I should have been excited at the prospect of magic potions or kind if disgusted at how messy the place making them was.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” a man’s voice said a moment before someone, presumably Dylan, came around a corner and placed a bunch of empty vials on a table already covered in stuff. I winced as one of them went off the edge and exploded in a crackle of glass. “Oh no!”

“Do you need help cleaning that?” I asked.

“No no, It’s all well,” Dylan said as he abandoned the table and came closer. He had a bit of a limp as he walked, I noticed, then I saw the glasses perched across his froggy face and I had to hold back a giggle at how big they made his eyes look. “I’m Dylan. How can I help?”

“Ah, hello Dylan. My name is Broccoli Bunch, and I would love to be your friend.”

“Zat’s nice?” Dylan said. “I don’t sell zat kind of potion zough.”

There were friendship potions? “What? No, no, I mean.... Oh, shucks, nevermind. I have some plants that I picked up that I thought you might be interested in.”

“Plants can be good,” Dylan said as he wiped the window’s counter clean with a sleeve. “Show me what you’ve got!”

I nodded and pulled out a small cloth with some drying red chokerberries.

Dylan took then, sniffed at the pile, then popped one into his mouth. “Mmm, still good. But not what I’m looking for, I’m afraid.”

“Ah, okay,” I said. I pushed the cloth aside, then because I could I plopped one of the berries into my mouth.

Next came a few blood dandelion buds. Dylan made a content sound and poked them with the tip of a finger. “Much better. One moment.” He left, then returned with a scale which he set to one side and a pen and paper. A few moments later he nodded. “Seven cop for all of it.”

I was a little disappointed, but then again it had only taken me moments to gather. I could get a lot more easily enough. If a barmaid made two silver a day, then I could easily make just as much with dandelions alone.

“You’re not interested in chamomile or milk thistle?” I asked and he shook his head. “Okay then. I have some march rose buds.”

“Oh, zose would be worz somzing in Port Royal. Zey make fine nutrition potions, scurvy cures and.... marital assistance potions. I can’t give you much here zough. Ze locals are all dungeon divers and ze like, zey are in good healz until zey’re not. Two cop each?”

“Darn,” I said. Still, I didn’t have any use for the buds. They were to prevent scurvy and acted as an aphrodisiac, and I had inn food now and I wasn’t married so I didn’t need them and they would go bad eventually.

Six copper coins were added to a small pile, bringing my total up to thirteen copper. Enough for a good meal.

“And this is the last plant I have that might interest you,” I said as I placed the stems and leaves of the seven-petal candle flower I had found onto the counter.

Dylan cooed, a strange sound from a froggy throat. “Seven-Petal. Where did you find it?”

“On the road here. I asked a pixie and it helped me,” I said.

“A... pixie? Well, I suppose zey would know. A rare find! And valuable. Freud-Slip doesn’t have many fire-based traps, but it does use zem on occasion.”

“Freud-Slip?” I repeated.

“Ze Dungeon in the swamps to ze south. Ze one ze delvers are all here for? Is zat not what you came for?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nope. Just got a little lost. I’ll probably be leaving with the next caravan to Port Royal, but until then I’ll be around the outpost.”

Dylan tapped his chin for a moment, then looked down at all the stems and leaves I had brought him. “Twenty sil for ze lot,” he said. “And I have a request. You’re a human. Humans like quests, yes?”

“I am and I’ll listen if you have something for me to do,” I said as I gleefully watched my wealth grow. I was now up to a whopping twenty silver and thirteen copper. “I’d love a proper quest.”

“Are you wiz any guild?” he asked.

“Not yet, but I want to join the exploration guild maybe.”

“Zen zis will be right up your alley, as ze humans say. Zere was a dungeon called Dunwich not too far from here some time ago. When we came here we rediscovered where it used to be, but it was destroyed long ago. Ze negative mana around ze area has made it unwelcoming to most and zere are a few apparitions in the area. It’s not too dangerous, but it isn’t safe. A plant grows zere called ze Two-Lipped Tulip.”

“Wait a moment,” I said before searching through my back, out came my herbology book which I placed on the counter to search through.

“Zat is a very nice book. Forty sil.”

“Nope,” I said with a grin. Dylan didn’t even look disappointed that I had refused. It took some leafing (hah!) but I found the right page. There was an illustration of two flowers. The first a tulip that had strangely curved flowers that did look like lips. The second a similar plant, but the flower was gaping open to reveal a pair of fangs dribbling with liquids that I bet weren’t good for anyone’s health.

Two-Lipped Tulip

A plant that actively seeks out areas with rot-aspect mana, or places with negative mana. They grow quickly and should be considered a weed, though unless they are near populated areas it may be best to leave them alone as they are known to purify an area’s mana though at an incredibly slow pace. The flower can whip around and ‘bite’ animals and unwary herbalists, injecting them with a weak to mild venom that will drain the person’s health over time.

The flower contains a pair of sacks that hold their venom. The liquid is a great coating-based poison, but can also be used in strengthening potions and as a base for drain-based potions such as ‘drain disease.’

“These look kind of dangerous to mess with,” I said.

“A little. I will give you one sil per poison gland. Zere are two per flower. I need no more zan fifty for now.”

“That’s a good amount of silver,” I said. “What do you need them for?”

The alchemist shrugged. “Some for experimentation, but most will go towards drain-madness potions. We need many for ze local dungeons. It’s still young but it is dangerous.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

We soon shook over the plants I had already sold to him and I walked out accompanied by the happy jingle of a couple of pouches full of silver.

The inn, when I walked in, was completely empty except for the two barmaids and Juliette sitting by the bar. “Where is everyone?” I asked as I moved closer.

Juliette snorted. “Gone. Ze lot of zem. Zey are here for ze dungeon and wiz no travel to and from it at night ze only time for zem to work is now.”

“How does that work, dungeon diving for a living, I mean?” I asked as I took a seat next to Juliette and sighed as I got the weight off my feet.

“Zey go in, zey find zings, zey come out and pay ze taxes on zem, zen zey sell it all to the guilds for some tidy profits. Zen zey come here and make my inn a mess. You can clean ze rooms zat are unlocked. Same price as last time.”

“I might do that. Dylan gave me a quest though, and I wanna try my hand at it. Maybe after I’ve met some of the adventurers, they seem nice. Oh, and I bought a fireball scroll!”

“Cast zat indoors and you can sleep outdoors, wiz an empty stomach,” Juliette said.

I pouted at her, but it bounced off her tough maternal hide to no effect. “Fine, fine. Maybe later. Can I have lunch or is it too late?”

“It is never too late for lunch in my inn,” Juliette said. “As long as you have ze coin for it.”

I nodded and watched with an eager smile as she got up and waddled over to the kitchens. I hadn’t even placed an order but I trusted anything she brought would be super delicious.

Nancy the barmaid shifted over one seat to be next to me. “Be careful around ze divers. Some of zem are not ze sort of people you would want around a young woman. Zey might not look it, but zey kill for a living. And when some of zem don’t come back. It’s not always ze dungeon’s fault.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said truthfully. Then Juliette was returning with lunch and my focus turned to chowing down.