Thomas set the Morning Dew Mana Potion back into the rack with the rest of the batch and moved over to his work table. He looked over the remaining ten sets of ingredients. He still felt uncomfortable knowing that he had wasted five sets of materials in a single moment of carelessness. He needed to be much more careful in the future. Alchemy was not a game and failing to follow a recipe properly could clearly have terrible consequences.

Thomas started by crushing five of the mana crystals into powder and dumping them into the large beaker. After that, he added the necessary amount of water. The first two steps were simple and straightforward. He had briefly contemplated trying to extract the impurities from the mana crystal but just looking at them while thinking that sent a shiver down his spine. He didn't know why, but he felt like if he tried to purify them something terrible would happen. Feeling that dread he decided against it and just used the mana crystals as intended.

Thomas picked up the first bundle of Everdew Grass and went to work using his 'Transmutation' to remove the dew drops from the exterior and pull out the 'heart' of the plant. It took him a little over an hour and another mana potion to extract all of the essence of the plants and place it into the mixture for the potion. With every step necessary done he placed the beaker onto the formation plate and purified it just like the previous batch before pouring it into vials to complete the task. Once again he gained a large chunk of Alchemy experience and a small chunk of regular experience.

With the batch of potions completed, Thomas's rank in Alchemy jumped from 24 all the way up to 27 and was just 78 experience away from 28. Alchemy was officially his highest ranked profession at the moment. Thomas fully expected the next batch to bring his Alchemy just that much closer to rank thirty, so he got to work. It took him another hour and a half as well as another mana potion to finish the next batch of five Morning Dew Mana Potions earning himself yet another chunk of Alchemy experience and regular experience.

At the end of his work, he'd had a large amount of growth in his profession and abilities. His Alchemy had grown to rank thirty, his 'Transmutation' had grown to rank eleven, his 'All Seeing Eyes' had reached rank twelve, and his Mana Control had reached rank ten. All in all, it felt like his innate abilities had all been pushing him towards a path in Alchemy. While Thomas had no intention of becoming a full-time alchemist, it was good to know he could easily become one if Magitech Engineering or Blacksmithing didn't work out for him.

Since Thomas was out of ingredients he made his way over to Ricktor, "Aside from the materials I accidentally detonated, I've finished making sixteen mana potions. One basic mana potion and fifteen Morning Dew mana potions."

Thomas directed Ricktor's attention to the collection of mana potions. It was extremely easy to visually tell the two versions of the mana potions apart due to the difference in their colors. Ricktor walked over to examine the potions closely and after reading their descriptions he smiled and nodded, "You did well on the ones you didn't destroy."

His words were somewhat playful, though he gave Thomas a serious look. Thomas still felt a little guilty for wasting the materials and letting Ricktor down. No one could be harder on Thomas than himself. Ricktor went over to his lockbox and collected some gold coins to present to Thomas, "This is your pay for the potions you managed to finish minus sixty gold for the four sets of wasted materials."

Ricktor handed over 250 gold coins, completing the quest for Thomas.

System Notice: Quest Complete! Ricktor Helstan has requested that you make 20 mana potions. The higher the grade of the potions, the higher your reward per potion will be.

Rewards: 20 experience per potion. 10 gold per regular mana potion. 15 gold per Morning Dew mana potion.

Failure: You must pay 15 gold for each potion that fails to meet Ricktor's standards. -60 gold.

Time Limit: 1 day System Notice: You have gained 320 experience.

Thomas added the gold coins to his current collection and ignored the experience gained. He had a fair bit of experience but was leaving it be for now so that he could increase any attribute he might need in the near future. He would prefer to get them all back to even, but didn't have the necessary experience at the moment.

Thomas spent some time explaining his experiences making potions for the last two days with Ricktor. After listening to Thomas explanation of how he did what he did, Ricktor went into a separate room for a few minutes before coming back with a small pile of books. Ricktor held the books out to Thomas, "Take these. Each of these books covers a variety of topics related the Alchemy."

After taking the books from Ricktor, Ricktor pointed to one particularly thick volume, "That book focuses mostly on what plants can be picked and used in Alchemy. Reading it will give you the Herbalism skill and help you identify various plants and materials."

Thomas smiled and accepted the books from Ricktor. He'd briefly thought about buying some books like these anyways so it saved him from having to find them on his own. Ricktor gave Thomas a smile, "If learning from Hekrin doesn't work out for you, you are always welcome to return here and work for me!"

Thomas laughed and nodded, "I'll keep that in mind Ricktor. Thanks for everything, and sorry about almost blowing the place up earlier."

Ricktor laughed and shook his head, "It's not the first time something has exploded in here and it won't be the last either."

Thomas smiled and bid Ricktor goodbye before heading out of the shop. Once he was on the streets he started asking for directions to a store that would sell what he was looking for. It didn't take long for him to be directed to a place called Emmerick's Enchantments. After hearing the name of the shop Thomas had a suspicion that he could be working at it before long, especially since it was located on the main street with all the other places he had worked at so far.

Upon stepping into the store Thomas was bombarded by a massive collection of all kinds of things. Weapons, armor, scrolls, jewelry, and more all packed into display cases and marked with various prices. Many of the items glowed with the various colors of the rainbow as they displayed their power. The single most eye-catching item was a longsword standing on its tip in a display case. The sword glowed with a bright red light that emitted a feeling of power. Thomas suspected that it was the most powerful weapon in the store. If it's listed price of ten million gold was anything to go by, it was.

After taking a brief look around, Thomas approached the sales counter and smiled at the young woman working behind it. She, like almost everyone he'd met so far, was rather beautiful with her long wavey blonde hair and bright green eyes. Seeing the familiar look, Thomas focused on her ears to see if they were pointy. They were not. The woman gave Thomas a polite businesslike smile when she noticed him 'checking her out', "Welcome to Emmerick's Enchantments. Is there something I can help you find?"

Thomas nodded and explained what he was looking for, "I was hoping you would have a storage item of some kind. The kind with a pocket dimension or extradimensional space inside of it."

"We have several different models that come in rings or bracelets that have various space sizes. The smallest ones have a storage space of one cubic meter and cost 3,000 gold."

Thomas felt his mind grind to a halt for a moment. 3,000 gold?! That came out to 3 gold per cubic decimeter! That was insane! Regardless of the price though he needed to get one so he could carry his items around with him. Unfortunately, right now he only had 997 gold on his person so he would need to visit the bank to withdraw more to make up the difference. With that in mind, he informed the woman behind the counter and left the store to head to the bank. It wasn't too far and it was still the middle of the day so there was plenty of time.

It took Thomas less than an hour to head to the bank, withdraw 2,500 gold for a 5 gold fee, and return to the store to buy the storage ring. After setting the sack of 3,000 gold on the counter the woman working behind it pulled out a tray of rings with various colors and designs on them. The only thing they all had in common was a single gem that had been inlaid into the ring so that it didn't protrude out. Every single gem looked the exact same on all of the rings, leading Thomas to believe that the gem had something to do with the enchantment.

After looking them over for a bit, Thomas selected a simple looking silver colored ring that wouldn't get in the way of his work. After making his selection the woman held the ring as she asked Thomas, "Have you ever used a storage ring before?"

He had, but not in AoG so just in case there was something different Thomas shook his head to reply negatively. The woman nodded and explained, "It's really very simple. First, you need to use a drop of your blood to register as the owner. Once you do that the rest is easy. Just hold whatever you want to store near the ring and think about storing it inside. The ring will do the rest. Once something is stored all you have to do is think about the ring and a list of items inside of it will appear. Just mentally select the item you want and it will be removed from the ring. Just remember that it will cost you mana to store or remove objects from the ring."

Thomas listened along and nodded. It wasn't too overly complicated at all to use the ring. Thomas accepted the ring from the woman and used a needle she provided to prick his finger and drip some blood onto the ring. Once his blood touched the ring it gave off a soft glow that faded a moment later. Smiling to himself, Thomas held one of the books given to him by Ricktor near the ring and willed it to go inside. He felt a negligible amount of mana flow from himself and into the ring before the book vanished from his hand.

Once the book was in the ring Thomas focused on the ring with the desire to know what was inside. Immediately a transparent list appeared in front of him listing the book he had just placed inside. After dismissing the list, Thomas fed the remaining four books into the storage ring along with his remaining gold. A single cubic meter wasn't a massive amount of space, but it wasn't a tiny amount of space either. It would work for carrying his important things for now.

After putting his stuff inside of the storage ring, Thomas gave a polite smile to the woman and asked, "By the way, what's your name?"

The woman studied Thomas for a moment before replying, "Sara Goldbloom."

"Thanks for all your help today Sara!"

Sara nodded in reply as she watched Thomas leave the store. Thomas had finally gotten his hands on a storage ring and felt extremely happy about that. It was a complete pain in the ass to carry things manually and now he had something that could at least act like an inventory. Even if the space was rather limited.

Thomas wandered around the city to get a better feel for the place he'd been staying in for the last few weeks. He'd been so busy going from profession to profession without stop that he hadn't really had the time to just wander around and explore the world around him. It felt rather stifling. However, he was now feeling a lot better as he wandered. His favorite location had to be the docks. Seeing the ships of various sizes pulling into or out of the wharf was a wonderful sight that he couldn't stop enjoying. He even bought himself a meat skewer of some kind to munch on while he watched the sailors at work.

As he watched the sailors for a while he decided that once he was done learning Magitech Engineering from Hekrin that he would go on a journey for a bit to explore the world and look for interesting materials to make use of. It may have also had something to do with the fact that games liked to split up recipes and schematics and such for various items among the various countries and cities to make people search for them. Thomas would have to ask Hekrin for advice on where to go to get good intel on things he could make with Magitech Engineering once he learned it.

After relaxing for a few hours, Thomas made his way to The Swans Nest to enjoy his dinner before heading up to his room. Thomas had to spend a good twenty minutes scrubbing the soot off of his face, he'd actually completely forgotten all about it until Martha had reminded him... by laughing at him. Thinking about it, Sara had been rather professional not to laugh in his face as well. She hadn't even mentioned it! Thomas briefly wondered if she would recognize him now that he'd cleaned up a bit and decided that if she didn't he would need to play a little prank on her.

After passing his filthy clothing, a tip, and a heartfelt apology to Maggie, Thomas climbed into his bed and relaxed. He skipped his usual nightly training and instead thought about what he had to do in the real world. He needed to take care of a few things before he could begin the next step in the chain quest for Hekrin. With his thoughts organized he closed his eyes and logged out of AoG.