“This is a disaster,” says Jubilee, staring at her.

Fresh blinks, not sure what the problem is. She brushes her arm to the side, pushing a spriggan away. “What do you mean, Jubilee?” she asks. “Don’t you like the wands?” Fresh frowns, rubbing her arm as she looks down towards the ground. “I thought you’d think they’re neat…” she says sadly.

A spriggan raises its stubby arms up towards her, dancing in front of her as if it were trying to cheer her up. The large leaf on its head bounces from side to side.

“Pakew!”

She nods solemnly to it, lowering a hand and petting its head. Pakew.

“Do you have brain damage?” asks Jubilee. “Basil!”

The priestess sitting at the table calmly sips her tea, a spriggan sitting in her lap. “Yes?” she asks as if nothing were wrong.

Jubilee plants their hands on their hips. “Don’t you have anything to add to this conversation?” they ask. A spriggan stands next to them, copying their movements. “Fuck off!” barks Jubilee, pushing the spriggan away.

It turns out that the wands have a slight issue. Well, Fresh doesn’t really see it as a problem, she thinks that it’s a bonus more than anything. But the thing is, the effect doesn’t seem to be limited. Rather, it can be activated once for every wand that a person has in their possession. Fresh, having had five wands, decided to test it to see what would happen.

What happened is that they now have five extra spriggans running around the house, plus the ‘old’ spriggan that seems to have taken seniority over the newcomers.

Basil shrugs. “Well. There’s nothing to do now but to wait until the effect wears off,” says the priestess calmly, sipping her tea. “They’ll be gone by tomorrow,” she says.

“Pakew!” shouts a spriggan, running around with a wand in its hand.

“Pakew!”

Another spriggan looks at them, flicking the wand through the air. It’s holding it with its sprout. “Pakew?”

“Pakew!”

Jubilee groans. “I’m going to kill them.”

“Pakew?”

“Jubilee!” cries Fresh. “Don’t be mean to the spriggans. They have a hard life already.”

Jubilee raises an eyebrow, leaning in towards her. “The only person with a hard life here is me,” they state. “Have you ever tried living with you people? It’s a nightmare.”

“It’s not that bad,” says Basil, setting her teacup down. “I suppose I could use their help on the farm?” she thinks, looking around at them. “Can you guys help me with that stuff?” she asks.

The spriggans, not really having any context into what that actually means, since none of them have ever seen the farm save for the one, all lift their stubby arms and chant excitedly, happy to have something to do.

Pakew.

A spriggan digs through the dirt, working its way down along the first row of the field, tearing up the soil and pulling out old, gnarled roots and weeds. Another two wobble on behind that one, holding each other’s arms as they spin around in a circle after it.

“Basil! Look!” exclaims Fresh, sure that she is about to start crying tears of joy. “They’re dancing!”

“They’re flattening the dirt,” corrects Basil. “I suppose it’s just easier for them to do it together?” she ponders out loud. Basil lets out a surprised yelp as Fresh grabs her hand and drags her off to the field, spinning around in a circle too, copying the spriggans’ not-dance.

“Get back to work!” barks Jubilee from the tree in the center of the farm.

Fresh looks at Jubilee as she spins around with Basil. “We’re farming, Jubilee!”

“Do I have to explain to you what farming is?” they bark over towards the two of them.

Basil gets dizzy easily apparently. She only manages to survive a few more spins before falling down to the ground together with her.

Two more spriggans come up after them, fixing the freshly compressed dirt that they had ruined. But Fresh laughs. It was fun.

Basil doesn’t laugh, she’s blinking, trying to orient herself, looking a little green in the face.

“You have the same color as Shamrock, Basil!” remarks Fresh, looking at the wobbly priestess.

Shamrock looks over from the side, before turning back to his work without saying a word. The old spriggan next to him does the same, stoically continuing its work as well.

“It’s a really simple thing,” remarks Basil, holding up the little sachet that she’s crafted. It looks like a small tea-bag.

“Tea already exists, Basil,” says Jubilee.

“It’s not tea, it’s medicine,” explains the priestess. “For the lungs, after you’ve breathed in poison air or if you have slime, uh…” she looks at Shamrock. “I mean, gunk in the lungs.”

Fresh stares at the purple contents of the little not-tea-bag. “Ah!” she recognizes it. It’s the powder of the purple mushroom that Basil showed her the other day, inpertus.

“You’re supposed to steep it in a bowl of hot-water,” explains the priestess. “Then you hold your face over it and breathe in the vapors. It’ll clear out anything in a jiffy. But uh, it doesn’t smell too great, honestly.”

“Medicine is supposed to be bitter,” remarks Fresh, remembering what Basil had told her once. That way, people wouldn’t waste it when they don’t need it. Basil smiles, nodding.

☠ [Steamable Inpertus Blend](High) ☠

A blend of ground and processed Inpertus fungus, mixed together with herbal grasses and root-bark meant to free the airways.

Instructions

To use, add it to a bowl of boiling water and inhale the vapors.

Effect

When inhaled:

Removes all minor respiratory STATUS effects

20% chance to remove all major respiratory STATUS effects

☠ POISON ☠

When drank:

56% chance of severe illness

Quality Effect: Adds a pain relieving effect Weight: 0.08kg Value: ???

“I can make a lot of these for cheap. But given their specific use, I don’t think we’ll sell too many,” says Basil. “Lung sickness doesn’t happen too often here, even in the winter. The air is very clean.”

“Still,” says Fresh. “It’s good to have everything around. I like it!” Basil nods, smiling.

“We also have the kobold’s wart,” says the priestess, showing them a little, dense, compacted ball. “I’ve dried them and added some ground bone to it. These are meant to be boiled into a cup of hot water and then drunk like a broth,” says the priestess. “They’ll pump your magic up. But they will make you feel a little weak on your legs.”

[Kobold’s Wart Broth Ball](High)

A dense ball made up out of kobold’s wart, lemon-root, bone-meal and sap. It’s highly nutritious and warming. But it will cause physical fatigue.

Instructions

To use: Melt in a cup of hot water and drink.

Effect

When drank:

+10% SPELL DMG for 24h

-5% SPELL COST for 24h

-10% MAX STAMINA for 24h

Quality Effect: +2 WIS for 24h Weight: 0.24kg Value: ???

“Well… hmm…” Jubilee thinks. “Yeah, you know what? These can move off of the shelves, I think. People always want more spell damage.”

“You think?” asks Basil. “I’m worried that since everyone here is so high-leveled, that they won’t want our items, honestly,” she remarks, playing with her string bracelet.

Jubilee shakes their head. “First off all, it’s a flat percent bonus. That’s good no matter what level you are,” they explain. “Secondly, not everyone here is high-leveled,” says Jubilee, looking at the last item that Basil has to show. “The kids of the people who made it through generations ago and their kids live here. Most of ‘em are just normal schmucks.”

Basil nods. “That makes sense.”

Fresh is also relieved to hear this as well, actually. She’s never made a real ‘high-level’ item. In fact, she really doesn’t even know what that means. Many of the items she’s made so far, she has been scolded for even daring to create, given how world-changing many of the applications could be. But those were all low-level items, in her eyes. So what exactly is a high-level item?

“This is my last one,” says Basil. “It’s made from the conchatus mushroom,” she explains, holding out a bowl filled with an off-red goo.

“Yeah, it was hard not to smell with you stinking up the kitchen with it,” says Jubilee. Basil sighs.

“Mushrooms have an odor. There’s nothing I can do about it,” explains Basil. “I can only do so much with what we have. I need a real alchemical set-up downstairs to do more than this.”

“I can help with that, Basil,” remarks Fresh.

[Major Antidote](High) Made from a reboiled conchatus mixture, this powerful antidote will remove all POISON status effects. However, it will likely cause an upset stomach and nausea. Effect: Removes all POISON status effects Quality Effect: 50% chance of removing all DARK status effects Weight: 350mL Side Effect: 80% chance of nausea for 24h Value: ???

“Not bad,” affirms Jubilee. “Get a nice bottle and we’ll sell these as emergency medicines. There’s a lot of poison shit down deeper in the tree dungeon,” remarks Jubilee. “Fucking spriggans get weird when they’re older.”

The spriggan looks at them. “Pakew!”

“Fuck off,” sighs Jubilee.

Basil nods. “I’ll start making more and stocking the shelves then.”

Jubilee nods back. “I’m gonna have the first coats and winter-gear ready by tomorrow.”

“Same,” says Shamrock, sitting at the table and scribbling on some stacks of paper.

The three of them look at Fresh, who lets out an uneasy yelp and sprints back down to the basement. She has far, far, far more work to do and she gets the feeling that they’re going to be opening again soon.