Five minutes after arriving at Lisa’s place, Ryan and Micah had shrugged off their equipment into a corner and besieged her kitchen. Surprisingly, it was not much bigger than either of their own.

Loot and ingredients were sorted onto a large table on the left-side of the room. Lisa found a pair of gloves Micah could wear. Oven mittens were too unwieldy after all and the ones Ryan had lent him were dirty. She forced them into aprons and they washed their hands before he put them on.

Micah opened three drawers before he found the one with the right sort of cutlery. Ryan was busy opening up all the windows.

It was a surreal scene then, or maybe just so serene that Micah thought it was surreal. Outside, the air was almost chilly as the nearly clear sky darkened. The city was as quiet as it could be. The only lights in the Chandler residence came from the kitchen. The hallways right outside were darkest. They barely said anything as they slowly explored the unfamiliar drawers and looked for the various cooking utensils within, single words used for questions, Lisa pointing for answers.

Ryan found two bowls to crack the walnuts in.

Micah found a proper knife, a cutting board, rolled up his sleeves, and got to skinning the Sewer rat. He had put a cloth over its head beforehand, which was awkward, considering. The dents in its body from the grate didn’t help his confidence. Did Micah have adjust to them somehow? He wondered what his parents would have told him. It wasn’t like he could ask them this time around. It wasn’t like he could ask them ever.

“Do you know how to skin a rat?” Ryan asked, looking over his shoulder behind him. They spoke softly for no reason at all. Micah didn’t know if anyone else was home. He didn’t ask.

He nodded a little, then shook his head a little, before he finally weighed it in a “sort of” gesture. “Not exactly. But I know how to skin a rabbit and I don’t think it’ll be that different, right?”

… Right?

Thankfully, Lisa was there to give him some pointers, since she had apparently done this before. She still let him do all the real work while she tidied up a bit. Just like the last four times Micah had visited, the Chandler residence was immaculately clean, but about as organized as the space underneath his bed.

“Where did you learn how to skin a rabbit?” Ryan asked.

“Uhm.” Micah made the first cut then. Slowly. It took some effort, but he thought he did it right. He wondered if the rat’s blood could be used in anything. “My parents like to go hunting, so I have a little bit of experience,” he explained. He was thankful for that now. He did have knife proficiency, so whatever he wanted to do was easier, but if he hadn’t known where to start, the Skill would be useless.

He wondered if Ryan knew how to do this. “Do you?” he asked.

“No, my parents, uh, never took me hunting …” Ryan said, sounding a little distracted. “So you’re saying your dad owns and knows how to use a bow and arrow?”

“Huh? Uhm, no. Actually, my mom is more of the hunter. My dad just tags along. She learned it growing up from her family and taught him a little. Then they both taught me … even less.”

If they had taught Micah how to use a bow, would he have brought one with into the Tower? Garen had advised against it, but Micah knew he wasn’t fond of listening to ... well, anybody but himself.

He knew his parents had taught Maya and Aaron how to hunt properly. Maybe they’d run out of teaching patience by the time he came around?

“Why?” Micah asked as he worked.

“No reason.” Ryan stepped away.

He wasn’t still afraid of them, right? Micah thought they were all chummy now, but then again, his father didn’t look quite as happy when they went jogging anymore. The contradiction brought him a sliver of a smile.

He settled down on a chair on the other side of the table, pulling it a little away. Micah couldn’t blame him. The kitchen smelled a little already and the table was covered with three monsters. Normally, they would be doing this someplace else. Dressing an animal was kind of a mess—at least if you didn’t have much experience—but Lisa assured him it was fine. She had all the bowls, knives, and cutting boards that they needed. And most importantly, the space.

Micah just wondered how Ryan was faring. He’d have thought the boy would want to leave the room by now. Maybe he was “blending it out” like he said he could do? Micah should have brought his perfume potion along so he had a single thing to concentrate on instead.

Well, next time then.

There was a crack as Ryan broke the first walnut.

Lisa stood next to Micah and explained a bit of the Rat’s physiology while he worked, in that same soft tone. She pointed out the organs and bones, and differences to normal rats. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the monster didn’t have a functioning digestive system. Maybe just “not yet”, or maybe it had just decayed from disuse. Micah didn’t know how far along this one had grown. He wondered how much of the meat in his hands was actually essence. He wondered if it mattered.

Most of the rat’s body actually consisted of muscles. So much so that Micah wondered if he could use those in a strength potion someday, but his recipes didn’t list them. For now, Micah wanted to stick to those.

Once he separated legs and tail, he consulted the book for which hip bone he needed.

“That one,” Lisa said. She put one a walnut in her mouth and pointed over with a knife, chewing.

Ryan sat on the other side of the tables, leg on knee so he could keep the bowls in his lap. He put a walnut in his mouth every once in a while as well, while he watched them work. Micah had bought extra.

He inspected at the bone she was pointing at, frowned, and checked the book again. “That isn’t the bone the recipe lists, though.”

“Yeah, but that one’s better,” Lisa said. “I don’t know why the rat did it, but it must have leaned on its right side a little more while it lived. That bone has a more pronounced pattern. Plus, the other is cracked anyway.”

Micah mulled it over, shifting his lips about before he just followed her advice. Lisa knew best. And she was right on both accounts anyway.

“What do I do with the rest of it?”

Lisa casually slid the cutting board over to her side of the table, the rat on top, and said, “I’ll take it as my part of its loot. I can make more beef jerky out of it.”

He blinked at her. “You do know the ‘beef’ in ‘beef jerky’ stands for cow, right?”

She winked at him before she started cutting it up into parts. She worked slowly, but properly. Each slice she made was with care and precision of experience. Huh. Maybe she really had done this before.

Micah turned around and checked on the water. He kind of wished he’d left his sleeves down, then. It was almost boiling already. He quietly switched to oven mittens after all.

“Lisa, do you have stuff to maintain equipment with?” Ryan asked.

“Sure. Why?”

“I’m done. I thought I could find something to do since it’s not like I can help you guys with much.”

“You don’t have to. Mave will take care of Micah’s stuff and the school takes care of yours, right?”

“He will?” Micah asked.

“I don’t mind,” Ryan offered. “I could do it instead.”

“If you teach me, I’ll do it myself,” Micah said quickly, but they both ignored him.

“Alright then,” Lisa said. “Head out into the shed and take the first door on the left. Another left and you’ll find a closet. Maintenance stuff is in there. I assume you know what you’ll need?”

“Thanks, Lisa,” Ryan said and did a half-sideskip out of the room.

If he was bored enough … Still, Micah didn’t want to make Ryan take care of his stuff for him. He was already doing so much else. Micah was glad he was finally brewing new potions. That was the one way he could repay him.

“Boiling?” he asked out loud, checking his recipe for the third time. He couldn’t actually leaf around in the book to check for more, because oven mittens, so he leaned over to peer at it instead. Something about that didn’t seem right. Mostly, he was just looking for an excuse.

“It’s meat,” Lisa said. “You need to boil it.”

“Yeah, but you said it doesn’t have any diseases. You should be able to eat it raw, right? Boiling will just harm the pattern.”

“Doesn’t have anything to do with diseases. Has to do with getting the pattern out properly. There are other, better options, of course, but this is the best one you have access to.”

Dissolve and dissettle, huh? Micah sighed. Alright then. Apparently, you were only supposed to let it boil for half a minute, so that eased his doubts.

He put three washed rat tails and legs into a metal sieve—three hind legs, using one from his crystal; they had to be the same type, apparently—put that in the water and used [Infusion] when the time was up, just like the recipe told him to. The monster parts actual glowed then and a ghost of green light broke off from them and drifted into the water.

Micah stared.

There, they echoed like all infused patterns did. He saw scurrying rats that could hold their balance even on slippery pipes and hints of so much more in fractured shadows behind them—were parts of the Sewers in its pattern?—but then the pattern broke off and it was just … footsteps that were curved around an invisible surface. He’d only used the feet and tails, after all.

“Wow,” he whispered.

“First time seeing it?” Lisa asked next to him.

“Can you see it, too?”

“Everyone can see the glow,” Lisa explained. “The essence is dense enough to trick light, after all. But only you can see the pattern.”

Micah nodded. “So that’s the difference between Tower ingredients and regular ones,” he mumbled as he pulled the sieve with the monster parts back out. He put it in the sink with half a mind, still transfixed by the water that was glowing to him. “A really strong pattern.”

He turned down the heat before it harmed it, though he somehow doubted the temperature could.

“Strong?” Lisa asked. “Not that strong.”

“In comparison to normal rats?” Micah asked.

It was a rhetorical question, but Lisa answered anyway, “Not even then. It’s not that much more powerful, it’s just … different.”

“That pattern,” Micah said dead-pan, pointing. “Can make a rat.”

Lisa looked at him for a moment, seeming to consider. She didn’t seem disappointed, though, or frustrated. She actually seemed patient, like Micah was making an understandable mistake for once.

Why am I assuming I’m making a mistake?

Maybe Lisa really was a bad influence on him.

“What does a normal rat’s pattern do?” she asked with her instructor's voice, wanting for him to catch on to some hint he was supposed to fish out of nowhere. Well, there was no hint to fish, Micah thought.

He still frowned. “Nothing?”

She nodded a little. “And what does the pattern of, let’s say, a hundred-year-old turtle do?”

Micah thought it over for a bit, but he didn’t think it was a trick question. Even if the turtle lived for a hundred years, nothing should change about its pattern except making it sturdier. He wondered if those could withstand boiling temperatures ...

“Nothing,” he said.

Lisa nodded again. “Exactly. Now, what does that pattern do?” She turned and pointed at one of the dead honey ants lying on the table, next to the bottle of fish oil and box of eggs.

The one they had kidnapped had quickly died outside of the Tower. Apparently, all monsters did eventually. Micah hadn’t had the time to ponder over why yet, but it left him wondering why people were always afraid of monsters. Even if they left the Tower, they’d just die eventually, right? … Well, eventually.

Now, he was surprised to see its swirl was entirely gone, meaning it wasn’t drawing on the world to make a body anymore. Because it was dead? Weren’t body and pattern separate? Maybe they weren’t with monsters …

The more likely answer was that it had just run out of essence.

“Nothing,” he decided. “But only because it doesn’t have anything to work with. I need to give them essence first.”

“Really?” Lisa asked. “That’s strange. Because when you made a healing potion with honey, alcohol, and flowers, what essence did that use then?” She smiled a little. “What exactly do you think patterns are made of?”

Micah frowned, a little lost. The door slid open just then and Ryan slipped back inside, glancing at the both of them, but Micah only offered his friend a spare glance. What was Lisa implying?

“You’ve been casting [Infusion] without incantation, Micah,” she said. “No more hints. You already know how this works.”

He did, didn’t he?

How did [Infusion] work? He heated water and used … “something” inside him to emulate the effects of making tea. He tainted that “something” with hot water and pushed it through the ingredients, freeing the particles from them. But that spell alone should just make tea, not infuse essences.

How did he do that?

He knew the answer.

At the same time, Micah also did something else to catch essence and draw it in. He used the spell for making tea like a mirror or … or a bridge. As one did, so did the other. Matchy-matchy. And then he bound what he drew to the water. That at least was something he needed the spell for. But doing that just required him to … infuse the water with a little bit of that “something” inside of him. It was like glue. A temporary bond.

But in reality, the key ingredient was—

“I look at it.”

It was that simple.

He looked at the essence. He perceived it. That was all he needed to do for his spell to grasp it. If he didn’t, he would need to use more mana to somehow … infuse the essence itself, temporarily binding it to … to what?

“You’re looking through a keyhole, Micah,” Lisa explained reverently. “And you’re seeing a glimpse of what’s underneath. But when you do that, you can also use that keyhole to draw essence in. That pattern”—she pointed over her shoulder again—”when it’s in the Tower, it has its own keyhole. That’s why it can try to make a living body for itself. Without the Tower, it’s just a regular pattern again.”

She got out the sieve of used ingredients—they seemed smaller now—and brought them to the table with a shrug. “Not much stronger, just different.”

“Why is it green?” Ryan asked, standing right next to him again.

“Huh?” Micah looked up at him. Then down. The water was glowing green. Ryan could see that, too?

“You can answer that one, too,” Lisa said, eating a walnut. “You need to start thinking for yourself.”

Micah knew that already.

Ryan looked at him patiently, like he had all the faith in the world that he could answer the question.

“Because … “ he said to buy himself some time. “The color comes from … the essence? … the things the pattern draws in? The Sewers! It draws essences from the Sewers. And when you blend all the colors of essences from the Sewers together, you get that green.”

Ha. He’d actually figured it out. At least, he assumed he had. Lisa didn’t contradict him.

“Huh,” Ryan grunted and went back to his table. That was less enthusiasm than Micah would have liked. Well, he guessed they couldn’t all three be alchemists. Although Lisa wasn’t really one, was she?

She just knew the theo—

“Apples, hip bone!” she called.

“Huh? Oh!” he quickly grabbed the bone from the table and plopped it into the water. Any longer and he might have ruined the potion. After a little bit of stirring and heating it, he used [Infusion]. This time around, he actively watched the spell work, even if he still couldn’t see the mana that did it.

Something went through the bone. It had a hard time doing it, but that was intentional. And then a little bit of that something stayed behind and bound the pattern to water.

“Perception,” Micah mumbled as the pattern joined the ‘movement’ of the feet and tail. Now, it was closer to ‘whole-body movement’ instead of just feet. Well, except for fingers and hands.

“AH!” he shouted and spun on Lisa. His stirring spoon sprayed a little bit of potion on the floor.

Ryan didn’t scowl per se at that, but his expression totally conveyed the spirit of the emotion.

“That’s how [Personalized Alchemy] works, right?” Micah asked. “I perceive some things more clearly because I have a person in mind and blend out the rest. I control what I’m infusing!”

Lisa paused her slicing and smiled. “Yeah, exactly. That’s not usually enough, unless you have pinpoint focus and control, but [Lesser Vibrancy] is helping you along, I bet.”

Micah smiled as he turned back to the stove, humming happily. He ignored Ryan’s and Lisa’s staring reflections in the slanted window. He loved it when he got answers to questions. Especially when he figured them out for himself.

For his potion’s next step, he had to add a copious amount of crushed flesh crystals to the mixture. Usually, using essence was like feeding water into a straw. But for this recipe, Micah wanted that water to overflow and sort of … coat the straw. Mat it down. Instead of a ‘rat’s whole body movement’, he wanted it to be ‘body of flesh movement’ instead. It still wouldn’t be human, but it would be more digestible by humans. There was less chance that the pattern would cause any unwanted side-effects. In exchange, it was less sharp.

If Micah wanted an ideal potion for human agility, he would have to use a pattern of human agility. And that was just unconscionable.

Following the instructions, Micah managed to make it work on his first try. Then he just had to make another adjustment because he was using [Infusion]. The first had been using more ingredients. The second was using more flesh crystals to adjust. The third was something he could only do with exactness because he had a consumer in mind.

He had to split the potion.

“Hey, Ryan?” Micah asked casually, glancing back at the chart in his recipe book. “How tall are you?”

“Huh? Why?”

“And how much would you say you weigh?”

“Why are you asking?” He sounded a little flustered.

“No reason,” Micah echoed. It was kind of obvious that he was making this potion for Ryan. He just didn’t want to say that before it was done. It was a half-baked surprised, but Micah still wanted to do it. It seemed fun.

“Cut it down to 350ml,” Lisa commented. Somehow, she’d acquired his recipe book when he wasn’t looking and was consulting the tables.

Micah tried to reverse the math from memory but was having troubles. He scowled, because he hadn’t gotten an answer, but turned the heat down a little more and poured his potion back into the measuring cup to adjust its volume.

When it was the right amount, Micah had to add the—

“‘Bird feathers’?” Lisa quoted behind him as he stirred them inside another sieve. She sounded skeptical.

Micah glanced back.

Ryan was busy cleaning his chainmesh armor and had his feet up on another chair. The rat had disappeared. Most of the table was cleaned again, aside from the glowing pile of ingredients and loot.

Lisa had her feet on the table next to that pile and the recipe book in one hand, half of its pages wrapped around to the cover. It wasn’t like they could damage it any more than they already had.

“Just ‘bird feathers’?” she asked. “Will any bird do?”

“Well, yeah,” Micah said. “I’m not using enough to affect the pattern in any major way. It’s just a finishing touch to make things … lighter.”

“Hm.”

Lisa had also lectured him about the proper usage of measuring cups earlier.

No, no. You have to put the measuring cup on a flat surface to read it properly. No, the palm of your hand does not count as a flat surface, Micah. Do it right. Crouch down so it’s at eye level. You’re too young for your back to hurt. Ryan, bugger off. He needs to do it himself.

“You know, for someone who doesn’t quantify mana, you’re pretty nit-picky,” he mused.

Lisa looked like she couldn’t decide if she should smile or scowl at that. She consulted the recipe book again, her own musing expression on her face. “My mother would have loved the inaccuracies, I guess.”

“She would?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah.” She sounded wistful. “One of her favorite sayings is ‘Chaos is a womb’.”

“That’s…” Ryan looked like he was searching for the right word. “Eccentric?”

Micah gave him a look. It said, Oh, good one.

Ryan flashed him a smile. Thanks.

“Well, the recipe sucks either way,” Lisa chirped. “I expect you to improve on it, Micah.”

“Wait, it does?” Micah asked, measuring cup filled with sugar poised over the water. He’d brought out the feathers again. In the end, there wouldn’t be any actual animal parts in the potion. Just a “not much stronger” pattern, lots of essences, and sugar. This was the final ingredient.

“Yeah. It’s … how do I describe this? Clunky?”

“Clunky?”

Ryan was frowning, too. “How can a fluid be clunky?”

“Not the fluid. The pattern,” she explained. “There’s no finesse to it. And the true source of energy comes from the sugar, which is both impotent and unhealthy for your muscles. Not that your kind of potions are generally healthy for you either way.”

Your kind?

“In the long run,” Ryan corrected her. “If you drink them often?”

“Yeah, just using one every once in a while should be fine. And it depends on the potion either way.” She waved at the recipe. “Even if it’s this.”

Micah peered at his glowing green mixture again as he stirred the sugar in. He tried to figure out why this would be unhealthy, aside from his parent’s lies that sugar was unhealthy, but he came up dry.

“Why?” he asked. “Uhm, not that I don’t know why my own potion shouldn’t be healthy. But, uhm, can you explain it?” He copied her instructor voice. From their faces, they didn’t buy it. But they didn’t seem to mind either.

“Because; If it only temporarily affects the body, too much of it too consistently isn’t healthy,” Ryan explained. “Tea, coffee, medicine, drugs.” He pointed at the stove and finished, “Potions. You build a dependency. That’s just a general rule of thumb. If you want to know the specifics, pay attention in biology in a few months.”

In a few months … he’d said. Micah smiled. Alright. He could do that.

“...Not that I won’t make you anyway,” Ryan added.

“I’m so not sitting next to you two, then,” Lisa said.

“I thought you’re diligent?” Ryan asked. “Didn’t you say you have a nigh-perfect report card?”

She scowled. “No need to stress the ‘nigh’, Ryan. And I never said I pay attention. I just excel at everything.”

That last bit was a joke … Micah hoped.

Ryan grunted, showing what he thought of that.

Micah turned off the stove and used [Infusion] one last time, for good luck. Then he poured the contents of the pot into a proper potion bottle, took off his oven mittens, and brought it back to Ryan with a smile, saying, “For you.”

“For me?”

“Because you hate [Lesser Agility]? I thought you might want to try it out. You can’t hate what you don’t know.”

He’d heard that saying before, or others like it, but he only just decided to believe in them. He thought maybe someone should have said them to his parents a few times growing up and then things might be different. If they had been a little more open to their children going into the Tower, maybe …

Micah shook away the thought. No one to blame but yourself. Either way, he just liked the saying. Hating things was bad. Curiosity was good.

“Oh,” Ryan said and hesitantly took the bottle. He looked a little … distrusting. Understandably, considering he’d just been turned into a tomato by something alchemical seven days ago.

“Don’t worry,” Micah said and leaned over the table to snatch the recipe book away from Lisa. He pointed at it. “I followed the recipe perfectly, you see?”

“Right,” Lisa said. “But I still wouldn’t drink it—”

“Why?” Ryan and he asked in unison.

“Now. Let me finish. I wouldn’t drink it now. I know you guys are just making new potions for Apples’ levels, but … wouldn’t that kind of be a waste?”

Oh. Right.

“Like, what would you have done with it anyway? Tried to do a flip in our kitchen?”

Now Ryan grinned. “I can do a flip without an agility potion, Lisa. But I think I know what I can use this for.”

He put the bottle aside, but Lisa and Micah didn’t care about that anymore. They were staring at him.

Ryan noticed and looked weary.

“You can do a flip?” Micah asked.

“Prove it,” Lisa said.

Apparently, Ryan’s dad had taught him never to back down from a challenge. They ducked outside into the yard for a bit. The sky was a shaded by then and Micah caught a breath of cool air. Surprisingly, there was another light source on after all. It came from that room Garen had come out of to yell at them. Uhm ... Auntie’s office?

Ryan waited until he was watching before he did the flip.

Micah cheered when he landed, a little worried at the back of his mind that Ryan or Lisa would dare him to do one as well. He had the Skill after all. But Ryan didn’t, so Micah made a mental note to practice in the garden at home.

“Now you, Lisa,” Ryan said.

“Oh, no, no,” Lisa said. “There’s no way I’m breaking this body. It’s brand new, you see? How about you do a backflip instead?”

“Yeah, backflip,” Micah cheered.

So naturally, Ryan tried to do a backflip next and … well, it was a good thing they were about to brew a healing potion. He rubbed his shoulder walking back in, grumbling, “I slipped.”

Micah watched the Tower essence light up and star essences begin their first faint lines for a moment before he followed.

The second and third “potions” he could make were ones of “Hale’s Basic Lesser Regeneration” with one being in salve form.

Lisa had already put the honey ants in bowls so none of the yellow, healing-slime-goop would be lost when they broke them into pieces. She also put a pot and a pan on the stove.

“Why not just use the whole ant?” Ryan asked.

“Micah?” Lisa asked.

Micah thought for a moment before he answered, “Concentration?” He’d tried not to say “uhm” and sound confident but wavered halfway through because it didn’t ring quite true.

“Potency,” Lisa corrected him and his mind jumped on the word.

“Yeah, that’s it!”

You didn’t want a lot of ingredients, after all. You wanted a lot of effect.

“Why use a hundred of one ingredient when one of another will achieve the same result?” Lisa put it.

“Because it might be cheaper?” Ryan asked. Of course, he had to say something reasonable.

It still sounded wrong to Micah, so he shook his head. “You’re fighting for space. Remember Janet’s salve with nine layers? There’s no way you can do that if you use a hundred of one ingredient instead of one of another. Not with more complicated potions, at least.”

“Hrm.”

“Potency,” Lisa repeated. “The eternal struggle of all materialistic magics.” She smiled again. “My mom used to tell me stories. She’d say the most powerful foldstone in the existence is the size of a skipping rock.” She rubbed the palm of her hand a little as if she could imagine it resting there.

“Foldstone?” Ryan asked.

“Huh?” She looked up. “Oh, it’s just another word for an enchanted item.”

“Why?” Micah asked. He’d never heard of that term before. “I mean, where does the name come from?”

“I … don’t know. Huh. I just heard them say it. I never thought to ask,” Lisa said.

“What does it do?” Ryan sounded genuinely curious. “The skipping stone. I haven’t heard that story before.”

“Oh. Supposedly, it holds the strings of reality together. And if someone stole it or broke it, everything would unravel into madness. That’s the short version anyway.”

“Awesome,” Ryan said. “Tell me the long one.”

“Not awesome,” Micah countered. He didn’t want some stone deciding whether or not he got to be sane the next morning. And the story didn’t even make sense. How would a stone hold—

He broke off that thought. It reminded him of crystals keeping monsters’ patterns together. A shiver went down his spine and Micah focussed on breaking the ant into pieces while Lisa told Ryan a story about a powerful giant that once wove a tapestry and was killed by the people born on it.

“How do you even know all of this stuff?” Ryan asked and gestured around them, as if encompassing everything. “You’re a mage, and a summoner, and have nigh-perfect grades”—Lisa shot him a glare—”and you’re teaching Micah about alchemy.” He sounded genuinely impressed then, but also a little … distrustful, Micah thought. That was weird. They’d been friends before Micah really knew either of them.

“I had the good fortune of growing up to a broad education,” Lisa explained and Micah was surprised to hear that it was with genuine humility. “Otherwise, I’d know as much as a mouse.”

“Your parents taught you?”

She nodded. “They’re scientists of sorts.”

“Of sorts?” Micah threw in. He was not falling for that again.

“They study different kinds of magic, always looking for more,” she explained. “Honestly, I don’t even know that much, Ryan. I don’t even know a fraction of what they do and they’re always complaining about how little they know. I just hope I can keep up with them one day. Make them proud, you know?”

“Oh,“ Ryan said. “Yeah, I get that.”

Micah broke off an ant leg.

They had to wait for the water to heat, so they lounged around the table. They also still had to crush and weigh the walnuts, but there was time.

Micah sighed as he rested his head on the table.

“Why aren’t you an alchemist?” he mumbled eventually. It might have been a grumble instead. He didn’t know.

It took her a moment to reply.

“Huh? Me?” Lisa asked.

“Yeah, compared to your parents, you might know nothing. But compared to me—?” He let the question hanging. The end was obvious, after all.

“I don’t have the ambition for it,” Lisa said.

“Huh?”

“I mean, look at the agility potion we made.” She pointed. “It took you a day, ingredients from two specimens, a bunch of bird feathers, and sugar—a small fortune of ingredients for a beginning alchemist like you. And you can’t sell it to get that value back because you’re not allowed to sell potions on the open market without a license in Hadica. The value you do get is only an hour of improved mobility and you have to drink it in five to fourteen days after making or it’ll go bad, depending on how you cool it.”

“Only an hour?” Ryan asked.

Micah sunk back down a little. Yeah. Other potions could last at least three times as long, but since he was working with only [Infusion] … The recipe was also partially at fault. He really could improve on it. But even then, Lisa’s words hit too close to home.

“And when you do drink it, you can’t do it again for at least a week or it won’t be healthy for you. Or it might just not work at all or have unintended side-effects.” She shrugged. “It’s just not worth it.”

So she was saying alchemy was useless? No. Micah refused to believe that. Even if he couldn’t make Stat potions, he could still make healing potions to treat wounds, that breeze potion that kept Ryan cool in the summer, and he could learn to make all sorts of other things. There was still use there.

… But was that really what Lisa was saying?

“Then why not make a potion that is worth it?” Micah asked. “I can improve the recipe. I can get the other Skills. I can learn to get the most use out of my ingredients; waste nothing, like hunters do.” Was that enough? “And … I can focus on making potions that aren’t unhealthy for you. I can make ones with effects that last for days or even weeks.”

Why stop there? Doors closed, alchemy could do anything.

He looked at Lisa. “Are there—” He paused and rephrased, “I’ll learn how to make a potion that lasts forever.”

She was positively beaming at him then. “See, that! That’s the ambition I mean. Yeah, there are potions whose effects last forever, like growth potions. But personally, it’s just not worth it for me. I wouldn’t want to put in the effort to learn how to make something like that, develop my own recipes and methods, and most importantly, just find and get the right ingredients.”

“I would,” Micah said.

She nodded at him in acknowledgment.

“What about Stats?” Ryan asked. “Are there potions that give you permanent Stats?”

Lisa opened her mouth—

“There’s primers,” a new voice said, interrupting them. “They can influence what you get from your next level up.”

“Auntie,” Lisa said.

A woman stood in the doorway. She didn’t look at all like Lisa’s auntie. Her face was all different and her hair too dark brown. She also had a tiny scar beneath one corner of the lip that made it look like she was slightly frowning and smiling at the same time. And even though she looked relaxed, she still stood straight.

“Good evening,” she said politely.

Micah got up, didn’t know what to do, and said awkwardly, “Good evening.”

Ryan and Lisa slowly went to get up then, too.

“Ryan, Micah, this is Allison Reed,” she introduced her.

Marionette, Micah thought. This woman was a climber?

“Auntie, these are Micah, and Ryan who I told you about.” There was a slight pause between their names.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ryan,” she said, shaking his hand. “What are you making? Potions?”

“Yeah,” Lisa said, handing her the bottle of green liquid. “Oh, can you appraise this one? Ryan almost got his face melted off by something last week, so maybe you could ease his conscious?”

“You know I can only identify items,” the woman said, but took it anyway. “Wouldn’t you be able to do more?”

“I can do about the same as the kid who made it,” Lisa said. “Confirmation would be great.”

“Alright then. [Identify Item].”

A Class Skill?

“It says ‘Potion of Least Agility’. Happy now?”

“Least?” Micah asked. “Not 'Lesser'?”

Ms. Reed gave him a look.

“I’m Micah,” he introduced himself again. He held out his hand as well, but she didn’t go for it.

“Are you a friend of Ryan’s?”

“Uhm, yes, ma’am.”

“I’m teaching him alchemy,” Lisa explained. “Garen wants me to.”

“I heard that. Permanent effects? That’s pretty advanced stuff, Lisa. Are you sure you want to teach him something so … ambitious?”

“Oh, Apples here already knows more than most routine alchemists do,” Lisa said.

Micah wanted to feel proud about the compliment, but he was having a hard time of it. He mostly just felt awkward. Meeting people your friends and family knew but you didn’t was always like that.

Ryan looked much the same.

“He can handle it,” Lisa said.

“I just mean to say, we barely understand the subject ourselves. Maybe you would want to teach him something a little more dependable instead? I’m sure he’d love to return to the field when he has a broader understanding of the subject. And maybe a little more experience besides.”

“Oh,” Lisa said, glancing at Ryan. “Uhm, hrn. I guess?”

Ryan looked lost but was putting on a “proper” front. The same as Micah. He gave him a glance in solidarity.

“Well, I didn’t want to interrupt you. I just wanted to drop by and check in how you’re doing.”

“Fine, thanks,” Lisa said.

“...And also grab a snack,” she finished and hushed over to a cabinet. She opened it and pulled out a jar, then headed out again. “Well, then. Good night.”

“Good night,” they echoed.

As soon as she was gone, Micah sat back down again. That had been weird. The water was boiling though, so he immediately got back up again and went over to check on it.

Ryan walked up next to him and got a glass out of the high cabinet. He glanced at him, “You, too?”

“Yes, please,” Micah said.

He filled them up with tap water and they drunk greedily.

“So primer potions?” Ryan asked, sitting back down again.

Micah put the beeswax in the one pan and turned down the heat of the other stove.

“You drink them along with targeted training to influence which Skills you get from your next level up,” Lisa explained. “For example, some people drink potions that raise their body temperatures and give them heat resistance at the same, then fight the Salamanders on the fourth floor. It’s supposed to increase your chances of getting [Lesser Fire Resistance] from your next level up. Or just something similar. Way too few people experiment with Skill gains nowadays, worried that they might boggle their advancement ...”

She trailed off, glanced at the doorway, then at Ryan and tapped her ears.

“Huh? Oh, what? No, we’re alone,” he said.

“Puh. Okay.”

Micah frowned, watching through the reflection in the window. What was that about?

“There’s also Path primer potions,” Lisa explained in a softer voice. Almost a whisper. “They temporarily affect you in some way relevant to certain Skills. You’re supposed to meditate on those effects then. It makes getting some Skills easier.”

“Why are we whispering?” Micah butted into the conversation. While he was interested in the concept of primers, they seemed pretty simple and didn’t really sound like a secret. It was the same as scouting educators for specific Skills or doing specific training, after all. He was a little more interested in Lisa’s weird behavior. Plus, if she could have helped make primers by now and they were relevant, she would have offered it, Micah thought.

… Probably.

“Because families are like Guilds, Micah,” Lisa confessed.

He needed a moment to process that. Then he clenched his teeth and glared at the stove, saying nothing. Okay, maybe some things deserved a little hating after all.

“I don’t expect you to sign up with the, ah, ‘Chandler Guild’, Apples,” Lisa said. “I’ll still teach you what I know about alchemy.”

Micah mulled it over for a bit, thinking of an appropriate answer. “Thank you. But I’ll still learn, even if you don’t.”

Ryan glanced at the both of them. Micah wasn’t quite sure if he understood what was going on. Apparently, he chose to console him. Maybe out of habit? “You’ll get there someday, Micah.”

That didn’t help to clarify what Ryan knew.

He nodded anyway. “I know I will.”

“Hey, relax,” Ryan tried again, even though Micah had already dropped his glare. “You learn things one step at a time.”

For some reason, Micah thought of letters in math then and lists upon lists of terms and historic dates. He chuckled ruefully. “Unless you’re trying to skip two years of classroom,” he said. “Then you learn at a sprint.”

Ryan smiled. “Yeah.”

Lisa said nothing.

He made the healing potions with mostly ant parts while Ryan crushed the walnuts into powder.

Lisa resummoned Sam and made it lick up the leftovers ant bits in the bowls they’d used. The essence it consumed didn’t weave itself into any visible place, though. Maybe it stored it in its “stomach” then? He wondered if Lisa could use it to heal the monster. He hadn’t even noticed when she’d dismissed it last. But that seemed like a good sign. She might be getting used to it.

The “Hale’s Basic Salve of Lesser Regeneration” used melted beeswax, oil, Honey Ant goop, and crushed shells. The potion version just used Honey Ant goop instead of honey, water, and crushed shells. That was it.

It was one of the simplest potions Micah had ever made, but supposed to be more effective than his other healing potions, even if it was still low-grade. Middle-grade healing potions required the potion to heal almost immediately, after all, so they could treat serious wounds. High-grade described special effects, like being able to heal bone immediately, clean wounds on their own, or get rid of infections.

They were shorthand, though. Sold healing potions had more detailed descriptions of their effects and properties.

The “Hale's Basic Potion of Lesser Regeneration” was supposed to speed up the body’s ability to heal itself and offered a little bit of support, but definitely shouldn’t be drunk on an empty stomach. Potions needed things to work with, after all. And if they didn’t have those, they would take them.

Just like Paths, Micah supposed.

That’s why Micah had bought walnuts, fish oil, and eggs for his strength potion next. But before he made that, he got healing salve and bandages, and told Ryan, “Take off your shirt.”

Ryan pouted. “No. Why?”

“I’ve seen you favoring your right arm all day since we got back,” Micah said. “Let me see.”

“So, what? I’m right-handed.”

Micah squinted at him. “Ryan.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because … we’re going to your sister’s after this anyway, right? You’d have to reapply it.”

“I have more than enough for two applications.”

“No need to be wasteful.”

“Fine.” He threw up one hand. “If you want to suffer until then. But there’s no getting around this.”

Not that the salve would really help with the pain all that much, but Ryan didn’t need to know that.

So finally, Micah made his first strength potion.

He used heated milk as a base and added Honey Ant legs for the primary pattern. Since those were mostly made of dried goop, he broke them into pieces afterward and stirred them into the milk until they dissolved. They had a lot of them, so Micah could make a large batch this time.

Then he had to prime it with only a little bit of nectar essence first, and added the oil, walnut powder, one flesh crystal, and a single egg in order to matt the pattern down through [Infusion]. He only put in a little of each at first before he added the rest so the potion would have something to work with.

The final step was just stirring thoroughly—violently, Lisa corrected him—to make sure everything was mixed properly. In case the oil settled, he would have to shake it before drinking it again. But unlike the agility potion, this one had perishable ingredients in it, so it would last only as long as those did.

He split it into two portions. One for Ryan, one for him.

“I have the Skill,” Ryan said.

Micah had totally forgotten about that. Well then, two for him. Micah drank one. He swallowed and stared at nothing for a moment.

“Why did you drink it?” Lisa asked.

“How does it taste?” Ryan did.

“... Sandy,” Micah answered. “A lot like foamy milk. I think the Honey Ant gave it a little bit of sweetness, but there’s also a taste of walnut and a hint of … “ He rubbed his fingers together, looking for the right word.

“Bitterness?” Ryan tried.

“Disgust that just brushes the back of your mouth, you know?”

“That would be the fish oil and eggs,” Ryan said.

Micah nodded and shuddered. Then he looked at Ryan and said, “Arm wrestle me.”

Ryan grinned.

Micah lost four times in total. The first one was after Ryan led him along for a bit, making him think he could win. Then he slapped his hand back in one crushing go. He chirped something in victory.

Micah scowled.

“Unfair, maybe the strength just hasn’t properly kicked in yet.”

“You want a rematch?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah.”

“Anytime.”

It took Micah three more defeats, only the last of which offered Ryan a real challenge, before he challenged Lisa in Ryan’s stead and she took on the victor.

Micah watched at eye-level as she slowly pushed Ryan’s arm back on the table. He glanced at the other boy to see if he was just faking it again, but Ryan was visibly sweating and straining.

“Ryan?” he asked, a little worried.

He grunted.

“C’mon man.”

“I’m trying.”

Lisa slapped his arm down and did a victory lap around the table, flexing her arms while they both stared. Micah looked at her arms, then at his own arm, then back again. How? That’s how he found out Lisa apparently had [Lesser Strength] as well. That was so unfair.

Ryan chirped a promise of revenge.

They cleaned up and packed up their stuff. Micah’s climber equipment went in the shed. He snuck a leftover honey ant leg into his pocket, though. He wanted to try it later when nobody was there to judge him.

They waved to Lisa and Sam as they headed off to Prisha’s. Thankfully, without Ryan quizzing him this time around. By the time they got there, they were shambling and stumbled past Ed playing cards again.

Ryan groaned as he slipped into the hot water. Apparently, it was doing wonders for his shoulder.

Micah enjoyed just lounging in it instead.

“Hey, Ryan?” he asked after a few minutes.

“Hm?”

“Thanks for today.”

Ryan didn’t reply.

“I know you think you screwed up,” Micah started, “but if it weren’t for you, I’d be going into the Tower on my own. Think about it. I might have been hit by that Sewer grate. I might not have known about the kidnapping consequence until it was too late. I wouldn’t even have gotten there in the first place. Instead, I’d have wandered around the Sewers aimlessly all day. So thanks. Really.”

It took him a long moment to answer. Finally, he said, “Thank you.”

Not ‘you’re welcome?’

They almost fell asleep there. Thankfully, Prisha sent Ed to drag them out instead of coming herself again. The man clapped loudly and yelled, “Closing time. Everyone out!” as if the bathhouse was still full.

Ryan and he were the last two customers.

Micah treated Ryan’s shoulder and wounds in the changing room again. They slipped into their spare clothes and ate a small supper in the kitchen, Ryan finally tasting Prisha’s cooking, even if was only lentil soup with carrots and bread.

He gave her all the adulations.

“So where were you today?” she asked, eyeing Ryan’s bandaged shoulder.

He was wearing a sleeveless shirt again like he usually did. Unfortunately, that didn’t hide bandages very well.

She also eyed the little bit of salve Micah had put in his wrist to treat the tiny dots the struggling ant had left there.

“Ant Hive,” Ryan summarized between bites, perfectly honest. “Getting Honey Ants for stronger healing potions.”

“Hm.”

Micah’s eyes darted between them as he hovered over his soup bowl. After another bite and stretching silence, he blurted out, “I brought a souvenir.”

He pulled out the ant leg.

Ryan snorted.

Prisha got up to inspect it, turning it over in her hands. “And you use these in stronger healing potions?”

“Yeah. And you can eat them, too. They’re supposed to taste sweet and be healthy. They promote strength and vitality. Apparently, nobles eat them all the time.”

Prisha frowned a little, broke off a piece, and ate it.

Micah gaped.

Her eyes went up while she chewed and weighed her head a little, still assessing.

“And?”

“S’ sweet,” she mumbled around it and took another bite.

Micah broke off a piece for himself. It was crunchy at first, kind of sticky, but then a little bit sweet after he chewed for a while.

They both turned to Ryan and he took the last bit out of peer pressure.

“Better healing potions are … good,” Prisha said and kissed Micah on his head then. He immediately leaned back and rubbed it off. Ew. Plus, embarrassing. “Just remember to stay safe, alright?”

“We will, sis,” Micah said.

“Promise,” Ryan added.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Prisha lectured him.

“Then I promise to try.”

She blinked and said, “I don’t know why I thought that would be better.” Then she wandered off.

Micah, at least, smiled.