While Runa went to gather that bucket of water, Tabitha remembered what Hanne said about crushing the gem into powder to use for the alchemy base. Fortunately, Joseph had a mortar and pestle that he kept in his workshop, so Tabitha borrowed that to crush the gem up.

The gem was apparently really fragile, too, because it became a fine powder with only a little bit of effort.

Item Information

Name

River Gem Powder

Powder obtained from crushing a river gem into a fine substance.

Rarity

C

Quality

59

Element

Water

Source

Crafted

Type

Material

Bonus Tags

[Alchemical]

[Dominant Water]

It even went up a little in quality thanks to the mortar and pestle, as Tabitha would find out by using Analyze on them both. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any interesting tags.

Figuring that it would be alright to go ahead and put the powder in the cauldron first, Tabitha did exactly that as she waited for Runa to get back with the water. What she wasn’t sure about doing was adding the flour with the Stabilizer tag to it before or after mixing it with the water. What if adding it ahead of time got it mixed with the powder and stabilized it before it had a chance to become an alchemy base, if that was even possible? She didn’t know if it worked like that, but she figured it would be best to be safe and wait until after the powder was mixed with the water.

Fortunately, Runa didn’t take too long to return. “I’m back!” she announced with a bucket full of water in her hands. “Is this enough?”

“I was gonna say I’d probably need two buckets of water… but that’s a big bucket ya found,” Tabitha said.

Surprisingly, Runa was holding it up without much difficulty. Tabitha doubted that she herself would be able to hold up that bucket so easily, so how could Runa do it when Runa had what looked like even less muscular arms than her?

Was it all the in the legs? Runa did have nice legs, as far as Tabitha was concerned. She shook her head to focus. Don’t be goin’ and pervin’ on her, she reminded herself. “Oi, Runa, ain’t that heavy?”

“It is! I couldn’t lift it on my own, so I had to use my Heavy Lift skill,” Runa answered.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a skill I got from my gathering path. It lets me pick up and transport really heavy things! So, you never have to worry about anything being too heavy for you since I’ll be able to pick it up if it is!” Runa even went so far as to hold the bucket with a single arm as she playfully flexed her other arm. She might not have looked strong normally, but flexing her arm actually showed that she did have some muscle in hiding that could be shown off.

Tabitha had to remind herself of what she previously thought just moments ago as she nodded. “That’s useful. That’s really, really useful. So, you’re tellin’ me you could do somethin’ like pick up a dragon? Or maybe somethin’ more simple, a bear?”

Runa shook her head and laughed a bit. “Nothing that heavy! At least… not until I rank this skill up some more. It’s at rank two right now, so I can carry all normally heavy stuff no problem when I use it. But it drains my Stamina Points as long as I’m using it, so I can’t do it forever.”

“Darn. Still, it’s super useful as it is already. Anyways, mind pourin’ that water into the cauldron for me?”

“Sure!”

Holding the bucket with both hands again, Runa poured the water into the cauldron, set the bucket down, and then let out a deep breath that seemed a bit deeper than needed. Deep enough that it caught Tabitha’s attention and made her raise an eyebrow, anyways.

“A-ah,” Runa said, catching onto Tabitha’s curiosity. “Heavy Lift is activated by focusing and taking a deep breath while holding onto something, then deactivated by letting out a deep breath when not holding anything.”

“Interestin’. I’m used to havin’ to like, in games with systems like this, ya gotta shout out your skill name! And stuff like that.”

“That… that would be silly if everybody was going around saying the name for every skill they use.”

“Yeah, I guess so. I like this better.”

Back to the point, Tabitha realized she needed something to stir the water with now that it was in the cauldron.

Fortunately, she still had that stick with the High Quality tag she found in the forest and used for mashing together the slitherglow eggs.

But she was also curious about something else. Mainly, the water. She stuck a hand into the water and used Analyze.

Item Information

Name

Water

It’s water.

Rarity

E

Quality

38

Element

Water

Source

Natural

Type

Material

“No big fancy description?” Tabitha teased. She also figured she should use Analyze on the bucket while it was in there. And once she was done with alchemy, she figured she should just go and use Analyze on basically every single tiny little thing she saw.

That aside, she took her stick and got to mixing. It didn’t take long for that usual feeling from her Dexterity to kick in, nor did it take long for the water to begin rather chaotically swirling around within the cauldron, forming a whirlpool in its center as some water splashed out over the sides.

“Ha-hang on there!” Tabitha shouted at the cauldron. “Runa! Flour!” She figured it was a good time for something with a Stabilizer tag.

Runa didn’t waste any time picking up the bag of flour and pouring it into the chaotic mixture.

It had an immediate effect.

The liquid slowed down until it reached a steady, constant swirl within the cauldron. There was no more whirlpool, no more splashing, and so on. Only a stable combination of liquid that was a bit thicker than what Tabitha expected, probably due to the fact that the Stabilizer tag came from flour.

But as long as it served as an alchemical base, Tabitha was happy.

And the achievement that popped up made it obvious that it did count.

System Menu

Congratulations, you have acquired a new Achievement!

An Alchemist’s First Base

Awarded for brewing your first alchemical base liquid.

Reward: 5 Intelligence

“Nice, got my first alchemy achievement! Now then.” Tabitha reached her hand into the brew to use Analyze.

Item Information

Name

Grade D Alchemical Base

Liquid that has been enhanced and stabilized to serve as a base for alchemical processes.

Rarity

D

Quality

50

Element

Water

Source

Crafted

Type

Alchemy Base

“Huh, it doesn’t have any tags. I reckon they must have only affected it durin’ the process rather than affect the final product,” Tabitha said and shrugged. “Anyways, Runa, it’s time for us to officially start mixin’ things together! I’ll let ya have the honor of pickin’ what we blend together first.”

Runa’s ears twitched. “I—I’m not sure what to do.”

“Just pick a few random things, toss them into the cauldron, and uh… I guess all I have to do then is mix it up until we get somethin’!”

With a nod, Runa dug into her bag to pick out the first items to be used in Tabitha’s soon-to-be streak of alchemical experiments.