Neil

Making my way back to my camp I stopped at the palace as I had taken to calling it with Shassala just make sure they were clear. Seeing and hearing nothing making its way up the stairwell I went back to the garden.

Shassala had said that the Ancients, whoever they were, had built this place. If that’s true then it makes sense that they had food gardens and things like that. But if this was a settlement then why here? When Europeans colonized the Americas they started at the coast and moved inwards, they didn’t start at a random mountain peak in the ass end of nowhere.

Maybe there had been other settlements along the coast, and this was just the one that Shassala’s people had contact with? Or maybe there was something here they wanted. Right now I didn’t have enough information to guess about that, but I could guess about this place.

It was a self-sufficient, isolated settlement built on top of a mountain, and on the mountain was a hole leading straight down into the mountain. It looked like this place had been made as a fortress, or even some kind of bunker.

At the moment I had no idea, but I really wanted to find out and the best way to do that was to start exploring under the mountain and the only way to do that was to start making better use of the materials I had found in the garden.

There were several plants on the mountaintop that I hadn’t experimented with yet that could be useful, and one fruit that even looked like it was the equivalent of coffee. With my new glassware I wanted to try and refine the healing potion further, and see if I could get some idea of how many potions I could drink in a day without keeling over. So my actions for the day decided I moved my new glassware to the garden and started brewing potions.

The next few hours passed quickly, I had been combining dozens of different things together near the garden and the sun was starting to head down from its apex moving slowly towards the horizon. Despite my many, many failures, I actually had several successes.

Looking down at the potions, and pastes in the small vials that I had collected I looked for a specific two out of the five. Deciding that my organizational skills needed more practice I just asked what they were and was rewarded with five dings and five explanations.

A beginner’s paste made from the Swift Shroom. This will increase your stamina allowing you to run longer than you normally would, will last for roughly 27 minutes. After this time your stamina will be severely depleted.

That had been made by squishing a mushroom, adding a small amount of water and then boiling that down over a fire in my pot. The result looked far more like toothpaste than any potion, but was much more effective than just mixing the mushroom with water.

A beginner's potion made from the rousing fruit. This potion will increase alertness and allow you to stay awake with no ill effects from a lack of sleep. This potion will only last for 2 hours. After that time your tiredness will return with an additional sleep debt of 4 hours. This had been made removing the skin and the seeds from the fruit then pulping it. The seeds themselves actually gave stomachaches and diarrhea similar to the Moon Berry seeds so I had removed those. Adding a little bit of water to the pulped fruit I again boiled it and this had been the result.

The next three potions were all attempts I had made with the Night Eye Grass. The first attempt I had thrown out immediately as the description said it would cause my eyes to melt after the potion ran out. Thinking that I needed to add something to it to counteract the negative effects I had tried experimenting with different ratios of water, Telerath Grass, Moon Berry and ever a little Creeping Vine Nectar.

In the end I added all of the plants together with no water, used a few rocks to make a simple mortar and pestle and ground them together. When everything was together in a paste I added several cups of water to my pot and then boiled it until most of water was gone. In previous attempts I just allowed it to be a rolling boil, this time I kept adjusting the pot to try and get a slow boil. It had been a pain in the ass moving it closer to the fire and then further and back and forth over and over again. Once most of the water had evaporated, I then ground up what remained into a powder and added more water to that. This was my greatest success and earned me two new windows in front of me letting me know my potions skill had improved twice.

Through care, experimentation and improvisation you have created an excellent potion of the Night Eye. This potion will increase your night vision by a very large amount and allow you to see in extreme darkness. Will last 6 hours, when it ends your eyes will be tired.

I had repeated the process two more times getting the same potion each time. I wasn’t really sure what your eyes would be tired meant, but it was a lot better than my eyes melting.

With my five successes I had started to wonder what exactly was being distilled out of the potions with the steam. I tried to use my identify ability on the steam but I wasn’t able to get any information so I set up my new retort to tried to condense some of the steam into something that I could get more information on. At the start I didn`t have very much luck and most of the steam entered into the flask and then drifted away. It wasn`t until I remembered my father’s still that I realized that the flask needed to be cooled in order to help the steam condense.

So by pouring a cold water bath into a pot then placing the flask in that I was able to get a little more of the steam to condense. Less than I had wanted, but a few drops proved to be enough to identify.

“What is it?”

DING

This contains unrefined waste mana, as well as other impurities. If ingested it could increase Mana Burn and possibly cause Mana Shock.

Well now that raised more questions on what magic was and what cause Mana Shock. Shassala had told me that it was a sickness caused by the magic taking too much from your body and you needed time to recover. This however implied that it was ‘Unrefined Waste Mana’ that caused it, whatever that was.

Putting aside yet another question that I couldn’t answer I began to consider just how many potions I could have before I began to get Mana Shock. Shassala had given me one, then the next day I had three more and that was enough to lay me on my ass for a day. Although Shassala had said that I recovered faster than she had thought I should, so I don’t know if that meant anything. Was I slightly more resistant than Lamia? Or was it just a fluke?

Fortunately this was something I could test. I just had to take a bunch of potions make myself sick and see what happened. I know I know not the best of ideas but Shassala had also mentioned that people usually felt something before they got magic shock, so maybe just a few potions over the course of a day to see if I could feel anything?

Aa interesting as that idea was, first more potion brewing, I was pretty sure that I could do a better job with those swift shrooms, and probably the rousing fruit as well, but that was less important than every other kind of potion. As much as I liked coffee it wasn’t something that I missed, and while it would be nice to have a drink that did something similar, a magic potion seemed too extreme to be used as a substitute for coffee.

Cleaning my pot with water and my towel I put three Swift Shrooms, a handful of Telerath Grass, and the pulp of a Moon Berry into my pot and began crushing it all with the flat surface of a fist sized rock I had found. This was definitely not good for the pot, but it worked much better than crushing everything with my hands. Working everything under the rock I kept grinding everything for a good twenty minutes before I started to feel satisfied with my progress. The mushrooms were eviscerated, the grass was a small lumpy paste and the berry gave everything the consistency of a smoothie. Smiling at my work I added roughly a half a cup of water and continued mashing everything together again. When I was satisfied that everything had been mixed together as well as I could manage, I placed it into my retort, put that on the smoldering ashes of the fire and then added some wood to my fire.

Changing the water in the flasks bath I placed that under the retort and waited for the potion to start boiling.

When it started to boil I moved it back from the fire a little cursing as I burned my fingers. I wanted a slow boil if I could manage, not a rolling boil.

Looking at most of the steam escaping though I thought that the cold-water bath wasn’t really helping all that much. Some of the steam was condensing but not enough to get me more than a few drops. I really had no idea what I could use it for, but it seemed wasteful to just let it blow away. Also since it was a waste product potentially toxic as well, I shifted to make sure I the steam was blowing away from me.

Struck by an idea I ran back to my camp and grabbed my rain poncho. Placing it over the flask it was now stopping the steam from escaping, pouring a little cool water on top it would also hopefully help the steam condense and drip into the flask. Damn I am getting good at this.

DING

By using careful thought, consideration and experimentation you have improved your potion making skill! You are now an Intermediate Journeyman Potion Maker! Continue to practice or seek out a teacher to improve!

“Nice!” I shouted reading the window. I had never been a very good student in school, and this was the first time in my life that I had really improved at anything or received praise for anything I had done before! Even if it was from a manifestation of my species connection with a planet, if anything that made the praise even better! Why an Intermediate Journeyman though? This had been the first time I was given a specific rank was that significant? I really should have been recording what all of the boxes had been saying but I didn’t bring a notebook or anything to write on during my hikes.

Looking at the retort I saw that the potion had just about boiled down to nothing, removing it from the fire I carefully put it on the ground to cool before I tried to remove the potion. Then I turned my attention to the flask that had been collecting the steam. Moving the poncho I was rewarded by my efforts when I saw a small amount of liquid in the bottom. Much less water than what I had put in but still over half.

Examining it with just my eye I saw that it was cloudy with a milky color to it, the previous time I had collected the steam it was definitely clearer. Likely this meant that the potion itself was purer and I could have more of it before getting Mana Shock, at least that was my best guess.

“What is it?”

DING

This contains large amounts of unrefined waste mana, as well as other impurities. If ingested it will cause Mana Shock.

Smiling I said outloud “Well that confirms my guess, now I have a poison.”

I wonder if there was any way of getting this on my knife? How do you turn a liquid into a cream or a powder? Oh well, I could try to figure that out later.

Picking up the now cool retort I opened it and poured the mixture out into the pot. Grinding it up with my stone again I looked at the powder I was left in the bottom of my pot before adding in a half a cup of water and asking. “What is it?”

DING

An excellent potion made from a variety of ingredients. This will increase your stamina allowing you to run far longer than you normally would, while ignoring some encumbrance. Will last for 4 hours and 6 minutes. Contains a small amount of impurities and unrefined magic.

Holy crap. This was much better than my first attempt. If I was understanding this right then I would be able to sprint for 4 hours with my backpack on and not care, that was incredible. Hopefully the exhaustion wouldn’t all hit me at once at the end when the potion ran out, but if it didn’t, then wow! Not only that but now it was telling me about impurities in the potion, is this because I improved my potions skill?

Suddenly being on the mountain wasn’t as isolating as it had previously been, this could allow me to sprint to the bottom of the mountain with no trouble. Not that I had any reason to, but if meeting Shassala’s people went well then maybe I could trade with them for things in the future. Or if it didn’t go well then, I could run like hell and they wouldn’t be able to catch up.

Looking back at the mushroom paste that was my first attempt I decided to try something else. Cleaning my pot once again I put the paste in it and then added some water to it. Not bothering with the retort which I hadn’t cleaned yet I put the pot on the fire and let it start to simmer, stirring it occasionally. When the water had all boiled off I took it off the fire, crushed it again with my rock and then added more water to it. Stirring it I looked at it and again asked.

“What?”

DING

A good potion made from simple ingredients. This will increase your stamina allowing you to run far longer than you normally would. Will last for 1 hour and 14 minutes. Contains a moderate amount of impurities and unrefined magic.

Looking at the part of the window where it said a “moderate amount” of impurities I was wondering how I could get an idea of how much a moderate amount was without just drinking potions until I keeled over when I realized I did have something I could compare that too. The healing potion Shassala had taught me.

If I made that and saw how impure that was then compared it to this it should give me a rough idea of what a small, and moderate amount of unrefined magic was.

Making a potion exactly how Shassala had showed me, except using my new rock to grind up everything finer than I had been able to before I quickly found myself with healing potion.

“What?”

DING

This potion will heal most simple injuries. Can be drank, or applied directly to the wound for a stronger more localized effect. Has a moderate amount of impurities and unrefined magic.

Boiling this in my pot, grinding up what was left and then adding more water I looked at the new healing potion.

This potion will heal moderate injuries. Can be drank, or applied directly to the wound for a stronger more localized effect. Has a small amount of impurities and unrefined magic.

Smiling I looked at it and then looked at the horizon. I probably had just enough time to test out a few potions. But Shassala had been pretty adamant that I not use any more potions today. Damn. I would have to wait until tomorrow. Still this was the most productive day I had ever had here, not even here, but ever. Looking at the horizon and seeing the endless jungle with mountains in the distance I couldn’t wait for what tomorrow would bring me.