The adrenaline from the fight is beginning to wear off, the small aches and pains I was feeling have come back stronger. There’s no time to worry about these right now though, I have bigger issues at hand, like patching up a broken window and the door. The window isn’t salvageable, but the door was just knocked forward and the frame came with it. Aside from a crack running through the wood of the door, it’s in perfect condition. Rummaging through the junk drawer in the kitchen, I find a box of nails that look long enough.

My next quest is to find a hammer. If only I knew where dad put it. Deciding to try checking the most obvious place first, I open the door from the kitchen to the basement and check the toolbox we keep down there. It’s sorely lacking in hammers, but I bring it back to the kitchen with me anyway just in case I need it later. With a sigh, I begin exploring the house for the hammer.

Simply by convenience, I check the kitchen first. The cupboards are mostly full of dishware, but I find 12 mason jars that once held honey from my mother’s beekeeping escapade. A shudder runs through me from the memories. The jars will be extremely useful in avoiding future potion spills, so I set them on the kitchen table for now.

Walking out the other side of the kitchen, I enter the dining room. The only storage in here is a mahogany fine china cabinet filled with nautically themed plates and silverware. No hammer to be found here. Moving on, my parent’s bedroom might be a good place to check.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I turn left and walk into the master bedroom. A fine layer of dust covers everything in the room, I’ve fallen behind on my assigned cleaning duties admittedly. ‘At least this room isn’t plastered with slime’ With a quick survey of the room, I don’t immediately see the hammer anywhere, but that doesn’t deter me.

The room may be big but it’s surprisingly cramped with various containers and boxes due to the hoarding tendencies of the inhabitants. Half an hour later, various boxes of knick-knacks are open and all I have left is my parent’s dresser to check. Usually, this wouldn’t be a place to check, but not many people are my parents. At last, the hammer is in my dad’s sock drawer, tucked between two pairs of garish, mismatched socks. With victory quite literally in my hand, I return to the kitchen.

Squatting down to the edge of the top of the door, I lift it up and position it in the frame. My use of nails would be considered sinful by most carpenters, but I want to make sure the door stays in place. By the end of my work, the door frame is somewhat of a pincushion, but at least the door is back in place. The window might be a bit tougher to deal with.

Pondering for a moment, I walk back to the living room from the kitchen and retrieve the pieces that used to be a door. Some of the pieces are still sizeable enough to be used. Once I’m back in the kitchen I grab a dustpan and sweep up the broken glass with a broom.

Now that everything is clean, I can begin more repairs. Placing the wood pieces up against the window, I nail the ends as best as I can to keep the wood in place. The patch job is shabby at best and doesn’t cover all of the exposed windows, so I cover the rest with duct tape that I found in the toolbox.

A thin layer of sweat covers my skin, mixing with blood and grime from the fight as well as working in the debris-covered kitchen. Before I clean myself, I need to clean the kitchen up. Filling another bucket of water, I use a mop and clean up all the potion spills on the floor, then use the broom again to dust up anything else. My potion brewing station clean once more, I make the decision that I most certainly need to be clean and in fresh clothes.

A cold shower is not preferable again, there’s no water pressure anyway, so I take a large cooking pot out to the well and fill it with the pump. Once I’m back inside I set the pot to heat up while I retrieve a towel from the linen closet upstairs. This is a job for a tub, not a standing shower, so I lug the pot of hot water to the bathroom off of the hall between the living room and kitchen. With the pot by the side of the tub, I strip out of my clothes, having retrieved a fresh pair of pants, underwear, and a shirt while waiting for the water to heat up.

The hot water stings a bit as I use a washcloth with some body wash on it to clean myself by hand. I scrub out my hair with some shampoo and conditioner as best as I can with the pot of water. By the time I’ve finished the water has cooled down a bit and I dump the remains on myself to wash away any excess soap. The feeling of being clean again is heavenly.

Unfortunately, this small reprieve is over, I still have one glaring issue. My entire healing potion supply is gone, so I will be horribly unprepared for another attack. My small garden is mostly empty of vitaleaf herbs, so I am restraining myself and leaving the remainder to hopefully grow back. There is still one large stock of healing items left in my home though.

Returning to my room with several large pots, I get to work breaking off the now hard pieces of slime from every surface of my room. It truly got on everything so it is a lengthy, arduous task. By the time I’ve finished, the sun is setting. Satisfied with my work, I gaze around my room. The queen-sized bed is red now, the light gray sheets having been permanently stained in places. My floor is a light hickory hardwood, which was blessedly more easy to pull the slime off of than cloth.

The closet door in the corner of the room, as well as my dresser, were closed, fortunately. My clothes were saved from the slime even if I wasn’t. The mint green walls are now clear as well, and the ceiling light managed to get some slime on it as well. I had to haphazardly stand on the office chair from my desk to reach that one. With all of the red slime chunks collected, I managed to fill two pots and the third one halfway.

Taking three trips, I return all of my new supplies to the kitchen. On the third trip I also bring the slime paste jar down with me, it should make for a perfect potion bottle, if somewhat hard to fill with the slender neck of the bottle.

Another pot boils on the stove and I break up some slime chunks into smaller pieces. With two handfuls now in the boiling water, I stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. When my Fledgling Alchemist senses tell me the potion is complete, I take it off the heat and retrieve a mason jar from the kitchen table. The slime and water mixture seeps into the jar with a gelatinous consistency. A quick inspection reveals the results of my creation. They’re less than stellar.

Red Slime Healing Potion

Quality: Low

Traits: Healing item

Description: Red slime that has been boiled with water to bring out some of the healing properties. Restores 5 HP. Doses: 10.

While impressed by the dose count and total healing of 50 HP, each individual healing will be atrociously weak, which could have its own benefits, but isn’t what I want for an emergency. The slow consistency also makes this cumbersome to ingest. The original slime paste bottle is sitting on the counter, my alchemist instincts prickle with an idea.

Rummaging through the cupboards once more, I find the single jar of honey my mom managed to procure with her beekeeping, she was always too sentimental to actually use it. With a smaller amount of water boiling this time, I mix even finer crumbs of red slime that I broke up with the hammer in a bag with some honey. As I stir, the mixture becomes less gelatinous, the honey helping to smooth out the mixture.

The result looks complete, so I take it off the heat and let this one completely cool down. The consistency is closer to a paste than a potion, so I spoon this one into a mason jar, using a silicone spatula to scrape every last bit from the surfaces of the pan. My inspection this time is significantly more pleasing.

Red Slime Salve

Quality: Low

Traits: Healing item

Description: Red slime that has been refined with water and honey into a salve. Restores 12 HP. Applied topically. Doses: 3

Level up! For making a different kind of healing item, your Talent: Fledgling Alchemist has reached (5/50)!

For reaching your first Talent milestone in Fledgling Alchemist, you have been rewarded applicable stat points to Dexterity, Intelligence, Attunement, and Insight and + 30 XP. In addition, you have been granted the Perk: Porcine Nose.

“Yes! This is a step in the right direction!” My smile is ear to ear. The actual healing quantity may be worse overall, but the HP restore is up and I can increase that with time and effort. Curiosity burning, I check my new Perk. ‘Perks’ Giving my nose a feel to make sure I don’t actually have a pig nose now.

Perks:

Branching Mana

Description: Mana has burned you, but you survived this ordeal and are stronger for it. MP pool increased by 10, +10 total mana per level up.

Porcine Nose

Description: Your olfactory sense is greatly enhanced, you can now easily distinguish individual smells and have a unique talent for finding alchemical ingredients. Higher Insight levels will allow for distinguishing of positive and negative benefit ingredients. Insight increased by 1, + 1 Insight per level up.

‘Wow, the name is a bit disturbing, but this should be incredibly useful!’ My next plan of action is seeing what my stats are like now.

‘Status’

Status:

Lucas Creo

Age: 22

Race: Human

Status: None

Level: 3

Exp: 221/352

HP: 165/165 (0.55 HP/min regeneration)

MP: 260/260 (0.8 MP/min regeneration)

Strength: 9

Endurance: 11

Dexterity: 12

Intelligence: 13

Attunement: 16

Willpower: 9

Charisma: 10

Insight: 13

Stat points: 10

Two more points of Insight and a level in Fledgling Alchemist work wonders for better methods. My new understanding tells me that I need to use even less water and grind the red slime into a powder and mix it with the honey before boiling it. I was watering everything down too much before.

With my newfound knowledge, I crush up everything and actually manage to find a pestle and mortar to break down the hardened red slime into a powder. In a small bowl, I mix the powder with the honey and it turns a brilliant, glistening red. The red slime honey goes into the pan of boiling water I have ready and I stir until it shifts into a thicker mixture then let it cool.

Red Slime Salve

Quality: Low

Traits: Healing item

Description: Red slime that has been refined with water and honey into a salve. Restores 24 HP. Applied topically. Doses: 3

‘Just those small changes made such a difference!’ With the assistance of my additional Insight and my level in Fledgling Alchemist, I make two more salves before my eyes are heavy and my body begs for sleep. The results of my additional two salves are a 20 HP 4 dose salve when I tried more red slime than honey and an extremely potent 40 HP 3 dose salve when I noticed that each piece of slime had a more or less potent scent. The 2 chunks I picked had the most potent scent I could identify.

A roar from my stomach brings me back to reality, I haven’t eaten all day. Shock runs through me as I remember that I never collected the volley stag meat in the living room. When I want into the room the corpse is mostly bone and hide, but next to it is 5 slabs of meat neatly packed in wax paper with a strange, shiny glyph on it.

Back in the kitchen, I hesitantly peel the paper away from one of the meats. Once the paper is removed the glyph flashes for a moment and is now a dull grey color. The meat looks perfectly fresh, however, and my Porcine Nose confirms it. My equipment is limited right now, but I decide to pan sear the stag meat. Grabbing a frying pan, I use a bottle of olive oil sitting on the counter to prepare the dish.

Dressing the meat with salt, pepper, and thyme from the spice rack, I find some minced garlic in the fridge that still smells fine. With a mix of olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, and garlic, I rub them into the venison to make the flavors soak in. Spreading a little more oil into the pan, I let it start to sizzle and drop the prepared steak in.

With a symphony of satisfying pops and sizzles, the delicious scent of a cooking meal fills the room. My stomach is turning in hunger by the time the steak is a juicy medium rare. Fork and knife in hand, I cut and take the first bite. It’s okay. Could use a little more salt.

Congratulations Lucas Creo! For cooking a perfectly palatable meal, you have obtained the Talent: Fledgling Chef (1/50)! As a bonus for gaining the Talent, applicable stat points have been applied to Dexterity, Endurance, Charisma, and Insight.

“CUHK!” Nearly choking on my food as the message surprises me, I take an uncomfortable swallow. A quick look at my stats tells me that each of the applicable ones has been given 1 more point. ‘Seems that each talent only gives one point in each stat for gaining it.’

My meal is finished in silence and I return upstairs, turning into my parent’s bedroom instead of my own. Mine is still sticky from the slime cleanup and I need to wash everything. Sleep comes to me quick in my exhaustion. My sleep passes by dreamlessly.

Come morning, I wake up to the sun shining through the window, it’s a bright new day. Dancing down the stairs, humming to myself and feeling better about life, I step into the kitchen and make myself a bowl of dry Cheerios, the milk is definitely spoiled now so I empty it out near the forest. The milk jug will be kept as an impromptu potion container after I clean it out.

The Cheerios are dry and unsatisfying but filling enough for now. After breakfast is over, I set up all my potion making supplies again and make two more healing salves. None of the chunks are as potent as the last two I found but I use some stronger scented ones. My work continues until lunchtime, the salves take longer due to the need to cool first, but I’ve made 3 more. I’m running extremely low on honey too, there’s probably only enough for one more salve. The first of 3 came out to be 23 HP 4 doses, the second is 25 HP 3 doses, and the last is 19 HP 3 doses. My supply of the better slime chunks is running low.

First things first then, I need more supplies to make good healing items with. The red slime tastes terrible so I’m much happier with it as a salve. To make more salves I’ll need something I can mix the slime powder with. It seems my only option at this point is to explore the forest around my house for more ingredients. “Prep time let’s go”

Running around the house, I find my backpack and empty it out, it’s just filled with random folders, paper, and other school supplies. Nothing that’s important right now. However, I do keep a small notebook and pencil just in case I need to take notes of anything. “Go big or go home I suppose” Stuffing 3 of my best potions into the bag, I’m taking no chances. A small bit of cloth wrapped around each jar prevents them from clinking together and breaking.

Back in the kitchen, I fill my bag with various plastic containers to hold ingredients in. Tromping into the living room, I find my anchor still laying on the ground, covered in blood. A quick wipe down with some water and a washcloth remedies this. Swinging the anchor over one shoulder, I head out the backyard into the forest, relying on the fact that I can smell ingredients with my Porcine Nose all over the place.

Taking a large inhale once I’m at the treeline, I head towards where I can smell a sweeter, fruity aroma. When I arrive at the source of the scent, it’s a bush filled with berries that look like a raspberry made of blueberries. They have a deep purple color, but a bulbous mass of different round protrusions. Each berry is attached to the bush by a stem coiled like a spring. With a quick inspection, I learn what they are.

Clustersprings

Quality: Low

Traits: Unknown

Description: These purple berries may look like a large cluster of individual berries, but they are actually each a single berry. They are well-liked for their sour-sweet flavor.

Interested, I open my backpack and fill one of the containers I brought with me to the capacity with the clustersprings. Moving on, I take another sniff and follow the scent trail through the forest once more. During my walk, I see even more interesting Construct augmented species, as well as some one would expect to see to see in a fantasy forest.

There’s a small garter snake whose scales shift like a kaleidoscope, a few bumblebees fly by with mini tornadoes around their stingers, and I even think I catch a glimpse of a goblin in the distance, it has green skin, completely pitch black eyes, a long, crooked nose, sharp, yellowed teeth, and ragged claws on each fingertip. I hide from it until I’m sure it’s gone.

Eventually, I arrive at my targeted scent, inhaling the somewhat floral aroma. It’s a cluster of flowers that look like lilies of the valley, except their bell-shaped petals are red. ‘Inspect’

Sweetkiss Chimes

Quality: Low

Traits: Unknown

Description: These bell-shaped flowers chime in the wind, producing a quiet melody that eases the mind and soothes the body.

At that moment, a small wind blows by and the flowers chime, producing a twinkling melody and instantly I feel more at ease with the world. Fortunately, I prepared in advance. Taking an empty mason jar out of my bag, I scoop up some of the flowers by digging the dirt under them. I transfer this section to my jar, seal it, and store it away.

The wind blows once more, and on it, I catch the scent of something… familiar, but also a sharp, coppery odor. The scent of blood.