Searching through the garden, I make myself familiar with all the new ingredients we have access to. Colt has apparently been collecting a lot more plant variants than I realized.

There are familiar plants such as vitaleaf, magetongue, fleetchute, and sweetkiss chimes. Blowing on some of the white, bell-shaped flowers, I take a moment to simply enjoy the delightful tone.

Picking a few of the flowers, I store them away as I’ll want them for catalyzing potions to improve their effects. Taking some vitaleaf as well, I move on to further gardening plots.

‘Well, I’m not good at cooking, but maybe some of these don’t have to be cooked?’ Grimacing as I shock myself, I pick a few zingpods off of a vine. ‘This would be a lot easier if I had mana right now…’

Storing the pods away, I continue my exploration. A small portion of my hold slowly fills with familiar ingredients that I’m curious about trying. Grabbing buoyoberries and clusterspring berries, I decide to experiment with making potions out of these instead of cooking them.

‘Now, on to the ones I don’t recognize.’ Walking over to a patch of metallic grey, three-petaled flowers, I pluck one with slight difficulty and Inspect it.

Ferrilium

Quality: Medium

Traits: Ironskin

Description: This plant is capable of creating metal-like plant wall structures to reinforce its natural defenses and protect itself from being foraged.

Plucking two more, I store them away to experiment. Colt made the ironskin elixirs before so I never got to make anything with these.

In the plot next to the ferriliums is a strange, teal, stalky plant that reminds me of the alveoli of the lungs that I’ve seen in various anatomical textbooks throughout my education. They look as if several big, puffy clumps of plant have been mashed together and placed on top a long stalk.

It’s growing inside a tank of water with the clumps floating at the surface.

Poking one, it exhales a puff of air and deflates. ‘Oops.’

The plant slowly reinflates, reassuring me. Inspecting it, my curiosity is assuaged.

Aqueoli

Quality: Medium

Traits: Waterbreathing

Description: This plant harnesses oxygen out of the water to keep itself afloat. By doing so, this plant ensures optimal photosynthesis by being as near to the surface as possible.

“Hey, Lil P, are you okay with tending to this plant? You’re made of clay and it’s in the water so…”

The golem stares at me for a moment after being addressed and walks over to the tank, hopping up and into the water without issue.

After a quick inspection of the plant for any trimming needs, Lil P swims back to the surface and pulls himself out. The clay on his body looks wet but retains its shape without issue.

“Huh, guess the reinforcement enchantments keep you from melting or something. Very well then, carry on Lil P!” The golem moves back to other plots in the indoor garden, giving each plant specialized care.

‘Well, I already have Amphibious Respiration, so making a waterbreathing potion isn’t too useful for me. Moving on.’

The next plot I look at has some dark green leaves coming out from a thick, purple bulb. Deciding to not uproot it just yet, I Inspect it.

Tonion

Quality: Medium

Traits: Heavyweight

Description: This onion is able to increase its weight massively to prevent itself from being plucked out of the ground by scavengers.

‘So, it would make me heavier if Colt made something with it? That doesn’t sound super useful but maybe it will have some kind of application.’ Deciding against picking this onion, as it seems like more trouble than it’s worth, I keep exploring.

The next plant is much more intriguing to me. It’s a leafy plant not unlike the vitaleaf, but with red accents running through the plant as well as gilding the edges of the leaves. My intrigue comes from how potent it smells with Porcine Nose. ‘Inspect.’

Pranaleaf

Quality: Medium

Traits: Regeneration

Description: This plant is able to pull large amounts of Prana, the energy resource of HP, to supplement its own growth. As a result, this rare plant is bursting with life and will grant a large regeneration factor for a short time when eaten.

As I go to pluck some of the leaves off the plant, I feel a poke in my hand that’s resting on the counter. Lil P indicates to the plant, makes an X with his arms, and points to a small slip of paper sitting in the planter.

Picking it up, I note Colt’s neat script.

Lucas, this plant is very sensitive to change and I’m still learning how to cultivate it properly. It’s actually the second of its kind I found, I ruined the first trying to grow it with Fae’s Blessing. Until I can figure out how to make this plant flourish, no touching it.

Colt

Chuckling at the note, I pull my hand back and Lil P walks away. ‘Well, that’s no fun. At least I learned that Prana is like the Mana of HP, so I gained something from this. Not that knowing the name helps me at all.’

The next three plots look like the same plant but in different colors. They all remind me of bell peppers, especially because two of them are simply more saturated-color versions of the familiar vegetable.

Grasping one of the yellow ones, a dull hum of electricity runs through my hands and the hair on my arms stands up on end like I’m building a static charge. ‘I know this one already, Colt told me about it. Bolt pepper. Lightning breath sounds kinda weird but it could be fun.’

Letting go of the pepper, for now, I decide to let it grow more as it looks somewhat small. The gell pepper feels cold to the touch and the flare pepper feels hot. My hold still has a dish of roasted bolt and flare peppers from Colt supplying them to me.

‘I have no idea if me not having mana will change how the peppers affect me, so it might be best to avoid trying either right now…’

A patch of flashfire sprouts in a metal planter brings back memories of burning my hands on them. Seeing as the explosive effects aren’t as strong as my Pyromancy, I decide I’ll only experiment with them at a later time to see if I can make them stronger.

For now, with no way to heal burns, I ignore the plants.

The next plant I come to is strange. Small feather-shaped puffs adorn the horizontally bent stalk of this plant. Small currents of wind appear to be flowing around the feather areas of the plant.

To my surprise, one of the feather-seeds breaks off with the wind current and begins flying around in the room before landing in a patch of dirt. Immediately, the plant starts to take root.

Lil P moves over to where the plant took root and digs it out. He stabs an arm into the seed and it converts into green energy, making him glow for a second.

“Uh, Lil P? What was that just now?”

The golem stares at me before walking around and making gardening motions.

“Oh, that’s how you power your golem core then? I’ll look into ways to help you absorb ambient mana better so you don’t have to do that.”

Lil P simply moves back to tending to plants, satisfied that I understand.

Turning back to the feathery plant, I Inspect it.

Hermes’ Sandal

Quality: Medium

Traits: Swiftness

Description: This feathered plant which resembles winged sandals utilizes air currents to direct its seeds through the air to ensure propagation.

‘Huh, I guess The Construct must just go with similar names to what I might recognize. This name sounds like something out of a gardening book.’

Taking a few of the Hermes’ Sandal seed pods, I store them away. ‘Swiftness potion sounds useful to make.’

Moving on to the next plant, it’s one I vaguely recognize, and it brings back unfortunate memories for me.

Sitting in a trough of detritus and with a small scent of rot is a grouping of simple but large brown mushrooms.

Colossus Mushroom

Quality: Medium

Traits: Strengthening, Growth

Description: These mushrooms cause an increase in growth and physical strength in those they grow on. It is a symbiotic relationship with the host as they will feed off of the host resources.

‘...I wonder if I can make a strengthening potion without the growth. I should ask Cassandra if she uses these for her berserker chews.’

Taking a few of the smaller mushrooms, I stow them away in my hold, deciding to not make anything with them until I can talk to Cassandra.

The next plant I look at is growing on a lattice, not unlike the zingpods. It’s a strange turquoise-colored vine with clusters of 9 pods of the same color growing off of them.

Plucking one off to inspect it, another pod begins rapidly growing back, the other pods shrinking slightly while it does so.

Hydrabeans

Quality: Medium

Traits: Recovery

Description: These bean pods contain the essence of the recovery capabilities of a hydra within them. They can expend some of their own mass contained within the other pods to restore themselves to groups of 9.

The effect of these is quite curious, so I pluck an entire set of 9, storing it away in my hold. There are plenty more clusters of the pods along the vines, so taking one set doesn’t worry me.

Coming to a plant that’s been catching my eye for a while due to how tall it is, I give it a closer look. It appears to be… corn in a husk, but it’s pink. Attempting to peel back some of the husks to inspect the corn within proves difficult even for my Strength stat.

‘What is this bitch made of? Inspect.’

Sheathestalk

Quality: Medium

Traits: Internal sheathe

Description: This cob’s husk protects the seeds within through sheer internal durability of the structures within the husk. Any trying to reach the nutritious corn seeds within will find difficulty in reaching them due to how strongly this stalky plant protects its insides.

‘Now that’s an interesting ability. Maybe if I make it into a potion I won’t break myself as much if it protects me internally too.’

After a few minutes of struggling, I manage to break a cob off of the stalk, deciding to de-husk it later. The husk is probably the part with the essence of this “internal sheathe” that I can distill for a potion. ‘The highly nutritious corn might be useful for feeding the city if we grow a lot.’

The plant I look at next smells strange but potent to me. It’s a large network of plant stems ending in gripping plant-fingers. On a hunch from my Porcine Nose, I Inspect the plant before touching it.

Medusa’s Grasp

Quality: Medium

Traits: Paralysis

Description: This plant produces a potent paralytic agent to protect itself from otherwise opportunistic herbivores. A single touch from this plant can render the predator into prey as this plant latches on and roots itself in the flesh of whatever comes into contact.

A single bead of sweat rolls down my back as I internally thank myself for not touching this plant. Glancing down further, I notice that Colt has put a full-caps DO NOT TOUCH note in the planter for this plant.

‘I’ll have to gather some of this later when I can use magic again, I’m not one for using poisons, but I doubt Becky is above that.’

One planter containing a bush finally catches my interest as I walk up to it. Looking inside the otherwise unassuming mass of rounded green leaves, I find spiky red pods. Each pod looks wickedly sharp.

Going with a look before touch policy after the medusa’s grasp, I Inspect the bush.

Thornshift

Quality: Medium

Traits: Thorns, Grasping, Shapeshift

Description: This predatory plant waits for herbivores to graze on its shapeshifting plant form before latching on with its sharp, hidden pods. These pods pull blood from the prey and store it, feeding this plant until its next meal.

“Hey, Lil P, can you get me some of the pods from this bush?” The golem looks up at me from across the room and points to a bucket sitting next to the planter.

Looking inside the bucket, there are a few of the spiky pods at the bottom. Looks like Lil P has been gathering these as they fall off the bush.

Pinching on to the sides of a spike, I store away one of the pods. While grabbing the next, some of the spikes shift and stab into my fingers.

“Ah, fuck!” Storing it away more angrily, I suck on my finger while I wait for the bleeding to stop. “Stupid plant.”

‘I’m actually surprised that plant could pierce my skin with how high my Endurance is at this point, that’s sharp.’

My HP regen takes care of the damage quickly, however, and I’m back to my exploration of the indoor garden.

There’s one final plant I don’t recognize, some kind of maroon nettle. It has vicious, dark purple spikes poking out from the stem of the plant and the leaves look equally sharp and dangerous.

There are various warning signs around the plant from Colt, so I Inspect it from a respectable distance.

Seething Nettle

Quality: Medium

Traits: Burning Poison

Description: The poisons produced from this nettle cause a severe burning sensation and will decrease HP at a rate of 5 HP per second. Duration of the poison will depend on the physiology of those affected.

‘Very glad I decided against touching things from now on. I’d probably survive it, but that doesn’t sound pleasant… Well, I don’t have any gloves to gather that with so I guess I won’t make any poisons right now.’

Cursing my current lack of magic, I move over the counters to work with what I do have.

“...Shit.”

Realizing my error, I have no way of gathering water for the potions or my Pyromancy to light the stove. There’s a pile of wood next to the stove, which I assume was placed there by Colt.

Leaving the alchemy room and peeking out into the main room of the house from the kitchen, Colt is still gone, likely laying down the foundations for his mom’s house.

“Hey uh, Becky? Could you help me for a moment?”

She looks up from her conversation with Adreanell and Mrs. Kaine. “Is there food involved?”

“No, but I could have Colt make you something later if you help.”

“Deal.” She stands up immediately, pacing over to me.

Waving to Adreanell and Mrs. Kaine before I close the door to the kitchen, they smile at me.

Back at the counter, I turn to Becky. “So, this is kind of embarrassing but… I can’t get any water and I can’t light a fire because I’m still mana burnt. Do you think you could fill this with water for me and start a fire?”

Indicating to a large cauldron that Colt must have put in here, she nods. “Sure, but make sure you tell Colt he owes me more food.” She gestures with one hand and water flows up from the ground outside, coming through the window.

It takes a bit and she’s looking slightly mentally drained but the cauldron of water is full.

“Perfect, now just light the fire and we’re all set here.” While Becky was filling the cauldron, I set up logs in the wood stove, it seems Colt just took the one from my house and brought it here.

“I don’t know fire magic.” Becky buffs her nails on her shirt uncaringly, inspecting them.

“You don’t … That’s fine, I have a Basics of Fire tome that you should be able to learn it from. Let me just…”

About two minutes pass and Becky is looking more and more irritable by the second. “What’s the holdup, Lucas?”

“Nothing! It’s just… cluttered in my hold.”

“It’s like, actually a space like that? Not just some game inventory?” She raises her eyebrows, surprised.

“Yeah, it looks like a ship’s hold on the inside but it’s just so cluttered…”

“What’s cluttered?” Adreanell pops her head in, likely checking up on what was taking Becky so long.

“Oh, my Personal Hold, you know, like your vault?”

“Lucas…” Adreanell pinches her forehead. “Inventory management is a critical component of any game! Life is sort of a game now with The Construct, this is important. Don’t you have auto-sort anyway? It’s kinda weird to get used to at first I know, but once you learn where it sorts everything…”

“There’s an auto-sort?” Looking at Adreanell with surprise on my face, she sighs deeper.

“...Yes, Lucas, there’s a auto-sort.”

Mentally focusing on it, The Construct prompts me.

Internal Storage Perk present: Enable Auto-Sort?

‘Yes.’

Auto-Sort commencing, please wait.

An uncomfortable shifting sensation inside me sends a shiver up my spine. Watching the inside of my hold, all the items inside are shifting around rapidly, forming into organized groups.

Once the process is complete, the items are sorted quite logically to me by categories I would associate them with, such as all the empty potion bottles being next to ingredients.

Looking through the sorted items reminds me that I still have the slime eggs. ‘I’ll need to figure out how to raise them. I wonder if the Construct Shop has an instructional manual or something… Wait, Lucas, focus.’

Finding the Basics of Fire tome, I pull it out and hand it to Becky. Adreanell looks on with her in interest.

Adreanell learns Pyrokinesis faster than Becky, so she lights the stove for me with a Candlelight. They take the book with them, going into the main room once more to show it to Mrs. Kaine as well.

Looking back to the counter, everything is finally ready for some potion making.

Taking out some vitaleaf and sweetkiss chimes, I set to work preparing them. The knives I find in a drawer are from my house as well, I note. ‘Did Colt just pilfer my entire house for this one?’

Chopping up the vitaleaf properly, I gather most of the leaves into a pile. Attempting to use Flourishing Potency, I realize I can’t. ‘Damnit, mana burnt strikes again. Guess I’m using more of these ingredients for one potion than I thought.’

Before I begin putting the leaves and flowers into the pot, I realize I need to use my blood to empower the potions. Looking at the knives in the kitchen, I note they aren’t going to cut it anymore, literally.

Unclipping Argo, he expands to full size and I set him on the counter.

“Argo armed and ready for alchemy!” The anchor chimes happily.

Running my finger down one of the sharpened points at the end of his arms, the viciously sharp Palemetal glides easily through my skin.

“Lucas! I’ve failed! I hurt you!” The anchor sounds deeply depressed by this fact, despite having slammed into my face earlier today.

“...Argo, I just used your sharp edge to cut my finger for some alchemy, don’t worry about it. How about the two of us have a little Anchorist and anchor one on one chat while I make some potions?”

“I would love that, Lucas!”

Smiling at him, I turn back to the pot on the stove.

Allowing a few drops of blood to fall into the simmering water, I suck on my finger until my regen stops the bleeding.

Adding the vitaleaf and sweetkiss chime pieces, I watch as the water shifts in color.

“Lucas! I can’t see the pot! Can you stand me up?”

“Oh, sure thing. Sorry for not realizing earlier!” Shifting the anchor, I lean him against the wall so that his blue golem eye is able to watch what I’m doing better.

“Now I can help!” The anchor falls down, catching on the edge of the pan and flinging boiling water on to me.

“Ahhh fuck!” My skin sizzles but heals just as quickly, the boiling water having shifted into a healing potion as it splashed on me.

“Lucas! Are you okay! Are we under attack?” The anchor slides off the counter, crashing into me on the floor.

Groaning, I push the anchor off of myself and sit up. “Argo buddy, you have to be careful. You burned me there, fortunately with a healing potion but that still fucking hurt!”

The light from Argo dims slightly, making me feel guilty for no good reason. “I’m sorry, Lucas. I’m a bad partner.”

“Oh, no no no, you’re a great partner, Argo! You just… made a mistake is all. Don’t beat yourself, or me, up about it. Just be more careful, okay? You’re a strong, heavy anchor and it hurts when you slam into me like you just did.”

“Lucas! I’m offended you called me fat!”

“Argo, you’re an anchor, you’re supposed to be heavy! I’m not calling you fat!”

“Oh, okay.” The anchor’s easily changing disposition is slightly offputting to me, but I simply pick him up and place him against the wall again.

“Alright Argo, let’s try this once more. You, unfortunately, don’t have actual arms to help me with this, so just watch and learn, okay?”

“I will watch and learn better than anyone has before!”

Laughing at that comment, I fill the pan with water again and return to making healing potions. Two hours pass as I restock myself on healing and mana potions while chatting to Argo. Finishing a stamina potion, The Construct prompts me.

Level up! For refreshing your knowledge and toiling with potion making once more, your Talent: Fledgling Alchemist has reached (35/50)!

For reaching your seventh Talent milestone in Fledgling Alchemist, you have been awarded applicable stat points to Dexterity, Intelligence, Attunement, Insight, and +210 XP. In addition, you have been granted the Perk: Refining Touch.

‘It’s about time I leveled this Talent, it’s been too long. Perks.’

Perks:

Refining Touch

Description: Concentrates and refines specific aspects from source material into a crystallized form. Attunement and Insight increased by 1. +1 Attunement and Insight per level up.

‘Well, this should be helpful.’

Turning to the counter, I grin. “Well, Argo, it’s really time to experiment now.”