Chapter Six: Gathering Information

Walking into the general store, Kaze looked around. There were various items on display such as tents, dried food, silverware, and much more. Basically the store was selling any item that was essential to normal, everyday life. He took the next minute to fully look around before heading to the front of the store. As he walked there, he noticed a bearded man waiting at the counter. This must be the Chris that Tharja told him about. Before he could say anything, the man in front of began to speak.

“Hey, what can I do for you?”

Kaze took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking.

“I was wondering if I could sell a few things here.”

Tharja had told him he could, but he felt that is was better to ask first. Just to make sure.

“Yeah, you can. Let me take a look at what you got.”

Reaching into his inventory, Kaze pulled out a wooden spear and placed it on the counter. He watched quietly as Chris moved the spear around in his hands and looked at it from various angles. After about a minute of this, Chris placed the spear down and looked at him.

“I’m going to be honest; this spear is pretty low quality. Although I’m pretty sure I could sell it, I wouldn’t be able to sell it for much. Still, it’s not that bad of a weapon.”

Chris rubbed his chin absentmindedly before continuing.

“I’m willing to offer you five copper coins for that spear.”

Kaze immediately agreed to the offer. He had no idea if his spear was worth that much, but as long as he could get money from selling it, he was fine.

“I also have more spears like the one you just bought. I would like to sell those too.”

After saying this, Kaze began handing Chris the spears from his inventory. Each one he gave him was carefully examined before being placed to the side. In the end, he sold twenty two of his twenty five spears. The reason he didn’t sell all of them was because he still needed a weapon to fight with. Plus he wanted to have at least two extra in case something happened to the spear he was using. The spears left in his inventory were also the ones with the highest durability.

The total money that he received for selling these spears was one hundred copper coins. The reason he got this much was because he was given less money for the spears with extremely low durability. That was fine with him since he didn’t want them anyway. After putting the coins in his inventory, Kaze moved on to the next thing he wanted to sell.

Reaching into his inventory, Kaze pulled out the small dagger he started with and one Frogera leg. The dagger was no longer necessary since he had a spear, and he wanted to see how much the Frogera leg was worth. Once he found out its price, then he would decide if he was actually going to sell it rather than eat it. Kaze waited patiently as Chris examined the two items before speaking.

“I can give you two copper coins for the dagger and three coins for the Frogera leg.”

The price was acceptable for the dagger, but he didn’t know how he felt about the price for the Frogera leg. Not only was it not that common of a drop, but it was the only other food he had. In the end, Kaze sold the dagger and kept the Frogera leg. Keeping the Frogera legs would save him money in the end, since he could just eat that instead of buying food.

Once he finished putting all of his money into his inventory, Kaze left the shop. Although some of the items on sale looked useful, he didn’t buy any of it. Even though he had gotten quite a bit of money from selling his loot, he would need that money for buying alchemy tools. He wouldn’t be staying in this village forever, so he needed a way to make potions while he was traveling. Thanks to Tharja, he had a place to buy it. Now all he needed was the money.

As Kaze walked out of the general store, he glanced up at the sky. The sun was starting to set and in a couple of hours it would be dark. He had read somewhere online that some monsters would only come out in the dark. He wanted to see this for himself so he made a mental reminder to go into the forest after dark. Although it would be more dangerous, he felt that the reward was worth the risk. The only monsters he had seen were Frogeras, and he was interested to see what other monsters were like.

Another thing he had to be careful of was exhaustion. Similar to how he needed to eat, Kaze also needed sleep. He could go without sleep for a few days, but doing that would soon take a toll on him. The longer he didn’t sleep, the more tired he would become. This effect would keep on stacking up until he would randomly fall asleep whenever he was awake. And if you were in the middle of a battle when this happened, the results would be disastrous.

One thing that was nice was that you didn’t actually have to really sleep if you didn’t want to. You could just lie down in a bed, close your eyes, and then log out. Depending on how much time you were logged out for, your character should be well rested by the time you got back on. You were only recommended to do this if you slept in an inn though. Monsters could still kill you when you were inactive, and it would suck if you logged back in, only to realize that you were killed while you were gone. Different races also required different amounts of sleep, so it would be interesting to see how much sleep his race needed.

Stepping inside the alchemy store, Kaze took a moment to wave hello to Tharja before heading downstairs. It seemed he would be on his own once again, seeing as how his alchemy teacher had customers to attend to. He didn’t mind though, since you could only go so far with someone teaching you. In order to fully learn something, you needed to experiment on your own and learn from your mistakes. And that was something he planned on doing.

Once he was in the alchemy lab, Kaze walked over to the workstation he was at last. As he walked there, he took a brief glance around the room. Like the last time he had been down here, there were various objects and tools situated around the room. Some of the shapes were quite bizarre and he wondered what they were for. He had a feeling that they were for alchemy, seeing as how they were in an alchemy lab. But what could be created with these tools was still a mystery to him. Only when he had mastered making potions, would Tharja allow him to move on to the next phase of being an alchemist.

Reaching into his inventory, Kaze placed the herbs he had on the counter. Sadly the only herbs he had were the same ones last time. He hadn’t found any new ones. He didn’t know if that was because of the location he was in, or if he just wasn’t looking in the right places. Still, it was hard to search far and low for herbs when a monster could be just around the corner.

Although Kaze could make all of the potions he knew with the herbs he had, his main focus would be on creating health and paralysis potions. The health potions would be useful when he was low on health, and the paralysis would help against higher leveled enemies. The stamina potions and the poison potions were nice, but the other two were more important. He would still make all of the potions, but he would focus more on the health and paralysis potions rather than the stamina and poison ones.

Grabbing two Rialo and one Metriun, Kaze placed them in a mortar and began grounding them. Once they were sufficiently grounded, he poured the mixture into a nearby vial. After doing this, he placed it on a burner and set it to the specified heat. After waiting two minutes, he removed the vial from the heat, gave it a little swirl, and put a stopper in it. He then repeated this process multiple times until he had a total of twenty health potions.

This was what his best health potion looked like when he was finished:

Potion of Health Restoration Description: A health potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It restores a tiny amount of health. Effect: Restores 30 HP

It only healed thirty health points, but that would have to do. Until he raised his alchemy level higher or got better ingredients, he didn’t think his potion effects would get that much better. Kaze placed three of these potions on a nearby counter before putting the rest in his inventory. These three potions would be for Tharja in return for allowing him to use her lab. It was a pretty good deal, now that he thought about it.

Grabbing one Ylose and one Thistleclaw, Kaze began the process of crafting a paralysis potion. The process was basically the same as the one he used when making health potions, but with a few differences. One of the differences was how he grounded the materials, and the other was how hot the burner was. If he messed up either of these, then the potion would be a failure.

A little while later, Kaze had finally finished crafting twenty paralysis potions. He was quite glad that he had gathered as many herbs as he did. He was fine with gathering them in the forest, but the trip to the forest and back to the town was quite time consuming. If he didn’t want to waste all of his time traveling, then he needed to gather the herbs in bulk. It might seem tedious then, but it would be worth it later.

Potion of Paralysis Description: A paralysis potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It caused paralysis to whoever it hits for a few seconds. Effect: Paralyzes opponent for 5 seconds [Effect varies depending on level of opponent]

This was what his best paralysis potion looked like. Most of the other ones only paralyzed his opponent for four seconds, but once his alchemy skill leveled up, the effect of his created paralysis potions increased. Sadly, he was only able to create one more like this before he had to stop. He had to save some of the remaining herbs for the other potions after all.

Like last time, Kaze placed three of the paralysis potions on the counter before putting the rest into the inventory. Once this was done, he began crafting stamina potions. Sadly he was only able to create ten of these, due to not having enough Ylose to use. He would need to remember to gather more of the herbs that were in more than one potion.

Potion of Stamina Restoration Description: A stamina potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It restores a tiny amount of stamina. Effect: Restores 30 SP

Similar to his health potion, his stamina potion restored thirty stamina points. Due to how little he had, Kaze only place two on the counter before putting the rest in his inventory. After doing this, he started creating his poison potions. A few minutes later, he had a total of twenty four poison potions. He would’ve had more, but sadly some of the mixing failed and he lost the ingredients he had put into that particular potion. Holding one of the poisons in his hand, he took a good look at its effect.

Potion of Prickly Poison Description: A poisonous potion made by an inexperienced alchemist. It poisons whoever it hits for a few seconds. The person hit by this potion will feel a painful prickly sensation across their body. Effect: Poisons opponent for 7 damage over a period 5 seconds

Thanks to his increased alchemy level, Kaze’s poison potion now did seven damage instead of the five it used to do. Now that might not seem like a lot, but this was damage over time. So before, he only did a total of twenty five damage, but now he did a total of thirty five damage. The ten more damage that he gained would be very useful, seeing as how higher leveled enemies that he was bound to fight, had more health than lower leveled ones.

Since he had quite a few of the poison potions, Kaze placed four on the counter instead of the usual three. By doing this, he would make up for only placing two stamina potions on the counter. Once the potions were placed neatly on the counter, he stuck the rest of them into his inventory. The only plants that he had left were Feroku and Metriun. Sadly these two couldn’t be combined so he would just have to wait until he gathered more herbs before he would be able to use them.

Thanks to all of the potion making he had done, his alchemy had gained a few levels.

Alchemy Description: Allows the user to combine different ingredients together to make something new. 5% chance of created substance having better effects that normal. Skill Type: Passive Skill Level: 3 (72%)

After looking at his skill, Kaze closed the blue box and grabbed a couple of nearby vials. Once they were in his hand, he walked over to the sink and began filling them with water. Once they were filled, he placed a stopper on top of the vial, and placed it in his inventory. He repeated this process a few more times until he had a decent bit of water filled vials in his inventory. The reason he did all of this was so he could save money. If he had these vials in his inventory, he wouldn’t need to buy any water.

Straightening up the workplace, Kaze headed upstairs. Taking a quick look around to make sure there weren’t any customers, he began to speak.

“I put some of the potions I made on the counter downstairs for you. I also made some money from selling monster loot, and I was wondering if it would be enough to buy some alchemy tools.”

He hadn’t had enough money to buy anything last time, but he had quite a bit of money now. Using Tharja’s tools was nice and all, but he wanted alchemy tools of his own.

“Thanks for the potions. I’ll go down and look at them later. How much money do you have?”

Kaze took a brief glance at his inventory before responding.

“One hundred and twenty seven copper coins.”

Tharja nodded her head and slowly got up from her seat. Stretching out her limbs, she went into a nearby room for a few minutes before coming out with a big box. Placing the box on the counter, she looked at Kaze before speaking.

“This right here is a beginner’s alchemy set. The reason I didn’t have it in the front is because not a lot of alchemists come to the shop. The people that do come only want potions and the like. They like what they do, but they don’t want to waste their time making their own. I’m not complaining though, more money for me.”

Tharja popped her neck before continuing her speech.

“This set cost a total of one silver. Inside it is a mortar and pestle, a funnel, a portable burner, thirty durable flasks, thirty fragile flasks, and thirty normal flasks. The stoppers for these flasks are also in the box. So, do you still want to buy it? I know it’s a bit expensive, but trust me, it’s worth it.”

Nodding his head, Kaze converted one hundred copper coins into a single silver coin and handed it in to Tharja. He had figured out how to do this a few seconds ago when he noticed a strange icon by his copper coins. When he had clicked it, he had lost one hundred copper coins and gained one silver coin. This was nice since he doubted Tharja would enjoy him handing her a hundred coins.

Grabbing the box and shoving it into his inventory, Kaze turned back towards Tharja. He had a couple of question he needed answered, and who better to ask than his alchemy instructor?

“Do you know where I could find a place to sleep? I don’t believe you mention this village having an inn when you showed me around.”

“Yeah, since our village is not that big, we don’t have an inn. Yet. The other villagers were talking about making one, but we would have to wait and see how many more newcomers we get. Recently we’ve been getting a good bit of travelers coming through, but not enough to make an inn.”

Tharja slowly nodded to herself before continuing.

“If you really need a place to sleep, you can just ask a villager and I’m pretty sure they will let you spend the night at their house. We’re all pretty friendly, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to find somewhere to go. Hell, if you really need it, you can spend the night at my place. This is a special deal only for you, seeing as how you’re my apprentice. Other people will just have to find a different place to stay at.”

A small grin appeared on Tharja’s face at his surprised look. Could you blame him for being shocked? In real life this would never happen. People would toss you out onto the streets before letting you inside their home. No one just did good deeds where he was from. There was always an ulterior motive. Even though he was shocked, it was kind of nice to see a village this nice. It was different and refreshing, to say the least.

“I might take you up on that offer. I plan on staying up late hunting though, so I don’t know if that’s going to be a problem.”

“It shouldn’t be since I stay up pretty late myself.”

“Okay, thanks. Where do you live again?”

Tharja looked at him in confusion before responding.

“The shop? Did you not realize I lived here? Someone has to watch over the store at night, and living here solves that problem quite well.”

Nodding his head, Kaze thought about what he had learned. It did make sense that someone would need to watch over the store at night. Thieves might come and rob the place if no one was there. He just assumed his alchemy teacher lived elsewhere. Huh, that would teach him to make assumptions.

“If you’re not here before I go to bed, I’ll leave the door unlocked. Then when you come, all you have to do is walk inside and lock the door behind you. Also before I forget, let me show you the room you can sleep in.”

Walking into the back with Kaze in tow, Tharja began pointing out the different rooms. There were a couple of rooms in the back of the shop such as a storage room, bathroom, and a couple of bedrooms. Most of the bedrooms were filled with various items and clutter, but there were two that seemed relatively clean. Tharja pointed to one of them and told him that this was his room. Taking a step back, Kaze took a brief glance around to memorize where his room was. It wasn’t that hard, seeing as how the alchemy shop wasn’t that big.

Tharja’s room was only a few steps away from his. She told them that if he ever needed anything, just knock. If she didn’t answer, just open the door and see was she was doing. This was because whenever she started reading, she had a habit of zoning out and focusing entirely on the book that was in her hand. Because of this, she usually didn’t notice if someone knocked on the door.

Once she finished showing him around, Tharja and Kaze walked back to the front of the shop. Sitting in her seat behind the counter, Tharja waited for Kaze to speak.

“Are there any tasks or quests that need to be done in the village?”

The last quest he had done had been completed a while ago, and he wanted to know if there were any more. Although the herb gathering quest was fine, he was hoping for one that was a little more exciting.

Tharja took a few seconds to think before responding.

“You would have to ask around. I know bigger villages have boards where the put up tasks that they want to be accomplished, but since our village is still so small, we don’t have one yet. We have plenty of monsters around though. So if you were bored just kill a few of them to pass the time.”

Nodding his head, Kaze let out a small sigh. It seemed that there weren’t that many quests in a village as small as this one. Even though that was so, he didn’t regret starting here. Everything happens for a reason.

“Do you know about any nearby dungeons or places with treasure?”

Since he probably wasn’t going to get any quests, Kaze needed something that was bound to be exciting. Alchemy was nice and all, but sometimes he wanted to do something different.

“I don’t know any places with treasure but I do know of a dungeon. However I would recommend that you get stronger first before going into it. Actually, as a matter of fact, until you get stronger, I’m not telling you about the dungeon. I don’t want you getting accidently killed after all. ”

Kaze understood where Tharja was coming from, but he still wished that she would’ve told him where the dungeon was. He would’ve only taken a quick peak at it. At the first sign of danger he would’ve ran…probably.

“Do you have any tips for getting stronger?”

“I actually do. Deep in the forest is a giant Frogera that rules over all of the other Frogeras. If you manage to defeat it, you will definitely be stronger. Tell you what, if you defeat it, I’ll give you the location for the dungeon and I’ll give you a recipe for a new potion I created.”

Kaze immediately agreed to the proposal. He would have to be a fool not to. Once he did, a blue box appeared.

[Quest Accepted!] Defeat the giant Frogera! (Quest) Description: Tharja the alchemist has assigned you to kill a giant Frogera in return for information about a dungeon and a recipe for a potion. Rewards: Information about a dungeon and a potion recipe. Failure: No information about the dungeon.

“I would also recommend getting someone to help you fight the boss. Normally I would think you would do just fine, thanks to all your potions, but the giant Frogera has a lot of minions. Even though they are weak, they still might be able to take you down with their numbers. Still, it’s your decision. Just don’t die. You’re my first apprentice after all and I would hate to lose you so soon.”

After talking with Tharja for a while, Kaze headed out. Thanks to the talk they had, he had managed to get himself a quest. His only concern was with how he was going to go about it. Tharja had said that he would probably need help, but he didn’t know if that was true. He would need to at least get a look at the boss to see how strong it was. If he could take it on by himself, there would be no need to ask someone for help.

Once Kaze was outside, he headed towards the forest. It seemed that he had spent quite a while talking to Tharja, seeing as how it was getting dark. The town had light posts in various locations, so he was able to see where he was going. The forest didn’t however. If he wanted to fight the monsters that only came out at night, he would have to venture in the darkness. Was it going to be dangerous? Probably. Still, Kaze wouldn’t let that stop him. He had monsters to kill.

AN: Thanks for reading! If you have any skills you would like Kaze to have, post in the comments and I'll look at them. There's no guarantee that I'll use them, but there is always a chance I might.