Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler : Brenton started DIVE. He accepted a quest from the alchemist, and learned Herbology while completing it.

Sorry guys, I mixed up what I wanted from vitality and endurance. The stats window earlier should have said Endurance not Vitality. I fixed it now though.

Voice realized he hadn’t checked his inventory yet. He said “Open Inventory.” He only had his starter clothes, which gave no defense or stat bonus, and a loaf of bread.

The first place Voice decided to look is around the fountain. Since the green healing herb description said it was found around water that should be a good place to look. As he walked there he noticed several common weed. The stuff was everywhere.

I guess they don’t call it common weed for nothing.

He picked up the common weed, but the stem broke as he lifted it out of the ground.

Failed to obtain common weed.

Obtained broken common weed.

Well, I guess this might be harder than I thought.

He quickly located another common weed and tried to dig in the ground around it; he pried the entire root system out along with the stem and head.

You have obtained common weed.

Learned Skill Gardening

For successfully harvesting a small plant you have learned the gardening skill.

You have gained 1 wisdom for thinking of a way to harvest plants without the gardening skill.

You have gained 1 dexterity from harvesting a ‘difficult’ plant.

“Identify Skill: Gardening.”

Gardening.

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

By delicately removing a plant from the ground you have obtained the gardening skill.

Each level in gardening provides a 1% chance to obtain at least two ingredients from a single low level plant. For every rank you increase your gardening skill you will be able to harvest better plants, and have a chance to harvest more from each plant.

To level this skill you must successfully harvest any plant harder than effortless.

Identify Skill has leveled up. Identify Skill is now Novice level 2.

YES!

Voice mentally shouted, while keeping an outwardly calm appearance.

I got stat points! All I did was pull out a weed from the ground! And I got a level up for my skill!

He couldn’t believe how simple it was to get stat points, no doubt it would be harder to level them up in the future, but that was a problem for another day. Add in the fact that he obtained his first level two skill and his happiness could be compared to when he heard he won a DIVE pod.

For now I’m going to gather all of the common weed and green herbs I can.

In thirty minutes he gathered six dozen weeds. Most of them broke at first but in the last ten minutes he only broke one out of the ten he picked. He had obtained a total of 30 useless common weeds, and forty two usable ones. This exercise netted him a whole three points of dexterity. It had rapidly increased at first, but he hadn’t seen any improvement in the last fifteen minutes. His gardening skill seemed to level up with every weed he pulled.

He went to the fountain where he first appeared. The other four players had all disappeared from the area. He went to work trying to find the green healing herb. He could only find two around the entire fountain. He was sure he had seen more here when he first appeared.

Hm, maybe one of the others got the same quest?

He took out the green healing herbs and intently studied them. Even with his identify skill he didn’t gather any information. Since he couldn’t find any more of this plant he focused on what he knew about the plant. All he really knew was that it grew near water. He just needed to somehow locate it.

He looked around the areas he found the original two plants. Each on had a small mound of dirt where he pulled them up. He did notice, however, that the dirt around each of the mounds was a slightly lighter color than the rest of the area.

You have gained 1 wisdom for thinking of a way find plants without the plant location skill.

You have gained the plant location skill.

Plant Location

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 50.00%

By studying the area around a plant you have gathered you can now use this skill to locate the plant. Simply state Locate: and then then plant’s name.

You must harvest a new plant and study the surrounding area to be able to level this skill. Every new plant you gather and study will be added to the list of searchable plants.

You see a bright white aura that will show you the location of this plant, the timer is set for sixty seconds. Cooldown: 0 seconds. The higher the level the larger the range and brightness.

“Locate: Green Healing Herb.”

Suddenly about three meters away he saw several white glows pop up. He went over to where they were, it was a small almost imperceptible pond. There were five glows around the pond. He successfully harvested all of them.

He used the next half hour to locate several green healing herbs. By the time he was done he had four dozen usable green healing herbs, and only nine useless ones, as well forty three more common weed, and six useless common weed.

“Open inventory.”

He separated the useless herbs and weeds, and put all the usable ones together. He still had several hours before he needed to return to the alchemist so he decided to continue to gather the herbs and weeds until just before he was required to turn the quest in. After several hours had passed he received a notification.

Time to turn in alchemist quest. If you do not manage to turn in the quest in the next 60 minutes you will fail the quest.

He looked around to get his bearings. He realized he had no idea where he was. He didn’t recognize any of the buildings. The only people that were out were guards; it seemed he was in the residential area. He decided to ask a guardsman for directions. He had been wandering around town for a while, so there was little chance of finding the right place in such a short time.

He ran around for about twenty minutes, stopping only when he needed to catch his breath. He became exhausted, and received an information window.

You have unlocked Vitality.

You have unlocked Stamina.

Saying, “Show stats Vitality and Stamina,” he found out that for running for a long period of time he unlocked a stat that allowed for more stamina. He also unlocked stamina, which would be used for any prolonged physical activity. He decided to run north following the wall since he had no way to know which direction she was in; at least it was better than wandering aimlessly. After running for about twenty more minutes he found a guard, and had increased his vitality by two. He could now run much longer without having to regen his stamina. However the time he needed to completely regen his stamina also increase. His satiety was quickly draining. After only this long of wandering and running he was down to twenty percent.

I guess stamina regen rate is a different stat.

He asked the guard how to get to Susan the alchemist.

“Well,” The guard said slowly thinking, “She’s about an hour walk to the south. You look like you can run so maybe, hmm thirty minutes? You are about as far north as the city gets without entering the castle district.”

Voice was devastated, not only did he spend twenty minutes running in the opposite direction, now he only had about twenty minutes to get there. He thanked the guard and immediately started running south. As he ran he noticed that all of the houses were getting slightly shabbier. Not a lot but traveling directly from one area to another you could defiantly tell the differences in wealth if you looked for it. After fifteen minutes of running full throttle he heard the familiar sound of the blacksmiths hammer.

Finally! I’m almost there!

His lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. His legs felt like they were lead, every step took more power and energy than the last. Every second seemed to last an hour. His sight was starting to darken. He hadn’t noticed it but his stamina had long since depleted, and his health was dropping at an alarming rate. It felt like it took him forever to reach the smithy. At this rate he would fail the quest! He finally reached the blacksmith’s smithy. He ran past it, almost falling to the ground as he waved to the smith. He entered the shop gasping for air.

Susan came over worried. What she saw was some poor boy come running into her shop like he was being chased by a pack of rabid wolves. He was red in the face and couldn’t catch his breath. She couldn’t bear to see someone about to die, especially when she would have to clean up the body and explain it to the guards.

“Oh dear me sir, do you need a stamina potion? Or a health potion?”

Voice shook his head no. After a few moments, when he had caught his breath he said

“I’ve come to turn in the quest.”

Susan looked a little bit sad. “You know I gave you until nighttime. The quest failed several minutes ago.”

NOOOOO! Damn it, I thought I made it! This whole trip was completely useless.

Voice had been too busy trying to get here in time that he didn’t notice the quest failed notification.

“Sorry hun, but I can’t pay if you didn’t fulfill your part of the bargain. You wouldn’t expect me to just give away my potions without charging right?”

Voice understood but felt bitter about it. Stupid alchemist pig! I bet her potions suck anyway. He decided to at least try to recoup some of his loses by selling some of the ingredients he found. He probably wouldn’t get the five copper but at least he would get enough to eat something other than the bread.

Susan agreed. When he opened his inventory to show her the ingredients he had he heard a laugh. Startled he looked up. Susan had covered her mouth with one hand, while the other was holding her wrist.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you. You have 85 common weeds and 48 green healing herbs? No wonder you were late. You must have been lost in your work.”

Voice blushed slightly, not being able to deny it.

“Look,” she continued, “I can’t pay you for the quest but how about I teach you how to make your own potions?”

Voice’s mouth went agape. This was much better than a measly 5 copper. Before he could fully work up the words to reply to her she spoke.

“Of course I wouldn’t think of charging you for these lessons. And if you make something good I might even buy them from you.”

He nodded yes as soon as he could. Over the course of the next thirty minutes Susan instructed him on how to mash up plants to use. He would then have to pour the resultant into water to obtain a potion. Of course if he sifted out any undesirables from the mix before pouring it in water the potion would turn out a much higher quality.

She gave him a large book which as she said “Records any recipes you might find, or buy. It also gave the variations of those potions you might try.”

Brenton was overjoyed. Susan was an alchemical angel; her potions must be as amazing as she is.

He used the only recipe currently recorded in his book. It required one green healing herb leaf and two common weed tufts. It turned out that the white bit at the top of the dandelion look-a-like was one solid piece. Each green healing herb had two leaves on the stem, so each could be made into two potions. He gather the ingredients into four piles. The first pile was the unusable weeds; the second was the unusable herb, and so on. He took two unusable weeds, cut the fluffy top off them, put the stems to the side, put the fluffs in the mortar, and grabbed an unusable green healing herb. He took a leaf off and put it into the mortar. He crushed the compound until it was a paste. Carefully watching where he struck each time. Like this he continued through the entire stock.

His first four potions all turned out horribly, which is fine since he decided to use the ‘useless’ weeds and herbs. He didn’t have the dex to properly grind the green goop. When he poured the unfinished goop into the bottles they would not mix with the water. It was like adding oil to water.

On his fifth try he managed to successfully make the green healing goop, albeit a very poor quality. When he poured it in the bottle he asked for a lid; the alchemist with a slight smile handed him one. He quickly swirled the concoction. When the swirling stopped he got four notices. His dex had been increased by two for correctly mixing and making the potion. His wisdom increased by one for thinking of an inventive way to make the potion and:

For successfully creating your first potion you have learned the alchemy skill.

“Identify Skill: Alchemy.”

Alchemy.

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

By creating your very first potion you have obtained the alchemy skill.

Each level in alchemy provides a 1% bonus the strength and duration of a potion. For every rank you increase your alchemy skill you will be able to make better, and more difficult potions.

To level this skill you must successfully create any potion, more difficult potions give more exp.

YES! More skills, give me more skills. HAHAHAH.

Luckily no one could hear his creepy inner laugh. With this alchemy skill he could harvest the plant and sell potions. Pure profit!

Obtained very very VERY poor health potion.

“Identify.”

Very very VERY poor health potion.

Seriously this is just a really bad health potion. It heals like maybe one hp, that’s it. It is basically useless to even carry around.

Ps. It tastes HORRIBLE.

Is this system making fun of me?

“How much do the glass bottles cost?” he asked Susan.

“Usually two coppers a piece, but for this training they are free.”

“What I meant was after this training. In case I want to buy them to make my own…” His words cut off when Susan suddenly hugged him. She squeezed with strength disproportionate to her body size.

“Oh sorry, sorry. I forgot I drank a strengthening potion earlier.” She said as she noticed his body creaking. “I’m just happy to finally meet someone with enough intelligence to recognize that being an alchemist is so wonderful. Sure everyone comes for potions, but no one wants to learn how to make them. They think making them isn’t as important as killing the enemy. How would they be able to slaughter so many without my potions? I knew you would like it though.”

Sensing it would ruin her good mood, and any possible gain he would get from her he hurriedly agreed. “Whoever said making potions isn’t as important as killing an enemy is sorely mistaken. At least if you could make a potion and came upon some sort of trouble other than a killable monster you could still live long enough to think up a plan.”

For successfully making an npc like you through conversation you have obtained the Charisma stat.

“Good, good. Since I see you becoming good at this and becoming a repeat customer I can sell each one to you for a copper a piece. That’s the same price as I get the materials to make them for.”

He finished using the rest of his useless herbs, and a large part of the useless weeds. When he was done he had six of the very bad potions. By the time he ran out of the bad ingredients he started using the good ones. As he used the plants not labeled *useless* he was pumping out the potions. By the time he realized it he had twenty, and the alchemist was busy writing at the counter.

I guess she lost interest. Can’t say I blame her.

He finished all of the potions; he had made a total of 40 useable potions. Each one healed about 25 hp. His Herbology skill gave this amount a bonus of 2%. So the final potion count was: 1 potion that healed 24 points, 18 potions that healed 30.2 points, 11 potions that healed 32 points, and 10 potions that healed 36 points. He made twenty potions till he had one that healed 36 points. After he made that he used the exact same method to make four more. He made the same hits in the same places, or at least as close as possible. After that he messed around with the method a bit, but eventually came back to the method that made 36 points. He had enough to make 10 more, but only managed with five of them.

When he was done he checked his skills. The alchemist skill was leveling very slowly. It barely had more than 16%, while some other skills would level up after only a few tries at it. During the whole process he gained 2 dex, 1 str, and 1 end. The whole process took him several hours. He had been in this game for at least ten hours now, yet why did he not feel tired?

The alchemist interrupted his thoughts. She had been studying his potions as he was lost in thought.

“Well that is nice. I was expecting more failures, and the potions that turned out well are exceptional. You don’t perhaps know herbalism?” When he nodded yes she continued. “Good, then that makes this even better. I hereby offer accept, hmm actually young man I don’t seem to know your name.” He told her. “I hereby accept Voice0fReason as my apprentice. Along with helping me make potions, he is required to help run the shop. In return I agree to supply glass bottles for potion making for him, at the reasonable price of only 1 copper for five. He may also use the alchemist lab when not in use.”

Voice could only stand in awe. He would get free use of alchemy tools, and be able to buy bottles for much cheaper than anyone else. She showed him the paper she had written. It was a contract for apprenticeship. He immediately signed it with the quill she offered.

You have gained the title Susan’s Apprentice. Anyone in the city of Rand will notice you as her apprentice.

You have gained 10 fame.

Your intimacy with Susan has increased by 25.

After he signed the contract he decided he needed to log out to get some sleep. He bid farewell to Susan, and told her he would be back after running some errands.

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassN/AHealth100Mana100Stamina120Level1Health Regen/Sec1.0Mana Regen/Sec1.2Stamina Regen/Sec1.1Strength11Agility10Wisdom12Intelligence10Endurance11Dexterity18Luck10Vitality12Charisma10Fame10

Skills WindowIdentify Novice Level 1 Exp 50.00%Skill Fusion Novice Level 1 Exp 50.00%Identify Skill Novice Level 2 Exp 50.00%Herbology Novice Level 1 Exp 10.00%Gardening Novice Level 1 Exp 59.00%Plant Location Novice Level 1 Exp 50.00%Alchemy Novice Level 1 Exp 16.70%