by Dakota Krout
Chapter Forty-Three
“Come now, you admitted that you didn't know what this was. You have no way to use it to its full capacity. Sell it to me,” Jake demanded calmly.
“Jake, tell me what it is, or I’m going to take it somewhere else and get it appraised.” Joe replied quickly, reaching out to grab the cauldron.
“All that would achieve is you dying and this vanishing forever into the black market.” Jake slapped Joe’s hand away from the surface of the oversized metal bucket. “Fine. Listen, this is an authentic Morovian-metal cauldron. This… this is a true Artifact. I mean that both in terms of its quality, as well as its historical significance. It provides three functions. First, it cleans and neutralizes itself. Second, it can be used to prepare potions, powders, and pills at any rarity. Third, every millimeter can be set to reach only a specific temperature. This part could be a thousand degrees, and still freeze whatever touches it here.”
“An Artifact?” Joe’s smile lit up the room. Even his most powerful book of rituals was only Artifact-ranked, and it contained war rituals that could starve a nation or reshape the terrain of a huge area. “Those functions seem nice, but they don't seem enough to make something an Artifact…?”
Jake stared at Joe with a flat expression, then let out a slow breath. “This is why you should give this item to me. You having this and wasting time making Novice and Beginner potions would be like a child finding a Radiant Core and using it to reach level ten ahead of their friends.”
“I will explain the functions again, but slower.” Jake held up a single scarred finger. “It cleans and neutralizes itself. Perfectly. I know that you have never seen the sludge that is created when a high-tier potion-making attempt fails, but the setback means days, or weeks, of cleaning. It neutralizes itself. That means that the only things in the cauldron are what you want in there. No dust. No air. Nothing beyond what is needed for the recipe. This alone makes it worthy of being an Artifact. But it still does more. It can prepare any rarity of alchemical goods. Most cauldrons can make potions within a difference of a single tier, meaning that there could never be a possibility of a critical success.”
“Lastly, the perfect temperature control means that the only variables are our own motions and the quality of the goods we put into the cauldron. Knowing exactly what the temperature will be will increase the chances of success for a Concoction by thirty percent.” Jake cocked his head to the side. “Do you know what that means for me? Any idea at all? What do you think my chances of creating a Concoction are, if I use this item to make them?”
“I… I have no idea.”
“That’s right; thirty point five percent.” Jake slowly nodded as if Joe had been the one to speak. “I have a half of a percent chance to create a Concoction naturally. For you, this would bring your chances all the way up to negative twenty-nine percent, since you are at Beginner rank one.”
Joe lunged forward, touched the cauldron, and stored it in his ring. Jake, who had been leaning on it and hugging it protectively, fell to the ground. “It seems that we need a different deal, if we are going to move forward. I’m not opposed to you having this cauldron. But…”
Jake was practically nose-to-nose with Joe as he waited for him to finish his statement. Joe nodded as he thought over the deal he wanted to make. “But… I would need you to become a crafter for my… no. For me directly. I have a land token, and I plan to use it to claim my own lands when we go to the next Zone. We already have a deal that I will bring you along when we create an area for our guild at the next Zone, and we can expand on that.”
“I’ll offer you at-cost for all items I can produce, and half market value for your guild,” Jake offered instantly.
“For at least ten years,” Joe sternly demanded. “Also, I will remain the owner of this cauldron, but you will have exclusive rights to use it so long as you train me properly. I understand that me using it would be wasteful, so I’ll use something else. At the end of that time, we can renegotiate. Deal?”
“Almost.” Jake stared greedily at the ring on Joe’s hand where the cauldron had vanished. “A cauldron like that needs a proper home. You will need to build or buy a Unique or higher alchemy shop. So long as I have that, I am fine with the rest. My goal has always been to become the Alchemical Sage, and this cauldron may be the key to that. Really, it’s too bad that you didn't have this before selecting your new profession. I would have recommended taking something else.”
“No; even ten years is only a small portion of time. I need to know how to support myself fully, though I will happily rely on you when I can.”
“Fair enough.” Jake put out his hand, and they shook on the deal.
Quest updated: Homebrew. Jake the Alchemist has made a new deal with you! Make him a new workshop of at least Unique rarity in the next Zone where you make an outpost, and give him exclusive rights to use your cauldron for ten years. Time limit: 364:23:59:59 Reward: Profession (complete), ‘at cost’ alchemical goods, and first pick on produced goods, for ten years. Failure: Full hatred with Jake and other organizations, and you will be added to a ‘Rob and kill on sight’ list.
Joe blinked as he saw the changes in the quest. He had a year until it failed? He hadn't put that stipulation in! Jake cleared the criteria up hastily. “Now that I know that you have this cauldron, I can only hope that you will work quickly to ensure that I am able to use it. Otherwise, my desire to grow might overgrow my fear of retaliation.”
“I see… in that case, shall we get to work? I’d love to do some training while I’m here.” They did get to work, and Joe winced when he saw how roughly Jake was now treating his cauldron. Before, he had always treated it like a favored child, yet now he was carelessly whacking his whisk against the edges of it like it was a pan he had gotten in a garage sale. “Jake, easy! There is a long time between now and when you get an upgrade; treat your equipment correctly!”
“Hmm?” Jake realized what he was doing and yelped, patting his gigantic green cauldron sheepishly. “Indeed. Well. Let’s get to work.”
Over the next few hours, the two of them created various Trash-tier potions for Joe’s rituals. Only once was Joe able to make a Common-ranked Ritual Strengthening potion.
Ritual Strengthening Potion (Elixir). Adds 1% effect to the main target of a completed ritual.
“Wait, it says that my potion is an Elixir?” Joe looked at the small amount of fluid he had been able to scoop out of the bottom of Jake’s cauldron. “I don’t understand.”
“Oh, you made an Elixir already? You’re progressing exceedingly quickly.” Jake looked at the bottle, and held it up to the light. “Yes, that’s an Elixir, alright.”
“But it’s a potion?” Joe tossed the small bottle into his ring storage space.
“Correct.” Jake pulled out a list titled ‘Alchemy for Dummies’ at the top of the page, and handed it over. “Here is a reference guide. There are three different types of alchemical goods. Potions, powders, and pills. A ‘potion’ is actually a Trash-tier ranking, but it is so common that it became the name for all liquid alchemical goods.”
“In terms of rarity, the rankings go: Potion, Elixir, Draught, Vial, Philter, Tonic, Brew, Ichor, Injection, and finally Concoction. These rankings are used on all alchemical goods. But…” Jake cracked his neck, sharply yanking his head to the side, “A powder is made by taking a potion, distilling and reducing it until all that is left is a powder. The failure rate for this is astronomical, as even a single degree difference can turn a success into a failure. Also, a powder can only be created by reducing a potion two ranks higher than the outcome of the powder.”
Joe listened attentively, then waved at his list. “Then how could you ever make an Injection-rarity powder? That’s not possible?”
“It is, but only by combining powders that have the same potency and composition.” Jake gave Joe points for realizing that issue out of the gates. “Now, if you have a powder and a potion of the same ranking, which do you prefer?”
“Correct. Now, as for pills…” Jake shook his head. “The difficulty rises to an entirely new level. You need to combine powders of variable strength and effect in order to make a pill. I have never seen a recipe for a pill that reaches above the ‘Vial’ rank. In fact, I only know for certain that higher pills exist, because the King once gave a Philter-ranked - or ‘Rare’ rarity, if you go off the general rarity rankings - pill to a war hero, once upon a time. Part of the reason I want to go to a higher Zone is that there will be a higher chance of finding recipes that will allow me to increase my abilities.”
Their conversation lapsed, and Joe focused on increasing his alchemical abilities once more. By the time he left the shop, he had increased his Ritualistic Alchemy skill to Beginner three. Even though it was only two ranks for over six hours of work, Joe’s eyes were shining. He had even been able to make a Basic Ritual Strengthening Elixir that increased the effects of a ritual by five percent! That was a five hundred percent increase over his first success! They had even accidentally added too much liquid silverleaf to an attempt and made an Elixir called ‘Ritual Draught’.
The draught, when added to a ritual, would make the entire ritual into a liquid. The ritual, though fully prepared, would pause activation until the liquid was swallowed by someone. The best part? The target was set by drinking the ritual, so it was a perfect way of making food-related traps or things of a similar nature. They had spent over an hour attempting to replicate the potion, and now had a working recipe.
Of course, there was a trade-off for these Elixirs; they would only work on rituals at the same rank. That meant that these were only compatible with Beginner-ranked rituals, but… Joe sighed happily as he arrived home and placed the potions for sale in the Grand Ritual Hall. “It’s a start.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Joe had started getting into a good routine again, and there had been no signs of an incoming attack. He and his team had managed a few more quests and test dungeon runs, and now that the curse on Alexis had been broken, team cohesion was moving slowly but surely higher. Three days had already passed, and Joe had managed to pull in another eight thousand experience, reaching level eighteen. During this time, the guild had been working to gather building materials and everything else that was needed to create a shop, while the public opinion of the Wanderer’s Guild had continued to drop steadily.
This made it harder to purchase goods, of course, and it had subsequently slowed down many other aspects of their plan to rapidly base-build. For Joe, though, it had been a golden time for skill progression. He had been able to meet with the Master Enchanter early, had pushed his understanding of enchanting to Novice nine, and was just shy of being able to break into a new tier. Joe’s teacher had informed him that bottlenecks were common, and the best way to push through them was to succeed at making something at the tier he was striving for.
Joe sighed deeply as he forced himself off the floor. His last try at his current ritual attempt had destroyed half of his Exquisite Shell and had embedded him in the wall of the salt mine where he practiced. There was a good chance that if he made them in the Grand Ritual Hall, he would succeed. There was an equal chance that he would damage a lot of other research that was in progress, and he didn’t want to take that risk. Not when the results had continued to be so interesting.
Big_Mo was certainly running down the path of a Blood Ritualist; Joe had no doubt that the class existed. The man seemed to be fascinated by discovering the myriad uses of blood, and had even started conducting research into Ritualistic Alchemy on his own. His ritual designs were secret, to anyone except Joe, who helped him to refine them. Joe also guided them away from anything truly dark; so the rituals tended to be more in line with buffs and healing effects.
Hannah seemed to be following the path of a Macro Ritualist, with her focus being on terrain shaping and terraforming. Joe wasn't able to offer much in the way of designing the rituals, but he was able to smooth out some errors. Taka was going the opposite route, attempting to find the smallest things that could be changed. He had been fascinated by the ritual that transformed water into fire, and he seemed to be following his original plan of being a magical gunslinger. He had shared that he was planning to use rituals to densely enchant projectiles, which was the main reason that firearms were useless currently. There simply wasn't enough space on bullets to embed enchantments that could pass through magical defenses.
As for Kirby… she still wanted to be an evil overlord. Joe shook his head as he remembered her most recent ritual design, which was supposed to be a defensive ritual that blinded people with constant light. His head was swimming from the recent impact with the wall, so he sat on the salty floor and recalled their conversation.
“Kirby, you realize that you incorporated sections of the water conversion ritual here, right?”
“Yes!” Kirby had excitedly exclaimed. “With the refractive quality, no matter where people look, the light will be right in their face!”
“Oh, Kirby.” Joe had chuckled at her falling expression. “This is an effective, well-made ritual… which makes rainbows. Just rainbows. If it helps, they would be rainbows that you could see at night, or use to light up an area. If there are things like sporting events or concerts, this is something they would love to have. But, this is a lifestyle ritual, a tool of beautification. It is certainly not going to be effective in battle.”
“There’s no way to… I don’t know, make it into a laser?” Kirby pleaded even as Joe shook his head ‘no’, and she sighed deeply. “Next time, for sure!”
That memory brought a smile to his face, and reminded him that sometimes his own failures would achieve unexpected results: such as the Ritual Draught. He hadn't been trying to make it, but he was glad he had. Joe even had a term for this sort of success: ‘Failing Upward’. Joe pulled himself out of his thoughts and stood up, salt running off of his Exquisite Shell as he did so. “Time to be like Kirby! I have a goal, and I didn't get there. Next time… I will!”
After saying his words out loud and only getting an echo in reply, Joe approached the smoking crater that remained from his previous attempt and inspected the mess as well as his notifications.
Accessing ritual ‘Featherfall’… accessed. Attempting to implement combined enchantment ‘Proximity Activation’ and ‘isFalling’… variables are outside safe parameters.
Caution! Spell instability at 127.69 percent, mitigated by 58% personal spell stability to 69.69%. Heh. Spell instability has taken hold. System recommendation: run.
Joe groaned as he looked over the notifications. The time from the appearance of the first letter to the magic going out of control had been under a single second. “How the abyss am I supposed to fix a non-stable ritual if I don’t get a chance to move? I-”
He stopped and closed his eyes. When he opened them, Joe pulled up his skill sheet and read a line out loud that he had forgotten about. “‘However, with Ritualistic Forging, you are able to create helpful items, totems, and eventually pylons that will aid in creating a stable environment for your rituals’. Of course I am able to do that. And, oh look, the skill is at Novice one.”
If he had been in his room, and not in the bottom of a salt mine, he would have given up and flopped into bed. Instead, Joe pulled out his ritual design and went over it once again. His eyes flew back and forth, and after a few minutes, he still hadn’t found a single mistake with the design. “If the design is correct, then the problem must be with the execution. It looks like I only have a thirty percent chance of making this ritual work right now… so. What can I do? Why am I talking to myself? Mate, come here, please.”
His coffee elemental bubbled up and roiled around on Joe’s arm for a moment, then seemed to focus on Joe. It was hard to tell for sure, since Mate’s eyes were coffee beans, but it se
emed to be starting at Joe and waiting. “Alright, Mate. I have two choices. Figure out how to increase spell stability, or get to a higher level in enchanting and brute-force it.”
Mate didn't speak, though Joe swore that he had heard the creature speak before. Still, his beans seemed to be full of admiration; not only for Joe, but also for the idea that Joe should look into forging if he were going to go after his current pursuit. Joe smiled at Mate in reply, and soon the elemental vanished once more. Joe shook his head and felt like he was waking up. “Did I figure out how to read the emotions of coffee? Is that a thing?”
He didn't set out right away, instead taking the time to recreate his ritual, as well as spending a half hour carving out the Runes and geometric patterns necessary for the two Novice-ranked enchantments that he was trying to use in the ritual. Those were interesting to see, as they went between the ritual circles. Standard ritual circles contained everything on the lines of the circles themselves, and in comparison… Joe thought that ritual circles combined with the enchantments just looked cooler. He was glad that he was learning and gaining new abilities, even if the time and resource cost was high.
After everything was perfect except for the spell stability, Joe started skipping out of the cave system. If anyone came across the ritual, they would likely leave it alone. If not, it would explode and kill them. Almost a guarantee. If it didn't explode… Joe would thank them profusely. All in all, a safe bet. For him.
Joe had high hopes for his Ritualistic Forging skill, for multiple reasons. One, there were many more people that he could get to teach him. There were Expert-ranked smiths practically all over the place, especially in comparison to alchemists and enchanters. Two, he knew that there were going to be smiths that could train him within the area-of-effect of the Pathfinder’s Hall. This meant that he would be able to benefit from the increased skill gain in the area, so this should be one of his fastest-growing Ritualist skills; at least at the start.
