by Jamey Sultan
Desi shrugged. “No idea.”
James hesitated. He wasn’t sure whether he should mention his time under the temple, having been burned by trusting people before. He was with his party, though, people he entrusted his life to every time they fought. Desi wasn’t, but he was Arik’s dad and giving them a safe place to stay.
He looked to Arik and Lucien, who hadn’t heard his story yet. “Well, when we were separated, a bunch of priests of Sytar took me deep into the temple where they threw me into a dungeon.”
Arik and Lucien both listened attentively as James spoke. He told them about his dungeon dive, about the chest with the secret tunnel, about the Old Library, just like he had told Nidra earlier. Finally, he got to Ozure.
Arik and Desi let out simultaneous gasps. “Ozure?”
“Yea.” James nodded. “Like the statue we saw in the Outskirts, outside the city gate.” Arik and Desi had both turned pale, and James quirked an eyebrow at them. “You guys okay?” he asked.
Desi rubbed the center of his forehead and took a deep, calming breath. He let out a long sigh. “What I’m about to tell you is ancient Dwarven history. The story of Ozure is a sad one. It involves the fall of the first Dwarven City, a city whose name has been long forgotten.”
James looked at Arik. The Dwarf had mentioned the fall of the city back in the Aqueducts, what felt like so long ago, but he hadn’t told them how the city had fallen.
“Ozure was a prominent figure in the Old City. A master healer, he was—”
“Hang on,” James interrupted, “I thought the Old City fell thousands of years ago.”
Desi nodded. “It did. Anyway, Ozure—”
“Are you saying Ozure is thousands of years old?”
Desi gritted his teeth. “If you listened to the story, you might find out.”
“My bad,” James apologized sheepishly.
“Anyway…” Desi glared at James, “Ozure used to be known as the Bleeding Heart. He was a Divine-level healer who’d reached past the mortal limits to the realm of the gods. Still, he lived in the city and provided free healing for all. People of all races, not just Dwarves, came from far and wide for his wondrous magic. It was said that he could cure any ailment except for death itself.”
Desi paused to take a sip of water then continued, “But one day, tragedy unfolded. A fight between two powerful Sages broke out in the center of the city. One of the Sages cast a spell that created a division through the city. Undead swarmed out by the thousands. People tried to stop them, but nobody was strong enough.” He shuddered. “I can’t imagine how terrifying it must’ve been.”
“What happened?” Nidra prompted.
“Nobody knows where Ozure was when everything started, or how he knew to return, but when he arrived at the city, he found it nearly destroyed. Eyewitnesses claim he rushed straight to the center of the city, toward his family. But when he got there, they were already dead, slaughtered by the army of the undead. In his rage, Ozure destroyed both Sages in an instant. He then cast a spell protecting the city. It created a barrier around the city, ensuring that the dead could not leave. A barrier that still exists today. After that, Ozure was never seen again. Until now.”
“So what happened to him?” James tried to imagine a spell that would last thousands of years. The Mana cost alone must have been staggering.
Desi shrugged. “Nobody knows, but we can guess. From your story, it sounds like he was punished, imprisoned for interfering with mortals.”
“Mortals?” James asked.
Desi gave him a funny look, but before he could say anything, Arik interjected, “Sorry, Dad, James grew up far away. They had different stories growing up.”
Arik turned to James. “Mortals are people like us. Has anyone explained level progression tiers to you?”
James tried to remember Nana’s explanation. “You get a Basic class at level 5, Journeyman at 25, Advanced at 50, Master at 100, Grandmaster at 250, Sage at 500, and Divine at 1000, right?”
Arik nodded with a smile. “Nice memory. Well, when someone hits level 1000, they become Divine. They can no longer die of natural causes. They are on par with the gods in terms of power. But they aren’t gods; they live on the same plane as us mortals and can even interact with us regularly. Most don’t, but a good example of one that does is Sikha the Wise. He’s the leader of the Gnomes and regularly offers wisdom to travelers who visit his court.”
“So then why was Ozure punished? It sounds like Divines are allowed to interact with mortals.”
Arik shrugged. “There are stories upon stories of the gods banding together to punish Divines who go too far.”
James’ mind was spinning, he tried to think of more questions, but before he could, Desi interjected. “So, what happened between you and Ozure?” he asked.
James continued his story, starting from when he entered the library. He told them about the magical surgery where Ozure had removed his Mana core. Something told him to keep Tyrfing secret, so he kept the sword hidden away in his pouch. The room faded into silence when he finished talking. Arik let out a loud yawn and lifted his head from where it had been resting on the table.
“You know what?” Desi said. “We can talk more tomorrow. Let me show you where you can sleep.”
Chapter 13
James dropped the Stinging Bark in annoyance, cradling his burning hand gingerly. It had been two days since they’d arrived at Desi’s place, and the Dwarf seemed delighted to have company.
It had taken a bit of persuading, but Desi had granted James permission to use the alchemy room, so James had spent the last two days lost in Alchemy. At the same time, Desi and Arik worked on a plan to get out of the city. James had wanted to help at first but quickly realized that he was worse than useless. He just didn’t have the background knowledge he needed to help. So, he tried to figure out other ways to help their escape attempt.
Over the last two days, he’d crafted five Weak Health Potions and raised his Alchemy Rank to 10. Once it hit 10, though, it had stopped gaining experience. The Weak Health Potions just weren’t complicated enough.
That was when James had started researching poisons. He’d read through a few books on potion and poison theory and learned that poison and potion crafting were two completely different beasts.
Potions needed to be crafted with precision and accuracy. He needed to use exact measurements and follow the process step-by-step. If he messed up a ratio by the smallest amount, the potion might not work, or it might cause harm. Poisons, on the other hand, worked differently. Instead of listing out recipes, poison books went more into different ways to utilize ingredients to maximize their benefits.
In his mind, James compared potion-making to baking, while poison crafting was closer to cooking. If you messed up the ingredients in a baking recipe, you’d end up with an unusable mess when you were done. At the same time, messing up ingredients while cooking could lead to disaster or genius.
Needless to say, James preferred crafting poisons. He’d never been particularly good at following directions. The book in front of James, Plants of the Serpent Plains, was a thick tome filled with pictures of ingredients, their uses, and different ways to refine them.
Using a pair of tongs, James picked up the Stinging Bark and, trying to be more careful, chopped it into smaller bits before placing it into the vial in front of him. Once he’d finished adding the bark, James used an eyedropper to add three drops of ArcSquid Ink. Each drop fizzed when it hit the bark, eating away at the wood. Soon, there was no trace of Stinging Bark left. James moved the now-violet liquid to a burner, where it bubbled away happily.
He was practicing one of the most basic potion-making techniques, extracting the essence of an ingredient. The process was relatively simple depending on the ingredients available; he just needed to take one ingredient and dissolve it into another ingredient to create a solution. Once he had a solution, James needed to get rid of the solvent—in this case, the ArcSquid Ink. Luckily, ArcSq
uid Ink burned away when exposed to high heat, leaving a mostly pure liquid extraction of the Stinging Bark.
Stirring occasionally, James watched as the liquid in the vial lost its purple coloring until it was mostly colorless. He waited a few more minutes, but there was no change.
James picked up the vial and corked it.
Stinging Bark Extract:
Rank: Common
This extract can be used in a variety of potions. May cause painful welts if applied directly to skin.
You have gained 1 Skill Rank in Poison.
You are now Skill Rank 4.
And it doesn’t even smell.
James shuddered at the memory of his third attempt at a healing potion, which had released a rancid stench that kept him out of the lab for almost three hours.
The Stinging Bark Extract was clear but tinted purple. James knew that meant that he’d probably added a bit too much ArcSquid Ink. He’d have to try again with two drops instead of three.
***
“So, how’s the escape plan going?” Nidra asked Arik. While Arik and his dad had been working on the plan, she’d been practicing combat with Lucien.
It was dinnertime and James had finally finished his potion work for the day. It had taken him a few tries, but he’d eventually figured out the right ratio of ArcSquid Ink to Stinging Bark for a pure extract. Interestingly, when he’d gotten the extract completely clear, it had changed from a Common ingredient to Uncommon, with no other changes in the description.
He wondered if he would see more details if he learned how to upgrade his Death’s Stare Ability. It was still stuck at Rank 1 because he could not figure out how to improve it.
Arik sighed and shook his head. “It’s going.”
They’d already stayed at Desi’s place much longer than they’d intended to, but finding a safe way out of the city was turning into a monumental task. Currently, the entire city was on high alert searching for the Vampire. Guards were constantly patrolling the streets, and nobody was allowed out once darkness had fallen.
“Has there been any progress?” James asked.
“A little bit,” Arik said. “We’re waiting for a reply from a friend who might be able to help us.” He unfurled a heavily marked map of the city and laid it across the table.
James grabbed his glass of water before it spilled and put it on the floor next to his chair.
Arik weighed down the corners of the map with bowls of half-eaten food and gestured toward a section of the city along the edge of the mountain. “Here’s where we are.”
Arik then gestured to three red X’s scattered around the city. Two were on the edge of the Outer Ring, and the last one was in the palace itself. “These are the exits.” He tapped the one closest to them. “This is where we came in; it is guaranteed to be swarming with guards. Then, if we do make it through, we’d need to take the abandoned aqueduct back.”
He pointed to the second one. “This one leads into the Old City. It won’t have as many guards, but, as we talked about earlier, the Old City is swarming with undead.”
Arik pointed to the last mark. “Finally, we have an exit in the palace. This is where the few tradesmen are allowed to exit to sell their goods to Humans. It is a closely guarded secret, and few people know where it leads to.”
“So, which one are we taking?” James asked.
“Right now, our plan is to take the Old City exit. We’re waiting for a response from someone who might be able to smuggle us out through the palace exit, which would be much safer.”
“Who would that be?” Nidra asked. “Are you sure we can trust them?”
“Don’t worry,” Desi said before Arik had a chance to respond. “We didn’t tell them anything other than that we wanted to try to sneak into the palace.”
“Which brings us to the second reason we would rather take the palace exit.” Arik pointed to a series of red dots clustered around the center of the map. “Each of these represents a Vampire murder.”
James immediately realized the problem: the murders were all directly between their current location and the exit to the Old City. He pointed to a cluster of around ten dots in the same place. “What happened there?”
“That’s a guard post the Vampire attacked.” Arik said. “He killed eight guards, all above level 50.”
James gulped; their party would never stand a chance against the Vampire if he could kill enemies that strong. “Maybe he won’t see us as enemies?” James said hesitantly. “We were prisoners too.”
Arik shook his head. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
***
James took stock of all of his ingredients. They’d finished their meeting a few hours before and he was back to potion making. This time, he was focusing on poisons specifically useful against undead. To that end, he’d gathered every ingredient in the room that had a high affinity for Life magic, then he’d done a bit of research on poisons that fit his needs.
After his research, he felt he had a good grasp on what to do. He was working on a complicated poison called Fiend’s Bane. If he made it correctly, it would cause major damage to any undead it touched.
The potion targeted the bond between the undead soul and the body it inhabited. It would forcefully separate the two and cause the undead to crumble away, unable to sustain itself.
James picked up a glass container and placed it on a scale. He then moved weights to the other side of the scale until they matched the weight of the beaker, pouring 50 grams of crushed Ice Lily into the beaker. The soft blue glow of the plant extended the beaker’s shadow as James poured.
The Ice Lily was a strange plant that grew high up on most mountain peaks. It had a strong connection to Ice and Life energy.
As James poured the Ice Lily, a bit of powder puffed out of the beaker and landed on his hand. He felt a pleasant cooling sensation on the back of his palm.
James glanced at the instructions he’d compiled.
Let’s see… 50 grams of Ice Lily, then add a Tango Mushroom Cap.
James picked up a gyrating mushroom with green spots. He popped off its cap and carefully lowered it into the powder. As the mushroom cap touched the Ice Lily powder, it melted. The contents of the beaker transformed into a pale blue liquid, the color of a clear sky.
James set the liquid onto a copper disc and tapped an Ice Elemental Monster Core. The liquid in the beaker immediately started to crystallize, so James dropped a magnetic rod into it. The rod reacted with another magnet inside the copper disc and spun around, moving the liquid so that it wasn’t able to freeze.
You have gained 1 Skill Rank in Poisons.
You are now Skill Rank 5.
While James let the poison stir, he opened up a book he’d found interesting. Dangerous Draughts and other Deadly Delights; The Poisoner’s Guide was a practical guidebook to special combinations of plants that could be used to produce extra effects in poisons. It also included a section on the best way to process items for poison making. Some worked better as powder, others suspended in solution. It depended on the ingredient.
As he read, an interesting passage caught his eye.
To the untrained eye, all Legendary ingredients are unique. But this is not true.
The true Poisoner knows that there are two categories of Legendary ingredients: Exclusive Legendary and Enhanced Legendary. In reality, the title Exclusive Legendary may be a bit of a misnomer. The name suggests that there is only one of each Exclusive Legendary, but there can be hundreds or even thousands of Legendary ingredients. Studies have been done on ingredient prevalence versus rarity, but that is not the point of this guide. In actuality, the difference between Exclusive Legendary and Enhanced Legendary is the existence of non-Legendary variants of the ingredient.
For example, Corpse Dust, one of the most-used ingredients in direct-damage dealing poisons, is a Common-ranked ingredient. However, if you were to harvest it from a Powerful Lich, you might find yourself in possession of a Legendary variant of the Corpse Dust i
ngredient. This would make it an Enhanced Legendary. On the other hand, all Basilisk Hearts are Legendary. There is no way to obtain a different rarity variant. Thus, the Basilisk Heart is an Exclusive Legendary.
Readers may wonder why all of this matters, but it means everything in terms of functionality.
Exclusive Legendaries are powerful ingredients used in the strongest potions, while Enhanced Legendaries are stronger versions of more common ingredients.
Contrary to common thought, Enhanced Legendaries are much more rare than Exclusive Legendaries. They are highly sought after for their ability to alter and upgrade the properties of more common potions, sometimes dramatically, often resulting in unique potions that cannot be found elsewhere.
The spinning liquid suddenly flashed with a bright white light. James put down the book, dog earing the page for further reference, and got out a pair of thick gloves, which he used to remove the beaker from the cold. When he set it down on the surface of the desk, tendrils of frost crept off of the base of the beaker and along the wood.
Before the sudden change in temperature could cause condensation and a loss of liquid, James transferred the beaker onto a wire cage inside another, larger beaker so that the glass of the beakers didn’t touch. This was to prevent the cold beaker from shattering when heat was added.
James added a pinch of smoldering red flakes to the bottom of the larger beaker and screwed a tube attachment to its lid. The flakes crackled and popped as they heated up. The liquid in the smaller beaker heated up and evaporated and was caught by the tube attachment. The smoke followed the tube into a glass box, where it condensed at the top and dripped down into a tray at the bottom without any impurities.
***
The next morning, James checked the box to make sure that all of the liquid had made it into the tray. It had, so he drained it into fifteen separate vials, adding exactly one drop of Redberry Extract to each vial. As soon as the crimson droplet hit the clear liquid, it turned a deep red and fizzed, a red mist escaping from the top.
