New System, Who Dis?

Tutorial Day 87

Sarah waited for me outside the Alchemy Academy. I went in, making my slow, meandering way to Veronique's door. I was still formulating the exact plan for how I was going to execute this. No matter which way I mentally explored, lying was going to be involved. Not necessarily to Veronique, well, maybe a little, but more so to Sarah.

The method to acquire the Harvesting Skill for Sarah was through the Demonic Vault. With the Demonic Vault, I could purchase a Skill 'Card' for any Skill I desired. This would be my first time attempting such a purchase, but in theory, it should work. Plus unlike the outrageously high prices here in the Tutorial, Demonic Vault seemed to undervalue Gathering Skills.

All I needed were Mana Coins. Not even a ridiculously large amount, I had already checked. In fact, the red window was still open, hovering in the air.

Part of me read the last line and realized I should be looking at all of my Skills, in Demonic Vault, a lot sooner, so I did. Mining, of course, I'd already known, was linked with Strength. Gardening was linked with Intelligence. Fishing, and Harvesting with Stamina, one of which I already knew. Cooking and Butchering was linked with Dexterity, which again was somewhat of a surprise on the latter. Skinning was linked with Agility. Due to the way I'd gained my stats only two of those were a surprise, since they 'overlapped.' And, of course, my last two stats of Wisdom and Perception were linked solely with my Class of Battlefield Healer, which was directly linked to Heal and Cleanse. So, that was all those mysteries solved. I tentatively knew most of these already, but hadn't ever confirmed.

Now, a hundred thousand Mana Coins would have seemed like a lot. However, it was really just a D-Rank Mana Crystal. So, could I trade Veronique for a D-Rank Mana Crystal, or perhaps enough F- and E-Rank Crystals to get enough Mana Coins?

I was pretty sure I could solve this puzzle.

Raising my hand, I knocked on the door. A rather large and muscular man opened the door almost before I lowered my knuckles. He had one hand on the doorknob on the inside and another hidden behind the door. My guess was a weapon was hidden in that second hand. This was clearly a guard.

"Yes?" He asked, his voice gruff, deep, and menacing. All probably done on purpose. He didn't look like he had that deep of a voice.

"I'm here to see Veronique." I said simply.

"Do you have an appointment?" This time I heard his voice go up and down a little bit, confirming that he was in fact deepening it.

"No, I don't have an appointment, but I have a standing invitation from Veronique to pop in whenever I have business."

"Wait here." The door slammed in my face.

I blinked at it, raised both eyebrows, and then began to consider what had changed that Veronique now needed a guard. Something clearly had. She had never needed one in the past. Had she ripped somebody off, or...

The door swung back open. "Come in!"

"Thanks?" I said, turning my statement into a question, but entered all the same.

Veronique was pacing behind her couch. This was probably the first time I had seen her look less than put together. Her hair was in a high pony, but not all of it. Small portions were frayed to the side, making her look less than well kept. In fact, the bags under her eyes that she hadn't put enough makeup on made it seem like she hadn't been sleeping.

"Everything okay, Veronique?" I asked. My voice caused her to stop her pacing and look at me with bloodshot eyes.

"Does everything look okay, kid?" she asked. Her voice was pointed and barbed.

"No, no it doesn't," I said, feeling a little bit awkward with my response. "I was just trying to start a conversation," I responded.

Veronique growled, literally growled as if she was some sort of caged tiger, and then pointed at me. "You're part of the husking problem, kid."

That, of course, made me step back. Not that her finger was much of a threat, but that sort of accusation was never good. Any humor I found in the situation died before my next words could leave my mouth. Instead, it came out as a bit of a squeak. I blurted, "I'm part of the problem. What do you mean?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, her voice a clear mockery of my own, even asking the same question. Her finger had never stopped pointing at me, and she jabbed it forward as she said, "You created a new Pill that has the other three Tribes desperately searching for not only the recipe, but the person responsible. My rooms have been ransacked every time I've left, and every Rejuvenation Pill that wasn't stored safely in my Bag of Holding has been stolen."

I swallowed.

"So how much did they get?" I asked. While she was claiming that my life may be at risk, I assumed that because no one had yet attacked me, the secret was still safe. Plus, I sensed an opportunity in that theft of my goods.

"About ten," Veronique said, her finger slowly dropping as she also made the realization.

In our contract, which admittedly was more of a handshake, she had claimed that once I gave any goods to her, she would be responsible for them making it to auction. Which could mean–

"I'm not paying you for them," Veronique said, even as her finger came back up to point at me.

I smirked."'And why's that?"

"Why do you think?'" She responded quickly. "Who do you think has been keeping your name from leaking to others?"

While that was clearly a threat, I wasn't worried. Veronique might be a bit corruptible, but she was a merchant through and through. I held up my arms, spread wide.

"And that's solely because you care for me,"' I said sarcastically.

Her eyes narrowed as she gave me a serious look."'No. Well, okay, fine. I'll pay you the average going rate of the Rejuvenation Pills from last month."

I shook my head. "I've got a feeling that they are worth a little bit more right now, considering what you've just told me." She growled again, interrupting me. I continued with my own threat, once she was finished. "Unless you want the rumor out there that you can't take care of Auction goods?"

She sighed, rounded the couch and sat down. 'Listen, I don't know what they're worth right now, but I do know that if I bring them to Auction, they're going to get bought by agents of other Tribes. I also know that they have the potential to increase the overall potential of the people who get them. So I'm not even sure we should be selling them to other Tribes."

"Oh, come on. Don't act like you've grown morals overnight," I responded, even as I thought of Sarah, Gavin, London, and Jacky. Maybe she was right, but I had a feeling she was just trying to cut into my profits. Sure enough, she chuckled.

"Okay. Listen, with what people discovered these Pills can do, they're going to go up in value a lot. So maybe we should stop limiting supply?"

Holding up a forestalling hand, I responded, 'First, tell me exactly what 'people have discovered', then let's talk about the ten that went missing."

Veronique gave me a very basic answer on what people had discovered. Essentially she told me a bit of what I already knew, then refused to say more . I knew that she was beyond skilled at her job, and thus wouldn't reveal much more that might increase the Pills value before negotiations. Thankfully, I was aware of a bit more, and thus we were hopefully on equal starting ground.

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"Let's start with you wiping out my debt to you, and a hundred fully intact D-Rank Crystals," I began.

Veronique laughed. "First, that debt to me has no time limit and minimal interest. So, you can pay that back at any time," she responded, sounding amused. "Second, what D-Rank Mana Crystals? Some very few may have been found out there, but I can assure you they don't get sold. D-Rank anything is prohibitively hard to find in the Tutorial."

"That's not a counter offer. A thousand fully intact E-Rank Mana Crystals, and my debt wiped then!" I stated, trying to hide my embarrassment at not knowing about the D-Rank Crystals.

She tilted her head. "What is your need for fully intact Crystals? Are you planning to become an Enchanter as well? Or do you use them in the Cauldron?"

I just crossed my arms, realizing that she was going to try to use this negotiation as a data mine. With my experience that likely wouldn't end well for me, so it was better to be tight lipped, I figured.

After that I negotiated back and forth until she made me choose between the Crystals and wiping my debt. A thousand was actually too much, probably giving me around three hundred thousand Mana Coins, but I couldn't really adjust it down now and ask for the debt to be wiped, or I might start the negotiations over again.

The negotiations were entirely in her favor from the jump, since I'd made such a stupid starting request. How had I not even known that there were no D-Rank or higher Mana Crystals for sale in the Tutorial…

We shook hands, regarding the thousand fully intact E-Rank Mana Crystals. It was grating to still have my debt standing with her, but I got the feeling that Veronique liked it that way. While I couldn't be sure why she liked it that way, I also knew I could pay it off later or negotiate again if I created another Pill.

The problem of Sarah's Harvesting Skill taken care of, I changed the subject. "So what good would it do to stop limiting supply of the Rejuvenation Pills? And what exactly was the big discovery?'"

"I'll answer the second part first, not that I don't suspect you already know more than I told you," Veronique began, her eyes narrowing slightly in my direction. "It was discovered that the Pills did a lot more than just remove some impurities in the body. In a few very high-level Hunter's cases, it allowed a Breakthrough to occur, where one had been less than forthcoming in the past."

"A Breakthrough in what?" I asked, but already suspected the answer.

Veronique held up her hand with five fingers splayed and responded, "Where else? Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Perception, Skills, Qi, Mana, and Soul." Every time she listed something she dropped a finger. When she reached past five, she had a closed fist and then opened one finger at a time. In the end, she had her hand open with her pinky finger down.

It was an interesting display of Dexterity to watch her move her fingers entirely independently of each other. I tried surreptitiously to mimic the alien looking movements, and discovered that my fingers wanted to be pulled by the ones next to them, I wondered and somewhat hoped I'd be able to do that with training or an increase from my ten points in Dexterity.

Mentally, I forced down that tangential thought by clicking my tongue and sucking on my teeth. Once I considered her words, I responded. "No, I was not aware of all of those."

"But you were aware of some of them?" She asked.

Should I reveal my experiment? I waffled a bit before responding. "Somewhat. I had suspicions and tested it on myself, but the results were a little less than ideal."

Veronique leaned forward and then spun her upraised hand. "Explain."

"Well, I used an E-rank Stat Breakthrough Liquid–"

"Ah," Veronique interrupted. "That does make sense. And you learned that using the Breakthrough Liquid creates problems with your potential down the road?"

My head fell at her accusatory question.

Veronique chuckled, causing me to reverse my head-fall and glare at her. She, in turn, produced one of my Rejuvenation Pills onto her newly opened palm–likely pulling it from her Bag of Holding. "Well, that's another reason why these are worth so much," she said. "People who have used Stat Breakthrough Liquid or Pills to Breakthrough from Rank F to E, E to D, or in a few rare case that don't seem to be able to be duplicated, D to C, have found that this returns some of that lost potential. Thus, why the other Tribes want it so badly."

My face paled. There was a person in here with C-Ranked Stats and they wanted my Pills? The threat became much more real at that moment.

"So you're suggesting we stop limiting supply because they've reached an all-time high in value?" I asked, my voice a little shaky, even as I put on a brave face.

Veronique saw the paling of my face and grinned wickedly, clearly happy that I was finally in somewhat of the same mindset that she was. She shook her head at my question, telling me that the answer was a no to that question, and said, "I'm thinking more of our safety kid. If the people who desperately want a Rejuvenation Pill already have one, they're more likely to stop looking for you and targeting my rooms."

I nodded, considering her words, and eventually met her eyes. "But if we keep the supply limited, won't bids for the Pill reach all-time highs?"

Veronique raised her hands and rubbed her face, face-palming before her hands tangled in her unkempt hair. When her bloodshot eyes met mine again, she had a wicked, greedy, and wholly terrifying smile on her face.

"It certainly will. The risk versus reward has been what I've been going back and forth on since last week," she answered.

My face broke into a greedy grin that likely matched hers. Needless to say, we decided the risk was worth it.

Veronique sent a runner to collect my Crystals, and then excused herself to tidy up. However, as I waited, I thought over her last words as she left into her back room. "Just a heads up. Trying to craft Pills with Crystals is certainly possible, but no one has managed to control the heat of those flames yet…"

The Crystals, thankfully, came in a gifted Bag of Holding, which the runner made certain I was aware of. A quick mental peek inside of the Bag made my face fall. "No, go back. The agreed upon price was a thousand Full E-Rank Crystals!"

The runner gave me a condescending look. "All the shards are in there. So, they are full—"

"No, I did not ask for ten thousand sharded E-Rank Crystals. I asked for a thousand full E-Rank Crystals. There is a difference…" my voice came out commanding and I could tell that the runner was confused by the distinction. So, softening my voice I told him. "I want full Crystals. The ones that you sell to Enchanters…"

That last part was a bit of a guess but a light of understanding lit up his eyes, even as he shook his head. "Enchanters Crystals are far more valuable than the Cooking ones. I'm sorry but I need to get approval from someone above me, before I make that change…"

"We're in Veronique's rooms, aren't we?" I asked while indicating the deeper rooms the woman had gone to. I wasn't sure if this was a last minute play by the woman to short change me or not. Or if this runner had just misunderstood something.

The runner's face paled, and he was likely going to protest until the guard stepped forward.

"I can get confirmation," he said in his false gravelly voice.

He returned a few minutes later, and the runner was sent, well, running.

* * *

I walked the familiar hallways of the Alchemy Academy, heading for the rooms I knew would be unoccupied, until the world revealed that I didn't know anything. Rounding a corner to the Pill Furnace 'classrooms,' I discovered the usually empty rooms bustling with activity. I raised my eyebrows and scanned the vented hoods. In almost every alcove, there was a Pill Cauldron. The smoke coming out of the top was a deep charcoal black, indicating that the Pill makers weren't having much luck. I rubbed my nose and continued my walk before anybody took note of me and my plate Armor.

"What in the world is going on?" I whispered as I reached a second room that had the same fervent activity within.

My plan had been to sell the full Crystals, as many as I needed, to purchase the Harvesting Skill Card. However, I needed to do that somewhere out of the way. My carefully constructed lie to Sarah wouldn't work if I didn't sell the Crystals and buy the Skill Card before leaving. My plan had been to tell her I got the Card from Veronique–well without revealing the woman's name.

Each room I passed was likewise full, and I realized a little late, thanks to my surprise, that I was probably the cause of this as well. If people were starting to realize the value in Pills because of my Rejuvenation Pill, then this mass experimentation was definitely my fault. I didn't even have a good excuse for why it took me so long to put it all together.

With little to no options remaining, I tried a bathroom only to discover that I couldn't control the coming and going of people into them. While I could use a stall, they had holes on the top and beneath like most public restrooms. So, I wasn't guaranteed privacy. Eventually I decided to climb up to the fourth floor, and see if I could purchase a month of Room and Board. Since I was in the back of the building I figured I could just touch the first door, and get given an option. It didn't work, which either meant the guards here were important to the process, or I needed to go by my old room.

Room four hundred and twenty-one didn't allow me to pay for its use either, confirming that the guards were needed.

Trudging back down the two flights of stairs, I hurriedly concocted a new lie for Sarah, one where the Skill Card would be delivered at a later time. It wasn't much of a difference anyway, and I figured once I was in my room back at Claude's, I could definitely purchase the Card in true privacy.

* * *

I hit the purchase button. Just as it had when I first purchased the Mining Pick, the red floating screen vanished. My eyes moved up above me, to where the Mana usually formed to create an object on previous purchases.

No Mana coalesced. Nothing happened for a long, long time. I looked around again, and even tried to open the main page of the Demonic Vault Shop. Nothing happened. Was the Skill broken?

Had using it in the Tutorial done something? Considering I had used it to purchase the Pill Cauldron that sat in the corner of my room and my Mortar and Pestle, I doubted that. So, what exactly was happening? Was it because Smegma wasn't here? No, again, the Pill Cauldron and Mortar and Pestle. So, it must be because it was my first time purchasing a Skill. That was the only thing that made sense.

While there had been opportunities to purchase these low-ranked Gathering Skill Cards, we had used the surplus funds to purchase Mining Picks, Skinning Knives, and Gardening Tools instead. They were things that would help us in the long run as a company. And, admittedly, help my earning potential so I could purchase better Skills for myself. So, what was going on?

Suddenly, a very familiar but different blue screen with an accompanying message popped up, making my entire body lock up in absolute terror.