The Autocraft Alchemist

As much as Richard wanted to tease Windry some more. He knew that he might need a Healing Potion if he tried that. So instead he picked up the Blue Scale Vial in one hand and the Black Beetle Stomach in the other. Triggered the craft, and watched as the materials faded from his hands.

Once the autocrafting finished he pulled the new potion from the window. It was the same blue colored vial that he had seen before. Only the stopper had a dim blue glow instead of red. When he checked the System ID it said that it was a Mind Dampening Potion. And like with the Health Dampening Potion it didn't feel like something that would be a good idea to drink. Richard handed it off to Windry and went hunting for the other scale potions that he had made with the Healing Flowers. They should be around his apartment… somewhere.

"Dampening?" Windry said as she looked up from the potion.

"I'm not sure. I would think that it has something to do with Dampening whatever it is for," he said. He was in luck and the potions hadn't wandered too far. Somehow they ended up on top of the fridge. Richard handed Windry the Health Dampening Potion. "I don't think that it's something for drinking though."

She looked between the two potions and then turned her head to the side. "So it's a poison?"

"Maybe? I'm not sure how to use it. Smash the vial against the target? Splash the potion on them? Or maybe even add it to a blade and envenom with it?"

"Were any others like that?"

"Sorta…" Richard started checking the System IDs for the other potions, "Maybe…Nope…" He wasn't sure, but they all appeared to be not poisons. Even the Sigil Healing Potion shouldn't be a poison as it had healing in the name. How to use it was another issue as he felt it also shouldn't be drunk.

Windry put the two potions down and spoke, "Let's get through the others first."

The Green Scale Vial created an Accelerated Thoughts Potion. While the Brown Scale Vial created a Stonemind Potion. Finally the Grey Scale Vial created a Sigil Mana Potion.

Richard took a moment to go over the new potions. Accelerated Thoughts lined up with the Speed potion. But how would it change the person drinking it? Would they be able to move faster? Probably not, but maybe their perception? Unless it was simpler than that and the person could just think twice as fast for as long as the potion was in effect.

Stonemind didn't really tell what the potion would do. But assuming that a Stoneskin Potion would reduce physical damage, would a Stonemind Potion reduce magical damage? Or mental damage? Was there even mental damage?

Finally the Sigil Mana Potion was just as much of an unknown as the Sigil Healing Potion. There was some way to use it that wasn't drinking it.

Testing would need to be done on the new potions. Which would also probably require more than one potion to determine their effects. Though the tester might be lucky enough to discover the effects on the first try. Somehow Richard didn't think that was very likely.

"These…" Windry said with her phone in hand, "are all totally new potions Richard. I can't even tell what the effects might be since the names are somewhat vague. Like Stonemind? What even is a Sigil? And is it a good thing to have Accelerated Thoughts?"

Richard shrugged. "From the Red Carapace Vials there was a Cure Disease Potion, something that existed. But also a Clear Mind Potion as well as a Soul Purifying Potion. The latter being a potion that was discovered to be able to remove curses."

Windry slumped back into her chair. "I can't believe that there could be so many other potions out there. Many of them drop in the dungeon. But these," she gestured to the 8 potions that sat on the kitchen table, "could be the first time that some of them have been seen. What are you going to do with them?"

"Uh. well. Stuff them into a drawer somewhere I guess? I was planning on releasing them slowly through the Crafter's Union. But I wonder if that is a good idea or not. It might be better to find another way of releasing them. Only they would need some testing first. From what I heard it was the Sword Soul guild that figured out the effect of the Soul Purifying Potion. So that could be an avenue?"

Windry shook her head. "You would need a hell of a NDA in order to do that and be safe. You could always create a corp or something. Even if it's just a shell, and then hire someone to deal with the business side of things. And don't give me that look," she crossed her arms, "I've been retired for too many years to do work like that again."

Richard tapped his index finger against his lips. There had to be some way to see what they might do? But who would be willing to… He closed his eyes as he thought about a certain group of seemingly crazy people. Ones that wouldn't mind trying something new just for fun or to see what effect it might have.

"I think that my father might know some people. So I'll have a chat with him about it. Though it would be best if I gave them a couple each of the new ones, so 8 in all… Ugh. Then I'd need even more Cabbit Hearts, Stomachs, and Healing Flowers. Not to mention the drake drops as well. It might not be too late to amend the order that I just placed."

"Why don't you try checking out some of the local markets? They don't run every day. But they would probably have some of the drops that you need. More so if they are from local dungeons."

"That could work…"

"It didn't occur to you, did it?" she asked and gave him that look.

Richard looked away. "Sure it did. I've just been busy."

"I know you well enough that sometimes you don't think beyond what is in front of you. Did you even see that the Red Drake Dungeon isn't in Scales province? But in the next one over, Alark? You probably have been buying what drops float this way, while it might be cheaper to instead order in bulk from the Dungeons Centers over there."

Richard coughed. "See this is why I keep you around," he said and was promptly swatted. Twice.

***

As soon as Windry left Richard amended his order for the Cabbit hearts. He was lucky that the order hadn't been processed yet. And he was able to avoid getting double dinged with shipping.

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Richard decided that as he was entering the orders for the other drops that he might as well include the Red Carapace Vial potions as well. Which meant that he would need 3 of the Red Drake Caparaces as well as more of the catalysts. While he probably didn't need to send off the Cure Disease and Soul Purifying Potions for testing, since he already knew what two of them did. It felt right to have the complete set of drake potions. And who knew if there were additional effects to them or not? Maybe the clan could chance across something different.

With the orders placed Richard looked up the dates for the local dungeon market. And again he was in luck, as in Welf it ran every Saturday. Which meant that he would only have to wait a couple of days until he would be able to check it out.

***

The market was held in a small building downtown. It had been rebuilt on the ruins of what had once been a farmer's market before the break. And there were stalls inside as well as several booths outside. Even though November had arrived and it was getting chilly, the cold wasn't enough to keep people indoors and the market was rather busy.

If Richard hadn't had his experience from the market at the Crafter's Union he might have been too intimidated to wade into the crowds. But he was able to manage it with only a little bit of trepidation. None of the people there cared about him at all. And as long as he held his wallet and phone tight there wasn't any chance of anything bad happening.

Most of the market was made up of people selling drops from the local dungeons. As well as gear made from those drops. Which was great as it meant that he was able to see and interact with materials from the 3 dungeons in Welf that he wasn't strong enough to enter.

He had already looked through the lists that Windry had sent over. And while there was a lot of information to digest. It gave him enough of an idea on what to keep and eye out for. And as he picked through the drops from the Orthrus, Imp, and Ratter dungeons Richard tried to mentally note everything that he found and what their prices were. Which just ended in him quickly giving up and trying to take notes on his phone. Only there were too many people jostling about and he kept getting glares while he stood in the way with his face glued to his phone. Which just caused him to give up on taking any notes.

In the end Richard retreated to the food court part of the market. There were a couple food stalls inside while there was also an open portion where food trucks had lined up. He bought a coffee, black, sat down, and took a break from the hustle and bustle of the market.

While he was looking through Windry's list Richard had discovered a trend in the dungeon drops. Beast or animal dungeons tended to drop parts of the monster's body. So from the orthrus there were the same bone, heart, eye, teeth, drops as with the Cabbits. While the orthrus also dropped skulls, claws, snake fangs and skin, bezoars, and venom sacs.

The species specific drops were enough to get Richard to look up just what an orthrus was. He found it to be a two-headed canine with a snake for a tail. It had red glowing eyes and dark black fur. He found it hard to imagine what it must have been like first encountering one right after the break. And he was glad that it was in a rank 5 dungeon and not something that he would have to face off against anytime soon.

Next were the ratter drops. Seeing them on the list was one thing, but seeing the drops at the market was a whole new experience. And after browsing through the first few tables Richard started avoiding the ones selling ratter drops. The humanoid looking body parts grossed him out. Sitting there on a table or blanket, never decomposing, waiting to be used in some recipe somewhere or other. He took an extra deep sip of his coffee to try and bitter the memory away.

Finally the imp drops were totally different and were their own thing. While they did have some body part drops, there weren't any bones or such. There were however things like blood, eyes, horns, tails, and gems. As well as things like unknown coins, glass baubles, and sand.

From the information online it seemed like gems were located on the imp's foreheads and were thought to be a source of power. They were one of the drops that Richard was looking forward to the most. Since it sounded like the gems would make for a vial recipe if not something else. The blood on the other hand reminded him of the ratter body drops and Richard hoped that it wouldn't come into play.

With his break out of the way Richard opened his recipe list to see what had been added. Given that he had used the System to ID a large number drops he kind of expected there to at least be something. And new recipes for Ratter Fetish Vial, Orthrus Skull Vial, and Imp Blood Vial appeared in the list.

Given that the vials were the entry point it made sense that was all that he got. Though it would have been nice to have gotten ones that were a little less… barbaric. Using skulls and blood were bad, but the ratter fetishes were strange looking things cobbled from bits of bone, fur, teeth, and bark. How would they even be fashioned into a vial?

Richard entered back into the market and started on his next task. Making the vials to unlock the recipes that go with them. He purchased the Orthrus Skull for $19,000, it was a lot more than what he had been expecting. But that might have something to do with the rank of the dungeon that it came from. As the other two were also more expensive than what the other drops had been. The Imp Blood cost $10,000, while the fetish cost $23,000.

With the expensive shopping out of the way the next part would be tricky. Escaping the notice of people so that they couldn't see the materials fading away. While he could probably find somewhere outside. The only real option, while also being the quick and easy one, was to hide away in one of the bathroom stalls.

First up Richard made the Orthrus Skull Vial, the skull was a bit larger than a hand across, and was missing the lower mandible. If anything it looked like something that a primitive helmet could be made out of. Though he decided that it would be better if such a fashion never came to pass.

When he made it into a vial it looked similar to the Cabbit Bone Vial. Only there were parts at the bottom of the diamond shape that looked like it was made from teeth. And when he held it from an arm's length the light hit it in such a way that the various depressions made the vial almost look like a canine skull.

Next the Ratter Fetish Vial. It looked like slats of material had been made to create the vial. Kind of like a barrel that was used to age beer or wine. Only diamond shaped like the other vials that the autocraft produced. Some of the slates were made of bone while others were bark. And there was a small strip of fur that was wrapped around the neck of the potion. Was it just for style? Or was there another reason for the fur? There was enough that he could hold the potion just by the strip of it. Unlike the other options that Richard had made, the vial gave off a sinister feeling. And he quickly stuffed it back into his satchel.

The Imp Blood was a small glass looking vial that contained an orange liquid inside. One strange thing about the Imp Blood was that they all came in little glass vials. And since the Imp Blood vials all looked the same Richard wondered if that meant that the blood dropped already in the vial? Why did that happen? It gave him the creeps and he would be happy to have it gone.

When he tried to create the Imp Blood Vial Richard found that he was missing a material. It seemed like the vial also required the baubles that dropped from the imps. He shook his head and after a quick trip to buy an Imp Bauble he returned to the bathroom to craft again. It was a good thing that it was busy… Though that could also be a bad problem if people thought that he was having bathroom issues…

Of all the vials that Richard had made the Imp Blood Vial appeared to be the most normal looking one. It was clear glass and not red, blue, or black, or bone like the others. Though it still had the same diamond shape. It was also the first clear vial which meant that he was able to get a clear look of the solution inside. And he tilted it back and forth in the light as he inspected the orange solution within. Was it just imp blood? Or was there something else?

Creating the 3 new vials meant that he only needed another 7 unique items. That was counting the 4 drake recipes that used the Cabbit Heart Essence, which he hadn't crafted yet. But with any luck there would be enough new recipes for him to hit level 2 Alchemy. And then he could just bomb through the item count level up requirement.

With the vials finally created and out of the way, Richard crossed his fingers, and opened the recipe list again to see what else he might be able to create.