The Autocraft Alchemist

Richard got himself another coffee and sat down in the food court again. It was getting close to lunch and he had considered getting something to eat. But he also knew that there was cheaper food at home. And while, yes, he had scads of money at the moment. There was no telling if, how, or when making money with alchemy could become no longer possible.

When he opened the recipe list he found four new ones:

Disease Potion

Poison Potion

Cure Poison Potion

Mana Potion

The Poison and Cure Poison potions came from the orthrus drops. Both used the Orthrus Skull Vial, and the Orthrus Snake Head Venom Sac. While the Cure Poison Potion also used the Orthrus Bezoar. Which somewhat made sense considering that in the past people thought that bezoars were something that could be used to cure poison. It had also long been debunked. Maybe the System didn't get the memo?

The Disease Potion came from using the Ratter Fetish Vial and a Ratter Gallbladder. The Gallbladder being a soggy feeling green pouch. With circular raised ridges that reminded him of impact craters. And it was something that he very much so didn't want to ever touch again.

There was also the fact of what kind of disease the potion would inflict? And why would anyone ever want something like that? Something like a disease should take some time before it had an effect on the monster inflicted. And what happened if a human was exposed to it without knowing? Would it spread? Richard shook his head at the thought of such a potion and took a sip of coffee to try and get the bad taste out of his mouth.

Finally there was a second entry for a Mana Potion. It took the Imp Blood Vial along with the Imp Gem. Did that mean that the Gem was a new catalyst? Something that he could combine with the other vials to create Mana Potions. Would the potions have the same effect as one crafted with the Black Beetle Stomach? Or would there be differing effects? There were also three new vials to test. And he found himself looking forward to what might come.

Richard went back into the market and bought what he needed to make a couple each of the new Mana Potions, the Cure Poison Potions, and Poison Potions. He also grabbed an extra 5 Imp Gems so that he could try them with the other vials he had recipes for. The Imp Gems sold for around $12,000 each, while the Orthrus Snake Venom went for $21,500, and the Orthrus Bezoar was $10,500.

There were two sections to the market. So far Richard had stayed in the main section which had drops that were local to Welf. While there was a small secondary section that catered to monster drops from outside of the city. At first he wondered why the secondary section was so small. People should have been all over drops from outside of the city. And Richard couldn't figure out why it wasn't bigger. But after talking with a couple of the vendors he found that a larger market would be held on the 15th of the month. Where people from outside of the town were encouraged to bring in their goods. He made a note of it and decided to check it out. And while he kind of wanted to invite the others from the guild that he had met, there was probably a better selection in the everyday market in the Crafter's Union. And it wouldn't be worth the trip for them to come into Welf.

As he browsed through the drops he found a seller with a large amount of different drops from the Mushroom Dungeon. And as much as Richard hated the place, maybe, just maybe, there would be something for him to make from there yet. After he spent way too long running the drops through the system ID, he finally found one new recipe.

Mushtaur Hoof Vial

It brought on several questions. What was a mushtaur? Why did it have hooves? And what else would the vials work with? The hoof itself looked similar to a horse's hoof. Only in a Walking Mushroom like beige color. Were the Mushtaurs related to horses in some way?

From the glare that Richard was getting from the seller he decided that it was time to move on. He had occupied the stall for over half an hour as he picked through each of the drops. In the end he bought 10 of the hooves which cost $5000 each. He had the idea that he would create potions with the vials as he found the catalysts they went with. It would only be a matter of time before he returned to the dungeon and could buy anything that he needed then.

Before he left he went and found another Imp Gem for the new vial, and then retreated to his apartment. There were a lot of potions to craft and he wanted to see what he could make. Once his order came in from the Dungeon Centers he could also hand off potions to the clan for them to test. All in all next week looked like it was going to turn into a pretty productive week.

But first he needed to get some relaxation in. Playing games the rest of the weekend was important so that he didn't risk burn out.

***

Monday morning came with the grind. At least it would have if Richard wasn't self employed. And while he would have liked to laze around for a while longer, that wouldn't do after spending so much time not being productive on the weekend. There he wasn't counting when Jackie came by the day before and got him to make her some more Flash and Healing potions.

He went looking for the Mushtaur Hoof, as if he was going to start crafting then he might as well get any disappointments out of the way. Only before he found where his satchel had walked away to his phone rang.

The number was hidden, which would have been an auto ignore. But after he had checked the time Richard answered, it was a call that he had been expecting all morning. "Hello?"

"Hello, Richard?" Nora's voice came from the other side.

"Nora. Thank you for getting back to me." He had sent her a message before Thanksgiving when Argence was acting strange.

"Sorry about the delay. I was on vacation through the holiday and then the ratter invasion caused a whole mess of issues. We'll take whatever Healing Potions that you can make by the way."

"I'll see what I can do with the Healing Potions." It probably wouldn't be an issue to create a number of them. Given that he still needed 68 items to hit the next level it would be a good way to reach the 400 he needed.

"And you mentioned something wrong with your dedicated buyer. How has Grant been treating you?"

Richard thought about the guild people that he had dealt with. There was one buyer by the name of Grant, he had been the one that bought the first Red Carapace Potions and Cabbit Teeth Bone meal. "I'm not sure what you mean by Grant? Argence is the person that I was told would be my buyer. I first sold some potions through her right after our last meeting."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Argence? One moment," Nora said. He could hear her tapping away at a keyboard in the background. "I see. It seems that there was some miscommunication between Chuck and I. I thought that Grant was going to be set as your buyer. Was there an issue with Argence?"

"Well." How much should he say? He should probably just unload everything. It wasn't like he couldn't just go to another guild if they were acting suspicious. "She came into the crafting room that I was using the day that I messaged you. I would have assumed since the door was locked that she would have known that someone was inside?"

"That… I believe that the doors are usually locked. In order to keep people out of them unless the rooms are in use. Otherwise they are only unlocked when someone needs one. But yes. She should have known that there was someone inside. What did she say?"

"That someone needed some tool or something that broke in another room. She grabbed some hammers and a pair of pliers and left. After that she didn't really acknowledge the intrusion, and instead encouraged me to sell her anything else that was new."

"I see. I can't say that I know too much about what is going on with her. I'll see about talking with her. Have you had any more troubles with Argence? If so I'll change things and get Grant to be your dedicated buyer. I might do that anyways."

In the end it didn't really matter to Richard who was his buyer. It was something decided by the guild, and he was more than happy to be able to jump the line. "I'm fine with whatever you decide on." He would give them the chance to make things right and see how he felt then.

"Alright. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Was there anything else that you wanted to speak about? Anything else that you are unhappy about?"

"No. Not at the moment."

"If we are unable to resolve things to your satisfaction…" She paused for a moment. "Please let me know if you are planning to leave the guild. I'll do what I can to both ensure a clean break but also help to aid in any way that I can."

Richard frowned. It almost sounded like she wanted to keep a connection with him even if he left the Crafter's Union. But for what reason? Since she was at the president level in a large guild he wondered if Windry had any information on Nora. And if Nora was someone that he could trust. Well, not to the level of revealing his Alchemy rank or anything like that. But having someone who knew their way around the upper management of guilds in his corner might be beneficial. "Alright. I'll do that if I can," he said. They said their goodbyes and Richard worked through the conversation in his mind for a moment before he messaged Windry.

The conversation had spoiled his enthusiasm somewhat. And instead of crafting he decided to head to the park and touch some grass for a change.

***

Jarl paced back and forth in his office. It wasn't really large enough for such an endeavor, but he needed to feel his body moving. While he hadn't been able to get access to the crafter like he wanted. He at least had been able to get his hands on several of the man's potions.

It was easy to see what they were made of, but what he couldn't find out was the why or the how. Blue Slime Core, Black Beetle Carapace, Cabbit Bone, and Red Drake Carapace. Were there still others? Ones that he hadn't seen yet? More than likely. But he would have to wait until this Richard released any new potions with unseen vials. And then he would have to get his hands on them again…

Jarl stopped pacing and instead tapped his index finger against his lips. They had tried to make the vials from the materials. But no one was able to figure out how. Fire didn't seem to do anything, either it wasn't hot enough or needed to be something that the System recognized. Chemicals also didn't change the material the way that he wanted. Sure it was possible to melt a dungeon drop with another dungeon drop. Only then it wouldn't snap back into a usable form. A puddle of Blue Slime Core couldn't be made solid again. At least with what Jarl had tried.

The blacksmiths in the guild could change the form of dungeon drops with their skill. Forging items into new shapes and forms. But anything that they created wasn't recognized by the System. And wouldn't perform any differently than the glass vials that everyone already had access to. What was the reason that it didn't work? Did the vials need to be created by an alchemist? Maybe if he took up a Blacksmithing skill he would be able to make it work? But then he would be splitting his attention between two crafting skills. It had already taken him far too long to reach D-Rank in Alchemy. Even if two skills were the answer, what if they needed to be at a higher level than what he had? Or could even reach?

He shook his head and opened the door into the lab. A number of assistants were running around and making potions. Ones that he had discovered or bought recipes for. Healing being the chiefly made one. People were always getting hurt and assuming that they had gone through the System initialization the potions were often better than a doctor. For flesh wounds and broken bones at least.

At his workstation he picked up an empty vial that had once held a Healing Potion. There wasn't anything that he had been able to find from the solution itself. It healed as well as any other Weak Healing Potion on the market. Tasted better too. Which was another thing to look into when he had more time and answers.

Spent Blue Core Vial.

Why was the vial spent? What was it that had been spent? If it was just a normal glass vial it was possible to use them over and over again. Though wear and tear would cause them to break eventually.

Jarl looked to another Spent Blue Core Vial he had filled with Poor Healing Potion. The potion solution had been made by an assistant, and while it was still usable, it was the cheapest option to experiment with. But the System didn't like it for some reason. And after the vial was filled the usually brown solution turned black.

Spoiled Healing Potion.

Spoiled. That was something that Jarl had seen a lot of when he first started out as a Rank-F Alchemist. But as his skill grew it became less and less frequent until it disappeared entirely. If the vial was spent it was no longer good for anything. At least with his skills. Was there a way to… recharge it? Would it even be worth it to do so? Or would it just be better to create a new vial?

There it was again. The question on why the crafter felt the need to create a vial out of a dungeon drop? It should have been perfectly fine if they just used a normal potion vial. Assuming that they knew what they were doing… But what if they didn't know what they were doing? Surely it couldn't have been that?

"Hello Jarl," a voice said from right behind him. It was sudden enough that Jarl jumped and dropped the potion in his hand. It clattered atop the workbench and his hands shot forward and grabbed it before it could fall to the ground. With a critical eye he looked over the potion and it seemed to be alright.

"Chuck," Jarl said and chuckled. "You startled me. Shouldn't you know better than sneaking up behind someone like that? More so when they are a busy sort like myself."

"Sorry, I had wanted to see what it was that had your attention," Chuck said and looked to the assistants. He leaned close and whispered, "Have you given any thought to the idea of mine that we discussed the other day?"

"What? I thought that I had been clear enough? That I was happy, well, as much as I can be without access to that crafter."

"Ah, I see. My mistake," Chuck said. "But if you change your mind won't you let me know? Please? A man of your skill should be flying through the skies and not stuck here in some lab doing who knows what. Your skills are needed for the betterment of humankind."

Jarl frowned. "I know that. Which is why I'm here in the first place. With the ratter invasion we need to find a way to create better potions. Recipes that can be used by anyone. For items that can be used to save people from the threats lurking right outside of our borders. This is the best place for that, at the forefront of alchemy development," Jarl said and took a deep breath. "I thank you for your interest. But it would be best if you refrained from future invitations."

Chuck smiled. "Alright… Alright. I'll leave you to it then," he said and backed away. Jarl watched after Chuck as he left the lab. And then shook his head and returned to the potion in his hand. What was it that he was thinking about again?