The Autocraft Alchemist

Over the last few days the materials that Richard had ordered from the Dungeon Centers had arrived. And once the final order was delivered he placed the drops onto the kitchen table. Tossed the box to the side, he could clean it up later. And then went through all of the potions that he wanted to make. The ones that he was going to hand off to the clan for testing. At first in his head, and then written down on his phone so that he stopped double counting.

Working from the top of the list Richard crafted the 3 Red Carapace Vial potions. And then he crafted a second Healing Flower and Black Beetle Stomach potion for each of the blue, green, brown, and grey drake scale vials.

Next it was time for the new potions, and Richard rubbed his hands together as he looked at the materials laid out on his kitchen table. The vials were already made, 2 each of the Blue, Green, Brown, and Grey. As were the Cabbit Heart Essences. The red sticky balls creeped him out a little as they stuck to the table and each other while little red tendrils of energy wisped off of them. He hoped that they wouldn't stain the table.

First up, the Blue Scale Vial and essence created a Soul Dampening Potion. It fit with the trend of the other dampening potions. And Richard didn't even need the feeling to know it would be a bad idea to try and drink the potion. Souls weren't something that he wanted to mess around with, even more so his own. He liked it just the way that it was. Inside of his body and not dampened.

Next the Green Scale Vial and essence created a Soul Revolution Potion. The other two potions gave increased speed for body and mind, should be a hint. Revolution suggested spinning of some sort. Did that mean that the potion would increase the speed of the spinning of the drinker's soul? Or would it just cause it to take a half turn? Was any of those even a good idea? There was also the other definition of revolution, would the drinker's soul rise up and cast off the chains of oppression? He shook his head and placed the potion down on the table and gave it a side eye before moving on.

The Brown Scale Vial Potion and essence ended up as a Stonesoul Potion. Which followed the trend quite nicely. Assuming that it would prevent damage to the soul by making it stone. Which again sounded like something that one might not want. But given that the Stoneskin Potion might just be a layer of defense it would probably be fine over all. Probably.

Finally the Grey Scale Vial and essence made something called a Sigil Silver Potion. It had the same Sigil in the name as the Healing and Mana potion. While it was different in that Silver did not really align with Soul at all. Richard looked at the potion and shook it, the light glinting rainbow off the edges didn't really allow for him to make sense of the liquid inside. The solution inside muddled with the vial enough that it looked pretty much the same.

He finished creating the second of the Drake Scale Vial x Cabbit Heart Essence potions and moved onto making the new ones that he had discovered the other day at the market.

The Poison potion had a sickly green looking light that glowed from the stopper. It wasn't something that Richard really wanted to make. But he needed to up his unique count. And so far most of the potions that he was able to create were for helping people. Which he was happy to do. And yet with the Poison Potion it was something that could be used as a weapon. Hopefully only against monsters and not humans.

Next the Cure Poison Potion had a greenish blue glow to the stopper. He wasn't sure how he felt about creating a potion to negate one that he had just made. Felt like a net zero or something. If he ended up selling them in the future maybe he could make people buy one of each? Wasn't there always a chance for someone using poison to get some on or in themselves? The last thing that Richard wanted was for someone to die from using one of his potions. It would be hard to live with the knowledge should it ever happen.

Before creating the Mana Potion using the Imp Blood Vial and Imp Gem Richard checked and confirmed his progress. 45/50 unique items made. The message said that he needed to create a unique item. Did that mean that the potion had to be different than any potion that he had made before? Or did it mean that the recipe needed to be different?

He created the Mana Potion using the materials from the Imp Dungeon and held it in his hand. It looked strange. While the Black Beetle Mana Potion was all dark and smoky looking glass, the imp one was clear. Inside the vial a light orange liquid sloshed around. Even though it was a complete potion the solution still looked similar to the Imp Blood. And the stopper glowed a similar blue as the beetle, slime, and cabbit Mana Potions.

Finally Richard checked his progress. 46/50. So it did count as a unique item. Which probably meant that it should be counting recipes instead of items. The next test he could do would be to try and create another Mana Potion using a Blue Core Vial and Imp Gem. When he did so it came out as he expected, Weak Mana Potion+, just like the Mana Potion that was created from a Blue Core Vial and a Black Beetle Stomach.

When he checked the progress it had again increased. 47/50. Which meant that each combination of recipes counted as a unique item. Or rather that each catalyst and a different vial would count as a unique potion. That meant he could run through all of the combinations in order to grind his unique count up if needed. It also meant that he was going to have even more potions on hand that would both need to be tested or gotten rid of.

With the fun stuff out of the way Richard finally turned to the Mushtaur Hoof. Last time he tried to work with the drop he had a not fun phone call with Nora. Not that she wasn't pleasant, just he didn't want anything to do with the guild politics. Only that was also the moment that his phone pinged. His father had arrived. Richard took a look at the hoof and set back down on the table. It could wait to disappoint him until later.

Since the old man was his connection for the clan, Richard had asked him about getting them to test the effects of items he had crafted. Although his father was probably coming up the elevator there was one last thing that he wanted to check, and Richard called up the number of potions he needed to still make. 358/400. He was getting there.

***

"It's kind of like a shoebox," his father said when he stepped inside. "I mean. It's not bad. But don't you get bored of being in the same space all of the time?"

Richard shugged. "Maybe? I don't really pay that much attention to it. Reading and Gaming take me out of the space well enough. And I get to the park when I can."

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"Oof. I remember when it was free to walk in the park. But that was before monsters could be lurking just about anywhere."

Richard pointed to the mess on the kitchen table. "Here are the potions. Sorry, I would have packed them up. But I got lost trying to get them ready for you." It really was a mess and something that he wouldn't have gotten away with when he was living with his parents. He cringed inside when his father saw it. And he promised to try and clean a little more.

"Hoo? That's a fair number. They all look a little different huh?"

"Yeah. The vials are made with drops from the dungeon. Which gives them unique looks. Which also kind of bit me in the behind a few times already."

His father ran his hands over the potions, taking time to look at each one. "Most of these I have no idea about either. We'll go through what we can today. Worst case I'm sure there are plenty who would be willing to try one or two just for the fun of it. Is this all of it?"

"Oh. Well. Maybe I'll toss in some other things that I have," Richard said and went into the cupboard. There had been some space on top and he had stuffed the eye drops onto it. He grabbed the jar that they had ended up in and handed it to his father. "These ones are from the other day. While the ones on the table I made today. I was waiting on a number of deliveries from the DC and wanted to do it all at once."

"We are going to need a bigger box," his father said and placed the jar onto the table. He looked around the apartment and then turned to Richard. "You said that you were making some today? But I don't see a setup for making potions? Unless it's hidden behind the door over there?" he asked and pointed to the far end of the apartment.

"Ah, that's the door to the bathroom. And uh. Well. I'm S-Rank right? I have an autocraft ability that shows me recipes for drops that I've interacted with."

"Wait. What?"

"Right. I uh," Richard said and looked around the apartment. "I can show you. One moment." He had taken extra drops from the Beetle Dungeon to make into potions if he needed them. "That reminds me as well. Where did I put it?"

It took more time for Richard to remember, but he found the Large Mana Potion between his bed and the wall. Due to it being larger than the others it was harder to find a place to store it. "Here's another potion. The recipe said that it would be dangerous to drink more than that all at once." He handed it over to his father. "I think that the spare drops are here," he said and ducked under the kitchen table. There was an old crate that he had found somewhere that was currently filled with junk. He fished around and retrieved a Black Beetle Carapace and a Black Beetle Bulb.

"I think that you need some better storage options, maybe even a bigger place. Kind of feels like you got stuff squirreled away everywhere."

"Ah," Richard looked up at his father. "You're not wrong. But I kind of like the place. Windry, one of my gaming friends, is at me to move to somewhere more secure. She's the one that got the things on the windows."

His father squinted at the windows and shook his head. "That's a lot of tech for such a small apartment."

"I thought the same. But she's been rather worried about me. She's older by a fair margin so it's probably motherly instinct or something." Richard placed the carapace and bulb onto the table. "So if you watch I'll make a potion."

Once he was sure his father was looking, Richard went into the recipe list, selected the Black Carapace Vial, and confirmed its creation. The carapace on the table faded away and he pulled it from the crafting window and placed it back onto the table. "Like that," he said.

His father frowned. Picked up the Black Carapace Vial and said, "Go on."

Richard nodded, took the vial back from his father, picked up the bulb in his other hand and created the Flash Potion. When it finished he pulled it out of the autocraft window and handed it to his father. "Jackie really likes these. She's been by twice now to get me to make her some."

"She's been working with the others to try and clean up any ratters that are left. So far she's found a couple of warrens. So that is good. But… they are so hard to wipe out. We aren't done with them yet. Not by any means." He shook his head. "Have you shown anyone else about this autocraft of yours?"

"Just Windry so far. I've known her for over a decade and trust her."

"So your friends before your family huh?" his father asked with a smile.

Richard coughed. "Well. I was still trying to figure things out. After… a bad experience, I wasn't sure if I should continue selling potions or not."

"And what did you decide?"

"If I can save lives I'll continue. That is what I decided. Otherwise if someone could have been saved by one of my potions, while I didn't kill them myself, I certainly didn't help them when I had the power to help."

"That's a wise decision, Son. I'm proud of you. Just… please try to keep safe. I don't know what your mother will do if you go missing. It was bad enough with my brother."

"I'm trying now. It's part of the reason that I always keep a Flash Potion with me," Richard said and pulled the one from his inventory slot. "Got an inventory slot when I leveled alchemy up. It's been handy so far."

His father took one look at the potion and laughed. "I can't believe that you managed the thing that everyone wanted. Seems like if you want an inventory you just need a crafting skill to reach S-Rank first."

"It's only good for Alchemy materials so far. So it's not as good as one that will fit everything."

"Don't knock it. Being able to take more of anything with you is always a good thing. If you were pushing dungeons it would be great to have you around. Though that also brings in the problem of what happens if the inventory guy gets got."

"I'm just happy making potions and staying on the low floors," Richard said. His father had just given him another reason to not let anyone know about his inventory. Being a mule to a red guild as well as a crafter would be hell. Or even for a normal guild.

They packed up all of the potions into a couple of boxes that Richard had laying around. It ended up being a fair number with all of the scale potions, eye drops, and the Mana Potions that he had laying around.

"So you'll be wanting data on all of them right?"

"What you can get, I'll get a list ready in the car. And I'm not sure how to measure things like the Mana Potions. But yes, whatever they find out. And I'm sure that I mentioned it, but the Sigil and Dampening potions aren't for drinking. And I guess the Poison Potion as well. There is a Cure Poison Potion in the lot. So in the event that someone does get poisoned it should help them."

"That's… a good thing to have. Some of the clan members tend to take unnecessary risks at times. It makes for fun and games until someone gets hurt. Then we end up with another reason, another person, to sound the horns for."

Richard tried to smile. "I hope that at the very least these potions can save them, and not cause them to fall off the wall like that one the healer mentioned."

"Ah? Benedict? Yeah he was a riot. Also an idiot. I wasn't there that night. But from what I heard they were beer ponging up there. Why the top of the wall even I don't know," His father said and shook his head. "Like I said, some of the clan are funny in the head like that."