The Autocraft Alchemist

Richard's father parked the truck. And then they jumped out and each grabbed a box of potions before heading towards the house. It was an all concrete one story building with a steel roof. The windows sat unhappily at measured sills. And if it wasn't for the front stoop with a small roof it would have been completely plain looking. All in all it reminded Richard of some of the 3D printed concrete houses that were built after the break. All cheap and quick to put up, with more of a mind on getting people somewhere to shelter than anything else.

Looking around outside of the building Richard found a small part of the dead grass had been mowed while the rest of the lot was left long. There wasn't much more to see other than a number of picnic tables, a fire pit, and a massive bbq. It was almost comical how sparse and spartan the place was.

Once they passed through the doors however he found that the inside had considerable work put into it. There was a kitchen along the one wall with windows looking out over the picnic tables. On the opposite side was a large fireplace. While the room was filled with round tables, chairs, and couches. There was a feeling of wealth to the room. But it had been worn down by use and time to a more practical and cozy aesthetic.

"This is a club room?" Richard asked the first thing that came to his mind.

His father smiled over his shoulder. "I know right? This here is one of the best kept clan secrets. It's a good thing that we managed the gathering exemption. But we kept this place hidden in case they ever changed their minds. Not that such a change would go well for them. This is an extension of our homes where we meet with family."

There was a group of old timers sitting at a table in the middle playing cards. One of them threw his hand down in disgust and noticed that guests had arrived. "Hal! Just in time. I'm pretty sure that they are all cheating at cards again. Except as the only caster here I can't catch them," he said and stood up. The man was one of the few old timers who still had a full head of hair. And it was pulled back into an all white pony tail. While he wore a long sleeve shirt and black slacks with suspenders.

"Rutger!" his father said and laughed. "I thought that you took up in one of those fancy 'retirement' homes over in Berl?"

Rutger smiled. "I was. Still am rather. But that doesn't mean that I can't get out every now and again. And really it's just a fancy apartment with other old folks," he said with a grimace.

"Hey, we are all old folks too!" The sole woman of the group said as she pushed all of her chips into the middle. She smiled at the other two and they both groaned and tossed their hands in as well. Her grey hair was short and neatly held in place with hair pins. While she was dressed in a loose t-shirt and blue jeans.

"At least try to let us win some times, Indigo." The one who spoke looked a little younger than the others. Which wasn't saying much considering how old the group must be. And his hair was more of a gray than a white like the others. "I knew that something was going on. But I assumed that I would be able to catch it. Why didn't you say anything sooner, Rutger?"

Rutger laughed. "Jeet! Why would I save you guys from losing chips?"

"We might as well move on to something more interesting," the last one spoke. He had a shaved head and was wearing an ancient looking punk rock t-shirt. "I see you brought your boy Hal. Though I don't know if it's his luck or not to meet with this group." He gestured at the clan members at the table.

"Don't worry about it Kent," his father said. Might as well make the introductions all around.

Rutger, with the ponytail, was the group's healer for the day. It seemed like they did put some thought into things. And had him on hand just in case something went wrong. While the other three were damage focused, tank focused, or somewhere in between. Kent, with the punk rock shirt, was the tank, Indigo a sword and board dual wielder. Which seemed somewhat counter intuitive to Richard. Maybe she also off-tanked? Which left Jeet, the younger looking one, who had a ranged build and usually used bows, but also said that he made do with darts or knives if needed.

"So what do we have here?" Indigo was the first to get into the potions. "Quite the selection. Ooh? Some of these I haven't seen since we shut down all the goblin and orc dungeons."

"Wait, you guys were shutting dungeons?" Richard asked. While he knew that it was possible. It wasn't something that he had heard happening before. People went into the dungeons to get levels and loot. It didn't make sense to destroy something producing as much value as that.

"Right. Before we handed things over the government we made sure that all of the real dangerous things were taken care of. If they screwed things up and there was a break then the humanoid monsters would do the most damage. One of the ratter dungeons was left behind because it was out of reach at the time. And it wasn't worth people dying to assault something that was going to be taken care of by another," She said. "They were pretty pissy with us after that." She shrugged.

"I see." It sort of made sense to Richard. Though it might be one of those things where someone from the future was missing the context from the place and time. And they wouldn't be able to truly understand. "Which potions did you see before? I had thought that many of these would be new ones. At least only the Cure Disease Potion seems like it's on the market."

"Ah," Rutger said. "You can't trust the market at all. The guilds and government are always trying to control information. Both for control and profit." He shook his head with a frown. "I wonder what kind of world the clan would have been able to build if left unhindered?"

"I don't think that we would have gotten along with the Hunters at all. Given that there was so much bad blood between us. It was better for another party to take things over. Otherwise… let's leave it at that for now. We are here for the potions today," his father said.

Indigo pointed out the Stoneskin and Stonemind Potions as ones that had been seen in goblin dungeons. While the Accelerated Thoughts and Sigil Healing Potions had been seen in the orc dungeons. Both as drops from caster type monsters on deeper floors.

"So it sounds like each dungeon can drop different kinds of completed crafting drops. Is it possible that the same dungeon would also drop the materials to craft the drop? Like say, that materials for crafting the Stoneskin Potion would also drop in a goblin dungeon?" Richard asked.

"Oh yeah, that's possible for sure. And, assuming that they do drop, It would just depend on the crafter. If they can both figure out how to use the drop while having a high enough crafter level to do so."

"I see." That line of thought gave him something to mull over. The drake carapace potions didn't appear until he had leveled up to 1. And there were probably a lot more recipes that he was missing. Considering that he had only seen a small selection of drops from nearby dungeons. With some dungeons having been destroyed just how many other recipes could he have found if there was access to the drops?

"Might as well get started then," Kent said. He had lined up 6 shot glasses in front of Jeet and slammed a potion in front of him.

Jeet cracked the potion open and poured it into the shot glasses in one smooth motion. "Heh, still got it," he said and slid a glass across the table to each of them. Richard watched as they tapped the glass against the table all at the same time and then downed the potion all at once. Having seen the action he mimicked it and shot his serving of potion.

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The taste was rather refreshing and there was a hint of sweetness. It made him realize that he hadn't tried one of his own potions before. Instead he had been so worried about money that he always sold what he had crafted. As the past him couldn't fathom opening something that could have sold for a sizable portion, if not more, of his monthly rent.

Richard waited for the effect to come but nothing felt any different. The potion had been in one of the Red Carapace Vials. So there was a limit as to what it could be.

"How do we feel?" Kent asked. He had produced a tablet from somewhere and was tapping away at it. Probably taking notes.

"Eh the same," his father said and made a so-so motion with his hand. Soon the others mirrored the same feeling.

"Wait," Indigo said and raised her hand. "I think that my hangover cleared up a little,"

"So like your headache?" Kent asked.

"Yeah. That. At least. It did a little bit I think. What was the potion called?"

"Clear Mind Potion," Jeet said and looked at the vial. "Haven't seen anything like that before. Which will probably be a trend today."

Before they got too far along Richard had them place the Dampening and Poison Potions to the side. Due to his feeling about how they shouldn't be drank, he didn't want to risk one of them ending up in their glasses. He also grabbed the Sigil potions and had them placed on another side. He was curious about them and why they would have dropped from an Orc Dungeon. But it was something to deal with later. Assuming that it was possible to find another Orc Dungeon.

Kent picked up another Red Carapace Vial potion, but instead of passing it to Jeet he handed it to Indigo. "I'll let you know the effect of that one later," she said and pocketed it.

The last Red Carapace Vial potion made it to the table. And Richard managed to spy the color of the stopper, the same pale purple color of the Soul Purifying Potion. After Jeet had passed the glasses around again he copied the others, a tap on the table, and then down the hatch.

At first nothing happened. But slowly a red glow appeared in each of the clan members. The light wasn't the same between all of them. As for Richard he felt something warm up inside of him for a moment before it faded away with the light. "I'm feeling… not really all that different?" he said.

Kent shook his head. "Something's different. But I'm not really all to sure. What was this one?" His light had been one of the brightest. Though not as bright as Art's had been when the ratter curse was purified.

"Soul Purifying Potion, kind of vague," Jeet said.

"We saw it work the other day," his father said. "On one of the Sword Souls that had been injured."

"From what I've been told it clears up curses. At least," Richard said.

Kent picked up the vial, looked at it for a moment, before he shook his head.

Moving onto the Green Scale Vials, Richard found when he tried the Speed Potion the world went strange. It was as if his body responded to his commands faster than he was used to. The effect didn't last long enough for him to get used to it. Though the old timers were rather impressed with the effect.

"This would be good for dealing with swarms," Indigo said. "Or running away from something too high level."

The Accelerated Thoughts Potion had a similar effect. But it was more as if the world had slowed down. And there was the added effect of his thoughts racing. It felt like there were so many other possibilities for potions from the drop list that Windry had put together. Only before Richard could fully explore the ideas bubbling up the effect ran out.

"Could be bad to get addicted to that feeling," Rutger said as he eyed the potion vial sitting on the table.

Next up was the Soul Revolution Potion which didn't really seem to have that much effect. At first Richard thought that he felt a slight amount of anxiety. But that slowly faded and was replaced with a feeling of peace. Was that from the potion? Or was it just because he was having fun with his father and the clan members? Everyone looked at the potion vial for a moment before they moved onto the next one.

Stoneskin turned out to be exactly what it said it was. A grey barrier appeared on top of their skins and the clan members flicked away at it. The effect was short, but that was probably due to only drinking a 6th of the potion.

While the Stomemind Potion was a little harder to tell if something was happening. No one there had a mental attack. But Rutger seemed to be against hitting each other with such an ability even if there was one. The Stonesoul Potion had a similar problem. And while they still drank it, there wasn't any noticeable effect.

"Ahh, these beauties," Indigo said as it came time to test the Sigil Potions. "They are something different indeed. If you drink one by mistake it'll run right through you. Like the next moment it will find its way out the other end. But if you pour it onto the ground," she said and then unstoppered the Sigil Healing Potion and poured it onto the club room floor.

As the potion pooled on the floor of the clubhouse it slowly worked itself into a red magic circle. And once it was fully formed a soft red light radiated out from the circle lines. "It'll keep going for however long. But if someone with wounds stands or sits inside of the circle they will slowly heal. It's maybe comparable to a healing potion of the same rank. But it's slower and seems to be better at healing deeper injuries. As well as being able to share the healing with others."

"How would that work with the Mana Potion then? Slower doesn't sound like it would be any better?" Richard asked.

"No," Rutger said and gestured to the magic circle. "But it's good for refilling your mana as you use it. Say you drop one of those and stand inside while dumping mana into healing spells. It will drip mana back over time. And it can be better than a normal Mana Potion as that someone standing inside will always be gaining mana back. Otherwise they would need to be down so much mana before using a Mana Potion to avoid wasting the effect."

When they poured the Sigil Silver Potion out it pooled and then tried to take on the shape of a silver magic circle. Only something went wrong and after it was maybe half done it puddled again. Was it something different than the other Sigil potions? Maybe it needed something else in order to fully form the circle? Without any way to determine what the potion should have done they moved onto the eye drops next.

It turned out that there were only 4 drops in each. And instead of two people getting to experience the effects, 4 people used the Low-light Vision Drops in one eye. "It's rather bright, isn't it?" Kent said as he squinted against the light in the room. They had already turned out the lights, and what little there was came in from the windows.

"Hold on, let me get the blinds," his father said and darkened the room. Though there was still some light streaming in from the gaps.

"That's better. It feels like the light is going a lot further. And it's a bit darker away from the light, but it feels comparable to my normal sight. It would be good to expand the range of vision that one gets from just a torch. Though that would also depend on how long the effect lasts."

"Will we be able to get it dark enough in here for the next one?" Jeet asked. "I'm going to take them anyway, cause I sure don't want to be left out." With a bit of ingenuity and duct tape they worked at blocking the light out of the room.

Then, with the lights on, Kent waited until they used the Darkvision Eye drop in one eye, and then killed the lights leaving them in as close to total darkness they could get.

When he opened his eye Richard found that it was like he had been dropped into a greyscale world. He was still able to see as much as he could before, only there was no color at all. The table in front of him should have had a green top, but his eye saw it as a shade of grey instead.

"This is pretty fancy," Indigo said. "There is a slight depth issue. Like I should be seeing more if I was using my normal vision." The others agreed with her, while Richard didn't really notice any difference.

It took about 10 mins for the effect of the eye drops to fully wear away. And then they switched the lights back on, freed the blinds from the duct tape, and then started arguing over who was going to clean the Sigil Potions from the floor.

Richard took a look at what was left, it was just the Large Mana Potion, Imp Blood Vial Mana Potion, and the Slime Vial Mana Potion. Outside of Rutger dumping mana and then trying to measure the effect there wasn't really any way to test them. So it was decided to hand them off to Jackie's group where they could do the most good.