The Autocraft Alchemist

With all of the potion testing out of the way their job for the day was done. And instead of going home right away Richard and his father hung around the club house. They started talking about the old days, memories of events and people that stuck with them. And then moved onto who had and hadn't bought the farm yet. While he listened with half an ear on the conversation Richard took in the furniture and decorations of the club room.

There was a distinct lack of anything like darts or pool. And mainly things like cards, chess, or board games. "What do you think of our humble clubhouse?" Kent asked with a smile.

"It's nice. But it seems like it's mainly, uh, cerebral? Or I guess thinking? Where are all the dexterity based games?"

Kent chuckled. "Dexterity is one of those things that goes up with Strength. For whatever reason the System decided on. So as a person levels, or levels a physical skill, they get better at such things." He nodded towards Jeet. "And those that have skills that focus on dexterity seem to have even higher bonuses or whatever you want to call them. Indigo should be the highest level here. Only Jeet can beat her 9 times out of 10 even though they both all have physical skills around the same levels."

Rutger changed his attention to Richard's conversation, leaned forward, and asked, "Have you taken any other skills yet?"

"No. A Bash Skill Book dropped for the party I was with the other day. But it was only F-Rank. From how it sounds a higher ranked skill would be better. Though I also wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not."

Kent and Rutger shared a look with each other and then turned as one to look to his father. After a moment his father finally noticed. "What? Did you two fall for me? This late in the game?" He ran his fingers through his hair and flexed.

Kent shook his head. "What are you teaching the lad? From how it sounds he almost took a physical skill. Alchemy is a magic one right? Might have just messed up his build."

"Yeah, just what are you teaching the next generation Hal?" Jeet asked and crossed his arms.

His father shrugged his shoulders. "Brenda didn't want the kids knowing about dungeons and such. So everything he knows is just what he's been able to learn all on his own."

"But his build!" Kent said.

"I don't know why you guys have to min max like that. Having skills in both magical and physical can be helpful. Didn't Rory work out well?" Indigo said.

"Sure. But he couldn't dps for crap," Jeet said.

"I don't really think that your sense of value should be used here, Jeet. Considering that you were one of the highest ranked dps in the clan, don't you think that it would be a little warped or biased?" Indigo shook her head.

"Now, now," his father said and waved his hands as tried to calm the table down. "Might as well give the boy the full rundown."

"There isn't much to say," Jeet said and turned to Richard. "The higher your stats, the better your skills will be. Say someone took 3 physical skills, and another took 2 of the same skills, but also a magical one. The second person would be worse with the same skill than the first person, even if their levels and skill levels were the same.

"Since they would be lacking the Strength and Endurance from the skill slot with the magical skill. And, yes, the rank of the skills does come into some play as well. But getting to higher ranks takes time or luck so it's usually ignored when considering builds."

"Okay. So what other skills should I take? And I assume that anything really handy is going to cost a fair bit."

Indigo shot Jeet a glare which caused him to shrug. She shook her head and spoke, "Don't be asking others for skill choices. Given that it's going to be your life on the line it's better if you are the one who made the choice."

"Ah." Given the history of the old timers there must have been a reason for such a stance. With the nature of the clan someone probably lost their life at some point due to bad advice from another. Maybe that was a thing in the early days? "So with a crafting skill in hand, one that gives me Magic and Willpower, it would make sense to take other skills that give the same."

"Right," Indigo said. "So what do you want to do? Take an attack skill? Or maybe a healing one? Usually you would want to double up on two types of the same. Since as a crafter you only have two slots to work with. You lose too much versatility by taking one of each. And it can make you mediocre at both."

"Well." What did he want to do? "I started out with just a club as I soloed the 'safe' dungeons. I hadn't really given it any thought, truth be told. If anything I've just been carried away with everything that happened."

"See Hal, if you have taught him about things then he would have used something with more elegance than a club," Jeet said.

"What's wrong with clubs? I've used them at times. Sure they make a bit of a mess depending on what you're smashing with them. But they've done me no wrong," his father said.

"That reminds me," Richard said. Maybe if he changed the topic they wouldn't bicker as, well, old men. "I asked my father about this the other day. But it seems like there are all sorts of rating systems for dungeons. What did you guys use back in the day."

His father rolled his eyes while the others looked at him with a smile. "Nowadays we just use numbers. It's easier and makes it harder for people to make a mistake. But in the past we used all sorts of ratings," Indigo said.

"There was one time we used your father as a benchmark. Ratters were .5 Hals. While Goblins were .75 and orcs were 1.25," Kent said and elbowed his father in the ribs.

"Har, har," Hal shot a glare at the offending old man. "Another thing that we did was gauge it against the dungeons we could fight in. Something like the slimes were easy enough. So everything was harder than those dungeons. While the waheelas were pretty tough and needed a good party in order to avoid injury. If you knew that, then the orthrus in Welf were also out of your reach. While the kobolds in Berl should be an easier time."

"So in the end…"

"You're overthinking it. Just use numbers as I told you the other day, Richard."

"Now, let's get rid of this dungeon stuff for the moment," Jeet said and stood. "We got some good cuts and things in the fridge. And even if it's a bit cold, it's sunny and nice enough to fire up the bbq."

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"Uoo hoo hoo! Now you're talking my language," Indigo said and jumped to her feet. "Tell me you got something good to drink as well."

Jeet rolled his eyes and pointed to Rutger. "You'll have to take it up with him."

"No! Please tell you didn't do it again. There isn't even a west coast anymore. Why do you cling to that style so hard?"

Rutger shrugged. "When you like something, you like it. That's all."

Richard could only shake his head as he listened to them bicker back and forth. His father turned to him, placed an index fighter against his lips, and gestured for him to follow. The two of them snuck off and were into the beer fridge without anyone noticing. Only the sound of a can opening snapped the other two out of their fighting and they rushed over for a drink as well.

***

Nora tapped a finger against her desk. After she had last spoken with Richard she had looked into things on the guilds end. Somehow Chuck had managed to get Argence assigned to Richard instead of Grant. One of his people over one of her own. She didn't even know that Argence had picked his side.

After that it was a bit of a witch hunt to just to see how far his influence reached. And Nora didn't like what she had found. He had put on a nice facade while he wormed his way into the guild. And now that he was powerful enough Chuck was starting to no longer hide his true colors.

There was a knock at the door and Argence stepped into Nora's office. Only she hadn't come alone and Chuck walked in right behind her. He had his hands in his pockets and a big smile on his face. One that bothered Nora more than it should have.

"Chuck, this was supposed to be a private meeting."

"Oh I know. But I wanted to come along with. To see what you might be talking about. I've taken in Argence under my wing and I take care of my own," he said, still smiling. Argence on the other hand was looking at the floor while her hands fumbled together.

"I wanted to see how her role as the dedicated buyer has been going, with Richard."

"It's been going well," Chuck said.

"Why wasn't Grant assigned to him as I ordered?"

"Grant is a little too old school you know? I wanted someone fresher faced to deal with someone that might be an up and comer."

"Don't you think that you should have checked things over with me first?"

"I didn't want you to spend any of your time on something as minuscule as a buyer change. That's why I was hired right? To help oversee things around here?"

Nora frowned and gripped her fists. It was frustrating how he had an answer for everything. "Why did Argence enter into a crafting room that was already in use? Policy should still state that such actions are to be avoided? As the trust of the crafters is important for the guild to function."

"It was a mistake, she didn't know that someone was inside at all. And she didn't even see anything, so no harm was done," he shrugged, "Plus I think that you need to update your line of thought a little bit. The guild already provides the crafters with enough as it is. Shouldn't they be willing to toss a little extra our way every now and again?"

"Only if they want to. Taking from them-"

Chuck waved his hand. "There was no taking. And if there was, then he should have been happy that it was the guild that found out. And not a red guild or another party that wouldn't be as interested in his well being."

"I don't believe that you're interested in anything other than your own profit." The words shot out of Nora's mouth before she was able to stop them. When he heard them Chuck's face twisted and reddened.

"You can't say that to me. I've worked hard for this guild. I deserve payment for my contributions just the same as the crafters do." He turned around. "Come along, Argence." And left the office with her following close behind.

Nora watched after him and sighed. Just where had the guild she joined gone? The crafters were the lifeblood of the Union. It was created by them, held up by the items they produced, and wouldn't exist without them. Chuck only saw the short term profits. Instead of serving the crafters he wanted them to serve the guild. To take everything that he could get his hands on while giving nothing more than the minimum in return. Treating the crafters as almost slaves in sweatshops.

She wished that Chuck was an outlier. But such sentiments had already risen up to those around her level and maybe even higher. Nora stood and looked out of the window of her office. The tall buildings and the neon signs were something that she had always loved to look at. One of the reasons her office, smaller than the other presidents, was where it was.

And yet somehow any enjoyment of the view had diminished over time. There was a card that she could still play. One that she hoped that she wouldn't ever need. And yet… she would play it if she needed to. Only she was afraid of what they would think of how rotten the guild had become?

***

Richard had a good time hanging out with his father and the clan members. It had been too long since he had a proper group of people to spend time with like that. There was that time with the party from the Cabbit Dungeon. But before that, he couldn't remember when the last time had been.

Probably when he was still working. Which just showed the problem with having such a social group. One based around dealing with the stress from work together. Once a person was no longer working at the job it became harder to stay in with the group. The lack of an income on his part probably didn't help as well. Though in hindsight, did he even like any of the people that he knew from that job?

Richard's father pulled the truck up to a parking spot in front of his apartment. "Did you want to see if I can find someone in the clan that knows alchemy? I know that we had a few…. But who knows where they may have ended up after so many years."

"That…" He was able to create potions and things just with the autocraft function of his skill. Did that mean that he could also create things like a traditional alchemist? Surely he could. It would require a whole mess of tools as well as materials to burn through experimenting. Which was one the reasons that Richard hadn't bothered with thinking about it so far. But if there was someone there, willing to help him learn the craft, wouldn't that be better? "I think that I would like to at least talk with another alchemist. One that I don't have to worry about selling me out to a red guild."

His father laughed. "With the clan you shouldn't have to worry about that at all."

"Shouldn't?" Richard had expected that his father would say that there was no chance of it. Given how tightly knit the clan members were, it didn't fit that they would be wary of one another.

"People still have their own desires, no matter how much the group means to them. There is always one who might strike out on their own. In the early days such people existed. Some left with grace, others… not so much. I can't expect that there would be any of the latter left. But time changes a person. More so with age."

"Then do you think that I shouldn't bother then?"

"Nah. I'll find someone, a clan member who has been through it all with us. That way it should be safe," he said and elbowed Richard lightly. "Now go do your thing. Your ma and I have a date tonight. So I got to go and get cleaned up before she starts blowing up my phone."

Richard shook his head, bid his father good bye and good luck, and watched the old man drive off. Should he really go through with learning traditional alchemy from someone? It probably would be better in the long run. What happens if one of the requirements for leveling up was to brew a potion instead of autocrafting them? Then he would be stuck. Since there would be no way of unlocking the requirements unless he had performed the action enough times.

There was also the fact that he was so close to the next level of Alchemy. He should just bomb through it right? What would be the best way? Healing Potions? Nora had asked for some. And they were easy enough to source from the Slime Dungeon downtown. Though carting the materials, or potions, to the Crafter's Union would be quite the chore.

Maybe he could take Healing Potions to the Dungeon Market? It took not even a moment for Richard to discard that idea. It wouldn't work. Since his potions had the unique looking vials. It was better to deal with the guild and not put a face to the crafter behind them.

Richard rotated his shoulders and felt the need to move his body. So he ran up to his apartment, grabbed his dungeon gear, and headed downtown to the Slime Dungeon. Maybe after batting practice with some slimes he would have a clearer idea on how to move forward.