The Autocraft Alchemist

There was a moment of tension as the Mushtaur charged in. When it finally came within her range Gem stepped forward. She then yelled out her taunt and the mushroom… thing adjusted its course to coincide with her and rammed against her shield. She slid about a half meter before she held firm and started swinging her mace into the monster's body and front leg.

Tina was already circling to the right in order to get a shot while Richard and Angel were a beat slower. Arrows zipped through the air and landed in the mushroom bodies that were growing from the horse body. As the arrows landed the Mushtaur pressed against Gem hard enough to push her back. It then reared back and slammed into her shield again which caused her to grunt as she held firm.

Richard had been looking for a chance to attack and found it right after Gem blocked. There was a delay in the monster's movement and he capitalized on it to land a two handed swing onto one of its rear legs. There was a satisfying thump, but nothing else. And before Richard could take a step back the leg that he attacked lashed out at him.

The blow chipped against his chest protector and caused him to stumble back. It had been quite strong, but his armor was enough to at least dull some of the impact. It took Richard a moment to get his bearings before he waded back into the melee. Having learned his lesson the next time he attacked Richard was ready for the follow up kick and scrambled out of the way.

After several exchanges he managed to get the leg he was attacking to break at the knee. The noise reminded him of how celery sounded if someone snapped it. There was an attempt by the Mushtaur to counter attack again. Only the limb didn't move the way that it wanted to and it lurched to the side with the busted leg.

The party didn't let such a chance get away from them and Gem managed to wound the front leg she had been working on. While the two archers had already turned both the mushroom and horse bodies into pin cushions.

"That was a lot," Richard said as he plopped down onto the ground. He was still feeling the blow a little. And wondered if he was going to bruise. With the level bonuses to his Endurance it might be enough.

"They can be rather tanky," Gem said in a low voice. She looked like she had weathered the combat better than him. And aside from a small amount of sweat at her temples she hardly seemed winded. Angel was flexing her fingers on her drawing hand. While Tina was already looking for the drops and picking up the arrows that had fallen to the ground when the monster faded away.

"Looks like two hooves. Which is expected I think," Tina said and placed the drops into her backpack. "Angel, I know you love this place. But are you hoping for something different?"

Angel shook her head. "I don't like it any more than the rest of you. But it's got the drops that I need. At my level it's cheaper to get them myself than to buy them with the no money that I'm making." She slung her bow around her shoulder and started to help with the arrows. "It's also for the experience. Where else can you find something that will just stand there and let you fire at it?"

"I mean. What about a firing range?" Richard asked. His question caused the two archers to smile at him.

"That's fine for the mechanical stuff. Drawing and shooting a bow," Angel said.

"But firing at a live target takes a lot more," Tina added. "So it's better to get out of the green house and experience the wind as soon as possible. Allows you to grow more, and it works for more than just crafting."

"Huh," Richard said.

"How are you feeling by the way?" Angel asked. "That hit should have hurt."

"I should be okay. It was more of a push. But I'm also glad that the armor helped a lot. If it hit anywhere else it would have probably put me down."

"You probably need to get a helmet," Gem said. While not wearing a helmet herself. She must have guessed his question as she continued, "It gets in the way, and the shield is enough for me. Also I'm tough." She raised her arms and flexed.

Richard just shook his head. And after checking his gear they continued to explore the third floor.

***

The next Mushtaur was easier to take down given that the party already had the experience. Richard continued with attacking the back legs to try and hobble it. While the two archers moved from shooting the mushroom bodies to the horse body. The damage seemed to stack faster that way and they were able to kill them even quicker.

After about 5 hours of farming they decided that it was time to call it. And the party made it back to the Dungeon Center without any issue or fanfare. Not that they were doing anything worthy of fanfare at all. Just grinding levels. But still, a little fanfare would have been nice from time to time.

In the end they had hunted 5 Walking Mushrooms, 12 Large Walking Mushrooms, and 4 Mushtaurs. Which led to drops of 5 Mushroom caps, 4 Still Living Branches, 8 Large Mushroom Caps, a combination of 15 Spore Pouches, 4 Mushtaur Hooves, and finally a Poor Healing Potion. Suffice to say that everyone was pretty stoked when the healing potion dropped. It wasn't a skill book, but it was still something on the rarer side of things.

Richard snagged two each of the Sleep, Poison, Berserk, Paralyze, and Confusion Spore Pouches. They would combine with the Mushtuar Hoof Vials, which he should already have 10 of, and would increase his unique item created count. While also giving the old timers at the clan something more to have some fun with.

"Alright," Tina said once everyone had gotten their share of $17,532. $13,500 of Richards was taken up by the spore pouches. "With our pockets full of drinking money, where are we going?"

Richard had kind of assumed they would go for a drink afterwards. Though probably not as hard as the last time, since no one had gotten hurt. "How about starting at that place nearby? The one with the 8 drink flights? There should be enough there to keep everyone happy?" He didn't remember the name at all. Part of the reason was because they had gone to so many new to him places that night.

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"I'm more of a craft soda type of drinker," Angel said. "Would they have some of that as well?"

Tina wrapped an arm around Angel's shoulders. "Get this, they have a wall of craft beer, a wall of craft spirits, as well as a wall of craft soda. The best part is that you can mix and match between the latter two."

"Oh hells yes, I'm in," Angel said and almost bounced towards the door. Which got a chuckle out of the others and they watched her.

"What about wine?" Gem asked with her soft voice. It was almost too low for Richard to hear it.

"While there wasn't a wall for it," Tina said and watched as Gem's expression fell. "Instead there was a whole cellar of it!" Gem elbowed Tina in the side and trotted toward the door where Angel was already waiting for them. "Let's get this show on the road!" Tina pumped her arms into the air and led the way.

Once they were seated they ordered drinks and food. Brock showed up at some point and joined in. When Richard asked if Mumford would be joining them Brock glanced over at Gem who was already on her third glass of wine. She was probably a couple of levels higher than Richard. And given that his tolerance had risen he wondered if she was even feeling it.

"Mumford didn't take too kindly to Gem getting injured the last time we were out. We think that it bothered him more than he let on. And while he's been around still, just not as much."

"Oh," Richard said. "Do you think he's going to quit exploring?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think that he is either. From what I remember he was working with a Master to learn blacksmithing from scratch. So that when he could afford a skill book he would have a foundation already. I can't see him throwing that away. But watching one of your friends get seriously injured…" Brock said and shrugged.

"What's this!? You two are looking way too somber for a dungeon after party," Tina said as she wrapped an arm around the both of them. "Now, I'm not suggesting that we go hard tonight. But with our stats it's going to be hard to even feel it. So how about a triple goblin screw? Just enough to put some hair on places that didn't have it before and make you feel all warm and cozy."

"I'm not keen on them-" Brock started to say.

"Too bad! I've ordered some already. And don't give me that look, Angel. I got them to make a non-alcoholic version as well!"

The drinks were delivered by a server with a curious smile. Tina didn't give anyone any time to think things over before she led by downing her shot without hesitation. Richard made eye contact with Brock who only shrugged. And then tried it himself.

It burned going down and then tasted somewhat sweet. He felt his stomach warm up. But the burning didn't stop and he grimaced. Looking around the table everyone but Tina was wearing the same expression as him while Tina looked on and laughed. Her flushed face and subsequent coughing fit showed that it bothered her as much as everyone else. Richard somewhat came to understand the look that had been on the server's face.

***

When Richard woke he cursed Tina in his mind. The first time that they had gone out she was rather calm and sensible. But then again it was right after Gem had gotten injured. Last night Tina had been a terror and truly let loose.

He had managed to escape at some point and hole up in a motel that had been nearby. Otherwise there was no telling where he might have ended up. His phone had a message from Brock naming him a traitor. So it probably went from bad to worse after he had left.

While Richard had been somewhat casual in his dungeon exploration, for the others it was their way of life. Risking their lives in the dungeon was a career to both make them money and raise their levels. As well as get materials to raise their crafting levels. And he supposed that needing a solid source of stress relief was a given.

Ignoring the afterparty, the exploration had been a success. Not only had they made it to a floor that he hadn't seen before, they also did so without injury. It just went to show that not all dungeons or even floors were created equally. They had enough people to deal with the double Large Walking Mushroom and Mushtaur encounters. But if the same party had tried the third flood of the Cabbit Dungeon Richard didn't think that it would have gone as well against the Umbras.

Something good happened while they were grinding away, Richard had reached level 5. He had been hoping that it would have been sometime soon. And while it wasn't as many stats as when he leveled up Alchemy to level 2. It was still 1 more added to his lacking Strength and Endurance. Looking at his status he felt like he was a little lopsided.

But that was due to Alchemy counting as magical and granting those stats. How worse would the imbalance look if he got another two magic skills? Only such an answer would have to come later. At the moment he needed a hot shower to try and get his body to relax a little. There wasn't much of a bruise where he had been hit. But the day's exertion had been enough to leave him with some muscle pain.

Richard also needed to get over to New Berl before the market was over. When he realized that he rushed through the rest of his cleaning and ran for the train.

***

Chuck sat in his office. It was one of the highest ones that he was able to get, at least with his current position. The view looked out onto the busy street and was something that he hated at first. But he slowly grew to like it. Once he noticed that since he was so high up the people were so small and appeared to swarm around the sidewalks and streets. It felt right to him.

His plans for the guild had been progressing smoothly. Well, almost smoothly. While he hadn't been able to get Jarl to come to his side. A number of the other crafters were upset enough about how they thought things were being run in the guild. All it took was a sympathetic ear, a little socializing, some introduced misunderstandings, and promises of greener pastures should Chuck rise higher.

Looking down at his personal laptop Chuck went through those he could count on. Prominent crafters, blacksmiths, tailors, woodsmiths, some of Jarl's assistants, inksmiths. Two of the five vice presidents. And he was working on a third. That would be enough to get something done. Enough to make some real changes.

Nora was good at her job, yes. But she was spread too thin. Not being able to concentrate on both buying and selling. It would be better if he were to be the President of Buying. At least that is what he had been telling the others. All he needed was a little more control over the buying side and then he could show some better numbers.

Then he would be able to change the buying terms to be better for the guild. Make the crafters work for them, a few percentage points here and there for more benefits that they would never see. They would forget the promises sooner or later. He could even make it sound like it was the sales department that was pushing the problems their way. Pull more support from Nora so that when the time comes to take her role he would already have a leg up.

He chuckled to himself as he thought about what it must be like to have an even higher office. Would one day come when there was so much distance to the surface that he would no longer see the people walking on it? Maybe not with a President role. But then there always was the CEO or maybe even a board position.

Chuck couldn't wait. And he typed away at his laptop and continued to set the foundation for his plans into place.