The Autocraft Alchemist

Richard and Windry walked deeper into the second floor of the Slime Dungeon. And while they kept an eye out for the supposed Double Slimes they first ran into a pair of slimes instead. The two slimes were easy enough to kill as they went down in one hit.

The growth from his levels had been enough to not notice the increase in difficulty between the first and second floors. While the tougher slimes probably would have been a problem to Richard if he had tried the floor when he was still level 3. Though probably might have been a strong word. More like he would probably need a second hit to finish a slime off. Which probably would have put him in trouble with the second slime.

After a couple more combats Richard and Windry finally came across the target of interest. The slime tumbled through the grass in an erratic pattern. Though at some point it noticed them and started making for Richard who was in front. The color of the slime was a slightly deeper blue than the ones on the first floor.

"Think that they hit hard?" Richard asked as he stepped forward a little more.

"Probably? Though with your stats who knows. I wouldn't have a problem with it."

"I guess that there is only one way to find out," Richard said and aimed his club at the slime. It felt like it had been forever ago when he tried tanking hits from the slimes on the first floor. And certainly not like the couple of months it had really been.

The slime continued closing the distance and appeared to be bigger than the slimes on the first floor. Maybe by a third or so. And Richard decided that a different two handed approach was better. He had been planning on trying to bat the slime away. And instead he placed one hand on the handle and the other on the business end and he braced for the slime's attack.

When the slime finally came within range it compressed itself short and then launched into the air. The movement had been so fast that Richard almost missed it. And the slime impacted his club with enough force that he was sent stumbling backwards. Windry was there the moment that the slime landed and her slash cut it into two. At least that was how it looked to Richard at first. If he hadn't known what the Double Slime's ability was he might have let his guard down.

Before the slimes could fully take form and get its bearings, Richard slammed his club down on to one. While Windry had already taken care of the other.

Richard had been shocked at the impact from the Double Slime. And if the slime had landed on his body it would have been enough to put him out of the fight. Maybe even with a need for healing. Which made him wonder how Gem dealt with the force of the things that she tanked? She was smaller than him and she showed less of an issue tanking hits from the Umbra. And, between the two, he was pretty sure that the Umbras hit harder.

The bodies slowly faded away and he stooped down and picked up the two drops. "Two Blue Slime Cores. Which is what I expected considering my luck," Richard said.

"What do you mean your luck? If anything you've had better luck than most explorers. Probably a large number of them combined."

"I mean. I guess. But still," Richard said. "Would be nice to see something different other than the default drops all of the time. Though I probably need to go deeper for that."

"I think that we need a third before we attempt the next floor. It was a good rule of thumb when I started out. And I'd rather have more people to depend on than being outnumbered by monsters."

Richard looked around the second floor. It was spacious enough that they couldn't see another party. And he could see several trails in the grass where slimes were passing through. "I think that this floor would be enough for now. I just wanted to get out of the house and try something new. Without going to Rowan."

"Right. And I'm good for some more. Still need to get the kinks out of my back. At some point my kids need to realize that I can't just be handed 5 year olds anymore," Windry said and tapped a fist against her spine.

"Wouldn't the stats from the System help with that?"

"Yeah they do, but only if I'm ready for it. Having people randomly drop kids into your arms isn't something to get used to. More so when you have to be careful due to the supernatural strength given to you by an otherworldly intelligence."

"Intelligence? Are you sure? I always thought of it as more of an automated system or something." Richard said.

Windry leaned closer and said in a whisper, "Be careful. It can hear you and doesn't like to be talked down to. It might just steal your levels."

Richard blinked and considered calling up his status to check. Only he noticed the hints of a smile at the edge of Windry's mouth and shook his head. "Can't believe that I almost fell for that," he said.

Windry crackled and led the way towards the next combat.

All and all the Double Slimes were more gimmick than substance. Richard found them to be rather easy to deal with, by dodging instead of tanking, and wondered how he would have fared on the second floor by himself. Though he also remembered how Windry acted about needing another person on the next floor. One on one was fine, but when there was something else that might get the jump on you it made sense to play it safe. Maybe in a different world it would have been possible. Instead of dwelling on it, he put the thought out of his mind.

They stuck around the dungeon for a few hours. And in that time ended up fighting against 6 groups of regular slimes and 4 Double Slimes. Which gave them 12 Blue Slime Cores, a Healing Flower, and a Slime Puck. What would have been a good day's haul for Richard before had become subpar. He started comparing it with making potions and selling them at the guild, but then stopped. Dungeons and crafting were connected, but were really two different worlds.

Windry checked out and went outside while Richard got the receptionist to process the materials. He had some plans for some of the drops as well as for some that hadn't dropped. And Richard exported the Healing Flower, Blue Slime Puck, and 4 of the cores. In addition he bought another flower, puck, a pair of Wind Gems, and a pair of Blue Slime Wings.

Richard found Windry outside in the parking lot leaning against her fancy flying car. "I'm pretty sure that I already know the answer, but you don't want any of the drops or money from them right?" Richard asked. She had already taken some of her armor off and stowed her swords.

Windry shook her head. "Just consider it as part of my subscription fees."

"Hey! Are you saying that you feel the need to pay to hang out with me?"

"Hah! You wish. It's just like playing a MMO. Which is what made me try exploring at first. And like I said, I don't need the money." She shrugged.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"How about this?" Richard asked as he handed her one of the Healing Potions that he had been carrying in his satchel. "Can't say no to something fancy like a potion right?"

"Fine. I'll take this from you. Just know that it's going up on my mantle. It's a unique potion with a different vial. Something that's probably going to be a collector's item should you ever figure out how to change the shape of your vials."

Richard sighed. "It's something that I have been hoping for, but the system doesn't seem to want to give me something different. Maybe if I level up alchemy some more? What does level 3 hold? What about level 4? Please don't say that I have to wait until level 9, or worse, that there isn't a way to change them."

"How would I know?" Windry asked and shrugged. "If it comes, it comes. If it doesn't, then it doesn't. If every wish came with a fish, then the world would be a smelly, fishy place."

"Huh. I wonder at what point people would stop wishing for things if all it brought were fish? What about places where there were food problems? Would they even have a choice in the matter? As they would be reliant on the fish wishing to eat?"

"No no. Such a world would never go anywhere. If at any time a person could get a meal without any effort, why would they even need to try? Since food was already taken care of they would just laze around all day eating fish without developing anything other than clothes and shelter."

"You really think that people would just waste away like that?"

"I'm more than sure of it. Given the lack of stress people would become no good, never leaving the house or trying anything new. And that would kill them, more from the lack of satisfaction in life than anything else."

"Whelp. Something that was fun to think about has become rather depressing. Thanks Windry," Richard said and patted her on the shoulder.

She beamed a smile up at him. "You're welcome Richard. Now did you want a ride home? Or are you going to hoof it?"

Richard laughed. "I'll take the ride please. Can we go to the other dungeons as well if you have time? I have a bit of shopping to do."

***

Richard paced back and forth in his apartment.

He found himself struggling to relax with the upcoming clan meeting. His mind churned over what the results might be. What effects the results would have, both for himself and the others. Some clan members would step forward to fight against the orc threat and whatever it will entail. And as much as the romance of standing on the front lines might have appealed to him at one point in time. There was no way that the current him was going to be able to manage such a thing.

He was a crafter and a weak fighter. Being in the front lines would be suicide. Richard's place was in the back, making sure that everyone had enough potions to stay alive at the very least. And maybe some utility to deal with anything unknown that the orcs might throw at them.

His mind wormed though his decision. Was it the right stance to take? While others were fighting he would stand by where it was safe. Did that make him a coward or was he just being smart? Understanding what he could and could not do. And not trying to push beyond that.

Richard stopped his pacing and sat down at the kitchen table and ran his fingers through his hair. It would be better to occupy his mind than to let it continue to run wild. And he decided to work through the backlog of the potions that he still needed to create. He had already crafted the ones from the New Berl dungeons. All that was left was the level 2 unlocks from the Welf dungeons.

First he placed the drops he needed from the Slime Dungeon on the kitchen table. The Potion of Soaring used a Blue Core Vial and a Blue Slime Wing, which cost $10,500 apiece. It had been somewhat surprising to find out that slimes somehow gained the ability to fly. And the wing was an eggshell blue color that felt almost weightless in his hand. While it looked to be made of feathers from a distance it was all one piece. And the wing felt like it had been made of some sort of foam. Once crafted the Potion of Soaring had a glow that was a similar color to the wing that slowly shifted between white and blue.

Next up was the Bouncy Foam Potion, which took a Wind Gem and one of the Slime Pucks that had just dropped. The Wind Gem was similar to the other elemental gems that Richard had bought in the New Berl market. And the rough looking green stone felt like there was a slight breeze emanating from it. The gems cost $8,000 each while the Slime Puck was much cheaper at $2,500. And once crafted the Bouncy Foam potion had a stopper glow that was a blue color the same as the first floor slimes.

From the Imp Dungeon were the Mana Eye Drops. Which were made from the Imp Skin, Imp Horn, and Imp Eye. The skins were $6,000, the horns $4,250, and the eyes $3,000 apiece. Richard found it interesting that the new eye drops took the same kind of monster parts as the Low-Light and Darkvision drops did. They even looked the same too, just with the skin having a cyan color to it and the dropper portion being a bit smaller. While the recipe also created two droppers like the others.

As for the Fire Breath Potion from the Orthrus Dungeon it used an Orthrus Fire Sac, which went for $7,500 each, and an Orthrus Skull Vial. The fire sac looked like a bigger version of the Black Beetle Stomach. Only it was a deep red, 3 times the size, and gave off a warm heat.

Once the Fire Breath Potion was crafted the stopper glow was stronger than any other that Richard had seen before. And the reddish orange glow was almost enough to serve as candle light. He tinted the windows to see how strong the effect was. And the way the flickering light pooled over the vague skull shaped vial looked somewhat creepy. Though it still wasn't as bad as the Ratter Fetish Vial that was still at home in the boot.

The Mushtaur Hoof potions weren't anything special. Each one took a vial and a pouch of spores. And the glows were fairly dim. Dark Blue for Sleep. Green for Poison. Orange for Berserk, Yellow for Paralyze, and an off white beige for Confusion.

Richard had spent a moment considering if he should make the potions or not. While the sleep and paralyze potion might have some use for beneficial means. The other potions probably only had uses for combat. And while he was afraid that they might see use against humans. His father trusted the clan and that was enough for Richard to decide to do the same.

With the second Poison Potion recipe it meant that Richard had found 3 potion types that could be made from different catalysts. There were the Black Beetle Stomach and Imp Gem versions of the Mana Potions. The Healing Flower and Healing Herb versions of the Healing Potions. And the new Mushtuar Poison Potion along with the Orthrus version. Was there some meaning to having two recipes that made the same potion? Or was it just that there was more than one way to make a potion? He spent more time than he would have liked just staring at the Poison Potion.

Richard added the new potions to the boxes containing the potions from New Berl. Though before he went too far he also took the packing paper that he bought and made sure that the Acid Potions and Fire Breathing Potions were wrapped. And that the two potions were in different boxes. Just in case. There hadn't been a problem so far. But most of the rules telling people not to do stupid things were the result of someone doing that stupid thing and hurting themselves.

Before Richard had finished packing his father sent him a message about meeting with Jackie and Edgar again. As well if he had any more potions that he wanted to test. It seemed like maybe the clan leadership was thinking the same as him. More options meant more solutions to any problems with the orcs that might appear.

He responded back that he was working on a bunch at the moment. And that would be good for any day coming up. Which, considering that it was already Thursday again, only really left Friday as the clan meeting would be on Saturday. The message back from his father confirmed as much.

Richard then took a break and helped himself to a couple of beers that he had in the fridge. He had been feeling the alcohol less and less as he leveled. Which meant that he needed to drink more to feel any sort of buzz as all. Which meant that beers had become little more than fancy soft drinks. And he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Sure it was great to still be able to enjoy the drinking part of the hobby. Being able to relax with a beer was the other part. And he needed to see if anywhere made craft beers marketed towards explorers.

With all the potions packed in boxes and ready to be tested Richard found himself with spare energy still. And Richard decided to go for a walk and to grab something to eat while he was out. While there weren't any new places that he had his eye on. There were always the old favorites. He wasn't feeling like sitting down anywhere. So something to go. Maybe a Rock Curry? It had been forever since he had one of those. Firm mushrooms in a hot curry like gravy. Richard knew that he had already made his choice and left his apartment. On the way to the restaurant he even decided to splurge with double carb and getting both rice and flatbread to go with the curry.