The Autocraft Alchemist

Jackie walked further away from the group with the Fire Breathing Potion in hand. Only everyone else also backed away a little more. Just in case. She then stuck her thumbnail under the stopper of the Fire Breathing Potion and flicked the stopper into the air. "Bottom's up," she said and downed the potion.

Rutger was the one who stood closest to her. He looked at her with his eyes squinting, then he sighed and asked, "How do you feel? Any burning of the well… everything?"

"No. I feel the same as before, hold on a second. There," Jackie said and a puff of smoke came out of her mouth. "I can somehow feel that I can now breathe fire. Hah. this is pretty neat." She stepped even further away from the others, took in a deep breath, then leaned forward and blew out. Instead of only air exiting her lungs a gout of flame appeared. It flew out maybe 3 or 4 meters before it plumed upwards. After several seconds she stopped and took in a great gulp of air. "Haha! This is pretty fun. I can sort of feel the heat. But it doesn't appear to be damaging me at all."

Rutger walked forward and laid a hand onto her. A moment later he spoke, "It appears to be harmless. At least for the moment. Though I wouldn't want to see what happens if you stick your hand into the flames." He gave Jackie a side eyed look. "Please don't stick your hand into the fire."

"Like I'd do that!" Jackie said and a small flame puffed out of her mouth. "Oh. Seems like you really need to concentrate on not using it. But I feel like it's more than just a limited amount of time. Like there is so much gas in the tank and I can only get so much out of it. Let's see how many I can get."

After a few seconds had passed Jackie blew out another gout of flame that was just as large as the first one. Then she waited maybe another 30 seconds and then fired out another. "Feels like it's getting close to empty. Also my throat is warming up some, so that might be a limiting factor." Once she finished talking Jackie tried the final time and the fire seemed to be a little less voluminous and it stuttered towards the end. "Guess that's it."

Rutger checked her again. "It seems like there's no lasting damage. Perhaps a bit of inflammation. But nothing to worry about and it should reduce over time. Probably not the best idea to try and use the potion back to back."

"Right, who's next?"Jackie said. She walked over to the boxes and picked up the other Fire Breathing Potion. "Richard, get on in here. You haven't had any of the fun yet."

"Uh. Well," he looked to the others but none of them seemed to be all that interested. At least not as much as Jackie had been. "Alright." He took the potion from her hand. Stood where she had been, then twisted the stopper off of the potion and drank it. There was a slight spicy taste to the potion and he could feel his body warm as it went down. Then it felt like a power had entered his body and had settled in his lungs. There was a distinct idea that he could breathe fire. But also the gas tank as Jackie called it seemed to contain only enough for a single breath.

Richard took in a deep lungful of air and pushed it out along with the fire that was inside of him. It was hard to tell how it compared with Jackie's given that he was so close to it. And as novel of an experience that it was, having his face all but be on fire wasn't an experience that he ever wanted. Or really wanted to experience again. Once the power was exhausted Richard felt the same as he ever had. "That's it for me. I don't think that there is anything left for another one."

Rutger was there beside him and Richard felt a chill as the magic passed through his body. "How do you feel?" Rutger asked.

"About the same as normal. The warmth from the potion is gone. So maybe a little colder."

Rutger patted Richard and the back and they noticed that Jeet and Kent had approached. "Given that the only difference between Jackie and Richard are skills and levels, one of those should have some sort of effect right?" Jeet asked.

"The result of both of those things should be stats, so it should have something to do with that right?" Kent asked. "If there was another potion then it would be possible to see how it works with someone who has stats closer to Jackie's."

"What if someone without the physical stats were to try it?" Rutger asked. "I have the levels and the skills, but the magical stats instead. While it felt that the size of the flame was similar between Jackie and Richard. There could be some change depending on the stat allocation."

Richard watched the three of them geeking out over the potion. Were they more interested than last time since they had a potion with tangible effects and differences?

"I'm sure that there will be another chance to use one," his father said. He approached Richard with one of the Centipede Carapace elemental potions in hand. "Might as well get in on the fun. How do these ones work?"

"That, I'm not really sure. I think that you just open and point. We should probably grab one of the ones that sounds less harmful first."

With Rutger watching on, Richard's father pointed one of the Stone Potions away from the group and the building. Then he popped the stopper with his thumb like Jackie had done. There was a second's delay before a shower of small stones came whistling from the potion. They were sent flying about 10 or so meters before they rained down onto the ground and skipped forward another 2 to 3 meters. It took maybe 5 seconds for the potion to be fully expended.

"Kind of like a sustained shotgun blast or something of the like," Richard's father said.

"Oh? What are those?" Indigo asked and grabbed a couple of them. "I kind of have an idea. But it's going to get me in trouble." She skipped off deep into the lot of the clubhouse with a potion in each hand. Then she pointed both of them forward and popped the stoppers.

Twin gouts of flame and frost shot from the potions and Indigo extended her hands so that one was to the right and the other to the left.

"Hrm, we should be fine here," Jackie said just as Indigo started turning in place. She spun around fast enough that the pressure of the potions had trouble keeping up all while giggling. After about the same amount of time as the Stone Potion they ran out of power.

"That was awesome!" Indigo said. Only Rutger was standing with his arms crossed and as he tapped his foot. "Also stupid to do without a healer nearby. Have I ever told you how much I appreciate you Rutger," she said and placed her hands on her checks, which were still gripping the empty potion vials, and smiled. His only response was to shake his head and grab a potion from the box.

"Get out of the way and let's see what this one does," he said. Once Indigo had returned he tried the potion and at first nothing appeared to happen. But when he pointed it more towards the ground, furrows were carved into it and Richard thought that he was able to see small silver crescent moons. They would appear at the moment of impact and then disappear not a second later.

"Was that the Sharp Potion?" Richard asked after the potion ran out. It was maybe around 5 seconds like the others.

"Right. Was wondering what it was about. Seems almost invisible."

"It's made with a Metal Gem. So it's probably some form of metal based attack. What that means I'm not sure. But it seems to be just as dangerous as the others."

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"Just not as obvious," Rutger said and gestured to his father whose skin looked like iron. He was getting the others to try punching him. Though that ended quickly when Jackie tried to wind up and really give him one.

"I think that's mostly everything that we can test here," Richard said. "All that's left are the status potions, acid ones, some healing ones. And I guess the Mana Eye Drops."

"Mana you say? Considering how the other ones worked…" Rutger said and fished through the boxes. He grabbed the droppers and looked to the others, shrugged, and dropped one drop into each eye before handing it off to Richard.

"What do you see?" Richard asked.

"I'm not sure. There seems to be something more there. Hanging about the world. Everything is a little fuzzy. Richard, you try them all well," Rutger said.

Richard nodded and placed an eye drop in each of his eyes. It stung a little bit but after he blinked the feeling went away. The world looked the same. Only there was some sort of film on top of everything that he could see. It colored everything in a sort of warm yellow color.

"Let's get two more people to use the other one. And then somebody try a skill or something," Rutger said. Kent picked up the remaining Mana Eye Drops, used it and passed it over to Richard's father.

Then they watched as people tried using their skills. Jackie jumped around. His father stood with his arms crossed and mentioned something about not having anything suitable. While Indigo tried to Taunt Jeet who was tossing stones at her while missing.

"Yeah nothing. Probably because everyone here is physical. And Richard only has a crafting skill. What do you guys see when I do this?" Rutger asked.

Richard watched closely, there was a small ball of yellow light that appeared in Rutger's chest. It then shot to his shoulder, down his arm, and flew out from his hand. What must have been a barrier appeared in place on the ground in front of him. It was maybe about two meters tall and sparkled lightly in his vision.

"I could see the magic start in your chest and then shoot out through your arm. The wall or barrier is visible to me. It's all sparkles. Does that sound right?" Richard asked and looked to Kent and his father.

They both shared a look. Squinted at where the barrier was supposed to be. And then shrugged.

"I don't see anything," Kent said.

"I'm the same. If anything it feels like my vision didn't change at all."

"Oh?" Rutger said and tapped a finger against his bottom lip. "So it seems that you need a magical skill in order for the drops to work. And usually barriers are invisible unless something is impacting them. You said you could see the magic gather and move through my body? Interesting. I think that we'll need to do some more testing with them. Just to see how the effect could be useful." Rutger clasped Richard on the shoulder. "I'm happy that you were here. Since it didn't work for the others. And it makes me wonder about my choice in friends…"

"What? We all value our pocket healer," Indigo said. "Don't leave home without one. Probably saved more people in the guild than most."

"That's only because none of you people have any sort of survival instincts," Rutger said and sighed. He leaned over to Richard and spoke low, "Make sure to find some caster friends as well. Don't make the same mistake as I did."

"Hey! I heard that!" Jeet said.

Since they had gone through all of the safe potions it just left the ones that were harder to test. The healing potions, the two acid potions, all of the Mushtaur potions. "Wait, there is another Poison Potion?" his father asked. He had been combining the two boxes into one.

"Right. It's made with different materials. That one is from the Walking Mushroom Dungeon over in Rowan. While the first one was made from the Orthrus Dungeon in Welf. They were both Weak potions, so I'm kind of assuming that they would have the same effect."

"That… I would have thought that there would be some difference between the two. As the Walking Mushrooms are much weaker monsters."

Richard shrugged. "That's totally possible. And that it's just that I haven't figured out what the differences are yet." He stepped to his father's side and looked over what was left. "Ah, there is one more potion that I wanted to ask about," he said and removed one of the Double Healing Potions from the box. "Has anyone heard about a Double modifier on a potion? Or what it might do?"

"Double? I would assume that it would be twice as strong?" Rutger asked.

"I'm not sure. It was an experiment that came up with something that I don't have any idea about. Given how the other modifiers are reported to work I can't think that it would increase the quantity of the healing."

When no one else had any idea they all turned to Jackie. "What are you all looking at me for? And just toss it back into the box. I'll get them tested one way or another," she said. They had planned to give the potions to her so that she could find an opportunity to use them in the dungeons or against the orcs and then report back.

"Alright," Rutger clapped, "we're done with the work for the day. Let's get to the fun part. Whose turn is it to bbq?"

"I think that it's my turn," Indigo said and raised her hand. Only the others all sort of looked away from her. The faces of those that Richard could see were wearing something like a grimace. "I don't mind cooking in the cold. You just have to turn the barbeque up some more right?"

"Maybe I'll help out," Edgar said. "That way the cooking should go even faster… Or better."

***

And once they finished eating and the clean up was done the goodbyes were said and most of the group went on their way. Which left only Richard, his father, Jackie, and Edgar. They took a table in the middle of the clubhouse and were trying to finish off the giant pot of coffee that Indigo had made.

"I know that it hasn't been a week yet," Jackie said and took a sip. "But have you made a decision on what level of participation you would like with the clan?"

With the way that things had been going with the Crafter's Union Richard was feeling petty done with them. Part of the reason that he was hesitating was needing a way to make money. While the clan would be one option, would it be enough for his needs? Or was he just being greedy? Living on less than enough since his last job has caused him to want to splurge some.

"As I mentioned last time, I have no problems creating potions for the clan. My rank of alchemy is a little," he looked to his father who nodded, "high rank. So at the very least I'd like that to be hidden. As for joining the clan…

"When I first started as an explorer I never saw myself doing more than entering the low levels of the 'safe' dungeons. So fighting on the front lines, while it may make me seem to be a coward, isn't something that I think that I would be up for.

"So if that isn't going to be a problem, then I would like to try and join the clan. Both as a member and as an alchemist."

Edgar and Jackie shared a look before looking at Richard with smiles. "That's great," Edgar said. "And putting someone with a single crafting skill on the front lines isn't something that we have ever done. When you have 3 skills and if you change your mind we can discuss that at a later time. For now your value is in keeping the clan, keeping us, alive. Which is something more important than a lone fighter."

"Edgar tends to talk too much," Jackie said and lightly elbowed him in the ribs. "We are thankful for your help, both in the past and going forwards. If you need anything let us know and we'll see what we can do. We'll also go through what you can make and put in some orders. Hopefully before any skirmishes with the orcs happen."

"That shouldn't be a problem. And all I need is the materials and I can make whatever. I can also send over an updated list of what I can make," Richard said and looked to his father. "Since I'm still rather new with alchemy we had been talking about finding someone to fill in the gaps of my knowledge."

"Right. Both of the alchemists that I knew are dead or moved away years ago," his father said.

"That was Xavier and Pamela then?" Edgar asked. After his father nodded Edgar continued, "Right. I think that there was another. Although I haven't heard from her since we retired. Cynthia, was it Jackie?"

"Eh? Cynthia? I thought that she went east? Like to the coast? After we retired her home province killed enough of the break monsters to get back on their feet. Once she heard that she went back home. Initially she was only here for work and then got stuck here when the break happened."

"Alright. We'll have to see if it's possible to get into contact with her or Pamela. Otherwise there might be another connection or two to the clan that we could use."

"The reason that we wanted a clan alchemist is that they could be someone that could be trusted," his father said. "So it would have to be someone like that. Otherwise it might be better to leave it."

Edgar looked at his father for a moment. Richard was somewhat afraid that they were going to get into it again. Only instead, Edgar nodded and said, "Alright."