World Walker Park [Magical Amusement Park Base-Building]

Luka and Sol stared at five freshly brewed potions. They were various colors, from gold to pure black, and filled a series of increasingly large glass bottles. The smallest was the size of a fist, the largest was a bowling pin.

"So where does the glass come from?" Luka asked.

Brewing potions wasn't actually brewing. All Sol did was place each reagent inside a special alchemy glyph and wave her hands like a child greeting a friend. The reagents then combined and out came a glass bottle filled with liquid.

"What do you mean?" Sol asked.

He blinked. "There were no glass bottles in the glyph circle."

"Sure, there were."

The raven on her head cawed.

Luka opened, then slowly closed his mouth. Were there? He replayed the memories. No—no there definitely were not. Before he could protest, Sol shoved the potions into a glorified milk carton carrier and kicked him in the rear toward the door.

"Go!" she snapped, her oversized pink heart shaped sunglasses sliding down her nose. She pushed them back up, acting like they were perfectly sized. "Make sure that crime-guy leaves us alone after these. I'm tired."

Luka fumbled with the potion carrier, holding it awkwardly in his hands because the fist-sized potion didn't exactly fit in the carrier. It was too small and could easily fall through the gap in the framing.

"Potion making is tiring?" he asked, not really thinking about the question. To him, five potions magically appeared on the table after he ventured into the garden to blindly search for magical plants he couldn't identify. Sol did not help besides the occasional mocking comment.

The raven just cawed at him.

Pausing at the door, Luka sighed and asked, "Late dinner with me, Eve, and Franky?"

Sol chewed on the question. "Is that girl going to be there?"

"Who? Annie?"

"The princess!" she said with bite. "The one enthralled with my nephew."

Luka eyed her suspiciously. "Most likely… why?"

She giggled. "No reason."

There were several things Luka could have said or done at this moment to hopefully prevent whatever Sol was going to do. He chose to do none of them and instead simply walked out.

***

Not particularly wanting to interact with Crime Lord Lanni again, Luka instead headed to his VIP suite at the World Tree Inn. Drop-off delivery was fine, right? There shouldn't be any need to hand deliver a crate of potions to the man, right? If there was, Luka decided he would play the otherworldly foreigner and call it a cultural difference. Because he really did not want to meet with Lanni again.

Where had the man been, anyways? Last Luka knew, Lanni was holed up in the Whirlpool Tavern, slinging cards to any guest who dared sit at his table. He was a shark. A cheat. A winner. Luckily, very luckily as far as Luka was concerned, adventurers were also sharks, cheats, and winners. And since the park catered to many, many traveling adventurers, Lanni wasn't winning as much as he hoped.

Or at least, that's what the rumor mill told Luka a few days ago. Where the man was now, he had no clue.

In through the lobby of the World Tree Inn, Luka passed guests checking in, making future reservations, and partaking in the various "free" amenities the ground level had to offer. Ressen and Jear had gone all out in designing, and since Annie was officially designated Ressen's godmother, she had helped in the process—specifically for Earthen things.

Luka passed a gaggle of halfling teens smashing glyph-lightened rock balls at each other with paddles in an intense game of ping pong. Opposite them were two couples taking turns stabbing balls with a cue into the pockets of a snooker table. A hallway down, a family of orcs commandeered the small Earthen-style gym, happily pumping iron and correcting each other's forms. He didn't look into the pool area, nor the sauna, but he heard splashing and whispers.

Despite the Earthen things, everything was a representation of the World Tree. Nature stood out, leaves, wood, moss—the walls breathed, the snooker table aided the losing couple. A frog watched the halflings bat a ball at each other from an alcove frog-pool in the corner, its eyes tracking the ball with scary precision. The pool was a natural spring, the sauna was fueled by lava from the undercrust.

Ressen was beautiful. That was all Luka could say.

Up the private elevator, Luka arrived directly in Crime Lord Lanni's penthouse. He used his I-introduced-the-concept-of-penthouses-to-this-world-and-am-also-the-creator-of-the-amusement-park-next-door key to get in, a perk of the job… or was that creepy?

Luka sighed, setting the crate of potions down and quickly writing a note.

"…signed World Walker Luka," he narrated to himself, leaving it on top of the potions. You couldn't miss it! As long as Lanni entered through the elevator, which was realistically the only way to enter the penthouses, then he'd see the potions… hopefully.

As he turned to leave, a voice called, "Who's there!? I have a weapon!"

The voice was nasally, like mid-spring when the pollen count was highest nasally, and wasn't helped by the big suck the speaker did, inhaling a strangled breath through a full sinus cavity of ichor.

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"Uhh, World Walker Luka here," Luka quickly yelled. "Just dropping off a delivery for—"

The person-who-definitely-did-not-have-a-weapon stumbled out of the master bedroom. They were hunched, bundled in a bathrobe with a layer of caked snot and a glue-on handkerchief near the collar. Crime Lord Lanni had seen better days—which explained where he'd been these last few days.

Sick with a brutal cold.

Luka's mind reeled. Sure, he could play off giant snakes, ignore strange social traditions, and allow odd magical godly events to roll off his shoulders. But here, standing before a sick Crime Lord, he had no clue what to do.

"Here are your potions…"

Lanni's eyes darted from the World Walker to the crate and back. "Okay," he said, pathetically. He sniffed, long and loud—then started hacking up phlegm for such a terrible sin.

Luka stood awkwardly, then bit his tongue, annoyed with himself. This man, regardless of crime status, was a park VIP. And that deserved some perks… like what, though? This wasn't Earth. Luka couldn't simply run over to a pharmacy and buy a decongestant.

But then again, he could use magic. He activated his artifact ring.

Requirements for a Potion of Decongesting (high grade):

1 mug of warmed sugarlily leaf tea (fresh or dried)

1 spoonful of diamond-stripped bee honey

Tea and honey? Luka asked himself. That was it? No strange chemicals or unpronounceable pharmaceuticals? Two reagents… alchemy reagents. Did this potion need an alchemy circle? Or could he simply stir the honey into the tea? He inwardly sighed—he would have to ask Sol. Hopefully she had the reagents in her unorganized mess of a garden.

"You're sick. I'll be right back with some tea."

Lanni wobbled on his feet, his eyes unfocused. "Okay." With that, he turned and stumbled into bed.

Luka didn't waste time and rushed back over to the alchemy building before Sol left for the day.

***

"Interesting potion," Sol murmured, inspecting the color and viscosity. "It's like tea… with honey!"

Luka blinked. "That's because it is tea with honey."

Sol luckily had both reagents and easily brewed the potion. It took mere moments, most of which were simply waiting for the water to heat up.

"No—" Sol flatly said. "This is a potion that requires tea and honey. The sum of the parts does not mean the potion is tea and honey."

Luka opened his mouth to argue that didn't make sense but stopped. Magic was involved, so she was likely correct, as odd as that may be. He reached out and took the potion. "That's for this."

"Who ever would have guessed a potion of such… potential was so easy to create."

"Potential?"

"Imagine a spring without fear of congestion? The world would progress unbounded during these months, instead of being locked in bed with a head cold." Sol locked eyes with him. "Potential."

Luka gravely nodded. He didn't get it at all. "I understand completely," he said, however.

***

The trip back to Crime Lord Lanni's penthouse was quick. Luka found the man cuddling a blanket in bed, shivering like a wet dog.

"Here, drink this," he said.

Lanni stirred with a shock, like he didn't know the World Walker was standing over him. "W-what is it?" he asked, voice dull.

"Tea with honey."

"What is that supposed to help with?"

Luka sighed. "It's a potion of decongesting made from tea and honey."

Lanni stared. "Why didn't you just say that?" He took the potion slowly, popping the cork and downing the whole thing. He stiffened as the effects took over his body. In seconds he could breathe, the mufflyness of his ears waned, and his throat drained of stuff. In minutes he felt like a new man! A healthy one who could rejoin his men and enjoy his impromptu vacation.

Yet, he had something to take care of first. "I will buy this potion's recipe from you. One hundred thousand gold."

Luka's eyes went wide. That was more money than the park had made so far. "What?" he asked, voice quivering.

"Is that not enough? One hundred and fifty!"

"It's just—"

"Not another word, Luka!"

Both men turned, finding a woman of flowing golden light. Goddess Tippy stood, divine as ever, hand on her hip and a scowl on her lips. She stared at the empty potion Lanni held, a hint of amusement overshadowed by immense annoyance.

It had been a number of days since Luka had seen the goddess. And, as far as he knew, the gods—including Tippy—were not supposed to show themselves to him for the time being. She and God Neb had shown too much favoritism, and the other gods had complained.

So, for Tippy to be standing here, something was wrong. Luka's eyes gravitated to the empty potion before slowly inching toward the goddess.

"Uh…" Lanni mumbled, words fleeting. "Are you—"

"A goddess, yes. Do keep up, Crime Lord," Tippy sarcastically said, turning her attention to the World Walker.

"Been awhile," he said.

Tippy nodded. "How you been, kid?"

Luka raised an eyebrow. "Kid?"

She shrugged. "Every mortal's a kid to me, even the 'immortal' Jear."

He supposed that was true. But still. "What did I do this time?" he asked, somehow already knowing it was his fault. Even though he didn't know what it was.

Tippy pointed at the potion. "Do not share the recipe for that potion, ever, under any circumstances. Sol already understands the potential such a brew has and knows to keep her mouth shut."

Luka frowned. "What are you even talking about? You and Sol are just messing with me, right—"

Tippy snapped her fingers and implanted a vision of the future in his mind. Warehouses filled with the potion marked the start of the end, their foundations holy sites for countless cults that sprouted from the potion's glory. Alchemists stopped innovating and researching—why wouldn't they? There was one potion to rule them all, and there was no reason not to make anything else.

That was when the ruination began. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Fires that spanned the continent. Fissures that rip into the world. Death. Plague. Mass migration. The vision zoomed out, and only potions of decongesting remained.

The memory faded and Luka pursed his lips. This was just another thing he had to simply let roll off his shoulders. Because why wouldn't there be a two-ingredient potion that had the potential to ruin the world? It would be silly if there wasn't!

"I'm glad you understand," Tippy said. "Goodbye World Walker."

"Bye Tippy," Luka said with a sigh. "Say hi to Neb and Rion for me."

She stared at him a moment before nodding. As her divine body began to glow radiantly, her sunlight-skin empowering a teleportation spell, a string of words fell from her lips. "I think you should grow your hair out. Best to stay away from barbers."

Then she was gone.

Crime Lord Lanni stared wide-eyed at where the goddess previously stood. "That really happened, right?"

Luka looked at him, turned on his heel, then walked away. As the elevator took him down, he ran his fingers through his hair, a chill shivering down his spine. He flinched from the feeling. But why? Tippy's suggestion was harmless, right?

The world wouldn't end if he got a haircut, right? He didn't know. But he sure wasn't going to find out.

"Guess I'm growing my hair out…" he mumbled to himself.