Level One God

After scouring the wilderness for ingredients, the alchemist’s shop was a dream come true.

Exotic scents filled the dusty air, drifting from packed drawers, shelves, and crates. There was an entire section of mushrooms and fungi, where a wart-covered tomte and her small, bearded child were browsing. A pair of young human boys were laughing as they moved through the shop, lifting every oddly shaped plant they could, sometimes tossing it back and forth.

The tomte shopkeeper waddled out from behind the desk, probably on his way to shoo the boys out of the store.

I scanned my perception over the room, inspecting everything. I started with the crates full of herbs and plants. When nobody was watching, I pulled out my herbalist’s lens and identified the class of everything I saw.

[Moonshade Blossoms (Common) (Restoration)?]

[Dewdrop Lily (Common) (Modification)?]

[Firebell Flowers (Rare) (Destruction)?]

[Thundergrass (Rare) (Destruction)?]

[Ghostleaf (Rare) (Modification)?]

I desperately wanted to know more about them, but there was so much to look at. The shopkeeper was still arguing with the boys, who were tossing a big pineapple thing back and forth over his head as he tried to snatch it from the air. Lyria’s guard training must’ve kicked in because she spoke, her voice cutting through the commotion.

“Hey!” she said, strolling toward the group with purpose. “Quit being pests. And get out of here.”

To my surprise, the boys immediately stopped with shell-shocked looks. They seemed to shrink as she stalked over to them and began speaking sternly about not being barbarians.

I grinned, moving my attention to the fungi. The tomte with her child was at the counter now with a little crate of things they’d gathered. Everything on the tray was in the “Restoration” class.

I studied the fungi on display.

[Embercap (Rare) (Modification)?]

[Vampire’s String (Rare) (Modification)?]

[Frostveil Fungus (Common) (Destruction)?]

[Silverstem Mycelium (Common) (Restoration)?]

[Ghoul’s Gills (Common) (Modification)?]

[Bloodtooth Fungus (Common) (Destruction)?]

There was also a glass shelf stuffed with strange-looking objects. I saw everything from leathery wings to powders, teeth, and curled mushrooms that looked like severed fingers.

Is that a Corpse Finger? I thought. Despite wanting new tools, I had to admit I felt a little empty without the rot poison I’d used to get myself out of so many jams.

I inspected one of the finger-like mushrooms, and my stomach sank.

[Starbeast Talon (Rare) (Restoration)?]

Damn. To my naked eye, it looked like the Corpse Finger I had used to make my deadly rot poison. Apparently, it was something else.

I still scanned my lens over a few more items on the display.

[Phasebeast Core (Rare) (Modification)?]

[Hydra Venom Gland (Rare) (Destruction)?]

[Infernal Horn Powder (Epic) (Restoration)?]

[Void Walker Core (Epic) (Modification)?]

My mouth was practically watering as I looked over the parts I assumed were from deadly monsters. Wow. I’d already seen things on Eros beyond my imagination, but some of the names on these items made the hairs on my arms stand up.

What the hell is a starbeast? I probably should have hoped I would never find out, but I wanted to see all the creatures. More importantly, I wanted to buy everything in the whole shop.

I had fresh coins loaded in my slip space, after all.

We had started off by letting Bloody Steve negotiate a price for our goods, but that went poorly. He had made threats, lobbed insults, and, when that failed, tried simply insulting shopkeepers. Kass had taken over from there. We had let Minara and the townspeople head to a nearby smithy to sell the chitin weapons while Kass worked on calming down the shopkeeper and getting us a good deal.

After some slightly tense negotiations and exchanging of goods, the final tally was an eye-popping amount of money.

We sold the Carapax Queen’s Nectar for 45 gold, which I was told could have paid for an epic piece of Wood Rank equipment if we hadn’t had to split it. Instead, we stuck to our word and divided the money up 15 ways. Bloody Steve didn’t even get the “Iron’s share” he complained about. That made three gold each from the Nectar.

Minara and the townspeople got two gold for all the chitin weaponry, which meant 13 silver and about 33 copper each.

Last but not least, we had four of the eight carapax pheromone sacks I’d scavenged. Call me an asshole, but I’d only mentioned the four sacs I looted before using my bag to duplicate them. I reasoned that I’d found them myself, used my own item to duplicate them, and should probably deserve to keep at least a little something for the trouble.

I still felt just a touch bad about it, but not so bad that I imagined I’d lose sleep any time soon. I figured I stacked up enough good deeds to squirrel away a few things for myself occasionally.

The four sacs we sold earned us 40 silver each, for a total of 1 gold and 60 silver. Split 15 ways, we each got about 10 silver and 66 copper.

All told, it meant my cut was a whopping 4 gold, 73 silver, and 33 copper. I even had a few coppers left from my time in Riverwell to chuck into the pile.

Lyria walked back over once she’d helped dissolve the conflict with the shopkeeper and the kids. “Don’t get too excited,” Lyria said. “If he sees how badly you want this stuff, he’ll charge you more.”

“He can’t see through my helmet,” I said.

She leaned closer, lowering her voice as she smiled. “He doesn’t need to. I can practically see the drool dripping out of that thing.”

I cleared my throat and assumed a casual posture. I clasped my hands behind my back like an elderly dad on vacation. Just browsing. Nothing special to see here.

Lyria snorted. “Too casual.”

Ignoring her, I walked around and looked at more stuff. I couldn’t help myself. The names and classes didn’t necessarily tell me anything, but I still wanted to see it all.

[Sourfoot, (Common) (Modification)?]

Then, I spotted an extendable magnifying lens mounted to a wall. I approached it, still trying to seem nonchalant. I picked up an herb and brought it to examine with the lens.

[Creepweed, (Rare)?] Edible. Alchemical ingredient.

Using the wall-mounted lens meant I didn’t get the herbs class, but I could see that it was edible and an alchemical ingredient, even if I could’ve guessed that second part on my own.

Lyria didn’t look too interested, but she leaned in and glanced through the lens once I moved away. “Cheap shopkeeper,” she whispered. “This thing barely shows you anything. Maybe he couldn’t afford something better,” she added with a little less venom. “Usually, the shopkeeper can fill in any gaps if you ask. Just keep in mind you’ll be trusting him to tell the truth. But that’s a relatively safe bet. People don’t stay in business too long if they habitually cheat customers. Now, if you ever run into a traveling merchant? Don’t trust a word they say. Those assholes will cheat you out of your shoes and move to the next town.”

I nodded absently. Mostly, I was busy grabbing everything I could and holding it up to the lens. When possible, I discreetly pulled out my own lens and checked the various classifications of Destruction, Modification, or Recovery.

I was doing my best to mentally record everything I could. My memory had always been pretty sharp, and I was reasonably sure I could remember what I was seeing. If I spotted any of these out in the wild, I’d know what I was looking at.

I looked at some of the empty bottles. They were nearly the size of my Alchemist’s Kit, which would be a big upgrade over the tiny glass vials. “How much do you think these cost?” I asked.

I wanted to ask the shopkeeper, but he was still checking out the tomte woman and her child at the front desk. A slow stream of visitors was also drifting in from the busy street outside. I spotted our group standing in a loose circle as Kass spoke, gesturing wildly with his arms. It looked like he was telling a story about Perch, who was glaring more than usual and watching him as everybody else smiled.

I hope I can find a way to stick with them. I felt oddly attached to our little rag-tag group of adventurers. But I had a feeling our journeys would take us in different directions, at least temporarily.

Lyria shrugged, dragging my focus back to the shop. “Can’t say I’ve ever bought empty potion bottles. I couldn’t tell you.”

I wandered to the full potions and started holding them before the lens. Unlike the herbs, I got much more information about the potions.

[Potion of Calm (Common)?] Clears the mind, reduces stress, and provides a sense of peace.

That seemed like a luxury purchase to me. I wouldn’t mind having calm in a bottle, but I probably couldn’t justify spending money on something like that when my funds were limited. Somehow, I doubted full potion bottles were going to be cheap.

[Potion of Haste (Rare)?] Greatly increases speed.

“You’ll want to be careful with that one,” the little tomte shopkeeper said from my side. “Fast, yes. But it doesn’t come with coordination. I’ve seen people run themselves straight into a wall with that. One woman tried to scratch her forehead and wound up punching herself in the head so hard she was out cold on my floor for hours. I didn’t even rob her,” he added proudly.

“That was nice of you,” I said, forcing a smile. What a great guy. “I was hoping to ask you what some of this stuff does?”

“Of course,” he smiled. “I’ll tell you anything you’d like to know about a herb or potion. 15 copper per question.”

“Do I get to know how much something costs for free?” I asked.

“Oh, sure,” the shopkeeper said, waving his hand as if this was a favor he was granting me.

So generous of you. Asshole.

“Okay, how much for those? And this. Oh, and that?”

I’d pointed to almost everything I could see by the time I was done.

He gave me a strained smile. “The prices of potions vary by ingredient. Commons will be about 45 to 75 silver. Rares will be about 1 gold, 50 silver, and up to 5 gold. Do I need to go over the price of epics with you?”

“Um, no… thanks,” I said. “What about the empty bottles?”

“30 silver.”

“That kit over there?” I pointed.

“That’s a rare alchemist’s kit. It’ll let you make potions up to rare quality. Quite uncommon and quite expensive, I’m afraid. If you can’t afford the epic herbs, you can’t afford that. And don’t even start haggling because those are the best prices you’ll find in Thrask. All the other alchemists are so up their own asses they won’t use creatively contracted labor. They won’t even find clever… solutions to import taxes.” He waved his small hand as if that was all ridiculous and trivial. “But when you come to Trustworthy Quillon’s shop, you can rest assured that every corner has been cut, and no moral stone has been left unmolested.”

Did he just say he molested stones?

“Okay,” I said slowly. “Thanks.”

He nodded eagerly. “You’d be amazed what a little skill in gambling can win a tomte. Women, money, and even people.” He smiled wistfully. “Once, a man bet himself and his whole family’s labor for a year on a game of Vice. Let me tell you… I slashed prices for all my customers that year to celebrate.”

“Right,” I said. “Out of curiosity, do tomte pick their own honor names?”

“Ah,” he smiled shakily, rubbing the back of his neck. “Let’s talk about what you want to buy, hm?”

“Just a second,” I said, thoughts shifting back to the Rare Alchemist’s Kit he pointed out.

It made me think of my own Alchemist’s Kit, which looked nothing like his. His was a huge series of complicated tubes, heating elements, and even some magical components that looked like they would need to be fed mana. The whole thing was so large it would take up an entire desk.

I moved over to the identification lens, curiosity thumping in my chest. I pulled out my kit and held it up to the lens.

[Alchemist’s Kit (Angelic) (Gold)?]

I stared at the description, eyes wide. Angelic? That was a branch of the highest tier of rarity. I had never seen my Alchemist Kit or Voidgaze’s rarity before now. I couldn’t take my helmet off discreetly and check, but I suspected it was similar rarity. I wondered if I had needed a high enough powered identification to see their rarity.

“Hey! It’s fifteen copper to use that.”

I barely heard him as I handed over the coins. I definitely didn’t mention I had already used the thing dozens of times and probably should have owed several silver, then.

I wanted to find a shop with a better identification lens to see if I could read a full description of my weapon and maybe even my helmet. If my Alchemist’s Kit was actually angelic rarity, there had to be something I didn’t know about its functionality. If my helmet was equally rare, I assumed I didn’t know its full power, either.

I decided to hurry up and buy the things I needed most in the little store. I had too much to do and could always return later if I had leftover money. I walked around, pointing to things I was interested in, and listened as Quillon told me their price. I ended up spending a total of 4 silver simply asking for more information about various herbs, mushrooms, and monster parts.

I only asked how to find a specific ingredient two times before realizing I was wasting money. His answers were full of names of places I had never heard of and wild explanations, like how I would need to kill something called a “moon roe,” shed its blood at midnight, and return in seven days to collect the bulb that would grow on the spot. I did learn that the “corpse finger” I’d found only grew where razorclasps mated. The female razorclasps wrapped up the male after copulation, covered them in a secretion, and then planted their eggs in the dissolving corpse. The babies would eat the male when hatched, and the things I’d picked up—I was horrified to hear—were the shriveled remains the hatchlings couldn’t eat.

Had I ever washed my hands after handling those things?

I suppressed a shiver of disgust.

Once I had asked as many questions as I was willing to pay for, I considered all my options. I had nearly five gold. I could technically afford to buy some of the really nice rare quality herbs, even if I couldn’t quite afford the rarest.

But I knew a Heart corestone would cost me north of a gold coin.

I also wanted upgrades for my personal space, even if they weren’t a priority. Depending on what I got from my reward tokens, I might also want to browse my weaponry options around the city, too.

For now, I decided to make sure I saved some money for later. I wanted too much stuff in this world and didn’t have enough money for all of it. I needed to find a steady way to start earning more coin, or I would go crazy.

“Okay,” I said. “You said these Condensed Hearts and Lifebloom combine to make common healing potions, right? How much if I get two of each? Any kind of two-for-one deals?”

“Two-for-one?” he laughed. “The man with the fancy helmet plans to buy four herbs after wasting minutes of my time and wants to know if he gets a discount?” He laughed again, looking around the shop, though nobody was listening. “No… That will be 2 gold, 10 silver.”

I sighed. “Okay, what if I only get one of each?”

“1 gold, 5 silver.”

He took my money, then handed over the herb and the heart. I stashed both in my slip space. I could consider keeping the healing potion loaded in my Alchemist’s Kit if I got a strong weapon with my reward tokens. It would let me essentially fill the role of a healer for a time. Then again, I guess that depended on how potent the potion was. If I had to shoot it down people’s throats, it would be slightly less cool than I pictured.

I also intended to get a Heart corestone before I left the city. Assuming I could learn to use the abilities from it quickly, I might not even need this potion. Still, it would be handy to have. I didn’t need mana to drink a potion, but I knew I would to use Heart abilities.

“Anything else?” the shopkeeper asked. He yawned, scratching his rounded belly with both hands. My small budget appeared to be boring him, and a well-dressed Iron rank woman in an embroidered robe had just walked into the shop.

“I need a little more,” I said. I hesitated. I’d listened to him describe all the herbs I could afford to ask about, and I was pretty sure I’d made my choice. Still, it was tough.

He described so many potions, and I wanted almost all of them. There was a “Rootskin” modification type of potion I could make that would absorb elemental attacks for a time, sucking them into my skin for storage. I could vent out the stored magic for use in my own attacks. It sounded amazing, but most of the fighting I’d done so far was against things that wanted to claw, bite, or smash me. For now, I didn’t know how much use I’d get out of something like that.

There was a destruction class potion that made vines explode from the ground, tangling everything within the blast radius. There were modification potions that would let me breathe underwater, ignore heat, and even see through thin walls. There were recovery potions for mana, hair growth, and more mundane things like an upset stomach and dry eyes.

I was especially tempted by an ice potion. Usually, he said people threw it like a bomb to freeze enemies. I thought that sounded awesome, but I worried the interaction with my Elemental Projection ability might not be so straightforward. I didn’t want to risk it while my budget was limited.

He had listed dozens more. I eventually decided on two Destruction-class herbs. He told me their class, but I discreetly checked with my lens when he wasn’t looking, just to be certain.

[Bombroot (Common) (Destruction)?] Non-edible. Alchemical ingredient.

[Dragon’s Tail (Common) (Destruction)?] Non-edible. Alchemical ingredient.

According to the shopkeeper, the bombroot was a highly flammable explosive. The catch was that the potion was only explosive if it caught on fire. The dragon’s tail was the solution. It caught on fire when exposed to the air, making it relatively dangerous to brew. In potion form, it would function a bit like a fire grenade. I imagined I could devise quite a few deadly implementations of something like that.

If nothing else, I should be able to essentially create a flamethrower effect with Elemental Projection and the Dragon Tail potion.

The possibilities seemed almost endless between Forge Echo, Elemental Projection, and whatever abilities I would hopefully evolve from my corestone soon.

I had the option of another poisonous herb, but the only ones he had sounded far less immediate than the effects of the corpse finger I’d been using. I’d be able to poison somebody and wait for the effects to wear them down, maybe, but that sounded like a recipe for getting my ass killed in a fast-moving fight. If I’d been willing to splurge almost 4 gold, the Hydra Venom Gland would have created a small army of spitting snakes to spray my enemies, which sounded awesome.

Combining a flammable liquid with an explosive mixture appeared to be the most deadly and versatile of all the options in my price range. These two would give me a high-powered option and something well-rounded. If bathing my enemies in fantasy napalm didn’t work, I could simply blow them up.

What could possibly go wrong?

I knew the answer, of course. I’d weighed the drawback before locking in my decision. My two new potions would be very bad for fights where enemies got up close and mixed in with me or my allies. I’d need to strike fast and hard before they got in range, but I was hoping my weapon reward might round out my options in that department. If not, I’d come back with some leftover money to get something more suited for close quarters.

The catch was how to rotate three potions efficiently with the containers I had at the moment. I knew my Elemental Projection ability didn’t drain the contents of my vials or Alchemist’s Kit, but it did seem more potent when I drew from the Kit. Now that I knew my Kit was angelic rarity, I wondered if I had assumed wrong when I figured it had to do with the quantity of liquid fueling my ability. Maybe the Kit was somehow enhancing the ability or the potion inside.

Either way, I’d have to figure out a system and decide which potion earned itself a slot in my Alchemist’s Kit and which ones would be relegated to my vials. For how much the ingredients all cost me, it would be painful to waste a drop of any of these.

The Bombroot and Dragon’s Tail set me back by 1 gold and 37 silver. I’d spent 2 gold and 42 silver on raw herbs and 4 silver on questions.

After my spending, I had 2 gold, 27 silver, and 33 copper left. A small part of me was sad I’d had to split the 45-gold haul from the carapax nectar with the group, but I also felt happy to know some of that money had gone to the townspeople, who likely needed it as much or more than I did.

I finished up inside the potion shop and headed outside to the street. I had money in my slip, new potions to experiment with, and reward tokens burning a hole in my inventory.

As soon as I figured out where the rest of our temporary party was headed, I planned to sprint to the nearest furnisher. It was almost time to claim my bed tokens, and damn was I ready.