The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

Randidly had spent the past hour carefully separating out the four different colored crystals he had refined, creating 13 different recipes. Ultimately, Randidly had admitted to himself that he simply didn’t have enough of either the purple crystal or the green one to mix them with each other, trying out all the possible combinations.

The first 12 recipes were two groups of 6. First the purple with red, 25/75, 50/50, and 75/25. Then the same, purple with blue.

The second group of 6 was the green crystal, rather than the purple one, but otherwise the same.

The final recipe, the one that he would save for last, was equal parts of all four crystals, ground down and mixed.

Randidly started with purple, because honestly, although he understood what the poison was generally, he wasn’t sure what this crystal refined from the blood of monster would do, and was more curious about its effects.

His hands moved to the 50/50 mixture, purple and red. Careful to get every small ground up crystal, he dumped them into a glass container. The potion mixed, and turned a dark maroon color. Curious, Randidly examined it.

Lesser Potion of Health Lvl 18: Increases your maximum health by 180 for 20 minutes. If, after the time runs out, your health is below 180, your health will be reduced to 1 and you will obtain the status effect Overdrawn, which reduces regeneration by 90% for an hour.

Randidly nodded slowly. At his level, it might not quite be worth it. But as his potion level increases, and he could raise the bonus…

Curious, Randidly did the same thing, between purple and blue, obtaining a Lvl 23 Potion of Mana, increasing the mana pool by 230 for 10 minutes, but otherwise largely the same.

The current boost was about the same as his highest tier potions, but they were made with the least refined ingredients. After a bit of experimentation, if he could obtain a Potion of Mana that increased his Mana pool by 460 for 10 minutes… The increased spell casting burst would be highly effective.

But the night was long, and there were still more recipes to try.

****

Derek straightened abruptly. The change had come to the ants about an hour ago, around 3 hours after the squad had trundled on down and into the ant warren. Suddenly the ants began wandering away, the once directed swarm lost and… leaderless.

Without a concerted attack, the ants were quickly beaten back; after all, they were quite weak individually. Even the volunteers, let alone the Freedom Fighters regulars, could handle a lone ant.

But still, for a long time, there was no sign of the squad. Had they perished in the attempt…?

Yet here they were, walking casually back, continually slaughtering any monsters that stepped in front of them like this was just another day at the office.

When the group reached him, for a long time, Derek Quinn didn’t know what to say. He had thought he had worked hard, and found strength, but…

In his heart, he knew that this was partially because of the classes, that they had this advantages, but at the same time…

He had watched them. They moved cleanly, with a proficiency and professionalism that made him helpless. It made him realize something.

While Franksburg had tried to keep back the outside world, maintaining the status quo, these men and woman had gone out into the outside world and changed themselves to thrive in it. They had forsaken their previous humanity, and found a new strength, through the new world was ruled by the system.

Alana cleared her throat. “So, take us to Anthony. We’d like to talk conditions.”

****

Randidly considered the potions in front of him.

The purple 25%, red or blue with 75% created another intriguing potion.

Lesser Mana Regeneration Potion Lvl 25: Increases Mana Regeneration by 250% for the next 5 minutes.

This potion was actually one where Randidly preferred the non-mana option. Mana regeneration, even with a build like Randidly’s, with a lot put into it, was still so slow… He would only receive an extra 200 Mana per hour with that. Taken down to a 5 minute time period, that was only an extra 15 mana.

Health potions were more impressive, but still slightly lackluster. It would restore on Randidly 40 some odd health, which was still pretty insignificant.

What his focus was really was on was the stamina potion, and whether a regeneration variant could be made for that. Unlimited stamina for a short period of time… not only would it hurry training speed at certain key intervals, it could be used to make individuals unstoppable for a short period of time.

In addition, there had been talk from the potion makers that they had found a method to delay the time a normal health potion would heal you over. If that same method could be used to extend the time the regeneration was increased, even if it lowered the bonus…

Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough materials on hand to experiment with that for now. That would have to wait until he returned to Donnyton. Although helping the town had been slightly a hassle at first, they were swiftly growing into something that was useful to him; they could be used to effectively gather the materials he needed for both the green and purple crystals. Otherwise he would need to drain dozens of mushrooms or ants every time…

The purple 75% was his current favorite potions.

Lesser Hungry Flesh Potion Lvl 23: Gain Healthsteal for 5 minutes. 2.3% of the physical damage dealt will be recovered as health.

Lesser Hungry Soul Potion Lvl 27: Gain Manasteal for 5 minutes. 2.7% of the magical damage dealt will be recovered as mana.

These were undoubtedly useful, it would take a certain type of fighter to use the Healthsteal, but the Manasteal was intriguing. Again though, the concept of Staminasteal would be the most interesting, if it existed.

Satisfied with these, Randidly turned to the green crystal mixtures.

The 50/50 splits turned out to be direct boosts to stats.

Lesser Physical Tonic Lvl 24: +5 to all Physical stats for 10 minutes. After that, -10 Physical Stats for 30 minutes.

Randidly grimaced. He wasn’t a fan of these potions. Unlike the direct boosts to health or mana, these had demerits no matter what condition you were in at the end of the time period.

The green 25% yielded a strange result as well.

Lesser Physical Fury Potion Lvl 27: Gain Physical fury for 27 minutes. Physical damage taken slightly reduced. Physical damage dealt slightly increased.

Mana was similar, except flipped. It was only the green crystal at 75% that really surprised him in terms of the poison potion results.

Lesser Health Fire Lvl 28: Deal .56% of afflicted targets current health per second for 30 seconds, or until the fire is put out.

Lesser Mana Fire Lvl 24: Cause target to lose .24% of target’s current mana per second for 30 seconds, or until the fire is put out.

Both of these potions would be extremely dangerous, if discovered. They were designed to fight against a person with superior Health and Mana. Even Randidly, if afflicted with them, would have difficulties.

But what Randidly realized while looking at the description was that although they both were powerful, it was ultimately a potion that was vastly more dangerous for mages. Their spells had more power than similarly leveled physical skills, but Magical stats were useless without mana. A tank with low health still had his or her high physical stats, and could struggle.

But a mage…

Chuckling, Randidly straightened and cracked his neck. He supposed it was good then, that he was noncommittal and insisted on being good at everything. A potion like this would strip away all of his magical weapons.

Then he focused again, looking down at the final pile of ingredients, which would combine all 4 of the crystals.

Moving carefully, he mixed them. The potion glowed briefly, then settled down into a swirling blackness. As he watched though small flecks of light emerged, almost like stars, that slowly dissolved the blackness. Finally the water cleared, turning back to…

Well, water.

But when Randidly peered closely and examined it, his eyes narrowed.

Viscous Liquid of Possibilities Lvl ???: Higher tiered base crafting material. Can be refined to a more stable form.

So Randidly refined it. Over and over, for an hour. Finally, he held a small, clear marble in his hand.

Stone of Possibilities Lvl 42: A stone that holds a lot of potential. Can be used to store 42 Health, Mana, or Stamina, which can then be siphoned back from the stone to yourself, should the need arise. Reusable.

...So not only was this Liquid of Possibilities used for potions of the next variety up, but it could be refined into stones that then could be used to keep Health, Mana, or Stamina for emergencies…

In addition, over the course of the night, Randidly had gained 8 levels in Potion Making, raising himself to Lvl 30, and 6 Levels in refine, rising to Lvl 12. So the capacity of the stone was determined by those two skills.

He lamented the additional grinding he would need to do, but grinned at the thought of the possibilities. Hopping off the building, Randidly went prowling towards the edge of Franksburg, searching for more crafting materials. There was still a few hours until dawn anyway.

Randidly wanted to check in on Tessa, to see if there were after effects from exposure to Raina’s song, but otherwise he didn’t plan on wasting his time raising his Digging skill again. He felt slightly guilty that he had ignored her all of yesterday, but his pursuits today had been rather distracting. Better late than never.

Shrugging, Randidly put it out of his mind. Better to focus on the present.

His smile widened. If possible, he would create more of these Stone of Possibilities, in preparation for the dangers that were sure to come.