Second Realm Read online

  Old Man Hei looked up from examining the selection of powders that Erik had brought in. “Well, I’m part of the Alchemist Association. I made it to the Fifth Realm but for various reasons I found that it was safer to head to the second realm. I made sure to bring some of the higher quality goods with me so that I could set up this store.”

  “Alchemist Association?” Erik asked, his interest piqued.

  “The Alchemist Association was made so that alchemists might be able to share ideas with one another. It extends throughout the Ten Realms. The association is basically a ruling body. They host the countless trades between alchemists, decide what will happen in different issues between alchemists, judge tournaments and the like. There are also many teaching institutions and groups that deal with Alchemy but are not part of the association.”

  Erik made an interested noise and then looked to the powders in Hei’s hands. “So, how are we looking?”

  “Your initial Winter’s Bane was barely passable, but the later ones were of a decent quality. I’m guessing that you made these later?” Hei waved at the few dozen vials and containers that dotted the desk.

  “Yeah.”

  “While these initial powders would rank at Novice level, these other powders that you have come up with, most of them are poisons. If someone was to consume them, they’d at best feel bad—worst, they would die. Still, Alchemy is about not only making concoctions to aid the body but also poisons. The skill increases when making either kind of concoction.”

  “Would you be interested in buying them?” Erik asked.

  “Not the poisons, but I can give you a formula to make a minor Stamina Regeneration powder. If you can make forty-five of them, I will give you the simple healing powder formula. You just need to make sixty of them. Then you can acquire the minor Mana regeneration powder if you make one hundred and seventy portions.”

  Erik looked at Hei with a confused look.

  “There are always people looking for nice and cheap powders for them to use on their adventures they all seem to like going on. I don’t like having to make them all, but if you can make them, you can make up for the cost of the different formulas. We would need to make an oath on the Ten Realms, of course.”

  “Thanks,” Erik said after a few moments. It seemed that Old Man Hei had noticed that he was quickly running out of funds.

  “Don’t say that too soon. Now I want those minor Stamina Regeneration powders in nine days or else you will owe me forty-three gold!” Old Man Hei said in a severe voice, pulling out the formula and putting it on the table.

  Erik steeled himself and made an oath on the Ten Realms.

  “Good.” Old Man Hei pushed the piece of paper forward.

  Erik took it as if it were some holy relic, reading the ingredients and the notes on making the powder. “Could you sell me some testers as well?”

  “You know what testers are, right? They’re shavings or pieces of pills, potions, and powders. They were only a small amount and people use them to gain a deeper understanding of Alchemy, trying to understand how different items were made and increase their own appraisal ability of different items,” Old Man Hei said.

  “I just want to try my hand at it a bit.”

  Old Man Hei shrugged and checked his storage ring before he pulled out a few vials. “Thirty silver.”

  Erik passed over the money. He flashed Old Man Hei a smile and went back to the Alchemy room he was using.

  Erik cleaned up and then sat down at the simple table in the room, pulling out the ingredients that he’d bought from Old Man Hei as well as some shavings from pills or tester vials from potions.

  Erik was testing out something new. He smelled the testers, and looked at them with his Simple Organic Scan.

  These were Apprentice-level potions and the first type of pill that one could create. The pills at this stage were actually worse than the potions but they taught the elementary traits and did not have the possibility of their medicinal effect weakening as rapidly as other potions.

  Erik pulled out one of the powders and mixed it with water. He drank it, examining what happened to his body as the tester reacted. No other alchemist would do this with random Alchemy products they’d found, I am pretty sure.

  To do so would be inviting death. Only a Master was supposed to know how to break down a pill’s effects and could glean some of the ingredients that had been part of the pill. A group of Masters might be able to break down what a pill was made from, but the process and all of that needed to be figured out by them in incredible detail.

  Erik’s idea took any sense of safety and tossed it out of the window. His idea was pretty simple. When I consume different ingredients, then I can figure out what kind of effects they have. If I was to use Simple Organic Scan at the same time, I might be able to find out more about the ingredients. My body has already been tempered with powerful poisons. Even if it does damage me, I can use healing spells to repair myself. It will make me able to nullify more poisons and other Alchemy creations from affecting me. I would not only get a better understanding of what ingredients are contained within the concoction, I’ll increase my Strength! Like how vaccines work. With more time, I might be able to understand and break down more concoctions in greater detail.

  With this thought, he took out an ingredient he had harvested and consumed it. He was able to figure out three more effects of the plant.

  Although it tasted nasty, like orange peel and grass, Erik moved onto his first solution, pouring water into a glass vial and then drinking down the water and the powder inside in one shot.

  With his newly widened knowledge from the different ingredient encyclopedias, Erik jotted down the different ingredients, then he listed down the effects on his body.

  From that, he started to think of what the different ingredients must have undergone, how they must have been prepared to create these kinds of effects. It became a mental game. He knew the end result and what the powder was made from, but the path from harvesting to formation was missing. That was what he wanted to expand upon next.

  A screen appeared in front of Erik. Its font was grander than the screens he had seen before and seemed to demand his attention.

  ==========

  Title: Reverse Alchemist

  ==========

  From the slightest tester, you have not only recreated its full form, you’ve been able to do so with ingredients that vary from the original. With your ability, it is not impossible for you to gain an understanding of most pills from a sniff, a glance, or touch.

  ==========

  Rewards: Able to recognize some of the processes concoctions have gone through once you identify all of its effects and at least one set of ingredients.

  ==========

  This reward sounded simple but Erik’s eyes glowed with new energy.

  ==========

  Skill: Alchemy

  ==========

  Level: 22 (Novice)

  ==========

  No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.

  ==========

  “That’s what I’m talking about—three more levels until I reach Apprentice level!”

  Filled with new interest, Erik once again pulled out a tester and started to run through his test regimen. He consumed it and then thought on the new formula that he was looking at.

  Sleep became a forgotten memory as he continued to work on several of the testers and recreate them with his own special skills.

  Smells that vitalized the soul or drew it to feel pain, lights that shimmered and others that seemed to suck in the surrounding light: all of these phenomena and more were visible as Erik finished with the testers. Wrapped up in the drug that was creation, Erik once again attained that state he had gained when he was passing through his first tempering.

  He chewed and drank solutions he had made to try to counterattack the effects, his body an Alchemy battleground as healing spells were used repe
atedly.

  He passed through failure after failure. But instead of being wrapped up in the loss, Erik took the time to learn from his losses. In front of him, he was starting to see the cornerstone of the alchemist’s world.

  On the third day, he tried making his first potion; it failed. On the fifth day, he was finally able to create a potion; on the seventh, he was able to make a second potion.

  The conditions of these potions weren’t the highest and they were low-Apprentice grade, not due to their effects but the difficulty in making them. Even then, they were the simplest potions one might be able to create.

  As Erik looked at the murky-looking Mana potion, a smile crossed his face as he saw a now familiar notification.

  ==========

  Skill: Alchemy

  ==========

  Level: 25 (Apprentice)

  ==========

  Able to identify 1 effect of the ingredient.

  ==========

  ==========

  Upon advancing into the Apprentice level of Alchemy, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.

  ==========

  You have received the spell scroll: Flame Creation

  10,000 EXP

  ==========

  ==========

  94,981/195,000 EXP till you reach Level 16

  ==========

  Erik laughed as he slumped into a seat, excited about the benefit he had earned. If he knew one of the effects of an ingredient, then it would mean he wouldn’t need to test it nearly as much to find out what the other effects were.

  “They always said to not use your own shit.” Erik looked at the medical supplies in front of him. He had every type of pharmaceutical product that he had brought from Earth laid out.

  He took them one by one. After taking them, he healed himself to remove the drugs from his system.

  It took time but he hoped that with the knowledge in his mind that he would be able to replicate them later with different ingredients from the Ten Realms.

  He cleared the last drug from within his system and opened his eyes. Other than the saline solution, he didn’t know how he might recreate the drugs. He didn’t know whether it was worth to try to remake them, or whether it was best to just find concoctions that had the same effects as the items from Earth.

  “Before all of that, I should focus on making those minor Stamina Regeneration powders.” Erik pulled out the formula that Hei had given him and started to read it over. He looked over it a few times before he put it to the side.

  “Let’s begin,” Erik said to himself as he pulled out an array of different ingredients.

  He started to prepare them. Once they were ready, he pulled out his cauldron and used his Mana flame to heat it up, checking the formula again.

  His flames started to dance inside the cauldron, obeying his commands as the different ingredients were combined. Erik glanced down at the formula, not sure about the next step. A spout of flame shot out of the cauldron, destroying the ingredients.

  Erik calmed himself as he looked at the ruined ingredients. Thankfully they hadn’t been too expensive, but it was still a failure.

  He picked up the formula and read it again, wanting to ingrain it in his mind so he wouldn’t need to glance at it, pulling his focus away from the concoction.

  He failed more times than he succeeded, but as time passed and day turned to night and back into day, he started to succeed more times than he failed. As darkness came once again, he had few failures as he looked to increase the amount of powder he could create to fill Old Man Hei’s order.

  ***

  Old Man Hei manned the front of the store, serving people here and there. Most of them looked pained at the prices, paying them and leaving quickly.

  The store was never busy, just with maybe one or two people browsing through the day and nothing otherwise.

  Erik had come out four times to get more ingredients from Old Man Hei. Otherwise, he had been locked in his room.

  Was my timeline a bit too strict? Old Man Hei thought. It was no less difficult than the test I had to go through to become recognized as an alchemist Apprentice.

  The door opened again and Erik moved toward the counter.

  “More ingredients?” Old Man Hei had prepared another batch already.

  “I think these are done.” Erik pulled out boxes filled with vials and put them on the counter.

  Old Man Hei opened some vials and sniffed them, picking randomly. “It seems that you did it.” Hei took the boxes into his storage ring. He waved his hand. More boxes and vials appeared, with ingredients next to them. Finally he laid down a piece of paper on top of it all.

  “The Minor Healing powder.” Erik picked up the formula and started to read it.

  Old Man Hei smiled. That expression, the excitement at learning something new and opening up the secrets of Alchemy—it’s been some time. Old Man Hei cleared his throat, removing such embarrassing thoughts as Erik looked up. “Best to read that kind of thing in your room. Be cluttering up the store otherwise!”

  “Understood. Thank you, Old Man Hei.” Erik bowed to him quickly and then swept everything up, heading back to his room.

  “I don’t feel like it will be long until he’s looking for the minor Mana Regeneration powder,” Old Man Hei said to himself. A smile flickered across his face.

  He wasn’t wrong. Four days later, he had another batch of vials in front of him.

  Looks like this boy might be capable after all.

  Chapter: Innate Metal Ability Enhancers

  Rugrat came back with as much iron ore as he could purchase. Then he set to refining out three Mortal-iron ingots. With the completion of his first one, the following Mortal-iron ingots were swiftly completed. He passed them back to Tan Xue to pay for her time and then he continued to refine four more Mortal-grade iron ingots.

  Doing so, he was able to increase his smithing from Apprentice to Journeyman officially. His level even increased, putting him at level seventeen.

  He also gained a new item, an ingot of mithril. He kept it in his storage ring. The bar would be useful in making formations due to its impressive ability to conduct Mana. Rugrat had a few ideas for it but continued to refine forty pieces of Mortal-grade iron over nine days.

  Instead of taking out the Mortal-grade iron, he pulled out the normal iron he had. A number of times, he had failed to push the iron into the Mortal grade and he still had some left over from before.

  With this, he got to work. He didn’t have any money remaining and if he and Erik wanted to get a lead on a dungeon, they needed the wealth to be able to take at least one of the items Su Wei had told them about.

  Rugrat heated up the iron metal and started to get to work. He made simple swords, daggers, and shields. If anything wasn’t of at least high-Apprentice grade, he melted it back down and started again.

  The normal iron wasn’t good for making formations; in fact, it was horrible for it. Rugrat had simply made his formations from iron just because it was the easiest metal for him to get his hands on.

  It was only because formations were so hard to find in the lower realms that Su Wei was interested in them. That, and the interesting ways they worked, were why Su Wei and Pan Lim evaluated them so highly.

  “Why don’t you use some Redas blood?” Tan Xue said as Rugrat was making a war hammer.

  “Redas blood?” Rugrat asked.

  “When added into iron, once it tastes blood and the energy one releases when they die, it strengthens the user, increasing their strength,” Tan Xue said.

  Rugrat had read about it, but he hadn’t started combining the metals he used with different elements that might increase their innate abilities.

  “Did I read all of those books for nothing!” Rugrat yelled, directing his own anger toward himself.

  In the First Realm, it was hard to find any of these kinds of extras that might be added into metals to i
mprove its abilities. In the Second Realm, they’re easier to find and widely used as just regular metals aren’t able to handle the greater strength of the users.

  Kaeju is one of the larger cities in this area of the Hersht Desert—of course they must have all kinds of different enhancing powders and items that can be used in combination with metal to improve its innate abilities!

  Rugrat looked at the weapons he had made already. An inner pain that only an artist or a crafter could feel welled up in his chest. As he looked back on those items, there were the happy memories, the thought of finally achieving something brilliant. But at the same time, there was the knowledge that they were less than anything he could make now. There was a want and a need to go back and make them all again to raise them up to his new standard.

  Tan Xue, seeing the newly emotional Rugrat, decided to not say anything.

  “I must get more items to increase the metal’s abilities! I will forge it into iron that it is well suited for. That’s right—I will use the iron as the base, connect it directly with the right kinds of enhancers to pull out the metal’s innate ability. I will not make the items based upon needs, but based upon what the metal is best suited for! From the ground up, they will live up to their true purpose!”

  He started to run out of the smithy before turning around. “Where might I find different enhancing ingredients?” he asked, as if an afterthought.

  “All of that and he’s still a bonehead,” Tan Xue muttered under her breath. Before he could open his mouth, she continued talking. “Go to see Dai on Froex Drive.” She waved him off.

  Rugrat wanted to retort but finding he had nothing, he ran off through the alleyways, then across streets. With his map, he could quickly locate the shop.

  He calmed down his steps, not wanting to just run into the store. Well, he wanted to, but it might seem a little abrupt.

  The store was simple, with a burly man at the counter. Behind him there were a number of different racks. In them, Rugrat could see there were different kinds of enhancers, as well as ingots that one could use.