[F1:SP] <<Earning a living>> as an alchemist

[Zandra 0]

Zandra was strolling the streets in town of beggining. She have seen that not all shops was driven by NPC:s. Some had players. When she made some research she found out there is several proffesdion. She became realy excited when she herd about it. But which one? She didnt like the smell of fish so not fisherman. Dont like the get so much atension as a performer does. She wanted blacksmith but because of her arm that was also out of the question. A merchant, nah. Of the ones left she preferd alchemy. She hoped that some day she would be able to make a potion to remove her pain forever.

She headed to the shops to search after someone to teach her.

[Zandra 0]

She came to some shops at about ten in the morning. She entered one that has a sign with a bottle filled with purple liquid on it. Inside there was shelfs filled with bottles with all kinds of colored potions. On the floor there was baskets with crystal in tons of different colors too. Behind a desk sat an old man sniffing on one of the potions. He shoke his head and poured it into a pot and cleaned the bottle with some water.

-Hello mister. Zandra said when the old man was stretching to get another of his countless potions.

-Hello child. Can I help you? the man pulled back his arm and looked at Zandra.

-My name is Zandra and I want to became an alchemist. I thougth that maybe you can teach me?

-Teach you to become and Alchemist you asking me. Hmm... I guess I could. Sadly I dont have any ingredients to make simplier potions. The ones I have are used in complicated and powerful potions, and they are also very expensive. But if you bring me the materials I guess I could teach you to make some simplier potions. I would need 5 red flowers and 2 green flowers from the village outside Town of beginning. Do you accept?

A screen poped up and she accepted the quest.

-Good luck.

-Thank you mister. And see you later. Zandra said to the man while exiting the shop.

 

Zandra headed out from the shop and walked the streets until she arrived to the gate.

-So, my first quest outside the walls. Lets go get some flowers. And she took her first steps outside the town. When she got to the village she saw lots red flowers on a small field. When she was gonna take them a villager pushed her back.

-Hey! What are you doin' girl?

-I just wanted to pick some flowers for a potion I gonna make.

-You cant just take any without permission.

-So how do I get permission?

-I can give you permission. But only if you do something for me first.

-Sure. What do you want me to do?

-My brother have been gone for several hours but he was just gonna go and check no boar's are in our potato-fields. Could you see what have happened?

Another screen poped up and she accepted this quest too.

 

The man pointed what way his brother took and Zandra followed the road to the potato-fields. As she feared there was boars there and a villager laying in the grass with a broken spear. Must be the mans brother. There was a total of three boars surrounding the hurted man. But they was a little bigger then the ones nearer the wall. She couldnt get to the man without the boars seeing her. But she probably would be able to take them one at a time. Worth a try. In worst case I have to abandon the quest.

 

She draw her dagger, ran to the first boar and cutted a deep cut in the side of it. Zandra thougth she had killed it but then it made an attack with his tusks cutting two wounds on Zandras left side. She jumped back and looked at them.

 

ID: 16014

BD:7 MD:9

 

HP:

Zandra: 7/9

Boar 1: 1/3

Boar 2: 3/3

Boar 3: 3/3

[Zandra 0]

Zandra was hurt, but so also the boar. If she just hitted with this one the creature would go down for good. She throwed herself at the boar with all her weight and held the dagger high to let it fall down and crush the boars head. Thou the boar had other plans. Before the dagger even touched him he tackled Zandra so she flew 3 meters away.

 

ID:16016

BD:1 MD:10

 

HP:

Zandra: 4/9

Boar 1: 1/3

Boar 2: 3/3

Boar 3: 3/3

[Zandra 0]

Zandra felt such a pain in the stomach when she herd something coming running towards her. She rolled around and saw the boar getting closer and closer. At the last moment she took the dagger and hold it in front of her with the tip pointing at the boar. The boar killed itself when he with his own weigth pulled the dagger in between his eyes. The boar died and The experiences Zandra got made her level up. That feels better with a helth refill. Now Im definitely ready to take on these other two.

 

ID: 16017

BD:8 MD:7

 

HP:

Zandra: 11/11

Boar 1: -/3 Dead

Boar 2: 3/3

Boar 3: 3/3

[Zandra 0]

Zandra pulled her dagger out from the dead boars head, cleaned it on his fur and picked out her next target. This time she made the same opening strike by cutting the boar in the side. But this time she was ready on the husks and dodged them. She still felt the tips on the husks touching her naked skin under the torned cloth. But no harm done this time.

-I wont fall for the same trick twice you know.

 

 

ID:16018

BD:6 MD:4

 

HP:

Zandra: 11/11

Boar 1: -/3 Dead

Boar 2: 1/3

Boar 3: 3/3

[Zandra 0]

Before the boar realized it have missed his target Zandra made another cut, this time on his neck. Second boar down.

-Only one boar left hehe. She said while cleaning the dagger on this boar too. Without thinking of it the third boar herd her when she said she wouldnt fall for the same trick twice. When turning around to face the third boar, it was already there, came in full speed and tackled here so she was thrown into the air and landed 10 meters away.

 

ID:16019

BD:6 MD(boar 2):1

MD(boar 3): 10

HP:

Zandra: 8/11

Boar 1: -/3 Dead

Boar 2: -/3 Dead

Boar 3: 3/3

[Zandra 0]

-Aouch, that realy hurt piggy. And now you made me realy angry. You understand that? No one surprises me like that, never. NEVER! With the dagger hold high she ran to meet the boar halfway, jumped over the tusks and buried the blade all the way to the hilt in the spine. The boar screamed and shaked his body to get her of his back. But Zandra hold a tight grip on the hilt.

 

ID:16020

BD:6 MD:2

 

HP:

Zandra: 8/11

Boar 1: -/3 Dead

Boar 2: -/3 Dead

Boar 3: 1/3

[Zandra 0]

The boar digged his feets deep in the dirt and Zandra flew over him, got hit by one of its husks and landed in the mud. She stood up and saw, on his back the dagger was still there. She pushed it down so hard it slipped thru her grip when the boar stopped.

 

ID:16022

BD:6 MD:4

 

HP:

Zandra: 7/11

Boar 1: -/3 Dead

Boar 2: -/3 Dead

Boar 3: 1/3

[Zandra 0]

The boar came running towards her again. Do they like running or what Zandra thougth. Then she saw the broken spear and got an idea. She picked of the top half pressed the blunt end in the ground and pointed the sharp on at the boar.

-Come on piggy, is that the fastest you can run? You fat little pig. Hahaha!!! When the boar was just a few feets from the spear Zandra jumped to the side, the boar ran to fast to be able to turn so he ran straigth on the spear. The spear pierced his skin and heart. Battle finaly over. Zandra lay down on the ground to catch her breath. After she had rested she picked up her dagger and walked to the man on the field. He looked exactly like the man in the village.

-This must be his brother. Hello mister, are you alive? The man opened one eye and looked at her.

-Who are you? What are you doing?

-Well, Im Zandra, Im here to see why it took so long. Can you walk on your own or do you need any help?

-I can walk no problem. I was just sleeping. It seems like you could need a rest too, why are you so exhausted, its not that far from the village.

-Why Im exhausted? I tell you why, there was three boars here that I killed to save you because I thougth you was hurt. And you was just sleeping? Well, at least I got a level up thanx to those boars. I will go back to the village and say why you took so long. Bye mister. And Zandra started to walk back to the village. Suddenly she remembered her dagger. She picked it up, cleaned it and continued her walk.

 

ID:16024

BD:6 MD:1

 

HP:

Zandra: 7/11

Boar 1: -/3 Dead

Boar 2: -/3 Dead

Boar 3: -/3 Dead

[Zandra 0]

When Zandra came back to the village, the man stood there and waited for her.

-So, did you found my brother girl?

-Yes I did. When I arrived on the potatofield I saw him in the middle with a broken spear surronded by three boars. Thanx to leveling up that gives a health-refill I succeded to kill all three of them to save him. When I got to him, it turned out he was sleeping. He didnt even knew about the boars.

-What you saying? You killed three boars alone? I dont give you permission to enter the field, you get your flowers without having to pick them. How many do you need?

-Wait what? You dont wanna know where your broth... Before she could finish her sentence a screen poped up in front of her. It told her to enter how many flowers she wanted. She entered five. To be on the safe side. She have herd quests that fail if you put in a too high number. The screen wanted her to accept and she did.

-So you want 5 red flowers. Here you go girl.

She got them to her inventory. Thanked the man for it and headed to the next field, the one with green flowers...

[Zandra 0]

Zandra arrived at the green-flower field. There stood a woman about thirty to forty years. She was turned away from Zandra and watering the flowers. Zandra walked to her and knocked her on the shoulder to get her attention.

-Oh, you startled me there. Can I help you?

-Yeah, I just wonder if I could pick some flowers here? Now she probably gonna get another quest, just hope its not saving her sister from boars in a potato-field.

-No, your not allowed to pick any of my flowers. But I have five riddles for you. Im willing to give you one flower for each correct answer.

Another quest screen poped up. She have never been very good at riddles. But she needed those flowers to become an alchemist, and she wanted to be an alchemist. She accepted.

-So you accept. Well, here comes the first riddle...

[Zandra 0]

The woman walked to a bench and sat down. So wanted Zandra to do the same. When both was sitting on the bench the woman started to speak.

-Im taller then every tree, older then then the oldest of men, my roots go deeper then the sea, Im harder then hardest of steel. Who am I? Zandra was thinking, she had herd this before. But cant remember where. Think Zandra think.

-I dont miss. Zandra said and looked down on the ground.

-Okay, second riddle. Ive always been here and will always be. Ive splittered kingdoms and ruined citys. Who am I? Hmm... Zandra knew she had herd it before but where. She couldnt remember where but she remembered the answer.

-Time, the answer is time.

-Good. Here comes the third. What do you get if you combine a snake with a hedgehog.

This she herd before, easy.

-Hairbrush.

-Wrong, fourth riddle. Whats the difference between a com and a tree?

What!? Hairbrush was wrong? Oh right, next riddle. Cow and a tree. Hmm...

-No have no idea.

Darn it, she must make this last riddle or she will fail.

-Last riddle. I have 15 sacks. In the first one I put on corn. In the second I put two. I the third I put four. How many do I put in the fifteenth sack.

Haha, finally something she was good at. Piece of cake. After a few seconds she answered.

-16384.

-Correct. Here, you gets 2 flowers.

Zandra got the flowers in her inventory, thanked the lady and headed back to town of beginning

OOC: Two first riddles is not my own work, not exactly copied but inspired from the book "Bilbo" written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

[Zandra 0]

WhenZandra came back to the shop the old placed a bottle with green potion on one of his shelfs. When he herd the door open he turned around.

-Oh, its you child. How did it went? You got the flowers?

-Yes mister. Five red and two green, just like you said.

-Then come with me. He showed her to follow him to the desk where she saw him on her first visit. On the desk was one pot with boiling water and five bottles. The old man sat down and Zandra took a chair and did the same.

-First of all, place all your ingrdient on the desk. Remember that. Prepare by taking out all your ingredients from your inventory and place it on your workingspace. She opened her inventory and put the flowers on the desk. I will show you how to do a simple health-potion to start with. First you need to take of the flowers leafs. Zandra picked up each flower and carefully pulled of the leafs one at a time. She made one pile with the red ones first, then she took one of the green flowers to make the same with it.

-No no no. Not the green ones. They are your payment for me teaching you to be an alchemist. Did you thougth I would do it for free? He took the green flowers and putted it in an empty glassbox. Now, the next step is to make them into powder. With that you are using a mortar. He putted the flowerleafs in his marble-mortar and pushed it to Zandra. She looked at him. Then she started to smashed the leafs to powder. She continued as long as she could. Is this enough mister? The old man looked down in mortar. Yeah, that will do. There is another, the finer powder the better potion. Now when the powder is prepeard its time for the fun part. At the start, I recomend you to do simple potions until youve got some experience. All basic potion have a base of boiling water. The quality of the potion depends on the heat and time you boil it. Now put the powder in the boiling water. Powder from one flower is enough to make one potion. Ive preperd water for five so just put it all in. Zandra tooked up all powder and putted it in the water. The water slowly turned to red, first very thin but brighter and brigther. Now wait for it while its boiling. When it had the same color as strawberry the told zandra to pour the liquid into one of the bottles. He closed the opening with his thumb and shaked the bottle. Now do the same every fifth minute. I be back in half an hour. Then rised and walked out of the shop. Zandra the door close after him, then turned her attention to the boiling potion. Every fifth minute she took the pot and pour some liquid in the bottles until five of them stood on the desk with potion in them and an empty pot. She held her thumb on the opening and shaked every bottle as she poured it up just like the man did.

[Zandra 0]

When the man returned Zandra sat on her chair looking at the potions. They all had different shades of red. The firsst one as strawberries, the others darker the longer time it boiled.

-So all potions are done now. Now its time to test them. You cant be certain the potion have the effect you made it to have. Once I sold a greater health potion to a customer. When he was fighting a snowman and was low on health, she drank it to refill some. But it had no effect. Becuse of that she died. After that day onwards I ALWAYS test the potions before I sell them. After writing down exactly what I did when crafting it. Amouts of ingredients, boiling time, heat and so on. When you taste them its enough to just take a drip. Well after you have learned to recognize the taste. Dont worry, these wont harm you Im sure. Here, taste each of these ones and tell me what you think. Zandra took the first bottle, sniffing on it and drank about a third of it.

[Zandra 0]

The first bottle tasted likesomething between leafs and honey. She felt the taste but didnt felt a thing in her body.

-So? What do you think? Was it succesful? And why was it succesful or a fail?the old man sked with a tone in his voice that told her he already knew the answer. She answered anyway.

-Hmm, it taste like something between honey and leafs. Even because I feel the taste nothing different in my body. I think this was a fail.

-Correct, and why was it a fail?

-Dont know yet. Since several factors is affecting the result I cant answer before tried others with different settings. But since all of these have the same amount of ingredients, same heat you told me to pour it down, but on different times and this is the shortest time I guess this one failed because it boiled to short time.

The just stared at her for a whole minute.

-Oh my oh my. That was all correct. You are a clever girl. Well then you gonna know why the others fails or succedes. You can still taste them if you want.

[Zandra 0]

When she tasted the others, she started with the second potion she poured up. It tasted like the first but more honey then leafs. She also got a message she got 5 HP. Since she already was full health she got a failed note. Same with third and fourth except 10 HP on third and 15 HP on fourth. When she picked up the fifth, there was something different, it smelled lovely but something was different. She only took a small sip on that one. When the liquid touched her tounge she felt a hard wave of pain thru her whole body, then her healthbar dropped down to 1 HP. Quickly she drank what was left in the fourth bottle.

-What was that mister?

[Zandra 0]

That child, is what happens if boiling potions too long. The effect is increasing the longer it is boiling. But if its boiling just a second too long, it can get the opposite effect, depending on what kind if potion you make. She looked at the fifth bottle, and then she realised. 

But how could my HP drop while Im still in a safe zone? 

The pots and fire I use isnt regular that you gonna have in the beginning. I can change the temprature with much higher precision then normal burners. At the start you almost always having the pot standing on a tripod above a normal candle. Takes longer time but works for simplier potions. Also, my pot is made of a special material that it dosent matter where you are, the effects of the potions still gonna activate. I have an old pot, a tripod and some candles you can have. The man walked thru a door behind the desk. When he came back he was carrying a copper-pot with a tripod and some candles in it. I dont have any use of them anymore anyway. Enough talk about potions, as an alchemist you should also be able to craft crystals. Crystals is a little more tricky to craft. Now its not enough with normal water to make them. You first gonna need clear crystals. Those can be mined in a cave about a kilometer from the gate. You probably gonna need to go far in since the ones closest to the entrance are mostly on re-spawntime. Here you have a pickaxe. Go get a crystal. One clear crystal is enough for two crafted crystals. There should be mushrooms there too. Pick one of those. Each mushroom is enough for two crystals too. Zandra accapted the quest to go to the cave and get one clear crystal and one msuhroom. She also put the pickaxe, pot, tripod and the candles in her inventory. Then without a word she left the man to get to the cave. She was angry on the man that he didnt warned him about the fifth potion.

[Zandra 0]

When she arrived at the cave entrance she saw a musgroom just re-spawning. She picked it up and controlled it so nothing was wrong with it. She couldnt find anything bad so she putted it in her inventory. This was much easier then killing boars for just a couple of flowers. She went inside to look for some clear crystals.

 

ID: 16246

LD: 18

 

Mushroom: 1/1

Clear crystal: 0/1

[Zandra 0]

After just ten meters she saw a clearcrystal node. It looked like five 1 feet-long stones, but instead of grey, they was as cllear as glass. She equiped her pickaxe and started to mine the node. Thou she was too excited and hitted too hard. Too late she saw the whole node was ruined. Darn it, guess I have to be a little more careful.

 

ID: 16248

LD: 3

 

Mushroom: 1/1

Clear crystal: 0/1

[Zandra 0]

She looked at the ruined node and wondered if she couldnt use one of the broken pieces. Then she saw a reflected light deeper in the cave. There was another node. She started mining this one too. But this time she was more careful. Aiming each hit so it wouldnt break. After five minutes she had a piece that would be okay. She putted it in her inventory and headed back to the town and the old man.

 

ID: 1629

LD: 20

 

Mushroom: 1/1

Clear crystal: 1/1