A Statistic Increase [Research / Solo]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

The forests of Windsor. It was, as per usual, a peaceful forest, often filled with new Adventurers struggling to learn to fight in the thickets or People of the Land traversing through it to reach Londinium to sell all manners of goods, if it was not already made there. It was a place where almost everybody had been to at least once; those who had yet to do so, would do so sooner or later. Such was the nature of the forest, which was that of a grinding area, a place to train oneself to reach greater heights. Many an event happens within the protective canopy of the trees towering over the Adventurers’ heads, and regrettably, those trees have seen many a death, sometimes caused by accident, sometimes by deceit, sometimes by overconfidence, and sometimes by sheer foolishness. It was also a great place to practice one’s skills away from the hustle and bustle of the city on things that will fight back to survive, though there were few which would attack an opponent much stronger than them. Regardless, when it came to honing his own skills, one Swashbuckler would definitely test them in the Windsor Greatwood before applying it in a practical battle.

Today, the Adventurer was practicing knife throwing. It was one of the weapons compatible with his Swashbuckler class, and in his opinion, it was much more difficult to use than, say, a bow.

Regardless, this was the choice he had made back when he first created his character and thought this was all a game, and there was little reason to try and limit his options when it came to surviving on the fields of battle. He had practiced with throwing knives on multiple occasions; in fact, this was not his first time coming to Windsor Greatwood to throw some knives at some poor mobs.

It was not that he was a bad shot. Okay, he was, but some practice allowed him to at least hit some moving things. Obviously, if a hummingbird where to dive at him and attempt to poke holes in his body, he would be hard pressed to hit something so tiny and agile, but if he were hitting something around the size of a golem, he could probably do so reliably within a few meters. Granted, he had system assistance, but it was not like one could learn to throw a knife properly over the course of a few hours of practice.

After training for a few hours with a group of [Frenmic Rabbit] who literally just dodged everything he threw at them without seeming to give a damn about what he did, he decided it was time to head back to town. He had been training since morning, and with the midday sun rising high in the sky, it was time to find some food, for he lacked the foresight to bring lunch with him on his way out to practice on his accuracy. He shooed away the rabbits, picking up his scattered knives as he did so, then headed back to the city, or more accurately, towards the road that led back to the city. No point trudging through the forest and risk tripping over some roots when he could take the road. After putting away everything, he did just that, slightly mindful of his surroundings as he did so. Ah, it should be noted that he left Skuggi at home, because it was going to be a boring session of grinding anyway. It seems bored lately, so perhaps he should try going somewhere soon. Maybe explore the Londinium underground? He had only been there once, and it would be nice to go again and see how much he had improved since then, which was probably to say, not a lot.

Just as he emerged from the trees and arrive at the road which would lead him back to town, he spotted a party of four male Adventurers who just so happened to be on their way into the forest to train discussing something. From the looks of it, it was one Swashbuckler, two Assassins and a healer. Not exactly the best combination, but it will work for such an area unless they were planning to challenge the Castle Raid. Not that they probably could with only four people. Out of courtesy, he managed a nod to them and they did the same, then he went on his way and they went theirs. As they continued on with their conversation, he caught snippets of it.

“...knives are hard to throw...” “...practice more...”

Ah, so they were facing the same problems as him. It was kind of natural, after all. It was not like they were all trained to throw knives from the start, and being a projectile, it was probably harder to learn how to use than a sword or a spear or magic. The sad news was, there was not exactly anything available in Londinium which would help him with his shots in the least.

… Or could there?

~

Word count: 840
Total word count (Pharmacist): 840

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

Many Adventurers were hard at work bringing some of the modern things they wanted to have again back into existence, and some were even dreaming of bigger things and planned to get things which were impossible to create in their old world due to issues like costs, parts, and so on. There were many things magic, with could be considered a potent source of fuel, could achieve that was previously impossible in the old world. Of course, since many of these things required technical knowledge which many Adventurers lacked, progress was slow as they progressed through trial and error. But that was irrelevant to him at the moment, for all that meant was that if something could not be done yet, then it was something he would have to create. And if it was something along the lines of, “a potion which enhances the user’s vision and increases accuracy”, it should be something that could be created and within the scope of his ability to create something which could serve such a function, no matter how basic its ability was. Such things often fell into the category of “Dexterity potion”, and given the nature of the world he currently resided in, should it not be a staple that potions which temporarily increased stats should appear? Now that he thought about it, it was strange how no one seemed to have done anything to remedy this specific problem. Perhaps it was already done, but the recipe was hidden from public view.

A hurried lunch was taken at a stall specializing in Japanese cuisine. The shio ramen, tasty with just the right amount of salt, did not seem to register in his mind as his mind begin to churn out details for such a craft. What should the concentration of the potion be? How many ingredients should be added, and how much of each ingredient? How would the procedure go through? Such thoughts fought for space in his mind, and before he knew it, he was done with his meal, and was off to search for some base ingredients to work with, with barely any recollection that he had eaten some delicious ramen. He should start with the closest store, before some of the answers which he came up with became lost to the dark recesses of his mind.

The herbs which were vital for this operation was likely to be one which improves coordination. He would possibly need to have the essential bits extracted, or some other substance to fortify and enhance the effects. So when he arrived at his destination, he inquired after the ingredients with such properties, and was given four choices to choose from. Of the four, two of them were said to be able to improve hand-eye coordination over a long period of time, while the other two were often used to treat eye diseases but should also improve one’s dexterous ability, in general. The ones which dealt with eye diseases could possibly be used to deal with the [Blind] debuff, so he decided against using it and picked from one of the two. The first was a purplish flower from the Savill Flower Grove, which blooms only during the new moon. The second was a wad of dark green leaves which come from ferns which grow on the trees of Windsor Greatwood.

There was a choice to be made, and the Pharmacist picked the first one. Why? Well, he reasoned that the leaves were likely to contain more chlorophyll, more than anything: the purpose of the leave was to photosynthesize, of course, not to act as medicine. That was not to say that it was a less effective option, as there are probably some grasses out there which provide a lot of medicinal benefits.

~

Word count: 628
Total word count (Pharmacist): 840 + 628 = 1468

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

Truthfully, the reason why he chose the flower was because it was more expensive, and going by economic logic, it stands to reason that it was either in higher demand, or there was lower supply. Good things often did not come cheap, so he decided to gamble on the flower since it cost a little more than the grass. Apparently, people used it by boiling it in water, much like tea, so he simply bought a bunch of them and decided he should try seeing if he could crush the flowers to squeeze out some juice to increase the concentration. That, and some regular tablets to amplify its effects should be good enough for the test creation.

After making his purchases, he headed back to the place which he told himself he would abandon long ago in favor of his new home, but he never got around to decorating his new home. Makes him wonder why he bought one in the first place. He should at least buy a damn bed, right?

Arriving at his current base of operations, he said hello to his familiar, Skuggi, and quickly prepared the ingredients, rinsing them and checking to make sure he had enough burning fuel for the task at hand. Might be handy if those Alchemists figure out how to make heating elements work by supplying MP. His things prepared, he began to work on the new creation.

Skuggi swung by, apparently bored with doing nothing at all, by slipping in through the door which he left ajar when he came in. “What are you making?” Skuggi asked, interest piqued out of boredom, perhaps.

“Trying to make a new potion, it should improve accuracy by increasing Dexterity temporarily. Maybe I won’t suck at throwing stuff afterwards.” A curt reply came from his lips as his fingers worked to remove the flower petals and straighten them, placing them into thin bundles of a few petals per bundle.

“Throwing stuff? Do you actually think it’s viable to use throwing weapons? Think of the cost. Unlike me, you can’t generate projectiles at will. For combat, you’ll quite literally be throwing thousands of gold at the enemy, unless you have the projectile return reforge on that weapon, which would make it impossible to put in other reforges.”

His fingers stopped, his mind processing what was mentioned, then replied, “I don’t think I’ll have to use throwing knives regularly. I don’t think it will ever be part of my regular arsenal. If anything, when research on guns go far enough, I should have a gun which can do the job of ranged attack for me.”

The Ripper Jack angled its head curiously to the left at his words. “Then, why? Is this a long tern investment for when you use these things you call guns more regularly?”

Right. He never got round to fully explaining the concept of a gun to the plant before. I think I said it was essentially a crossbow that fires a small, fast projectile. Probably not the best description of it.

“Because there could always come a time where I’ll need it, there could come a time where I can’t use a gun. Besides, if you load it with status debuffs, it should be fine, right?” Hands moving again. Bundles of flower petals completed. “Also,” he added as he picked up the first bundle and dropped it into his mortar. “Anything that can earn me some gold is always nice to have.”

It was not that he was extremely poor. True, it seems that potions ran on some weird system where they acted like items with long cooldown times, but for some strange reason, the general populace had refrained from buying all that many potions altogether, as if by some ploy to drive potion prices below cost of production and obtaining a good deal by buying in bulk.

If only the news would spread. I’m amazed it hasn’t, given the massive information exchange in the center of Londinium everyday.

In any case, he needed a great deal of money to prepare equipment worthy of challenging Raids with, as given his current pitiable gear, he would probably only last through the Windsor Raid, that one Raid where only one group of Adventurers was said to have cleared so far. He wondered how many limiters were in place, that would give so many people a hard time. He had tried to gather a team to tackle it once, long ago, but forming the team proved too difficult for it to take off.


~

Word count: 758
Total word count (Pharmacist): 840 + 628 + 758 = 2226

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

Anyway, halfway through crushing his second bundle of flower petals, Skuggi pointed out that he did not start boiling the solvent beforehand. How could he forget? Turning up the heat, he gingerly placed a flask of solvent over a metal wire mesh which rested over a small fire on his making comprising of twigs and leaves from the vicinity. He should probably invest in charcoal, but he wasn’t doing a barbeque here. The fire lit, he peeled the second bundle of now crushed squishy flower petals and placed it in an empty jar which contained the first bundle. Don’t litter, especially when it’s your own place.

The purple nectar smashed out, he checked the temperature of the solvent. Still warm, not high enough. While waiting, he counted out the number of tablets he would need, shaking them out of a jar and letting the blue and green capsules fall one by one into his palm. One, two, three… seven should be enough for this experiment.

He waited till the solvent started to show signs of reaching boiling point, which means the bubbles were starting to appear, moving into action. He dropped the tablets into a similar flask of solvent at room temperature, then poured the nectar into the heated solvent flask. Immediately after, he poured the heated nectar solvent solution into the cool solvent containing the tablets, then swirled it repeatedly while waiting for the tablets to dissolve completely as Skuggi simply sat at a corner and watched him do the Pharmacist things in silence.

When the two solutions first collided, the purple color overcame the whole solution. However, as the tablets slowly dissolved, the solution became green, then slowly turned back into purple, albeit a lighter shade. There was probably some significant chemical, or magical, reaction behind it, but it probably did not matter to him, considering he had no means with which to analyze the results. At the end of the day, the only thing that mattered was, “Did it work?”, and if so, “How can this process be done in a more efficient manner?”

Eyeing the solution, he decided that it should not be poisonous, given the nature of the ingredients. Of course, there was always the possibility that two harmless substances could form a harmful one, so it was best he prepared some potions for contingencies. Would not be nice to find out he drank poison, and there was nothing to keep him alive while it wore off. Naturally, the test subject would have to be him. Even if he could find a willing Person of the Land, he did not want their death to be on him. As the one who created it, he should naturally bear responsibility for it, that was his decision.

There was only one thing left to do. Hope for success.


~

Word count: 470
Total word count (Pharmacist): 840 + 628 + 758 + 470 = 2696