See You In September [C/S]

[Capsule]

[attr="class","solace"]

It was that time of the year again, and Capsule was eager to get out and about. No, it had nothing to do with Weihnachten (Christmas, for non-German scrubs), nor did it involve Halloween, which was not for another month. It was bonus exp season, and Capsule was going to jump on that like a sorority girl on a frat boy. Or something equally outrageous. The woman was only six levels away from reaching level ninety, though she might find herself unable to solo her way through this. From the alert she read, the exp bonus was related to doing some quest, so it would behoove her to party up with someone. Crafting could thankfully be done solo, at least, but she was rather pleased with her level sixty nine Pharmacist subclass. It would be best to max that one out too, however. She had to compete with the generic potions, and keep her high leveled clientele well stocked on level appropriate goods.

There would be no research done today, however. Capsule had a tall order of things to craft by hand, and what better time than to craft them now? Well, it was not that tall of an order, now that she thought about it. There were only four things on her list that needed to be crafted. These were Appetite Inducers, Miasma Perfume, Smoke Grenades, and an Appearance Reversion potion. These were mostly things she could do without, but others might find particularly useful. Seriously… an Appetite Inducer? Talk about gluttonous…

Oh well. Who was she to judge? If people wanted to over indulge in food, then that was their business, not hers. At least the other three items were actually useful, in a combat sense… excluding the Appearance Reversion potion, of course. A Smoke Grenade was good for getting the hell out of dodge, and Miasma Perfume helped to draw aggro, presumably for tanks or the really thick headed DPS types, like Assassins and Swashbucklers.

Capsule thought it was prudent to start off with something quick and easy: the Appetite Inducer. It was but a simple potion. Her makeshift kitchen slash lab was already prepped for the occasion. Capsule picked up a simple herb, and neatly chopped it into bits. Potions generally followed the same formula: find an herb, dissect it, mash it, and them boil the remains in a beaker. Rinse and repeat. She knew the first few steps like the back of her hand, and in no time, she had a fine powder going in her mortar and pestle.

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∝: 424
♫: See You In September
✏: Appetite Inducer 1/2
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","solace"]

Humming softly to herself, Capsule rounded up the grounded herb into a beaker. Said beaker was placed on a burner, and had been allowed to boil a bit while she dealt with the herb. She carefully scooped the power into the simmering water, and diluted it with a common solvent. Her interest in making anything high level out of this craft was nil. It would be level one, since, well… it had no combat uses, and the strength of making someone a gluttonous buffoon would hardly be effected by its level. Furthermore, she had no intentions of making use of this concoction, so why bother? Her only interest was in bonus exp, and she made it a habit to craft everything available to her crafting class. How else would she be able to keep up with the needs of her customers?

Capsule gently stirred the contents of the concoction. The color of the liquid was a murky white. For something that claimed to increase your appetite, it sure was doing the opposite to her. She made a face down at the stuff. If it did not look good, she could only imagine that it tasted like crap. But was that not the case for most medicines and potions? There was no way she would be drinking this stuff, especially since she did not need to.

It took only a matter of minutes for the potion to be finished. Capsule picked up a vial, and with steady, well-practiced hands, poured the contents from beaker to vial. Afterwards, she set it aside on a small stand, uncapped for now. She would cap it once it was cool and ready to go. The woman lightly clapped her hands together, ready to start on the next task: an Appearance Reversion potion. Her reasoning was simple; all of her equipment was currently set up to accommodate potions, and not perfume or a grenade. Going back and forth simply did not make a lick of sense to the practical German.

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∝: 334
♫: See You In September
✏: Appetite 2/2
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","solace"]

Making an Appearance Reversion potion should be a cinch. Once you knew how to make an Appearance Change potion, it was pretty much the same thing. The key difference came from their effects. The Appearance Change potion worked overnight, however, while the Appearance Reversion potion worked in a matter of minutes. That, and one was blue, while the other was a shade of bluish purple. Capsule knew the color was a result of the red Anima Berry and Mana Flower being combined together. It was only natural to assume that the key ingredient for an Appearance Reversion potion would be a Mana Flower. The rest was fairly standard.

The minty scented (and flavored) flower was broken down into little leaves that resembled tea leaves. Capsule would not be making tea, however. The method she intended to prepare the concoction would be quite similar, but not altogether the same. It would be interesting to see someone try to sip the potion like it was tea. An odd thing, even with the rather pleasant minty taste, one that came close to resembling the mint used for peppermint tea. Capsule had tried to make some tea out of it before, and was horribly disappointed.

To bring out the flavor and its potency, Capsule gently grounded the leaves up in her mortar and pestle. At her feet, Bosco yawned and rolled over onto his back. The dog could smell the minty fragrance, but whether he enjoyed it or not, she could not say. Bosco was an odd pup, and had been caught once trying to eat some of her herbs. She almost had a fit when she saw him gnawing on a Sunlight Branch. Considering he trouble she had gone through to collect her materials, she was very disappointed in the rambunctious little scamp.

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∝: 300
♫: See You In September
✏: Appearance Reversion 1/3
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","solace"]

Once she had completed the task of grounding the Mana Flower, Capsule rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. The leaves had not been ground too finely, but grounded well enough. Capsule had her reasons. She had decided to prepare the potion in such a way that one could shake it to reactivate the ingredients, in case it was left to sit for too long. So, it would appear that some extra residue was hanging around the bottom of the bottle, like sand at the bottom of an ocean floor.

She absentmindedly liked her finger, and was instantly rewarded by the strong taste of mint. Excellent. Rather than immediately placing the leaves in a container of boiling water, Capsule decided to do it in reverse. She relocated the leaves into a clear flask, and then turned back to the beaker of boiling water. With a complete lack of decorum, she dropped a tablet of drugs into the water. She traced that up with a bit of solvent to break down the impurities from the tablet, and afterwards proceeded to stir the water up. The result would be a somewhat watered down liquid. She did not want it to be too strong to overcome the taste of mint, or too weak to cause the potency to be reduced.

The third and final step was nigh, but Capsule would be far from done. There were still two more things to craft. At the rate she was going, however, she should be done in an hour or so. Preferably less, so that she could move on to other things.

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∝: 268
♫: See You In September
✏: Appearance Reversion 2/3
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","solace"]

Once the liquid was at a desirable temperature, and the tablet completely dissolved, Capsule ceased stirring and turned the burner off. She retrieved the flask and held it close to the beaker, which she lifted with her other hand. Steam rose and warmed her hand and cheeks as she poured the boiled liquid into the flask of crushed leaves. A pleasant minty scent tickled her nostrils, but also forced her eyes to water. Further down in the container, the contents were steadily simmering. Overall, it was very pretty, even through her light tears.

Capsule blinked away the moisture from her eyes, now setting the empty beaker down. She lightly stirred the contents of the flask for a few minutes, to prevent the leaves from sticking to the bottom. It was a bit like cooking, when you got down to the nitty gritty. Capsule was far from a great cook, but even she knew how to avoid burning something. Nevertheless, the potion was completed and ready for consumption… but not by her, ha! She was far too pleased with her current avatar to go and change it again. Plus, she had no idea how well received it would be by Mute. The last thing she wanted was to cause a strain on their relationship.

With a soft yawn, Capsule threw her arms behind her head and stretched. Perhaps she would deign to take a nap in a bit. Bosco was making it look quite appealing. Or maybe she could go bother Mute for a spell.

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∝: 254
♫: A Promise
✏: Appearance Reversion 3/3
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","capsol"]

The description for the Miasma Perfume was interesting, to say the least. Smell like pure evil. Capsule was not sure how effective it actually was at making someone smell like evil, which was not a legit smell… but maybe it was something animals and monsters could smell, like fear? Who even knows. Her most pressing issue was figuring out how to make perfume. It seemed like a rather straightforward method; brew the ingredients until you got a thin liquid, and then transport into a spray bottle. Still, it was prudent to do some quick research, lest she run the risk of screwing up the entire craft.

Capsule opened up a journal of recipes, and set it down on the table. Much to her surprise, one of the key ingredients was alcohol, preferably vodka or even Everclear, if possible. In hindsight, it made perfect sense. Perfume was flammable, and she had once witnessed someone using it to spray fire about. As for the rest of the ingredients… all she needed was distilled water (easily accessible) and essential or fragrance oils now. She could make the oil, which would not take longer than a few minutes if she just used the system to increase the production speed.

She located a small, empty bottle, and her jar of grape seed oil. Some of this basic oil was added to the bottle, which she set down afterwards. For her fragrance, Capsule chose something simple, yet pleasing to smell: mint extract. With an eyedropper tool, the woman carefully added a few drops to the bottle. She added a few more until she was satisfied with the results. The mint was not too strong, but not too subtle, either. It was just right.

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∝: 287
♫: Eat You Up
✏: Miasma Perfume 1/3
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","capsol"]

With the fragrance oil left to sit in a timer that would expediate the infusion, Capsule dug through her cupboard for a bottle of vodka. She was not a regular drinker, but she knew she had a bottle of the stuff lying around somewhere. One of her customers had crafted and sent it in to her as a form of payment. Capsule would have been happier with gold, but the vodka was high quality stuff, and she had been saving it for a future trade. So far, no one was interested, and she did not believe anyone would be. So it was better to just put the drink to use before it could go bad.

It took her nearly ten minutes to find the vodka. Somehow, it had managed to fall off of the shelf, and was lying in the back of the cupboard. It was amazing the bottle had not shattered when it fell. It was a bit sticky around the neck, however. Capsule gingerly wiped at the sticky section with her shirt. The vodka looked all right when she opened it -- another good sign. She poured three fourths of it into a jar, and placed the now capped vodka back into the cupboard.

The following step was just as easy. All she had to do was add precisely twenty five drops of the fragrance oil. It was done infusing now, and the minty scent had gotten noticeably stronger. She mixed the oil and vodka together with a small spoon, wincing slightly as the scent continued to grow in strength. This was definitely enough, and there was nothing more for her to do with this mixture… other than let it sit. Had this been the real world, Capsule would be forced to wait a month or longer for the mixture to successfully age, but this was a video game. All she needed was a matter of minutes.

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∝: 319
♫: Eat You Up
✏: Miasma Perfume 2/3
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","capsol"]

The next to last step involved mixing glycerin and the distilled water into the perfume, to dilute it. She had to add a few teaspoons of water, to make the perfume easier to spray. The amount of glycerin needed had to be followed to a T: five drops only. It was important to preserve the fragrance, which was not as strong now. In fact, it was actually tolerable… and oddly pleasant, for something that was supposed to smell like evil.

The final step required very little effort on her part. With a funnel, Capsule transported the perfume to a slender bottle, via a funnel. Once she was done with that, she removed the funnel and set it aside. The bottle was refitted with its spray top, cementing the creation of the Miasma Perfume. In her early days, she would have tested the spray out in the wild. Now that she was an established Pharmacist, she was confident that her crafts would be successful. The only hiccup came in the form of her research, which was questionable at times.

For a moment, Capsule seriously contemplated spraying on some of the perfume, anyway. It was not the effect she desired, but to carry the scent. A foolish desire, seeing as how she was the only person in here. Maybe around Mute… but if the spray induced aggression, would it make her attack her girlfriend? Or was it only effective on monsters? It was better not to risk it. Capsule eyed the bottle of perfume for a few more moments, before scooping it up and placing it near the recently created concoctions. It was time to finish this crafting spree up, with the smoke grenade.

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∝: 282
♫: Eat You Up
✏: Miasma Perfume 3/3
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","capsol"]

The current setup of Capsule's work station was somewhat odd. She had an empty flask, a small pile of herbs, her mortar and pestle, a few mana crystals, and a gas mask. While the smoke grenade was not an actual explosive, she did not fancy getting a face full of potentially hazardous smoke. Unfortunately, she did not have a second gas mask for Bosco (nor was there any guarantee that the dog would actually keep the mask on), so she thought it was prudent to lock the dog out of the kitchen until she was done. Outside, the sounds of whining and scratching could be heard, which she straight up ignored. Bosco would just have to chill.

Capsule picked up an herb, one of which could produce a steady stream of smoke when set ablaze. She had to grind it up, and then do the same to a different herb, which was the catalyst needed to ignite the mana and the other herb. It was not a very difficult recipe to follow. It was concerning that low leveled Pharmacists could make it, and potentially cause some mayhem in the process.

She put the first herb to the knife, briefly wondering when someone would research a Molotov cocktail. Now ]that could be disastrous. Would such a thing even be accepted by the research committee? Allegedly, bombs and the like were strictly prohibited, but she had not had the time to test that theory herself. Hell, with just some fertilizer, you could make a nasty homemade bomb. Capsule sure would not want to be on the receiving end of her own research, however, so if someone wanted to dabble in demolitions, they might have to seek out another Pharmacist... unless the price was right. You would be surprised at how easily someone could be bought.

The woman silently mulled over the subject of ethics while she dismantled the herbs, piece by piece. Too many innocent lives were at risk, Landers especially. They only lived once. Imagine if a good chunk of them could be taken out in warfare... her hand almost slipped, narrowly slicing into her finger. Capsule carefully turned her knife and used it to separate the two different types of herbs away from each other. She then scooped one group into her mortar and pestle. It was safer to allow your mind to wander when there was not a sharp object in hand.

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∝: 403
♫: A Promise
✏: Smoke Grenade 1/3
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","capsol"]

War with Landers... her hands moved of their own accord, going through the motions of actions done countless times. Mash, grind, pound. Muscle memory was a great thing, especially in video games. War, on the other hand, was a messy concept. But what if the Adventurers found themselves in need of such destructive weaponry? What if they were confronted not by Landers, who were generally agreed to be much weaker to Adventurers in term of power, but by something greater? An enemy they had yet to encounter?

She clicked her tongue, now pausing in her work. It was a tricky subject, indeed. But there was no real rush to go and make such a thing. Not when they still had magic and other means of offense. Depending on how technology in this world progressed, Capsule might be forced to consider it. Hopefully, such drastic measures would not need to be employed immediately.

With the two piles of powder neatly lined up on one side, Capsule dusted her hands off. She pulled a glove over one hand, and slid a Petrie dish over in front of her. It had been a good while since she had last worked with mana crystals. The discovery of the Mana Flower had rendered them useless to her. With one stroke of a bare finger, the crystal lost its solid form, and fell into the dish like a soggy clump of clay. She dipped her fingers into the mana, massaging it until it grew softer. It was then poured into a thin tube, which she would rig with a string. The string would be attached to the top, so that it would cause the mana to flow out and ignite the powder inside.

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∝: 287
♫: A Promise
✏: Smoke Grenade 2/3
@: Capsule

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[Capsule]

[attr="class","capsol"]

Now that the hard part was over, Capsule could wrap up this crafting session. She funneled the powder for the interior into the flask, where it nestled in the bottom and stopped short of brushing against the neck of the flask. As for the rest of the powder... after making sure the interior powder was packed down and would not sift around too much, she poured powdered fuel in. There was enough that it did not overflow, leaving a pocket of space for the thin tube. This, Capsule rigged with a string, tied to the end of the tube and the inside of the cap. The other end of the tube was coiled like a snake into the powder, after first having the tip inserted.

Capsule gently closed and sealed the flask, which felt like a ticking time bomb in her hands. Three whole seconds went by, but no KABOOM and resounding cloud of smoke followed. That was a good sign, indeed. Satisfied with her creation, Capsule picked up the flask and stored it somewhere up high, where Bosco would not be able to reach. She had no idea when she would actually use it, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Diversionary tactics came to mind, of course, but how often did she have an opportunity to make use of that?

Slowly, she raised her hands to her face, and peeled the gas mask off. It turned out to have been unneeded after all. She leaned back against a wall, admiring her fine craftsmanship. It was highly satisfying to be up to speed again.

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∝: 267
♫: A Promise
✏: Smoke Grenade 3/3.
@: Capsule

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