An Experimental Brew [Solo | Crafting]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

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Once upon a time, there was a dull drink. Over time, the Adventurers worked long and hard to produce taste, and with it, brought a little more flair into the place they were trapped in. They may not have telephones yet, but at least they had alcohol! Well, Icyferno was not making alcohol yet, though.

As a Pharmacist, one would usually expect such a crafter to be delving into the art of potion creation, exploring the intrinsic nature of every plant and animal for medicinal purposes yet unknown to the rest of the Unfounded Kingdom, and combining these into new potions which may or may not be of use to others. Drinks? Drinks were a Brewer's job. They specialized in liquor creation, and while the Pharmacist could technically work with fluids well enough to replicate the drinks of their more drunken counterparts, it would just be a tad harder, with a little more effort than the norm. It was not impossible though, which was why Icyferno found himself extremely out of his depth, in a stall mostly patronized by Brewers.

The roadside stall, just another one in the sprawling paths of Londinium, sold many of the things a Brewer might need to make his first drink: Barrels of water, grapes for wine, and a bunch of other fruits and equipment that he was sure was very familiar to the standard Brewer, but completely alien to him. Well, whatever. He purchased some of the items necessary to his cause, then returned to his shop base hidden within the station.

Why was he doing this? No particular reason. He reasoned that he may, at times, need a tasty drink, though not necessarily alcohol. Then again, pure alcohol could be used in a molotov cocktail, so maybe an ampoule which bursts into flame may yet be birthed from alcohol. This time around, though, he was simply making some drinks for the heck of it. Maybe offering liquor alongside potions might increase sales as he evolved into a shop specializing in all kinds of fluids. Uh, without the implicated innuendo.

As he was starting from scratch, he began his work with the most basic type of drink, one which literally anyone on the street could make. A basic, simple drink without taste, pretty much as good as water but still more expensive that the aforementioned water. Quite pointless, but he had to start from the basics, though he was pretty sure he could immediately jump to the more difficult brews.

So with a bottle of water in his inventory and a single fruit in his hand, he opened his menu, pressed a few buttons, and waited a few moments for the system to do its magic. The fruit magically disappeared, and the bottle of water in his inventory became fruit juice. It was colored, but it definitely tasted like water. Probably just needed to do that to unlock a pointless craft anyway.

Oh well, on to the real crafts.

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Word count: 495
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495
Notes: Post 1 of 1 for [Unfounded Drink]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

The first drink of the day he was crafting was an [Ordinary Beverage]. A basic Brewer craft, it was all that he needed to make his own drink, with taste, that he may enjoy on a day off. Technically, all he was doing could have been done by someone who knows their way around a kitchen, but to the inexperienced him, it was a revelatory procedure, though it was still fairly simple and easy to replicate. It was simple enough, that if you taught it to a kid, they could probably do it. That kind of basic. Except maybe they did not have the strength to finish it.

In this scenario, he was going to try and make fruit juice that had taste. To do that, he needed to craft it manually. That was obvious, so why did he go and craft one with the system? Well, it was a separate recipe, so he just did it naturally. Completionist for the win.

He took the same fruit he used earlier, except now in a larger quantity of several. If he were going to make fruit juice, the juices of the fruit itself would be sufficient to make it. Water would only dilute the taste. Where in the old world, they once had machines to do the work for them, now he had to do everything by hand. Le sigh.

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Word count: 229
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 = 724
Notes: Post 1 of 2 for [Ordinary Beverage]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

He started off by peeling the fruits with a fruit knife, which would make his work a lot easier than it first appeared to be. Once done, he sliced each fruit into two, then with a grinder and a sieve, began to work on the drink that he desired. It was dull, it was repetitive, but with every crush, a bit of juice oozed out of the remains of the now wrecked fruit, spilling into the container he had set out below. Over time, as he went through the fruits, the juices he had painstakingly squeezed from the depths of the fruits' folds begin to accumulate, until he had an amount that he could fill in a bottle. He took a sip of it, and it tasted just like the fruit, just as advertised. But given the nature of the drink, it would not be fresh for long. Freshly squeezed juice tended to go bad very quickly, and he had no real preservatives on hand.

So without further prompting, he drank all of it, a healthy alternative to soft drinks, assuming what they ate and drank could have a negative health impact on Adventurers in the first place. Could Adventurers get diabetes? After being here a while, it seemed to not be the case. It would not be nice seeing horizontally challenged females in skimpy fantasy outfits, that was for sure.

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Word count: 231
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 = 955
Notes: Post 2 of 2 for [Ordinary Beverage]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

Ice. When water hits two hundred and seventy three point one five Kelvins, or zero degrees Celsius, it begins losing heat to form ice. The density of the substance falls, and the solid obtained can be used to keep many a thing chilled.

The next item on the list was the [Iced Beverage]. Not much different from the [Ordinary Beverage], in his opinion. It seemed to be, at first glance, simply just an [Ordinary Beverage] with a bunch of ice cubes dropped in to keep the drink cool. But was it? Further investigation in the recipe noted that it held effects in combat. Where did this buff come from? Was the ice special, did it contain any unique properties which set it apart from the [Ordinary Beverage]? Perhaps there was some reaction of sorts? Or maybe it was the world's way of rewarding experimentation? He knew not the answer, but it was listed as such. Despite how strange it was, there were countless records of the same thing being replicated everywhere, so it was probably true and the ice somehow calls forth the mystical energies of the cold to grant boons. What would happen if he ate the ice directly, though? He was sure that it would have certainly been more effective.

Welp, there was no time to lose on the mystical properties of ice. He had a craft to make, and not a lot of time to make it. He was already starting to tire of Brewer crafts. Guess he was never meant to be a Brewer then.

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Word count: 259
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 + 259 = 1214
Notes: Post 1 of 2 for [Iced Beverage]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

He repeated what he did for the [Ordinary Beverage] earlier, except now he used a different fruit. This time, he was using apples. So maybe he could make iced apple juice? Probably.

He crushed the fruit in the same fashion, though for obvious reasons he washed his equipment first. Would not want the juices to mix or anything. Sure, sometimes mixing a few fruits together could make a more delicious drink, but he was currently not in this for experimenting, but to run through the procedure of random drink making once so he had a rough idea of what to do for future works. Probably would not work for alcoholic beverages though. Unless freshly squeezed grape juice was alcoholic in nature.

Once he got the juices he was looking for, Icyferno transferred the drink into a cup, then, going to his fridge, obtained a few cubes of ice which he then brought over to the cup and unceremoniously dumped it into the cup. There, [Iced Beverage]. Heck, the name even changed upon the addition of the ice cubes. Talk about random recipes. He wondered how it was discovered. Was it something like, "Oh, I want to add ice cubes to my drink so it stays cool. What's this? A new recipe?!" Yeah, probably something like that.

But that was another one done, so time to work on the unhealthy [Soda].

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Word count: 230
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 + 259 + 230 = 1444
Notes: Post 2 of 2 for [Iced Beverage]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

There were many kinds of soda in the old world. Apart from the drinkable variant, there was washing soda, baking soda, caustic soda (not sure what that was, though), soda glass, soda pulp, soda straw, soda water (which was a kind of natural gassy water), ice cream soda, soda crackers, and a few other stuff. Wow, that was a lot of soda. Good thing he was only looking at one particular variant though.

A soft drink, or a [Soda] in this case, was, at its core, soda water with flavorings. The main component of [Soda] was [Soda Water], after all. Unlike with the earlier beverages, most of the ingredients to make a tasty glass of [Soda] mostly revolved around chemicals, which was something he could get behind. At least there was a lot less work involved in powders since they were already processed goods. It would almost be a Pharmacist craft, since it technically gave a buff much like a potion might have. We wondered why they had yet to touch on flavored potions though. Perhaps due to quality control? Indeed, it was a lot more difficult to prepare the taste since they lacked the advanced chemical knowledge to work with reagents to create pure substances to add into soda, so there was less things to do. However, a shorter procedure may also mean he earns less experience for making the craft. And yes, he was earning Pharmacist levels for Brewer crafts. Do not ask how it works, someone found out about it and it soon became common knowledge.

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Word count: 259
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 + 259 + 230 + 259 = 1703
Notes: Post 1 of 2 for [Soda]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately for his experience bar, there were a bunch of beverages already prepared. All he had to do was mix the drinks. Kind of a let down, really. Then again, he avoided most of the work of preparing the ingredients and ensuring that the ratio of ingredients was correct by purchasing the end product from a shopkeeper, which, while slightly more expensive, saved him the time needed to make it and the additional cost of purchasing Brewer equipment. He was still unsure if he would continue to go down this line. If needed, he may do so, but for now, he could consider this a trial run of sorts. Basically, he would only invest if he felt that the demand was there. As for making the small drink occasionally, he did not feel the need to purchase expensive equipment just for that reason alone.

As for the [Soda] at hand, since he already had [Soda Water], all he did was add a beverage containing sweeteners, some red color from crushed plants, and it probably contained some preservatives. He filled half the glass with [Soda Water], and the other half with the beverage. He mixed the two with a spoon, then added an ice cube. There. [Soda] finished. He took a sip of the drink, and the fizzy nature of the drink was similar enough to the kind of soft drinks they used to have. Not bad, maybe he will make more of this sometime, just for himself. He gulped the drink down, then prepared to move on to the next one: The alcoholic section.

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Word count: 267
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 + 259 + 230 + 259 + 267 = 1970
Notes: Post 2 of 2 for [Soda]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

Wine is a common alcoholic beverage. Made primarily of grapes and other fruits, the beverage has been the primary alcohol drink of man for a long, long time. It was probably the first thing Man could get drunk on, since he doubted there was beer or ale of any kind around before wine was first made. He could be wrong, though, since he had no references. He simply assumed so, despite knowing that beer and the like existed at a time when royalty were sipping on fine wine. Maybe he should check it up one day, if he ever felt so inclined.

Usually, wine had to go through a long fermentation process. Under most circumstances, the ingredients went through a wine press, and after which, it would be stored for a couple of years to allow it to ferment. Naturally, as time goes by, the prices of these jars go up. Kind of like art. Old art pieces by famous artists tend to sell for a lot. Since he was generally unskilled in the art of wine creation, he instinctively chose a cheap jar to purchase, one which was roughly only a month or so old, probably. The end product would probably be bad, but at least he would have tried, right? Also, as mentioned many times already, he did not have Brewer equipment, so he could not have made the wine himself with a wine press, and he was not going to wait months to use it either.

So now he found himself with a jar from a local winery. It was time to work.

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Word count: 266
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 + 259 + 230 + 259 + 267 + 266 = 2236
Notes: Post 1 of 2 for [Wine, Basic]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

When making wine that tastes good, one of the things to look out for is to make the drink sweet. A bitter wine was a bad wine, which meant that he was not supposed to throw in [Common Hops] into the drink. A shame, he wanted to see if he could change the color from the red that it was now. Instead, in order to get the flavor he needed, he added a ladle of [Concentrate Juice] to the brew he had. Fruits tend to have a decent amount of sugar in them, so natural sugar would probably help the taste, right? He was no Brewer expert, but he hoped he was right in that regard.

Once the addition step was complete, he proceeded to shake the heck out of the drink. He had seen many bartenders do something like that, and he knew it was to make sure the two liquids mixed well. Then again, they also served it right after, so perhaps he was probably a little far off from the usual wine creation protocols. But what was he supposed to do? Technically, the jars of stuff sold were almost in their final stage anyway. He could theoretically put the jar's contents in a bottle and call it wine, if he so desired, and it would probably work. Upon completion, he stored the drink in a bottle, labeled in "Experimental WIne" and put it away. Perhaps he could convince a drunk drunkard to test it for him.

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Word count: 249
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 + 259 + 230 + 259 + 267 + 266 + 249 = 2485
Notes: Post 2 of 2 for [Wine, Basic]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

If there was one reason why a Pharmacist could craft Brewer recipes, it would be because both crafting classes dealt in liquids, one for entertainment, one for medicinal purposes. Naturally, it would be hard for a Pharmacist to learn Brewer crafts, especially right off the bat, due to the unfamiliar equipment used in brewing. However, there were some similarities, and here comes the easy part.

[Distilled Spirits] was the name of the next craft he was working on. It was, for all intents and purposes, pure alcohol. Alcohol, while it does serve a number of uses (mostly entertainment), when purified, had its own medicinal value. Pure alcohol was used to make bandages in the old world, for example, though he doubted they needed bandages here. Unless he was making a new craft to cancel the [Bleed] debuff... No, that would have to wait until he had the knowledge to be able to recreate something like that, and that meant hunting down elusive books in the various libraries of Londinium and hoping to stumble upon the very paragraphs he needed to do so. He had no intention of diving into books today, so he wrote a mental note for himself. Surprising how it was not very common yet though. Perhaps it had been overlooked, or perhaps he overlooked it.

In any case, purifying alcohol was very much the same as purifying chemical substances for use in Pharmacist experiments: Through distillation or fractional distillation. The equipment was thankfully the same this time around, so it should be very easy for him to do it. All he needed was the alcohol. Too bad he already had plans for that bottle of wine he just made.

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Word count: 282
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 + 259 + 230 + 259 + 267 + 266 + 249 + 282 = 2767
Notes: Post 1 of 2 for [Distilled Spirits]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

---

Fortunately for him, he still had some alcohol leftover from making said bottle of wine. So he placed the remaining alcohol in a his distillation still, complete with its own boiling chips which he had to wash just in case he forgot to do so the last time he used it. Besides, this was an item meant for consumption, so he should practice the form of hygiene, right?

Distillation, when done right, was fairly easy. All he needed to do was build a fire big enough for the alcohol to do its thing. The end goal was to extract purified alcohol from the liquid, leaving a bunch of ugly residue stuck to his boiling chips. Probably will need to scrub it long and hard after all this is over.

He estimated that the fire he needed would not need to be very big, but as a precaution, he just lobbed a chunk of wood below. He started the fire with a lighted splinter, then went off to clean up his mess, so that he could attempt one last craft, glancing back every minute or so to check the progress of the distillation.

Some time later (he had no clock to get exact minutes in this room of his, a problem which he needed to address soon), he removed the flask from the distillation setup. If a random person were to step in right now, he would definitely think it was a Pharmacist craft. Technically, it could be, but the beaker with the transparent liquid was actually for drinking. It was highly flammable as well, so perhaps there was hope yet for a napalm or a fire grenade of sorts. So many possibilities, so little time.

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Word count: 285
Total word count (Pharmacist): 495 + 229 + 231 + 259 + 230 + 259 + 267 + 266 + 249 + 282 + 285 = 3052
Notes: Post 2 of 2 for [Distilled Spirits]