The boy reached out to grab the shimmering item only to have his palm slip through the field as if it weren’t there. Scratching his head, he tried some experiments. There had to be a way to get at everything—Mistress Valanil had mentioned that on many occasions. He stared at the simple scroll. But as he tried to figure out how to reach it, the item suddenly began blinking. Just below it, a green square labeled materialize appeared. That did the trick.
Mouth open, Tailyn stared at the little miracle forming in his hands. The thick piece of paper was building itself out of nothing, out of thin air, slowly revealing a florid script in a language the boy didn’t know. But while he couldn’t read the message, the majesty of the moment was in no way diminished, and the god itself explained what Tailyn was holding as soon as it finished appearing:
Alchemical scroll: Shield Restoration Potion. Description: teaches you how to make a potion that restores personal shields. Alchemy skill required.
***
Would you like to use it?
Tailyn even hiccupped in his hurry to agree.
Recipe learned: Shield Restoration Potion (ordinary recipe). Current level: 1. You learned how to make potions that restore 1 shield unit. The amount of shield they restore depends on the recipe level. Required ingredients: Alchemical Retort (1), Ordinary Loach (1), Ordinary Lavender (2). Potions can only be made in an alchemy workshop.
***
Would you like to boost the recipe level?
Sweat broke out as Tailyn read the message. Who wouldn’t want to?
Select how many levels you would like to increase the recipe.
1-2-3-4-5.
Obviously, the only right answer to a ridiculous question like that was five.
Shield Restoration Potion level +5 (6)
Crystals (5) were used and removed from your inventory.
The boy’s stomach dropped when one of the cells in his open inventory was suddenly vacated. The very same crystals you could be executed for having had just disappeared. If Master Isor found out, he was going to have Tailyn’s head. And that made it final—the boy wasn’t going to be saying a word about either the crystals or the mission.
His gaze fell on the next scroll, and it immediately started to blink invitingly. It took a while, but Tailyn’s curiosity won over. Both papers were in his hands a couple minutes later. And yes, one of them was somehow shimmering. The boy stared with round eyes at the green light, the sparks that weren’t hurting him, the mystical magic he could only dream of.
Recipe learned: Mana Restoration Potion (ordinary recipe). Current level: 1. You learned how to make potions that restore 1 mana unit. The amount of mana they restore depends on the recipe level. Required ingredients: Alchemical Retort (1), Ordinary Lavender (1), Ordinary Daisy (2). Potions can only be made in an alchemy workshop.
***
Recipe learned: Magic Enhancement Elixir (rare recipe). Current level: 1. You learned how to make elixirs that increase magic attack strength by 1 for 24 hours. The attack strength increase depends on the recipe level. Required ingredients: Alchemical Retort (1), Ginseng (1), Edelweiss (2), Lily of the Valley (1), Pasqueflower (3). Potions can only be made in an alchemy workshop.
Both recipes looked useless to Tailyn. He couldn’t help but think he should have sold them to Mistress Valanil rather than learn them—who needed magic? There was no way he could use it, anyway. It was just a fancy way of lighting up an area.
The dark cloak looked ominous, so Tailyn refrained from materializing it. The boots, on the other hand, fit him perfectly. But that was no surprise—the boy knew the god personally made bonus clothing. It was just nice to finally have something that gave him a boost, as Master Isor had never let Tailyn close to any of his things.
Elass Jing didn’t have anything else of use to offer. Tailyn wasn’t about to strip him of his underwear, as it wouldn’t have done him any good, he wouldn’t have been able to sell it, and he didn’t really want to touch the body, anyway. Suddenly, he had an idea. His breath caught in his throat. Flowers packed his pockets, and it occurred to him that it might be possible to drop them into his inventory. Pulling out all thirty-two loaches and placing them on the nearest stone, Tailyn concentrated. Finally, he let out a happy cry.
Would you like to place Ordinary Loach (32) in your inventory?
The answer to that question was obvious, and Tailyn quickly opened the field and scanned the cells. There they were, all in the same one. The only problem was that Mistress Valanil’s drawings categorically refused to hide in the inventory, though the boy was able to slip them into one of his boots. That left his pockets empty. If he was waylaid on the way home, there wouldn’t be anything to rob him of.
Pulling open his status table, the boy had to smile.
Status table
General character information
Tailyn Vlashich
Alchemist
Level
1
Age
10
Yearly tax (crystals)
1 (beginning at age 16)
Coins
0
Gold
22
Main parameters
Shield level
65
Mana level
60
Physical attack
14
Magic attack
16
Skills
Alchemy
Shield Restoration Potion
6
Mana Restoration Potion
1
Magic Enhancement Elixir
1
It wasn’t bad at all for a ten-year-old kid. That number six in the line for the shield restoration potion was especially heart-warming—none of the people Tailyn knew working in the forests or on the farms had a single skill above one. And there he was, all the way up at six. But he wasn’t going to say anything. He hadn’t seen any crystals, after all. Although, why hadn’t anyone known you could use them to boost your skill levels?
Stepping gingerly around the corpse, Tailyn headed toward the rope hanging from the hole above him. But he stopped. There was the mission. He was supposed to get to the control room, whatever that was, and find instructions there. But which direction was he supposed to go? Which way was “farther into” the tunnel? Both sides were blocked off, and that still left the problem of which was in and which was out. The rough stone had collapsed to keep him from going anywhere. Really, he was going to need a shovel, a pickaxe, and oceans of free time. The good news was that he certainly had the latter.
Clambering up the rope turned out to be much harder than Tailyn had been expecting. A couple times, the boy just about fell, and right around the middle, he stopped and looked down for whatever reason. It would have been a long drop. Frozen with fear, his hands grew slick with sweat, and he began to slip lower. But no matter how hard he squeezed, it was useless—he couldn’t hang on.