Isr Kale's Journal (The Alchemist Book #4): LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  You created a card form: Absorber. To complete the new card, move the form to the base and set it in place with mana.

  Tailyn smiled wearily and stepped out into reality, closing down his other consciousnesses. His head was about to explode. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and fall into oblivion, only a long string of divine messages demanded his immediate attention. Regeneration was losing its mind telling him it needed at least five hours. Shocked that it was going to take longer than regenerating a limb had taken, the boy focused on the writing in front of him. The god needed his attention. If it was giving him something, he had to respond right away.

  You created a unique alchemical elixir.

  Level +1 (17).

  Protection +1 (3).

  You need to name your elixir.

  Suggested options: Tailyn’s Potion, Trukian Potion, Vlashich Potion.

  “Trukian potion.” Tailyn didn’t really want to slap his own name on the black elixir, so he decided to name it after the place where it had been invented.

  Just like with other unique alchemical elixirs, no recipe could be created for Trukian Potions.

  Elixir creation was assigned to the System.

  The elixir is now available in the store. Cost: 2000 coins. As the creator of Trukian Potions, you will receive 20% of all sales every week.

  A notification regarding the new bomb has been sent to all players.

  ***

  Trukian Potion. Description: an alchemical bomb that releases an Absorber for 60 seconds to attack the nearest target. Warning: if there are no other targets, the Absorber will attack the bomb activator.

  There wasn’t a single word about what an absorber was, but Tailyn had no doubt he wasn’t going to like it. At least, he might like it, though he certainly wasn’t looking to try it out on himself.

  “Forian, I need arcane dust, ink, a pen, and a card base,” Valia said, her tone satisfied. Tailyn squinted. His betrothed, who was as pale as a ghost, was staring proudly at the “adults” from a few steps away.

  Template for Absorber. Description: a legendary card that releases an Absorber, a monstrous creature that consumes the essence of other beings. Ignores armor through level VII. Duration: 60 minutes. Time between uses: 7 days. Charges: 5. Each charge costs 1024 mana. Requirements: Wisdom (64). Cannot be recharged. You can create five copies of the card, after which the template will be destroyed. Creator: Valia Levor and Tailyn Vlashich.

  “It worked,” Valanil said slowly, staring thoughtfully at her unsteady sister.

  “Of course, it did,” Forian replied with a shrug as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. “Like I said, with Valia, you just have to give her a push. She does the rest herself.”

  “It worked?” the subject of the conversation asked in surprise. “What are you talking about?”

  “Ever since you were resurrected, you’ve been doing anything and everything except being useful to your city,” the treasurer replied willingly. “Valanil thought you might have lost your creativity—maybe, it remained in the past. But I believed in you since I know you always just need a shove. That’s why everyone has been all over you about cooking. Just as I expected, your distaste for getting your aristocratic hands dirty did the trick. You’re back to making cards, back to being useful. Good to see you again, Valia Levor.”

  “That was all just to spur me on?!” Valia was once again losing control. Tailyn looked on worriedly, afraid his betrothed might try something else crazy. She needed to calm down.

  Before you head off to make something else, let me catch my breath, okay? My regeneration says it needs five hours to get me up and running again.

  Valia looked over at her collapsed boy and gasped. He’d been reduced to skin and bone, almost as though he’d just gotten over a long and difficult illness.

  “It costs twenty thousand mana to make a legendary card using a template,” Forian continued. “Then, you have two thousand for each of the five cards—that’s another ten. From what I can tell, your maximum is five thousand two hundred, so it’ll be years before you’re ready to go to work on your new card. Hopefully, you’ve learned how to deal with your emotions and won’t go overboard like that next time. You might try an electric strike, for example. We have a hundred and eighty residents in the city, and none of them have any cards.”

  “Understood.” Valia’s head drooped as the situation dawned on her. For her whole life, she’d been taught to control her emotions, and she’d flown off the handle at the first provocation. And not only that, but she’d practically gotten both herself and Tailyn killed. That was unacceptable, especially for someone who considered herself among the elite in society. What she’d done deserved a punishment. Putting her embarrassment aside, the girl looked straight into Forian’s eyes and continued, her tone firm. “I want to unlock cooking. Card creation takes a while, and I need to be useful to the city here and now.”

  “Have a seat,” Forian replied, pointing at the bed Tailyn had managed to crawl over to. “You’ve shown that you’re a leader, and not just a spoiled little aristocrat. We’ll come back to you. In the meantime, we need to know what we have. Tailyn?”

  “Twenty-one thousand, five hundred, and forty-five coins, one thousand, eight hundred, and thirty gold, plus all this.” The young alchemist dumped out everything he had with the exception of his cards. He wasn’t about to part with them.

  EQUIPMENT:

  Booster-III amulet valued at 1500 coins.

  Virtual inventory with 86 slots valued at 65300 coins.

  Alchemist’s bag valued at 4000 coins.

  SET UP:

  Mage’s tent-III valued at 30000 coins.

  Aristocrat’s travel tent-III valued at 50000 coins.

  Orthopedic mattress-III valued at 15000 coins.

  Pavilion-II valued at 12000 coins.

  Protective barrier generator-III valued at 30000 coins.

  Mentors and Students artifact valued at 250000 coins.

  Set of silk underwear for lixes (5) valued at 3000 coins.

  INVENTORY:

  Metal Workshop blueprint valued at 5000 coins.

  Smithy blueprint valued at 5000 coins.

  Cafeteria blueprint valued at 15000 coins.

  Stationary Portal blueprint valued at 30000 coins.

  Virtual inventory with 50 slots (2) valued at 30000 coins.

  Mean Truk Holographic Almanac bracelet valued at 30000 coins.

  Mana restoration elixir +100% (18) valued at 1500 coins.

  Tear of Alron (7) valued at 650 coins.

  Alron potion (5) valued at 650 coins.

  Chest for storing valuables valued at 20000 coins.

  Intercom-II valued at 35000 coins.

  Jewelry box with ancient valuables valued at 650 coins.

  Set of ancient jewelry valued at 25 coins.

  “That’s everything I can sell for coins.” Tailyn scratched the back of his head as he looked over the pile of items he’d had in his inventory, never having realized there was that much of it. It was just a shame it all brought only a third of the store price. Sadly, there was nothing he could do about that.

  “Wait, you have an orthopedic mattress?” Valanil screeched when she saw the list. “You’ve been sleeping on twenty thousand coins?”

  “I’m more interested in the silk lix underwear over in the set up section,” Forian said. “I’m assuming you gave the sets to Ka-Do-Gir?”

  “The day I resurrected him. Don’t you remember how proudly he was walking around?”

  “Another question is why his armor and weapons aren’t showing up. They can also be sold for coins, I believe.”

  “Um...” Tailyn was confused. “I’m not sure. All the weaponry and armor I’ve gotten have gone to the lixes and Motar.”

  “I’ll check each and every one of them. Okay, the most important part—sell the mattress and aristocrat’s tent. The jewelry box and jewelry can go, too.”

  “Just the box,” Valanil said, pulling open the
lid and reaching in to grab the sparkling earrings, rings, and beads. Taking it all for herself, she continued, “This is mine. Nobody else is getting any of it!”

  “Just the box,” Forian said with surprising ease. “The generator and almanac can be sold, as well. Keep the artifact for now—it gives the city a nice little bonus. Bar-Truk! Come in here, would you?”

  The tent flap was thrown back, and the shaman stepped inside.

  “This is our personal space!” Valia said indignantly. “Since when did you all decide we were going to just have anyone and everyone traipsing in and out?”

  The treasurer ignored the girl as he continued handing out instructions.

  “I need three lix fighters for two weeks. Tailyn, show him a projection of your map and the spot where we fought the crystal fences. Where we were killed.”

  The boy’s eyes flashed in understanding, and he added a few dots to the detailed route laid out across the map. They marked where the archer, the shamans, Valia, Valanil, and Forian had died.

  “They need to get there as soon as possible and collect everything that’s still around, including the bodies. Especially keep an eye out for named items. From what I can tell, our unhappy little head’s Matilda and Vargot should still be lying on the ground, so you have to head off right away. Your lixes can take ten of the bombs Tailyn made just in case. Make it happen.”

  “Understood, Treasurer,” the lix said before stepping back out.

  “Thanks,” Valia forced out. “It didn’t even occur to me that they might still be around.”

  “That’s why I’m the treasurer, and not you. Tailyn, sell everything we don’t need—we have to pick up as many coins as we can.”

  “Again? I thought we already figured everything out—the next payment should be in a couple months.” Tailyn was so stunned he even pulled himself up onto an elbow, which was all he had the strength to do.

  “The Builder offered to clear all the earth away from Mean Truk in three days for ten thousand coins. If the lixes and Motar’s people do it, it’ll take more than three months. We can’t afford to take that long, so we’re going to have to pay.”

  Coins +125650 (147195).

  Tailyn and Valia collapsed onto the ground as the tent they’d been sleeping in disappeared. The mattress went with it. Pulling up his city management menu, Tailyn found the balance tab and transferred most of his coins over. That was going to make it easier for his treasurer.

  You transferred 130000 coins to the city treasury.

  Dropping the rest of his belongings back into his inventory, Tailyn looked around. There was a mountain of Trukian potions nearby.

  “Seven hundred and two flasks,” Forian said when he saw what had caught the boy’s eye. He handed him one of the bombs. “Can you sell them?”

  “Only for gold—three thousand a piece.” Tailyn pulled up the store and reported back sadly when he saw the purchase offer. It wasn’t that easy—nothing humans made could be sold for coins. The potions weren’t tiramisu.

  “Okay, we’ll leave them in storage for now. Tailyn, I need the trunk and the key to it. Until we have a storehouse, that’s what we’ll use.”

  Forian set the trunk right by the statue, opened the lead, and had a team of numericals run over to load the Trukian potions into the improvised storehouse. But that wasn’t all. Once he was sure the job was well in hand, he turned and yelled off into the distance.

  “Builder, I’m ready to pay the advance. Get started!”

  The Treasurer paid 3000 coins to the Builder as an advance for clearing the city.

  The metal cube, which had been lying motionless on the ground the whole time, shot into the air and split into a few different parts, each of which began transforming. The largest piece turned into a big scoop; the remaining three became something like giant troughs. All of them could fly. After a small whistle that made it sound like the machines were integrating with each other, the scoop slashed into the ground, ripped up a chunk of earth, and dumped it into one of the troughs. Tailyn was stunned—it would have taken the humans and lixes several days of hard labor to dig a pit the size of the one the Builder had just opened up in mere seconds.

  “Ka-Do-Gir, take Tailyn and head for the lix village.” Forian clearly enjoyed giving orders. “He’ll regenerate on the way. Tailyn, I need your training dummy so Motar can put his warriors to work. Every three months, each of them needs to have their skill bumped up by one or two levels. Take care of that personally, Motar. Valanil, get to work on Valia. No cooking—that’s what we have the numericals for. Teach our little head to survive out in the wild. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping an eye on the Builder since we’ll have to react quickly if it comes across any more ancients. Bar-Truk, send your hunters out into the steppe to look for any meat they can find. Get to it, everyone! This city isn’t going to rebuild itself.”

  Pulling up his city management menu, Forian sighed. There were mountains of work in from of them.

  Mean Truk city management

  Balance

  127000

  Coins

  3810000

  Gold

  Payroll

  Position

  Name

  Weekly salary (coins)

  Weekly salary (gold)

  City Head

  Tailyn Vlashich

  -

  -

  City Head

  Valia Levor

  -

  -

  Treasurer

  Forian Tarn

  1500

  45000

  First Deputy Head

  Valanil Revolt

  1500

  45000

  Captain of the Guard

  Motar Lus

  100

  3000

  Lix Advisor

  Ka-Do-Gir

  500

  15000

  Lix Shaman

  Bar-Truk

  500

  15000

  TOTAL

  4100

  123000

  City property

  Mentors and Students sculpture

  A unique entanglement of the five elements combined by masters. Every traveler who visits the city with this statue will receive the Diligence buff. Effective for everyone except the sculpture creators.

  Architect

  Profession level: 150. Non-combat.

  Строитель

  Profession level: 150. Non-combat.

  Guard

  Level 150 combat creature.

  Base shield level: 150000.

  Immunity to magic attack: 80%.

  Immunity to physical attack: 80%.

  Ignores armor through level 4.

  City real estate

  None

  City bonuses

  Mentors and Students sculpture

  All attributes boosted by 50% for 24 hours.

  Priest

  All city resident parameters boosted by 10%

  Workshop production increased by 10%

  Cost of materials at the city store reduced by 10%

  Chapter 7

  “THERE IT IS,” Ka-Do-Gir murmured, one paw pointing in the direction of the smoke visible off in the distance. Tailyn checked his map. Indeed, the only thing it could have been was the red lix village, only the young head of Mean Truk was in no hurry to plunge straight ahead. The lixes in the Gray Land were known for their secrecy. While in general you never knew who was out there in the steppe, the same group was looking at a thick column of smoke. It was almost as if the reds had lost their minds and decided to burn all the green grass they could possibly find.

  And Tailyn wasn’t the only one seeing the red flag. Bar-Truk sniffed and muttered to himself.

  “That’s not right. A careless lix is a dead lix.”

  The group took two days to pick their way over to the village. For the first five hours, Ka-Do-Gir carried Tailyn, though the lixes were barely able to keep up with the boy once he’d finished regenerating. It wasn’t much, but it sti
ll was enough for Tailyn’s stock to rise a few points in the eyes of his tribe. There weren’t many people out there who could outdo lixes. On the other hand, the Mentor and Students effect was wearing off—the twenty-four hours the description mentioned started ticking away the moment they left city limits. Inside the city, it was a constant buff that offered a significant competitive advantage.