Second Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  Chapter: On Credit

  The trades within Wild Reaches Trading Outpost had gone on without issue. A few of the people from Special Team Two were left in the outpost. Their objective was to watch the outpost, learn of the powers that operated within it. Their secondary objective was to look out for talents that might be useful members of Alva Dungeon.

  The return of the merchant convoy was less like the return of friends and heroes, but a rush to strip them of everything that they had brought from the outside world.

  Hearing that the convoy was back, the people from the dungeon poured out so that they were all behind the defenses when the convoy made it back.

  “I have two Lesser Mortal monster cores!” someone in the crowd yelled out.

  “We’ll buy them at one silver each! See Elise!” Jasper, who had been calm and collected on his trip, panicked and yelled out at seeing the mob.

  Elise’s eyes shot daggers at him. She was trying to get away quietly and was instead turned into everyone’s target.

  “I can only exchange three Lesser monster cores per person!” she yelled out just as people were about to start yelling. “Trades will only be carried out in the market square!” she also added as people moved in on her like a pack of hungry wolves.

  Little did she know her words would make them all turn like sharks smelling blood, grabbing the merchant convoy people and carrying them to the merchant square.

  Jasper had people separate out. Each person manning a stall had certain items. They exchanged their monster cores for money at Elise, then used that money to buy items from the different stalls.

  Although they had lots of resources within Alva Dungeon, they couldn’t bring it all out and sell it in one shot at the Wild Reaches Trading Outpost. This was why they were scouting other outposts so they could spread out their sales, making them look smaller.

  They’d sold only a small amount of their goods but due to their high quality, they had plenty of money to buy simple goods. Spices, woodworking tools, farming implements, smithy hammers: these kinds of items and more were simple. But they were items that the people of Alva Village would have never been able to purchase, and items that allowed them to increase their skill levels greatly. Using spices with cooking could increase their skill level in leaps and bounds. They needed a hammer when working in the smithy. The farming equipment allowed them to work more land in a shorter period of time. A good needle and thread could allow for higher classed repairs on different clothes

  Though when people’s smallest value goods were monster cores and hides, the remaining silver that they had left was quickly distributed.

  Through the trade, Alva Dungeon made twenty coppers on the deal. This was put into the treasury for future projects and people’s wages.

  On that day, the market square of Alva Dungeon was born. Trades were made quickly, with people rushing off with their goods. One of the cook apprentices nearly cried as he hugged the spice rack he had purchased before he ran off toward the cookhouse while yelling, “I will show you the power of hot sauce!”

  Elise found Jasper after the day of trading was winding down. “Well, looks like we’re going to need to do some more trading and fast.”

  Jasper nodded. “I’ll set off in the morning.”

  Elise started to interrupt him before he continued. “I know that I’m needed here, but I want to know the situation in each of the places that we’re trading before we send out our people to them.”

  Elise didn’t like the answer but she seemed to understand. “Okay. I don’t think it’ll be long until we have people making their own trading groups and heading off.”

  “At that time, then we’ll introduce the tax on the market.” Jasper was looking forward to a time when there were merchants freely moving goods to and from Alva Dungeon and he could go back to managing the stores within Alva Dungeon.

  “Miss Elise, Mister Jasper! Come quick!” a cooking apprentice yelled, running up to them.

  “What is it?” Jasper asked.

  “Teacher Feng has made a breakthrough!” The apprentice’s eyes shone in excitement.

  “I’m going to guess it was due to the advanced spice rack.” Elise laughed as she moved forward.

  Jasper followed her and the apprentice over to the cookhouse. It was a large building with multiple different cooking areas. It also had a storage room that was specially made to keep food fresh.

  There were some six people in the cookhouse. Most of them were food lovers who didn’t find interest in other areas. Formations created great power, woodworkers could make buildings and had the sub-school of architects, tailors could make leather armor from the plentiful hides, or fix holed clothes with ease and generate massive amounts of gold; same with smiths. But cooking wasn’t seen as that important by many.

  Jasper believed in the cooking skills as he had seen how people recovered during their fight for Alva Village. Still, he thought that it had a limited growth; people couldn’t do much more than make food taste good.

  When he entered a room in the cookhouse and looked upon the beast meat that lay in the center of the table, the glow of everyone’s eyes as they looked upon the meat that Jia Feng had proudly carved up, Jasper felt that something had changed.

  Even though he had eaten not that long ago, just the smell of the meat made his stomach growl and he had to swallow.

  “Jasper, Elise! Try some of this.” Jia Feng put a slice of meat onto two plates and put it in front of the two.

  They smiled sheepishly and took the meat. They were only given a fork; the meat was so tender that one didn’t need to use a knife to cut through.

  Jasper took a bite of the meat. A warm feeling filled him as he closed his eyes to capture the taste. He tried to eat slowly, but the taste was so good it was hard to slow down.

  He finished it all up and would’ve licked the plate if it was possible.

  ==========

  You have consumed: Jia Feng’s roast wolf dish

  ==========

  Your Stamina Regeneration increases by 0.05 for 8 minutes

  Strength increases by 5% for 20 minutes

  ==========

  Jasper could feel as the weariness from the last couple of days fell away. His body relaxed and he could feel new strength within his body, as if the food had replaced his exhaustion, rejuvenating him, body and soul.

  “What?” he yelled out.

  “It’s a high-Apprentice-level dish. It can restore one’s Stamina and increase their Strength. This is the first one that worked, though Egbert said that it’s possible to make dishes that can increase one’s Mana and other attributes!” Jia Feng said with an excited voice.

  “I thought that only Alchemy could have those effects,” Elise said.

  “They’re stronger, but they don’t taste as good, last as long and they’re also more expensive to make,” Jia Feng said.

  Alchemy concoctions of the Novice level have an effect but it was only when she made a high-Apprentice-level recipe she was able to have such a powerful effect.

  “Now how can the other skills look down on us!” one of the cooking apprentices yelled out.

  Jia Feng looked at them with a disapproving glance, but a smile was just barely hidden on her lips.

  Imagine if people were to have this every day—then wouldn’t they need even less sleep and be able to do more? Jasper wondered just what kind of price this food would go for in the outside world. Alva Dungeon, just what will happen in the future? Jasper couldn’t think of an answer to his open-ended question.

  ***

  Rugrat put down his hammer and then took the last item he had made, a pair of boots, as he put them in for their final tempering. He had acquired special smith’s oil from Tan Xue to improve on the final product.

  He wiped his forehead. He was covered in sweat, from his bandana down to his short shorts.

  “That’s the last of the steel.” He pulled out the piece of steel that h
e had kept and looked it over.

  “Steel? Why have you been calling that enhanced iron steel this entire time?” Tan Xue shook her head. She had finally gotten used to the fact he wore short shorts the entire time he was smithing, but her resentment hadn’t dissipated, only being focused in other ways as he was left unaffected by her complaints.

  Rugrat laughed to himself and put the piece of steel away.

  Through his work with enhancers and iron, he had reached the mid-Journeyman level in smithing. The enhanced iron wasn’t able to truly reveal his skill anymore. They could only have simple formations and the formations weren’t good enough in Rugrat’s eyes, so he didn’t even put them onto the items anymore, leaving the possibility for them to gain formations later on.

  He looked at the remaining ingots in his storage ring. There was only Mortal-grade iron left now. Instead of being excited, he could only sigh.

  “You sound worse than a broken bellows. What are you sighing about now?” Tan Xue asked as she was refining Mortal-grade iron without any issues.

  “I don’t have enough money to buy enhancers for the Mortal-grade iron,” Rugrat said.

  “You don’t have enough? Why don’t you just sell some of those weapons?” Tan Xue asked.

  “I need them for an auction,” Rugrat said.

  “You’ve got some forty pieces of Mortal-grade iron and nearly twenty different items all of Journeyman class—that’s enough to buy nearly anything you want in Kaeju,” Tan Xue said.

  “One second—my friend might have some more money!” Rugrat said, thinking of Erik. He hadn’t talked to the other much since they had both been focused on their crafting.

  Rugrat used his sound transmission device and waited as it connected.

  “Rugrat! Just the person I was looking for. Do you have any spare gold?” Erik asked before Rugrat could open his mouth.

  “Do I have gold? I was going to ask if you have anything,” Rugrat complained.

  “Do you have any Mana stones left?”

  “No—you?”

  “I’m out,” Erik said.

  A depressing air fell over them both. They had been so wrapped up in their pursuits that they hadn’t kept track of the money that they were spending.

  I guess this is why organizations are so interesting. With their materials, it’s possible to increase one’s skill without having to worry about the items that they use. They can get immediate money upon completing certain jobs.

  “Do you have anything to sell?” Rugrat asked.

  “Some potions. I was going to see if I could sell them at the auction. I want to make sure that we get that dungeon information,” Erik said.

  “Same. Maybe we can get a loan off the items?” Rugrat asked.

  “Like a deposit? What kind of items do you have?” Erik asked.

  “Journeyman.” Rugrat didn’t hide anything.

  “Su Wei seems to like you so it might be possible. Won’t hurt to try it out.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been this broke.” Even though Rugrat’s level had increased and he had some powerful items on him, his wealth was severely limited.

  Erik didn’t say anything; he didn’t need to. Rugrat could tell he felt the same.

  “Let me know how it goes and then I’ll try it out too,” Erik said.

  “Okay,” Rugrat said. “It sucks being broke.”

  “Bet you wouldn’t have thought we’d be in this kind of position before we arrived in the Ten Realms,” Erik joked.

  “I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.”

  “Me neither.”

  There was only two days to go until the auction. Knowing that they had so little time before they left Kaeju city, they wanted to put everything forward in these remaining days.

  Chapter: Sharing Alchemy Knowledge

  Erik looked at the potions arrayed in front of him, the products of his last few days of concentration and singular drive. There were the random potions and powders that he had created after preparing the Lidel leaves, then thirty Age Rejuvenation potions, ranging from low quality to three high-quality potions.

  He had a few more failures as he had been refining the potions to bring them to that higher tier, advancing his Alchemy skill.

  He put them in his storage ring and rolled over to his bed, looking at the notification that had accumulated as he worked.

  ==========

  Skill: Alchemy

  ==========

  Level: 32 (Apprentice)

  ==========

  Able to identify 1 effect of the ingredient.

  ==========

  ==========

  127,769/195,000 EXP till you reach Level 16

  ==========

  Now, instead of just his gains, he was looking at the potions with a new set of eyes, wondering and worrying about how much they would be worth.

  “Worrying about it won’t do much, and I don’t have anything left. In fact, I’m in debt to Old Man Hei.” Erik stood up from sitting in the Alchemy room. He didn’t have any more resources to use. He wanted to try to calm his mind. Talking with Old Man Hei, he might learn something and advance his Alchemy skill in the process.

  Erik got to his feet and went to find Old Man Hei. He looked around the shop. It was closed even as it was nearing midday. The assorted boxes containing ingredients had been ransacked.

  A powerful medicinal smell filled the shop as Erik heard Hei making excited noises from his workshop. The door burst open as Hei held a pill within a pill bottle.

  “I did it! I was finally able to make a forty percent medicinal pill!” Old Man Hei waved the pill at Erik, his expression looking crazed but ecstatic.

  Erik looked at the pill bottle. From a glance, he could tell that this was no simple pill. “Congratulations, Hei!” Erik said, excited for his friend.

  “I wouldn’t have been able to complete it for years if I hadn’t seen the determination you showed. Even as you burned through the Lidel leaves, you never gave up,” Hei said. “How were your own harvests? I doubt they were low!”

  Erik pulled out the potions that he had created, except for the Age Rejuvenation potion. “I was able to make these.”

  “Come, come, let’s have a look at them inside my Alchemy room.” Hei moved into his Alchemy room and waved Erik to enter.

  He went through Erik’s potions and powders one by one, smelling and moving them around. At times he would run tests with his instruments.

  “See this pigmentation here? This is because you didn’t grill the Xea root enough. It’s supposed to be a deep blue. When it is only showing dots, then it is all but ten percent there. But if you can get it all the way blue, then the Xea root will be two or three times more potent.” Hei dissected the potions and powders with ease, pointing out where Erik had gone right and ways to improve.

  Erik listened with rapt attention. This kind of guidance was priceless to him. With just a few words, Hei was able to clear away the fog in his mind and open up new paths.

  Erik finally pulled out three of the Age Rejuvenation potions, from low to high quality.

  “This—what is this potion?” Hei asked after sniffing the potion.

  “Age Rejuvenation potion. I’m not sure how potent the effects will be but it can reduce someone’s age in appearance and body,” Erik said.

  “This is a fake high-level Journeyman-level potion,” Hei said.

  “A what?”

  “This potion would be ranked as a low-Journeyman potion if it wasn’t for the need for Lidel leaves that I can sense. The preparation of this one ingredient combined with all of the other preparations and the final forming boost this into one of the weaker high-level Journeyman potions. If this was made with even twenty-year-old Lidel leaves, then this could increase in rank drastically. With a thousand-year-old Lidel leaves, I could only guess what level it might be. Lidel leaves are one of the hardest ingredients to refine in the lower realms. Going from th
e ten-year leaves even to fifty-year leaves is a difficulty increasing in magnitudes.”

  Erik’s eyebrows rose. He knew how difficult it was to prepare the ten-year-old Lidel leaves. It seemed that his original excitement wasn’t able to meet up with the difficulty that lay along his path to becoming a Star-ranked alchemist.

  Instead of feeling downtrodden, Erik was excited to find that there was a greater depth to the Alchemy world.

  It is said that one who is excited to train or increase their levels is hard to find. That these people can reach greater heights. With every training session and day they spent increasing their level, their drive and passion to reach the top only increases.

  “Good. You were able to attain a thirty percent efficacy,” Hei praised.

  “Thirty percent?” Erik muttered. The number seemed to be extremely low.

  “This is not something to be upset about but something to be excited about. When someone creates an Alchemy concoction, the final product’s effects are rated by Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman—low, medium, and high. Within this, the concoction’s efficacy can increase the duration or power of these effects, drawing out the power of the ingredients. At thirty percent, you have drawn out thirty percent of the ingredients’ power. I have heard that there are people who are able to draw out concoctions whose efficacy is sixty percent! Most of these people are those who can create potions at least one overall level higher, so a highly skilled Journeyman alchemist completing a high-Apprentice-level potion will have a high chance of producing a higher efficacy potion. It wouldn’t be hard for them to easily create a thirty or forty percent efficacy concoction. If they were trying, they might be able to reach a forty-five percent efficacy. Once passing forty percent, just making a concoction one percent more powerful is an incredible feat.

  “As one reaches higher levels and makes lower level potions, it is not rare for them to get closer and closer to sixty percent.” Hei’s eyes shone. “That is why the fact that you are able to make a thirty percent powerful peak mid-Journeyman potion, passable high rank is an incredible feat!”