Second Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  Erik nodded. But still, he wanted to go further, to push past those limits and pull his potions and his abilities into a higher realm. “I was also wondering about the Experience gain. I’m now a level fifteen and I’m rapidly closing in on level sixteen while my Alchemy skill level is soaring,” Erik asked.

  “Difficulty modifier, I would think,” Hei said. “You’re making potions that are a level higher than your actual skill rank. You don’t have the helping hand that most people who are in the Journeyman level and trying to make these concoctions would. You’ve also made nearly fifty potions, ranging from low Journeyman to high. Those are not simple concoctions and your medical efficacy is high. These things combined together, it’s not abnormal if you get two or three times the Experience per concoction when compared to people in the Journeyman level making these potions. Failures earn us nothing but a new direction to take while making items that are below your skill level will lead to little or no advancement.”

  “And getting those higher formulas and techniques is not cheap,” Erik muttered

  “Exactly. If someone has a bunch of spell scrolls and kills a lot of monsters that are a higher level they can increase their level quickly, but if they only have their fists, they can only rely on fighting what is in front of them to increase their level. This is one reason that crafters can ascend levels quickly if they have the money to burn on creating things.” Hei passed back the potions.

  “Might I be able to look at your pill again?” Erik asked.

  “Certainly. It is a low-Expert-level Mind Cleansing pill.” Hei passed it to Erik.

  Erik opened the pill bottle and smelled the pill, feeling his mind calm down from just the smell.

  “This pill can allow someone to remove the difficulties plaguing their mind, to refocus and center themselves. It is a great aid for those who are trying to study the magical arts and gain a deeper understanding of a fighting technique, or those who are going to craft a complicated item,” Hei said proudly.

  “Some powerful-ass ADHD drugs—nice,” Erik said. “How do you know its potency or efficacy?”

  “Training! Didn’t you learn anything from those samples? Or you can buy this handy technique book.” Hei pulled out a book. “It’s only fifteen silver.”

  “Are you sure you weren’t some kind of bartering merchant in a past life?” Erik muttered, pulling out the necessary money and put it on the counter, getting the book from Hei.

  “I’m thinking of selling the store,” Hei said as Erik was about to open the book.

  “Wait, why?” Erik asked, a bit stunned by the suddenness of Hei’s announcement.

  “I made this store so that I could trade information with other alchemists, see their wares and hope to improve myself. I did in the beginning but recently I have been caring about the store and less about my advancement as an Expert alchemist. If I was able to become an Expert alchemist, then I could once again compete with my peers instead of be relegated to administrative work.”

  Erik sent out his Mana Sense and locked onto Hei. “I never knew. It makes sense though—you said that you were in the Third Realm.”

  “I made it to the fifth realm before I took a break from it all. And now I think that my time away is up.,” Hei said with bright eyes.

  “It has been my life dream to become an expert alchemist recognized by thee Alchemist Association. I know that it won’t be easy but I don’t think that there is anything else left for me in the Second Realm. If I’m being honest, I think that I should have left a few years ago but I was stubborn.” Hei laughed.

  “It sounds like you won’t have much peace in the Third Realm,” Erik said.

  “No, but it means that I will be surrounded by alchemists, pushing their boundaries. These three weeks that we’ve spent working on Alchemy, I’ve made incredible gains. You were able to reignite my fighting spirit, my passion for Alchemy.”

  “I was only doing a few things that I thought might be able to push me a bit further down the path,” Erik said.

  “Well, no matter what, I count you as a friend and I can see a long path ahead of you. My talent is only middling but you’ve been able to come here as a new arrival and become an Apprentice alchemist.”

  “I’ve only just started with the world of Alchemy. My background isn’t as strong as yours.”

  “It might not be, but that is something that we can work on,” Hei said. “I wouldn’t say that I will be your Master or your teacher—you are too advanced to call me that. Instead, I would like to exchange pointers with you in Alchemy, if that is possible. It is clear to me that your path is different than mine and that we could both gain benefits from working together.”

  Erik nodded. Hei was a wealth of knowledge: he had ascended the first three realms by himself and was in his right a peak Journeyman alchemist, someone who was able to create Expert-level concoctions, and not only concoctions but pills—the king creations of an alchemist.

  It would take Erik a long time to reach that kind of mastery by himself. With Hei’s aid, he could get there faster.

  “I would be an idiot to not take up that offer.” Erik extended his hand.

  “Good!” Hei laughed and clasped Erik’s hand.

  “Wait, you said three weeks?” Erik said, his mind catching up to what Hei had said.

  “Well, two and a half weeks,” Hei said. “When working on Alchemy, it is easy to let the world pass by.”

  “Crap. When’s the auction at the Blue Lotus?” Erik asked.

  “Oh, the one for the people who come from the higher realms?”

  “Yeah!” Erik said, fearing he had missed it.

  “It is in two days.” Hei smiled at Erik’s anxiousness.

  Erik let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I’m out of gold.”

  Old Man Hei coughed awkwardly. “Well, it looks like to me you’ve got a number of high-level items that they would be pleased to auction off! Go, get some rest and consolidate your gains. Go tomorrow and drop off your potions.”

  Seeing that it was dark outside, Erik could only agree and headed back to his room to rest.

  Chapter: Loan on Unsold Items

  “So I would like to take a loan out against these items,” Rugrat said.

  Su Wei, who had just been taking a sip of his tea to try to hide his trembling hands as he looked at the new armor that Rugrat had made, coughed and nearly choked on it as he fought to regain his composure.

  “What?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

  Rugrat looked awkward as he scratched the back of his head but he continued on. “In making these items, I ran out of other funds, so I don’t have enough to continue on in making better items for the auction.”

  Better items for the auction? These are already items that would interest people in the Third Realm and would be used by the soldier regiments in the Fourth Realm! Did he really just make these or was he holding them back to make a greater profit and stun me more?

  Su Wei couldn’t see through the man in front of him. Su Wei would dismiss such a request from most people, but seeing Rugrat and recognizing how fast his skill was improving, Su Wei wanted to bring him closer to the Blue Lotus.

  “You do know, if you were a smith for the Blue Lotus, then you would have all kinds of resources, not only material but also information books to grow with,” Su Wei said, testing the waters.

  “No thanks. I’m good right now.” Rugrat shook his head.

  Su Wei smiled and then thought on the idea for a few moments. He looked over the armor and weapons that covered the table again and looked to Pan Lim.

  “All of the items are of a high quality. As you can see, though, none of them have been fit with a formation.” Pan Lim’s statement turned into a question as he looked to Rugrat.

  “I’m better at smithing than I am creating formations. These weapons can be sold as the base model, then someone can create a formation that is better suited for them and add it to the item to incre
ase their power. Making general weapons is easy, but if the weapon is suited to the user directly then their overall strength will greatly increase.” Rugrat’s words didn’t hold a hint of superiority; instead, he just seemed to be simply explaining his actions.

  “Indeed, these items could be easily enhanced with a formation to increase their power,” Pan Lim agreed.

  Su Wei took a few moments as he mentally estimated the base value for each of the items. “Okay, then we can give you one hundred and seventy gold as a loan, which will be deducted from the sale price, plus five percent.”

  Rugrat’s eyes went wide before he started nodding and then stood and held his hand out. “Yup, that works for me!” He shook Su Wei’s hand before he had fully stood up, as if he were in a state of shock.

  Su Wei felt his arm was going to fall off with how violent Rugrat shook his hand. “It’s no worry, Mister Rugrat.” Su Wei finally got his hand back and rubbed it.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to get you another piece for the auction!”

  ***

  Rugrat wasn’t the only one who made a trip to the Blue Lotus.

  As he was exiting the building with his ring filled with gold, Erik was in the sellers’ side of the auction house.

  “I should have asked Rugrat to lend me that token. It might have sped things up a bit,” Erik muttered.

  There were a number of people who had items that they thought were rare or valuable; all of them came here, looking to make it big. One time selling through the Blue Lotus was something one could brag about for many years to come; it could also bring in massive wealth.

  Though more often than not the items were useless.

  There were different counters with people at them. Each used different formations on the counter or tools such as monocles or swabs to test the items that were placed before them.

  They could immediately accept some items at the front desk. Higher-leveled items or those that they couldn’t make an accurate test on were sent into the private rooms, where a senior appraiser was waiting to look at the different products.

  Erik waited in the line. While he was standing there, he pulled out a notebook and started jotting down ideas. This was the first time in a long time he had actually spent not completing one or another experiment inside of Old Man Hei’s Alchemy room.

  Now that he had some time, he was reflecting on his gains and his ideas for the future.

  I have the Reverse Alchemist ability, but it’s too unreliable. I am able to identify the different items that I have learned from the information books but there are so many more ingredients out there. There are three possible paths in the future to make up for this shortcoming. One, I will need to consume a large variety of different ingredients to get to understand them to some degree; later, if I consume a concoction, I will be able to at least know what ingredients it came from. Two, I upgrade my Alchemy class. At that point, I can understand more ingredients from what I consume. I also have the third option, which is to consume as many information books as possible. This will allow me to understand the ingredient and its traits. It might be harder for me to recognize what it is when consuming it, but I’ll have a greater depth of information.

  These were three very different paths, but they would all grow and improve upon his basic knowledge.

  “I can’t guarantee that any of them will work on their own, so I should try them all out,” Erik finally muttered. He had a grim smile on his face, as if he could predict the problems he might run into in the future.

  The man behind him coughed, bringing him out of his thoughts.

  “Next!” a lady at the counter yelled.

  Erik looked back. From her look and her tone, she must have tried to get his attention a few times.

  With an apologetic smile, he moved up to the counter. “Hello. I have a few items that I wish to put up for sale.” Erik looked around and then pulled out the different powders and potions he had made.

  Among them were the Age Rejuvenation potions. With Old Man Hei wanting to sell the store and pursue Alchemy once again, Erik didn’t want to try to sell him the potions. Once he got the gold from the sale, then he resolved to pay back Old Man Hei in full.

  “May I inspect them?” The woman at the counter looked more respectful as she stared at the potions and powders.

  “Please,” Erik said.

  She took the items onto her side of the counter and pulled out a piece of metal. She opened the potion and put the rune-covered piece of metal into it; she swirled it around and then pulled it out and placed it on a formation plate to the side.

  This many formations just to test the most basic of items—the Blue Lotus has money to burn.

  A light emitted from her side of the counter. Her expression flickered before she smiled at Erik. “Sir, my skills aren’t enough to determine the quality of these items. However, there is a senior appraiser who will be able to help you.”

  “Okay,” Erik said.

  A man came over and bowed to Erik. “If you care to follow me, I will take you to Senior Appraiser Juko,” he said with a faint smile.

  “Thank you,” Erik said to the lady, taking the items back into his storage ring before following the other man.

  They moved past the counters and into a nicer hallway, where people were having hushed conversations.

  The man leading Erik knocked on a door and opened it. The office inside was large, with couches and testing equipment off to the side. A larger man sat behind a desk. He looked up and smiled as Erik entered the room.

  “Hello, my name is Senior Appraiser Juko. I hope that I can be of some use to you today?” Juko bowed to him slightly.

  Erik returned the slight bow as he entered the room. The man who had led him there shut it behind him.

  “Hello Mister Juko, I’m Erik. I was wondering if I could add some items into the auction that is coming up?” Erik moved forward.

  Juko’s smile turned a little tight before he laughed. “It might be difficult to do so. Why don’t I take a look at your items first?” Juko said, smiling on the surface.

  He wants to make sure that they aren’t some crap that will make the Blue Lotus look bad if he puts it on the auction block.

  “I wish to sell all of these.”

  Juko looked at the potions in some amazement. “Apprentice mid-level quality, high level, even low Journeyman, with some half-step mid-Journeyman level in quality,” Juko said with a glance before frowning. “Though I do not know what their effects are.”

  Juko continued to look at them for a few moments. Erik waited on him.

  “I will need to run some tests on these but you can rest assured that we will be able to sell these for you,” Juko promised.

  Erik nodded. He would want to test them first if he didn’t know what kind of potion or concoction they were.

  “If you could sell them for me, that would be good. Though, umm, I’m currently low on funds so I was wondering if I could use these as collateral?” Erik dragged out the last bit of the sentence as Juko wasn’t able to hide his grimace.

  “We won’t be able to do that, Erik,” Juko said apologetically.

  Erik could only nod at that. “Okay.” I hope that Rugrat is able to get some money from them—I’m running on coppers here!

  Juko pulled out a contract that said he would look to test the items and that he would either sell them or return to Erik, or pay the full amount that they were estimated as being worth if they were broken in any way.

  Erik signed on his part of the contract and it disappeared. A connection formed with Erik; it was like when one made an oath on the Ten Realms but it wasn’t as restricting.

  Seeing Erik’s confusion, Juko smiled.

  “It’s a magical contract, much like one that people would use to contract beasts or allow people to be bound together, without having to call upon the Ten Realms. After all, the Ten Realms usually kills anyone who breaks an oath, or inflicts heavy pay
ment. This merely deals with money and allows one party or the other to be held responsible easily.”

  “Ah, that makes sense. I have to get going, though. I still have other concoctions to work on.” Erik turned to leave. He actually wanted to track Rugrat down and get some money if possible.

  “Will you be coming to the auction?” Juko asked suddenly. Erik missed the flash in his eyes when Erik talked about making more concoctions.

  “I will.” Erik stopped as he was on his way to the door.

  “I hope that you go safely, and remember that if you wish, the Blue Lotus would be more than happy to help you in advancing your Alchemy skill,” Juko said, his voice heavy with hidden meaning.

  “I like to be free right now, but thank you for the offer,” Erik said with a smile and headed out of the office.

  He pulled out his sound transmission device, connecting to Rugrat.

  “I’m in the money again!” Rugrat yelled back in excitement.

  “Don’t spend it all. Give me two—no, three gold at least!” Erik said.

  “I’ve got like a hundred and fifty gold—I can give you twenty!” Rugrat laughed.

  “I’ll be there in a minute!” Erik yelled, seeing gold coins in his eyes as he thought of all the concoctions he could make with that kind of money.

  ***

  It wasn’t until sometime later that Juko left his office.

  He took with him a collection of different items that he wasn’t able to fully understand. He dropped them off at different places. His last stop was the Alchemy labs, a place filled with Alchemy tools and Blue Lotus alchemists.

  “Master Reinhart, I need you to analyze these.” Juko put the murky silver-black potions in front of the man.

  “These look to be Journeyman potions. Who was fortunate to be able to find these in the Second Realm?” Reinhart looked at the potions. His eyes moved to the silver-looking potions that had a simple label on it. “Age Rejuvenation potion—what might this be? Some appearance-altering potion?” Reinhart muttered to himself as he took one of the potions, taking a small sample and running it through some tests.