Richard sighed as he sat at his kitchen table. Coffee in the morning, right after you get up, was the best.

  He had taken the night off after the meeting at the guild yesterday. Too many thoughts and questions were spinning around and around and he just needed some distance from the situation before dealing with them all.

  Unless the guild flat out told him, there was no way to know what they knew or suspected about him. There could have been other high rank crafter skill holders feeding them information. Assuming that those crafters provided enough information the guild might be able to make an educated guess about the rank of his Alchemy. Also, any and all of his worries could also all just be paranoia. And the meeting was only to touch base with him while also trying to suss out his recipes.

  Richard started to wash his face with his hands, stopped, put the coffee onto the table, and then completed the action. He felt that it was better to organize worries, shelve those he can’t change for later, and take action on the ones that he could. Otherwise the worries would just keep swirling around his mind.

  Making new potions and releasing them would cause him problems. Not only could they be traced back to him due to the unique style of his vials, it also wasn’t possible for him to teach others how to make them. What level was even needed for autocrafting? What about turning drops into vials? Was it S-Rank for both? How would he even be able to find out without having access to A, B, and C-Rank skill holders? Shelved until much later.

  Personal power. It was something that he needed. At first Richard would have been content trying to make a living in the ‘safe’ dungeons. And would have avoided the dangerous floors and dungeons needed to raise his level.

  But then the thing with the red guild happened along with him getting a S-Rank crafting skill. Power had gone from being something nice to something required. And he would have to continue going into the dungeons in order to level up. He needed to be at a high enough level so that he could at least escape the next time something bad happens. Though that didn’t mean that he had to level up all at once. It would be safer to treat it as a marathon and not a sprint.

  The second way that Richard could gain power was by making new potions and trying to unlock the next Alchemy level. For the first one he needed 15 unique items created. Would the requirements for level 2 be similar? The only way to really find out would be to make as many items as possible. Which was something that he could get started on right away.

  Richard dumped his satchel out onto the kitchen table. As he looked at the mess he realized that he should have cleaned off the stuff first. And he spent 10 minutes removing the books and such that he hadn’t bothered to put away.

  Then, he was ready to start. 5 Healing Flowers sat on the table in front of him. As well as 2 each of the other 4 drake scale drops that could be made into vials. With a quick look at the recipes Richard confirmed that the System description provided no new information. And just like his first vial, it only said that it created a vial with a solution ready for creating potions.

  Along with the Red Scale Vial there were recipes for 4 additional types. Blue Scale Vial, Green Scale Vial, Brown Scale Vial, and Grey Scale Vial. Each of the colors could be aligned with 5 different elements. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Metal. Was that right? Shouldn’t there be another one? Maybe, but who knew with the System.

  Richard didn’t know what the drakes looked like. And the Red Drake Carapace looked like a piece of red shell. While the blue scale was more like a piece of blue bumpy leather. The green one looked like a smooth green scale. The brown scale was a section of scaled hide. While the Grey one was a scale that changed color depending on how the light hit it. They were all hand size and rather light.

  They all looked different from each other. And yet they all had Drake in their names. Did that mean that they came from monsters with similar levels of power? Or did they share the same ancestor? How did the dungeons even come up with the naming? Richard felt his fingers cramp even though he wasn’t writing down any of his myriad questions.

  The best way to move on from a line of thought was to crush it with another. Starting with the Blue Drake Vial Richard created a potion with the Healing Flower. The System ID gave the name of Health Dampening Potion.

  It didn’t say healing. But health suggested that it would somehow affect the body. While damping was concerning. It wasn’t something that sounded like a good thing. It would need testing, but the how was beyond the current Richard. There was however a feeling that it would be a bad idea to drink it. Where that came from Richard wasn’t sure. Either his skill or the fact that dampening his health just seemed like a really bad idea.

  Next was the Green Scale Vial, which produced a Speed Potion. Something that was straight forward enough that it was easy to tell what it did. How long or how much was another story. And it was something that he would be willing to try himself. Once he was sure of the effects the potion could serve as another trump card for escaping a bad situation. That is assuming he would be able to control his body.

  The Brown Scale Vial created a Stoneskin Potion. It was an effect that he remembered from games in the past. Both video and tabletop ones. Assuming that it was anything like those games, the potion should reduce damage in some way. How would it fare against the Vitality potion? That was a potion that he was able to make at Alchemy level 0. While the Stoneskin Potion needed him to be at level 1 before it appeared in the recipe list. Did that mean it was a level 1 potion?

  The Grey Scale Potion brought about something different again. And it came out as a Sigil Healing Potion. Like with the Dampening one Richard felt that it would be a bad idea to try and drink it. Did that mean that it was a poison? Or something to be used in another manner? Drinking the Flash Potion would probably suck. Even if it didn’t do any damage, having bright light shining from inside one’s body couldn’t be anything good. That’s also assuming that there was no heat or chemical pollution.

  Richard took a moment to look at the potions lined up in front of him. He couldn’t sell them at the moment. And would need to either use them himself, or hide them away until such a time that he could try and find a buyer. The Crafter’s Union did offer to take such potions off of his hands. But that was more trust than he was currently willing to give.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  He put a quick order into the Dungeon Center for the Black Beetle Stomachs that he needed. They were a pain to get on his own and it made sense to make someone else do it. He even ordered some extra so that he could have some on hand.

  Next he looked at the items that were new from the Cabbit Dungeon. Seeing the drops from the Large Cabbits as well as the Umbras brought on a few new potions. While the bone meal wasn’t anything fancy, the eye drops were something new.

  He created the Large Cabbit Teeth Bone Meal first, it took 3 teeth. And he picked it just to get it out of the way really. The jar that appeared in his hand was about twice the size as the container made from the regular Cabbit Teeth.

  There wasn’t any way that Richard could test it. He didn’t have a baseline from the Cabbit Teeth Bone Meal. And there was also the fact that any plant that came into his care died shortly thereafter. As either he was watering them too much, or not enough. The worst time he had was when those blasted gnats took up residence in the soil and he had to toss out everything in order to finally get rid of the pests.

  The eye drops were something that he was looking forward to creating. Since the recipe itself was different when compared to anything else that he had made before. Richard set aside a Cabbit Pelt, a Cabbit Horn, and Cabbit Eye, which were the materials for the Low-light Vision Eye Drops. Then he confirmed that he wanted to create it and watched as the drops faded away.

  It didn’t take a second for the autocraft to complete. And he reached into the window and pulled out the 3 eye drops. They were somewhat funny looking. There was a small leather looking pouch that contained some liquid inside. And it was capped off by what appeared to be part of the horn. Only it wasn’t a stopper like with the potions. Instead it looked thin enough to snap off. Did that mean that only the eye was needed to create the solution? Or was there something else needed? Was it a reaction between the pelt and eye? Or was the horn needed too?

  Richard sighed as he set them aside along with his questions. Next he created the Darkvision Eye Drops. The recipe was the same except that it needed an Umbra Eye instead. So it was probably safe to assume that while the Cabbits could see in the twilight. They would be only a little better off than a human in darkness. While the Umbra would be right at home in the dark. Was that common information known by the explorers? He would mention it to the others, but what would he say if asked about how such a conclusion was drawn?

  One thing that was disappointing was that no advancement window appeared. Richard had just created another 8 unique items. How many more did he need? Though that was working under the assumption that it would be the same requirement to advance to the next level. It could be something totally different and he wouldn't find out until he stumbled onto it like the last time.

  The only thing that he could do at the moment was try to continue creating new items as the recipes appeared. That also meant that Richard would need to find a way to dispose of them all. There was only a small amount of free storage left in his apartment between the books and brewing equipment. And that space was already filling up fast. There was the option of leaving them out in plain view. But that felt like it would be a bad idea.

  With his potion work out of the way Richard was trying to decide what to do next. Checking his phone he found that there was a message and a missed call from his Mother. His phone had still been on silent from when he was sleeping. He had also left the volume off in order to concentrate on creating potions. But now that bit him in the behind as his mother was probably going to be less than impressed at being ignored…

  While his relationship with his mother was rocky at times due to her… helicoptering, Richard got along with her fine. His father was still around, but he often got lost in whatever took his fancy and disappeared for days at a time. It was something that occurred after he had retired and the kids had already flown the coop.

  He sighed and then tapped the call icon for his mother. After a few rings she answered, “Richard! Are you alright? Usually you answer when I call.”

  “Yes Mother, I was just working is all. So I missed your call. Sorry about that.”

  “Work! Does that mean you found a proper job? Someone safer than dying by yourself in those dungeons? It can happen even in low ranking dungeons, in fact it did just the other day. I can’t imagine having to go through that myself. I just can’t. And well, you know your father.”

  “No Mom. I’m still working out of the dungeons. I’m fine, so you don’t have to worry at all.” He had already decided not to mention the red guild incident to any of his family. Not only did he not want to worry them at all. He also didn’t want to scare them. Was he being fair? Probably not. But he didn’t know what else to do.

  “What? I hoped that you would leave such a job behind. If you need money there is always UBI. Didn’t you have enough saved after your last job?”

  “I did Mom, but I spent most of it. And please don’t worry about my work. I know that you can’t help it. Anyways, was there a reason why you called?”

  “Oh! Next week is Thanksgiving. I remembered that they changed the date, but then forgot about it. I’m still not used to it moving. I know that they like to blame climate change. But you would think that they would have figured it out with the help of the dungeons. The politicians always seemed to be dragging their behinds on it. Do you think that even more land will become too hot or lost to break pollution?”

  “I’m not sure. I know that they are working on it. But enough damage has been done already. And… I totally forgot about Thanksgiving.” Richard had been so busy that the holiday had totally slipped his mind.

  “You know how much I like seeing you all together. So please, can you make it this year? Your sister is coming. And I banned your father from starting anything new. Though that just means that he’s stomping around the house all grumpy like.” There was a slamming noise in the background and then a muffle as his mother pressed the phone against her chest. It did nothing however, and he could still hear her telling his father off for making a racket. “I swear he does it on purpose. Just to get me going you know?”

  “Probably. He always was like that. Remember that time with the pie-”

  “Don’t mention it! You’ll get him going again. And then we’ll lose another pie.” He smiled at her reaction.

  “Ah, don’t be like that. He bought a disposable pie to smash. It wasn’t his fault that you thought it was the pie that you just made.”

  “I can! We could have eaten that pie later and put it in the freezer. They don’t grow food like they used to. It’s harder to get good food now. It costs so much.”

  They spent a little while longer talking about who was going to be bringing what. And if his sister was going to be bringing someone. His mother was once again dismayed that Richard was still single. But he brushed it aside like he always did.

  “Alright, I love you son. I’ll see you next week,” she said. There was a loud bang in the background. “I swear that man drives me to drink.”

  “Bye Mom. Please try not to kill Dad too much.”

  “I don’t think that I can. But at least we’ll prop him up in the corner for one last family meal. See you,” she said and hung up. He chuckled at the idea of his father propped up like in that old movie. With nothing else on for the day Richard went looking for one of the books that he had just taken from the table.