Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to press yes. But somehow he was able to suppress himself and he minimized the prompt.

  The four alchemists huddled around trying to look and see what exactly Bjorn was doing. He had told them that he was almost finished with his brew. So when he stopped working with his hands and sat back to admire his work they knew something was happening. The finished product was a harmless looking green color, one similar in shade to the color that stamina potions took. The main difference was that this liquid was more transparent than it was opaque.

  “What is it?” The tiefling asked.

  “That is a rather strong neurotoxin.” Bjorn said with pride.

  They looked amongst themselves confused. “What is a neurotoxin?” the elf asked.

  “A neurotoxin is a poison that when injected into your body makes the area that it infects unable to move for the duration of the poison. It basically paralyzes the area that it infects.”

  They all grew quiet as they sat there staring at the poison. They heard what he said but their imaginations ran rampant. To them the liquid looked almost sinister and they thought it looked almost evil.

  “Does this poison work on people?” The human boy asked in a grave tone.

  Bjorn gave him a serious look. “Yes, yes it does work on people. Almost all poisons that an alchemist makes can be used on people. But most poisons aren’t only useful against people. There are tons of monsters out there that are very dangerous and these poisons can help save lives by making it easier to take down those monsters.”

  Bjorn took a step away from where the kids were sitting looking at his poison. “I want you to understand something.” He reached into his bag of holding and pulled out the head of one of the snatcher spiders that Bjorn had stored so he could extract the venom from the snatcher spider later. He placed the head on the table next to him.

  When the head came out of Bjorn’s bag the alchemists all took a step back. Gisabell let out a little screech. The only one who didn’t really react was the elf girl. Instead of pulling away from the corpse piece instead she moved forward to get a closer look at it.

  “What is that?” The human boy asked in a shaky voice.

  “News likely had already reached Vanta. Have you heard about the spider incursion in Blackrock Bay yet?” He looked around at all 4 of them. When he met their eyes they all shook their heads in turn. “In time you will. To cut a long story short there were these spider monsters that attacked the city. They are roughly 3 and a half feet long and roughly the same height. There were thousands of them that invaded this city. If we hadn’t been there to stop them Escar would have lost a major trade hub.”

  Bjorn reached into his bag once again and took one of the 10 vials of Spider Bane Poison he had helped Skarit make and poured the contents of the vial on top of the spiders head. Immediately the bone plating began to hiss and small popping sounds could be heard from the area that the poison was dropped on top of the head.

  Bjorn beckoned the elf girl forward. And she bravely stepped forward. Bjorn took her hand in his and directed it to a part of the head where the poison came in contact with it. “I want you to put pressure right here. Try to break through.”

  The girl looked up at him and gave him a slightly disgusted look. “Trust me.” he said.

  She first poked it. When the bone chitin didn’t give way she put her hand on the bone and pushed. When that still didn’t give way Bjorn produced a dagger from his bag and handed it over to the girl. She looked at it briefly then at Bjorn. When he gave her a nod she took the dagger and tried to push the point into the exo-skeleton. Again it didn’t give way, so she repositioned and put her full weight onto the dagger. After that had no effect she let the pressure go and stepped back.

  “Hard little bugger isn’t it?”

  She nodded.

  “Alright, you can give me my dagger back.” She handed it back over and he stored it. “Alright now I want you to use a single finger and push in right there.” He pointed to where the poison had come in contact with the bone.

  Skeptically she stepped forward and using her index finger pushed on the spot where Bjorn had indicated. Much to everyone’s surprise except for Bjorn it sank through the bone structure and her finger soon came in contact with the dry flesh underneath. When she retrieved her finger a white powder coated her finger.

  “How?” she asked.

  “Myself and a professed alchemist named Skarit were able to devise a poison that worked exceptionally well against these spiders. It allowed us to find and kill the snatcher spider queen and put an end to the spider infestation. Without the poison that wouldn’t have been possible. They were extremely tough and hard to kill. Many good people lost their lives in that battle.” Bjorn trailed off briefly as the memories of his time in Blackrock Bay came to the forefront again.

  The Tiefling cleared his throat to try and bring Bjorn back to the present. It worked. “As I was saying, everything that we make as alchemists are tools. Some have more benefits than others. But every single tool can be used for both good or evil. It isn’t our jobs as alchemists to regulate how our tools are used. Our job is to make the tools. Just remember that once a tool has been made, it can’t be unmade. Once a tool is made it is up to whoever uses the tool to determine if it is used for good or evil.”

  As he spoke he picked up the spider's head and restored it in his bag at his hip. He walked over to where the poison he made sat in the open air. “This tool will be used by me. I may be strong, but bears are bigger and stronger. If given the chance the bear would likely maul me and kill me. This tool helps me level that playing field and gives me a real fighting chance against enemies such as bears.”

  He took out vials and began bottling up the poison. “Poison in itself isn’t a bad thing. It can be very handy and useful. There is a saying from where I am from. The difference between a poison and a medicine is just a matter of dosage. Can what I made be used for evil and make it easier to kill people? Yes. But can it also be used for good and let those who are good come back from facing evil? Also yes. Don’t stop yourself from making something because of its capacity for evil. Everything can be used for both good or evil.”

  By then Bjorn finished bottling his poison and looked up at his students. “Do you understand what I am saying?”

  The boy nodded.

  “That was a good speech.” Greg's voice echoed from the door. “And I totally agree with what you are saying. Don’t you forget it. Don’t hesitate to make something because it could be used for evil. Each and every one of you shouldn’t limit what you brew. If you want to advance as an alchemist you should never fear making anything.”

  Internally Bjorn cringed at the sound of Greg’s voice. “Welcome back to the lab Greg.” Bjorn said.

  “Thanks.” He said as he walked over to where the 5 people stood. When he got close he turned towards where the other 4 were standing. “Don’t you all have projects you were working on? Take the teaching of Bjorn here to heart and try to apply that to your alchemy and maybe you will find more success.” He gave a smile that made Bjorn’s skin crawl.

  The 4 apprentices got the not too subtle hint and scurried away from the two men and started to busy themselves with starting brewing different potions. Greg looked over to where Bjorn’s poison sat. “Did you finish your project and get your level?”

  “I finished the project, yes. But I didn't get my level.” Bjorn lied. “I will probably start on a new project either tonight or tomorrow. Until that time I think I will go find myself something to eat.” Bjorn moved to start putting the vials of poison away. There were 7 of them in total, a very good haul based on what the recipe said it would produce. It said to expect 5 or 6 doses of the poison. Bjorn likely thought it had to deal with the components that went into the poison.

  Greg looked at them with greed in his eyes. “I don’t suppose you could spare one of those vials of poison? I don’t believe I have seen something like it before and I would like to examine it and see what I can find out about it.”

  Bjorn pretended like he couldn’t see through the greasy man. He plastered on a smile to match Greg's. “Sure why not. I got one more dose than I was expecting anyways.” He picked up one of the vials and handed it over to Greg.

  When his hands fell on the vial his greed spread from his eyes to his entire face. “Thank you for this. If you are going to go get lunch why don’t I go with you? We can have that talk and share pointers between two masters of the craft. Besides, I owe you lunch because of your sharing this vial with me.” He held up the vial to emphasize what he was talking about.

  As much as Bjorn didn’t want to accept, he couldn't come up with a plausible excuse. Beside this would be a good opportunity to get a feel for the man and understand what was happening here more. So he accepted.

  What followed was 2 hours of Bjorn mostly talking about alchemy as Greg grilled him for information about the craft. What Bjorn was able to find out in return was that Greg outright owned the lab and all the equipment in it. How he had managed to get the capital necessary to purchase such a thing was beyond Bjorn but he kept his mouth shut. He also found out that his hunch was right and Greg had moved to Vanta within the last year and a half and started working on setting up an alchemy guild in Vanta, as there wasn’t one beforehand.

  He didn’t elaborate on his success or lack there of with getting the denizens of Vanta, who knew how to do alchemy, onboard with his plan. But from what Bjorn was able to surmise was that they all saw through him just as Bjorn did and realized he really wanted to make a guild so he could greatly profit off the efforts of others.

  As they talked Bjorn became more and more convinced that was exactly what Greg was doing. Every potion that his students crafted went straight into his hand and then taken to market where he sold them to the highest bidder. He then pocketed the cash he made from that and bought the herbs he needed. His "apprentices" were nothing more than a way for him to print money.

  Even though that was what he suspected he had no concrete proof. So he decided it would be best to set Tayla on the case as she would be best for the task.

  When he finally got free of the man Bjorn made his way back to The Singing Hen when he entered he found Tayla and Meira sitting around a table talking quietly amongst themselves. Bjorn made his way over to them. He put his hands on Meira’s shoulders and briefly massaged them as he gave her a kiss on the cheek before taking a seat next to her.

  “What were you guys talking about over here?” He asked the two.

  “Oh, nothing too important. We were just talking about how we are worried for Rickie.” Meira said, placing her hand possessively on Bjorn’s thigh.

  “Where is he today?”

  Tayla had a sympathetic look on her face. “He is back over at Chase’s sister’s house. I think he is hoping he can repair that friendship even a little bit before we leave. After all he has known her just as long as he knew Chase. The three of them had been through a lot throughout their lives.”

  Meira looked at Bjorn. “What are you doing back here so early today? I didn’t expect to see you here until late.”

  “I got my level.”

  “Oh exciting!” Tayla said.

  “So that lets you become a professed alchemist right? Are you going to do it?” Meira asked.

  “Yeah it does, and yes I do plan on it. But first I have a favor to ask of your Tayla.”

  “Oh?”

  “There is a guy here in town who is fairly new. His name is Greg and he is trying to establish an alchemy guild here. In reality I think he is exploiting young kids for profit. He seems all kinds of shady, and I don’t trust him. I was wondering if you would be able to do some recon on the man and find out what his deal is.”

  “What is recon? Actually, never mind, I can get its meaning by the context in which it was used. Yeah, I can see what I can find out about him. Is there anything you want me to do about him? I know you said no before, but if I find anything damning I will have no issues putting him in his place.”

  Bjorn thought about it for a second, as he thought he assessed Tayla. Her posture was normally relaxed, but it was a facade, she was ready to jump into action at the drop of a hat. Right now though her posture was ridged as a board. “Sore subject.” He thought to himself.

  “You know, I trust your judgement. Whatever you think is best. Just make sure you don’t do anything without knowing the full story. I would like it if you could tell me before you do anything drastic.”

  She nodded her head. “Of course, I won’t do anything without talking to you about it first. It came to our attention because of you. It would only be right if I took your opinion into account before doing anything.”

  “Thanks.”

  “So. When are you planning on becoming a professed alchemist?” Meira asked.

  “Right away. I was waiting until I was back with people I could trust before I accepted. I have no idea what will happen. I figured it was better safe than sorry.”

  They nodded understanding. “You will have a lot you need to do and learn, so once you begin we won’t find it rude. I promise we won’t leave until you finish.” The confidence in Meira’s voice made the knot of worry that had his stomach tied up relax.

  Bjorn gave a small smile and gave Meira a kiss. After that he pulled up the prompt asking if he wanted to become a professed alchemist. This time instead of minimizing the prompt he mentally clicked on the “Yes.” Button. He figured that would be the end of it, but a new prompt popped up.

  Warning! This decision cannot be undone. Are you sure that you want to take the profession: Alchemist?” Yes/No.

  Bjorn looked at it warily, but he had made up his mind a long time ago. So mentally he clicked on the yes button once again.

  It didn’t take you long to click past that warning message. Are you really really sure that you want to take the profession: Alchemist? Remember this decision isn’t one that can be reversed. Yes/No.

  The confidence he once felt started to crumble. His eyes darted over to where Meira was seated and then over to where Tayla sat watching Bjorn’s expression. Tayla gave him a reassuring smile, and Meira squeezed his thigh in support. He took a deep breath and once again clicked on the yes button. A cascade of prompts appeared in front of his eyes.

  Congratulations you have gained the profession: Alchemist. There are few professions that are as misunderstood as the Alchemist. All alchemists have the capacity for great good and great evil acts. Society in general thinks alchemists are helpful and benevolent. As you have started to glimpse, that is far from the truth. To follow the alchemist’s road to power is to play with forces that aren’t understood. Be wary as you walk along your path to not stray from your intentions for becoming an alchemist.

  Alchemists are classified as a non-combat profession. It can be both a combat and non-combat profession. But for the most part it is used as a non-combat profession. Because of this classification you will be given talent points to be spent as if you got the profession at level 10.

  You have 120 talent points to spend.

  You have completed the alchemist quest: Brew potions III. You gain 25 talent points to spend.

  Brew potions IV: Progress: 1034/2000. To progress this quest brew more potions.

  You have completed the alchemist quest: What does this do? I: You gain 5 talent points to spend.

  What does this do? II: Progress 2/5. To progress this quest brew new potions without a recipe.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  You have completed the alchemist quest: Share the knowledge II: You have gained 10 talent points to spend.

  Share the knowledge III: Progress. 2060/5000. To progress this quest spend time teaching others how to do alchemy.

  You have 160 talent points to spend.

  It was odd to see his industrialness laid out so plainly. In the 2ish years he had been in the Eld he had brewed over 1000 potions, and he had brewed 2 potions without a recipe. It was a good feeling, knowing that he hadn’t wasted his time in this world.

  Bjorn was confused about something. “Hey, I got quests, is that normal?”

  “Yeah. It is normal. Almost every profession I have ever heard of provides you with profession quests. They are a way to gain more talent points besides leveling up.” Tayla said, her voice carried her surprise that Bjorn spoke so soon.

  “Gotcha. Thank you.” Bjorn started to zone out ignoring his surroundings once again. He waited for a minute when nothing else was forthcoming and he got confused. He pulled up his main menu in his interface. He started to scroll looking for anything that changed. Towards the bottom of his list he found exactly what he was looking for. There was a new tab that wasn’t there before labeled. “Professions.”

  Bjorn mentally clicked on it and his entire vision changed. He found himself looking at a night sky with thousands of stars off in the distance. It looked like the type of pictures that the hubble telescope takes. Sprinkled amongst the stars off in the distance there were full galaxies sprinkled in. Spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxies filled up the spaces in between the stars. Directly in front of his vision there were 4 bubbles that were shaped like clouds, they had opaque backgrounds. Leading off the bubbles there were lines that led off into the darkness obscuring whatever they were connected to.

  He sat there and just stared at the vision in front of his eyes in wonder. He didn’t know how long he sat there in wonder at the background he saw. When he was a little boy he would look up at the night sky and always wonder what else was out there. He had wanted to be an astronaut for the longest time, even a small part of him wished to make it to space even when his world became one of magic and wonder.

  Eventually he roused himself from the vision before him and mentally he wished he would be able to see what happened around him while he was in this place. As soon as he had the thought a small slider bar appeared at the edge of his vision. He mentally drug it to one side and the vision before his eyes dimmed and he got a good view of his surroundings. He could see the bar around him just fine once again, but he wasn’t able to see what he was doing in his talent page either. He eventually settled on something right in the middle. The night sky became superimposed over his vision and he could still see his surroundings while he was able to see his talents page. Happy with what it was currently at, his attention turned towards the 4 bubbles right in front of his vision.

  Increased potency I: 10: Increases the strength of your potions and poisons by 5% per level.

  Increased duration of effect I: 10: Increases the duration of your potions and poisons by 5% per level.

  Reduced cost I: 10: Decreases the amount of alchemical components that are need to brew your potions and poisons by 5% per level.

  Increased doses I: 10: Increases the maximum doses of a potion per successful brewing attempt by 1.

  He finally got to understand why being a professed anything was so important, and how it was a major jump in the power of any individual. These were the base talents available and they were already amazing. Being able to increase the doses per potion would be massive. To top it off each of the talents had that fateful roman numeral 1 behind it which in his experience in the Eld meant that there were multiple levels to purchase.

  Bjorn began to salivate just a little bit. Without hesitation he clicked on the increased doses I and another prompt appeared asking him to confirm his purchase of the talent. When he confirmed the white background cloud like substance lit up briefly before it dimmed again. When it dimmed the cloud background changed color from white to the reds, blues, oranges, and yellows of a sunset. The text on the talent changed as well.

  Increased doses 2: 20: Increased the maximum doses of a potion per successful brewing attempt by 1.

  Well he wasn’t surprised that the description of the talent hadn’t changed. Or really that the cost increased. He was surprised that it only increased by 10. That was until he really thought about it. 20 talent points is the equivalent of gaining 2 levels of talent points. He then reflected on how much it had taken him to get to level 22 and gain the 120 talent points. After his assessment he thought on it once again and changed his mind. He decided that 20 talent points for an extra dose was an exorbitant price.

  The next thing that changed was the lines leading off of the Increased doses cloud. Of which there were two. The first one led off to nowhere again. The other line though led off to a newly formed cloud. The new cloud had the text.

  Decreased failure rate I: 10: Decreases the failure rate of your brewing attempts by 5% per level.

  Bjorn thought about it for a second and made a decision. He bought the first level of each of the beginning talents associated with his tree. As he bought each one the colors of the clouds changed to the same color of the first increased doses cloud. Although the colors were the same the patterns that filled the background of each cloud were different. Each purchase opened up more and more of the talent tree.

  A cloud that appeared was connected to increased doses and reduced cost appeared as soon as he purchased the reduced costs talent. This confirmed something that Bjorn suspected but didn’t have any confirmation. That was that you sometimes had to purchase the talent and sometimes talents that were prerequisites before gaining the ability to purchase the new locked abilities.

  Decreased crafting time I: 25: Decreases the required time for each step of the brewing process by 5% per level.

  There were four more bubbles that became available off of this initial purchase.

  Poison specialization: 20: This is a one time purchase that will increase the effectiveness of your poisons by 10%.

  Healing specialization: 20: This is a one time purchase that will increase the effectiveness of your Healing potions by 10%.

  Mana specialization: 20: This is a one time purchase that will increase the effectiveness of your mana potions by 10%.

  Stamina specialization: 20: This is a one time purchase that will increase the effectiveness of your stamina potions by 10%.

  Looking at his newly discovered avenues to progress Bjorn figured that the pure inclusiveness of this profession was going to be insane. After a few seconds of thought he decided that he wanted to reveal his tree a little bit more. He also wanted to test something that he didn’t have anyone to ask for.

  He purchased two more of the talents. The first one being Decreased failure rate I. The second one being Healing specialization. He figured that was one of the most universally accepted good potions to make. For the most part a good healing potion was worth its weight in gold. Anyone who could afford to buy potions was more than willing to pay an arm and leg to get access to the amazing immediate healing effects.

  After these purchases he was left with 85 talent points left to spend. What was truly a surprise to Bjorn was the fact that the other potion specializations were not locked after his purchase. While the new talent became colored in he expected the other 3 to become grayed out to some degree. That wasn’t the case; they remained the same blank white color they had been before.

  Increased effect of healing potions I: 25: Increases the effect of your healing potions by 10% per level. This effect stacks with any other buffs to the effect of your healing potions.

  Focused healing I: 25: This talent allows you to decide how exactly the healing from the healing potion will affect certain parts of the body. Only a certain amount of the healing energy will be redirected to the focused healing area. The remaining energies will course through the body like normal. Increase ranks of this skill to further focus the healing to a specific area.

  Increased duration of healing potions I: 25: Increases the duration of healing potions you create by 10% per level. This effect stacks with any other modifiers you have affecting the duration.

  It was quite obvious that each and every one of those effects would be greatly beneficial to any healing potion that he brewed. His eyes drifted back down to the first tier of talents that he had unlocked. Unsurprisingly each of the talent's names increased by 1 and their cost jumped up to 20 points.

  As a test Bjorn dumped another 20 talent points into the increased potency tier 1 talent. This left him with 65 talents. Its name once again jumped up by 1 number. It also increased in cost by 10 points costing now 30 talent points to once again level up that talent. That was what he figured would be the case, but it was still always good to know.

  With all of his potions now having 10% increased effect Bjorn’s curiosity turned to how the bonuses of the healing potion effect would stack with the tier 1 talent. Would it be multiplicative or additive? Well there is only one way to find out. Bjorn dumped the 25 talent points into unlocking the Increased effect of healing potions I.

  Again unsurprisingly the number jumped up to a II and the cost raised to 40 talent points to get the next level of the skill. This unlocked two new clouds of talents.

  Increased damage against undead I: 20: Increases the effect of the healing energies on undead monsters. Each level of this talent will increase the damage by 15%.

  Permanent health increase: 40: This purchase will give each successful brewing of a healing potion a miniscule chance to imbue the potion with intense healing energies. These healing energies when enbibed will increase your maximum health points by an amount determined when the potion is created.

  As soon as he read the description of the permanent health increase talent Bjorn knew he had to take it. The chance to gain permanent stats was too good of a chance to pass up. It was almost serendipitous due to the fact that he had exactly 40 talent points left to spend. Without even thinking it fully through he impulse bought that talent.

  If he had spent a little bit of time thinking about it he would have realized that it had used the word miniscule. His mind had glossed right over that single word and made him purchase the talent. He probably should have used those points wiser and spread them out in his talent tree.

  It was a fact of his life now that he couldn’t afford to “min max’ his build anymore. Even with the video game aspects of his life, he wasn’t a part of a video game, and his actions had real consequences. So with the miniscule chance that his maximum health would increase he just had to chance it and take that talent.

  Regardless, his mind ignored the fact that he likely had a tiny chance to properly brew a potion that would increase his maximum health points and just focused on the fact that he now had a chance.

  With his final talent points spent he closed out his talent tree and became more aware of his surroundings again. While he was working he had become so engrossed that he just ignored his surroundings once again.

  When he started to pay attention once again it was just him and Meira sitting at the table. “Where’d Tayla go?”

  “Oh don’t worry about her. She said something about looking into Greg when she left. Did you get some nice things from your profession?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I will say talents cost more than you guys made it out to be.”

  “That is actually something I found as well. Talents, while powerful, take a lot of talent points to make them truly powerful.”

  “Out of curiosity, what did you take for your talents? If that isn’t rude to ask.”

  Meira looked at him and gave him an unreadable expression. “From what I have found it is rather rude to ask someone that question. I think that rudeness comes from if you know what someone is capable of it is easier to plot their downfall. But I am saving up talent points for something that looks truly good. I bought Increased mana regeneration and decreased mana cost for spells. Which were tier 1 and 2 respectively. There is a 3rd tier talent I want to buy but I need 20 more talent points to afford it., so two more levels.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. I don’t know though, is it better to specialize in one thing or spread out your points by getting better at everything?”

  “It’s alright, I forgive you.” She leaned in and gave him a kiss. “I don’t have a good answer for you either. It all depends on you I think. Almost every part of a profession is useful. So I don’t think any talent points could ever be wasted. It all depends on what you want to do with your alchemy. For me what matters most is being able to continually cast spells without worry of their mana cost. I was able to do more than almost every mage while we were in Blackrock Bay, but I still found myself struggling to keep up with mana demands.”

  Her eyes fell. “I never want to find myself in the situation where I need to drink two mana potions at once ever again. I already lost 10% of my maximum mana. I don’t want that to increase ever.”

  Bjorn knew that this was a sore subject for Meira so he took ahold of her hand and squeezed it. Her facial features softened and he could see her relax before his eyes, a small smile formed on her lips. “But I would do it all again, and lose that mana if it meant I was able to keep you safe.”

  Their conversation devolved from there into hugging and kissing. Eventually Bjorn broke himself away even if he didn’t want to. He had stuff he wanted to do today. He excused himself and left heading back to the alchemist's lab. He was excited to try out the new abilities, and see how much stronger his potions have become over the last few hours because of his profession.

  Nothing was going to ruin his good mood, not even skeevy Greg, at least that's how Bjorn began to think of the man. With what he purchased it was a no brainer what he would try to make. So he started brewing a health potion.

  When he made it to the lab the kids were all engrossed in their own alchemy projects so they didn’t swarm him like they had when he went to the lab before. Which was totally fine by Bjorn. Instead as he worked they would occasionally pull themselves away to ask him questions both about their projects and about his project.

  He didn’t have to wait overly long before Greg left. The entire time he was at the lab he watched over Bjorn’s shoulder, just as the kids had done all morning. Once he realized that Bjorn was brewing a health potion he only half heartedly paid attention. To him he already knew how to brew health potions so this work wasn’t overly exciting. If Greg had paid closer attention he would have realized that Bjorn was brewing a significantly higher quality health potion than anything Greg knew how to brew. His loss.

  Bjorn spent the rest of the day and well into the evening working on his health potion. He ended up calling it a day with still a long way to go. Even though they were able to crank out health potions while in the Blackrock Bay war camp, the entire recipe still took a long time to craft. The only reason they were able to make as many as they did as fast as they did was because of how many alchemists they had. At any given time they were making 12 to 15 batches of healing potions all at once.

  Bjorn eventually left the lab leaving only Gisabell behind, the rest of the students had slowly left the lab throughout the day. He made his way back to the inn where he found his friends seated. Once again he was the last one to make it back to the inn.

  Bjorn filled Alaric and Rickie in on his success earlier in the day. Alaric had spent the city browsing the markets looking for good deals. Rickie had spent it trying to get Betsy to talk to him, with no success. Tayla had spent the day digging into Greg, she said she was finding out some interesting things about the man, but she didn’t have anything damning yet, but give her a few days. Meira had spent most of the day around the inn relaxing.

  After dinner Bjorn decided to broach a topic. “So when we finish here, what do we want to do?”

  Both Alaric and Tayla gave a small shrug. Meira was equally as non-committal. Rickie was the one who spoke up. “We could always go to the front between Escar and Cronkrum and fight to eradicate the goblins there.” They all gave him a look that said: maybe, are you sure you will be alright? “What? We don’t have anything really going on. We are all very strong fighters, we could be of great use there.” He paused for a second. “Well, all of us except for Bjorn.”

  “Hey!” Bjorn protested to the laughter of his friends. After everyone calmed down a little, Bjorn spoke up. “Actually I was thinking about this. With Rickie going and giving Betsy closure with her brother. I was thinking if we could find out where Nontorum was, if we could go there I would like that.”

  “You are the only one who doesn’t know here Rickie, but when I first came to the Eld there was a dwarf who took me in and taught me earth magic and how to alchemy. She was more or less a mentor for me. She was the one who gave me the skills that allow me to be useful to all of you. She was killed by a monster that is known as a mauler, and I was forced to flee or suffer the same fate. Well she had a really good friend in Nontorum and I think it would be great to give her closure, so she knew what happened to her friend.”

  Rickie thought for a second. “I have never heard of Nontorum, how are we going to find out where to go?”

  “I can spend tomorrow seeing if I can find out anything about it. I have become a little versed with town here. I might be able to come up with an answer.” Alaric volunteered.

  “I will join you with that.” Meira said.

  Tayla nodded in agreement. That left only Rickie without his input. “Well, I understand how you feel. And I agree that it is the right thing to do. So I agree we should do that. But once we finish with that errand we should go kill some goblins, I have been away from the front for too long and I want to get back to it.”

  With that decided they fell into light talk of small and rather unimportant things.

  The next 3 days were rather uneventful. Bjorn spent all three days going to the alchemy lab. Once he finished working on his health potions he spent the rest of his time mentoring the four young alchemists. The human boy had the hardest time understanding what Bjorn was talking about. Gisabell and the Tiefling began to prosper and grow tremendously under his guiding hand. It was the young elf girl who grew the most though. She drank in all of Bjorn’s teachings and she made leaps and bounds forward with her alchemy. She was what most people would call a genius when it came to alchemy.

  It was on the evening of the 2nd night when Meira and Alaric came back with good news, they had found out where Nontorum was. To the south of the Summergate woods there were the serrated mountains. On the west side of the serrated mountains there was the small town of Nontorum. In two days of searching that was the only place they came across that had that name. Based on the description it fit with what Bjorn remembered of the town. So they had their heading. It was in the almost direct opposite direction from the battlefield between Escar and Cronkrum, but that couldn’t be helped.

  With nothing better to do they agreed amongst themselves that in the morning on the 4th day they would take their leave of Vanta. So at the end of the day on the 3rd day Bjorn told his students that his time in Vanta was up and in the morning he would be moving on. Even though he had known these students for only a short amount of time he had grown attached to them. It was great to see them grow as alchemists. But there comes a time where you need to let your students fly on their own. This was their time.

  In the morning when they were going to leave they woke up to find both Rickie and Tayla gone. When they made it to the bar they found a note from Tayla saying she had some last minute business to do and she would meet them at the front gate. But no word from Rickie.

  Just after they finished breakfast Rickie came into the inn, his eyes red and puffy. He sat down. “She wouldn’t see me again. Her husband came out to talk to me briefly though. He told me that she was still heartbroken, she would likely forgive me with time. But until then it would be best to make myself scarce.” He took in a shaky breath to continue. “So I decided to leave some money behind to help them along. I left all of my gold marks behind.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Alaric asked. “We each got 4 gold marks, so you left behind 100 gold. That is a large sum.”

  “Yeah I am sure. They will need it more than I will. Besides with you 4 in my life I don’t have as much need for coins as I once did.”

  “That’s fair. And that was a very kind gesture Rickie.” Meira said as she stood and gave him a hug.

  After a few seconds of holding Meira he let her go and took in another shaky breath. He held it for another second. “Are you all ready? I saw Tayla this morning and she said she would meet us at the gate. Should we start making our way that way?”

  Together the 4 friends made their way down to the gate where they only had to wait a few seconds before Tayla came slowly strolling into view. “Ready?” She called out to the group. The way she walked and the little self-satisfied smile on her face made Bjorn question what she had done for the first time.

  “What did you do?” He asked her when she got close to the group.

  “Don’t worry about it. I will tell you on the road. But if we are going to make it to Nontorum we should get on the road, we still have a long way to travel.”

  With that the 5 friends were off on their next little adventure.

  (You may skip to the next part if you wish.)

  Profession purchases this chapter. (just laying it out so it is easier to read.)

  Increased potency II: Increased effect of all potions and poisons brewed by 10%

  Increased duration of effect I: Increases the duration of your potions and poisons by 5%

  Reduced cost I: Decreases the amount of alchemical components that are needed to brew your potions and poisons by 5%

  Increased doses I: Increases the maximum doses of a potion per successful brewing attempt by 1.

  Decreased failure rate I: Decreases the failure rate of your brewing attempts by 5%.

  Healing specialization: A one time purchase that will increase the effectiveness of Healing potions by 10%.

  Increased effect of healing potions I: Increases the effect of your healing potions by 10%. This effect stacks with any other buffs to the effect of your healing potions.

  Permanent health increase: Gives a miniscule chance for his healing potions to permanently increase the health stat.