The sound of footsteps echoed in a silent and dark hallway. The place became still as the man stood before a pair of large doors. Two concise knocks sounded out as the man waited to enter the room.
With a creak, the aged yet well-maintained doors quickly opened. They revealed a large hall, to be precise, a throne room.
"Your majesty...!" The man said surprised, he only knocked to make sure no one was there.
"What brings you here, son?" The middle-aged king asked his son as he cleaned his sword with a soft cloth. He was standing next to the throne so casually but his figure still seemed imposing to the prince.
"That…" Thus the prince hesitated. He could only thank his foresight for not using his own key to open the door or this situation would be far more awkward.
Suddenly, a warp in space appeared in the middle of the throne room. Out of it came out an old man. This was Eon, he was the only one that owned the throne room's coordinates after all.
"Master Eon…!" It was now the king's turn to be surprised. Why did this man appear so suddenly at such late hours?
"Brennan, you are actually here." Eon said after casually stepping out of the portal. He also threw a glance at the prince who stood dumbly by the entrance.
The king, Brennan the second, quickly cast aside his sword. Some might think it unwise to throw one's sword away when an unexpected guest arrives, and they'd be right. But that only applies when you believe you stand a chance against the said guest.
Brennan the second, was not a great warrior. He was merely at the peak of the B-class which shames his many predecessors. It is something that brings him great sadness and sorrow. The king should be the top authority or at the least be among the peak in his own domain.
His first son, who only turned 21 recently, was already of the same rank in terms of strength. He was expected to catch up in one year, and surpass him either the next or the following.
"But it's good you are here" Eon said while stroking his grey beard.
"I have a favor to ask of you. Well, it would also be doing yourself a favor." Eon said ambiguously.
The king was initially happy after being asked for a favor but the latter part quickly put him on alert. Eon then shot a look at the prince who paled and quickly left the throne room. He made sure to close the door behind him.
"What is it master Eon? Do tell" The king carefully prodded after his son had left the room.
"You should get some of your knight commanders to deal with an internal crisis." Eon told him.
Internal Crisis? Was the prince perhaps planning to take the throne sooner than he anticipated? The king wondered with a confused expression. Brennan was at least not a fool, he knew that with his meager strength it was only a matter of time until he was forced to hand over the throne. This was especially upsetting because it meant that his other children wouldn't be given a chance to bid for the throne.
Having read Brennan's expression, Eon was forced to redirect his line of thinking..
"No, to be more accurate, deal with a dungeon. A calamity" Eon's next words took Brennan Bosque a bit to process. A dungeon? Why did he need to send the royal knight commanders for that?
***
Now outside, Vorgarag was crouched down studying the healing herbs which he learned were called Alivio herbs from Ed. Ed learned this from assimilating the boulder of course.
"I doubt we can grow these back at the settlement." He paused, "At least not without bringing some of the large crystals back with us." Vorgarag added. And even if they did that, their growth might be stunted.
"That's alright, they seem to grow well on their own. We should just sow some seeds and have some of the orcs bring them back along with the crystals." Ed said pensively. It would also be a good idea to keep some of the seeds to prevent a worst-case scenario.
"That settles that then. Let's just verify that potion recipe." Vorgarag said as he stood up and dusted off his hands.
"Alright then, we need a contain-" Ed cut himself off following Vorgarag's actions. He created a pot out of the nearby rock face.
"We probably won't be using it long so this should be enough" Vorgarag said as he passed the pot over to Ed who smiled in response.
'My turn then' Ed thought after grabbing hold of the pot.
He didn't have a "boiling water spell" but by combining the principles of steam and water spurt he could do it, he could create a new chant. Well, an altered chant. Like copying certain pieces of codes from here and there to create something "new"
After putting this into practice, water spurted into the pot from above it, the important part was that it was scalding.
Vorgarag wasn't expecting Ed to be so direct. He thought they would boil the water using fire like one normally would. He really needed to correct his rigid thinking if he wanted to improve in the field of magic.
"Alright, that settles the solvent." Having a solvent was an important first step when creating potions.
Alchemy in this world could be boiled down to a single principle. Don't let it explode.
All an alchemist had to really do was memorize recipes. But if it was really this easy then it probably wouldn't exist as a profession. After memorizing their recipes they needed to put them into practice and every ingredient has a different level of volatility.
This where solvents come in. A solvent's job was not only to dissolve the ingredients but also to stabilize their solution. Water was the most basic of solvents so it could only dissolve substances. Nonetheless, the healing recipe this time was really simple so using something else wasn't necessary.
"We need to grind up an Alivio herb now." Ed said to Vorgarag. There were no specific measurements stated on the boulder's recipe so half a plant should do. They could always just perform trial and error until they got it right, this was another of the alchemist's job.
Ed brought out one of the herbs he picked before from his bag. Having spent plenty of time there, the herb was starting to dry up. That was a perfect state to grind it.
He let Vorgarag do the honors.
"It just seems like we are making tea…" He muttered as he ground away at the herb.
After a good minute or two, he passed it onto Ed.
"This recipe was actually created by accident when someone was making tea." Ed told Vorgarag with a smile after receiving the ground up alivio herb.
"What? Really?" Vorgarag immediately asked disbelievingly.
"Well, no…" Ed admitted. That would be something pretty useless to pass down to your descendants. Neat. But useless.
He dumped the powder-ish herb into the pot. After simmering for a bit it let off a nice scent that permeated the immediate vicinity. This solution alone clearly made for a soothing tea.
'The stressful Vorgarag might find it useful' Ed jotted down to have someone make some tea with these for him later.
'I almost forgot' He quickly ran towards a tree and cut one of its branches with his axe. He rinsed it and used it to gently stir the pot.
Stirring at certain speeds helps prevent the magical properties from exploding. The alivio herb was luckily one with low volatility or they could have had an explosive situation in their hands.
'This makes me feel like a witch more than an alchemist though…' Ed could still remember a thing or two on witches. Particularly that they would brew potions in a cauldron. The scent of the tea, erm potion, became more fragrant. This was the cue to proceed with the next step. Blood.
Suddenly, Ed cast a small blade of wind towards his arm. He held the open wound over the pot spilling blood into it.
[You've been dealt damage. -2 hp]
"What?!?" Vorgarag was shocked by Ed's sudden act of self-harm.
"The next ingredient is blood with high vitality." Ed was obviously the man for the job. As a matter of fact, his bleeding had already slowed down considerably and showed signs of soon stopping.
They then heard a popping sound. The sound started to become more pronounced and Ed became alert. He began to moderately stir the mixture, the popping sounds soon faded away as well.
The two reagents, the blood, and the herb were currently reacting to one another. The healing properties of the herb were, thanks to his stirring, mixing with the blood. Ed stopped stirring after a bit, the solution had become a diluted red color and no more reactions were coming from the pot.
"We might need a smaller pot." Ed murmured to himself. The measurements were evidently wrong given the potion's color. He had to either add less water, essentially reducing the amount made, or spill more blood. Of course, if he chose the latter he would also need to add more ground herb.
Ed then created a cup from the dirt, he reinforced it with mana so it was as good as anything else, and dipped it in the potion.
"It's done?" Vorgarag asked confused. Wasn't that too easy? He might really believe what Ed told him earlier!
Ed chugged the potion down, the taste was a bit poor. It also left a lingering taste of blood. But the taste wasn't the selling point. It was this…
Ed's cut glowed a soft green and his skin started to heal. After nearly a minute, the wound closed. There were also no signs of internal bleeding or any sort of side effect.
"Wow…" Vorgarag was in awe of the process. He could mark that down as another achievement under Ed's belt, he clearly owed him a lot.
"With this, we are bound to get some allies." Ed looked at the pot with a satisfied expression. He also began to wonder if it could heal old injuries.. That would be just wonderful.