TFW:ADS - Chapter 64 - Alchemy 101

Chapter 64

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth.

"I'm sorry milady, you agreed to what?!?"

Allya winced as Melia shouted, and looked at the dark elf.

"We agreed to a...business transaction."

"With pirates."

"They'd prefer the term privateers, but yes, essentially."

Melia looked at the baroness for a few second, before leaning back into her seat, sighing.

"Alright, and why exactly are you warning me of this in private, before the council meeting milady?"

"Because you're part of the Syndicate, and a member of the merchants guild. And, well...both have something of a reputation."

The dark elf smiled.

"Yes they do milady, and?"

"And since you are my expert and council on matters of commerce on top of that, I was thinking you probably had a few ideas to smooth over the rough edges in this deal. I know there are legal loopholes and such to make this....transaction perfectly legal, and even some adjustments that could be made to make it look a bit less sketchy."

Melia opened her mouth, then closed it, and slowly nodded.

"There....might be a thing or two." She held up her hand. "But I'm not making any promises."

Allya nodded.

"I couldn't expect more."

"Right. Still milady, do you actually trust these....privateers, to deliver?"

Allya shrugged.

"Pyn trusts their captain, and I trust her. So yes. If nothing else, we are only giving a relatively small downpayment, and paying the rest on delivery."

Melia snorted. To most people, a downpayment of 'just' 50 thousand mana would have been ridiculous, but, well....they were operating a dungeon town after all.

"Fair enough milady."

"Good. Then, let's start with how to make this a bit more legal, then we'll move onto the appearances..."

*****

"So, what do you think?" Said Alexandra as she gestured at the chemistry set, and the carefully labeled boxes of ingredients.

"This is....not as bad as I expected." Admitted Emilia as she stepped forward, and grabbed one of the vials, shaking it. "Simple, sure, but it's not primitive."

Alexandra shrugged.

"By the standards of my world it technically is." After all, what she had was basically a classroom chemistry set, with glass vials, bottles, and all manners of variation with increasingly unpronounceable names, with fairly simple heaters using the flame spell and a bit of coal for the larger one. It wasn't like the molecular chemical synthetizers most chemistry labs had used on Earth, or hell even the more basic versions onboard warships to replenish basic medicine stockpiles in the field. "But I think it'll do."

"It will. I think. But!" Emilia whirled around, and held her finger firmly under Alexandra's nose. "We do this by.the.book, understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" Said Alexandra, throwing a mock salute, causing Emilia to sigh and roll her eyes. "More seriously, of course I understand. I'm no chemist, let alone an alchemist. Magical ingredients and potions are a bit outside of my area of expertise." Which were mass production, design, programming and AI software, although the latter wouldn't be on her file.

After all, officially Arcadia was strictly self improving, and totally didn't have her best, most loyal programmers tinker with her code and help her improve. It wasn't that the AI couldn't do it herself of course, more that for all that she had been originally built as a research AI, there was a limit to her abilities to think outside the box when the only person she could throw ideas at were basically copies of herself. No matter how much they insisted they were the same entity.

"Good. Now, let's get started!" Emilia pulled out a sizeable book out of her pouch, flipping it open. "Alright, first thing we're going to try to make is a single regenerative balm. Not strictly a potion, but we have to start somewhere."

Alexandra nodded, and carefully didn't comment that the book her advisor had pulled out was titled 'beginning level alchemy for morons'. They weren't the latter, but it was a starting point at least.

"Sure."

"Alright, first, grab that bowl and pestle, and then some xiari roots. Once you have them, slowly start mashing the root, we need to extract the juice."

Alexandra nodded, and began working. If nothing else, it should prove fascinating...and she had to wonder what would happen if she managed to synthethize a poison she could coat her golem's weapons in....a good thought for later.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

Thank you, magitech.

*****

"They'll be moving out shortly." Said the man quietly as he entered the warehouse.

"That's fast...for mercenaries." Answered a woman.

The man chuckled.

"I agree captain. But still, we mustn't underestimate them. They weren't picked for the border defense because they were bad. But because they were too willing to get their hands dirty."

"Fair enough lieutenant, fair enough. Alright!" Captain Aubriana Deepwilds, of the Elkisian Republican Army spoke up as she slammed her hand on a nearby table top, and heads raised all around the rooms, looking at her. "Our mercenary friends are finally getting their asses into motion. I want everyone to be ready to move by sundown. If nothing else, getting some advance on these sloths and getting some recon in before they attack will only help us. Now move it!"

Everyone nodded, and the warehouse descended in the organized chaos of any military unit breaking camp.

"Ma'am...I have a question, do you really think that...Well..." Whispered the lieutenant, making sure to have the ambient noise hide his voice from anyone but his captain.

"We're going to succeed? No idea. I'd say 50/50." Said the captain quietly. "But the colonel's orders are clear...Besides, he did give us a nudge." She gave a slight nod towards the corner of the warehouse, where a trio of robed mages were quietly and efficiently stashing their equipment. "Without them? I'd say we would have been guaranteed to fail."

"Fair enough ma'am. Should I inform our sentries to pull back and prepare to move out as well?"

Aubriana hesitated, then nodded. As much as she wanted to keep an eye on the mercenaries they were supposed to 'relieve', she hardly expected them to pull a fast one this close to beginning the job. Besides, their sole utility was to serve as a distraction for the dungeon town while they grabbed the dungeon core.

"Bring them back. We can't afford to stay for too long near the dungeon town without the mercenaries to distract them, or we'll be spotted, but every second we get in that time will be worth it's weight in gold." They had some intelligence thankfully, as two members of the previous unit sent there had been recovered and debriefed, before being purged, but it was badly out of date, especially as new measures were sure to have been put in place in reaction to their attacks.

"Yes ma'am, right away." Said the lieutenant, before saluting, and leaving the warehouse.

Aubriana looked at him, leave, and sighed. This mission...was going to suck. And the colonel had made it quite clear that even if they succeeded, they'd have to disappear afterwards, to dodge the UDC's wrath. But everyone here was aware of that, and if nothing else they knew the colonel would take care of them, no matter what happened.

After all, no one would attempt such a mission if they didn't want to succeed, right?

*****

"So...how do we know if they work?" Asked Alexandra as she held up the vials of their first creations. A healing balm, some very low grade stamina and dexterity potions, as well as something that supposedly was a very low grade healing potion, although given the smell Alexandra doubted anyone but the truly desperate would drink it. Or maybe it was just meant to encourage people not to get wounded, or else they'd have to ingest the noxious mixture.

"We test them of course. Well, of course we'd need to test them on one of your defenders."

"They're all golems, I dont thing slapping a healing balm on a sundered plate of metal is going to do anything."

"We have the manticore puppy?"

"Could you stand the look CQ would give you if you harmed her pet just to experiment on it?" Alexandra smiled as Emilia looked away. "Thought so." Her smile turned into a grin. "Which means there's only one solution!"

"Create a creature specifically to experiment on?"

"Nope! We're going to test them on adventurers!"

Emilia looked at Alexandra like she had gone crazy, and the dungeon core winked.

"Don't worry, I have an idea."

If nothing else, that seemed to worry the vampire girl even more.

*****

"Ah! Adventurers! Welcome, welcome!"

The party froze, and then went into battle formation as a golem walked into the entrance hall. A golem wearing a strange, battered white coat, and leaning on a twisted metal cane. The golem however, held up his hand.

"Please, I mean you no harm. I am simply a humble alchemist, in search of progress."

The adventurers looked at each other, before cautiously lowering their weapons. After all, they were in a safe zone, and the dungeon core and never, not even once, broken her promise of safety.

"What do you want?" Cautiously asked the party leader.

"Why, it is quite simple my young elven friend! I have made some interesting mixtures, ah, potions if you will, and would like to issue some quests to adventurous young fellows like yourselves. Say, I am ready to give you the results of my work for free....as long as all of my potions are consumed before you exit the dungeon." The golem squirmed a bit, which was...weird and fairly noisy for a being made out of metal plates. "However some of my potions might be a bit, ah, defective. Thus, if you find one of those defective potions, I would like you to bring them to my laboratory, in the ruins of the old city below, where I will gladly recompense you for your work."

The golem gestured at the quest board screen, which updated with a new category of quests.

"There. Worry not, I am quite interested in a diverse range of samples, and whatever the result, even if you were to fail and accidentally destroy the potions, the quest will be available for the rest of the day, if you or other adventuring parties would like to try again later. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do!"

The golem walked back out of the room, straight into the elevator, the door slamming shut behind him, and the adventurers looked at each others, before unanimously walking back out. That was something the assault guild was going to be very interested in...

*****

"A mad scientist golem...." Emilia chuckled. "It suits you, I guess."

"I know, right?" Said Alexandra as she patted her new golem on the shoulder. "Well, of course the problem is that he's basically running on pre-recorded lines, and can't actually make the potions, but he'll serve as a useful front in the meantime while I automate the process."

"And if you stop creating new types of potions for testing?" Asked Emilia curiously.

"We can still use his quests as quality assurance, and sneak a few poisons or something in. The adventurers seem to think the quests are something of a gamble anyway, use all the potions and get a reward, but it might just screw you over and force you to abandon the delve." Notably because the dexterity potion had ended up knocking out the adventurers who'd drank it. She wasn't quite sure why it had done that, but she could run some variations on the potion later. "They seem to be taking it in stride."

"Yes, well, you're not exactly the most predictable or conventional of dungeon cores either, so I think they're simply getting used to you."

"Nonsense, no one can get used to me!"

Emilia giggled, and shook her head.

"Alright, pleasantries aside." Said Alexandra as she let go of the golem. "What's next on the list?"

Emilia pulled out her notebook with practiced ease, and flipped it open.

"Adjusting the new loot pools, adding in the components from the deal with the alchemist, as well as possibly scattering some throughout the dungeon."

Alexandra nodded.

"Right, as well as the ore veins correct?"

Emilia flipped the page, and shrugged.

"That's the next item actually."

"Might as well combine them, that way if we add ore deposits and the ingredients as well, people will think it's a complete overhaul, and the ingredients will look less suspicious." Alexandra frowned. "I was also thinking of not just putting them in guarded areas. I think putting some of them in areas without golems, or at least sparsely patrolled on the second floor will help some people get greedy and careless."

Emilia squirmed a bit.

"That's your choice. I wouldn't recommend it, after all what's to stop adventurers from simply hitting those spots and leaving, not taking any risks?"

Alexandra shrugged.

"We can't really prevent them from doing that, but if we make them intermittent with some randomness, and have at least some danger...It could get very interesting. There are already a lot of parties just going down to this floor, avoiding all of the high challenge areas, and just picking off golem patrols and leaving. With this I think we could tempt them into just 'getting another one', and overextending themselves."

Emilia nodded, slowly at first, then faster and faster.

"Right, that makes sense. Besides! We might get some civilian gatherers to accompany the adventurers! Those always make for some easy kills. Or so my books say!"

Alexandra blinked.

"What do you mean, 'civilian gatherers'?"

"What, you think adventurers are going to care about every herb they come across, or break their backs mining ore out of the walls? No, of course not. But there are people that could pay quite the adventurers to be escorted there and gather the resources themselves. Hell, most dungeon towns have massive corporations dedicated to just that!"

"That....Makes sense." Now that she thought about it, it was obvious. This wasn't some MMO, where you could just click on some ore vein in a dungeon, gather it and bring it back to town to sell. Most adventurers wouldn't be interested filling their precious spatial pouches with low value ore, especially if they had to exhaust themselves mining it. But she could definitely see the ones that carefully planned to withdraw before overextending themselves lending their protection to a group of miners in exchange for a cut of the profits. After all, they'd already be clearing the way there anyway, might as well get paid extra for it, and a bit of babysitting wouldn't endanger them too much, as the patrols were pretty light. "That makes a lot of sense actually, I hadn't really thought about it."

"That's what I'm here for. So, where were you thinking of putting those 'free' ore veins?"