“By adding a small amount of powdered sage root, the effect of the red Amanita mushroom tincture is increased. The ratio is one vial of powdered sage root to a hundred liter barrel of vodka, added before the mushrooms to allow for it to be fully incorporated. At this stage, I am grinding the dried sage root with a mortar and pestle, but Tink will be here today to show me the manual herb grinder she made and to discuss ideas for a magically enhanced version.” I handed Taurie one of the vials filled with a roughly ground pink powder. “One vial fits a quarter cup of powder, based on the measuring cups Bron allowed me to borrow from the kitchen. Once I have a scale and counterweights, I will update the recipes with the weights.”

“The sage root is the pink root with the fuzzy skin that we sliced and dried, right?” Taurie asked, looking around the storage room and pointing to a crate with unprocessed sage root.

“Correct. I spread the sage root slices on one of Bron’s baking sheets and dried them in the furnace over coals for three hours, then ground them into powder. Sage root is also used in the wound salve we have for treating skin irritations, cuts, and abrasions. Mix a teaspoon into the honey and tallow mixture, along with a quarter teaspoon of powdered Ephedra. Make sure they have been fully incorporated into the mixture before adding one cup of Amanita mushroom paste. While the salve can be made in larger batches, I found it best to stick to this quantity as it requires a lot of mixing to incorporate everything.”

“Could I use a mixing barrel? We also have hand mixers in the kitchen,” Taurie questioned.

“How does a mixing barrel work?”

“The barrel’s lid has a pole with metal paddles attached. When you put the lid onto the barrel and turn the handle, the gears will turn the pole to mix the contents. Cook had it made for mixing large batches of dough,” the dark-haired elf explained.

“What metal was used? Iron?”

“Yes, oh right, you said the type of metal of my knives can affect the properties of the plants.” Taurie concluded with a sigh.

“Copper would be best, and if you intend to use the same barrel for mixing different items, then that should be made of copper as well. Always remember to clean and sterilize your equipment to prevent cross-contamination.” I informed her, while making a mental note to speak with Markion about making some mixing barrels and hand mixers for my own work.

Over the next two hours I walked Taurie through each recipe step by step, before leaving her to work at a bench I’d allocated for working on tinctures. Until the storeroom conversion was completed, I’d agreed to allow Taurie to use the lab, and she agreed to store any items that were placed in the resource collection box during the time I would be away in Valonia. I would be leaving her with notes, instructing her how the different plants and animal parts that were common should be stored, with directions to store anything unfamiliar as best she could.

Time to make the light foot potion. I’ve already dried and ground the cloud moss, so now I need to distill the wing-eared rabbit feather to produce this vital essence stuff mentioned in the recipe.

When the water containing the feathers began to bubble and boil, I watched, waiting for something magical to happen.

When I’d focused my newfound skill on the feathers, they’d pulsed twice with a golden light, but aside from that, they appear to be normal white feathers. If not for the fact that I’d plucked them from the wing-eared rabbits myself, I would have thought the feathers were from a white dove or similar small bird.

As the steam traveled through the neck of the retort, condensing and dripping into the receiving flask, it created a pale, cloudy liquid that swirled around in hypnotic patterns.

This is the first time I’ve created something that actually gives off the appearance of being magical in some way. The tinctures and salves were basically just herbal remedies, but this looks like what I’d expect a magic potion to be. Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I distilled Zosimos’s feathers. I pondered, glancing up at the crow who was napping on top of the drying racks.

Leaving the retort to do its thing, as it would take at least two hours to finish distilling, I moved over to a second workbench, where I’d placed the baskets of dead bees. Pulling on a pair of leather gloves, I took one of the bees out of the basket and placed it flat on a wooden chopping board. First, I plucked off the wings, focusing on them alone to see if they glowed.

Hmm, so the wings alone are an ingredient. I placed the wings into a bowl and continued dissecting the bee, checking each individual part of its body to locate the source of the alchemic component.

The abdomen is the part which glows, so it must be the venom. I remember being stung in the areas my armor didn’t cover, but the pain dissipated when I changed forms.

Slowly, I worked through the baskets of bees, plucking off the wings and abdomens which I placed into bowls. The remainder of each bee's body I tossed into a basket to be discarded, as they had no alchemic value according to the golden light which I’d decided to call Alchemic Insight.

“Boom, boom, I’m gonna make it go boom.” Hearing the faint sing-song voice of Tink coming up the stairs, I brushed the last of the bee remains into the trash basket and rose from my workbench right as the door to the lab slammed open with a crash.

“Darius said we can make the boom,” Tink cried out, rushing into the lab and heading straight for the storage room.

“Tink, be careful with the jar.” I called, as she yanked open the cabinet where I’d stored the first batch of black powder. “And, I’m sorry to say, but we can’t make explosives with that. It didn’t work properly, there was no boom, just a bit of smoke.”

“What? You tested it without me?” Tink exclaimed, as she carried the jar of failed black powder back to the table.

“Darius wanted to test it before letting you experiment with it. We suspect the developers made it so that black powder can’t be made the same way here as it was on Earth to prevent players from searching for the information needed on the internet and thus damaging the world balance.” I explained.

Tink’s shoulders slumped, and she stared sadly down at the jar.

I felt bad for lying to the girl, but Darius made it clear he didn’t want anyone to know about the items I’d created using the fire stones, Tink in particular. Until I was able to make the formula more stable, it was best the girl did not know about my experiment.

“Put the jar back and get the saltpeter. I’ll show you how to make smoke bombs instead.” I offered, hoping to distract her with the smoke bombs. Those were less dangerous and should keep her occupied for a while.

“Don’t we need the black powder for smoke bombs?” The gorgon asked, the purple snakes in her hair hissing softly as headed back to the storage room.

“No, we’ll be using a different method. Grab some sugar while you're in there as well.” I called, moving to clear off a spot on the nearby work bench and grabbing a copper pot.

“I have the sugar and the saltpeter, now what?” Tink said, placing the sack of sugar on the bench and holding the saltpeter jar cradled to her chest.

“Next we need some cotton twine. This will work better if we had some cylinder clay containers, but those will need to be made by the potter, so we’ll make do with using some of the clay vials for now.” I told the gorgon, who nodded.

Watching the girl run out of the lab, saltpeter jar still clutched tightly, I fought back a smile. It’s hard to believe Tink is six years older than me. I thought as I grabbed the measuring cups from Taurie.

I need more measuring cups, spoons and, most importantly, I need a set of scales. Markion said he can’t make scales, so I need to find someone who can or buy them already made. The bank used some kind of magical scale. Maybe I can ask them if they know where I can buy normal ones with counterweights.

Pouring a cup of water into the copper pot, I placed it into the furnace to heat. I can’t remember the exact ratio, but it was half water, then sugar and saltpeter. I think there was more saltpeter than sugar.

“I have the cotton,” Tink called out as she skipped into the room, followed by a concerned looking guild leader.

“Kadia! Tink said you are making bombs?” He said his words were more a demand for answers than a question.

“Smoke bombs, the ones we talked about.” I explained, and he let out a relieved breath slumping against the wall.

“Okay, that’s okay.” He muttered, placing a hand over his chest. “I thought we were about to have a second Valonia incident. The guild is still on very bad terms with the city after Tink blew up the guild hall there.”

“I didn’t blow it up, just the workshop.”

“You blew up the workshop, which structurally damaged the hall and set it on fire.” Darius snapped, giving Tink a look so fierce she was practically cowering.

“It was an accident,” she whispered, looking on the verge of tears.

“That incident cost the guild not only a hall, and more gold than I even want to think about, but our reputation with Valonia. We’ve only just managed to get on good enough terms to be allowed back into the city. You need to be more cautious with your experiments.” The guild leader said, pointing at the snakes in Tink’s hair. “When I last saw you, there were three snakes alive in your hair and now there are two. That means you’ve died at least five times since I left, and I’m guessing those deaths weren’t due to fights. I’ve already given Kadia a lecture about carelessly dying. Do I need to give you one as well?”

“No,” Tink muttered, staring at the ground.

“Good,” Darius said, then turned to me, his fierce expression easing. “Kadia, I’m going to the auction tonight. Do you want to join me? We can stop by the night market for dinner, then hit the bank before heading to the auction house.”

“Er, sure, what time?” I asked, glancing at Tink, who’d moved to put the cotton and saltpeter jar on the bench near me.

“The auction is at six, so we’ll leave at five. Do you have a timepiece yet?”

“Yes, Tink made me a basic timepiece.” I told Darius, who nodded.

“I’ll meet you in the main hall at five,” he said before turning to leave the lab.

The moment the door swung closed behind the guild leader, both Tink and Taurie let out an audible sigh of relief. Moving to the bench where Tink stood, I tried to think of something reassuring to say.

“The first thing we need to do is make a slow-burning fuse,” I instructed the gorgon, deciding the best way to cheer her up was to distract her.

“Are you going to coat the cotton in beeswax, is it like a wick?” Tink asked, and I shook my head.

“No, we are going to soak it in a mixture of water, saltpeter, and sugar. I am not sure how it will work with raw sugar, or the exact ratios, but we should be able to work it out. We will try with smaller pieces of string to start with.” I informed the girl as I mixed together the saltpeter and sugar, before taking it over to the pot, which was slowly rising to a boil.

Lowering the heat from the fire stone, I added the saltpeter and sugar mixture to the water, stirring until it began to froth slightly.

“Okay Tink, add some of the cotton twine.” I instructed the gorgon artificer who dropped the strand of cotton into the mixture, which I pulled off the heat.

It ended up taking three attempts to find a water, sugar and saltpeter ratio, which created a fuse that I felt was usable. The first two attempts did not burn properly, with the first attempt being too fast and the second barely burning at all.

“Now we mix sugar and saltpeter together. I think the ratio I’ve used previously with Marcus was sixty percent saltpeter and forty percent sugar. So, we’ll try that first and adjust if needed.” I said.

“You’ve done this with Markion?” Tink asked, standing next to the furnace and watching the pot as I stirred the mixture over a low heat.

“We made these smoke bombs in our chemistry class. No one wanted to partner with my brother because he never did any work, so I was usually left with him.” I said with a wry smile.

“Oh, it’s strange you say that because usually people don’t like working with him because he takes over all the work.” She commented, and I stiffened, looking down at the mixture I was stirring.

“Uh, do you want to stir for a bit? I’ll prepare the vials and wicks.” I offered, handing her the long-handled spoon.

With a beaming smile, Tink took the spoon and began stirring the mixture, while I moved to the bench to attach the cotton fuses to the bottom of the vials with a small amount of beeswax. Once the saltpeter and sugar mix had turned into a thick brown paste, Tink carried the pot over to the bench where we filled the vials with the mixture.

“Alright, now we just need to let them harden.” I told the gorgon, then tapped the pot with a grin. “In the meantime, you can clean the pot. By the time you’ve finished scrubbing, they’ll be ready to test.”

With a nod, Tink carried the pot out of the lab, heading to the wash basin that was set up outside the forge. As I stood at the bench checking the hardness of the smoke bombs, I heard a flutter of wings and tilted my head to the side as Zosimos landed on my shoulder.

“What do you think? Will they work?” I asked, holding one of the vials up for the crow to inspect.

Caw.

“Will adding saltpeter and sugar to a poisonous liquid instead of water create a toxic smoke?” I queried, getting a nip to my ear in response.

“Ouch, Zosimos don’t be mean. It was just a question,” I grumbled, rubbing at my ear with a pout.

“Kadia?”

Turning to see Taurie approaching, I gave the elf a smile.

“All done, Taurie?”

“Yes, I promised Cook I’d help with the evening meal.” She said softly.

“That's fine, you don’t need to report to me or anything. I will see you tomorrow.” I told her and she nodded, turning to leave the lab.

Picking up one of the smoke bombs, I followed Taurie out of the lab, and met up with Tink in the forge.

“Markion, we’re going to test some smoke bombs. Are you coming?” I asked the Minotaur, who was bent over in front of his furnace.

“Yeah, give me a minute. I just need to quench this.” He said, pulling a dome-shaped piece of metal from the furnace and shoving it into a trough of water.

Making my way into the courtyard with Tink and Markion, we decided to test the smoke bombs in the sand arena of the training ground.

After I placed the smoke bomb in the center of the arena, I moved back to stand with Tink and Markion. We’d also managed to attract a crowd of guild members who’d been in the courtyard training or working in the nearby workshop.

Spotting Darius in the crowd with three men holding water buckets, I gave him a reassuring look and conjured a tiny, flickering flame, which I directed towards the fuse of the smoke bomb.

“That, that’s it?” Tink asked, staring at the small plumes of smoke which poured from the top of the vial.

“Yup,” I agreed, lips twitching as the surrounding crowd began to relax and let out relieved sounding chuckles.

“I thought it would be bigger.”

“There is less than fifteen grams in that vial. A tiny smoke bomb makes tiny smoke. Now we know it works, we can make bigger ones.”

“I wonder what would happen if we filled a whole barrel.” Tink mused.

“I don’t recommend doing that. Stick with smaller amounts, otherwise the smoke will not be manageable. The amount we made today would make a single good-sized smoke bomb, which in theory could cover the entire arena in smoke. If you put it in the right container, something with holes in the sides to redirect the smoke out and not up, it will disperse better.” I told her, trying to dissuade any attempts at giant smoke bombs.

“You’re right, plus, I don’t think we have enough saltpeter for a barrel.” She said with a sigh, looking mournfully at the almost burnt-out smoke bomb.

“Want to go get the rest and set them all off at once to give Darius a heart attack?” I asked.

“Heck yeah I do.”