After Alvin left Abigail joined Markus at the table. Lunch time was officially over and she was free to leave now. Markus gave her a quick overview of what he was doing this morning, namely visit the infirmary and get a magic lesson.

“Maybe I should also ask the lieutenant for the same favour. I thought it was weird, but it sounds like a lot of fun.” She lay her head on the table, like she had lost the energy to sit up straight. “I only ever do cleaning, cooking, feeding horses and then repeat it. It’s so dull… I never get away further than 15 minutes from our house. One day a dragon will eat me and I will not have done anything interesting ever.”

“You will have seen a dragon up close though. Also, don’t be so pessimistic.” Markus thought that it might be a good idea to hire the girl as a maid once he got a house somewhere. She was diligent and nice to look at. “Something else, remember how I rolled through horse droppings yesterday?”

“Sure, I was the one who cleaned your shirt, just a few hours ago.”

“Yea, and then you laughed and said I should watch my surroundings. Well, you got potato in your hair now.” Markus smiled. Abigail quickly raised her head from the table and started combing through her hair with her fingers.

“Let me get it out for you.” He pulled out the small piece of food and showed it to her, it wasn’t a joke. Abigail was looking adorably embarrassed, yet again. It would certainly be a good idea to hire her as his maid.

After he finished his meal, they left together, Markus was headed towards the alchemist and Abigail wanted to go back to the tavern. Before parting ways at the entrance, Abigail turned to Markus.

“Sorry, I nearly forgot, but Lieutenant Clement said you are to meet with him before leaving.”

“Ah, thanks for the info. I guess I would have visited him either way.”

“Also –“ Abigail was looking embarrassed again, making Markus smile “don’t go without stopping by at our place.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that. I have to get my clothes and say goodbye to your mom as well, right?” He said so, prompting a smile from the girl. “That’s right. See you later then!”

Standing alone in the hallway, Markus decided to finally try out the spell he had copied into his notes earlier. Extending his right hand, he started chanting. It was a lot harder to invoke the magic without the support-circle in the tome, even after he had raised his chanting skill to maximum level. He had to concentrate, but he got it right on the first try anyway.

A transparent, green sphere started swirling in front of his hand. His mana pool had dropped by 20 points right after invoking it and trying to pour more mana inside did not work. Instead, just maintaining the spell drained his magic power continuously, at a rate of around one point per second. He moved his around and the sphere followed like he had seen before when Hendrix was using the same magic.

Markus moved his hand close to his left arm, and the sphere moved disappeared into his arm. It was a pleasant, warm feeling. He tried to pour more energy inside and the magic consumption intensified, but there was no other effect. Having no actual injury to use it on, Markus cancelled the spell. It had been copied into his spells-menu successfully already.

The alchemist’s room was on the lower floor, close to the room with the identification table. After knocking, Markus entered. The first thing he noticed was the smell. It was a horrible mix of public restroom and a dumpster during a hot summer. His reflex was to get out of the room again immediately, but he fought the urge to escape and took a step inside.

A large wooden desk was standing in the centre of the room, with various flasks, bowls and unidentifiable items on it. A small box was standing on one corner of the table, with a flame coming out of it. A large flask was currently resting on top a metal tripod, right above the flame.

A woman was currently focused on observing the contents of the flask, a red-brown liquid, while white smoke came out of the flask’s opening. The woman, probably in her late thirties, was wearing large, round spectacles and had her black hair tied into a ponytail behind her back. Her right hand was resting on the box producing the flame.

“Hello, I’m Markus. I came to meet-“ The woman raised her free hand, signalling Markus to wait. He closed the door behind him and silently watched her. He saw the flame getting a bit smaller, then larger, then smaller again. From the looks of it, the woman was in charge of its intensity. After a while, she removed her hand from the box and the flame disappeared.

The woman then moved her hand close to the flask and concentrated. Markus saw the dark liquid become gradually more transparent while the colour shifted a bit towards red. Finally, the woman dropped her hand and relaxed.

“Phew…. Sorry, you just arrived at a critical moment, I couldn’t take a break.” She turned towards Markus with a friendly but slightly tired expression on her face.

“I hope you don’t mind. The lieutenant said I could stop by and watch you perform your alchemy a little, maybe lend a hand.”

“Yes, I was in fact already waiting for you. My name Maryella. You are Markus, right?”

“Correct, nice to meet you. What were you doing just now?” Markus pointed at the flask with the liquid. Now that there was no more smoke coming out of it, the smell in the room had lost a lot of its intensity.

“Ahh, very good question. I was preparing an ingredient, you see. Inside this bottle is a troll’s blood. It is an ingredient that is critical in the type of healing potion I produce here, but it is poisonous in its natural state. Heating it, but not boiling it, then pouring magic energy inside, neutralizes the poison and amplifies the regenerative properties.” The woman was explaining so while raising her finger, reminding Markus of some kind of teacher.

“Interesting. So drinking this can restore your health?” Markus stepped a little closer and took a close look at the blood inside the flask. Against the sunlight coming in from the open window, it was clearly red, but also murky. It vaguely resembled the healing potion he had seen the lieutenant administer to Wynn.

“Well, it probably does not do much good all on its own. A small effect is possible though.” The woman, Maryella, started rummaging through a cabinet, then pulled out a box and placed it on one of the few empty places on the table. “For a proper potion, we are going to mix it with a few other ingredients. For the next step, I will need some help.” She opened the box and Markus saw that it was filled to the brim with parts of broken bones.

“These are the bones of magical beasts, more specifically, fire lizards. Those guys can create fire with magic and their bones contain a lot of residual magic energy. We need to make them into powder. They have already been dried, but unfortunately, they are still as hard as rocks. So we need some teamwork here.”

She put some of the rocks into a stone mortar, then handed Markus the heavy pestle made from the same material. “I will use magic to soften them, you will grind them into small pieces. When they harden again, stop and I will re-cast the spell. They won’t stay soft very long. And when I say soft, I mean they are still hard, so give it your best effort right from the start”. Maryella pulled out a small tome, similar in size to the magic torch one.

“So you are going to use a tome to cast? I heard the effect isn’t that good.” Markus asked her bluntly. Markus already had an idea why she did it, and going by the woman’s complicated expression, he was spot on.

“Well… that may be so, but it can’t be helped. …the magic won’t form without the tome...” She said the last with a slightly smaller voice and refused to look directly at Markus. “Anyway, let’s start! Let me worry about the magic efficiency, you worry about crushing monster bones.”

Maryella put her hand on the magic circle within the tome, then chanted the spell. A vapour like stream of red energy started flowing out from her fingertips, disappearing into thin air after travelling straight for a few centimetres. Maryella moved her hand, still resting on the tome, closer to the mortar and directed the stream inside it, so it hit the bone fragments. After a few seconds she cancelled the spell.

“Start grinding now.” Markus hit the bone parts with the pestle and they broke apart like pieces of chalk, then he started grinding. The bones gradually started to harden again, and finally they started to make scratches inside the mortar, signalling that they had again solidified to the point where they were harder than the stone the tool was made of.

When Markus stopped his movement, Maryella took a glimpse into the mortar and raised her eyebrows. “That was seriously good. There is already some dust at the bottom. See, my magic isn’t that bad, am I right?” She broke into a smile, but then quickly positioned her hand on the tome again.

They had to repeat the process two more times, but then all the bone shards had been broken down into a fine dust. Maryella was critically examining it. “Really now, I don’t think I have ever gotten such a fine powder out of it. Fire lizard bones aren’t that good of an ingredient, but with this grade of powder, I might produce a nice batch of potions.”

While Maryella was watching over a mix of herbs she was boiling in a beaker, Markus examined a pile of books that was sitting on a table. The tome she had used earlier was on top of the pile.

“Are those all of the chanting tomes you use?” Markus asked her while opening the topmost tome with the ‘soften bones’ spell.

“Tomes, but also books. Alvin, the magician, has lent me the tomes, but the books are mostly my own.”

“Mind if I take a look?” Markus had already quickly copied the chant for the softening magic into his notes while she was talking.

“Suit yourself, but don’t get them dirty. And I will notice if anything ‘disappears’, just saying.” Maryella was still watching over the flask and the burner, but she turned her head to Markus while saying the last part.

“Don’t worry, I am just curious, not a thief.” Markus started looking through the books. Three of them were tomes, so he copied the chants written in the other two as well. Four were actual books. Markus opened the first one and started reading. The passage he picked described how a certain Lord Greyam was fondling his bound and blindfolded maid’s bosom. Markus then opened the first page and looked for the title – ‘Behind Closed Doors’. It was fiction, and rather steamy.

“Does this have any relevance for alchemy?” Markus held up the book. Throwing him a quick glance, Maryella laughed. “No, but it is a book, correct? Look, I often have to wait in between doing things, don’t judge.”

Markus’ eyes wandered to a golden rod lying on the table and wondered if that wasn’t related to alchemy as well.

The next two books were similar to the first, but the last one was actually dealing with alchemy. It was a book describing different plants and how they could be used to create potions. Next to some descriptions were handwritten annotations, describing were they were found locally.

The descriptions also contained some drawings of leafs or roots.

Markus went over to the table, the open book still in his hand, and started comparing the plants in some of the bowls with the descriptions in the book. Starting with the ones that had notes next to them, he finally identified one. It looked just like a weed, but the triangular leafs were a good thing to look out for. After reading the description in the book, he used the UI to examine the plant in front of him.

[Peddler’s Grass

Common plant often found next to roads. Can cause dizziness and sometimes vomiting when consumed raw. Boiled, it reduces the metallic taste of potions that contain blood.]

He had somewhat expected it, but the information given by the menu was at least partly dependent on his own knowledge.

[Skill: Herbalism] gained.

Nice. Markus put the book back and raised the new skill to level 10. Then he picked up a different plant on the table and inspected it.

[Knave’s Bell (dried)

Dark purple flower, often found near water. The parts above ground are edible. When boiled in water, the resulting solution slightly enhances recovery of stamina and has a positive influence on regenerative effects of other ingredients after alchemical fusion. Roots can also be boiled to achieve same effect.]

This was a great skill. Not only did it give away the correct name of a plant, it also gave practical information on how it could be used. With this, he might be able to get other, related skills all by himself.

Maryella had already turned the flame off and was now waiting for the solution to cool down.

She had already lined up a few tools on the table. A small cauldron, scales and measuring spoons. The golden rod Markus had suspected to be a sex toy was also nearby, so there probably was a legitimate use for it.

“What about human parts? Do they have a use in alchemy?” Markus asked so spontaneously.

“Better don’t think about those things. Not only is it gross, but potions made from humans have serious side effects.” Maryella was making a serious face.

“Side effects?”

“Yes, and quite terrible ones. It makes your magic go wild and drives you mad. You get like one of those magic beasts. Slightly more powerful, but only driven by instinct. Nothing desirable. It’s also illegal to use human parts for experiments.”

“What if you get one of your hairs into a potion by accident? Or your blood?” Markus was just curious, he wouldn’t want to risk transformation into a monster.

“That’s something else. Human blood does not have an effect, that much is common knowledge, just like hair. Some people think that there are love potions that can be made with those or… other body fluids, but I think it’s bogus. I am talking about bones or certain organs that contain magic energy in large quantities, those are bad. Don’t even try it.”

“OK, got it. Thanks.”

Having prepared all the ingredients, they started mixing the potions. They mixed the troll blood with an equal parts of the filtered herbs solution, then added the bone dust. Markus was stirring the cauldron containing the mix using the golden rod, which was actually just gilded and acted as a catalyst, while Maryella was heating it carefully. After a while a fine foam showed up on the surface, signalling that the mix was ready for the final step.

Maryella was letting Markus pour magic energy into the concoction, while she was observing its state. Shortly before she told him to stop, Markus saw a message pop up in his log.

[Skill: Alchemy] gained.

This skill was bound to be useful, so he maxed it out right away. They carefully filled several small flasks with the content of the cauldron and Maryella made sure to seal the lids properly, to prevent further air exposure.

After they had emptied the pot, eight freshly made health potions were sitting on the table in front of them. Maryella picked one up and held it against the light coming in from the window.

“Look Markus, the potions are of really high quality. They usually turn out brown and murky, but this time you can say there are rather red, with only a hint of brown. And you can see the light shining through them.”

Markus watched her examining the finished potions, but then thanked her and left the alchemy lab. It was still early afternoon, but he had acquired two potentially amazing skills and three spells, there wasn’t much more to get out of this. Closing the door behind him, Markus thought that the training over last two days went a lot better than he had hoped for.

Sure, he might have been able to get many of the skills without actually having someone teach him, but he also got a better feeling how the skills were used and a lot of background knowledge about the world.

First, he would head to Lieutenant Clement’s office and see what he wanted, afterwards he was wanted to test some of his new skills out in the field.