DAY 43 13:05

After walking most of the night we had stopped a short distance away from Wolsey town. There hadn’t been enough time to get past it before dawn, and I didn’t want to risk meeting any travellers. So we were going to wait here, a distance off the road, until nightfall.

Shrya had burrowed into the ground under the cart at sunrise and refused to move.

I spent a while hunting some rabbits and then scavenging some berries. I passed some to Shrya and although she grumbled something at me she took them.

With not much else to do, I settled in to keep reading the Alchemy manual. Most of the basic recipes were utilitarian. How to render things down to their base essence. How to make inks and pigments from various berries, ash, and other materials. How to make glue using animal parts.

The classifications were Weak, Strong, Epic, and Legendary, with the form of the concoction varying based on the process to create it. Some were potions you drink which acted fast but had the most side effects, some were salves or lotions which generally had long lasting mild beneficial effects but also mild side effects, some were pills which had the longest duration and the fewest side effects but required vast amounts of resources. In some cases dozens of potions could be made out of the materials for a single pill.

Most things seemed to have some alchemical uses which tended to be pretty straightforwards, like bright berries or sooty ash being able to make inks and paints. Some were a bit more thematic, like crushed flint being used for flammable oil. Or as the first potion listed, a Weak potion of Strength, which required first extracting the essence from an animal heart, and processing it to give +10% strength for 1 hour.

That sounded like something I could make right now. I got the alchemy kit unpacked and saw something I had overlooked. There were no vials or bottles. I could brew the potion but didn’t have anything to put it into. Other than the Essence of Willow potion I had, which I wasn’t sure I even wanted to use the way I had intended. After flipping through the book again I saw it recommend a vial, but that a waterskin could be used. I opened the tailoring menu and saw the recipe for making a hide waterskin. It required hide and sinew, which I had from the rabbits, and glue which required boiling hide and sinew. I tossed a few in the pot, got some wood chips for kindling, and struck a spark. Fairly quickly the ingredients had been reduced to grey sludge, which I poured into the alembic...which somehow perfectly separated the glue from the water, meaning that magically no water was actually used. Oh well, it is an alchemy kit after all.

I used the glue, another hide, and some sinew, to make myself a small water skin. Then I tossed the rabbit hearts into the pot, boiled them into goo, distilled that into essence, and poured it into the waterskin. When it was ready I drank it, tasting like strong broth, but giving me a mild warmth inside, like soup on a cold day. The buff popped up, showing -5% resistance to heat. As side effects went it was quite minor. I brewed a second one, and passed it under the cart.

“Meat water?”

“It’s a potion of strength. Drink it.”

My third batch was ready when I got the skin back, so I filled it up. According to the label, I had just under 24 hours before the stored potion lost effect. That was something the glass vials didn’t do.

I wasn’t even sure what skill would be used to make glass. I knew it involved heating sand, or something like that, but would that be a blacksmithing skill? I supposed I’d have to find out eventually, because it would suck if my potions could only be stored for a day. These weak ones barely did anything but were easy to make, and it wasn’t like I’d be getting hearts from powerful beasts every day. Long term storage would have to be a long term plan.

Now that I had made glue, it made me realize how much stuff I had made that probably should have needed it, like the arrows. Had it been an intentional choice so that people and creatures could do basic crafting without needing an alchemy kit? I still hadn’t seen any instructions on how an alchemy kit was even made. There was a lot of glass and metal involved, which presumably would be high level blacksmithing. It’d be hard to get to that point without basic tools like bows and arrows.

I left the skin in the cart and sat back down to keep reading, idly flipping through the book. Much of the remainder had to do with preparation for Imperial certification, such as permissible side effects, standards of purity. Apparently to be certified as a Novice Alchemist it was necessary to brew a Weak potion to a full potency of +25%, with no side effects.

Towards the end of the book was a series of example exercises for a Novice to complete, a set of Oils used to augment other crafts. The one that caught my eye was the Oil of Tempering, used to create an alloy of steel and gold, called Orichalcum, which possessed heightened power when enchanted, and could be used to naturally harm many inhuman creatures like Shades. Even with all the new plants and minerals I’d discovered from the earlier sections, I didn’t know what half of them were or where to find them. Clearly not something I’d be doing any time soon.

The other Oils were equally interesting, one to enhance leather and fabrics, one to increase nutrition and preserve and flavour food, one to create magical inks, one to sanitize things to reduce chances of fouling and side effects in alchemy and enchanting, one to lubricate contraptions for reduced failure, one to create concrete, and one to treat woods to remove impurities and increase durability.

They would be quite useful if I could eventually get the components needed for those. Who even knew what “Moonsilk” was though? Maybe it would be explained in the other volumes.

After a while more of that I was getting restless and went exploring to see if I could find some of these things the book had identified. It actually didn’t take too long to start noticing them, such as Comfrey, with its tiny blue flowers. The root was used to make a salve to stop bleeding and mend broken bones, with the side effect of being quite toxic and reducing total health and potentially causing permanent harm or death if eaten or used for too long. Useful for first aid, or for creating a nasty poison. Glad I hadn’t decided to start eating that one before realizing what it was.

I gathered a bit of it and stuffed it into a pocket. I would run out of pockets pretty soon, so some sort of alchemy bag with a lot of pockets was probably my best option for keeping things separate. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to make, I just needed some suitable hide. Rabbit would be too weak to last long.

Checking that my arrows were still good, I took a long sniff to try to detect any traces of deer. Nothing nearby, so I set off further north into the forest. About fifteen minutes later I found a trail, only a day old. The trail crossed a few rocky patches that were hard to track, but the scent was strong and I barely had to slow down. The smell was getting stronger, but also crossing the trail of another.

Easing around a bush I spotted the two bucks in the distance, bellowing at each other and posturing. They charged, getting tangled in each others horns and kicking with their hooves until they were free a few seconds later. I kind of wanted to let them wear each other down, but their hides were getting torn up. I nocked an arrow and took aim at the one that looked strongest. When they charged and got entangled again I fired, catching him through the ribs. The other buck panicked and tried to flee, but his horns were still tangled. My arrow caught him low in the ribs, not a vital hit but stunning him for a moment. My third arrow hit the heart, and he collapsed a few steps after freeing his horns.

Hanging the bow back on my pack, I pulled out the knife to skin them. I was realizing that even though I could skin them with just my claws, it wasn’t a very efficient process and didn't have the same chances of success. While skinning and butchering the pair, I thought about the alchemy bag I wanted. I had an idea like those old wide mouthed doctors bags. That way it could be carried in a hand even while wearing my pack. It would have plenty of space for pockets to keep herbs and samples separate.

That took one stack of hides to make, and with the rest I made a leather tarp to cover the cart. Sooner or later it was going to rain again, and I didn’t want my books getting soaked.

When they were done I transferred the comfrey into the new bag. It was nearly sunset so I made my way back to the cart. Shrya slithered out as soon as the sun had dipped below the trees. We set off at a good pace. Mostly glad to have someone to talk to, I started describing some of the rare components needed for the other alchemical recipes. She hadn’t heard of any of them, so she climbed in the wagon to look at the book.

“You can read?”

“Not dumb.”

“I don’t think you are, I’m just surprised. It took me a few weeks to figure out this writing, and you’ve been living in a cave.” She just hissed at me.

We passed Wolsey town shortly before midnight, and then neared Jordan’s house a few hours later. I wanted to pick up the fuel I had delivered here, but his cabin was dark, so rather than raiding his forge in the middle of the night I decided to wait a few hours until sunrise. I parked the cart near the well, away from the cabin.

Shrya hopped out of the cart and sniffed the air.

“Humans.”

“Yes, my friend Jordan lives here. He taught me blacksmithing.”

“Not kill?”

“That’s right. I need to pick up a delivery from him, and then in a few hours we’ll be across the river out of human lands. Come on, I’ll show you a spot with some great berries.”

I figured the cart would be reasonably safe here, but some security measures was another thing to add to the long term list. I did grab the alchemy bag in case I found anything. As we walked I pointed out a few plants as I found them and stuffed them into my bag. This area seemed to have a lot of nettles, which I could use for stamina potions. There were also plenty of beetles and other insects, which were used in a variety of potions and salves. When I mentioned that Shrya started gleefully crushing their heads and throwing them at me. It was helpful in a disturbing way.

We spent a while at the berry patch, gorging ourselves and filling a few pockets of the bag. They’d be useful for making pigments. I got out my shortspear and started using it to knock pinecones off the trees. I would need some for making food pills and lantern fuel.

“Where get?” She grabbed it and sniffed. “Craft?”

“Yeah, I crafted it. Want me to show you how?” She hissed, but it seemed affirmative, so I showed her how to break off a tree branch, process it into a stick, split a chunk of flint from my pack, and then combine them all to make a short spear. She tried breaking off a tree branch, but not doing anything more than just scratching it. Her claws were just as sharp as mine, but more slender and needle like and by the time it separated it cracked and splintered. She threw the stick into the forest in frustration. Getting an idea, I broke off a new branch and handed her my knife to peel off the bark. Using that she was able to create a stick, and then use sinew to bind the flint to it to make a crude spear.

I opened the menu, checking the Follower tab and comparing her traits to my own. She lacked the ability to craft without tools. That would really stifle experimenting with making things if you already needed tools you couldn’t make to even start. It did also explain some of the goblin hate, since they wouldn’t need bases or supply lines, they could build and craft as they went and start over from nothing.

“If you want, I can make you a knife of your own later.”

“Sharp knife.”

“Come on, I’ll show you how to skin a rabbit.”

A few hours later the sun was about to ride so we headed back to the cart. Shrya dived under the top to hide from the sun as I waited for Jordan to come out.

It didn’t take long, and I waved when he and Lou emerged.

“Karl? By the gods what have you been eating?” He came up and clasped my arm, I could look him in the nose now, nearly double the height I had been when we first met. Lou went into the forge to get started for the day.

“I went on a few hunting trips and got some fine meat. How’s business?”

“Good, good. I’ve got your bags in the back. You’ve got yourself a cart! Soon you’ll have a forge of your own.”

“Maybe. It’s on the other side of the river, in that clearing. You’re not going to be losing any business due to me.”

We went into the forge, and once I looked at the stack I realized that there was no way I’d be able to move more than two at a time.

“Do you mind if I leave two here for now? Don’t want to break my new cart.”

“Of course. Where are you getting ore from?”

“I found a small bit in the forest. Don’t have the money for buying ingots yet.”

We each hefted a bag up, and at the last second I realized I had forgotten something else. The cover was still on, with Shrya under it.

“Wait a second.” I put the bag down and poked my head under the cover. “Move to the side there or you’ll get crushed.” I whispered and she just hissed at me again but squished to the side.

“Did you get a cat?”

“Something like that.” I took the bag from Jordan and slid it onto the cart, and then the other, before flipping the cover closed. “Good seeing you again, but I should go.”

“Come back any time.” He leaned close and whispered “Lou’s not as fast a learner as you, I wouldn’t mind the help.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that, and then grabbed the cart handles and tilted it up. The thing was about maxed out right now. Getting all this across the river was going to be a disaster.

As I feared, when we got to the river I had to unload the cart, carry everything over and leave it on the far side, including Shrya covered in the tarp, and then carefully drag the empty cart across the tree. It kept wobbling and tilting and nearly dragged me into the water when it slid off near the end. I just barely managed to haul it the last bit onto the shore.

After loading it back up the speed was even slower now, the thicker brush this side of the river caught on the cart at every opportunity and there were many large rocks to detour around. It was still faster than making seven trips to haul all the stuff.

The cabin was right where I left it, and I was nearly dead on my feet by the time I got everything inside. I flopped onto the floor when it was done.

“Why are you tired?” Shrya was slowly emerging from the tarp.

“Ha. Ha. Next time you can pull the cart.”