Watching Nick go off to get a bottle of Gaia's Tears Savani couldn't help but release his breath. He was increadibly glad that his idea had paid off. By entering a trade agreement with Nick he had managed to complete three different objectives. The first and most important was that he managed to resolve the danger of his Vitality being too low. Even if Gaia's Tears only boosted his Vitality as much as his refining did his Physique that would still put Savani in the clear. What surprised Savani was that Nick was actually capable of brewing the potion. Savani had figured he would simply get one from another Alchemist. From his experience in watching various groups Savani noticed that those with similar interests would often stay in communication, trading information to benifit both parties. That is so long as it didn't give the other party an advantage.

The second objective he had was a continuous access to potions. Savani didn't like the idea of having to stake out the bazaar hoping to come across a potion he may need. Since Nick could get access to both the Plague Draft and Gaia's Tears it made more sense to form a relationship with him. Savani was still weak enough that both potions were useful to him. This way while Savani saved points and practiced Alchemy on his own he could still manage to get his hands on potions he needed. This would allow him to practice even while he experimented and made it so he didn't have to stop to master the art of making potions first. Who knows, perhaps Nick might be able to get him access to other potions he may need.

The final objective Savani had was to get into contact with more Alchemy knowledge. The books in the library would be useful in understanding the art of Alchemy and some common tricks however Savani would still need to find a way to get his hands on recipes. By trading with Nick, Savani might be able to ask for some beginner level recipes and possibly some hints. If it meant simply trading away a few doen herbs for some tips from a proffesional Alchemist Savani would be more than happy to do it. Of course if Nick wasn't willing to share his knowledge then Savani would concider taking up the Alchemy tutoring.

While waiting for Nick to return with the potion, Savani began to browse both the quest board and the obsidian trading post. It had become a habit for Savani to gather various information for his chip to sort and analyze. While he was doing this, Nick finally returned. Walking up to Savani by the pillar he took out a potion from his robe and handed it over. Unlike Plagues Draft this potion was a vibrant green and felt warm to the touch.

Completing the trade Savani went to the cafeteria for some food before heading back to his room. Once there instead of taking the potion right away Savani had the undead empty the vat he used to refine himself before taking a long nap. Once he woke up Savani then took a shower in his new bathroom before finally taking out the potion.

Holding it Savani could swear he felt a weak pulse coming from the potion. Once he opened it his sense of smell was overcome by the fragrance of dozens of different herbs. Just smelling the potion sent his body into a state of hunger. Quickly he put the potion to his lips and drank. Unlike the Plagues Draft this potion had an herbal taste that bordered on sweet. Every cell in his body screamed in delight as the energy held inside the potion flowed through his body. For several seconds it felt like Savani was floating on air as his damaged Vitality healed.

[Detecting strange energy in host. Energy is deemed beneficial to the hosts body. Hosts body has increased its Vitality by 1.04]

After Savani finished absorbing the potion he was shocked to see such a massive increase. No wonder Gaia's Tears was so sought after. The increase it brought to the person who drank it were immense. Of course Savani knew that the more someone took a potion the less effects there would be. The human body would build up immunity to any potion taken too often. Still with such a large increase Savani was sure he could raise his Vitality to a decent level before he could no longer gain any use out of the potion.

* * * * * * * * *

Inside one of the Alchemy labs Savani was slowly measuring out a portion of black colored powder before mixing it into a beaker filled with a bright red boiling liquid. Once the powder was added Savani fiddled with some runes that ran along the front of the alchemy station and stared at the boiling concotion, occasionally stirring it gently.

As time went on the black powder disolved into the solution making the liquid darker. Eventually the strange liquid became a deep crimson. Seeing the liquid get to this color, Savani quickly took out a container filled with a misty white concoction before dripping 5 drops into the red solution. After several minutes of continous boiling Savani removed the liquid and poured it into three quartz vials.

[Congratulations. Host has suceeded in concocting 3 vials of Blood Regeneration Potion. Successful chemical reaction has been added to the databank. Host can now practice refining Blood Regeneration Potion in the Virtual Training room.]

Wiping the sweat off his brow Savani couldn't help but grin. It had been six months since he started trading with Nick. With the help of the Gaia's Tears potion and the Plague Draft potion Savani was able to slowly increase his strength over the last several months. By trading with Nick while also occasionally putting some of the herbs up for trade in the bazaar Savani was able to slowly gain enough points to not only learn all the Alchemy knowledge in the library but also managed to finish off all the anatomy books along with a good portion of the books on Darkness magic and general magical knowledge.

Once he had all this knowledge Savani managed to bribe Nick into getting him some entry level potion recipes by gathering some more hard to find herbs. With these recipes Savani finally began to practice Alchemy. Of course the journey wasn't all that peaceful. During the last 6 months Savani had lost 8 undead creatures. Not to mention he himself almost died several times while exploring.

Not only did having to remake his undead several times over slow down his plans but Savani also learned that because potion making also frequently required the Alchemist to use his Spirit in some of the more powerful potions the chip was only able to gather information on the various reactions between ingredients. It was only after Savani made a complete potion that the chip was able to record the appropriate result and create a simulation of it. With this Savani had to practice potions using real ingredients and could only practice his skills in refining after he sucessfully refined any particular potion. Still this increased his Alchemy ablility far faster than his pears.

While the new potions cooling Savani looked over his status with a trace of pride.

[Host name: Savani

Race: Human (adept apprentice)

Affinities: Darkness, Space

Attributes: Strength: 5.24 Physique: 6.02 Vitality: 7.39 Agility: 5.61 Spirit: 10.07

Status: Healthy

Skills: Magic Language Proficiency (Basic)

Spells: Acid Shot (Crystalized), Create Undead (Crystalized), Control Undead (Crystalized)....]

Savani had managed to finally break through to the level of Adept apprentice just yesterday. Sadly at this point the basic meditation technique he was given had become useless. With each increase in his Spirit attribute the meditation technique would provide less and less of a boost. The plus side to this was that it gave room for Savani's other attributes to grow stronger.

Looking at his new status Savani couldn't help but look at his Acid Shot and Create Undead spells. With the influx of knowledge relating to both the Darkness element as well as the various knowledge on anatomy and necromancy the chip was able to make a permanent spell module of the two spells. Now Savani no longer had to chant and spell weave when casting these spells, all he had to do was point and will the spell to be cast. This had greatly improved his combat capabilities.

Pocketing the new potion he made Savani left the Alchemy room he had rented. Nodding to the apprentice in charge of assigning the rooms Savani went down to the obsidian trading post and put his newest potions up for purchase. This had become a habit of his. Savani would always sell his first batch of potions in order to regain some contribution points or magical crystal shards. Once he managed to sell these potions Savani would then refine some for his own personal use.

After putting his potions up for sale Savani went to the cafeteria to get something to eat. For the last 3 hours he had been refining several batches of Blood Regeneration Potion and had only managed to succeed on the final attempt. Refining for that long had made Savani famished. While walking through the cafeteria Savani nodded to several other apprentices he had become associated with over the last six months.

By now both the Earthen Court and Shadow League had learned that Savani wasn't really keen on joining either faction. However with his new ability to create potions, along with the name he had made for himself in finding a large amount of herbs in the wild, the two sides decided to treat him with a more civil approach than one would expect. His increase in power over the last several months was visible to everyone and no one wanted to anger a potential new Pseudo-Sage. So instead the two factions let some of their outer memebers trade with Savani for various herbs and some of his potions trying to build a work relationship with him instead.

As usual Savani grabbed his food and went to sit in his corner. Now that he was an adept level apprentice Savani now had the ability to leave the tower for missions that were outside the forest. Still Savani wanted to learn some new spells before he left. The focus the last few months had been on building a firm foundation for himself so Savani prioritized gaining practical knowledge over learning new spells. However now that he had the power to explore the world Savani knew that the few spells he had mastered were far from enough.

Thinking it over Savani had a few ideas for spells he wanted to get. The first would be some form of crowd control to make either hitting the target or fleeing easier. Since Darkness didn't really have any spells to augment the body like Earth and Wind did, Savani's only other choice was a spell that would allow him to go unnoticed. Finally Savani would need a spell that would allow him to heal himself if he got injured. Though he prefered to use his undead to attack, the last few months had taught him to always expect the unexpected. Finishing his food Savani headed over to the library to begin browsing for new spells that could potentially help him.