They arrived back at the lab just in time for the essences to finish brewing. For testing today, they were going to create potions based on the Pitch, Expand, and Fluff properties. While the alchemist didn''t have much faith in these properties providing powerful effects, he was excited to see what kind of wacky things they would produce. Salire was waiting for him on the third floor, organizing everything and preparing for another run of the restoration essences.

    "Just in time for the fun stuff, huh?" she asked. “Leaving all the grunt work to me.”

    "You''re the apprentice, aren''t you?" Theo asked. "Nah, I''m just kidding. If you want to go up and talk with the gods in my stead, you''re more than welcome."

    "I''m good. Very content down here where things are easy to understand." How did your meeting go?

    "I think the system likes me," Theo said, questioning his own statement. "It''s really hard to tell. She''s basically this floating crystal lady. And once again, I''m reminded that she is neither a woman nor a man; she''s just a system."

    But everything was ready for Theo to get started on the items. He assessed the quality of each essence and determined that they were excellent, far better than the stuff they had been producing. When the lab first started running, they had brewed each essence at the second tier, and still had no plans to run third-tier essences until they could get that technique down. For testing potions, Theo always preferred to run them at the lowest possible tier.

    "Oh, are we starting with fluff?" Salire asked, bouncing with excitement next to Theo.

    "What could the Fluff property possibly produce?" Theo asked, laughing to himself. "I really need to know."

    Theo got to work brewing the potion. He took only a few moments to appreciate its 98% purity before getting to work. It took to the enchanted water and the iron shavings very well, creating a bubbling mixture that gave off the smell of hot sand. But the amount of vapor produced was minimal, and the fumes didn''t seem noxious. When the potion finished brewing in the vial, they both stepped in to inspect the result.

    [Fluff Potion]

    [Potion]

    Uncommon

    Created by: Theo Spencer

    Purity: 98%

    Imbibing this potion creates a thin fluffy layer on the drinker’s skin for an hour.

    Effect:

    Reduces the amount of damage you take from lightning attacks by 50%.

    Your skin is itchy for the duration of the potion.

    "Excuse me," Salire asked, grimacing as she read over the description. "That sounds disgusting."

    "I will give you a gold coin if you drink it," Theo said.

    For about half a second, it seemed as though she might take him up on the offer, but eventually, she scooted the potion away from herself, shaking her head. "I think that might be just a bit too much for me. Is this potion useful?"

    A 50% reduction to lightning damage would be great if we ever fought anything with lightning attacks," Theo said, smoothing his hair back and trying to envision any other scenario where he could use it. Maybe if he needed to have itchy skin for an hour, but that didn''t seem likely. No, the damage reduction was the only good thing about the potion. The secondary effect was an obvious negative.

    "Do we have an example of a potion that provides a negative effect along with a positive one?" Theo asked.

    "Uh, yes, that would be the Carapace Potion. That''s the one that creates segmented plates all over your body, but increases your defense,” Salire said.

    Theo thought the carapace potion differed from this one, though. The plates that formed in a person''s body provided the defense, and using this potion as an example, the two things were unrelated. Unless the thin, fluffy layer acted as a mechanism to resist the lightning. But that didn''t seem likely.

    "Let''s move on before I have a crisis about this strange potion," Theo said, shaking his head. "Which one did you want to do next?"

    "Let''s do Pitch," Salire said. "I think we know what that''s going to make."

    There were many essences in this world that were unpleasant to work with. Theo swirled the flask of pitch essence and felt the urge to pinch his nose. The scent was offensive, but didn''t burn his nostrils like some others. Instead, it just smelled like concentrated tar back on Earth. He wouldn''t want to be in a closed room without ventilation with this essence, but it wasn''t enough to make him gag.

    A strange property of the essence was that it was fairly thick. As he poured it into a round, bomb vial, he watched as it came out more like syrup than any other liquid essence he had worked with. But it took to the enchanted water and the iron shavings without a problem, producing a vapor that intensified the scent in the air. Salire cracked a window and waved her notebook, drawing the smell out where the extractor fan failed.

    But the brewing process went well, and eventually, the bomb-style potion was completed.

    [Pitch Bomb]

    [Bomb]

    Common

    Created by: Theo Spencer

    [Alchemy Equipment] [Enchanted]

    Epic

    Created By: Sledge

    Modified By: Zarali

    A 200 unit capacity barrel capable of fermenting any reagents placed inside. Placing a mote with the mash is required for the process to take effect. Additional motes and mana may be required over the course of the fermentation.

    Effects:

    Creates a fermentation reaction when reagents are placed inside with a mote.

    Speed of fermentation is greatly increased, depending on the strength of the mote.

    Enchantments:

    Siphon Power

    Distribute Power

    Crafting Speed

    Crafting Effectiveness

    Alignment: ERROR MISSING

    Well, the alignment tag on the item wasn''t surprising. Ever since the ascendants were foisted from their realms, stuff aligned with the Pretender gods hadn''t been working. But a quick inspection revealed that all the other parts were functioning correctly. Adding moats to the fermentation process was the old way they did things. They had migrated to using Zarali’s mana processing machines, but now those were having problems.

    "Good thing we''ve been practicing our mana control," Theo said, turning to narrow his gaze at his apprentice. "Haven''t we?"

    "I''ve actually been practicing," Salire said, standing up straight and striking a pose. "You can''t yell at me for once."

    "That''s good," Theo said, considering which properties he would focus on first. Fermentation was a simple process of focusing on a property when adding a reagent and then extracting a modifier from that property. After it took a bit to ferment, they needed to run it through a still, but the process was quite simple.

    "I say we go through these weird ones. We should use the Pitch, Expand, and Fluff properties to see what kind of weird modifiers they''ll make."

    Salire agreed and began getting everything ready for the brew. They had enough barrels to handle ten at once, but they would start with three. Theo helped her process the reagents into a mashed form, adding them to the barrels and standing over each one in turn. He allowed mana to drip from his hand, watching as it impacted the surface and sent magical ripples outward.

    It didn''t take long to sense the differences between before and after the system changed. Just like regular alchemy, the fermentation process was now much more volatile. That''s why, when loading the barrels, he only put in a small amount compared to before. After watching it for about half an hour, he was surprised to see that no chain reactions were occurring in the raw reagent mash.

    "This is far more stable than what I expected," Theo said, getting close and having a good sniff of the fermentation barrel. "Unlike our Taro’gal stills, I don''t think these are going to explode."

    "Explosions were an option?” Salire asked. "Maybe we should have done this outside."

    They watched the fermentation barrels for a while, but it seemed as though nothing was going to happen. If any volatile reaction were to occur, it would have been much later. Theo was satisfied and turned away, intent on leaving and doing some town management for a while, but he was stopped by his apprentice at the door.

    "I don''t think you should neglect your magic either," Salire said, looking slightly concerned. "We''ve been focused so heavily on alchemy, and I know there''s a lot left to do, but your ward-based magic has been very helpful so far."

    Sometimes Theo got so inside his own head that he forgot things, especially when it came to his many cores. Taking the dedication to his alchemy and herbalism core was a great way to help him narrow his focus, but those other cores were still powerful. Neglecting them was a great way to narrow his range of abilities, and that simply wasn''t something he was interested in.

    "That''s some extremely good advice," Theo said, patting her on the shoulder. "I don''t want to neglect my Tero’gal Mage’s Core."

    "Maybe you can come up with some magic that will help us deal with a gigantic crowd of people rushing toward us from every corner of the planet."

    "Well, that is a very pointed and specific example you''re using there," Theo said, smiling wide. "Yeah, you''re right. I think I need to spend some time crafting some new spells. I might have an idea."

    "Just something to think of," Salire said, shooing him out. "Now let me work on my restoration potions while you go play archduke."

    Theo left the lab and headed out onto the streets of Broken Tusk. He stopped, looking at the minor changes that had happened to his mage core. As he cycled through the list of cores, his vision fell on the Dreamwalker''s Core. He drilled down to the one skill attached to it. The Passage skill.

    It was impossible to know if a peaceful resolution could be reached before death, or before others who seemed to crave his demise. This was a skill he hadn''t shared with the other throne-holders—one that would likely allow him to pass into the heavenly realms. He wasn''t averse to the idea of taking death out of the picture, but he just didn''t have the same history the others did. Tarantham had never really bothered them, not as much as the dronon or Qavell.

    Fortunately, it was a problem for another day.