I covered a jaw-popping yawn, eyes lingering on a pair of skimpily clad Amazons as I crossed the Babel Plaza. Smooth, caramel skin. Perky chests. Toned muscles like steel cords that rippled with every move.
A longing sigh escaped me. Level two couldn't come quickly enough—
"Good morning, bruzzah!" A familiar, boisterous voice drew my attention to the giant spire up ahead. Backpack slung over one shoulder, Ravi pushed himself off the wall, a wide smile on his face as he approached.
"Yo!" I waved a hand in greeting, smiling just as brightly at his infectious enthusiasm. "Ready for another day of fun in the dungeon?"
"If it's anything like yesterday, I'm all for it. We make an awesome team!" Ravi held out a hand, and I shook it vigorously, ignoring the odd looks from some of the passing-by adventurers.
"It's a shame that Lil' Lili didn't stick with us. She was a really good supporter."
Yeah. Her reactions had been pretty fun to see.
"We must've been too cool for her, brother," I said with a shrug. "But it's fine, we can manage without a supporter for now."
"I could try asking around my Familia," he said, lifting a hand in a vague gesture, and I thought about it for a moment, lips pursed. Not a bad idea, but…
"Maybe a spell-caster would be better, if you could find one. Doesn't matter what magic they have, as long as it's useful in combat."
Ravi nodded along, eyes lingering on a dark-haired cat-girl as she walked past us along with her party. After a beat of mildly awkward silence, he finally said, "Sure, I'll ask around."
I smiled, pretending not to notice. Cat-girls were good civilization. Not as good as Amazons, but still pretty good.
"By the way, brotha, I heard about this great place to eat. The Hostess or something," he shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "Forgot what it's called."
"Hostess of Fertility?"
Ravi's brows climbed up a fraction. "You've already been there? That's great! What do you say we go eat there after the dungeon?"
I opened my mouth, nearly agreeing to it, before pausing as a wan smile came to my face. "Sorry, but I'll be leaving earlier today. I have some work to do back at the pharmacy. We could go tomorrow or the day after, or any time, really."
"Any day is good."
"Cool."
"Now let's go crack some skulls, brotha!" he said, flexing his arms with a smirk. "I've been itching for a fight ever since I've oiled my muscles this morning."
I blinked, taking a closer look at my dungeon bro, and true to his words, his arms and chest had a light sheen that gleamed in the morning sun. Dude. What kind of weirdo oiled his muscles in the morn—
You know what, never mind. I wasn't exactly in a position to judge.
Smiling back, I gave a flex of my own, a beat of silence passing between us, before we chuckled and bumped fists. Then, with spirits raised high, we made our way to the murder pit.
__________________________________________
Brow creased, Naaza shifted in her seat, watching as Jack fiddled with the glass tubes and recipients above the workbench, a strange intensity in his movements.
Distillation equipment? She rolled her eyes with a sigh. Distillation made alcohol, not potions. He'd even drawn a weird magic circle in chalk under all that equipment, as if it was supposed to do anything.
Naaza fought back a wince as Jack poured a health potion in a large recipient, before turning on the magic stone heater beneath and leaving the blue liquid to boil.
"I can't believe you wasted all your money on this." From all his bluster so far, she didn't think he'd be the type to waste money on silly, useless things, but here he was, playing into his namesake.
"I think it'll be worth it. You'll see."
"All I'm seeing is that you're paying for that potion you just wasted."
"Sure," he shrugged nonchalantly. "Just let me do my thing. I might be onto something big here."
Yeah, onto the path to poverty.
Jack stuck his arm out with a flourish, his white coat billowing as he popped the cork off a second health potion with his thumb. Then, with another overly dramatic motion, he dumped it in the heated recipient.
Another five hundred valis wasted.
It pained her to watch this, but Lord Miach was away, and someone had to make sure that Jack wouldn't burn down the whole place.
"You called me mad for doing this, but you don't understand," he spoke as the liquid began bubbling, an unsettling smile tugging at his lips. "You don't see the potential in this." He abruptly turned towards her, sweeping his arm sharply at the workbench.
She eyed him flatly, a tired sigh escaping her. Did he sample some of the plants from the top shelf while she wasn't looking?
"What are you even trying to do with that?" Naaza said, watching in morbid curiosity as vapors rose through the looping tubes, bluish liquid slowly dripping in a smaller glassware at the other end.
This guy should give up on potions and start making alcohol instead.
"I'm glad you asked, my dear captain." Smile widening, Jack pulled out a third health potion from his pocket and flicked it up with his thumb, the glass vial spinning through the air before he snatched it on the way down without looking.
Naaza rolled her eyes, though she couldn't stop the brief twitch at the corner of her lips. Men. Only G rank in Dexterity, and he was already showing off.
"For you see, I'm going to use the power of alchemy to distill health potions into high potions."
Brows furrowing, she stared at the small, self-assured smile on Jack's face, a beat of silence passing between them.
Yep. He was crazy.
Naaza shook her head, the silence stretching on as Jack watched the uselessly boiling liquid, mouth pursing slightly.
Did he finally realize how stupid this looked?
Jack let out a thoughtful hum, popping the cork off the vial and pouring the potion in the main glass recipient. "Let's try it three times. Three's an alchemical number and a magical one, too."
What? She blinked owlishly. Alchemical number? What even was that?
Silence filled the room as Jack kept pacing around the place, stopping every now and then to glance between the table and herself while smiling like an idiot. After the fourth time, she let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head.
"There's no way this will ever work. It's not even remotely related to Mixing anymore. You're just burning money."
"Who cares? It looks cool." Cool? What did that have to do with any of this? "And I'm paying for it anyway."
A thousand five hundred valis. Food for two weeks burned away without a second thought...
A sudden noise drew her attention to the door as it opened with a soft creak, Lord Miach stepping inside with a brown bag full of herbs in hand. A gentle smile came to his handsome face as he met her gaze, and she looked away after a moment, a flash of heat creeping up her neck.
"Oh?" Miach placed his bag on a nearby cabinet, eyes lingering on the workbench as he walked closer. "I see you two are busy."
Oblivious as usual...
"Lord Miach," Jack swept his arm with a flourish, his coat billowing to the side as he gestured at the 'potion' in the end recipient. "Behold!"
A beat of silence passed as Miach studied the glass contraption.
"Alcohol distillation equipment? I'm not sure how it might help with potion making. Grinding the ingredients is enough for the normal potions, and the monster drops react through the Mixing skill."
"I kept telling him the same thing, Lord Miach, but he wouldn't listen," she spoke up, unable to hold her tongue. Maybe if Lord Miach chided Jack more sternly, he'd cease with such foolishness in the future.
Stopping next to Jack, Miach took a closer look at the table, lips pursing slightly in thought. "This looks similar to a magic circle, but I don't sense any reaction from it."
"It's an alchemy circle."
"It does resemble one to an extent."
If one put away half the unintelligible scribbles, perhaps.
"Jack, these symbols…" Miach paused, brows rising as he shared a meaningful look with the prodigal son. "Are they?"
Jack nodded with a knowing smile, and Miach let out a contemplative hum.
"Fascinating."
Lord Miach, please stop feeding his delusions…
"It should be about done." Jack said, clapping his hands and placing them flat on the edge of the chalk doodle, a narrow-eyed look of focus on his face while Lord Miach watched everything in unusual curiosity.
This delusion might be more severe than she thought—
Her eyes widened as the circle suddenly lit up with a soft, white glow, that lasted for a few seconds. Lord Miach paused, gaze fixed on the small recipient at the other side of the table.
"That was an inherent magical reaction similar to Mixing."
What? No way. That's not how Mixing worked. That's not how anything worked.
Jack turned off the magic heater, smile growing wider as he picked up the small glass recipient with a flourish, holding it out for everyone to see. "It is done."
Blue colored water. Yes, truly amazing.
Miach took the glass container from Jack and brought it closer to his eyes, studying it for a while, eyebrows climbing up in surprise. "This looks like a high potion."
No way. Naaza shook her head. The color must be fooling him.
Miach pulled out a needle from his pocket, and she watched skeptically as the god pricked the tip of his index, drawing a bead of blood. Slowly, Miach tipped the glass, just enough for a single drop to fall on the back of his hand. The blue liquid seeped into the skin, a wisp of steam rising from the pinprick as Miach rubbed his index and thumb together, getting rid of the blood.
Naaza stared wide-eyed, gaze briefly shifting to Jack's smiling face, before going back to Miach's healed finger.
What.
"A High Potion," Miach said, tone tinged with a note of disbelief.
"No way." From that? How?
Miach placed the High Potion back on the workbench, turning to Jack with a curious look. "How exactly did you make it?"
Jack gestured a hand vaguely at the glass tubes. "I distilled three health potions six times through an herbal infusion with a pinch of blue papillon powder and used that alchemy circle to guide the reaction."
Utter nonsense.
Miach blinked owlishly, brow creasing ever so slightly. "That shouldn't have worked."
Of course it shouldn't have! It didn't make one lick of sense. Even Mixing couldn't cut corners like that.
"It looked pretty cool, though," Jack said with a shrug, a flash of recognition crossing Miach's face.
"This is unprecedented."
Pretty cool? Naaza looked at them in confusion, brows furrowed. What did that have to do with this—
She paused, lips pursing at a sudden thought. Was it that odd Skill that he kept quiet about?
"I can spend some time everyday making high potions like this. It'll help us a lot with the debt," Jack said, getting a smile from Miach.
"Don't get too excited. First you must see if you can reproduce the process."
"True. But before that, can I get a quick update?"
Miach chuckled. "Of course."
Naaza leaned forward in her seat, watching Jack with an intent gaze. "Jack, does this have anything to do with your Skill?"
"Yep," he said without missing a beat.
Did he know from the very beginning that this would happen?
"And you're going to tell me about it?" she asked, arching one eyebrow meaningfully.
"We'll talk after I get my status update."
Naaza sighed quietly to herself. Fair enough.
"I'll be waiting at the front." She stood up from her seat, making to leave, only to stop as Lord Miach's voice reached her ears.
"Naaza," Miach said, her eyes widening at the serious look on his face. "I'd like you to keep quiet about what you saw here. If knowledge of this got out…" he trailed off, mouth drawing a grim line.
She nodded silently. This was much more serious than what she'd imagined.
She'd better hear an explanation about it.
__________________________________________
The door clicked shut as Naaza stepped outside, quiet filling the room. A soft clinking of glass drew his gaze to Jack as he poured that High Potion inside a vial, a look of concentration on his face.
To think that Jack could construct a pseudo magic circle based on divine hieroglyph analogs from his old world… if that had somehow tapped into his Arcanum instead of Jack's falna…
Miach hid a grimace, pushing a soft sigh through his nose. That would've been dire—
"Lord Miach, if we don't have enough money to pay Dian Cecht tonight, I can make a few High Potions after this, and we can quickly sell them to the Guild at half price."
Miach felt a smile pulling at his lips. Such a thoughtful, hardworking child.
"That would be a great help, Jack. A dozen should be enough, if you can manage," he said. "Don't worry about the rest, I'll take care of it."
"Got it." Jack smiled back, light notes of eagerness in his tone, mirrored by his posture.
A warm flash of mirth bubbled in Miach's chest as he gestured at the empty chair by the workbench. "Well, let's see what surprises your falna might hold this time."
Jack shook off his coat and pulled off his shirt in record time, flipping the chair around and taking a seat. Miach chuckled as he retrieved his needle and pricked his index finger.
A drop of ichor fell on Jack's spine, and the falna rippled like water, coming to life with bright light. He brushed a finger from one side to the other, numbers and letters rising above the surface. He laid his palms atop the ethereal light, taking a deeper look at his child.
An abnormal amount of excelia as usual, though not as much as the previous day—
Miach sucked in a sharp breath, eyes going wide. This…
He did it again.
Last time hadn't been a fluke.
A Skill that could reliably influence the development of other Skills within the right circumstances… This had to remain a secret, or else Jack might never find a moment of peace, unless he moved to someone like Loki or Freya—
"It's a new Skill, isn't it?"
And it seemed that Jack was perfectly aware of his exploits as well.
"It is." Miach pushed against the falna, the excelia settling into place as the light died down. He could almost feel the excitement radiating from Jack as he shifted restlessly in his seat.
"Earlier, you did all of that on purpose, didn't you?"
"Yeah. I was testing to see if last week had only been luck, or, if Rule of Cool can truly affect the creation of Skills." A half lie. "And to see Naaza's reaction," Jack added as he looked over his shoulder with a sheepish smile.
Miach chuckled softly. "Don't tease her too much."
"I'm not making any promises." Jack's smile held a mischievous edge as he shrugged, a moment of silence passing between them.
"It's your choice what you're telling Naaza about this, but perhaps you should keep it on the vaguer side," Miach said, voice turning quiet. "I'm sure she'd keep your secret, but it's better for her if she doesn't have a reason to lie to a god."
Jack had a heavy enough burden to carry with all this knowledge. There was no need to drag Naaza into this if they didn't have to.
His child considered it for a moment, lips pursing. "That's a good point. I'll do that."
Miach grabbed a piece of paper from a nearby cabinet, laying it on Jack's back as he copied the status. He couldn't help a disbelieving shake of the head as the last line of script appeared on the sheet. This Skill was perhaps even stronger than the previous one.
He could only wonder what other surprises his child might show him in the future. Smiling fondly at the thought, he handed over the paper to Jack as he turned around.
Jack buried his face in the status sheet, jaw slackening, before a wide grin came to his face.
"It seems that you'll be getting started on your own potions sooner than we expected. I'll set aside some ingredients for you to experiment with."
"Thank you, Miach," Jack said, eyes still glued to the paper. "Part of me feels like staying up all night to experiment, but maybe I'll settle for calling it another early day tomorrow."
"That would be wiser, yes," Miach said with an amused smile as Jack finally put away his status sheet and dressed himself.
"But that's quite an unusual wording, I must say. All potions are inherently magical to an extent, unless…" His eyes widened at a sudden thought, but before he could say anything, Jack smiled knowingly.
"It's probably the potion equivalent to Crozzo's magic swords. Maybe even better."
Even better?
Despite the heavy sigh that escaped him, Miach felt a proud smile coming to his face. One day, his child was going to make history.
<>
Jacob Brewer
Lv. 1
STR: F353 → F381
END: F398 → E426
DEX: G254 → G279
AGI: G286 → F308
MAG: I12 → I15
"Magic"
"Skills"
[Rule of Cool]
Yours is an impossible existence. Inspire awe, and the world is willing to suspend its disbelief. Act to impress. Impress when you act. It Just Works.
[Hissatsu Waza]
Increased odds of achieving a Limit Off. Allows the user to unleash the entire power of a Limit Off as a single strike. Active trigger.
[Alchemy]
The user can create Magic Potions. While practicing alchemy, the user gains the development abilities Mixing and Mystery, depending on their level.
<>
__________________________________________
Naaza placed her half-read book on the counter, leaving a strip of cloth on top of it as I walked closer, her tired eyes pinning me with a flat, soul-piercing stare.
"Stop smiling like that, it's creepy."
"We're going to be rich, Naaza."
The dog girl sat there, not a single muscle twitching on her face. She had one hell of a poker face.
"That's great, but I'd like to hear some answers. Your Skill had Lord Miach acting like that earlier, and I'm starting to get concerned."
I gathered my thoughts, lips pursed as I sighed heavily through my nose. "To put it simply, that Skill increases the odds of me doing something that's normally impossible."
"Yes, that's what Skills usually do." She gave me an utterly flat look, and I shrugged.
"Lord Miach said that it'll be safer for you if I left out the details, so, unless you really want to know…" I trailed off, silence filling the room as Naaza folded her hands atop the wooden counter, a slight frown marring her face.
"I can see the logic," she said eventually. "Fine, I won't pry."
"Thanks," I said, smiling thankfully. "Now guess what new, amazing Skill I just got." I strutted up to the counter, but the dry, unimpressed look on her face quickly took away the wind from my sails.
"A bit too late for that, mister magic potions."
The smile slipped off my face as I sighed. Right. Level two dog-girl super hearing. "Spoilsport."
Naaza gave a lazy, barely-there shrug. "Talk quieter next time."
An amused huff escaped me. "Fair enough," I said before flashing her a teasing smile. "So, still think we can't clear the debt until the end of the year?"
Naaza arched a thin, well-groomed eyebrow. "I'll hold my judgement until I see some results." Her dry tone got a chuckle out of me.
"Don't worry, all I need is a week, maybe two."
"Looks like you got even cockier. All those Skills went straight to your head."
"I'm not cocky." I crossed my arms with a smirk. "I'm confident."
She didn't say anything else, but the brief, tiny quirk at the corner of her mouth was enough for me.
"Oh, and by the way." I tapped a finger on the counter, giving the dog girl a knowing look. "You don't have to water down the potions anymore."
A beat of silence passed as Naaza stilled in her seat, eyes widening a fraction. "You knew?"
"Yeah." And I didn't even have to bullshit on this one.
"How? I never gave you—
She paused mid-sentence, her brows furrowing. "Last night, when I was busy doing inventory. You took that potion from the top right shelf, didn't you?"
I nodded, a sigh escaping Naaza as her shoulders drooped. That thing had tasted more like spiced tea than the usual health potion.
"You can't tell Lord Miach about this." She clenched her hands atop the counter, gaze narrow and sharp.
"I won't, but you need to stop. I know you have a good reason for doing it, but there's no need anymore."
Naaza glared at me for a few moments longer, before nodding stiffly. "Fine… I'll trust you on this one."
Good. That was one problem off my shoulders. Getting caught doing that kind of shit would've tanked our reputation to rock bottom. I couldn't afford that, especially now.
"I'll try to make more High Potions later. If it works, we can keep afloat with that alone."
"You should go and check. We'll have to figure out another way to get the money for tonight in case it doesn't," she said, and a grimace pulled at my lips.
Fingers crossed that this bullshit was replicable. Otherwise, I'd have to come up with an even bigger bullshit.
"Yeah, I'll get to it. But before that," I dug a hand in my custom-made, mad scientist lab-coat and pulled out the high potion, holding it out in front of my captain. "Here's the potion for last week. Guess I can blow myself up a little more often now."
Naaza let out a soft, disbelieving snort, gaze flicking from the glass vial to my face. "I don't think that matters anymore, Jack. With that new Skill, you could make the kind of money that only someone with Mystery can pull off."
"It's a matter of principle," I said, dropping the vial in her hand. "A man always pays his debts."
A beat of silence passed as she eyed me closely, before taking the potion and stashing it under the counter, her bushy tail peeking from behind her back as it swished left and right. An awkward feeling twisted in my stomach as Naaza caught my wandering eyes, the quiet stretching on as she kept piercing me with her gaze.
Maybe I should just go back and start working on those potions—
"You're not just all talk," Naaza suddenly broke the silence, tongue darting out to wet her drying lips. "I've doubted you before, but you keep proving me otherwise. I apologize," she said with a slight incline of her head, a smile coming to my face at her sincere words.
"Apologies accepted, captain," I said, a warm feeling settling in my chest. "We're getting out of debt together, and we'll make that jackass eat his words."
"I doubt I'll be doing much. It's your Skill."
I shook my head. "You're still the one with a lot more experience than me. You could develop a new potion on your own if you put your mind to it."
Naaza leaned back in her seat, eyeing me skeptically. "If you say so."
"You can also chip in with ideas, teach me more about the various reagents, and so on. There's a lot of knowledge in that pretty head of yours," I said, flashing her a smile. She only gave a quiet scoff in return, but I didn't miss the faint, tiny curl at the corner of her lips.
My smile widened as I gave her a thumbs-up.
Miach Familia was so fucking back.
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