Chapter 67: Sixty Five

“Right, first things first, I need lighting.” 

Hands on hips, I stared around at the spacious room that was dimly lit by Pyr’s flames. The wisp’s body was only able to produce enough light to let me barely make out the corners of the room, but I needed something brighter. For now, I’d need to make do with candles and lamps, but a more efficient light source was one of the many items on my list of things to research and create. 

If I could find the spark moss that the light potion recipe requires, I could create that, but even Rainy hadn’t heard of it when I asked. It’s also not in any of my books, so I suspect it's the same as with the Fire Berries: the name ‘spark moss’ isn’t the plant's official name or one that is currently used. 

“And of course, I’ve got no candles left.” I grumbled, searching through all my bags. 

Before coming back down to my lab, I retrieved my saddlebags from Markion’s tent. I’d also located Zosimos, who’d been perched on one of the wolf statue ears when I returned to the building that concealed the underground entrance. The crow was now perched on a nearby work bench, as he stared around the empty lab with dark, intelligent eyes. 

“Where are the oil lamps I had in here? Ah, that’s right I hung them up in the old lab.” 

Sighing in annoyance as I recalled the two bronze lamps I’d left behind, I continued flicking through my bag's enchanted inventory screen. Spotting a jar filled with luminous pink powder, I let out a thoughtful hum, as I pulled it from the bag. Hmm, now there’s a thought. 

The mushrooms aren’t bright enough on their own to light up a room, but they do provide some light. I really want to mix the mushroom dust with some phosphorus, I’m sure it’ll prove to be an interesting experiment. I don’t have any phosphorus though, so it’s no good thinking about that now. 

As I set the jar on one of the shelves carved into the walls of the lab, I pondered the task of creating phosphorus. While boiling down the urine of livestock was certainly an option, it was a lengthy process and wasn’t exactly pleasant on the nose. The other option was to extract phosphorus from bone, which would require sulfuric acid. 

Well, I do have sulfur, so in theory it is possible to create sulfuric acid or oil of Vitriol as it was first known. Modern methods of preparing it are not viable, but a small scale glass chamber process should be doable. 

“You’re getting side tracked again Kadia.” I scolded myself. 

I still hadn’t solved the immediate issue of lighting, nor had I finished the dozen other projects I was working on, yet here I wanted to add something else into the mix. 

Then again, there are many things I can use sulfuric acid for, and who knows, perhaps it will prove useful for my other projects? 

The sound of voices drifting down the hall caught my attention, and I perked my ears up, listening to see if I recognized who was speaking. Was my team already finished with the tasks they’d been assigned? 

“Kadia, are you in here?” 

Argh, it’s the lion. 

“No,” I called back, continuing to unpack jars of alchemic components onto the shelves. 

An amused chuckle sounded from behind me, but I refused to turn around, and ignored the commander who seemed to be leading a group of people into my lab from the sound of the footsteps. 

I know Darius said they’d be leading groups through the encampment to show them the layout, but I didn’t know they’d be bringing them into my lab. Corvus knows I don’t like people in my lab, I thought in annoyance, as Corvus addressed the group, informing them of the room's purpose. 

“This is Craftmaster Kadia, some of you may have seen her around the encampment. Kadia is a transmuter, and the guild’s head alchemist. She’s quite temperamental, so I suggest you stay away from her personal workspace unless you want a fireball in the face.” Corvus said from behind me, causing me to stop what I was doing and turn towards him with a glare.

“Sir? Does that mean we can not use this workshop?” A short man with brown hair, and watery blue eyes asked from where he stood looking at one of the kilns. 

“That’s up to Kadia, as she is the head alchemist, use of the alchemy labs are for her to determine.” Corvus responded, inclining his chin in my direction. 

“Four of the workshops directly up the hall from this one will be set up for those wishing to walk the path of natural philosophy. Only those who are deemed capable, will be granted access to work in those labs. and only the best of those shall gain a position assisting in this one.” 

Not to mention having too many people cluttering up my personal space would quickly become unbearable.

 During my meeting with the guild commanders to negotiate the building of the encampment, we’d discussed my ‘new’ position in depth. Unfortunately, my fancy new title came with a few duties, such as overseeing those wishing to join my profession. Gretchen, the former head alchemist of the guild in Avalon, had given up on the profession upon the discovery that it was far from the simple task of combining the correct ingredients into an alchemy pot that it had been in the former world. There’d been twelve other alchemists in the guild before the transfer to Kaledon, and in the months since their arrival each one had given up on alchemy.  

Despite that discouraging record, there were some who did still wish to learn alchemy, but lacked the knowledge or guidance to do so. According to Darius, there’d been a few guild members in the encampment who’d heard stories about me from Roderick's team, and had been asking if I was taking apprentices. Somehow, in all this story telling, my rank had been inflated and instead of correcting them, Darius just decided to ‘go with it’. I’d tried to argue that he couldn’t do so without a majority vote of commanding officers. That failed, as it turned out he had a majority vote with Corvus, Roderick and Markion being present at the encampment. 

The guild had a total of seven commanders. Though, to be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what my brother did as a commander. Bron and Yuki were the guild recruiters, with Bron also dealing with things pertaining to the daily running of the guild hall in Caruan. Roderick and Corvus oversaw the training of guild fighters, along with being raid leaders. Noctus as co-leader dealt with a lot of the more political side of the guild's management, information gathering, and was in charge of the guild's finances. As guild leader, Darius did all the things the other commanders did, and my brother… seemingly did nothing. Well, that wasn’t entirely fair, I knew Markion was a raid leader, and he’d often led raids against other guilds or world bosses in Avalon. But, since I’d arrived in Kaledon he didn’t seem to do much of anything aside from work in his forge. 

“Craftmaster Kadia, I would like to learn alchemy. I’ve already memorized all the recipes from the Potioneer’s guide to basic Salves and Tinctures.” The short man babbled, and moved to stand in front of me. 

“You memorized them?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “So you can make them exactly as it is written in the book?” 

“Yes, craft-master.” The man said, puffing his chest out with pride. 

“Have you ever deviated from the recipe? Attempted to do things a little differently to see how it might change things?” 

“Change it?” He looked confused. “Why would I change it?” 

“You never wondered if there might be something that could be done to speed the time it takes for the mushrooms to infuse? Or if you could increase the tinctures potency by adding additional ingredients?” 

“I, no.” The short man said, cheeks becoming a ruddy hue. 

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“Here.” 

Pulling a copy of ‘Basic Salves and Tinctures for the Everyday Potioneer’ from my bag I handed it to the man. 

“Read it, learn from it. Once you’ve read that book, choose one recipe and find a way to improve it. Do that, and you’ll earn a place in one of the four alchemy labs in this hall. Don’t bother coming back until you’ve got something to show.” 

“Yes, craft-master.” The short man said in a rush, clutching the book to his chest. 

He actually looks a little scared, am I going too far with the tough act? I wondered absentmindedly as I watched the man go scampering out of the lab. 

“Craft-master, I too would like to learn!” an Elven girl said, moving forward with a hopeful look in her eyes. “I found that crushing red Amanita mushroom caps, and squeezing the juices out through a cloth, before adding to the alcohol allows it to be used straight away. As opposed to waiting a week for the sliced mushroom caps to break down in the alcohol.” 

 “Just using the juice of the mushroom gives the tincture a lower potency. You’ll find drying the mushroom caps, and grinding them into a powder is much more effective.” I told the girl, who barely looked old enough to be allowed in a capsule. 

“Your task is the same.” 

Beaming, the girl took the book I offered her, and left the room, giving the rest of the group a triumphant smirk as she did so. What was that about, I wonder?

In a rush the remaining four people moved forwards to express their own desire to learn alchemy, and I gave them each the same task. Only the Elven girl seemed to have made any attempts to deviate from the basic recipes, though one of the men did attempt to fool me by claiming he’d improved the pain tincture by drying the mushrooms. It was clear he was lying, and was simply repeating what I’d told the Elven girl earlier. I almost didn’t give him a copy of my book, but I’d been told to give all a chance to learn, so I reluctantly gave him the same test as the others. 

Once the last prospective novice alchemist left, I let out a sigh and shook my head in disappointment.

“What do you think?” Corvus asked, leaning back against one of the work benches, and crossing his ankles.

“Only the Elven girl seems like she’ll be able to complete the task. The others might be alright potioneers, but I don’t know if they’ll be more than that.” I said with a shrug. 

“Her name is Sadie, a recruit just off her probation period. One of Yuki’s strays.” 

“How old is she? She doesn’t look sixteen, but that’s the minimum age for full immersion worlds like this.” 

“She’s sixteen,” Corvus confirmed, a slight grimace on his lips. 

“Yuki found her in Airus. The kid was too scared to leave the city because she kept getting killed. Apparently, she pissed off a group of players, and they were killing her any chance they got. She won her Kaledon subscription in a contest, and couldn’t afford to buy a new one to re-roll her character. So she was spending her days sitting in the main square, begging for someone to help her leave the city and get away from the people who kept killing her.” 

“I’m guessing Yuki helped her then?” 

“Yuki’s always been a sucker for a damsel,” Corvus said, and I laughed nodding slightly. 

“So I’ve heard.” 

“How often is she in her capsule? School will be starting up soon won’t it?” I asked, furrowing my brow as I tried to recall when the end-of-year break would be ending. 

“School goes back in six weeks, and she’s adamant about being on world every night, but we’ll see what happens then.” The commander said, with a shrug. 

“She should be focusing on school, not spending her free time in a virtual world.” I said softly, ears drooping as I looked at the archway leading out of the lab. 

“Sadie has Stargardt's disease, while she hasn’t yet fully lost her sight, it’s degenerating at a rate that will leave her fully blind by the time she turns eighteen.” 

Stargardt's disease? It sounds familiar, wasn’t Greene pharmaceutical working on something related to genetic eye diseases? 

“Yuki says Sadie prefers not to discuss her condition, so whilst the commanders and now yourself are aware, very few others know.” Corvus continued, and I nodded. 

  

“I won’t mention it.” 

“Need anything before I go?” The lion asked, looking around the lab. 

“Some candles or lamps would be nice.” 

“I’ll send someone to bring some down.” Corvus said, heading for the door. “We’ll also be working on fitting doors to the workspaces after we’ve finished with doors for the living quarters.” 

True to his word, someone arrived five minutes later with three oil lamps and a dozen thick candles. After filling the lamps with oil, I set each one in a different corner of the room. With the lamps, and Pyr lighting up the room, I continued unpacking my supplies. While trying not to trip over the sulky Leosaur cub that was practically glued to my side.

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