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Chapter 13

  A second passed and the Large Black Carapace Vial was completed. Richard reached into the System window and pulled it out. Though in the end it pretty much just looked like a larger version of the normal sized vial. Made of a black translucent glass like material in a diamond shape. Like a D8 only with more sides. A D16?

  When nothing else happened he tapped a finger against his leg. Shouldn’t there have been a message or something? He did hit 15 unique items created right? Just as he was going to close the recipe list Richard noticed that a new one had been added.

  Large Mana Potion

  Creates a larger mana potion that returns more mana. It also contains too many toxic elements and taking additional potions in a short time is not advised.

  1 Large Black Carapace Vial

  1 Black Beetle Stomach

  1 Pale Hanging Moss

  Insufficient materials.

  “Huh,” Richard said out loud. He had seen the Pale Hanging Moss before. But the potion recipe didn't appear then. It wasn’t until he had made the large vial that it was added to the list. Did that mean recipes wouldn't show up until he had the container needed to make it? Or did he need to see all of the ingredients first? How would he even test it?

  Richard shook his head and closed out the recipe list. There, right next to the Alchemy skill was a blue dot instead of a red one. He pressed it and a window appeared in front of him.

  You have fulfilled the requirements to level up Alchemy S-Rank.

  Leveling…

  Congratulations for advancing.

  You have opened an Alchemy Inventory Slot.

  You have opened an Alchemy Tool Slot.

  You have been granted bonus stats to Magic and Wisdom.

  Since your potential has increased, it is possible to find additional recipes.

  That was a lot to unpack at once. And Richard figured that he might as well start at the top. Inventory. Staple and mainstay in the many isekais of the early 2000s, and even in many of the dungeon lit that was still kicking around. And was something that he had never heard about before. And of course there wasn’t any good information about it on the DungeonClues wiki or anywhere else. Just more and more people bemoaning the fact that a skill book hadn’t been discovered yet.

  How did it work? “Inventory,” Richard said aloud. A second later a System window appeared in front of him. It had a single slot and really it looked kind of silly considering how small it was in comparison to the much larger window it appeared in. He would get more slots as he leveled up right? Would it be one per level of Alchemy? Or would it be double or more?

  He picked up his phone and tried to place it into the Inventory window. There was a buzz and then the window flashed red and a message appeared, “Alchemy Inventory Slot can only accept Alchemy goods.”

  Richard squinted at the window for a moment. One inventory slot. That could only hold items related to the skill. He took the Large Black Carapace vial in his hand and pushed it into the window. It disappeared the moment that it touched the window and an icon of the vial appeared in the inventory slot.

  “Guess, that’s that.” Yes, he had somehow received the very thing that everyone and their uncle wanted. But it was kind of meh wasn’t it? Sure he could smuggle goods outside of the dungeon. But if he got caught… Fighting the government about taxes didn’t end well for anyone. Except for maybe the government.

  Next up was the Tool Slot. And when Richard checked his status he found that there was a new tab section after Alchemy called Tools. He pressed his finger on it and was presented with a window that held 5 different inventory slots. Two to the right and left and one to the top. There were grey icons on each of the tool slots which meant nothing to him.

  Though he was in luck, as that once he pressed on each one the System provided him with a name. At the top was a squat and round looking canister that had a flame rising out of it, a Burner. To the right was a kidney shaped, copper colored, object with a long neck that slanted downwards, a Retort. Below that was a rough lined bowl with a handle sticking out of it, a Mortar and Pestle. On the top left was a heavy looking cup, a Crucible. And finally the last one looked to be a conical flask, only it had what looked to be a piece of flint floating inside of it, a Magic Separator.

  Only one slot appeared to be opened, which was the top slot for the Burner. While the others were crossed out. With the information that he had on hand, and his assumptions, Richard would need to go out and find one Burner and try to place it into the window. That part was simple. But what would it do? Sure it would be a way to store a tool, so it was like he had a second inventory slot. But was that all? What if the tool slot somehow worked with the automatic crafting and increased the quality of his crafts? Or added additional effects? Wouldn't that be amazing? There was also the question of if the quality of the tool mattered. Did tools even have qualities?

  Richard stood and started pacing the apartment. He was getting over excited again. To the point where he had stopped writing notes about all of the new questions that were appearing in his mind. He could play with the tools later. Assuming that he could remove a tool once he placed one into the Tool Slot, then at the Crafter’s Union crafting rooms there were items he could try with.

  The Magic and Wisdom bonuses were easy enough to understand, Richard called up his status and found that next to the 12 base that he had there was a plus 5 enclosed in brackets.

  Magic 12 (+5)

  Wisdom 12 (+5)

  Which meant that he got 5 levels of stats to just two stats. Well, it would probably be better to consider it as 2.5 levels? Since he didn’t get anything to Strength and Endurance? That was too much thinking. 5 levels it was.

  Leaving the mention of his potential increasing. If that was important at all, only time would tell. Or the next moment, as Richard checked the recipe list and found that some new ones had already been added. Like Red Carapace Vial that needed a Red Drake Carapace, the one that he had seen in the market the other day.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  It wasn't good that new recipes appeared, it was great! Richard was excited at the hunt, to find the new ingredients, to find new recipes, to challenge new dungeons… Maybe a little. Red guilds were probably not everywhere. But there was enough of them that he still needed to be careful. He already had one run in with them. And sure as hell didn't want another.

  There were still other recipes to go over, but Richard decided to leave them for later. He needed to plan out how he was going to fulfill the order to the guild first. Which meant that he better get to grinding money to buy the ingredients that he needed. Also to hurry up and wait for the stomach order to be filled. Probably some other things that he had already forgotten.

  But it wasn’t even lunchtime yet and already Richard needed a break from all the dungeon excitement and questions. Of course life didn’t always work out the way that he wanted it to.

  ***

  It was 2:00 in the afternoon and Richard stepped off of the bus. He was planning to stay in all day, and yet those plans were ruined. Curling up with a good book, some coffee, and hiding his phone would have been perfect. And no sooner than he had finished making his pulled synthpork sandwich for lunch did his phone ring.

  The building in front of Richard one was one of those tall, square, glass and steel buildings that he hated. It was downtown Welf and even though it was a guild building it was missing the neon screens that he had liked from the guild district in Rowan. Given that it was just a single guild building he begrudgingly accepted that it needed to blend in with the others.

  Inside it was rather sterile and aside from a screen running through what was located on each floor there was a receptionist waiting behind a desk that was way too large for the small room it was part of.

  “How may I help you today?” The woman working behind the desk asked. Her hair was buzzed short, almost to nothing. And yet she had somehow managed to get the brightest pink hair dye color that Richard had ever seen.

  “Uh. Well. I… I’m here to see Sam. Which probably doesn’t help at all. My name is Richard.”

  She looked at him for a moment before she spoke, “I see. I have a meeting here for you with Emily and Sam. If you don’t mind waiting a moment I’ll let them know that you are here.”

  Richard thanked her for her help and then looked for a chair to wait in. Only there wasn’t any. Not that there would have been room with the desk in the way. It wouldn't be too comfortable to sit there anyways. With how bland the room in he probably would not be able to keep his eyes off of her hair.

  Luckily he didn’t have to wait too long and the elevator dinged. When the doors opened a tall woman with cornrows strode out in a smart looking suit. She gave Richard a smile when their eyes met. “Ah, little mouse. You are looking better already. I’m happy that we managed to save you that time.”

  It took him a moment to recognize her. “Em? Sorry. Without the armor it took me a moment.”

  She laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Come this way and we’ll get this out of the way. What did Sam tell you?”

  “Nothing really. Just that he wanted to speak with me about my experiences with the red guild.” When he first answered the phone and realized that it was the manager from the DC Richard thought that it was about the drops that didn’t get logged.

  “Right. That’s part of it,” she said and then escorted Richard into the elevator. Once the doors closed she continued speaking, “the other part is to try and find out any leads.”

  “Leads?” Richard asked.

  “Weeell, let's wait for Sam before we get into that.”

  It took a moment for the elevator to finally reach the 92nd floor that Em had pushed when they entered. Right outside of the elevators was a small waiting room. As well as corridors that shot off in each of the cardinal directions. The walls were all white and the doors were dark brown.

  Em walked down a corridor, knocked on the first door, and then entered with Richard in tow. Inside was a large room with screens on all of the walls. A giant table in the center with many chairs. And Sam typing away at a tablet. Last time Richard hadn’t been in any shape to really look at the man. He had on beige khakis. A white long sleeve shirt with vertical stripes. His shirt was more than a little loose on him. And he seemed like he hadn’t slept properly in days.

  Sam looked and gave a tired looking smile. “Hello again Richard. Thank you so much for coming on such short notice.”

  “Hello,” Richard said and nodded. “I don’t suppose you could tell me what this is about? And why we might be meeting at the Sword’s headquarters.” A place that Richard never thought that he would ever have the chance to visit. While the Sword wasn’t a huge guild, they were the highest ranking one in Welf. A local giant so to speak. He took a seat on the edge of the table closest to the door. And Em walked around to sit opposite of Richard with her back against the windows.

  “First off let me apologize to you for the hand that a member of the Dungeon Center had in your attack. The new worker was actually working for a red guild and was a mole so to speak.”

  “Ah? Newt was it?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Do you have any idea on why they might have been interested in you?” Sam asked.

  Richard scratched his cheek. It wasn’t itchy, and really it was just an attempt to buy some more time. Time that he was wasting by thinking about how he was scratching his cheek.

  How much did he want to tell these people? How far would they dig? So far the both of them have been nothing but kind to him. As for Em, she seemed to hold some sort of authority in the Swords. And the guild was called a pure guild for a reason. All the best working conditions, high wages, unlimited sick and vacation time, employee events, as well as a large donation each year to many of the charities in the city.

  While being suspicious would protect Richard for the now. It may end up causing him grief later. More so if the red guild tried for him again. “The other day I lucked into getting an Alchemy skill book to drop.”

  Sam and Em shared a look before she spoke, “Did you tell anyone?”

  “No. I’ve been pretty quiet about it. I’ve seen the memes and read the book recently. So I’ve been careful.”

  “There have been a pair of potions that you’ve turned in at the Dungeon Centers,” Sam said. He reached down into a bag that had been out of sight and produced the Healing and Mana Potions that Richard had sold to the centers. His stomach dropped out from under him. How did the saying go? Hoisted by one’s own petard?

  “Now you aren’t in trouble at all. We have confirmed that they are good working potions,” Sam said. “You could have gotten more if you had sold them through other channels. Instead of selling them to the DCs. But given… their unique nature, it was clear to see that they weren’t drops.”

  Richard swallowed. “How do you mean?”

  Sam cocked his head to the side for a moment before he spoke, “The vials. All potions dropped in the dungeon share the same shape as these. But they are in clear glass vials. On the other hand, these potions are made of something else.”

  “Ah.” He had been betrayed by Alchemy. Rank-S? More like Rank-Stinker. Richard washed his face in his hands. “I hadn’t considered that at all.”

  “So aside from the people who bought the potions from you, was there anyone else?”

  “I sold some to the guild. Ah, I joined the Crafter’s Union the other day. Those potions used the same type of vial unfortunately.”

  “From the information and timelines we were able to get from the suspects you were a target for longer than that,” Em said. “Was there anyone else?”

  “Um. I can’t really think of anyone.”

  “Did anyone see the skill book drop?”

  “Ah.” There was someone. A person who might have seen the book drop. A person who had been strangely insistent that Richard join his guild. “There was someone,” Richard said.

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