It was impossible to deny the excitement of discovering new combinations of potions and modifier properties. After finding how useful Expand would be, Theo tried to keep his hopes for the Fluff property down. They once again selected a healing potion to test. The mixture worked perfectly. The liquids merged in the vial, producing a stable potion.

    As the two liquids mixed in the vial, Salire turned to Theo, excitement evident on her face. “What do you think we’ll get from this one?”

    “I’ve learned not to speculate,” Theo said, smiling. “But it could be anything from an extremely useful potion to something that just explodes in our face. You never know.”

    The potion finished its process shortly after the steam rising from the top abated, revealing a slightly pink liquid. Theo didn’t like the smell of it, but he leaned in close anyway and inspected the result.

    [Healing Potion]

    [Fluff]

    [Potion] [Modified Potion]

    Rare

    Created by: Belgar

    Purity: 90%

    A healing potion. Drink to restore health.

    Effect (Modified):

    A layer of extremely light fluff covers your body. Segments will detach when a nearby injured ally is detected, healing them for 10 health. This effect has 15 charges.

    “I’ll give you three gold coins if you drink that,” Theo said, reading the description a few times. “That does not sound pleasant.”

    Rowan appeared from the shadows, stepping onto the lab floor and raising an eyebrow. “Did you say ‘three gold coins’?”

    Theo held the potion at arm’s length, smiling at his assistant. “If you drink it, yeah.”

    Rowan didn’t notice his sister step out of the shadows behind him, grinning. He accepted the vial and sniffed the contents, eventually shrugging. After detecting nothing offensive, he threw it back without question, obviously not having read the description. He then stood there, making a strange face as his stomach rumbled. “What is supposed to happen?”

    Without warning, the man’s skin began looking strange. The exposed parts of his forearms appeared as though his arm hairs were growing faster than they should have. Only after closer inspection did Theo realize that it was a thin layer of fluff appearing on his skin. His eyes went wide as the fluff spread to his face, giving him the appearance of very bushy eyebrows at first, before the fluff spread further.

    “Help!” Rowan shouted, rubbing his forearms to remove the fluff, but it didn’t work. The thin layer remained where it was.

    “You’re fine, just calm down,” Theo said. “If the potion does any damage, it’ll just heal you back up, so no need to worry.”

    “Oh, gods, the fluff! It’s everywhere!” Rowan shouted, rolling on the ground.

    Sarisa couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer. She fell to the ground with him, cackling and slamming her fist against the wooden floor. She tried to say something, but the words only came out as more incomprehensible laughter. That’s about the time her brother gave her a good boot to the ribs.

    “Interesting,” Theo said, watching as Sarisa rolled in pain. But a small piece of fluff had detached itself from Rowan’s skin, floating through the air and landing on the area he had kicked. A moment later, her face was once again placid, before shifting to laughter.

    A layer of extremely light fluff covers your body. When a nearby ally has mana below 50%, a segment of the fluff will detach, restoring 5 mana. This effect has 20 charges.

    Theo expected that the stamina version of the potion would do the same. But it was a very interesting application for the modifier. Fun potions had taken a backseat to useful ones. Theo didn’t mind, although he’d always enjoyed silly potions with absurd effects. But now wasn’t the time to focus on fun. Practical potions were paramount in Broken Tusk.

    “So, what’s our next course of action?” Salire asked.

    “As far as the lab goes, that’s a good question,” Theo said, taking a moment to think. She waited patiently for his thoughts to gather..

    It was a point of pride that Theo wanted to get his lab back to producing third-tier potions. They had a decent understanding of how that was going to work and only had to push forward to get the proper equipment and procedures in place. Tier 2 potions were fine for the town’s current needs, but if the step to get them up a tier wasn’t that taxing, there was no reason not to do it.

    Anytime he thought his urge to push forward was stupid, he remembered the space elves and the infirmary. If they had had the equipment and methods already in place, creating proper tier 3 potions would have been a breeze. Instead, they were sent scrambling, especially for reagents, to get the job done. The end of the world was coming, but it wasn’t as though the world would end—not their world, anyway. They would continue living on a different planet, but the needs of the people would likely still be the same.

    “When we transition to Tero’gal,” Theo said, pausing for a moment, “it is very possible things will change more than just the way the system works or how the system itself is organized. We might experience some hardship.”

    “Experience some hardship?” Salire asked, laughing, “That’s a very political way to say that things might go wrong.”

    “We could be in trouble,” Theo said, stating his thoughts more plainly. “We could get over there, and everything could get scrambled. The system might treat our new planet as a place to reset. I don’t think it will scour the world clean, like it’s doing here, but things might get shuffled.”

    “Which means you think our skills will be very useful,” Salire said, nodding.

    “And why wouldn’t they be? Alchemy has always been incredibly helpful. We’ve been able to cure diseases, dig tunnels, and defend against monsters. It seems like the applications for alchemy are endless.”

    “So we’re going to focus on tier 3, huh?”

    “We don’t have to focus on that tier. We can, of course, instead put most of our effort into working on more restoration potions. But as a side project, yes, I’d like to have a step-by-step procedure ready for tier three.”

    “That sounds good to me,” Salire said. “That just means I’m basically doing what I’m already doing. Yay.”

    Theo went over some specifics with her, ensuring she understood his expectations. As more days passed, she needed less instruction. This was because she was becoming more independent with her alchemy. She didn’t need him to walk her through every single step, guiding her so she didn’t blow herself up. No, Salire’s ability with alchemy was approaching levels that people would think were pure mastery before most of the continent was destroyed. If not for their little cluster of alchemical geniuses, she would have been the best in the world.

    “And what are you going to do with your time?” Salire asked after they finished their chat.

    “Now that was a great question.” There was plenty to do around the town, but Theo wasn’t sure what he should do first. Concerning the problem of insufficient space near the town to house visitors, he could level some mountains if he wanted. He could see if Ziz and his men needed help with those very houses. There were also potions to be brewed, the dungeon situation to sort out, or even the space elves to consider. And that wasn’t even considering the problem with Elrin and the shards.

    “I think I’ll go for a walk,” Theo said, nodding to himself.

    “Interesting,” Salire said, patting him on the shoulder. “That doesn’t sound like work. Have a good walk.”

    Theo bid farewell to his apprentice, heading out onto the street. Tresk was doing some work for the town, scouting the dungeons and ensuring none dropped below a certain level. Xol’sa, it appeared, had come up with a method to delay the decline of the other dungeons, but it was iffy and required power from Tero’gal. Since the throne world had gained some level of sapience, it was less reluctant to infuse the world with much of its energy. But, according to Tresk, it had gone along with some of the plan, and the projected decline of the dungeons was slowing.

    You couldn’t even use the term “apprentice” to refer to Salire anymore. As Theo walked the streets of Broken Tusk, he admired how much it had changed. Things were getting cluttered and weird, and he should probably go and shove some monster cores into the town itself to level it. Things were going about as well as he could hope. And with how calm everything had been in recent memory, he made his way to the harbor and then the path that followed alongside the river emptying into the bay. He walked on the causeways and looked up at the massive towers, with the railguns perched atop.

    An adventurer struck up a conversation, asking questions about the end of the world and whether they were all going to die, and things like that. Despite the dissemination of this information throughout the town, some residents remained unconvinced unless it originated from an authoritative source. A town-wide announcement was not always taken seriously, especially given the way Aarok phrased things.

    The alchemist dangled his legs over the pier’s edge, giving his thoughts time to settle. With so many things to do, it was hard to prioritize. Instead, he took that solemn moment to allow the sound of the lapping waves to wash over him. The soothing scent of the sea and the calls of birds overhead brought him a great sense of comfort. Perhaps it didn’t matter which thing he started first, so long as he was busy doing something.