Ifound myself sitting above the golden ocean of mana or rather meditating. While I still understood very little about it, to me, it represented the endless possibilities within the Dao of Creation.
After morning activities, I headed to begin the water breathing potion, Cheetara on my shoulder. Whether it had any uses or not didn’t matter much, I just needed whatever experience I’d get for creating it. Also, the prompt that let me know it’d be quite valuable, at least, despite being at the simple level.
[New special potion listing added, Potion of Water Breathing. Warning: this is a highly valuable potion. Magicians will likely do whatever it takes to extract this recipe from you.]
Four days had passed since we hired Serina. Organization of the assigned building done, the bank would finally have its grand opening today.
The water breathing instructions were rather straight forward, but still somewhat of a pain in the ass. Of course, it didn’t compare to the complexity of the Potion of Minor Luck. I should at least make sure I get the potion created before entering the S-ranked dungeon. I didn’t have proof of this, but a luck boost could improve the contents of whatever chest we received while in the dungeon. Probably herbs or anything interesting too.
[1 herb of any kind, 1 mermaid scale, angel-purified water or holy water, 3 fish tails from Lesser Dragon-ranked spirit fish. Do not boil these until a sap, just boil for 2 minutes. Let cool for 1 day. Boil for another 10 minutes, add more angel-purified or holy water. Let sit. Then add a touch of water mana or three handfuls of pure mana.]
I did exactly that, then set the mixture to the side to cool for a day. Naturally, I repeated the process five more times thanks to having multiple scales. That should hopefully manifest a decent yield, trial and error aside. With another bowl of purified water straight out of the fountain, I dug around my storage ring for ingredients. That was when Cheetara took a mixing rod and began to stir my water. She meowed, as if asking me to toss in an ingredient. Shrugging, I pulled out the magic cauldron. The chemistry set naturally paired with it.
[Nature’s Heart Magic Cauldron. Item rank: S. Item quality: Superior. Owner: Nate Sullivan. A cauldron capable of handling and reshaping even the most stubborn ingredients. This is also perfect for pill creation. Effects may rise beyond expectations for the items used in here.]
[Heavenly Potion Making Set. Item rank: S. Item quality: Superior. Excellent quality bottles and linked to the MMABS for more production at the cost of spirit coins. With substances packaged in this set, you may find it easier to work with exotic materials and even monster samples. It is recommended to use a magic cauldron.]
“Let’s try using this,” I told the kitten. She let go of the mixing rod as I took her bowl of water, which already pulsed with mana, and poured it into the caldron. Cheetara needed no prompting from me and hopped onto my shoulder. I provided a taller mixing rod so she could resume stirring.
The ingredients I tossed into the mixture of whatever… were the skeleton king’s bone dust, one mermaid scale, and all of the ingredients I got from the E-ranked dungeon, except for the Neonbrim mushroom due to its poisonous nature. Why did I do this, you may ask? Because fuck it, why not?
[Moonbaby Plant Leaf. Rank: E. Useful in: light speed booster potion, certain cleaning agents.]
[Handmon Viagrio Leaf. Rank: D. Useful in: an ingredient perfect for potions that can improve one’s heart health. Stamina boosts, muscle relaxers, and other applications.]
[Lugor Herb. Rank: C. Useful as a great spicy herb, but also in minor potions regarding the fire element.]
[Warning, this will be more useful as a pill. You have five hours to relinquish control of this creation to any ranking of pill maker or it will fail.]
“Cheetara, Harmony combo, neat,” I said. The teenagers would be around in a few minutes, so I didn’t sweat. I told Cheetara that much. The kitten let out a meow of excitement.
What kind of pill would this turn into? I cheered internally. Best of all, Harmony didn’t let up on her practice a bit, destined to follow my footsteps, but also forge a new path, likely sparked on by competition with the other apprentices.
We were a crafting family, baby!
Ten minutes later, as expected, the sound of the teenagers and kid chatting flooded the shop. I greeted them, before herding the blue-haired girl into the lab, pulling Milia along as well to witness the pill making process.
“Everyone else, start the first batch. Things are going to be improving soon. Alexander, you know what to do.”
“Aye,” Alexander replied, straightening his back. It still felt weird talking to a kid who was either my age or slightly older than me. Hence why I treated him as an equal, which he clearly appreciated. The fear and awe of a master magician was the same as any adult in the know. Those eyes carried determination, regret, loss, but a fire that burned hot of ambition, though if they also held vengeance in them, that wouldn’t be my business. He knew my conditions for apprenticing under me. I sensed no deception whatsoever. In fact, he didn’t want to leave. However, neither did Harmony, which only saddened me. She was my star apprentice with centuries ahead of her.
“Uh… Cheetara’s stirring the mixture?” Harmony said as she gave me a questioning look.
I nodded and laughed. “Your job is to turn Cheetara’s mixture into a pill.”
“I… don’t have a good pill furnace,” Harmony said. She pulled a basic furnace from her storage ring, eyes with shame.
“Looks good enough to me,” I said. “This is a test run, not something we’re going to sell to the public.”
I didn’t know how Shera managed to get ahold of a pill-making guide for Harmony, but I chalked that up to the benefits of having friends in high places. The blue-haired girl followed practice motions, first converting the potion into what I could only assume was a paste by adding in additional substances and boiling it into the concentrated form.
“A magical pill furnace would handle just about everything for us,” Harmony said as she placed the paste into a metallic sheet that had oval-shaped molds. She ended up only yielding just five pills. “I’m… still a beginner, but one day, I hope to get more pills out of a batch.”
The pill furnace looked like a wide stone jar-like thing with a few compartments, but it was clearly made to be heated by mana. Harmony placed the metallic sheet inside like one would do an Easy Bake and filled what I realized were inscriptions, perhaps runes at the bottom of the device. The furnace lit up with a bright white and continued to do so for almost an hour.
While she let the pills cool, bathing them with mana and scrutinizing them to the point of squinting, I pulled out the red cube.
[Current options. Buildings. Tools. Garden. Forges. Equipment and Devices. Farm. Shop. Structures.]
I checked the shop first.
[Shop. Currently unlocked:
1. F-ranked Physical Building Upgrade. Price: 1,000 spirit coins.
2. F-ranked Messenger Spirit Bird System. Price: 2,000 spirit coins, D-ranked shop.
3. Apprentice Rank System. Price: 8,000 spirit coins, D-ranked shop.
4. Mana-Powered Vending Machine and System. Price: 20,000 spirit coins, C-ranked shop.
5. Remote Debt Collection System. Price: 50,000 spirit coins, C-ranked shop.
6. Mana-Powered Vending Machine Network. Price: 55,000 spirit coins, C-ranked shop.
7. Platinum to Hybrid Spirit Coin Conversion System. Price: 5 heavenly spirit coins, B-ranked shop.
8. C-ranked Mana Potion Recipe and Liquid Mana System. Price: 50 heavenly spirit coins, B-ranked shop.]
Seeing that I couldn’t purchase the vending machine and its system because of a miscalculation, that being the shop having to be C-ranked, I moved onto Buildings.
[Buildings. Currently unlocked:
1. F-ranked Shed. Price: 15 spirit coins.
2. F-ranked Special Lookout Tower. Price: 400 spirit coins.
3. F-ranked Spiritual Room. Price: 1,500 spirit coins.
4. E-ranked Wine Cellar. Price: 10,000 spirit coins.
5. F-ranked Magic Lab. Price: 150,000 spirit coins.
6. F-ranked Mana Tower. Price: 100,000,000 spirit coins.
7. E-ranked Mana Forge. Price: 300,000 spirit coins.]
Did I really need a special lookout tower? Fuck it, why not. I purchased it. I still held back on the wine cellar since it wasn’t quite useful yet. Okay, the price made me pause. Price versus usefulness, that was the name of the game. Sure, we could probably find a way to gain benefits from spiritual wine… but judging by the cost of everything, it wouldn’t be anytime soon. I seriously needed that magic lab—this was my dream purchase. Maybe the mana forge too, though I wasn’t sure what it actually did. What was the difference between a mana tower and a special lookout tower? The world may never know.
I checked the Garden option to see if there were any changes.
[Garden. Currently unlocked:
1. Upgrade to Garden of Eden. Price: System error.
2. Upgrade to Garden of Yggdrasill. Price: System error. You are not prepared to confront Yggdrasill.
3. Upgrade to Heavenly Garden of the Dao. Price: System error. You are too weak and poor.]
System error? Why not layout the price, get this mystery out of the way, show me what I’d basically never be able to afford?
Lastly, I checked Structures for any changes.
[Structures. Currently unlocked:
1. E-ranked Refreshing Fountain. Price: 2,000 spirit coins. A fountain that releases the purest waters. Attuned with water and ice aura. Will remove impurities.]
2. E-ranked Observing Orb. Price: 150,000 spirit coins. Range: you can only observe your farm, the forest toward the deep east and the grasslands west of your home.
3. E-ranked Battle Arena. Price: 400,000 spirit coins. Not necessarily needed for battle, but a perfect training ground for anything. Reaching a high enough rank will change it into a stadium. Perhaps you will find yourself hosting events someday.
4. D-ranked Mana River. Price: 600,000,000 spirit coins. A river of mana-enriched water, stretching for three miles. A personal river like this will no doubt be a symbol of superiority.
5. D-ranked Holy Mountain. Price: 10,000 heavenly spirit coins. A large mountain filled to the brim with special energies. Creatures of darkness will not be able to come near it. What will happen if you meditate in such a place? Would make one interesting sect, clan, or academy-exclusive structure should you manage to rank it C or higher.
6. ??? Price: 15,000 heavenly spirit coins. Raise your town’s rank to unlock this option and potentially lower the price.]
The sixth option being in question marks wasn’t a surprise. Today would be the day we’d finally get on with the upgrade already.
I hurried outside to confirm my purchase, putting the lookout tower not too far from our farm, but not too close. There was bound to be a system option or two upon using it.
Seeing the ghostly outline that indicated where it would build itself, I selected confirm on the menu. The outline looked like any guard tower. The F-rank meant it’d be upgradable, which I looked forward to. This automatic construction looked as if it would take some time, so I went back into the lab to check on Harmony and Cheetara’s pill creations. The kitten was still riding my shoulder, of course, and eventually Wolverine joined us at my side.
[44,901 spirit coins remaining.]
Honestly, I should probably just buy the damn wine cellar. It even started at E-rank, indicating potential options.
As I entered the lab, Harmony’s excited expression made me take a pause. Mandi and Milia were chatting, both praising the blue-haired teen.
Wanting to see what the fuss was about, as I clearly already felt some kind of power emanating from the light blue pills, I analyzed them.
My eyes widened at what I saw. Oh, did I mention a cat made this possible?
“Well, look at you,” I said appraisingly to Harmony. “I better not see you ever doubt yourself again—because damn, you are really talented.”
Milia nodded twice in agreement.
“I couldn’t have done it without Cheetara,” Harmony said. “What did you guys add in the caldron, anyway?”
[Yin Yang Pill. Item rank: S. Item quality: Extraordinary. Pill type: Mana. Pill potency: heavy. Balance the hidden Yin and Yang energies within you, creating an equilibrium that will flood all of your meridians, breaking you into the next 4 realms or if you’re at the wall, you will rank up instead. Warning: the value of this pill can only be measured in spirit coins. Do not sell it for gold.]
I told Harmony about our mixture.
“Even some of the skeleton king’s bone dust,” Harmony said, nodding. “Well… we’ve only got five and probably will never be able to make more of these again. What should we do with them?”
Given the excitement and likely Milia explaining everything, my apprentice knew she created something amazing.
“First, take this contribution point,” I said. “And naturally, you get to keep one of the pills.”
Harmony’s hug damn near squeezed the life out of me and I almost begged God to send me to paradise, ending my suffering.
“Alright, alright, Jesus Christ, remind me to never deactivate my defenses,” I said. Hurting me at her level of strength was normally impossible, but inside the house, I virtually seal my mana to keep from breaking anything. I smiled at the teenager. “Keep up the good work.” After thinking, I decided to push back shop work for a bit. “You know, forget the shop for now. Let’s go to the bank’s little grand opening. The town’s finally about to rank up.”
“Really?” Harmony asked, eyes wide.
“Yep,” I said. “Say goodbye to being an F-ranked danger magnet.”
The sighting of the lookout tower caught my eyes as I stepped outside.
