After a few days of waiting Richard finally received an email from the Dungeon Center saying that his order was in. Instead of going all that way to pick it up, he had elected to have the order shipped to the Slime Dungeon. As he knew that he probably would have never gone to pick it up otherwise. The feelings from his last time in the dungeon were too raw.

  Mark was working when Richard entered the lobby and gave him a wave. He was surprised to see that they had two of the desks open, with Poul at the other one. It wasn’t often that the DCs in the area had more than one receptionist working at a time.

  “Hey Richard,” Poul said. He had a funny smile on his face. “Did you want a rental and a check in?”

  “Not today,” Richard said. “I have an order that should have been sent over from the Beetle Dungeon. Ah, I mean the New Burl East Dungeon.”

  “Really? Huh. I see it here on file. Give me a moment and I’ll go and get it for you.” Poul walked over to a set of shelves and looked through the labels on the boxes. It took him a moment but he finally picked up a box and brought it over. “What did you get?”

  “Just a little something. Do I need to sign for it?”

  “Ah? Yeah, scan your ID now. It’s already paid for so you’re good to go.”

  Richard thanked Poul, waved to Mark, and then left the dungeon. He should have placed an order for the beetle stomachs in the first place. Grinding away for a rarer drop didn't seem like it was worth his time in the end. It also would have saved him from… that.

  While it took some effort, Richard was able to steer his thoughts into another, better, direction.

  With the stomachs Richard would be able to finish the order for the Crafter’s Union. He hoped that he had enough money on hand to buy what he wanted. If not just crushing at the Cabbit Dungeon for a few days should fill his pockets quickly. He also needed to see about finding a party. And then there’s- One step at a time. If there was too much on his plate he would get analysis paralysis.

  The next day Richard arrived at the market. And he was amazed that it seemed just as busy as it was the last time. The low murmur of a large number of people packed into a small space welcomed him as he entered the doors. When he looked for vendors he had seen last they were either gone or in different locations. The press and bustle of people made him feel like the space was smaller than what it was. And it was everything that he needed to deal with the fear of people kidnapping him.

  Shopping was about as fun as it sounded. And Richard soon found himself in a crafting room, going over a mental checklist to make sure that he had everything that he needed. In the end he decided to just get started. If he needed he could always pop out and buy anything he was missing.

  He created a Blue Core Vial thinking that he would start them. And then as he pulled it out of the System window realized that he had forgotten to experiment with the equipment in the Tool Slot. While lightly chastising himself he opened the Tools window.

  From his research he found out more about each of the tools. The burner was something that was pretty simple, it was for heating up materials. What that did was a mystery to Richard. He somewhat assumed that it would either burn away compounds that weren’t needed or change the ones that were.

  The Retort was used for distillation and the separation of liquids based on their boil points. It sounded pretty straightforward to Richard. Though he wasn’t working with anything liquid, as all of the drops so far had been solid objects. Would the contents of the Black Beetle Stomach count? Or the little amount inside of the potions?

  Next up was the Mortar and Pestle, which was used for bruising or grinding materials. A purpose that was clear and made sense enough to him.

  The Crucible looked like it might pair with the Burner. And it was used for heating materials to very high temperatures. Assuming that the Burner could be used on its own, the Crucible might be for more extreme cases where heat needed to be applied.

  As for the Magic Separator it was a mystery to Richard. He wasn’t able to find anything about it online at all. And it might be something that was either created by another skill or something that he himself would be able to create in the future. The System brought with it many different items in addition to the dungeons, drops, and skills. So he was sure that it would be possible to encounter one sooner or later.

  While it was good to have information on the tools, the only one available to Richard at the moment was the Burner. The other tool slots were locked and would probably come available at a higher Alchemy level. With a quick search he found a number of burners in the crafting room. Probably to use for different types of potions? He sort of felt bummed out at times that he wasn’t able to make items like a traditional Alchemist. But then again the auto craft functionality that he had was far too convenient.

  Richard picked up the cheapest looking one of the burners, it was dented and lightly singed. He figured that in case he wasn’t able to remove it from the Tool Slot it was better to pick a cheap one. And he pressed it against the window and it sank inside, turning into an icon on the Burner in the slot.

  It was done. The Burner was in his Tool Slot. He took a deep breath and held it before he reached into the window. It felt the same as when he was pulling a potion out, like pushing into wet clay. Richard found that he was able to take hold of the Burner and was able to remove it from the window just fine. He let out all of the air that he had been holding in one deep breath.

  Now he just needed to find out what it did. Before he started crafting again Richard returned the burner to the Tool Slot. Then crafted another Blue Core Vial. Only it appeared to be the same as the one that he had just made. The System gave them the same identification, Weak Blue Core Vial. They looked the same to his eye and he wasn’t able to tell any difference. He opened the tool window again and confirmed that there didn't appear to be any new information.

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  It was only when he tried tapping the burner that a new window appeared in front of him.

  Poor Grade Burner

  Increases the minimum quality.

  The description was helpful in that it told what it did, but not the how. Or even on what. It also told him that there were qualities to the Burners. And he tried swapping out each one of the burners supplied in the crafting room. But they all had the same Poor quality.

  In the end he still picked out the first one that he had selected. As that even if the System decided they all had the same quality, it didn’t mean that the guild would be of the same opinion. And should something happen to the Burner Richard rather be out the cost of a cheap and beat up looking one.

  At somewhat of a loss as to the effect of the Burner, Richard decided to just continue crafting while keeping an eye out for anything that looked different. He crafted the 15 of each vial that he needed first. Then started working on the Blue Core Vial potions. They all came out as he expected them to, Weak quality for all. Next up he crafted the Black Carapace Vials and that is where things took a different turn.

  The vials themselves were of the same quality, Weak. Only it was when he tried to create a Burst Healing Potion using the Black Carapace Vial that things were different. In the past it should have been of Poor quality. But for some reason it came out with a quality of Weak. When he tried making the Burst Vitality Potion it was also of Weak quality instead of Poor.

  Richard quickly made the Cabbit Bone Vials he needed and confirmed that the same results occurred with the potions made. All the potions that he made were of Weak quality. The only thing that had changed was his level up and the Tool Slot with the Burner in it. He could remove the Burner and try again with the materials that he had left. But wouldn’t the Weak potions sell for more? He also didn't like the idea of handing over a mixed lot of Poor and Weak potions. It was something that he could experiment with later.

  It took a lot longer than he had expected to complete the 45 potions that he needed for the guild request. If anything it was really just boring. Using the System to go through the creation process. Pulling the potion out of the window, and starting the next one while he placed the completed potions into one of the boxes that he had been smart enough to buy. They could contain 12 potions each and would be a life saver for him to move them around. Though it might be troublesome to get them to the buyer’s desk…

  With the boring part of his work out of the way Richard moved to something that he had been looking forward to. Testing out some of his new recipes. He had enough money left over to buy up some of the Red Drake Carapaces as well as some Cabbit teeth.

  Two of the recipes he unlocked when reaching Level 1 in Alchemy were a Red Carapace Vial and Cabbit Teeth Bone Meal. The vial was self explanatory. And he wondered what the effects might be with the catalysts he had access to.

  While the bone meal was less clear. The System description just said that it was bone meal. Which wasn’t helpful… Was it really just bone meal that people used when gardening? Would the guild even buy it? He decided that he didn’t care in the end, and that he just wanted to craft new things.

  The Red Carapace Vial was pretty much what Richard had come to expect from his Alchemy skill. The carapace itself was about the same size as a Black Beetle Carapace, while it looked less like an insect exoskeleton and more like a red piece of shell. As for the vial it was a translucent red color with a small amount of liquid inside.

  Someday Richard decided that he was going to have to open a vial to find out what the liquid was. But that was for later when he had money and drops to burn for experiments.

  Instead of worrying over what might come from the new vial and the old catalysts Richard just went ahead and made them. When combined with a Healing Flower the potion came out as a Weak Cure Disease Potion. While with the stomach the potion came out as a Weak Clear Mind Potion. And finally with the Cabbit Heart Essence it came out as a Weak Soul Purifying Potion.

  Even though the first two potions came out with different names, the stoppers still glowed the same. Red for the Cure Disease and blue for the Clear Mind potion. While the stopper for the Soul Purifying Potion was a pale purple color.

  “Huh,” Richard said aloud. Why did the potions not come out as variants? Instead they came out as new potions on their own. When he checked the recipe there wasn’t a new recipe for any of them. And just the standard Healing, Mana, and Vitality Potion entries. Did they turn out different because the Red Carapace Vial was a level 1 recipe as opposed to a level 0 one like with the other vials? Or was there something special about the Red Carapace Vial?

  As to the effect the Cure Disease Potion was clear enough. Being Weak meant that it had a limited effect, if it was an Ex quality potion would there be anything that it couldn't cure? Probably things like colds or viruses wouldn't be affected. It made Richard wonder just what the system considered to be a disease? Would it cure cancer? Not that there were many left that hadn’t been solved.

  The Clear Mind Potion was a little harder to guess at. Maybe it would have something to do with anything affecting the mind? Was there charm or illusion effects used by monsters or skills?

  And finally the Soul Purifying Potion. While there had been much debate about it over the years, what even was a soul? Or rather what did the System consider a soul? Were there monsters out there that were able to affect a soul in some way? He was somewhat disappointed in the Clear Mind and Soul Purifying potions. As that without any way to tell what the effects were. Even drinking them would do nothing if they only worked on debuffs or certain attacks. Would there even be a market for them?

  Richard rolled his shoulders. Everyday he found more questions than he found answers. He was also lacking the ability to find or research the answers himself. Not that he would do so as anything other than a passing hobby. But it got to him knowing that he might not ever know any answers to his questions. If he ever got so rich that money stopped being valuable then he just might hire people to look into his questions for him.

  Next up was the Cabbit Tooth Bone Meal. Like with the hearts it took more than one material to make. Though it also didn’t use a vial, which may have been reserved for only potions. He counted out 5 of the teeth and activated the craft. A second later the icon on the System window showed a small jar with an almost cork like top.

  When he pulled it from the window the bone meal jar was a lot larger than it seemed. Something like the size of a jar of peanut butter. When he tilted the jar it sounded like there was something like sand inside. Upon a closer look the jar seemed to be made from bone as well. Richard tossed it on top of the boxes of potions he made. Another craft down.

  After some much needed screen time and doom scrolling on his phone, Richard realized that he had a problem. Even though he had the strength from leveling up in the dungeons, he wasn’t sure that he would be able to manage carrying all 4 boxes of potions at once. Even with the 4 boxes there were some potions left over, which he was able to stow into his satchel easily enough. Since he had a key he could just lock the room right? He was kicking himself for not thinking about how to transport the potions outside of needing boxes.

  He stacked the boxes carefully, exited the crafting room, and locked the door. They should be safe enough until he found a way to come back and pick them up.