Three nights ter, Lucas finally rejoined Heisenburgle in the b. They did not immediately try to make another batch of Lwynthenll because the gnome did not wish to squander their only other celestial solvent should Lucas prove to be “off his game.” The truth was just the opposite.

  He might still feel a little lethargic, but that was the sort of effect that death had on someone. Otherwise, he’d never been better. Before now, he’d always seen pop-ups on various potions and reagents, but now there was more information than ever.

  Blue Esper Willow Vine (sap): Perception 4 (ethereal), poison 3 (fire contaminants), endurance -2 (fatigued), 20% chance to hear voices and/or experience paranoia for 3 hours. These whispers are a result of peering through the veils between worlds and are liable to provide real insight as much as madness.

  Concentrated Storm Shards (minor): Electrical 6, poison 3 (air contaminants), speed 2, strength -1 (ephemeral). Strongly air-aligned and electrically charged. Twice as powerful in highly porized charged reactions.

  Goblin Bile: Poison 9 (taint), strength 3 (primal), endurance -1 (sickly), violent diarrhea. Imbibing any taint is dangerous and likely to build up over time. It should be avoided whenever possible. Only half as strong upon purification with any normal solvents.

  Though he’d seen all the ingredients before, he’d never seen them like this before. Is this because my shit got retuned, or is it because I leveled up? He wondered. No, it has to be because of precision indicators. I thought that only applied to brewing, though.

  When Lucas realized he didn’t even have that power turned on yet, he was even more confused, but then he supposed that it didn’t matter. He was confused half the time anyway. He’d figure it out.

  Now, more than anything, he wondered what Heisenburgle saw when he looked at the world during potion crafting because he was pretty sure the gnome saw precisely none of this shit. That was interesting to Lucas. In many ways, it meant that the gnome was probably better than him at a lot of this shit, but then, he was like five times as old, and he was pretty sure he could p the bastard in a year or three if he kept at it.

  Hopefully, I won’t even have to talk to him in a year, he thought as he set about preparing some reagents.

  Still, as much as he thought he was on his game, his focus definitely wasn’t what it needed to be. Every time he looked at some new ingredient and thought about a piece of information, another small pop-up appeared like a god-damned hyperlink, expining the thing to him.

  This is the way it should have worked all along! He thought testily. Still, it was better te than never.

  Goblin Bile led to poison types, which in turn led to taint and all sorts of interesting concepts. He’d seen some of them mentioned in passing in Heisenburgle’s dull-ass books, but as distracting as new information was, the ingredient cross-referencing he stumbled across by accident while he was talking to Heisenburgle blew his mind.

  One second, the gnome had been arguing with him for the hundredth time about how his “ditch weeds” were not true reagents. The next, his world changed forever as he finally understood the true value of his new system.

  “How can you say that?” Lucas said, understanding very well how he could say it. If it wasn’t on the list his god had made, it wasn’t a reagent. Still, it annoyed Lucas enough that he felt the need to try to change his mind even if he knew that was impossible. “elderberry seeds and Inner rosewood bark absolutely heal the sick. It might not be as strong as some of the shit in your book, but we don’t need to import tropical ingredients and charge people an arm and a leg to make that happen!”

  Elderberry Seeds (processed): Healing 2 (Purification), mana 1 (revivifying), poison 1 (infmmatory), intelligence -1 (slow-witted)

  Rosewood inner tree bark (leached): Healing 2 (fortification), poison 1 (acid), endurance 1 (hale), intelligence -1 (hazy memory).

  Neither of those ingredients was going to set the world on fire, of course. They were valuable because they were common, not because they were powerful. The fact that most potions failed as more ingredients were added meant that they’d never be strong without a ton of experimentation. What they would do, though, was get the elderly through a bad flu or help a child with a broken arm mend faster, which was precisely what they used them for in Meadowin.

  The fact that any little injury could pretty much be handled for free by his people not only made them profoundly loyal to Lucas. It also made them the healthiest vilge in the region. It was prospering even while other parts of the city weren’t, and there was no way that anyone could tell Lucas that those weren’t good things.

  “How can I say that?” the gnome demanded. “How can you say that. Even if those herbal remedies have some small utility, for peasants, the mere fact that you can’t mix them with any true reagents makes the point nil.”

  “Who says I can’t?” Lucas demanded as he lifted his bowl of crushed elderberry seeds and pointed at the wall of potions behind Heisenburgle. “I don’t even need the whole b. I’ll bet I can make something strong from at least one, and maybe even two of the ingredients on that shelf right there.”

  The gnome ughed and pulled a single golden dragon out of his purse before sliding it halfway across the table with his finger. “I do believe we have a bet. It will doubtlessly waste more resources and time, but more fortunately, in light of our successes, we have plenty of both at this moment.”

  Lucas wasn’t one to back down, but heaven, as he dug out his own matching coin, he was the slightest bit unsure of himself. What in the world am I going to mix these seeds with? He thought to himself as he studied the rack.

  He was more surprised than anything when most of the floating pop-ups with their names and properties extinguished themselves at that moment. “Hold the fuck up,” he mumbled as he tried to take in what he’d just seen.

  “Oh? Changing your mind already?” the gnome gloated.

  Lucas shook his head, unwilling to say anything that might break his concentration, as he counted the number of remaining glowing boxes. Out of over a hundred reagents on that shelf, only twelve were still lit up. Nothing said that made them compatible, but he was pretty sure that was the case.

  He put the elderberry seeds down and then retrieved the rest of them, moving them over to the table, one at a time. Then he started experimenting.

  “Oh, you’re just going to start mixing together things at random, huh? In a completely slipshod manner, too! This is exactly the opposite of alchemy!” the gnome howled.

  “This is chemistry, bitch,” Lucas said, regretting the momentary slip but unwilling to take it back. “Or maybe alchemistry or Magic chemistry. I don’t know what to call it, but it’s something else.”

  Heisenburgle sputtered then, seemingly more affronted by the idea that what Lucas was doing wasn’t Alchemy than that he’d just called him a bitch. “What do you mean!? Everything is alchemy at its most basic level. Even combat and magic are, in a sense—”

  “No, they aren’t,” Lucas said ftly, turning away from what he was doing. “You’ve said so yourself plenty of times. Alchemy is taking specific reagents and mixing them in specific ways to make specific potions. It’s pretty much the opposite of experimental.”

  “That is just not so!” the gnome shot back. “Experimentation, within tightly proscribed bounds, is an important part of alchemy. Recipes are refined! New concentrations and better yields are achieved!”

  “When is the st time you made a wholly new potion, then?” Lucas asked. “How did you find it? What did you do?”

  “Well, aside from the Lwynthenl that we created the other night…” Heisenburgle started to answer. “Regardless. It’s a silly question. Thrzealwick the Divine has already created a complete list of every potion the world needs. It is up to us to use those and discover ways to improve them. Not to stray from the path in our own pursuits, thinking we know what is best. What is chemistry compared to the path of enlightenment?”

  “Chemistry is where you take any ingredient and figure out how to make it work for you. If you don’t know what it does, you figure it out. If you do know what it does, then you figure out how to make it work with other ingredients to make the shit you need,” Lucas said. “That’s how you go from firecrackers and shit to gunpowder.”

  “Firecrackers?” Heisenburgle asked. “I don’t know what gunpowder is, but they use votile pyronite, not whatever gunpowder is.”

  “Exactly,” Lucas agreed sarcastically as he gestured broadly. “Which is why you’ve got all of this and no real gunpowder. Now, how about you let me focus on winning your dragon? After that, we can talk about whatever you want.”

  Heisenburgle sulked after that, but Lucas was not dissuaded. Instead, he got to work as he tried to continue his incompatibility testing as he, tried to figure out how all of this worked. First, he tried with the seeds again and verified that all twelve bottles he’d gotten from the shelf dispyed their details a second time. Then he tried the same thing with inner rosewood bark. That time, only one of them lit up. Deer antler velvet was the only ingredient that was compatible with both.

  Deer Antler Velvet (aged): Healing 3 (Regeneration), poison 1 (numbing), agility -2 (clumsy)

  More interestingly, though, it wasn’t compatible with both at once. Lucas wasn’t quite sure how to square that circle, but for now, it didn’t matter. He set it aside and, methodically, one ingredient at a time, searched for a combination where three ingredients were simultaneously compatible with each other. He eventually found that in the form of elderberry seeds, ground mussel shell lining, and red wine vinegar.

  Elderberry Seeds (processed): Healing 2 (Purification), mana 1 (revivifying), poison 1 (infmmatory), intelligence -1 (slow-witted)

  Ground Mussel Shell Lining (powdered): Healing 2 (Fortified), poison -1 (reactive), endurance 1 (steady)

  Red Wine Vinegar (poor quality): Healing 1 (revitalizing), poison 1 (irritating), agility 1 (twitchy)

  None of them were particurly strong ingredients, but the idea that red wine vinegar was a healing ingredient at all opened up options for him when he got back home. That was something they could make in bulk, and when he left here, he made a note to try it. The fact that this stuff was poor quality gave him high hopes on that front, but he ignored those and focused on the now.

  He chose those three ingredients and put the rest back on the shelf while Heisenburgle raised one of his white, bushy eyebrows in judgment. Then, he fetched some alcohol to purify the elderberry seeds. It was only then, when the burners were lit that he got to work and finally tried one of his new powers for the first time.

  Unlike this test wrinkle, Precision Indicators worked just as he’d expected it to. Honestly, it worked better than that. He could always see the values of the mixture changing over time, but now, as the poison decreased and the healing potency of the elderberry seeds increased, he could see little arrows next to each value, indicating the rate of change. There were even little temperature bands that seemed to be the optimal points for each chemical, and he adjusted the burners to match them as closely as possible.

  Then, when all was in readiness, he combined the three solutions into a single mixture and gauged the results.

  Alchemical Mixture (8 doses): Healing 6 (Deep Healing), mana 1 (revivifying), intelligence -1 (slow-witted), agility 1 (twitchy), endurance 1 (steady).

  The information was interesting and, at times, contradictory, but still, if he let it cool, it should make for a perfectly serviceable healing potion. He should have left it alone, but he wasn’t that sort of guy, and instead, he decided to try his Empowered Alchemy while Heisenburgle watched the red, vinegary potions boil angrily.