Chapter 74 (2/2)

She instantly gained two skill levels.

Small motes of gold flew off her fingers and landed on Thorn. It seemed immensely excited about this, and dug into the ground and hurried off in the distance, seeking the ample prey that was wandering around recently.

Feeling abruptly tired, Kiersty sat down.

Nathan, who had been standing off to the side and watching the whole interaction, walked forward, offering his sister a cup of water. She drank thankfully.

“We should go,” Nathan said, glancing over his shoulder. “If mom finds us here…”

“I know,” Kiersty said meekly, standing up and hurrying back.Their mom didn’t like them hanging out with Arbor. Thought it was a “creepy tree”.

She didn’t understand. Kiersty’s eyes glittered. None of them did, really. Not even Nathan.

****

Randidly looked down at the 4 small crystals in front of him, his expression satisfied. It had taken him most of the day, but he had finally isolated 4 base units. There might be more, but for now, he had found these to use in experiments.

A red and a blue crystal, and then a green and a purple one. The end result had him earning 3 Lvls in Refine, which was an added bonus.

The green one had been the one he was most confident about. He had previously made several basic poison potions as weapons that could be thrown at masses of enemies. As his skills with spells had grown, this method had swiftly been outclassed, but that didn’t mean that poison wasn’t still powerful, in the right situations.

It had taken dozens of the strange mushroom that grew wildly in the area, but he had slowly boiled them down and refined them, extracting the poisonous energy from them and condensing it into a crystal form.

It was, Randidly reflected, probably enough poison to even threaten him, condensed in the sparkling green crystal. Still, it was almost useless in that form.

The 2nd new crystal, the purple crystal, had been the one that had taken him most of the day. In the end, it had been a strange, passing comments that Randidly remembered Sam making that was the clue.

Sam had been talking about the difficulty about harvesting parts from monsters.

“The trouble is,” Sam had said, his face fixed in his perpetual frown, “That the bodies degrade pretty quickly. A bone or pelt you get an hour after they die is half as strong and tough as one from 5 minutes after it passes. The effect gets worse the more superficial wounds it has, the more blood it’s lost. It’s like most of the mana sits in the blood, and slowly dissipates after it dies.”

So Randidly had captured ants and crushed their bodies to a pulp, gathering the juice. Then he had boiled away the pus, until just the blood remained. And he refined, and refined, and refined.

He was forced to go out 5 times for more blood, the final time slaughtering his way through a warren full of the ants in order to gather enough bodies. He had even earned a level in Incinerating Bolt and 2 levels in Agony. Still, stubbornly, a thick, molasses-y substance his only prize. But then he remembered the rest of Sam’s explanation.

“The trick we discovered,” Sam said, scratching his head, “Is to wipe a little of your own blood on it. It’s like it's a signal to the system that you want the body. That’s the reason that we got the sphinx in such pristine condition, even after so long; you had bled all over it.”

Could it really be that simple…? Randidly had wondered. He created a Spearing Roots from the ground and allowed it to draw a line across his skin. The blood gathered and then dropped onto the molasses of partially refined blood.

With a sizzle, the outer layer of molasses crusted over, and then disintegrated, turning into rancid smelling ash. But there, at the bottom, lay a small, purple crystal.

Staring at the crystals now, Randidly couldn’t wait to start experimenting with potions, But he looked up and saw the setting sun and grimaced.

In terms of efficacy, it looked like the two crystals he had made were only of the basic level. Which meant that refining more of either of them would be a much more comprehensive effort than gathering Blue or Red energy shards. But right now...

He had promised to return to the business owner and do some more work as a cook for him tonight. And he had also wanted to check in on Tessa, but time just seemed to be against him today.

Ruefully he placed the crystals into his inventory and walked out, heading back towards the city. The cooking was enjoyable enough, and the PP attractive enough, that Randidly was willing to put the potion making off for now. It could be done anytime, now that he had the ingredients, after all. Besides, even if Sydney and Ace weren’t here, it was worth it to monitor Franksburg. Raina’s powers were more than enough reason to keep an eye out.