Author note : Sorry... really couldn't resist. This chapter name just begged me.
Nia thanked Jakar before he left with chief Tomashi. She went to alchemy workshop. She had to level up her lifestyle skill. Later, she could handover quest items to Aurrum and at the same time, ask him to sell her potions on consignment. Thanks to Fairy Reena's blessing, he would not rip her off much. Till she consolidated her position in the game, it would be bad to work with other people.
That was the state of human society. A person was willing to believe a game character with all features and thought patterns of human rather than actual human. What an irony!
As she was making only level 1 potions, she rented the most basic workroom. Even the hourly rent made her frown.
"Isn't it a bit costly?"
"Yes. Yes, it is."
An honest man with an honest answer.
[In the case , you don't know- above part is 'inspired' from a cartoon.]
"Can you tell me why?"
"Winter is coming."
[I have finally validated the chapter name. Yay!!!!]
"So?"
[Yes, Mr Chatterbox NPC, please explain the reason.]
NPC started explaining. [Is this Fairy Reena's blessings effect? NPCs would help her out subtly or otherwise? Hmmmm!!A thing to ponder!!]
Winter was coming. The village would be hibernating just like animals and monsters in the forest. The villagers could not go into forest, could not use the road- this meant, there would be no new supplies. Everything needed has to be stocked up. Generally, at this time, all the able bodied NPCs would gather and get the 'village stock'- the stock that could be borrowed by elderly and very young. This time, its not done yet. No one knew till when this sort of curfewing, patrolling would continue.
The strictly enforced curfew and patrolling consumed more resources. It was like having a leaky basket. The water would seep out. No new water is being added. At fine time, the basket would become empty and dry up. Thus, most of the villagers were trying to cut down resource consumption. Maintaining alchemy rooms was costly process. If Nia had asked for level 2 room, the cost would have been more than thrice of the usual.
The workroom owner was helpless too. He could contribute to the village only in this way. Till the Village stock was back to winter limits, the situation would not change. The NPC did not have any hope of it though.
Nia thought otherwise. This Village had people in hundreds. But the players descended were in thousands if not tens of thousands. The village chief has to just give a quest and the village stock would be filled to the brim. But she could not wait till then to make basic potions. In heavy heart, she paid and entered the level one alchemy room.
The room was small but well ventilated. For those who wanted to make recipes from the scratch or to those who wanted to create new recipes, there was a separate portion. It had mortal and pestle, a filterer, measuring cups, a heating source whose temperature could be modified. Basically it was laboratory.
She was not gun-ho about alchemy though. It was interesting....but it was not her passion. If ...once she had made enough money and she did not have to think much...probably she would hole herself up in one of workshop room and tinker the recipes till she produced a new one. That was a distant dream though. For now, she did not have time or inclination to busy herself in a lab.
She checked the wok picture in the lifestyle tab in her status. A Book animation started and it turned to a new leaf- Recipes. She chose Health potion(Lesser) . Pages turned and a brand new page with headline of Health Potion (Lesser) was now open. Some more animation. Now her cauldron, her inventory , fire source inside workshop were are connected to the book. A brand new button 'Create' was formed. She touched it once. A funky status bar appeared over greyed out 'Create' button.
Another chime when the status bar was full. She had made her first potion inside the game. She even some XP, 1 point[lifestyle point, not to be confused by other points. these points are required to increase the proficiency levels of lifestyle from apprentice to Grandmaster or more.]
If 1 potion gave her 1 point, did it mean she could upgrade herself to next level by making 100 potions? The answer is NO, as Nia found out later. When a new recipe was used, initial successful attempts gave her points, later... even when she make potions in batches of 10, she might get 1 point for every few batches. The ideology is that you have to learn new things, try new recipes.
[You have to appreciate the gaming company. It constantly thinks of making money every single way. ]
Nia used up all the spare items in her inventory to make potions. If someone had seen her inventory, they would have forcibly looted her. The potions were in the stack of 100 and she had near 10 such stacks- nearly 1000 potions.
[In case, if you are wondering was there no failed alchemy process... the answer is no. It maybe becasue the recipes are simple and she was working in a workshop. Maybe because she was lucky. Maybe it was due to Fairy Reena's blessing. Or...maybe because she is MC ;) Come on! Our MC should be OP in someways, right? ]
Next stop- Aurrum, the shopkeeper. She was discussing the rates of her potions when sounds started blaring. Aurrum did not look worried though. He flinched once, that's all. [Brave man! May be, slightly deaf man?]