In the morning James stretched and yawned. It was good to have his own room again. There was something about having a place to call his own that gave him a little piece of mind. Even though it didn't have a door, just a hole in the ceiling. And even though it was damp and moldy, these were things were easy to fix.
Sighing James decided that he had to get up even if he wasn't making breakfast and headed up to the kitchen.
Jojo and Kitty were already there with breakfast made and the dining room table set. The amount and quality of food was far more and far higher than James had provided the last two days.
Johnson was ecstatic. Eating with fervor the old man took his time and savored every bite. Violet was already there eating quietly. When James sat down she acknowledged him with a nod and then went back to her food. No one spoke. For James this wasn't too uncomfortable, but he wondered how Johnson was taking it.
'He is some upper ranked cultivation master, he is not going to care about some little girl's prejudice, right?'
Still James was highly aware of Violet's silence and it was intolerable in many ways knowing that it didn't need to be this way. In the end Johnson had said to respect Violet's process, so that was what James did. He would just eat in the silence and let it all go.
After eating Johnson sat back and savored his tea for a few minutes before getting up and leaving the table. James knew this was his queue to follow and quickly wolfed down the rest of his food. Then he took his plate to the sink in the kitchen and ran after his master.
In the alchemy basement Johnson had already pulled out a small book.
"This is a book of basic recipes, but it doesn't have the normal heal, Mana, or stamina pills. Instead these recipes are for the pills which power all of our modern machines."
Johnson explained and then put another book on top of the first.
"And these are the normal recipes that maybe you are more familiar with. Heals, Mana, stamina, mental stamina, and other elixirs. On your own time, I want you to practice each and every one of these recipes. When you have questions ask me and then when you feel you have successfully cooked each recipe come show me your results."
Waiting for an answer his master paused.
"Yes, teacher. I will look forward to it."
"Good, use the apprentice's lab downstairs. If you need any materials or tools, list what you need here in this log and then take it from the processing shed. Don't take anything from this lab, do you understand?"
"Yes, master. I understand."
Acknowledging again James started to feel a little bit of a thrill. His journey as an alchemist was about to begin.
"Good, it is okay to make mistakes, but I have full confidence in you. You will eventually stop making stupid mistakes. Now, just remember that tending and processing materials as well as assisting me from time to time here in this lab are your primary responsibilities. Learning alchemy is secondary to maintaining the forest. Got it?"
Johnson was showing his strictness again.
"Yes, master. I will make sure to take care of the forest, the shed, and this lab."
"Good, now we have to stock up on light pills for the lighthouse. I need powdered nightmare butterfly wings, ghost plasma, and titanium. It's there, there, and there."
So began a long day of fetching supplies, stirring, and waiting. As it turned out Johnson had a pet cauldron and a nine tailed fox that controlled the fire for the cauldron. The three of them, cauldron, fox, and master worked together to cook the light pills in a pattern so seamless that it was impossible for James to follow all of what was happening. One minute there was an ingredient thrown into the pot and then next it was toasted. What temperature and how it was exactly it was stirred were mysteries as the temperature and the stirring was done by master and pet in a rhythm that James was too new to capture.
"Don't worry about learning everything the first time. Just follow along. We will be making twelve batches of light pills today and then once every week. Trust me you will have plenty of time to work out the details."
After a while his master realized he was stressing trying to learn everything and offered some words of advice.
"It is important to maintain the right attitude when cooking. A calm mind is needed remember that, but I do love that you are so attentive to the details."
From then on James stopped trying to figure everything out and just watched. It was actually very interesting to see how everything went in and then became processed. Before he knew it there were finished pills in the bottom of the cauldron and everyone was taking a short break.
"Alright, again. James, take out the pills and scrub the cauldron for the next run. No not like that. Like this!"
Carefully Johnson explained how to make the hard job of cleaning the cauldron much easier.
It went like that for the rest of the day all twelve runs of the light pill were successful and there were exactly two hundred and forty pills cooling in the light pill bin.
"James we are really going to have to do something about your inability to contract pets. It is okay to work with Violet's beast of burden, but it won't do to borrow someone else's pet for a cauldron and or even a fire source."
"I know master. I have having a friend bring me some moss from the dungeon."
Nodding at his master's injunction. He was surprised to hear Johnson's assertion that he could tame a cauldron, as far as he knew these inanimate object pets were extremely rare.
"Good, then take my shark back over the sea when you need to go meet your friend. Just throw this into the water and Marlk will come take you."
Casually Johnson handed James a bead the size of a marble.
"Is this a pill of some type?"
Asked James.
"Ha, yes, it is made with ingredients from the forest, but it is mostly just some food that Marlk likes."
Walking away Johnson explained while trudging up the stairs.
"Oh, by the way, I know that the apprentice's quarters can get damp. There are air shafts that you can open that will bring air down and then back up again. It will help dry your place up. Otherwise you are still just going to have to clean and disinfect everything. You know where the cleaning supplies are."
With that last bit of advice his master disappeared upstairs.
Sighing James went upstairs too and found the cleaning supplies he would need and then brought them down. Navigating the stairs with everything, a bucket, a rag, and chemicals was impossible so James had to take things down one by one.
'It is a pain to have the entrance be a hole in the floor. I bet this area was never supposed to be used and Johnson just coopted it for his apprentices!'
Frustrated with the ladder and the work he had to do just to make his room livable James set to work. Part way through Wilbur showed up and with a tiny bit of fabric he had found somewhere and began to help James clean. It was endearing, but the little guy was so small that he wasn't able to clean much at all. In the time it took James to finish an entire wall his little buddy was only able to clean about ten square inches. Still, it was helpful.
Remembering to take a Mana pill and a stamina pill James replenished his energy. It took him the rest of the night to wipe away and disinfect all the mold. The air shaft that master had talked about was actually four air shafts one in each cardinal direction. He soon found that it was better to have only two of them open at the same time and assumed that the other two were there for when the wind changed direction. One of the open air shafts was to let air in and the other was to let air out.
Ventilation helped out more than expected although it did leave the large chamber drafty. This draft was a small price to pay to deal with the damp and mold, though. James would pay it any time.
It was late at night when everything was finally done and James slept soundly with no problems after a full day of work.
The next two weeks flew by. James took an afternoon once to call Johnson's shark and leave the island. He went to the opposite shore and then hiked inland supposedly to meet his friend, but really was just setting up an plausible alibi. Wilbur had already given him some moss so he just needed a cover for how he received it. After showing Johnson the moss, his master waved it off, saying he was too busy to experiment and then walked away. Shrugging James just put the moss experimenting to the back of his mind.
Work was either in the forest, in the processing shed, or with his master in the lab. Reilly followed James around everywhere and helped him lift rocks and such when ever it was needed. The rhinoceros turned human was very quiet and would never speak unless spoken to. She had scars from what James assumed were fights on her head and neck. She was pleasant to look at through all of that. Her ears and tail were little stubbly rhinoceros ears and tail, which did her no favors in the attraction department. However, James found that she was very pleasant to work with and after just a few days they were good friends. It was uncomfortable to work with a human looking pet at first, but Reilly seemed to understand the dynamic.
So even if they never really spoke about anything James could tell that their interaction was growing to the point where he didn't even have to ask her for anything anymore. All he had to do was catch her eye and look over to what he wanted moved. The rest of it Reilly just learned over time. Certain bins filled with live insects had to be rotated to new cages after a few days. Other materials were just too large for James to move, felled trees and carcasses washed up on the beach all had to be moved by Reilly.
Most of the days were spent tending the forest and little by little James was becoming more and more confident in his ability to recognize what was what in the forest. That or know where to look to find out. Johnson had developed the forest to produce literally thousands of different materials. His master couldn't explain them all, not in just two weeks, so James learned most of what he had to know from the material processing instruction manuals at the door of each of the twenty processing chambers.
Also SPAM delivered a supply shipment towards the end of the two weeks. Instead of a helicopter or a boat the supplies were delivered by submarine. Two sections of the huge warehouse at the bottom of the elevator rotated out. This was a section of the wall that contained smaller bins. Beyond these doors was another chamber a little smaller with a pool in the middle.
When James saw it a submarine was already floating at a dock extending out from the wall. A dozen people were attending to tasks all over the room and a woman dressed in slightly more impressive looking duds approach James.
"Where is the old man?"
She asked first.
"He said to come down here and help you guys unload. That's all he said."
James responded.
"Figures. Hi, I am lieutenant Foster SPAM protection division. Can you help me find a few things?"
She pulled her phone that displayed a list of resources which she sent to James so that he could see.
"Yes, I can find all these. My name is James, apprentice to master Johnson"
"Good and I pity you. That old man is a terror to work with."
Laughing she relaxed a little and then followed James around to collect a few things. She put the materials she needed into small bags and carefully labeled each one. When they were done her team had already unloaded a large amount of crates and stacked them in the middle of the warehouse.
"Okay, I think that is it. There should be a requisition ledger around here. The old man usually gives it to me. Do you know where it is?"
Lieutenant Foster asked when everything was done.
"No, but let me see if I can run and find it."
So sayin James took the slow elevator back to the surface and ran to talk to his master. Johnson of course became frustrated that he forgot and walked around for another forty minutes doing an inventory of everything in the house and lab.
When he was done he handed a paper list to James which was everything that he thought he was missing.
"Go take this to Foster. And next time you will be responsible to update and track the list. Got it?"
"Got it master."
James said and then ran back to the processing shed.
By the time he came back Lieutenant Foster had been waiting an hour. Strangely enough she wasn't that upset.
"Good, I assume you will be working with us from now on?"
She asked after reviewing the paper requisition list.
"Yes, when do you come again?"
Asked James.
"Every month on the first Thursday. I will look forward to seeing you next time James. Have a good night."
Foster said and then left with her crew.
It was left for James to unpack and distribute the supplies left in the crate. Reilly did most of this work, but having gained a little of his muscle back James was able to do more and more.
Violet was never around. She came to breakfast every morning like clockwork, but she ate in her room for lunch and was never around for dinner. Almost every night she would escape the island on the back of her Roc, one of her pets, and fly off to parties and events who knew where. On the rare nights when she wasn't out she stayed in and had long video chats with one friend or another.
James often wondered why she had accepted the apprenticeship if she never cared about alchemy in the first place.
'She is a puzzler!'
In his free time James took an available cauldron and a heating device from the processing shed and installed both in the apprentice chambers. All the other tools that he would need to get started had already been down there. Hauling ingredients and supplies down each day James began working on making pills. Light pills, energy source pills, mana pills, he worked and worked till late at night.
During this time Wilbur visited him every night and occasionally one or two of his other mice pets would come to say hi. The mice were all incredibly busy working and working all the time. Never resting he always sensed his pets doing something with very few breaks. James shuttered to think how their mouse dungeon would change the next time he saw it. But what captured his attention more than anything was Wilbur's pups. Starting the second week Wilbur's pups would start accompanying him to visit James.