Chapter 47: Medicinal Brewer

As soon as the door closed behind the doctor, Arthur‘s sixth sense yelled that there was an immediate threat just behind him. As he turned around, he saw Ella, armed with a wooden spoon that she seemed more than willing to thwack him with, should things go a certain way.

“Do not,” she said, brandishing her doom-spoon, “do anything stupid. Which includes going into any more dungeons with Karbo, doing anything stupid with what appears to be a bag of slightly poisonous bark, or…”

“Ella. Mizu made me promise not to take any more risks.”

“That’s easy to do. It doesn’t mean…”

“It does. She called me on it. Made me believe my own promise. She won.”

“Oh. Well.” Ella set down her spoon and pushed Arthur’s food closer to him. “Eat your breakfast. Have I mentioned how much I like that young lady? You’d be stupid to let her go.”

Arthur winced.

“Oh, gods. I’m sorry, Arthur. I didn’t think about how that would sound.”

“It’s okay. It’s hard.” Arthur stood from the table. “Could I get some slices of bread? I’m going to take this breakfast as a sandwich.”

“And where are you taking it?” Ella stood up and cut a few pieces of bread, pushing them over the counter to Arthur, who began forking as much of his eggs and meat onto the bread as he thought they could hold. More than he thought they could hold, really. It was possible this would be his only chance to eat that day, and if so, he wanted to make sure not to squander it.

“Well, you heard the doctor. I have to get better, fast. And as far as I know there’s only one guy in town who can help me with that.”

—

“Wake up, you tree. I need your help.” Arthur banged on the door for the fifth time since he got there. “You’re supposed to be my guardian or something. I’m pretty sure you can’t just ignore me when I come calling.”

The door finally swung open, revealing a very peeved-looking Eito. His eyes were heavy with sleepy, lethargic fury as he beheld Arthur at his door.

“Being a guardian, Arthur, means that I have to help you. It does not specify a specific time when I help you.” He rubbed his eyes with his hand, squinting them against the light. “It’s more of an unofficial title, anyway.”

“I’m sorry. It seems mean to ask, but what happened here?”

“Not every kind of training takes place during the day, Arthur. I go where the job demands. And until two hours ago, the job demanded I go somewhere besides my bed.”

“Oh.” Arthur felt shitty now. But the fact that he didn’t have much of a choice prodded him forward. “Well, I am sorry. Hopefully, I don’t have to take much of your time. It’s about Mizu.”

“The water girl? I heard she was sick.”

“She is. Some degenerative poison. It’s a race between her vitality and the poison’s growth. I don’t quite understand it. Not as much as I should.”

“I know the one. And she’s not a combat class, or a labor class in the physical sense.” He shook his head. “Sorry, Arthur. I wish I could say her chances were better.”

“Thanks, but there’s not a lot of time for sorry. She’s not improving, Eito. And she has all the drugs and blessings she can hold.”

“And you think…” Eito’s eyes finally woke up a bit as he realized the implication of Arthur’s presence. “Okay, I get it.”

“Good. Because I need advice. How do I level? As fast as possible.”

“Fine. Come in.” Eito walked into his kitchen and sat down at his table. “But you’re making the tea. I’m not doing this without pep. Lots of it. Spend majicka if you have to. Twice.”

Arthur somehow had never thought of simply amplifying the caffeine content of his over-pepped tea even more, but it turned out this was absolutely something he could do.

Over-Over-pepped Tea

With a combination of skills, intent, and raw majicka, you have increased the pep content of this tea. Due to the simplicity of amplifying a relatively mundane effect the tea already possessed twice, the effect is stronger than what you could usually produce. The resulting tea is moderately more potent, but gains no bonuses to the duration of the stimulant effect.

“That does pack a kick. Thank you.” Eito slurped down his first cup and poured himself another. “Now, to business, then. What’s the status of your leveling? I wouldn’t normally demand this, but show me everything.”

Level 18 Teamaster

Stats:

STR 5

VIT 8

DEX 10

PER 17

WIS 23

INT 5

Primary Skills: Teashop Brewmaster (Level 9) Food Scientist (Level 12) Medicinal Brewer (Level 7)

Achievements: Shop Owner, Mass Prep, Buffer Against the Wave

“Gods, you’ve come a long way. You’ve likely outdistanced most of your peers, if not all of them.” Eito scratched his chin. “But you’ve also managed to reach a bottleneck of sorts. You might not have noticed yet, but your days of quick progression are over.”

Arthur nodded. Eito slurped his tea and looked at the sheet again.

“My skill rarely lies. It says that it’s pretty hard to break this kind of bottleneck through skill alone. I assume you already know that actual combat breaks bottlenecks of this kind. But I’m reluctant to send you that direction, for a few reasons.”

“Mizu said the same. I went out with Karbo earlier. She made me promise not to put myself in any more physical danger.”

“Good girl. But it’s not just the danger. If it were just about levels, combat grants those. The reason we don’t simply have Karbo bus every young person through the dungeon, besides danger, is that combat leveling is hollow for non-combat classes. I’ve seen instances where young, overambitious fools paid their way to high levels through combat, only to find that they became underpowered for their level. Classes progress the way they do for reasons, Arthur.”

“So what do I do, then? I guess I could go to my shop and start selling tea. But it might not be fast enough. Am I stuck?”

Eito waved his hand, somehow making Arthur’s screen visible to both of them.

“Not exactly. If you want a shot at this, focus here.” Eito poked at one of Arthur’s skills, expanding it to its full description for the first time since the system had granted it.

Medicinal Brewer (Level 7)

When you make tea, you can actively choose to spend your passive majicka on either the entire concoction or an individual component. Successful attempts at doing so will result in a drink that provides limited medicinal effects to the drinker.

The success rate of these attempts is broadly tied to the brewer's intent. Large effects will almost always fail, both because they are inherently difficult and because the draw on majicka is much more intense than it would be for an alchemist replicating the same effect. Smaller, more subtle effects will be successful much more often, while still failing occasionally.

While any tea can theoretically be given a small medicinal effect, some tea recipes will prove more cooperative with your efforts than others. Various ingredients can be added or removed from recipes to manipulate this effect.

“What you are trying to make for Mizu is fairly complex, I assume?”

“Kind of. To make a long story short, I poisoned a monster with another monster’s venom. Then I took the monster part that developed a resistance and managed to add it to my tea. All with the help of majicka. The system says it’s weaker than it should be. Because I suck, basically.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. It’s quite possible that nobody else in the world can do what you are doing in the first place. But yes, you could be better. And if it were me, this skill is where I’d focus those efforts.”

Eito finished his second cup of tea, appeared to consider a third, then decided against it. “I haven’t known many offworlders, but it seems almost as if the system helps you make up for lost time. If it really is doing that, and you focus all your efforts on that one point of leverage, it might just be enough.”

“And how do I do that?”

“You make medicine. Go find some sick people. That part, at least, is not a giant mystery.”

“Will do.” Arthur stood up from the table, dismissing his status window as he did. Before he left, he had one other task to accomplish. Gulping down a quick cup of extra-pepped tea himself and narrowly avoiding burning his mouth in the process, he poured Eito another glass, added cream, and added in a generous amount of majicka that he hoped would recharge by the time he found his next patient.

Overpepped Tea of the Workaholic

By focusing on the undelivered promises of Earth’s energy drinks while preparing a beverage, you have a drink that goes beyond mere caffeine into the crunchy, often fraudulent realm of supplements. This drink is something that Guarana, Taurine, and Creatine never quite lived up to. It grants its drinker not only a pep high, but an overall increase in stamina and wakefulness that replaces a slight amount of the rest they failed to allow themselves.

“I hope that makes up for some of the rest I stole. And thanks, Eito. I appreciate it more than you know.”

—

Getting his tea stuff from Ella’s didn’t take that long, but finding the one doctor he knew would have taken more. Rather than risk it, Arthur ran to Itela’s office in the church, bursting through her door so fast he startled the poor, long-suffering cleric.

“I need sick people.”

Itela recovered from her startle before Arthur managed to notice and apologize for it, replacing her shock with a wry smile.

“That’s an odd thing to say, Arthur. I’m assuming there’s some context I’m missing.”

“For my tea. To level a skill. For Mizu.”

“Oh! I understand. Will any old illness do?”

“I’d imagine so.”

“Then come with me. Sadly, the sick are not in short supply.”

Itela led Arthur through the halls of the church, twisting through several corridors until they arrived at a large, sunlit room. All around it, various demons were sitting in chairs, talking, and playing card games that Arthur didn’t recognize. At first glance, it looked like a low-key social gathering. But his perception stat disagreed with that assessment. With its help, Arthur found that there was more to the peaceful display than met his eye. And once he saw the truth, he couldn’t unsee it.

“Are they all in pain?”

“They are. Chronic diseases. Alchemy can do a lot, Arthur. So can the types of things a cleric can accomplish. But not everything. Old age catches up with some, and others just get unlucky.”

“Why gather them here?”

“The room helps. It’s a long-term project of the various religions that gather here. A sort of mass enchantment. Being around other people with similar problems also helps, or so I’ve heard them say.”

“And you want me to make them tea? For their ailments? I can do that.” Arthur looked out over the varied group of people there, and gulped a little. “Can I… Is there a list of their ailments, somewhere? Something I could reference?”

“No. And I don’t think you’d really want it if there were. Just go talk to them, Arthur. Help them, if you can.”

Walking over to the wall, Itela went and grabbed a small push-cart and put it in front of Arthur. “I’ll let the workers in this room know to give you some space. Go. Heal some people.”