Chapter 45: Medicinal Boba

“Is that true? The part about the feet and abdomen.”

“Yeah? At least for a lot of these monsters. Why?”

“Because if that’s true, this trip might not be a bust after all.”

Arthur went back over to the pile. He had checked all of them out earlier, getting not a single hit from Food Scientist. Driven by the sheer mass of weird he was putting it through, the skill had actually leveled, and then loudly told him that none of the things he was looking at was what he wanted.

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 11) Medicinal Brewer (Level 5)

Achievements: Shop Owner, Mass Prep, Buffer Against the wave, Rise Together

But if there were more sites for stingers and poison to reside, he had another chance. He circled the pile again, now getting pointers on possible locations to focus on from Karbo. After a bunch of clear “no” answers and a few near-misses, the pile was exhausted.

“I guess that’s that.”

“Well, maybe. There’s still that guy,” Karbo said, thumbing towards the log-monster. “Might as well check.”

Arthur went to the log, rolling it over and looking for its stinger. He eventually found it. But it, too, wasn’t what he was looking for.

“Well, too bad. And I’m sorry, Arthur.”

“Yeah, me too. I was hoping. I’ll find another way.”

“At least you got bragging rights. How’d you get this thing with the stinger, anyway? I wouldn’t think you were strong enough to pierce the bark.”

“Oh, that? I got him in the mouth. See? Here’s where it hit.”

And suddenly, Food Scientist went absolutely mental. It wasn’t the poison. It was, for whatever reason, in the bark now.

“Karbo. Do you have any way to de-bark this thing?”

“Me? Sure. Lots of ways.” Karbo rummaged through his pack until he found a large leather bag and a tool that looked somewhere between a drywall spatula and a saw. “Monster parts are big business.”

“I hope there’s enough.”

“Monster this size, you are gonna get quite a bit, if it’s all useable.”

“It’s gonna be a weird conversation with Mizu when I brew this. ‘Hey, here, I got you this tea. There’s monster wood in it!’”

“Why? It’s in a lot of foods. Your people didn’t eat monster stuff?”

“Not so much.”

“Well, a bit of wood in something isn’t gonna phase people here. Or you could just not tell her.”

“Probably not a good idea.”

Karbo shrugged. “To each his own.”

After cutting the bark off as well as he could and stuffing it into the sack, Karbo tied the whole thing shut, slung it over his shoulder, and started walking towards the portal out.

“Good thing we got it. I forgot to tell Itela where I was going. If I didn’t even get anything out of it, there’s no way she’d let me get away with things.”

—

Karbo was nice enough to fly Arthur home, and was also conscious enough of Ella’s wrath that he avoided leaving a crater in her front yard.

“You’ve got it from here?” Karbo loomed huge but a bit awkwardly above Arthur. “I’d like to help more, but…”

“Mizu has both an alchemist and a doctor. It’s alright, Karbo. You’ve already done a ton for me. I really appreciate it.”

“Well, then. Good luck, Arthur. And I’m guessing Itela won’t be pleased with me for going missing, so wish me luck too.”

Before Arthur could actually get the words out to do what Karbo had asked, the infernal jogged off at speeds that would make racing motorcycles jealous. Arthur unlatched the front door, dragged his big bag of monster bark through, and got to work.

Food Scientist, for better or worse, was not a recipe book. It didn’t deal in exact weights and measure or cook times. What it did do, however, was give him a general idea of the kind of ingredients he was dealing with, and a very vague impression of what was reasonable and not reasonable to use them for.

The powder he had picked up at the alchemists, for instance, was not tea. It wasn’t meant to be used to thicken the liquid either. The skill said so. It was a little vaguer on what the material actually was for, but the process of elimination left just the boba to try.

The bark was much less informative. “I’m important”, it seemed to say. “I do something. Guess what,” it teased.

And Arthur tried to guess, suggesting different uses of the wood to the skill and getting back the mental equivalent of a shrug. It or he, depending on how you looked at it, just had a feeling about it.

But he had a starting point.

Up in his room, Arthur boiled a small amount of water in a pot, added equal amounts of his normal starch and the stabilizing powder, and mixed it until he got the perfect consistency. It took a little bit of time, considering the stabilizing powder wasn’t a 1-for-1 equivalent to the starch. It absorbed less water, and worked into the dough differently. Eventually, he got a dough that looked somewhat appropriate.

The only problem was that it wasn’t right. He could tell. Not just from the skill, which assured him it was a miss, but from the smell and feel of it. It felt too strong, too much like medicine and too little like a component for his tea.

Arthur quickly whipped up a new batch, using only half as much stabilizing powder. It was closer, but still a miss. It wasn't until he had a one-eighth stabilizing powder, seven-eighths starch mixture before the skill felt ready to let him proceed.

He quickly rolled a bunch of pearls, popping them into a small cup for storage as the system messaged showed up.

Medicinal Boba (Unloaded)

These boba pearls are crafted from a powder meant to absorb, contain, and preserve medicinal potency. They have not yet, however, encountered a medicinal potency to contain. As it stands, they will stay edible for significantly longer than standard boba, but that’s all. They are a component searching for an active ingredient.

Now that, Arthur understood. And luckily, he had a big bag of active ingredients ready to go. Pressing some of the boba back into a dough, he took a reasonable amount of the wood, ground it with a pestle he had stolen from Ella’s kitchen, and folded the wood dust into the dough.

The result was something that Food Scientist assured him was not quite poisonous, but still actively unhealthy to eat.

It was unsanitary, the skill said. It claimed that this was raw food. And not the good kind.

Arthur rolled the dough into pearls and tried cooking it. Still wrong. Still raw in some unexplainable way.

Placing the failed dough aside, Arthur realized that he needed to cook and infuse the dough in one fell swoop. Mixing the dust in with the raw dough wasn’t enough. Refilling his pot with water, he brought the liquid to a simmer, then added a small section of the bark to it, steeping it like tea. Color started to seep out of the bark, staining the water a very slight red.

Not quite enough. It feels like it wants a bit more.

Arthur turned the heat up, bringing everything to a roiling boil that he would never subject tea leaves to. The water’s hue shifted from red to deep purple as the heat went to work. Once the color stopped darkening, Arthur turned off the fire and let the water cool. At room temperature, he mixed it with flour and made a new dough.

This, Food Scientist was exclaiming, was right. It was the missing slot that the monster ingredient component needed to lock into, and Arthur was applying it in just the right way.

As soon as the dough was pressed into pearls, the system confirmed the success in the biggest possible way.

Medicinal Boba (Anti-venom, inferior)

You processed monster venom in a venom-resistant monster, forcing antibody production like you wouldn’t believe. You’ve now imbued that concept into a specially crafted edible container, one optimized to lock in every ounce of poison-resistive power the bark has to offer.

But all that comes with one catch, and that catch is you. In creating the antivenom, you had to bridge the gap between the plausible and the attainable using a combination of majicka and your Medicinal Brewer skill. And, frankly, your majicka stores are still low, and your skill is just beginning to develop.

Does this product work? It does. It creates a very slight anti-venom effect in its consumer.

But it’s in all other regards a counterfeit, an inferior knockoff of the boba that you’ll one day make. When you become capable of that feat is up to you.

Effects: A very slight anti-venom effect is produced when these pearls are consumed as part of a complete Boba Tea beverage. As with all your medicinal teas, this product will not interfere or interact in any way with alchemical products.

Dammit, Arthur thought. Well, no, wait. Keep it together. Very slight isn’t nothing. This is a start. You can work with a good start. It’s more than you had this morning.

Arthur had enough boba made for a drink. It would have to do. Karbo had claimed the bark was good for at least a few days, and longer if cooled. Tying the bag shut and placing it in Ella’s cooler, he gathered together the minimum gear he needed to make the tea, then jogged as fast as he could to Mizu’s place. When he got to the door, an older metal elemental was just exiting the room, closing the door softly behind himself.

“Hello, young man. Arthur, I presume?”

“Uh… yes. How did you know?”

“Itela said you might be by. She more or less threatened me with disaster if I didn’t agree to let you see Mizu when you were able.” The doctor visibly grimaced at the memory. “She didn’t even need to. No doctor worth their salt would deny patient visits.”

“Is she doing okay? Today, I mean.”

“Not as badly as you’d imagine. Worse than yesterday, yes. But better than I had expected. What I’m more interested in, however, is that.” The doctor motioned to the small bag into which Arthur had crammed the boba pearls. “I can smell medicine in there. I hope, Arthur, that you aren’t planning on rendering a very carefully planned medicinal treatment null with that.”

Rather than try to explain, Arthur took a shot in the dark.

“Can you assess medicine? By holding it, or something?”

“I have a skill that shows me the descriptions of most products, yes.”

“See if it works on this.”

Arthur handed the doctor a single pearl, watching as the man’s glare shifted into a mild expression of surprise as he rolled it around his hand.

“I’ve tested my skill with an alchemist,” Arthur added. “It seems to work just like the description says. Doesn’t interfere with anything.”

“Interesting,” the doctor said. “Normally, I’d say absolutely not, system description or no. But in this case, I’m weighing the risks against the rewards. And without an edge, those risks are as great as they can be. I’m going to clear this, Arthur. But I’m also going to observe.”

“Can I have a few minutes before you do? I need to make the tea, and I’d like to… visit, I guess. Be a friend.”

“Of course.”

Arthur moved past the doctor, who sat down on a small chair in the hallway that appeared to be there for just that kind of wait-your-caretaker-turn-with-Mizu purpose. It was time to test the product. Even if it worked, the system had said that it would only have a very slight effect. Arthur knew that.

He just prayed it worked at all.