Chapter 29: Medicinal Brewer

It was really, really hard.

It wasn't just hard because Arthur didn't really know what he was doing. If that had been all it was, it would have been bearable.

This was hard in a different way, like running laps after a long winter of sitting on the couch. Arthur made the mistake of awkwardly asking the system to make the teas have some magical healing property, offering himself as a fountain of majicka for that purpose. That was a bad idea. It was like being hooked up to a very large, very fast mosquito, one that sucked every last bit of his strength out in seconds.

“Dammit. This is the worst,” Arthur said, collapsing on the ground. He had to sit down after almost every batch of tea now, breathing heavily and trying to recapture whatever the tea-making process was suddenly taking out of him.

And it wasn't working. He was making tea that smelled more vile, not less. They were more poisonous instead of slightly curative. Not only was the big bucket he was using to empty his kettles and pots after every batch getting full, but he began worrying that it was going to flat-out melt.

But he had to keep going. Struggling to his feet, Arthur tried a different tactic. He had been asking the system just to make the tea magical based on his understanding of the system. But he hadn't really been telling it how to make the tea magic. On his next batch, he imagined a cup of tea that was glowing green, like a cure spell in a video game. One that was brimming with the ultimate power of restoration and would cure all ills.

I doubt it will actually do that, but aim for the stars, hit the moon. I guess.

The next batch of tea was especially bad and dangerous. He confirmed that right before losing consciousness from majicka draw. Majicka shortages were fast becoming a familiar friend to him, in all their stomach-churning, dizziness-inducing glory. They felt like... he couldn't explain it.

He felt like someone who was disappearing in the future because a time traveler had just killed his mom in the past, mixed with a witch melting because the traveler had splashed her with water.

Luckily, the effect only lasted a few minutes. He didn't have an MP gauge to watch as he refilled with the resource, but he could feel when he had enough for another try. He struggled back to his feet and got his water ready again.

This time, he tried something different.

Food Scientist progressed from strategic experimental grinding. So that was the direction Arthur went in. He visualized the tea, focused on the magical healing properties he wanted, and generally tried to be precise in his mixtures.

But his class had never really progressed that way. When he got the class itself and his class skill, it had been because he was trying to feed people, to make them happy. He was what Ella called a cook class. And he got the sinking suspicion that he had been going about the medicinal tea in an entirely chef-class kind of way.

He also shot for a more conservative goal. Instead of imagining a person drinking his boba and glowing with healing power, never again to be sick or broken, he imagined the idea of someone drinking it and feeling just a bit better. He thought of people having chicken soup when they had colds, or the thing where people would drink ginger ale when they felt nauseous from the flu.

The man at the restaurant supply store talked about having teas that helped you sleep, so long as the drinker believed they could. Arthur aimed one notch higher than that, at something that was slightly but verifiably better than placebo. Something where people would drink it and go “ahh” in satisfaction, knowing it was giving them a slight-but-real relief before it even hit. Like an old ritual from childhood, something a mother would make when their kid was sick.

As he finished up the batch, he felt the draw on his majicka intensify, but only a bit. It was a trickle compared to the draw from the other batches. Instead of feeling like he was on his fifth blood donation and long past the point where the little cookies could help, he felt more like a person who was tired at the end of a long day at the lake.

He sniffed the tea, which for once wasn't obviously poisonous to his nose. Food Scientist also claimed it was okay, that at the least it wasn’t going to kill him. He glanced around for Milo and Ella, who luckily weren’t in place to see the next part. Knowing it was a stupid thing to do, he brought the tea up to his lips and took a tiny, experimental sip.

As soon as he did, he felt better. Any suspicion he had of a placebo effect was instantly cleared as the system, unbidden, popped a window up just under his nose.

Product Invented!

You have created a new form of tea. This new beverage taps into your memories of your old home and with a powerful desire to help people out, and breaks through a few barriers that would keep most from this path. Other people have attempted similar things and failed, while still others have succeeded, only to abandon the path when they saw the results of their effort.

Nothing about this tea rivals a pill, and potion makers should have no fear of you putting them out of business. In both cases, you’re lucky if this type of concoction will reach a single digit percentage of what a real alchemist can do.

But just because something is weak doesn't mean that it comes with no rewards. In the end, it's your decision whether those rewards are worth it.

Created Product: Cold-soother tea

Product Effects: The tea provides a slight soothing effect on sore muscles, while slightly promoting recovery and providing a slight resistance to fever.

All those “slights” added up to the impression that Arthur had made a really weak concoction, but he didn't care. Not even a little.

“Wooo!” he yelled, walking around the backyard with his arms in the air. “Woohoo!”

Milo poked his head out of the shed. “You got it?”

“I got it. The system just told me.”

“Wait, an actual system message? What was the header?” Milo was approaching him with an odd look in his eye that Arthur was starting to associate with having done something weird.

“It said ‘product invented.’”

“Check your system screen.”

“I need to get the tea ready first.”

“Just check your stupid system screen, you weird offworlder. Now. It's important.”

Level 12 Teamaster

Stats:

STR 5

VIT 8

DEX 8

PER 14

WIS 10

INT 5

Unassigned Stat Points: 2

Primary Skills: Teashop Brewmaster (Level 8), Food Scientist (Level 8), Medicinal Brewer (Level 1)

Achievements: Shop Owner

A level up was nice, for sure, and Arthur didn't have to think hard about where the points should go after a full day of bottoming out his majicka. Dumping them into wisdom, he focused on the medicinal brewer skill, which came in at level one instead of the normal level zero.

Medicinal Brewer (Level 1)

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 a similar effect produced by an alchemist's product. 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.

“A third skill,” Arthur explained, immediately starting work on a full batch of tea for Lily. “Medicinal Brewer. Lets me make weak medicinal teas.”

“How weak?”

“The one I made said all the effects were slight.”

“Slight is tiny. Beyond tiny. A slight increase in sharpness is barely noticeable to most people when a smith makes a knife. But it's not nothing.”

“Yeah, it's fine. I'm not looking to be an alchemist.” Arthur took the kettle off the heat, pouring the water over the tea leaves as he focused on making the same product as before. He counted on his new stats and skill to make it slightly better for his little invalid owl-friend. “I just wanted to be able to do this to be nice.”

“Well, you’re going to want to figure out some way for it to be useful. There isn’t a hard limit on the number of skills you get. Some people have a lot of them. But they are much harder to get as time goes on. Three is where it turns the corner from easy to tough.”

“So I spent something getting this?”

“Yeah. Is that a problem?”

Arthur reached into the rudimentary ice-chest Rhodia had made him, pulling out some cream and a sugar syrup to make the tea a bit heavier and sweeter, like the honey tea his mom had made him when he had a sore throat growing up. He hoped the extra calories would be helpful as well.

“Not if this works. Come on.”

—

By the time he and Milo got upstairs, there was a fight happening.

“I don't care. You’re staying right there. Even little balls of anger have to rest after they are sick.”

“I don't need help!” Lily yelled, trying to sit up and getting immediately pressed back into the mattress by a large, feathered mom-hand in response. “I can take care of myself!”

“You actually can't. You were sick. Very sick. If Arthur hadn't found you when he did, you'd be in real trouble.”

“Arthur?” Lily's voice squeaked out. “He's the one who found me?”

“Of course he is. Don't be stupid. You think that boy wouldn't check up on you when you disappeared? He's practically the embodiment of duty overreach.” Ella chuckled a bit. “Funny that he ended up with you, the avatar of duty resistance.”

“I’m getting out of here.” Lily tried to spring out of the bed, weakly, and was immediately caught.

“No you aren't,” Arthur said, entering the room. “I need you to get healthy. I can't make tea without my assistant.”

Theoretically, he could make tea all day without his assistant. But given that he had tried that and hated it, he figured it was close enough to true to get past the little girl's radar.

“You can too!” Lily was defiantly struggling against the big bird hand that was gently keeping her in bed, but visibly tiring from the effort. “I've seen you do it.”

“You have. And I was slow and made mistakes. I need the help.” Arthur set down the teapot, grabbed a cup, and poured Lily a glass of the new concoction. “Drink this.”