01.19 - Definitely the Greatest Alchemist of All Time

It took quite a while to clear up the rubble and get the shop back in a somewhat presentable state. Not good enough to reopen by any means, but at least enough not to draw too much unwanted attention. If you leave a building with one broken window for too long, the others tend to follow suit.

I had to do my best to stop Tia from unleashing her revenge on ‘The Great Works Company’. System knows, they came this close to having a fully grown chaos dragon paying them back in full and then double.

But violence wasn’t an answer. At least not now.

Even Tia agreed after a long back and fourth.

Healing Geber Tria Prima was high on the agenda, but even that had to wait.

Right now, we had to do our best to support Isabella and somehow manage to fulfill the contract with the governor.

But the situation was not as hopeless as it seemed to be.

The main problem we faced was the production of sufficient quantities of High Health Potions.

We needed five things: Sonnenblattnektar, crushed ruby dust, pure spring water, blessed salt, and lesser drake blood.

We could substitute a bit of Tia’s dragon blood, I could bless the salt using my Cleric Class Skills, and pure spring water was a dime a dozen and only a few hours of dragon flight away.

Leaving us with the question on where to acquire sufficient quantities of Sonnenblattnektar and crushed ruby dust.

But fear not, the easiest source was stationed right in front of us.

“You want me to do what?” Tia asked, as if she didn’t know my thoughts already.

“You just have to transform and buy the right potions,” I said. “I’ll help you for the first day.”

“Why pay?” Tia asked with furrowed brows. “I could just stomp in there, take what we need, and torch the whole place while I am at it!”

“We’ve been over this twice already,” I said. “For now, we have to do everything to help Isabella save the workshop. We can help Geber after that, and then we’ll have all the time in the world to find a way to make them pay for it.”

“So… what exactly is the plan?” Isabella asked.

“It is actually deceptively simple,” I said. “Tia and I will use our Transform ability to disguise ourselves as regular customers of ‘The Great Works Company’, then buy as many cheap ingredients and lesser potions at their discount prices as we can.”

“Using what funds?” Isabella asked.

“Part of my savings…” I said. “And whatever you have saved for Geber’s treatment.”

“But we need the money for the Clerics!” Isabella insisted. “It is barely even enough to pay for his stay at the hospital, and we need a lot more to hire a Cleric to fix him back up!”

“We’ll find a way to pay for the treatment,” I said. “But we need the funds right now.”

“But that alone wouldn’t get us anywhere!” Isabella said. “We need High Health Potions that are up to our standards, not the lesser trash they sell next door!”

“That is where the two of us come in,” I said. “Remember the basics: ‘Decomposition’ and ‘Transmutation’.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Isabella asked.

“We already know that some ingredients can be substituted without reducing the quality of a potion,” I said. “Quite the contrary. Especially if it comes to dragon blood. Regular potions have different amounts of gemstone dust and plant nectar in it.”

“You mean we’ll disassemble them for their ingredients?” Isabella asked.

“Exactly,” I said. “We’ll use ‘Decomposition’ to split the lesser potions into their ingredients, then employ ‘Transmutation’ to refine those ingredients into more potent versions, usable to create High Health and Energy Potions.”

“As for the nights,” Tia said. “Grey and I will stay at the workshop to prevent or counter any additional attempts by hired goons to trash the shop or harm you.”

The plan was put into action.

We finished production with a day to spare.

The night before the first agreed upon shipment, Tia and I awoke from noise near the backroom.

We were greeted by three armed goons that had broken in through the side door shortly after midnight.

We fought them in the dark, throwing down and disarming the first one swiftly.

His pained screams woke Isabella and the whole neighbourhood, before he collapsed.

As soon as they noticed our resistance, the other two tried to escape into the night.

We could have hunted them down, but there was no guarantee that those three were the only threat.

No need to allow them the chance to send in a second group to harm Isabella and ruin our work.

The next morning, Isabella and I personally escorted the shipment to its destination.

The agreed upon payment was large, but not enough to rebuild the workshop, pay for a month's worth of supply, and cover Geber’s treatment in full.

Unfortunately for ‘The Great Works Company’ a stray Wyvern just so happened to attack their main vessel, transporting a large shipment of ingredients for all their branches within Lichtenheim.

The sailors were mostly unharmed, but their cargo ended up distributed to the fish in the bay instead of the business sharks on land.

Funny what you could do with a draconic shapeshifter and an opposing company manager stupid enough to leave important logistics documents outside a vault while being fooled by me transformed into their sub-branch chief.

With the immediate threat of a breach of contract gone and the future funds secured, Isabella and I went to the local hospital to visit her father, Geber Tria Prima. To finally pay him a long overdue visit, and to report on the successful fulfillment of our first delivery to the governor.

Geber’s state was worse than what I had imagined.

Both legs were broken in more than two places.

Three fractures in his left arm.

His right hand was unusable, and at least four of ribs were broken.

No wonder the recent payment wasn’t enough to pay for a full recovery.