After their dungeon adventures earlier this week, Anika enjoyed the chance to rest during the lesser week. Well, as much resting as she could do with Vok demanding she practice wrong-handed archery every day. Her coordination had not improved much since she started learning to use the opposite arm to draw the bow.

  The lesser week started with Anika and her companions returning to the spring up the mountain she had visited in her first week on Etalen. After getting to know Sinaya better this week, she had tentatively asked the girl exactly how their Mizeta gills worked. She’d been too afraid of randomly drowning to experiment last time she went for a swim. Sinaya, thankfully, hadn’t laughed at her when explaining that they just automatically worked when the body detected water or other unbreathable substances entering the nasal cavity. It turns out the gills would let her breath in hazardous environments as well, filtering out certain chemicals and poisons. A helpful perk of the Mizeta race!

  Anika tried it out and had a great time swimming around without having to worry about coming up for air. Lily and Hawthorn raced her and she lost miserably to the creatures with more native water abilities. The adventure to the spring served as a great opportunity to get to know Hawthorn better, and his personality developed more as they spent time together during the lesser week. Anika found him a chill companion, and a good contrast to Lily’s hyperactive, extroverted energy. Hawthorn mostly napped when they didn’t have any dungeons or practice to do.

  Anika also took the time to play with her new spell, Veil, which allowed her to create a shield on herself or others. It only worked for one attack, and it didn’t block all damage, but it could reduce damage taken significantly. Especially important, in Anika’s mind, the spell said it would completely prevent a killing blow, rendering the target unconscious instead. Anika felt a little better about dungeoning alone when she could protect Lily or Hawthorn from a big hit, like Leka protected Anika in the past.

  Lily wanted to go to the village on Sotomi, and Anika decided she shouldn’t completely ignore the town for a second week in a row. Besides, more people had to get used to seeing Hawthorn around, as she didn’t want anyone to get confused during a Chaos Eruption and think he was just another monster. Hawthorn had decided the town sounded like an excellent idea when Philip explained the previous night that he had spent time with the cooks again and got to eat a lot of food. Hawthorn, as a large former sun bear, enjoyed large quantities of food.

  Upon reaching town, they turned immediately toward the artisan and crafters avenue. Anika did not want a repeat of the toy store shenanigans of week one. From the end of the row, Anika picked out Epona in the crowd. Philip and his companion had already arrived and, judging by where Epona stood, he had already found his favorite outdoor kitchen.

  As they approached the kitchen courtyard, Hawthorn rumbled his approval at the gigantic hunk of meat turning on the Philip-powered spit. He ambled over to the short Degeta man, surprising the Mizeta woman who ran the kitchen. The woman took a step back and held up a defensive skillet, ready to beat the large monster in her midst like a novice innkeeper chasing off a goblin.

  Anika rushed forward, putting herself between the woman and the capybeara. Lily ran over as well, and Anika could feel her activate her Calming Presence. The helpful skill washed over the woman, and her face immediately lost its panic induced tension, though she still held the skillet aloft. Anika held up her hand in a placating gesture.

  “Don’t worry, that’s my companion, Hawthorn. Philip told him about your kitchen and he wanted to help.”

  The woman eyed the large bear hybrid warily, “He’s not a monster?”

  “Nope, he’s just big. And hungry.”

  The woman raised her skillet higher, fear on her face despite Lily’s Calming Presence.

  “Oh no, not for you! He won’t eat people. But he likes what Philip likes.” Anika gestured to the spitted meat. “And he likes fruit. A lot. Possibly more than Lily likes fruit.”

  Lily nodded vigorously, “We both really like fruit! But he likes meat sometimes. I don’t really like meat.”

  Hawthorn plopped down on the ground, sitting with his webbed capybara back legs splayed out in front of him. He turned his fuzzy bear paws to hide the long sun bear claws and gave a cartoonish circus bear smile with his mixed capybara-bear snout. Lily went over and clambered up on his right leg, flopping down like a rag doll, helping to make Hawthorn look more friendly.

  “Hello,” he rumbled at the woman.

  The Mizeta woman partially lowered the skillet, looking back and forth between Anika and her large companion, her face a mixture of surprise and confusion.

  “He’s not a big talker. Just give him a task and feed him like Philip. He just wants to help.” Anika tried her best to smile and look friendly, not necessarily her natural state. Hawthorn nodded along with Anika’s words.

  “So, can he stay and help you? I wanna go help Tikal and Hawthorn needs someone to help too!” Lily gave the woman an anime-worthy capybara smile, and she finally relaxed.

  The woman looked Hawthorn up and down, lowering her skillet and placing it back on the table beside her. “You can work the spit with Philip.”

  Hawthorn nodded and stood, Lily rolling off his leg before scampering out of the way, and ambled over to Philip. He nudged him out of the way, then grabbed the handle of the spit with his mouth and began to turn it.

  “Yay! I’m going to go to Tikal now!” Lily didn’t even wait for Anika to say goodbye before sprinting out of the courtyard and down the street towards the leatherworker’s shop.

  Sighing, Anika turned to the woman, “What’s your name, by the way? I’m Anika.”

  “Hiweya.”

  Anika waited for the woman to offer more, but it seemed she and Hawthorn would get along with minimal communication.

  “Well, thanks for letting Hawthorn help out! I’ll be back for him later.” Anika waved and headed down the street.

  A few buildings down, Anika entered the alchemy shop. Leka said that Water magic facilitated alchemy, and the gamer in Anika loved the idea of making different potions and concoctions. Besides, having access to additional buffs and potions could assist them in battles.

  Leka said she frequently worked in the village alchemy shop on Sotomi and Telomi, which is why Anika had chosen today to come to the village. She wanted to learn about alchemy, but she preferred to learn from someone she already knew rather than meeting new people and engaging in random small talk.

  To Anika’s relief, the first person she saw when entering the alchemy shop was the Degeta trainer, standing on a stool at a large workbench.

  “Hi Leka,” Anika walked straight over to her, “I’m ready to learn alchemy.”

  Leka turned up on hearing Anika’s voice. “Today is a good day to come. I have some Leshiru mushrooms to process. That is one of the easiest infusions we make.”

  Leka gestured for Anika to approach, and Anika saw large decanters and smaller vials of liquid, an assortment of bowls of various sizes, and a pile of slightly damp mushrooms sitting on top of a strainer next to a cutting board.

  “I’ve already rinsed the mushrooms. First, we must separate the stems. The magical portion is in the cap, though we keep the stems for compost.” She sliced the stem off a mushroom, tossing the cap into a bowl and sliding the stem into a compost bin hanging off the side of the workbench.

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  Figuring Leka wouldn’t offer any further explanation at this time, Anika spotted a second cutting board and knife and slid them into position in front of her. She grabbed a handful of mushrooms and went to work slicing, working in silence next to Leka and just enjoying the quiet focus of just completing a task without the need for conversation.

  As Anika tossed the last cap into the bowl, Leka handed her a wooden mallet.

  “Mash them.”

  Nodding, Anika smooshed the relatively soft mushroom caps with the mallet until they looked like mashed potatoes in the bowl.

  Leka took the mallet back, tapping it on the edge of the bowl to get the last clinging bits of mushroom off before putting it into a bowl with the dirty knives.

  “We will make three base infusions for three different restorative potions. I have already prepared the base liquids for each. We make them in large vats, as they do not go bad.” She pulled three large decanters forward, one with a clear liquid, one with a slightly yellowish liquid, and one with a slightly reddish liquid. Then she handed a measuring cup to Anika.

  “Add two scoops of mushroom to the clear and yellow, then three scoops to the red.”

  Anika filled the cup, grabbing a spatula she spotted at the back of the work table to help scoop the thick puree and level the scoops. When she had finished, only a small amount of mushroom paste remained in the bowl. In the decanters, however, the puree began dissolving into clouds, slowly turning the liquids murky.

  “Use your magic to swirl the liquid in the decanter. We will stir for approximately 30 seconds. You take the clear one, I will do the others.” Leka instructed as the liquid in the yellow and red containers began to spin, making a tiny whirlpool in the center.

  Anika hadn’t used her magic for much small manipulation yet… at least not successfully. She reached a tendril of her magic forward, imagining it like a stirring stick reaching down into the decanter. She mentally whirled the stick in circles, and the liquid began to swish around. Her stirring didn’t have the same tight, whirlpool center as Leka, and droplets of liquid splashed up and out of the decanter. She slowed the stirring down, trying to recenter it, and managed to prevent the splashes from jumping out of the opening.

  As she stirred, the mushroom paste mixed with the liquid, dispersing the initial cloud into the liquid and creating a cloudy, light grey mixture, near the color of the mushrooms. When Leka said to stop stirring, Anika examined her decanter and compared it to Leka’s. Leka’s mixtures appeared more vibrant and less cloudy. Anika wondered if that resulted from the difference in base liquid or the difference in stirring technique. Leka didn’t leave her waiting for an answer for long.

  “Your magic manipulation needs improvement. The mixture must be stirred evenly to fully dissolve and the magic manipulation must be consistent to homogenize the alchemical reagents active in the underlying compounds of the liquid suspension. You must practice that before you come back. Poorly mixed elements lead to decreased effectiveness, or complete inertness of the resulting compound.”

  Anika felt her heart sink a little that she may have wasted magical ingredients with her poor technique. She hoped that her mixture could still be used for something.

  Leka continued, “However, for this infusion, perfection is unnecessary.”

  Anika breathed a sigh of relief and watched as her mixture began swirling under Leka’s magical power. Leka took two small vials and added a drop of each to the decanter. The cloudiness of the mixture decreased and it took on a similar vibrancy to the other two.

  “What did you add to it?” Anika asked curiously.

  “More of the active ingredients, infusions of aloe and nuko leaf.”

  Anika raised an eyebrow in surprise at hearing a plant she knew from Earth. She knew aloe had a healing property to it, having used it on sun burn, and she wondered if this infusion would have a similar purpose.

  “What is this clear liquid going to be used for?” Anika inquired.

  “This is the base for a topical cream that heals minor injuries, frequently used for children and animals who are prone to scrapes and bruises.”

  “That makes sense. We have aloe on my world and people use it for burns.”

  “Yes, the leaf of the aloe plant alone will provide some minor, temporary relief, but this compound will lead to faster healing of any type of skin injury or irritation with the healing properties of the leshiru mushrooms and the nuko leaf, which has antiseptic properties.”

  “And what are the other two for?” Anika asked, gesturing at the yellow and red containers.

  “The yellow is the base for an antivenom that works on many low level toxins and poisons, including the venom of the frogs we encountered this week in the dungeon. The red is the base for a simple healing potion that heals minor to moderate injury. It is primarily used in combat situations, as the healing from Water or Essence magic is more effective, but not always available or fast enough.”

  “So… we should have some of those potions when we head to the dungeons, right?” Anika wanted to get her hands on those potions. It would be much more useful than having to heal injuries in the middle of a battle, like she did with Hawthorn during the boss battle.

  “I had both types of potions in the dungeon.” Leka stated, matter-of-factly.

  “What?! Then why didn’t you give us one to use on Hawthorn when he got hit by the water beam!?”

  “You did not need it. I was prepared to shield you and him from a fatal blow. It is good practice for your magic to learn to heal quickly and under duress.”

  Anika thought, not for the first time, that Leka’s style of training wouldn’t have many fans on Earth. However, she couldn’t deny the fact that Leka had saved them from potentially lethal attacks in the past, and that her Soothing Water ability and speed had improved.

  “I suppose we didn’t need it. But we will have them if we go to the dungeons alone, right?”

  “Correct. When you graduate from my tutelage, you will be given survival packs for when you venture to the dungeons alone.”

  “That’s a relief.” Anika turned her attention back to the infusions. “So, what next?”

  “The infusions will sit for a day, and then they will be strained. I have another batch from yesterday ready for straining. Take that one and follow.” Leka gestured to the clear liquid decanter and grabbed the other two before heading to a storage cabinet against the opposite wall.

  Upon opening the cabinet, Anika saw a variety of compartments with smaller doors, each with different magical enchantments and labels to identify them. Incubator, Cooler, Freezer, Sunlight, Darkness, Dryer, Humidifier, and other labels told her that alchemical compounds needed a surprising variety of storage states. Leka swapped to holding one bottle under her arm and opened the compartment labeled ‘Sunlight.’

  The brightness inside the compartment made Anika squint and shield her eyes with her free hand. Leka, however, seemed unfazed. She slid her bottles onto the left side of the compartment, then took Anika’s and placed it inside as well. From the right side of the compartment, she pulled out a similar decanter and handed it to Anika before taking two other decanters for herself. Closing the compartment and the cabinet, they returned to the table.

  Anika examined the containers and saw that all three had perfectly clear liquid, with some random chunks of sediment at the bottom.

  “The light activates the leshiru and allows it to bind to the suspension. We will strain off any excess.”

  Anika looked around, seeing only the metal strainer with wide holes that had been the mushroom drying rack when she arrived.

  “What do we strain it with?”

  Leka opened a drawer, pulling out several pieces of finely woven cloth. “You will place this on top of the decanter and use your magic to pull the liquid through the cloth. You will have to press with your magic, as the cloth provides heavy resistance. You will then direct the liquid into one of these two containers.”

  Leka pulled two small pots out from under the work table and set them in front of Anika, then grabbed a collection of medium sized empty vials for herself.

  Assuming, once again, that no further instruction would come, Anika directed her attention and her magic towards the clear liquid decanter. She took the bottle by the neck, holding the cloth down tightly around it, and then tried to push some of the liquid up through the cloth.

  Anika felt the liquid resist moving through the cloth as she pressed harder with her magic. Leka had not joked about the resistance the cloth provided. She wondered if the cloth had some kind of magical enchantment on it for straining the liquid, not just the weave of the cloth itself. Thinking back to her time on earth, she had helped her mother with recipes involving cheesecloth and, while that could be difficult to squeeze liquid out of, it hadn’t ever taken this much effort.

  She stared down the liquid, not wishing to be defeated by a mere piece of cloth, and pressed her magical will into it. Small bits of liquid began to bubble up through the cloth, and she quickly gathered a small liquid orb before transferring it into the waiting pot. Looking over at the decanter again, she sighed. This would take a while.

  Leka finished both her decanters and had bustled off to some other project by the time Anika managed to strain all her liquid. She’d broken a sweat with the effort, but figured, at the very least, it had improved her magical muscles and increased her control. She called Leka over, not sure what to do with the liquid now in the pots.

  “Ah, excellent. I will add some powdered mendila root then the liquid must simmer for about an hour until the excess liquid evaporates and we are left with a thick cream. You have been here enough time already, you should return to the temple for additional practice.”

  Anika knew exactly what kind of practice Leka wanted her to do. Magic practice. She didn’t mind, as she knew she needed to practice her fine control, especially after seeing what skills she needed for alchemy. She just didn’t relish telling Lily and Hawthorn they needed to return to the temple with her. It was two vs one now, and her companions knew how to use sad puppy dog eyes to manipulate her.