Kapitel 57: Healing My Reckless Friend And Introduction To Dark Magic

-----

Using the kitchen knife and the power of Cooking Skill, I was able to easily cut down the glowing mushroom and the moss into a mush. I then added some water I had saved in bottles made of my own body-produced wood inside my item box, adding it to it. The heat of the sunlight spirit below heating the stones with the pan above was enough to begin boiling everything together in the pan. I decided to add some herbs named Heal Grass that I had occasionally picked up from the forest, which was one of the main ingredients behind Acorn's healing potions.

"Y-You're cooking in a game?" asked Rita. "Why are you worried? It is just a game."

"I know but I can't leave you with Paralysis for ten minutes, and it is… honestly fun!" I said.

"Fun? To do this?" She asked while tilting her head.

"Y-Yeah… What's wrong?" I asked.

"Sigh…" Rita sighed while smiling back at me. "You never change, Elayne, haha…"

"Come on, this is called Alchemy!" I said.

"You're just cooking something there!" said Rita.

"It is a game mechanic!" I said.

"You've always loved cooking." Sighed Rita. "I remember when you brought me bento all the time to school. Sometimes I didn't even ask you for food but you still offered it to me… Why do you like to cook so much? I am a married woman now but I hate cooking…"

"W-What's wrong with that?! I just like cooking…" I sighed. "My grandma always said that… Cooking was a way to show a person how much dedication and love you have for them, you put your work and your love into each meal, and make them experience that love through the flavors, the textures, and how healthy and satiated they feel afterwards. I just like cooking and making people smile a bit…"

"…"

Rita looked back at me with surprise for a bit, what's so surprising? Oh, the mush is already ready?! I looked down and everything had slowly melted into a green liquid, and it was still boiling…

Ding!

[You have created [Paralysis and Aching Cure Potion]!]

[You gained 600 EXP]

[You acquired the [Apprentice Alchemist] Title!]

-----

[Apprentice Alchemist]

Acquisition Conditions: Create any Potion through Alchemy.

Equip Bonus: +50 MP +100 Alchemy Proficiency.

A Title given to an Alchemist starting their journey as an Alchemist in the world. Gather all sorts of materials and create the greatest potions, accessories, and other items!

-----

Ohhh, I got a Title and EXP out of this?! I guess anything that is made like this can give EXP! Fishing, Cooking, Crafting, and doing Alchemy! How amusing.

"It's ready!" I said, quickly taking the empty bottle where I had stored the water and putting all the potion on it. It was almost a liter of potion, but it was good enough!

-----

[Paralysis and Aching Cure Potion]

Item Type: Healing Potion, Restorative Potion, Curing Potion, Consumable.

Item Quality: E+++ Rank Quality

Item Level Requirement: No requirement.

Item Description:

A healing potion crafted with Glowing Mushrooms, Bioluminescent Cave Moss, and Paralysis Mushroom Caps, it can heal the Status effect of Paralysis with just a small sip, and it can also restore MP, HP, and Satiation by a small amount. It can cure Aching-type Status Effects, such as Stomachache, Muscle aches, Headache, and so on. A finely crafted potion with a greater quality than normal, it possesses the love and caring nature of the one that had made it, additionally from its base effects, it increases all Stats by +1% and increases HP and MP Regeneration Speed when consumed for 10 Minutes.

-----

Wooow! I made an amazing potion, didn't I? It came with Bonus Effects even! It could increase stats and more?! T-This was insane! I had never thought I could make such a good item! Hehe, I feel accomplished now! I've always wanted to be a pharmacist but it was too complicated, and I ended up never going to college because I married my husband and had Elena quickly after.

"Here, Rita, drink, drink!" I said, forcing the bottle into Rita as she angrily looked at me and drank it.

"Ugh, so bitter and… Uagh, I am going to puke this!" She cried.

"Drink it now!" I roared angrily, as Rita couldn't help but give up.

"Gulp… Ugh…"

[Party Member: Achlys] has recovered from her [Paralysis] Status effect]

"And done! Can you now move better?" I asked.

Rita slowly stood up and began to stretch around, she looked like she was nimbler than before, and also more agile. She was surprised but confirmed my horrid-tasting potion was actually very good at healing.

Certainly, I need to find a way to make my potions taste better than this based on her expression. It was really bitter and it smelled bad too… Ugh, for now I stored it inside my Inventory.

"Yeah! I feel pretty nice! Now that you said we need to prepare, let's sit here, I want to see what my Skills are all about." said Rita, sitting cross legged on the floor with me.

"Your Skills?" I wondered.

"Well yeah, I saw you using magic and skills so easily, you've really got it all figured out by now, haven't you? But for me it's different, I don't really have any idea, I've been just kicking and punching things since I began some minutes ago…" Sighed Rita.

"In fact, it has already been over an hour since you logged in, Rita…" I said.

"Hahaha, anyways! How can you check the effects of Skills?" Wondered Rita.

"Erm, you can press your status skills with your finger, a new window will show up showing you what they can do," I said.

Rita quickly checked her own Skills, she had her racial skill packed with effects and then the other Skills she had complimented it by giving her interesting functions, she had a completely different set of Skills than me, that's for sure.

-----

[Descendant of Darkness: Lv1]

As the descendant of darkness, you have several natural abilities, resistances, and also weaknesses.

You're able to adapt to the night or any dark places, you're capable of easily seeing through the darkness of night or any closed space without light.

Your HP and MP Recovery are increased by +50% while being within dark places or in the night.

You can naturally detect any sort of malicious or dark energies within your vicinity.

Certain types of animals or monsters can obey your commands or be tamed by you if they're related to the night or darkness.

The night and darkness is your domain, you deal +20% more damage to any monster in the night or dark places and can drain +10% of the damage you deal alongside 5% of their mana.

You take X4 damage from Holy Light and Light.

You take X2 damage from Lightning.

Damage from Darkness, Earth, Death is halved.

You're able to naturally guide yourself through the stars in the night sky.

Your stealth abilities are naturally enhanced, and their effects are doubled when you're in the night, or dark places.

Dark Spirits tend to favor you, evil-aligned entities could attempt to become your allies.

Dark Magic, Dark Arts, Sorcery, Necromancy, and more are passively enhanced the more you Level Up.

You can naturally drain Mana from your targets.

If enraged, you can spend Mana and Satiation to enter a Berserk State where all your physical stats are enhanced, but you lose control over your actions to an extent.

-----

I-Incredible, it was just as big and filled with effects as my own Racial Skill! And that last one… So that's why she was able to beat those mushrooms at the beginning? She sacrificed her satiation and mana to be able to fight those mushrooms like a berserk. It was kind of similar to Belle's Berserk Mode, in a way.

"Wow this is so convoluted, I have no idea if this is anything good or bad, but it seems to be good?" Wondered Rita.

"Yeah, that one skill is a Racial Skill, every Player has one based in their Race, this must be the Dark Elves Racial Skill, it favors your playstyle if you fight in the darkness, it could be a dark place or even below the night. It also allows you to see naturally in the darkness… Do you think you can see anything?" I wondered.

"Yeah, I can! T-This is pretty amazing, not going to lie." said Rita with a smile.

And the next Skills had smaller descriptions, thankfully…

-----

[Malice Conversion: Lv1]

As a being born from the darkness, you're able to detect and convert the malice of the beings you fight into your own energy. The Malice emanated from foes becomes HP and MP that slowly regenerates your maximum amount while dealing damage to a foe. The Malice Meter can be seen at the side of your vision and slowly accumulates Malice Energy, which can be unleashed through Dark Magic in all sorts of devastating spells.

-----

[Dark Magic: Lv1]

The magic that those connected to the root of darkness can utilize inherently from birth. The power of Dark Magic lies within the dark heart of those that wield it. Malice Energy can be used to enhance Dark Magic or even conjure special Malice Spells such as Curses.

Lv1: [Darkness Sphere], [Dark Shroud]

Malice Spells Lv1: [Fear Curse], [Dark Shadow Beam]

-----

[Dark Spiritualist: Lv1]

As someone connected to darkness, elemental spirits evade your presence, but those spirits that dwell in the darkness will naturally come to your aid. There is a 20% Chance with each level for Spirits to emerge and aid you in the middle of battle.

Dark Spirits will use the following effects when emerging depending in the situation:

[Darkness Parry]: Miraculously help you parry a deadly attack.

[Shadow Embrace]: Heal a random % of your HP (Min 30%).

[Abyss Boost]: All your physical and magical Stats are enhanced randomly (Min 10%).

-----

Wow, her Skills were amazing! They had their own unique abilities and effects. The Only skill she got from Sorceress as of now was the Dark Spiritualist and MP UP Skills, but this Dark Spiritualist Skill was amazing already, it can aid her in battle, and what if she levels it up a lot? it seemed to be a passive skill so maybe getting the chance to over 100% would benefit her a lot, especially because she sometimes fought a bit clumsily.

And the Dark Magic having their own unique Spells using Malice is pretty interesting, these Malice Spells were stronger than the rest but needed the Malice Meter completely filled for it to work for her… I quickly tried to explain to her each Skill and how they worked. I also helped her see her own Malice Meter, something I couldn't see. Rita said she had the meter almost completely filled; it seemed she still had the malice energy from the mushrooms she killed previously.

Aside from that, I also gave her a good explanation around the Skill Points and Stat Points System, and she quickly decided to add Stat Points to her Mana, as I told her that Mana was very important and she agreed to it happily.

"I love punching and kicking but if I can just shoot darkness spheres at my enemies from a distance, that's for the better to be honest, the more Mana I got the more fuel I got for them right? Like having a gun with lots of bullets!" Rita gave me an explanation that was a bit far-fetched, but I guess that's how she usually was.

"Yeah, like that! A-Anyways, you can also purchase new Skills in the Skill Tree using Skill Points… Let's see what you got…" I said, as I and Rita checked her Skill Tree while sitting close to one another. Rita rested her head over my shoulder and hugged my arm rather lovingly, as we continued chatting about the Skills for a little while. We were not even fighting nor advancing through the dungeon, but I felt quite happy to be with her in such an adventure.

-----