The Curious Effects of Healing Potions, Part 1

Dess was impressed with how precisely I chopped up my elf's foil into those perfect three-inch stalks detailed in the instructions on the board. Not that I needed Faustus's formula. I had my own formula for healing potions in mind, one taught to me by the ever-reliable Divah's Guide to Adventuring.

See, the trick to a more robust healing potion was to use a Florence flask instead of the conical flask often suggested by typical formulas because a Florence flask's round body was better at uniform heating than a conical one. Why was this relevant? Because of the heat. Heat was the key factor in creating a stable mixture with ingredients that normally didn't work well together.

Per Divah's guide, I was instructed to dump the elf's foil stalks into a flask filled with three-fourths fay water which was different from regular water by the way it glittered like a sea of starlight, an optical effect born from the bits of nature-born fairy dust floating within this magic-enriched water that was an exclusive export of the Seelie realm. About four silver sceattas per two hundred ML bottle, which was the equivalent of two hundred US dollars.

I know, these were pricy materials. Lucky for me, Doctor Faustus didn't seem to mind splurging on his students. Or maybe this was just part of the alchemy department's budget for materials, which I assumed was huge compared to the P.E. department's annual budget.

The high price of fairy imports—many of which were necessary materials for the more powerful concoctions I planned to create in the near future—was why I was willing to invest in Dess's future too. With her as my source of exclusive and hopefully discounted items, I could already see myself making bucket loads of sceattas selling focus potions, magic pills, and skin care products to my fellow novices—and Divah always said that being entrepreneurial was a requirement to becoming a great adventurer.

Anyway, while the fay water heated in its flask, I ground up an amethyst gemstone into fine sand. It was much better than the cheaper quartz stone Faustus's formula recommended. I then poured the amethyst dust into the flask, stirred clockwise for two minutes, and then stirred counter-clockwise for another two minutes. Afterward, I added a pinch of peppermint for flavor, let the mixture simmer for exactly fifty-nine seconds, and then finished the draught with a single drop of unicorn's tear.

Pretty quickly, the contents of my flask turned a nice shade of vibrant red while the calming scent of peppermint wafted out of its tip. It was a success made possible, not just with my groovy alchemy talent, but also with the help of the well-stocked ingredients locker I raided earlier. Seriously, who even has a vial of unicorn tears readily available these days?

"Wow, it's so bright and shiny," Dess said.

From the corner of my eye, I watched the fairy's eyes widen in amazement.

"You're a genius, Will," she whispered.

I couldn't help grinning. "This was nothing."

"So~~o, you wouldn't mind sharing some of that potion with me, would you?" she asked.

I glanced sideways at Dess and noticed the desperation plastered on her face. Then I noticed the gooey black mass inside her flask and wondered what sort of poison she'd just created accidentally.

"How about I help you make a new one so you'll know how to create this super important item for yourself in desperate times." I subtly moved my seat further away from her creation while also pushing an empty flask toward her side of the desk. "It'll be easy. I promise."

Dess sighed but agreed. "I need something good enough to keep Faustus from wanting to eat me, Will… Seriously, I don't want to be his next meal."

"Has that ever happened?" I asked skeptically.

Dess shrugged. "There are rumors that one or two of his students disappear through the course of each semester but no one's sure if they were eaten or just quit the Academy because they couldn't hack it."

It was hard to believe that Grandmaster Dwalinn hired faculty who would harm the Academy's novices, but, as I glanced over to Doctor Faustus who was leering over the desk of a redheaded dwarf girl, I did notice how his eyes were more glued to the back of her head than the potion she was making.

"Good to know," I whispered. "Alright, Dess, let's get started on saving your grade… and your life. Maybe."

While I helped Dess with her potion, my gaze drifted over to the other lab tables, and I saw that Scaredy Cat was also finished making his potion. The liquid inside his flask was murky compared to the vibrant red of my potion, but it was impressive how quickly he'd finished the assignment compared to the others.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." It was lucky that I chose the next second to inspect Dess's work because she was just about to ruin her potion for a second time. "Whoa, no, not the wolf's bane leaves… Where'd you even get the wolf's bane?"

"Sorry, sorry, I thought this was elf's foil," she sighed.

I watched Dess get up and raid the storage locker while remembering how much more fearsome the fairy was on a battlefield compared to the klutz that she seemed to be outside of it. In my mind's eye, I recalled how she and her fellow red cloaks had given me a real workout in today's P.E. battle. And, adding in Scaredy Cat's obvious skill in alchemy, I realized something that was a hard pill to swallow. "I may be underestimating the apprentice rank too much."

"We all do that," Dess said as she dropped back to her seat. "We all believe we can beat the competition and jump right up to journeyman like Liara Lockwood did, but…"

She tapped a finger against my potion, causing the vibrant red liquid to slosh inside of it.

"You just might do it, Will," she smiled.

Seeing the earnestness in Dess's face, I was reminded of Divah's instructions to find allies who could be counted to watch my back in future adventures. I wondered if Dess might be one of those allies. Perhaps I could even help grow her talents like I was doing for Liara.

'I am looking for a tank to train, and she's good enough to fight me without having the benefit of being trained by a genuine monster like Divah.'

Reevaluating Dess's worth made me think that there might be more apprentices in this class worth scouting. Maybe.

My gaze glided over to the other novices who I belatedly noticed were the same green, blue, and red cloaks I met in Viking Pit Three. Thirty in all. Even Bjorn the Viking was present, although his face looked like he'd just got back from a trip to the beach.

Also, the fact that none of the red cloaks had tried to get back at me for what I did to them in P.E. during our other classes left a bitter taste of remorse on my tongue, making me almost want to apologize to Dess. Almost.

"Did I go overboard during our fight earlier?"

"We're used to roughhousing. And the Academy's healers are good at managing burns and bruises." Dess casually patted me on the shoulder with one hand while her other hand continued to stir the contents of her flask in a clockwise rotation as I'd instructed. "Today's class was a lesson for us not to underestimate Mage-One ever again, and you'll find next Monday's P.E. will be tougher. The Warrior-One troop are all eager for a revenge match."

I chuckled. "Bring it on… and thanks, Dess."

She didn't have to do it, but Dess made me feel better, and I promised myself that I would repay her kindness with some martial arts manuals I kept inside the chest in my room.

"Hey, Dess…" A random thought popped up in my head. "How many apprentices does the Academy have?"

I seemed to recall that there were far more apprentice blue cloaks attending the tower's parties than the ten in my Mage-One class.

Dess explained that there were at least a hundred apprentices with that number dwindling the higher up in rank a novice went. "There are less than a hundred journeymen, about fifty experts, and only twelve masters among the novices."

"What happens if you fail to graduate from apprentice rank?" I asked.

"You stay an apprentice until you pass the journeyman test or you quit. The Academy's attrition rate's pretty high." She leaned in and pointed stealthily at Bjorn. "He's been stuck as an apprentice for five years now, but Bjorn's rich so he can afford to waste his family's money on tuition…"

The way Dess said it made me assume she wasn't as flush as Bjorn was, and she didn't mind telling me about her circumstances after I asked about them.

"I got lucky and found a fairy godmother who was willing to help me come to the Academy," Dess admitted.

Here we go. I sensed a backstory was coming, and I wished I had some popcorn ready for the story Dess was about to tell me.