Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“Oh yeah, here we go!” Jake yelled while Ben pressed his hands against the doors, preparing to walk through. “Second last tower and second last tower blessing, here we come!”

“Jake, we’re not even doing anything to earn this one,” Amy sighed. “Considering we’re about to be carried through, maybe take it down a notch.”

“Hey, in group projects as long as your name’s on the assignment then that’s all that matters.”

“And you don’t need to remind me how much being grouped with you in school always sucked.”

“Uh, guys?” Ben cut in. “We’re a second away from going in and I know this is supposed to be safe and all but please consider the fact that I had my heart destroyed on my first step in the first floor of the last one and try to be at least a little focused until we’ve actually confirmed things are as safe as they’re supposed to be.”

“Wait, what was that about your heart?” Will asked, each new tidbit that came out of Ben’s mouth only sounding more insane than the last, with his question being brushed off.

“I’ll tell you about it when we’re done the tower,” He said, hoping the other would manage to forget so word wouldn’t get back to Steph about it either. He could only imagine how that would go if he let it and since he didn’t particularly want to be left prostrating on the ground and promising to be a little safer when he had no real intention of holding true to that, the best option had become distraction so not letting anyone else get a word in he threw open the door and stepped inside to see what it held.

His body was instantly tense for it too, a reflexive reaction after the last tower but he didn’t suffer any immediate harm, instead finding what was by all accounts a simple room. A furnace and some tools at one end and a table at the other, a few things placed on it he couldn’t perfectly see from where he stood that he’d examine later, along with a few open boxes lined up against the walls as well as a fountain at the other side of it constantly letting water flow and finishing with a small pedestal waiting in the center of it all that he walked to first.

“Using the ingredients in the room, concoct a general healing potion,” He read aloud, feeling his brow crinkle as he continued. “Place here when complete to be judged.”

“Well hey, that doesn’t sound too bad, does it?” Jake laughed. “We’ve got the guy who made the most important potions in the world, sounds easy peasy.”

“It’s definitely a lot harder than that sounds,” Ben said as he walked around, looking at the rest that was there.

Each box was filled with a fine powder, his material sense telling him what they were thanks to the experience he had with using them out in the world for his own work while the table was more varied, being covered in the dried clippings of what at first looked like thirty different plants, holding two pieces of each along with a single cup and some small spoons as well, but on closer inspection revealed the true trap they held.

“What’s the issue then?” Will asked, feeling his own interest pick up at whatever sort of challenge the room held that the rest of them were blind to and seeing no time limit to go with it, Ben explained.

“The first issue is that a general healing potion is a bit of a misnomer,” He explained. “There are certainly potions in the world that can heal the majority of races but there’s nothing that can heal all of them. I don’t think the gods would intend for me to manage to make some sort of pancrea that doesn’t exist in the outside world so the real intent here has to be to make something that would heal as many people as possible.”

“Okay, that still doesn’t sound terrible.”

“Sure, but we then have the second issue. Limited ingredients. If I’m using the herbs on the table then I only have one chance to get this right. If I treat them the wrong way then I have no way to correct it and this floor is basically done.”

“Do you have to use it all?” Amy asked as she walked over to them. “You’ve got two of each, doesn’t that mean you could at least do the wrong thing with each one once, or are you going to need to use up the full quantity? It’s not like the gods asked for a specific volume of potion.”

“A good point about the volume but as for how much of each ingredient I have, that brings us to the third issue. The table is a trap.”

“What? How?”

“At first glance, it looks like I have thirty herbs to use but that’s wrong, I might have up to sixty. I can already say with certainty that a few of those plants are lookalikes from different species, with some being known to be outright poisonous and others having both medical and toxic uses, along with a few more that are going to be used in the next issue, not this one.”

“Which is?” Thera asked, playing along with the question she knew he wanted to ask because, despite how many issues there supposedly were, she could see Ben was enjoying himself.

At that question though he spread his arms wide, gesturing all around him. “Look around you, alchemy isn’t as simple as absentmindedly tossing things together to get an end product. I’m going to need to powder some of these herbs and I’m going to need bowls for storing them. I’m going to need to make extractions as well to do that too and then I’m going to need to mix the right ratios. Test tubes, beakers, flasks, and more. I’m going to need plenty of tools to do this but do you see any of them around?”

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“...No.”

Now that he’d pointed it out, the amount of equipment was noticeably bare. He’d been given a large scoop that could act as a container if it had to, a few spoons, some tongs, and what looked like a metal tube as well, but none of the obvious stuff any normal alchemist would have needed to take advantage of.

“Exactly. The gods didn’t leave anything here for potion making beyond some raw ingredients and even then, I’m going to have to make some other chemicals first since just water isn’t going to work for a lot of the things I’m going to need to make. You know what they did leave me though? Everything I need to make glass.”

The gods expected him to make his own equipment as a prerequisite for the actual main part of that floor, adding a whole new dimension to what it meant to make a potion in what he couldn’t help but think was a charming application of a floor that was meant to cover crafting as a whole, raising his excitement all the higher, even if the others mostly looked confused.

“Okay, but so?” Thera asked, waiting for more in a way that brought confusion forth to his own face.

“What do you mean, so? This is a really interesting challenge, isn’t it? A lot more than plenty of floors we’ve taken on in other towers. It’s got parts, it’s got layers, it’s-”

“Something you can just materialize,” She finished for him. “You can make all of the equipment you need in a snap, can’t you? Probably some of those other chemicals too?”

“...Okay, so on the one hand you’re right but on the other, I really really want to try it the way it was intended first.”

“Why?”

“Funsies?”

Sure, he could make things significantly easier by materializing as much as he could but unlike other trials where he would have happily cheated his way through, their lives weren’t on the line. All it was was a challenge, plain and simple, something he’d love to get the chance to test himself on to see just how well he could manage and left Thera to shake her head, even if she was smiling.

“Alright, suit yourself. In that case, we’ll stay out of your way.”

“Thank you, I’ll try to be quickish.”

But still not as quick as I can.

Of the many things stored in his rings, he had his clones as well but he didn’t want to take them out, at least not yet. Despite all he’d just said, a floor like that wasn’t going to end up a struggle, it was a game. One he very much wanted to play to his heart’s content as he got started, grabbing the scoop and a few of the spoons before getting a pile of sand from one box and mixing other add-ins to it with the few measurements available before pouring it all into the furnace, feeling the intense heat and leaving it to melt as he went to the table.

The other real issue he faced that he hadn’t brought up was that none of the ingredients he’d been left matched any pre-existing recipe he was aware of, meaning he needed to rely entirely on his own knowledge of each one and how they were used as he began mentally putting them together in different ways, trying to figure out the perfect combination that would have the least reactions among the population as possible while not only having the best healing effect but also did what the plaque said, used the ingredients in the room.

He wasn’t sure if he was correct to interpret it the way he was but he took that to mean to use all of them in one way or another and he was sure he could, feeling things come together by the time he went back to the furnace and found everything melting nicely, leaving a thick, molten mass that he began working with the tongs he’d been given.

Even there he’d been left only the bare minimum of supplies but he looked at that as part of the challenge, happy to take it on as he got the consistency he believed he’d wanted and broke off a piece of it before adhering it to one end of the thin pipe he’d been provided and blowing, being rewarded with the sight of the glass ballooning out while he continued to work to shape it, bringing it in and out of the heat as need be as the first of his test tubes were made.

Okay, I got one out of my system, now I should actually do the more important bit.

What he really needed to make first were two pieces to act as a mortar and pestle, a bit more of a challenge since glass would be their medium instead of wood or stone but he’d delayed himself just a little for the simple reason that he had never had the chance to try glass blowing before. Having the option at his fingertips was simply too exciting to pass up.

With that attempt out of his system though, he was able to treat the rest more seriously, shaping the rest of the glass he’d started carefully with the tongs alone, sure there were better tools that could be used but sticking true to what he’d been given until it was formed to his desires and left to cool, allowing him to work on the other pieces he believed he’d need while he waited.

It was only once he had everything set up, the mortar and enough bowls for each herb he’d been given, that he began, breaking down each herb into fine dusts to be used for his alchemy and transferred some into the same containers while others were left to wait as he ran around the room, adding water to the ones that would ultimately need it before going back to get more glasses of it in a pure form, measuring out some of the other boxed powders he’d been left to create both different acids and bases when they dissolved at varying concentrations to prepare for some other extractions as well.

With that first step ready he brought them all closer to the furnace to heat them, all of them at different distances depending on the temperature required but most being placed beyond the reach of his comfort, leaving him to rely on the tongs to swirl them or pull them back each time a new one required a new step, with him keeping an eye on all of them once different solutions were done.

When it came to a few of the plants that would normally be seen as poisons, time after time they were used as just one step in the processes, the solution using them created would be mixed with something else to pull more specific compounds before another would be used to neutralize the most toxic effects, with everything he’d been given working in tandem as different ratios were taken and mixed together, being heated again at specific times until he was finally done.

Left with a potion unlike any other, its inky black look would leave many hesitant to trust it but Ben had complete faith in his work, swirling it in its jar and watching the thick liquid stir.

It lacked the comforts of many other potions, he didn’t try to make something that would be at least somewhat palatable, nor did he make something that looked trustworthy to an uneducated eye. Neither step mattered for that floor. He’d been told to make a general healing potion and to the best of his ability, that was what he’d done, leaving only the question of if the gods would accept it.

Feeling himself tense up in both worry and excitement, he walked back over to the pedestal, a sure sign for the rest of them that he was finished as he placed it down and watched as it disappeared, not sure if that was a good or bad sign until a doorway appeared, bringing a bright grin to his face.

“Alright, looks like floor one has been successfully completed,” He said proudly, feeling great about just what he’d accomplished. “Now, who’s ready for floor two?”