Dungeon Item Shop - Chapter 31: Moonwater (Patreon)

(Chapter edited - lots of 'bug fixes', no need to reread though.)

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Fresh sits on the floor outside of the front door, staring at the glowing dungeon gate that illuminates the plaza with a pale, cold glow that seems to amplify the chill of the night on her bare shoulders. She shudders, and rubs her arms for a moment, wishing she had a coat, before reaching down and pulling the box of potions closer to herself. It's dark outside. Well after nightfall and the girl yawns loudly to herself as if to prove that.

“Midnight maybe?” she wonders, gazing at the dark sky above her. It's hard to say what hour it is exactly. After the man had left, she and Jubilee sat there for a while, talking about how to proceed. She had asked again what the man meant by ‘risks’. The girl looks back to the dungeon-gate, feeling rather ominous about it now. The unlimited potential it had offered on her initial sighting of it is still there, but now she knows why nobody seemed to want to live here directly around it.

Because it isn’t just that adventurers go into the dungeon -

Sometimes. Sometimes on very dark nights, when the moon is particularly close and the stars are particularly bright, shining like a thousand watching eyes from the heavens above; sometimes things would come out of the dungeon too. Dark things that would creep in through loose windows, shadows that would crawl through tiny gaps in the walls and under doors, sneaking towards the beds of the unsuspecting. This is where the poor lived, the expendable. The gate was too valuable to not build the city around, it was a source of unlimited prosperity after all, in a sense. But that’s why the merchants were further away. To protect themselves. To protect their wares.

Fresh sighs and pulls out a single potion from the box. She really doesn’t know anything about this world thinks the girl. It should have chewed her up and spit her out more than once by now. She got lucky is all. But she can't count on that forever.

She looks at the flask in her hand. These would need some more work. Nobody would buy these. They looked awful. She would have to refine it some more. The same with the potion. It was rough. But there's something there to both of these things. They both just needed a little work. Fresh smiles as she connects the thought to herself and her friend.

They both just need a little more work.

She holds the flask up, the moonlight of the half-moon shining in dully through the glass, bounding off and refracting in all manner of directions.

Moonwater, huh? The girl closes her eyes and focuses, wondering how she’s supposed to use this ability? The menu had said that it was a passive, but it sounded like something she had to actively do to make, so…

She’s lost. The girl wishes the black-fountain had given her an instruction booklet.

Fresh blinks, rubbing her tired eyes. Wait. Looking down into her box, she grabs the giant book that the fountain had literally given her, her hands ruffling through the pages that somehow still felt just a little damp, as if they never dried. With an excited gaze, share stares the first page that her finger lands on.

[Witch] - [Moonwater]

Moonwater is a spiritually charged liquid, usually water, that has absorbed the energetic properties of the moon. The strength of the moonwater depends on the current phase of the moon. The fuller the moon, the stronger the effect.

Required:

x 1 Liquid Medium

Water serves as the best base, as it is pure. But other liquids can be used as well

x 1 Container

(Translucent)

x 1 Moon

x 1 You

x 1 Spiritually important item

Ideally something translucent, such as a crystal or gemstone, though any spiritually important item will suffice.*1

Instructions:

• Place liquid in container.
• Place an item with strong emotional meaning inside of the water.
• Place the container in moonlight.
• Channel the moonlight’s energy through yourself and into the water

*1 Please read 'Moonwater section two' before proceeding

Warning: Never make moonwater during an eclipse

“Huh…” says Fresh, staring at the page that she found immediately, as if she knew where it was. That seems easy enough. It seems like something that even she can do! Though… she looks down at the box, her ingredients aren’t ideal. Jubilee had said there was a fountain on the other side of the gate though, if she got thirsty in the night. Fresh nods to herself, getting up and taking the box with her and walking out over the plaza. It's the middle of the night and nobody was here. It would be fine if she just gets some water real quick.

The girl walks towards the gigantic gate, and then walks past it, around to the backside that she just now realizes she has never actually seen before.

The sound of trickling water catches her ear and she looks to her side, at the back of the gate. The backside of the gate is an entirely smooth stone surface all the way up from bottom to top. Though sitting near the bottom, spanning the width of the gate is a gigantic fountain. Simple. But big. Several vaguely ornate figures adorn the centerpiece, water leaking out of their mouths and trickling down into the basin. The water looks clean and clear. Jubilee had said it was good to drink, so it should be fine for this too, right?

Setting the box down, she grabs the empty pot and dunks it in, filling it with water and sets it down to her side. Bending down, she takes one of the potions and, grimacing, pours it out. Jubilee had told her not to drink any more until she found a way to reduce the chance of any side-effects. The girl sighs sadly, watching the orange droplets spill to the ground and seep away into the stones.

Washing the glass vial out, she fills it up with water too and sits down on the far edge of the fountain. The pot at her feet. The flask in her lap. The moon shines brightly against her and she looks around, making sure nobody is watching.

A spiritually important item, huh? Fresh thinks. She doesn’t have anything except her dress and… some Obols? Her first Obol. Her lucky Obol! The one she had left after meeting Jubilee. Of course!

Her hand digs into her pocket and she fumbles around, but then stops as something else comes into her grasp. Fresh pulls out the iron key, to the door to the adventurer’s guild and stares at it. It didn’t seem very hygienic but… somehow she feels like this is actually a stronger item for herself. It wasn't… it wasn’t just luck, that let her get this. She had worked for it. She had proved herself to Jubilee. Sort of. Smiling, Fresh takes the key and sticks it into the glass with some effort. Not all of it fits into the vial, but she feels like it’s enough to ‘count’.

With a curious expression, the girl holds the bottle out to let the moonlight envelop them both. Closing her eyes, she focuses.

Channel the moonlight’s energy? That sounds a little kooky even for her, but… well, it's a new world, right? She shakes her head, getting any thoughts of embarrassment out. There isn’t time for her to be afraid to make a fool out of herself, she has work to do.

With her eyes closed, she sits there and waits, her hands holding the glass in place. What does moonlight even feel like, she wonders? How do you channel it? Sunlight feels warm, right? She had felt it so many times now in this new life. The girl keeps smiling but her body shudders in contrast. It's icy cold out here at night, especially in this outfit of hers. But that's fine for now. Just a little longer. Just a minute or two and she could go back inside.

She focuses.

Something splashes behind her and the girl opens her eyes to look at the sound, breaking her focus. But Fresh see's nothing except for the vaguely moonlit water in the fountain. As she stares at it, a thought comes to her mind, interrupting her work entierly. Should she be doing this here? Outside? On the plaza? What if someone was watching her from a dark window?

Her eyes shoot open to scan the darkness of the round plaza. Thankfully she finds nobody watching her. The girl gulps. She almost messed up bad, she just realizes. Quickly gathering everything back together into the box, she picks it up and quickly hustles back towards the house, vanishing quickly into the door that she pulls tightly shut behind herself. The swearing words flying through her brain, praying that Jubilee wouldn’t find out about her latest blunder.

With a heavy sigh, Fresh leans against the door as she comes back inside and then goes to the right, setting the box down on the wooden floor and opening the downstairs window. Rubbing her head in frustration at herself, the girl sits down on the floorboards where nobody can see her. Moonlight shines in through the window and she tries again. Rebuilding her focus on the glass vial with the key in it.

Then she feels it. The moonlight.

It… it doesn’t feel much different than the sunlight does when it comes to touch her skin, notices the girl. It’s just not as intense or as warm. But, in a weird way that subtle feeling is still there, that sensation of light finding her body. Like a foggy presence. It feels… distant. Cool. It stems from the same place as the daylight, but it’s different. Softer. More elegant. The water of the fountain trickles on in the distance as she focuses. As she focuses on taking that feeling coursing in her body and pushing it all into one place through her fingers. Pushing it into the water.

Something chimes and she opens her eyes and stares at the glass flask in her hand. It seems to glow ever so slightly. The crystal water giving off a strange, cold, blueish white shine. As if it were radiating moonlight itself.

Moonwater

Moon Phase: First Quarter

Medium: Water

Strength: 50%

If drank:

+5% SOUL Regeneration - 12 Hours

+10% SOUL - 12 Hours

+ Purges dark spirits

Warning!

Moonwater carries a tinge of the witch inside of it and, unless processed or purified, should never be drank by anyone not of their title! Please read "Moonwater Section 2" for clarification on purification.

Moonwater has highly spiritually restorative and purifying properties and can be used in a variety of ways. From crafting to armor smithing to cooking, moonwater can be added to any recipe that needs water and will imbue its mystical properties onto said item.

Processing Moonwater: Moonwater can be used for any crafting recipes that require water. Additionally, moonwater can be used to anoint weapons and armor. The effects will vary depending on the criteria listed in "Moonwater section 3."

Moonwater is safe to consume if it has been processed into something else. If processed, moonwater will imbue moonlight energy into the item, equivilant to the strength of the moonwater.

PURE

180 mL

Value: ??

Fresh beams. It seems a little vague, but this could be really useful! Giddy, she grabs a potion to repeat the process. But this time with an already finished potion instead of just pure water.

Minor Antidote

+ Cures all minor ailments.

+ Removes all minor poisons.

+2% SOUL Regeneration - 8 Hours

+5% SOUL - 8 Hours

+ Purges dark spirits (50%)

- ???

A small antidote potion, contained inside of a rough glass container. Used to clear minor status effects from low level monsters and areas. This potion is glowing with magical energies.

Poor Quality

Side Effects Chance: + 25%

180 mL

Value: ??

Fresh looks at the bottle in her hand in excitement. The potion is glowing, giving off a light in the dark room. More importantly, it's just plain better than before, just with this! It lost an entire possible side-effect and the chance of getting any negative effects shrunk by a little. Plus it still gave some of the moonwater’s properties! Not as much as with the pure water, but still. The girl swirls the concoction around. This was significant for something that was 'free', right? This had to bump the value of their potions up by something! Besides, this was an already finished potion she had blessed with moonlight. What if she makes one from scratch using pure moonwater? It would be stronger, right?

If she can learn to make good potions, using pure moonwater during the crafting process then she can make them even better than this for sure, thinks Fresh. Maybe she can use the moonwater to imbue some items? Some trinkets or something? Maybe even a weapon? Would the moonwater have some kind of effect if gave some to a smith making a sword or an axe? Can she craft anything herself? The girl racks her brain, thinking about her craftsman recipes and the items that they have left in their stockpile, to see if there was anything that added up.

There's so much to do and the night is still young thinks the girl sitting there on the floor during the witching hour. Fresh beams and sets to work, deciding to first finish processing the rest of the potions, so that she can show Jubilee all of the things that she's made when they wake up in the morning. Fresh has a special idea, not sure where exactly it came from. The girl realizes that they still have the blue mushroom powder and she just so happens to have a recipe for that that might just work out nicely together with the moonwater.