Dungeon Item Shop - Chapter 32 (Patreon)

The bags under her eyes offer a stark contrast to the sparkling gaze that is held inside of them. This one here. This is the best one. By far. She had saved this one for last. Fresh swirls the single low-quality minor antidote around in her hands. She had spent the night carefully using her magic to smooth the glass down into a shape that is nearly perfect. This bottle looks like one that you could buy a ‘real’ potion in, down at the alchemist’s, apart from the fact that the crystalline glass is matte instead of translucent. Also, it still doesn’t have a lid, but that’s a secondary problem for now.

Birds sing outside as the sunlight shines in through the once again closed window. The warm rays gently stroke her back, as she sits there with crossed legs and examines every inch of the bottle to make sure that it’s perfect. It has to be perfect. She wants to present it to Jubilee.

She had blessed the contents with the moonwater passive in the night before. It was a strange feeling, blessing the liquid. In a sense it felt like she was draining her own energy to do it and it made her tired. But at the same time, energy from the moon came in to fill what was missing. It was… the same, but different. Like water from two different lakes not far apart from each other.

These can sell, thinks the girl. They really could. They just need a little more elbow grease and they would be ready.

But that was only one thing. The real seller, the real meat was still getting ready. Though it should have soaked through by now… Fresh sets the bottle down and pulls the pot of moonwater towards herself, staring at the floating blue powder she had sprinkled inside. The ground up blue mushroom cap. She had spilled a lot of it, but there was enough salvageable for this. Fresh holds her hands above the metal pot, just as a pair of small boots make their way down the stairs.

[Witch-Crafting: 2]{Cauldron Bubble}

(Fresh) [Witch-Crafting: Minor Soul Potion] (Low quality)

+ Restores 20% of SOUL

+5% SOUL Regeneration - 12 Hours

+10% SOUL - 12 Hours

+ Purges corrupting spirits

“You’re up early,” says Jubilee walking over to her and staring down at the pot. “What the fuck is that?”

“It’s a minor soul potion!” says Fresh. “I got it for my second witch-crafting recipe!”

Jubilee bends down to look at the blue, glowing substance in the pot. “What? No it’s not. Why is it… why is it glowing? What are these extra values? What did you do? Soul regeneration? Corrupting… what? What the fuck am I looking at?” Jubilee gets up, rubbing their eyes. “It’s too early for this.”

Fresh raises a finger and bobs her head from left to right with a sing-song tone. “Because of the moon-wat-er!” She leans in towards Jubilee. “I think it’s really good! Look!” she points to the stats window that Jubilee was already, and still is staring at.

“Twenty percent soul is pretty dinky. Really low level potion stuff,” they say, tilting their head and waving a hand idly. Fresh lowers her own hand and her gaze, disappointedly.

“Oh…” she turns her head to the side and rubs her arm. “Sor-“

Jubilee interrupts. “But these other stats together? Soul regeneration and a bonus to max soul points for a full twelve hours? All together in one potion? That’s good. It more than evens out.”

“Huh?”

“How much did this cost to make?” they ask, looking back to her.

Fresh looks at them curiously. Cost…? “The moonwater is free and you made the glass for the bottle. The only cost we have is one blue cap.”

“Fuck me. How many can you make from the one cap?”

Fresh thinks, rubbing her tired eyes. “Uh… I don’t know. I think they use up more of the cap if they’re bad quality. My best ones are low quality now. I think if I get lucky and only make them with low quality, then I can get three potions per blue cap?” she says thinking. “Maybe just two though.”

Jubilee thinks, their stance changing to one more loose and broad. “If we get some nice bottles and label these, these could really sell. Low level casters will drool over this stuff! Usually soul potions are really expensive.”

“They are?” asks Fresh.

“Oh yeah, the alchemists got the casters by the balls. Only the church gets a big discount on soul potions. Everyone else has to pay out. A minor potion with thirty percent will go for thirty obols, easily.

“THIRTY?!” asks Fresh, leaning forward and almost knocking over the pot. That seemed absurd, especially for a low level potion like these. Were soul potions really so hard to make?

“Yeah, but since ours only have twenty percent and we don’t have a reputation, nobody will pay that. But if we lower the price, we could make it back in numbers. Especially with these bonus values and since we have next to no costs. We’ll do the math later, but… fuck.” Jubilee looks back to her and nods approvingly. “Good job. You might really have something here.”

Fresh beams, clutching her hands together at the long-awaited praise. “Oh! Look!” She hands Jubilee the low quality antidote. “I finished this one too!”

They spin it around in their hands. “Wow,” they say, holding it up to the light. “You did good on the bottle. I really like it! It really stands out. But…”

They sigh and walk to the door, holding their hand out and pouring out the low quality minor antidote. Fresh squeaks and clutches her hair in a panic. “What are you doing?!” cries the girl.

“Nobody is going to buy a potion with these kinds of side-effects, dumb-ass. It’s worthless.” They shake the glass bottle out and walk back to Fresh, waving her off as they see her quivering lip. Jubilee bends down and dips the empty bottle into the pot, filling it up with the soul potion. “The antidotes need some more work. But you did good with the bottle and you did great with the soul potion.”

They swirl the bottle of glowing blue liquid around. “I know somebody who I can ask about this. Are you going to behave while I’m gone?” asks Jubilee, getting up. Fresh relents with a sigh, accepting this as a partial victory. But a victory nonetheless.

“Okaaaaay~”

In truth she’s already thinking about going to bed. Maybe she can open her window upstairs and just fall asleep in the sunlight? That sounds nice. The girl yawns. It was a long night. Being a witch is exhausting. Maybe she needs to become a night-owl if she has to be up at night so often.

“Can the moonwater be used for other things too? Like crafting equipment and weapons?” asks Jubilee, heading back to the door.

Fresh nods and rises up to her feet, stretching and yawning. “I think so, the grimoire said something about that too,” she says, covering her mouth.

“Fuck me, you really might end up being useful after all.” Jubilee nods to her. “Good night.”

The girl smiles and heads to the stairs, waving goodbye to her friend with a happy smile. “Good night.”

A moment later she goes upstairs, walking past the many still sealed doors and enters the empty room that is hers. Fresh feels happy. Tired. But happy. It was a long night. But she earned her friend’s approval. She finally did something right, she finally did something good. She can’t help but let out another happy noise as she pulls open the window to feel the bright sun on her cold face and she feels a new joy at the prospect of finally getting some sleep.

Fresh opens her eyes and stares out at the plaza. At the crowd of people all surrounding the fountain on the back of the gate. All of them wear robes and dresses and the usual caster fare. All of them babble like the fountain as they talk excitedly, as they all hang around the mildly glowing, sparkling water. All of them look at it and each other. Happy, excited faces adorning each and every one of them, as they readily fill pouches and flasks by the dozens.

Fresh jumps up in shock as a loud crash rings out from behind her. Jubilee stands at the door, their fingers straining as they clutch the handle tightly. Their eyes open wide in angry, furious exasperation.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

Fresh scratches her cheek, laughing meekly.

“I… I made moonwater?”