Richard sighed as the bus pulled into the Bug Dungeon’s parking lot. He had spent the night thinking over what he had learned about the Alchemy skill that he received. It was definitely a boon, but it could also be something that might chain him down in ways that he didn’t want. Being stuck underground in a guild base doing nothing but churning out potions would be a bleak existence. So would being hounded by people wanting potions made all of the time.

  While that might not have happened if he had gotten a F Rank version of the skill. There was no way to tell what lengths people would go through if they knew that he had the S Rank version. Richard didn’t earn the skill level, he knew that. It came to him with just a bit of luck. Maybe more than a little bit. Yeah. Probably a dump truck load of luck if not more.

  He got off of the bus and entered the Dungeon Center. Once inside he found it wasn’t very busy and he quickly checked in and entered the first floor. There was more than a small amount of temptation to return to the Slime Dungeon. That way he could get the materials needed to try a potion right away. Though he would then need to find the equipment needed to craft said potion.

  Instead Richard decided to continue at the Bug Dungeon. Yes, the day might turn out to be a loss. But since he had gotten a recipe for a vial, there must be a drop for making a potion with it right? The Slime Dungeon had both the Blue Core Vial and the Healing flower. He decided to put in a full day’s exploring and then hopefully luck in the drop needed for the potion. Assuming that he wasn’t just seeing patterns where there weren’t any.

  The crunch of the club impacting the beetle reminded him that he shouldn't let his mind wander too much. Otherwise his bad habit could do something more than disappointing those around him. Richard watched as a carapace dropped, stowed it, and then continued on down the tunnel.

  It was a good day when he got one of the Healing Flowers from the Slime Dungeon. As on his third kill Richard had already gotten a different item to drop. After being in the red the day before Richard was a little bummed. While he hadn’t truly struggled with money, there was always UBI. Needing it was something that didn’t make him happy. And with the drop showing up early his day had become a good one.

  It was a yellow sac of something. Almost like a thick skinned, but under filled, water balloon. When he stretched it out a familiar shape appeared, it looked almost as if the beetles stomach had been removed and knotted shut at the top and bottom. He sloshed it around in his hands for a moment before he read its name.

  Black Beetle Stomach

  He already had all of the information to know that it was probably the stomach drop. From when he saw the item on the screen in the DC yesterday. Richard looked at it a moment more and shook his head. He was tempted for a moment to try opening it. But then, considering that he didn’t know what the beetles were even eating, his skin crawled at what he might find inside.

  After several hours of fighting and gathering drops Richard checked his status. His level was still 3, though there was another red dot next to Alchemy. When he opened it he found two things were different.

  First he had another recipe, Mana Potion. It took a vial and the Beetle Stomach that he had found earlier. So it seemed like he was going to need to open the stomach after all. Unless he was just supposed to toss the whole thing into the mix? Maybe boil it? Or stew it?

  The second thing that was different was the recipe for the Black Carapace Vial. Instead of being the same dim color as the rest of the recipe list, it was much brighter. And Richard had a feeling that he could interact with the window. His hand reached forward only to stop. He took a quick look around to make sure that there wasn’t anyone or any monster nearby. And only then did he press a finger on the recipe for the vial.

  Would you like to create a Black Carapace Vial?”

  Richard tried to will his consent to the window. Nothing changed right away. But then another window appeared on top of the recipe list. It was empty of any text and simply had an image of the Black Carapace Vial.

  Like before he somehow knew what to do, and he reached forward and retrieved the vial from the window. His fingers dug into the window and Richard felt like his hand was pushing through wet clay.

  The window closed as soon as he had taken the vial. He looked at the vial in his hand, it was opaque and yet almost translucent. The vial was diamond shaped and there was a stopper made of the same material. When he shook it there sounded to be a small amount of liquid inside.

  When he first got the recipe for the vial he was wondering just how the hell he was going to make it. But since the System seemed to be happy to take care of the process for him Richard could only see that as a win. What did it mean that he was able to create something without any tools? Richard looked at the vial and found that the system provided him with some information on it.

  Weak Black Carapace Vial

  It wasn’t much. But it told him that it worked, but also that there was something wrong with how he had made it. The Weak word being there on the item but not in the recipe suggested that there would also be a normal version, as well as maybe a strong one. There could also be qualities outside of weak, normal, and strong.

  He looked at the recipe list and found that Black Carapace Vial was still lit up, probably since he still had a number of carapaces still sitting in his satchel. Richard was surprised, but also happy, to see that the recipe for the Mana Potion was also now lit up. Should he craft one? Was it possible to sell it to the DC?

  Richard tapped his foot on the ground for a moment. He tilted his head from side to side. And then finally looked around again and confirmed that he was still by himself in the tunnel. Not wanting to hesitate any longer he reached out and pressed the recipe for the Mana Potion. Like before the System confirmed with him that he wanted to make it. And when he consented the vial in his hand faded away.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Not a second later the window with the completed Mana Potion appeared in front of him. The vial looked the same, only the piece of carapace acting as a stopper had turned a blue color. Was that really all that had changed? Richard reached forward and pulled the potion out of the window. There was a little more heft to it than before and it appeared to be full. As far as he could tell it was a completed potion. How or where did that feeling come from? Was it his skill? Or was the system just giving him the information? When he let the System id appear it was a Weak Mana Potion. What made it weak? His level 0 Alchemy? Since it was S rank shouldn’t he be able to make stronger potions? Or was there an issue with the ingredients?

  There was a clatter further down the tunnel. Richard reacted by putting the hand with the potion in it behind his back. Only when he watched for who might be coming there was no one. With quiet steps he moved towards the sound and noticed that a beetle was climbing the wall. Slowly it placed its legs in the cracks and footholds. And once it reached the hanging moss it started to nibble away.

  Richard retreated and looked for a low hanging bit of the moss which he tugged free. The light within it died out right away and he found that it was recognized by the system.

  Pale Mana Moss

  Only when he checked his recipe list it hadn’t been updated. He looked for the beetle but it had already moved on. The beetle ate the moss. The beetle’s stomach was a material for mana potions. The unadulterated moss wasn’t a material, at least by his recipe list. So there must be something in the beetle’s stomach or the act of them chewing on it that created such a material that could be used for Alchemy and mana potions.

  Interesting. Were there other such relationships between monsters, their environments, and their drops? It didn’t really make sense for slimes to drop flowers. But there was either more information needed to find the link, or there wasn’t always a relationship between the drops and the environment.

  While it would be interesting to continue looking into such a relationship. Richard had neither the time nor the resources to do so. He made a mental note to get a journal to keep with him to write down anything he wanted to remember in the future. Dungeon research has always been a huge subject. Though it was plagued by unsubstantiated claims by people who didn’t know what they were talking about. And were just looking to make a buck or a moment of fame.

  He shook his head and looked at the Mana Potion in his hand. It seemed like potions had a small chance to drop from most monsters. And while he didn’t know the drop table for the beetles by heart, there was a chance that it could happen. Wouldn't it be exciting to receive payment for a mana potion? And it wasn’t like he would be able to afford the taxes on such an item to take it out of the dungeon.

  With that in mind Richard decided to sell it. Some extra income would help him keep his finances in better shape. But it would also make it so that he didn’t have to work as long or as hard. He needed a total of 14 carapaces to make some profit compared to the 10 Blue Slime Cores. With the potion he might be able to call it a day right there and then. But he needed to at least hang out for 4 hours in order to get the wall taxes waived…

  Once outside of the dungeon Richard checked the buy list for the Black Beetle drops. The Black Beetle Stomach still was missing a price. Next he confirmed the price for the carapace was still the same. But he wasn’t able to find a listing for the potion from the first floor drops. Instead he found it under a general drop and it was valued at a price of $22,500. Which was way more than just the prices of the carapace. Would the stomachs have a likewise high price? Was that why they weren’t listed?

  Potions appeared to be a really good way to make some more money.

  When Richard placed the counting tray down with the 7 carapaces he had found along with the potion the receptionist did a double take. “A potion huh? That’s quite rare here. Even more so for a Weak Mana Potion,” Alison said. Her blue hair shoulder length had started to fade and the dark roots were showing. Richard had interacted with her yesterday as well. But she didn't speak any more than necessary and seemed to be eternally on the edge of burning out. But this time she had said more in one sentence than all the time that he knew her.

  “Right. There isn’t any problem with it is there? I don’t think that I could afford the tax on it,” Richard said. 25 percent of $22,500 might just wipe out any earnings he had for the day.

  “No. I don't think so. The System is telling me what it is. So there’s no problem there. Usually people hide or keep them,” she looked towards the back for a moment. “at least that is how the story goes.”

  Alison finished counting the 7 carapaces and then sent Richard the total for the day, a whopping $22,782. Subtracting the equipment rental he had 12k more than he did in the morning. He had to put his mini celebration on pause as she had already looked past him and asked for the next person to come forward.

  Richard was ecstatic about the daily earnings and wondered if there was a way to become a full time alchemist. Entering the dungeon was fun enough. But what if he didn’t need to do it every day? A work life balance of some days in the dungeon, some days making potions, and some days lazing at home would be ideal.

  ***

  One good thing about the hour long bus ride was that it gave Richard a chance to look up more on dungeons. He found a website for a Crafter's Union. It seemed like it was somewhat of a guild and a store front. And was composed of crafters who had banded together for protection from being nabbed up by the bigger guilds.

  Only bad part of it was that there wasn’t a local branch nearby, and instead it was located in Rowan City. Which made sense, since most of the people and jobs were located there before the dungeons. It only got worse after the dungeon breaks as people felt less safe outside of the cities and the walls.

  He was in luck however. As there were not one, but two different ‘safe’ dungeons in Rowan. So he should be able to get some new drops and maybe make some different kinds of potions. For once he was looking forward to tomorrow.

  ****

  Alison clocked out and flopped onto the breakroom table. Her replacement hadn’t shown up and she ended up pulling a 12 hour shift. The money would be nice. But the downtime she missed was sorely needed. Too often had the new staff just bugged out, not even bothering to properly quit. The new generation sucked.

  The door opened and her boss entered. “Hey Ali, did you buy that Mana Potion this afternoon?” Sam asked. He had a scar running through his one eyebrow, otherwise he was all business. Slick, but short dirty blond hair, and an ever present striped tie. She tried counting them once, he wore a new one everyday, and yet she still couldn’t remember seeing the same one twice.

  “That’s riiiight,” she said. “Who else would be here? Just me. Only me.”

  “I’ve never seen one like this before. Didn’t you think that was something that should have been addressed before you spent $22,500 on it?”

  “System said that it was a Mana Potion. So I took that as verification enough. Not that I’ve ever seen one before either.”

  “Hrm… I mean. Yes, the system is flagging it as one. But I’ve never seen one with a black vial before. Do you remember who you bought it from?”

  She looked up him finally. “Sam. I can barely think good words now. Check the logs. It all went through on the guy’s dungeon ID,” she said and climbed to her feet. “Now I’mma going home to napsville. Maybe I’ll even have food first. But sleep now. No work.” She tottered out of the center unaware of anything else that Sam might have said to her.