Master Of None

Walker looked At the pair who seemed exhausted from their work. When he glanced at the cauldrons two of them swerve sealed meaning that they were both full of the antidote potion. If the two had taken so much out of them then Walker was sure that they wouldn't be able to make a third, or at least Remey would be unable to while the old master alchemist would need to do it alone. 

"Bahh I'm not really interested in some magical arrows. I will just stay here and try to experiment on the oozing vine more. I want that other bush to bloom and grow berries but Hilda said it would be another two weeks." The old man seemed unhappy to have to wait for another herb to experiment with. 

"Hey Remey, have you shown him the notes from the family that previously lived here?" Walker had realized that in all the time the master alchemist had been around they had not bothered to show him the shelves of journals in the basement. 

Her eyes widened and she looked at Walker like he had just opened up a grand understanding for her. "I completely forgot! Old man, we have something to show you for your research. But there are rules." 

Hearing that Remey was going to give the old man rules was a little surprising but Walker had wanted to do the same anyways. He would not allow there to be any harm or torture to monsters on the property ever again. If he had it his way it wouldn't happen on the entire continent. 

"There are some darker experiments done by the woman who lived here before. She may have meant well but her actions were not so nice. You are not allowed to use live monsters or harm monsters for ingredients. It is fine to procure them safely and humanely but if you use any other means we will get rid of you." Remey said this with all her steel, she was tired but she still had the energy to properly get her values across.

"Who do you think I am? You know what I am like and what I believe in. Now tell me what you have for me that could influence my years of research." The old man did not flinch at her words and responded with the same amount of steel as Remey. He knew how serious she was if she was bringing up her own morals. 

"Then before we get back to Gil let's go to the library basement." Walker led the way. The old man was wondering why they were heading to the library since he had clearly seen that it did not have a basement at all when he had been there to see what books they had. He did not find anything he already knew or wanted to read so he had given up on the books there. 

When they reached the library and no one was around Walker made a point of closing and locking the doors. He knew that no one would go down and sift through things to cause any trouble but he wanted to make sure that the youngsters, like Maria and Gale, didn't get stuck down there somehow. The way the entrance worked was secret and if they got stuck it would be a tragedy. 

When the entrance to the basement revealed itself the old man was stunned to say the east. In all his years he had not gone hunting for such places and never had the reason to go to one. When he entered the basement he recognized the caked attached to the wall and knew exactly why they had said there were rules. He knew that the previous owner of the mansion must have used this area for their experiments. 

"The tools down here and the books are all free for you to use, some are harder to read since they are written by someone mentally unstable, but they are worthwhile for you I am sure." Walker pointed at the bookshelves full of journals that the party had already looked over. He worried that the old master alchemist would become sickened by some of the things written in them but also knew that some of the journals were written based on positive ideals. 

"Some of those tools look handmade, they must be for specific potions. Interesting…" The old man did not touch the journals yet since he knew that when he did he would not stop reading until he had found every single little bit of knowledge. He was also interested in seeing what the tools could be used for, it was not the first time seeing hand made tools. Many of the alchemists at the alchemist building would have tools made to be used for their specific research, oftentimes they were just more advanced versions of basic equipment. 

"A lot of these tools are useless since they are used for taking living samples, I do not work that way. However, this one looks like it's used to keep the solids in a liquid while under pressure. This one is for removing seeds from a flower, ah and this is for shaving the skin off roots. Only a few moments passed and he had an entire armful of tools to bring up to the alchemy lab. 

"Should I just start to store all the journals so you can look at them in the alchemy lab?" Walker was beginning to see visions of many trips in and out of the library which would just end up wasting time. 

"Ah yes do that. I want every single one. I also want all the tools on the left side of the table that I sorted out." The old man was not picky at all and did not hold back. He requested everything so with the help from Remey the three of them got everything back up the stairs and out to the alchemy lab. 

Once they had set everything in an easily accessible place for the old master alchemist to read and study from they grabbed a few of the lower tier mana potions Remey had been successful in making while she practiced. "Now get out of here and let me have some peace to read. I will have all of these journals dealt with by the time you all get back from that quest of yours." 

With the old man shooing them out they had no choice but to oblige. "I can't believe we showed him all those journals and he still rushed us out. It's like he thinks I would distract him or something." Remey was naturally in a huff over it, but Walker saw right through her to the relief that she felt. She had been worried that when they left he would lock himself away at the alchemy building once again, at least when he was here someone would come to check up on him and he might even go out to speak with Gil's mother about herbs. 

"Right, there's no possible way you could distract anyone from doing something/." The sarcasm in his words did not spare Waker from the punch to the arm. He feigned extreme pain while she just pretended to ignore him. The two kept up this skit until they managed to enter the forge. 

"So I hear you are doing some cool stuff. I brought some mana potions so you can show off even more." Remey motioned for Walker to take them out of his inventory, he soon had five stacked up on the work table Gil was using. 

The wandering blacksmith had a wide smile seeing that there was a way for Gil to continue creating arrows. He had been entranced watching the arcane marksman skill to fuse the elemental crystals in to the arrows and produce mana crystal shards. This was a great byproduct of the process that could be used in many pieces of gear the wandering blacksmith would make. It was also valuable knowledge to see that the elemental mana can be removed and placed in another vessel. The wandering blacksmith had long thought of theories to do something like this but the flames of the forge would remove most elemental mana or change it in some way. If he could take knowledge from what Gil was doing then there was a chance that he would be able to make gear that enhanced ascertain elements and provided resistances to them. 

"I have managed to make one of the fire element arrows, two of the earth element arrows, and one of the darkness element arrows. I also have a light element arrow but to be honest I think this one might be a waste. Light element is usually for illusions and healing, what if the arrow somehow heals my target? What would be the point of that?" Walker could only agree, but he still thought that it was worth testing first. 

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