“What’s with the shop?” Moxy asked as Asher pulled them out of his Personal Rift in the alleyway in front of Helpha’s shop. He’d nearly pulled his teammates out on the shop floor, before realizing one person trespassing in the closed shop was probably bad enough.

  “It’s a weapons shop, run by a ferrum. She’s an elemental-kin named Helpha,” he explained. “She sold me Crescent, my masterwork mithral dagger, and she’s currently repairing an old dagger of mine. I keep trying to catch her to ask how that’s going, but she’s rarely in. She mines all her own metals and smiths all her own weapons on top of selling them, so her shop is rarely open.”

  “Oh, an elemental-kin? Those are always interesting,” Moxy said, looking at the door as if wondering just what weapons lay on the other side. “I’d heard there used to be a rather famous one who fought in the underground fighting rings a few years back, before he sustained too much damage and had to stop fighting. Think he was born from the Steel element if I remember correctly.”

  Elemental-kin were people born from a blended skill; one combining the Life element with another. Having the Life element didn’t guarantee a person would end up with a blended skill capable of creating them, but every so often, it happened. Moxy herself had the Life element, but her blended skill between Life and Pelts only allowed her to temporarily bring the pelts covering her form back to life for a short time.

  Asher was somewhat glad she didn’t have the power to create entirely new life, as he feared she would go about summoning her own army in an attempt to force powerful people to fight with her.

  “He couldn’t just repair himself?” Samantha asked as they left the alleyway and began making their way over to the potion shop. Technically, none of them had valid papers for Dormaul anymore, which meant traveling between levels might be a problem. If a guard actually stopped them, they’d either have to turn and run, or figure out rather quickly how well received bribes were within the mountainous city.

  “Nah, only the elemental-kin’s original creator is capable of repairing them,” Moxy explained. “And seeing as most of them outlive their creators, once they’re gone, there’s not much they can do.”

  “Wilna, the craston in Whikoga’s library, told me that a powerful enough wizard should be able to fill in for the creator. But it would mean the elemental-kin putting their very lives in the wizard’s hands,” Asher mentioned offhandedly as he navigated based off the map of Dormaul he’d Incorporated ages ago.

  Wilna had also told him that he was now technically an immortal, revealing to him that his Eternity element’s passive had completely stopped him from aging. But that was one secret he wasn’t prepared to reveal to his team just yet. He’d tell Samantha sooner or later, of course, seeing as they didn’t keep anything from one another. Just…

  Not quite yet.

  It didn’t take long for Asher to lead them to the potion shop, and he chuckled as he took in the large ‘Polly’s Potions’ sign hung up over the door as he led them inside. A small ding from the bell above the door announced their arrival, and Asher had the forethought to start breathing through his mouth this time, remembering the cluster of powerful smells he’d been slapped in the face with the last time he’d been here.

  “I can’t say I like potion shops very much,” Rulfar admitted, the large man busy holding his nose shut with one hand as his head all but scraped against the ceiling. “Too many smells. I can isolate specific smells rather well, but completely nullifying my nose is impossible.”

  “Welcome to Polly’s Potions!” a woman in a heavy-duty apron called out, walking out of the backroom as she peeled off two thick gloves stained with a whole rainbow of colors. “If you haven’t guessed… Hey, I remember you!”

  “Hello again, Polly,” Asher smiled, waving at the alchemist. “How’s business been?”

  “Oh, I can’t complain,” Polly shrugged, leaning back against her desk as she took in the whole party. “I see you brought friends! I hope this means you’re planning on buying four times the potions as last time?”

  “Not quite,” he said, trying not to laugh at the disappointed look on her face. He let her be depressed for just a few seconds longer before he continued. “…Try more. A lot more.”

  “Well now, you should have started with that!” Polly said, laughing along with him as she tapped her massive catalog filled with the hundreds of different potions she was capable of making. “Order enough potions and I’ll give you guys a discount on the total cost. How many are you thinking anyway?”

  Asher looked up at Rulfar, who tried and failed to grunt while holding his nose, before sighing. “Maybe a few thousand?”

  “Thou-!” Polly choked, coughing for a moment before clearing her throat and looking at them all like they were crazy. “What is this? Are you some sort of roving merchant gang intending to buy here and sell my product for a higher price in another city?”

  “No, we’re really intending to use them all ourselves,” Asher reassured her. “We have a rather unique method of storage, and we don’t know what we’re going to be facing in the near future, so we wanted to be prepared.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Ahhh, you should have led with that,” Polly said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but that won’t work.”

  “What do you mean?” Rulfar frowned.

  “Let me ask you something instead,” Polly said, tapping the large book beside her again. “Why do you think I make most of my potions from scratch after they’ve been ordered?”

  “I figured you just didn’t have them prepared,” Asher admitted.

  “Yes. But it’s the why I didn’t have them prepared that’s important,” she explained. “Potions are volatile, concentrated magic. A combination of magical reagents used to temporarily replicate skills. That much concentrated magic is dangerous, and we can’t fully contain it, despite our best efforts. It’s fine to have a couple of different potions all stored together, or even a few dozen if the proper precautions are taken. But a few hundred? You need some serious investments just to prepare the storage. A few thousand? Can’t be done.”

  “Hypothetically, what would happen if someone tried to store a few thousand potions together?” Samantha asked, her own nose wrinkled from the many scents as well.

  “A hypothetically large explosion most likely,” Polly snorted. “One with potentially random magical effects. My shop is enchanted to bleed out some of the lingering magic that potions give off, allowing me to store more than a regular merchant could, but seeing as you four didn’t even know about this interaction, I’m willing to bet whatever ‘unique storage’ you have prepared doesn’t have the same precautions, does it?”

  “No. No it does not,” Asher admitted, wondering if he’d even be able to feel it if he detonated a powerful explosive in his Personal Rift.

  “Damn it, I had no idea,” Rulfar swore, scrunching his eyes shut. “I don’t linger in potion shops because of the smells, and I never had the need to buy more than a few potions at a time.”

  “It’s alright, Carrot, none of us knew,” Moxy shrugged, calling him by the nickname she knew he hated. For whatever reason, Moxy seemed to like giving nicknames to people. Asher was ‘Runt,’ ever since he’d first faced off against her back in Loratta’s compound. Samantha was understandably ‘Wings,’ seeing as she had the Wing element and could manifest large, emerald green wings whenever she wanted.

  And Rulfar was now ‘Carrot,’ on account of the fact that they’d found him hibernating underground as he healed from his injuries, curled up in the dirt like a giant carrot, according to Moxy.

  “Even if we can’t grab a few thousand, we can still pick up a decent number of potions it sounds like,” Samantha said, heading off the argument between her two companions before it could even begin. “Polly, how many potions can be safely kept in one large, enclosed room?”

  “Depends on a few factors,” Polly said, giving them a curious look. “Exactly how large are we talking, and how’s the ventilation?”

  “A good ten times the size of this lobby,” Asher said before hesitating. “…and no ventilation whatsoever.” While his Personal Rift was pretty large at this point, it really was an entirely sealed room tucked away in another dimension somewhere. He’d never really thought too hard about where that somewhere was.

  “None whatsoever?” Polly repeated, cracking up at the thought. “Oh man, that would have been one hell of an explosion. Size-wise, you’re pretty set, but no ventilation is a comically bad idea. If you want a zero percent chance of explosion? I’d recommend not going over three dozen potions. You could probably do twice that and be good for a couple of days, but without any ventilation, the magic will simply continue to build until it reaches critical mass and goes off.”

  “That’s unfortunate… but at least we figured that out before we blew ourselves up,” Asher said, getting nods all-round from his team. “In that case, I suppose the next order of business would be going through the catalogue and picking out what we want to take with us. You guys can each carry a few on your person as well, so that gives us a few more we can bring.”

  “By all means, take your time!” Polly said, smiling as she patted the catalogue and pulled her gloves back on. “I’ll be in the back. Just holler if you need me!”

  As soon as Polly left, Asher threw up a Spatial Lock to block sound. Not that he thought Polly would even be capable of hearing them from the back room, but it was something he’d grown used to doing anytime the four of them were talking about their mission.

  “Other than the potion of Bright Sight, I’ve got none on me at the moment,” Asher said. “What do you guys think we should stock up on?”

  “The first chunk is easy,” Rulfar said, nimbly opening the catalog with one hand as he continued to hold his nose shut. Flipping through the pages, he tapped a finger against the potion with ‘Popular Item!’ written beside it. “Potions of Lesser Restoration. I think we should fill half of our allotment solely with Lesser Restoration.”

  “Really? Seems like a bit of a waste when I have my Life element, Samantha has Soothing Spring, and Asher literally can’t die,” Moxy pointed out. “Not to mention your own weird Hibernation skill. If all four of us can heal, we probably don’t need that many healing potions.”

  “We could run out of energy, or need to heal in a pinch,” Rulfar argued, shaking his head as he tapped his finger down again. “Trust me, I understand where you’re coming from, but it’s the best use of our limited resources.”

  “I’m with Rulfar on this one,” Asher said, remembering the sheer number of times he’d been forced to rely on potions of Lesser Restoration himself. “I can heal, but it’s not fast. Sometimes I need to heal in the middle of a fight, so I’m all for loading up on these. Although I’d like to make one correction.” Moving slightly down the page, Asher tapped a spot lower, grinning as Rulfar began to chuckle. “Seeing as I’m rich, I might as well go with potions of Restoration rather than the lesser version. Far more expensive, but also far more powerful.”

  “Those will heal just about anything shy of death,” Rulfar nodded. “Though look here. Polly included a note that those are limited due to the rare ingredients required to make them. Let’s take as many as we can, and fill the other slots with the lesser versions.”

  “Sounds good,” Asher agreed, turning to Samantha and Moxy. “Well, if we fill up half our slots with healing potions, that still leaves us with about twenty slots to fill, not even including the potions we want to keep on our persons. Anyone want to take a look at the catalogue?”

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