Trigger-Happy Potioneer

First Brew

I understood immediately what Melly meant. The field was jam-packed with all kinds of newbies looking for a kill. The forest, however, looked strangely empty. I went there instead.

The moment I entered the woods, a bunch of sparkling circles appeared in my view. "What the heck?" I wondered aloud, I moved towards one of the closer circles. In the center of the glittery effects was a strange plant with blue-green leaves. If the circle didn't point it out, I probably would have missed it. I picked it up by the stalk, and the grass popped out of the ground. The circle vanished. I brought the grass closer to my face. It smelled faintly of lemons, and had a rough texture. When I touched a blade of grass with my other hand, a sudden window came up.

Citrona Heart Grass quality: fair

A herb? Excitement gripped me and I began to look around for other marks. I pocketed the Citrona Heart Grass in my inventory and ran towards another circle. I was about to really get into collection mode when a message popped up in my face. It was from Azrael. Are you okay? We can't find you.

I sent back, I'm fine, then played with the message settings until I found the "block all messages and location" setting and turned it on. I didn't know it actually existed, but at least I hoped. I went back to raiding collection points and filling up my inventory. No more distractions can stop me now!

About forty collection points later, I picked up a prickly, spade-leafed plant that resembled poison ivy. I avoided the leaves, which emitted a purplish miasma, and tapped the bulb on top of the stem.

Venom Ivy Seed quality: excellent
A highly poisonous plant that causes almost instant death upon consumption.

Goodness, that's horrifying. However, I noticed that this time more information popped up. I checked my skills.

Current Traits

[Alchemy 1] [Throw 1] [Eagle Eye 3] [Enchant 1] [Archery 1] [Crafting 1] [Mixing 1] [Mana Control 1] [Discovery 6] [Combining 1]

[Eagle Eye] and [Discovery] went up. It must have been the level 5 bonus that added information. Does [Eagle Eye] level up since it's related to sight? I don't know.

After a bit more collecting, I collapsed in an open space. I felt sweat dripping down my nose and watched drops of glistening fluid plop on the ground in front of me. "Too... much... exercise." I wiped the sweat off my face with a hand, sat back on my butt with my arms behind me, and then looked around.

I was surrounded by trees, bushes, and grass. The area I was sitting in was like a mini circular clearing, and the sun shined down from the virtual sky. I scrolled through my items. "I should probably use some of this stuff." I decided. Just holding onto them and selling them as raw material would likely be less profitable among players and NPCs. Probably.

I set out my mixing set and a cloth to put everything on top of. I tapped the mortar, and a small window appeared.

Mixing

To produce anything, grind the ingredients in the mortar with the pestle. Boil and mix the resultant powder to complete production. Bottle result for later use.

... That's extremely vague. No wonder people gave up on this trait; most people would be loath to actually investing effort into learning how to make different things. They would rather fight and level and be productive members of the gaming society.

Not me, though. This explanation means I can do whatever I want with my materials, granted I have enough ingredients. My mind spun as theoretical recipes began popping up in my head. I laid out my herbs and grasses. Along with the citrona heart and venom ivy, I had these: