Greetings! this little story came into my head yesterday, so I made a quick little story out of it. The game being played is Royal Roads from the light novel, Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. A great story, I highly recommend it.
I watch as Jesse drives off laughing with tears in his eyes and flip the television screen off. I have seen the scene too many times to have to watch the rest. I pop the Breaking Bad disk out of my DVD player and put it back in the box set case. I wish they made shows like they did in the teens. Now it's all shit reality shows and trashy women with no morals.
I hear men enter the room I was watching the TV in. "Sir, the installation is complete. Enjoy Royal Roads." I had bought the new Pod from unicorn the day before and the men arrived this morning, and just finished installation apparently. I don't even know why i want to play the game so bad. I don't want to spend my off time at work killing things with a sword or anything. I am more of a manipulative bastard in that regard. Sure people may call me a lunatic, but my response is always, "I feel empathy and can sympathize with the plight of man, I just choose not to."
Why risk my life for so little gain, or be some two shoes goody merchant that has to kiss ass everyday to make a good sale. I will become what Royal Roads doesn't have, the kingpin of the drug underworld! I will make myself a household name that strikes hate and respect in peoples' hearts!
I climb into the machine to start my new adventure. Arriving in a strange white space, I find myself without a body. a female voice sounds over the void, "What do you wish for your name to be?"
"Heisenberg." Why not honor the show that is making me set out on this path? Without it, I would probably take some generic name like Keith or Michael. My model is a male, as I am. Longish black, aristocratic looking, twenty year old with surprisingly piercing eyes. A nice trim beard combo that I take care of daily. I am a pure English-born, so slightly pale skin.
I have to laugh everytime I look at myself. I am a lowly dock worker that looks like a young king. I take a lot of hazing for that when I started working there, but even if I work hard and put on muscles, my face just got thinner and angles more pronounced. Making me look more royal.
The next option is the race. I can choose from twenty-nine different races. After hesitating slightly, I chose Half-Elf. They get a boost to their CHA and ears aren't that noticeable, so if someone is racist towards elves, I can just hide as a human.
"Would you like to take the tutorial?" the voice asks when I finish examining my avatar. Shrugging, I agree. I am in no rush to get into the game. I have to stay in my starting city for a week anyways. A bit extra time in the creator is no problem.
I am put in a simple obstacle course. Just basic climbing, walking, strafing and jumping to familiarize myself with the new movement. I guess this is for people who change their height and need to adjust their center of gravity. I also get a booklet that explains to me how everything levels up and the parts to the menu.
Reading the booklet, I find something that will come in extreme use later. The journal feature that lets me take personal notes that runs off the Phoenix software. The successor for the Dragon voice to text software of the old days. I reach the end of the course and wait for whatever to happen that lets me get on with the creator.
Ten minutes pass and I am getting frustrated. I even reread the blasted book while calling for help every once in a while, trying to trigger the AI, until I lose it thirty minutes in. "Goddammit! Let me go start the game you stupid machine!"
A human voice speaks over the void around me, "Is there a problem, player? You have been sitting there for a half an hour."
"Damn right there is a problem! I just took the tutorial and I've been stuck here since I finished it!"
"Wait. You actually took the tutorial? Hold on for a minute… Here's the problem! We didn't program any scripts for when people finished the tutorial! We thought everyone would skip it!" Thank you for helping us with this bug. On behalf of Unicorn, I grant you one free non-combat skill for when you get into the game as an apology. Let me just… There we go! I got it, got it!" The voice says, fading out.
"Which area do you wish to start in?" I hear the Ai ask me. Seems they fixed the problem.
"How about the human main city." A flash of light and I am standing in the middle of a plaza of bustling people. Smirking at the graphics, I take off in a general direction to get out of the crowd and find the nearest alchemy shop. Can't sell drugs without making drugs.
It takes HOURS to find the alchemy shop because it is hidden in the poverty district's alleyways! Cursing my luck and lack of intelligence on the city layout, I enter the little shop. It smells of herbs and tea, with a counter at the back and selves of minor potions on the walls. The shop keep is a old man with white hair, grinding away at something in a mortar and pestle on the counter.
Walking up to the counter, I start the conversation, "Hello sir. I have a question that you can answer."
"What?" The man behind the counter asks as he continues to grind what I see is a root into a fine powder.
"I would like to become an Alchemist by trade and not hobby. Where would I go to learn this trade?"
The man stops grinding and looks up at me for the first time. he has a glint of curiosity in his eyes, "Here, but why would you want to be an alchemist? We don't make much money. I've been doing this since I was a lad and this store nearly caused me to go bankrupt!"
Why lie to the man that could teach me the way to my success. "I will be blunt and honest with you. I wish to bring drugs and destruction to this land by way of alchemy and start an empire around it, hopefully one day ruling the world."
"..." The NPC stares at me.
"..." I stare at the NPC.
"I… I don't know how to respond to that." The man puts down his mortar and rubs his chin, thinking. "Well… who am I to get in the way of a dream… No. I see in your eyes it this is no dream. A goal that big. There are only five full time alchemists in this kingdom, including myself. In the world, there are thirty alchemists, but no foreigners ever try this for full time. It would be nice to add another to our ranks, even with your… less than legal mindset."
A message dings in front of my eyes, a hovering text box that reads, "You have been offered the class of Alchemist! Do you accept? Y/N"
"Yes. Thank you sir for the chance," I say, giving him a slight bow.
The man silently gets up and puts a closed sign in front of his door. "Follow me youngster. I need to show you the basics to the craft." We go into a backroom area which is littered with crates of potions, plants, dried or otherwise and tanks that are growing plants that are yet to mature. The man hands me a mortar and pestle with a root.
"This is how you grind a plant. Follow my movements and be patient. It takes a bit to fully finish the entire root." I watch closely as he grinds the dried root to a powder, following his movements the best I can. After a few minutes, a message sounds, telling me that I have learned how to Grind.
The man continues to teach me his craft's basics. We go onto how to mix the ingredients in a bowl to make a potion, ointment, soap, or whatever else that I would need to know. In the end, he taught me herbology to find and extract the plants. Appraisal, so i know what I am selling is really worth. Identification, I need to know what i make and what it does. Knife Work and handicraft to better cut the ingredients with accuracy. Last is farming, so I can grow my own ingredients and make it benefit better from my care.
"Now, you are a new foreigner yes? Yes. You will need a job as you get better at our craft, so you will be working the counter as I make up new potions! You can do basic grinding and alchemy while you wait for sales!"
He pushes a smock into my hands, along with a mortar, roots, and a recipe. "You can make a perfume out of these that draws people to the shop! When your done make these! No out, out!" He pushes more recipes into my hands and pushes me out the door to the counter. Locking the door after me.
Straightening my threadbare clothes, I put the smock on and get to work on the perfume. While I grind, I remember a free skill from the creator. "System, skill!" This brings up my skill menu where I see everything I just learned from my mentor… I don't even know his name. On the bottom, a skill slot is filled with, "Pick your skill! Say 'skill slot activate'"
Shrugging, I continue grinding as I say the passphrase. The menu brings down a short list of skills I can learn. Things that I could get by myself easily, but with this, i don't have to hunt for them. The list is, "Identification, which is greyed out, Repair, Fishing, Cooking, Handicraft, grey, Acting, Barteri-" Acting? I select it to see the details on the skill.
Acting: Hides your emotions behind a mask of your creation!
That… That is bound to come in handy when I am dealing with the more dangerous individuals. I select it and immediately feel the effect. My face muscles relax a bit and I think of a pleasant and inviting smile. My face moves on its own and takes the wanted expression. I feel it give back to my normal neutral bored face, but I renew it and keep the mask as I work. The skill leveling up the longer I hold the smile.
The plant I am grinding for the perfume which I note down in my journal, mountain red daisies and the buds off a wild boar flower. A common flower found outside the city walls. I keep any seeds I extract from the pair. The smell from the ground plants is enticing already and it isn't even combined with each other yet.
Like instructed in the recipe, I mix them in a bowl with the amount of water told to use, stirring them until they are blended together into an even more inviting smelling liquid. That done, I set it to the side of the counter… Wait… I didn't reopen the store! Hopping the counter, I go over to the door and take the closed sign off.
Good thing I remembered that or I would have been fired on day one. I go back and start the other recipes, cleaning the pestle for each ingredients. noting what is what and the affects it has on potions and with each other along with the location if I ever need to find where they grow and what is the best environment i need to grow them at.
The recipes my mentor gives me is the remedy of poisons and said poisons. This helps me learn what does what and how to counteract the poisons in plants. I think this is my mentor's way of not so subtly pushing me towards my goals in this realm. Mna, I couldn't have found a better teacher if I tried!
I just grind and mix the recipes for five hours until the shop is time to close. My mentor comes out and looks over my potins, telling me what I did your and how to improve. After the kind advice, he tosses me out of the shop and tells me to go to the training hall to take basic training for my knife. "Work on those arms, Sonny! Cutting some stuff that you will later work with takes a fast and hard hit! It may help if you teach yourself how to throw a knife as well!" With this he slams the door in my face.
Free for ten hours in the real world, I go to the training hall like my mentor tells me to take this basic training. I find the hall easy enough as it is huge! I was going to do this at some point anyways as hiring a thug would be too expensive and knowing how to protect myself is a good idea. The instructor tells me that the weapon rack is on the side of the room and goes back to sharpening a sword he pulls out.
Okay… I follow directions and pick out a wooden dagger from the rack of weapons. Picking a scarecrow, I start hacking and slashing the scarecrow, aiming for crippling areas and vital points. I do the same with stabs, but aim for parts of the head as well. I keep up a pleasant smile even as I grew more and more bored doing this. My acting skills increasing steadily.
I find that if I put on a face opposite of what I am feeling and make it convincing, my skill levels up really quickly as I am suppressing my true feelings and not just putting on a face. This also does wonders for mental discipline. The training will help me deal with the more frustrating people in my life.
This is how my first month is like. The afternoons, from ten to eight working at the alchemist. I still could not weasel a name out of my mentor and soon gave up. During my off times that I am on, which is whenever I am home, I am working on my blade skill and throwing skills. I don't finish the basic training as it takes a long time to train enough to be considered finished. I have put in weeks to it already, so I am not just going to give up.
I slowly grow in my skills, but not my level for it is locked. I am heartened that if it wasn't I would be level five by now as mentor is starting to sell my wares among his own. This is how an alchemist levels up. They either cook difficult for their level recipes, sell their wares to NPC or users, and in cases of true alchemists, invent new potions. Experimenting also gives a little experience, not as much as a difficult recipe, but it is constant while the recipe Experience points are not. The more dangerous and risk, the more experience gained.
All the while, I am reading books mentor lends me while making note in my journal of the various ingredients and their effects. I start seeing how to balance a potion without being told. I gained my first few levels when I first successfully substitute ingredients in a potion for a better result.
I start leveling up quickly after I figure this out and put the points in CHA and the leftovers to my two main combat stats at this point in time. VIT, in case I blow something up in my experiments next to me, I can survive and AGi, so I can get out of the room before the bloody thing goes boom. The VIT also is there, so as I do not have the money for a mask, they are EXPENSIVE! I can survive in a room of poisonous gas for a little, just enough to get out.
My first major breakthrough into the realm of drugs is when I make my first cigarette. The herb inside is a the leaves off a tree I found outside one day in the woods while collecting new plants for ingredients. I found it has a calming effect and when burned, it gives off this effect in a radius of one meter. This gives me the idea of a calming cigarette, so I treat it in a slow burning, low heat fuel, grind it up and wrap it in a rolling paper that I cut myself. I make a very large supply in one go with my knife work.
When I try it the first time, the damn thing poisoned me! it took ten points of damage every five seconds and gave out a cloud of calming, but slightly less deadly smoke. three point every five seconds. I am persistent and gain the skill "Resilience"!
The skill helps my body deal with poison and since the cigarette is a class S of a ten level scale, F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, X, Z, it takes a bit to get over the deadly effects. I do grow the skill to intermediate six however before it is safe for my own use. i used a lot of healing powders I made from plants I went out to find. An outrageous level for this little thing! It was funny to see rabbits die in my path as I was collecting the herbs.
The skill filters out the poison and leaves the calming effect. I talked to my mentor about this and he tells me that people do not grow tolerant of Herbs and potions in this land. As it is the fuel poisoning me, I just filter that out and leave the full effect of the herb. Nice!
What was not nice is me needing to tweak the fuel to be less deadly! I may had the will to make it work, but others will not and it won't sell! I mixed in some catalysts in the fuel to decrease the damage, but it is still hurting people and will not sell until I fix that! I found the fix a day later after I fixed the fuel. By adding a small healing grass shreddings that takes the edge off the rest of the fuel to the what I call tobacco, the damage is neutralized as the grass heals the user. Who cares about secondhand smoke. The grass is easy to find and I know grow a little tank full with my tobacco in a section my mentor let me take in the back room. The real name is some Indian name that I can't pronounce. Plus calling it tobacco makes it so no one knows that I got it from that herb, cuts down on competition later when I get the damn thing to not kill people!
Speaking of weirdly high skill levels, my grinding is middle intermediates due to the tons of different plants I put in my mortar. The alchemy is low intermediates upon the creation of the cigarette that doesn't kill you… A lite cigarette if you will. My knife work is high beginners from the training and cutting up plants all day long to more manageable sizes. The tobacco plant is a fucking palm tree! The leaves are as long as my arm! My other skills are rather low from lack of use as I am not working with anything new for the moment.
On my down time in the shop, after all the potions are down for the day, I roll cigarettes and tie a bundle of five together to sell. A customer comes in to buy potions, when he finds what he is looking for, he brings it to the counter to pay. Looking at the items, "three silver for them all Ali."
"Say… What is that you making Heisenberg?" The man, Ali asks. A regular that comes in before his hunting days to buy healing potions.
"You know the cigarettes I smoke that slowly kill everything I stand around?" The man nods. I never smoked those inside, but I met him on his hunting days when I was still emitting the deadly fumes until my body took all that away and left just the calming leaf smoke.
"Well… My body took away all the deadly factors of the smoke, so it is safe now as you can see," I point to the one in my lips, "So I thought, hey, the leaf doesn't kill, just the fuel I use to slow the burn. I tweaked it a bit… a lot and made it less deadly. It is now just a class E instead of a S poison well… Not a poison anymore even! The effects of the grass I put in overrule the poison, so there is only a little damage, as it is now a potion class with a little side effect, but it heals the smoker at the same time for the lost health. Want to buy some?"
"Sure, how much?"
"For you… fifty copper for a bundle if you spread the word. Be warned though. It will take a week of heavy use to neutralize the poisoning effect. Even longer to get rid of the second hand, which is what killed all those bunnies around me."
"Hm… I'll try it anyways. I need something to kill those hidden little buggers anyways. Just… Don't slip me any of those things you smoke man. That stuff is dangerous in anyone else's hands." Ali gives me the coin and I hand him a bundle.
"Have a nice day sir."
This was the beginning of my empire in my eyes. My first drug sale with a never before seen product. Over the next three months, I stay with my mentor and become his lab assistant as I am closing in on his level of alchemy. I will not be better in a long time as he knows must ingredients in the world and how to use them. He just can't get his hands on any due to lack of money.
I even made my first marijuana joint. Using the same fuel, I can make a stronger effect than the tobacco with another plant at the cost of both health and satisfaction bar. It makes you hungry using it, but the grass blend is keeping the poison from killing the user.
These sell very fast and I have trouble meeting the demands while working the shop. They sell for a silver for five. "They are stronger so more expensive," I tell people with an apologetic look on my face, "The new ingredient is just so hard to come by, this is as low as I can make it and still make some profit." Lies! I can make the what I call hemp, easier than a cigarette! The damn thing is not a tree, but a wheat sized plant I found hiding in a nearby mountain. the best part is the thing has like fifty seeds a plant! There were tons on that mountain!
The cigarettes fall out of fashion as the hemp takes over my market. This grows until I have to move my operations out and start my own company, "Blue Sky" Another Breaking Bad reference! If you know that show, you will figure out my goals VERY quickly. good thing it is mostly NPCs buying my goods and the show is fifty years old.
Knocking on the backroom door of my mentor's shop, I wait. After a minute, he opens the door and I hand him my finished potions for that day. "You leaving for that Hemp business?" I nod. I have been moving my tanks at night for the past few days. He sticks his hand out, "It has been a pleasure working with you Heisenberg. " I shake his hand and he continues, "I expect you to rule this country in three years at most or I have failed as a teacher."
We laugh at this and I head out to the shop i bought further into the poor district. There are almost no guard patrols here which is why I had enough money to buy it. My product is not illegal as it is not a poison, so the guards can't get on my case unless I truly start selling a class of damaging poisons. I can sell something that dazes, but nothing like some of the stuff mentor taught me.
How to kill a man without trace, a tranquilizer that doesn't numb a person's pain sensors, that is the stuff I can not sell ever. In the public eye anyways. I start experimenting in the more deadly things I couldn't in my mentor's shop. Blowing up your teacher's shop is a no no in any place. real or not.
I bring up all notes I have on my hallucinogens and stabilizers, getting to work immediately. I have a bell set to sound in my lab for when a customer enters my shop. Since it is closed, that should not be a problem for at least… a fortnight. I am dedicating my time for a new product. I am aiming for PCP, than cocaine. Finishing my reign with Meth, but that is a long time away. After that… I will figure that out when I cross that road.
It takes only a week of hard labor before I turn out a greyish yellow potion.
My identification is too low to accurately tell me the effects of my drug, so I take the human road. Testing it on beggars in the dead of night! I need to know what it does to a person, if it kills them and why.
My first test was across town where I forced it down a beggar's throat at knife point. I made sure to wear a mask during the incident, so if he lives I am not caught. the beggar chokes a bit and his eyes begin to bleed, before he expires. Hmm…
Many bodies pile in my wake. Even the town guard took notice of the increasing number of dead people and the news of the city is calling me the Poisoner of Night. I even got a little title I could toggle on and off. I don't because that is STUPID! I do however come up with dozens of lethal poisons the game classifies as class Z on anything under an Orc level of resilience. So lethal if the entire thing is drank.
I make a safe-ish potion at last that creates a strong hallucination in the drinker that half kills them, but the strong effects overrule the poison in this case and judges it as a class F poison and a class D potion. It comes out white as the final product. My alchemy skill takes a large jump to level nine intermediate for the creation of this highly unstable potion which I call, Sightseeing potion or SSP. The law can't touch me as the church sell something that is similar in ranking, just not affect. The potion I price at ten silver for now. It takes a few copper as I have all the seeds and chems growing already.
I open the store with an entire stock ready and in five days have NPCs begging to buy them. the only rule I have is use it away from my shop, so they don't bother my customers and that this can kill them. I tell them more sugarcoated than that, but it is the jist of what I say. My level is shooting up from my large number of sales because it is all my wares! Along with the drugs, I sell potions of healing using the grass as a base.
In a few months, on the anniversary of when I first started this game, four months after I opened my shop, I reach the ten thousands gold mark in my bank account. I am richer than some lords! this is due to never buying anything, but pots and tanks for my plants and trees! I sleep in the second floor in a room I set up with my plants. the experiment lab is on the opposite side of my house and down stairs.
This is also the day I take my cigarettes off the shelf as no one is dedicated enough to build up a tolerance to the poison. they buy one bundle and quit after they see themselves die a little. Cowards! My marijuana and SSP is still selling like logs on a snowy day.
I use my money to start bribing city officials to look the other way on my drugs as they were getting worried when people started ODing on them. My money eased their worries. I am meeting one in an hour to talk about how it is not a danger to the city. I go upstairs and change into my outside wear. Anytime I am not in the lab with fire everywhere, even if I am manning the register, I am wearing a nicely pressed suit. I iron it myself of course.
Arriving at the high class restaurant, I see the man in the back with fine robes on. My suit is the odd one out of the clothing. The clothing in the game is heavily Asian based being that the game and myself are in Asia. "Good afternoon sir," I greet the man, extending my hand for a handshake with a pleasant smile to my face.
The man raises, the look on his face screams arrogance. Oh boy, intermediate acting, don't fail me now! He doesn't take my hand and looks at it with disgust. It is clean, so I know this is a insult to my person. "Quiet alchemist! Now why should I allow your practice when you're… Product is killing these fine people of my city?"
"Because I am about to give you fifty gold to look the other way on all matters involving myself and my business," I calmly answer. This is the decade salary of a high ranking officer in the military, Not a small sum to anyone except a king and myself. No player is this rich, even the best merchants. I hand him a pouch filled with the gold.
The official takes it with greed in his eyes. "You make a fair argument sir, your product is fine as is." We shake hands and part ways. this is the basic thing I do all day. Cook, sell and bribe new officials, slowly getting the lord of this city-state under my control.
I arrive back at my shop and open it up for the day. The meeting was early morning and doesn't get in the way of my hours. I stand behind my counter while waiting for the rush of junkies, grinding up more hemp for use. I have a spring loaded assassin holster on each arm which I trained myself to release and use on the fly. It has a main blade and two throwing on each side. I modified it to slide through a poison every time I sheath the blade.
The poison is a pretty nasty mistake from my cocaine experiments I have been doing. It stimulates the heart to four hundred, up to five hundred beats a minute from what I can tell and makes their heart explode. Very painful way to die I imagine. I don't prick myself with my own poison, even if my resilience is up to expert level four due to my cigarettes and breathing in increasingly poisonous gas from my experiments.