3.09 Second Yield

“The collection kit you gave me wasn’t much use,” Zoey said, setting it on the counter. “The shard, uh, took our inventories. That might be a recurring trend.”

Zoey hadn’t told Sabina what her class was, but she was aware that Zoey’s first shard had involved lewdness … if not the exact specifics. Zoey had also implied, before leaving, that she suspected the second shard would too. Knowing that Sabina was an intelligent woman, and that shards morphed themselves according to the people entering them, she had to suspect it was Zoey, or her teammates, influencing it to be so.

Zoey wouldn’t be surprised if she’d deduced the general shape of Zoey’s class, even. She seemed perceptive enough to. At the same time, she visibly didn’t care; she hadn’t questioned Zoey at all, or even seemed interested, beyond how the shards Zoey was venturing into provided unique ingredients. So maybe she didn’t.

“You found a similar shard, then?” Sabina asked.

“More or less.”

“So reagents similar to the first batch.”

Zoey nodded.

“Perfect.” Sabina seemed pleased.

Sabina’s satisfaction wasn’t from perversion—in wanting to experiment with what effects lewd ingredients could provide. Or … in a way, it was. But for the rarity, and novelty, more than the sexual aspects. Zoey didn’t know Sabina well, but that she enjoyed experimenting with rare and unique alchemy reagents was a given. She’d outright said so. It was one of the conditions of her teaching Zoey; Zoey had to provide her with a steady stream of interesting reagents for her to see the arrangement as ‘suitable’.

Zoey scooted the kit to the side. She probably ought to bring it along on future expeditions, even if she might never get a chance to use it. No reason to not. Inventories weren’t infinite, but they were pretty big. Plenty of room for the kit.

“So,” Zoey said. “I’ll get to it, then.” She hesitated, briefly, on what to drag out of her inventory and showcase first. She should work her way up. Start with the most normal reagents, then get to the … more disorienting ones. Like the gigantic toy’s cum, which Delta had extracted, and Zoey had scooped up in emptied-out potion vials. That would be interesting to explain to Sabina, who would undoubtedly want a full recounting of its origin, simply for practical matters.

Fortunately, Zoey didn’t get the sense Sabina would be awkward about any of this. She’d been stalwartly impassive when it came to discussions over the lewd potions and ingredients they’d worked with, in a similar way to Fe, but even more so. Zoey didn’t know whether that was because Sabina was unaffected, or if she was a hard woman to read.

A bit of both, if Zoey had to guess.

So. Start with the normal stuff, work up to the weirder.

Zoey pulled out the small black bag, tied with a tan ribbon at the top, filled with [Pink Fairy Dusty]. She set it on the counter, and Sabina didn’t waste a moment to inspect the item—both, at a guess, the mundane sort of ‘inspect’, and the ability afforded to denizens of this world.

[Pink Fairy Dust]: A shimmering pink powder. Can be used to prepare potions that intensify, and crystallize, dreams.

“This one’s not explicitly, uh, lewd, but considering everything else we got, I think it’s safe to assume the effects won’t be … entirely normal.”

Sabina pursed her lips as she peered into the bag. She set it down, picked up long, flat metal utensil, then scooped up a tiny portion of the fine powder, inspecting the dust with a steady hand and a keen eye.

“Fairy dust,” Sabina finally said. “A common reagent, all things considered. But pink. I’ve never seen pink fairy dust. How intriguing.” She poured the powder back into the bag and tied it off, pushing it to the side. “I’ll trust your intuition. Though, what precisely do you mean?”

Sabina’s clinical nature helped Zoey not feel awkward about her explanations. And, sheesh, she had a lot worse to get through, so she better get used to saying embarrassing things without stuttering over herself. “Sex dreams? Maybe makes them more realistic? Can’t say for sure, but something like that.”

“We’ll prepare our bases with that assumption in mind, then.”

“Prepare our bases?”

Sabina paused. “Hm. Before brewing, a potion base needs to be primed with ingredients appropriate to the desired, or suspected, effect. And the proper liquid, as well. It influences what sorts of results can be coaxed from the catalyzing ingredient.” Sabina gestured at the fairy dust. “The ‘main ingredient’, in layman’s terms—the ingredients normally found in shard loot, rather than out and about in the Fracture’s natural terrain, or imported from Haven. We’ll discuss all this during our lessons. Not now. Please, continue.”

Zoey had to refrain from further questions. It made sense, of course, that potion brewing wasn’t just throwing a random assortment of items into a pot of water and hoping for the best, but the casual explanation implied brewing might be more complex than Zoey had thought.

Honestly, she was excited for it. The same as how she was excited to learn how spell-casting worked, in depth. Rosalie’s expeditious pace had meant Zoey hadn’t had time to learn her runes in any meaningful capacity.

Zoey pulled the next item out.

[Twinrose]: An unidentified alchemy reagent. Two red flowers entwine into each other, preserved but delicate.

“Honestly,” Zoey said, placing down the two long, healthy flowers. “I’ve no clue what this one does. The description doesn’t give a hint, either.”

Like with the fairy dust, Sabina appraised the flowers with a critical eye. She treated the items as if they would crumble in her hands, though they were, as the description implied, healthy—preserved, two roses entwined, and while severed from their plant, perfectly lush. Certainly not at risk of disintegrating while being handled.

Sabina’s tendency to treat items like they were delicate was, presumably, a habit. Zoey ought to do the same. Imitating the masters—or at least, the highly proficient—was, as a general rule, a safe way to improve. And Zoey wanted to acquire bare competence in alchemy as soon as possible.

Which was ironic. She’d told Delta a while ago, during that date of theirs, that Zoey had been a bit useless, growing up. She’d been too distractible, not motivated enough, and she hadn’t made much of herself … or been on a path to do so. But now, transported into a fantasy world, she was interested in applying herself?

To be fair, alchemy was a lot more interesting than professions back home. One of the benefits of being, y’know, transmigrated to a fantasy world, was that what everyone else saw as mundane … wasn’t to her.

“Curious,” Sabina said. “I suspect it needs to be prepared before the reagent will provide a hint in its description.”

“Prepared?”

“Diced, ground, burnt—so on.” She frowned. “Though, we have limited supply. Only two flowers. We’ll need to be moderated how we go about testing.” Sabina waved her hand impatiently, as if that would come later, and she didn’t want to discuss it, now. “Next, please.”

Zoey didn’t take offense at the brusqueness of the request. “This is where we get to the weirder stuff,” she said. “Our inventories were emptied, but I still kept an eye out for things that might make useful reagents.” Zoey coughed. “And, uh, this is what I collected.”

She pulled out four vials of white liquid.

[Imbuing Ejaculate]: A thick white substance extracted from an oversized pleasure appendage.

Like the first time she’d read the description, ‘oversized pleasure appendage’ was equally amusing as it was absurd. It was … certainly a creative way to describe that gigantic toy Delta had rode.

Sabina eyebrows went up, which was, all things considered, a more moderated reaction than Zoey could have hoped for. It wasn’t something easy to take in.

“Explain?” Sabina asked.

“Oh, boy,” Zoey laughed. She definitely felt awkward about doing so, but she might as well be a professional. “There was, uh, a giant … dildo. Made of white gel. One of my teammates … pleasured it, and it produced that.”

Sabina spared a glance for her, seeming amused for the first time since Zoey had met her, then turned her attention back to the glass vial, which she’d picked up to inspect. “I see. Did you collect the gel, as well?”

“I did, actually.”

Another spared glance, this one appreciative. Zoey felt inordinately proud at that. She’d done something right, it looked like, since if that was where Sabina’s mind had gone, there must be high odds the gel would actually be useful—or have the potential for being so.

“Do you have, uh, paper or something? To set it on? I collected it … raw. With a knife.”

Sabina reached down beneath the counter and laid out a slice of brown paper. Zoey withdrew a hefty chunk of the material and set it down; it dampened the paper where it touched. It was the slightest bit sticky. Or lubricated.

Probably, some of it was … Delta. And the toy’s cum. Zoey ought to warn Sabina about that. She cleared her throat. “It’s, uh, not clean. Fresh from the vine.” Her cheeks colored, unable to help herself.

“Mmm.” Sabina wasn’t put off, though a pause, and a sideways glance, showed that she’d picked up what Zoey had implied. Zoey was grateful for her enduring nonchalance. “That’s what gloves are for, are they not?” She picked up the material and turned it around. Zoey wondered what she was looking for, whether her appraisal had some practical purpose to it.

Zoey supposed she could ask. “What are you looking for?”

“Anything unusual,” Sabina answered. “Quality and consistency of the material. Irregularities.” She shrugged, setting the material back onto the paper. “Nothing in specific, if that’s what you mean.”

Zoey nodded. “So you think it might … yield an effect?” Was that the way she should phrase it? Sabina didn’t correct her.

“Perhaps. Certainly a possibility. Is there anything else?”

“Just those four.”

Sabina nodded, not disappointed. “Four ingredients I’ve never seen before—or heard of. ‘Just’ isn’t the proper word to use. An exceptional yield.”

“Ah.” That was good. “Should I put it back?” She gestured at the gel. The material was kept supernaturally fresh inside her inventory, but it might dry up, left out.

“May I?” Sabina asked, instead.

Zoey paused. “Sure.” She didn’t have a problem with that. It was effectively her payment for having Sabina teach her. And their agreement from earlier still held; Sabina only wanted the ingredients to experiment with, but whatever she created would go to Zoey.

Which, honestly, Zoey was excited for. The infertility potion had been useful, but not exciting. What would these ingredients do? What kind of lewd shenanigans was she in for? Potent sex dreams, from the sound of the pink fairy dust. Then again, was she not being creative enough? The effect might be even more interesting. And there could be a few different results of what they end up with.

Speaking of the infertility potion, though, there’d been another ingredient Zoey had dropped off with Sabina.

“Hey, uh,” Zoey said. “The coruscant flameroot. Did you get that figured out, while I was gone?” Sabina hadn’t managed to finish the potion with that ingredient, only the blossom blight, which had produced the infertility potion.

“Indeed,” Sabina said. “Here.” She deposited the rest of the items Zoey had presented into her inventory, then turned and headed for the backroom. She beckoned for Zoey to follow her. “Come see.”