After handing in ten quality orange slime skin to Paul, Zen waited for the next part of what would be a chain quest from the question mark over his head.
The armourer examined Zen’s items and beamed brightly. This young hero had talent!
===
Quest: Heart of a Crafter Part 1 (Completed)
Requirements: NA
Objective: Hunt Orange Armoured Slimes
10/10 Orange Slime Skin
Reward: 25% Friendship Bonus with Paul
===
As his friendship level with the armour became better, Paul started to treat Zen more casually and asked if he could trouble the lad to
After a quick heist at the apothecary, Zen silently apologised to a glitchy Gilda before he took to the roads. Before he headed to the forest to collect flax, he should quickly clear the second part of Martha’s long quest. Maybe after getting those eyes and sneaking them into her coffee, Zen could unlock some mysterious chain quest with the apothecarist.The green slimes were lazing along the road, and Zen unsheathed his short sword. This time, he was alone, and after learning how to kill slimes in one swing, Zen targeted the smallest group of slimes. He should be able to take on four slimes, right?Bending down to pick up a pebble, Zen readied the sword in his other. He would try to fight them without retreating to the safety zone in a hit and run technique. Fighting them was like a prelude to fighting big pink. There might not be places to run and hide
Four times, Zen entered and exited Gilda’s apothecary with different strategies. He even returned to Martha to ask what happened between Gilda and her son. The old woman only claimed that Gilda was a ditzy girl and nobody in their village could understand her.On a good day, Gilda made little sense. In one of her giddy moods, she would constantly babble about the things she created, learned, or failed. Coffee was Gilda’s coping mechanism, and alcohol was everyone else’s coping mechanism when talking to her.Sure, the apothecarist was a very smart lady. However, there wasn’t a single young man in the village who thought of her as a promising marriage candidate.“Could you imagine her as anybody’s wife with her strange workshop? I don’t think she could even feed a baby normall
Happy to spread the joy of potion crafting to someone else, Gilda started going into details, ushering Zen to her back room, where the magic happened.Zen found himself taking comfort in this potion brewery for someone familiar with the chaotic scene in a kitchen. It was somewhat similar to cooking in some ways, so when Gilda taught him about ingredient preparation, Zen did it faster than her.Thrilled that Zen was so talented with his hands, Gilda moved on to the proper equipment required for brewing potions.“There are a few steps in creating any kind of potion. The first was extracting the potion base by boiling ingredients into mush over low fire for a few hours. The ingredients will be strained and removed from the potion base and treated with customised ingredients for different potion effects.”
Exhausted, Zen sprawled out on the yard as Paul chuckled. He managed to work on his client’s orders while Zen prepared all the slime skins diligently without a break. The youth carried a fresh basin of water after each batch of skin. Every piece of hardened skin separated from the dried slime skin was washed and checked thoroughly that nothing remained stuck on it.His earnest attitude touched Paul, who decided to reward him with homemade lemonade.Zen accepted the lemonade gratefully and wondered what the last quest was.===Quest: Heart of a Crafter Part 3Requirements: NAObjective: Help Paul Make Beginner Armour10/10 P
[Liu Feng “Seer” sends a party message. “Do you need me there?”]Zen smiled and replied to his party that he wanted to try clearing the first floor’s boss alone. After all, he didn’t need to clear it only once. Zen did not want them to know he intended to kill the pink slime ten times by himself.===Beginner Cure Potion Recipe:0/1 Pink Boss Slime Hair4/2 Dewy Grass===Zen already collected the dewy grass that was required for the beginner cure potion. He had no idea how useful it was for dungeons but seeing how he would kill big pink ten times, it would not hurt to make spares.
Groaning, Zen did not want to wake up. He was starting to get familiar with this smell, sound and feel. There was no other place that would give him such a peaceful vibe after that horrific death.“Welcome back, Zen. Did you rest well?” Father Clarence’s gentle voice drifted to his ear, and the young chef sighed. There was no use pretending to be dead when the clergyman was here already.“Sorry about that,” Zen apologised as he crawled out from his respawn coffin. “I’m alright.”Feeling vexed by the death caused by an area attack, Zen wondered if there was a way he could survive that second wave. Usually, there are several ways to overcome such patterns.Area effect attacks did not discriminate between tanks or healers. How
Several deaths later, Zen had all the splash poison potions he needed. This time, He wasn’t here to observe how to beat big pink. He was here to prepare a big pink killing spree.It turned out that potion crafting was a skill that gave him perks. The more he did it, the more efficient the potion was. The only downside was the amount of materials Zen needed just to become better at crafting potions. Gathering the red spider flowers was harder than smashing yellow slimes for their poison sac.Thankfully, sleeping potions were easier to craft than poison potions. Zen made a moderate batch of sleeping potions and dipped his shortsword into that foul-smelling liquid to deal with the spiders. It was disrespectful to a sword as well made as his, but Zen wasn’t a swordsman. He was a gamer, and it was the only logical thing to do.
All night. Zen spent the whole night just trying to kill the pink slime, but he failed no matter what he did.He was woken up two hours after he rage quitted by Liu Feng, who wanted to make a breakfast request.Not in the best of moods after last night, Zen growled at the blind assassin before his mind cleared. Realising that Liu Feng woke him up, Zen quickly apologised and tried to explain the situation in a muddled way because his brain refused to work coherently with only two hours of sleep.“It’s alright,” the Seer chuckled. “You stayed up very late last night. Did you manage to clear the first floor yet?”Zen slumped back onto the bed glumly. “I wish I did. I’m out of tricks.”