Survive the Undercity.
No timer. No other tooltips. Just a vague implication that failure was more permanent than a video game, despite the similarities.
“all right,” I muttered, mostly to keep my breathing steady. “Keep yourself distracted. Make a plan. Okay, first, find a stable corner, let the reaction settle, and keep breathing.”
I had an uneasy feeling that this would be easier said than done.
The canal stank like rot, with an undertone of sulfur and something else. Innocuous at first, but I began to notice minerals and metallic notes. My old instincts kicked in, the same way they always had when I walked into a new space back home.
The damp was unwilling to just cling to the stone. It pooled, like the whole city was sweating something into the lowest cracks. If the wards above were leaking power, then gravity was doing what it always did, dragging that rich mana down here.
That was the part that stuck with me. It wasn’t the smell or the obvious filth, it was the sense that something invisible had weight here, drifting downward like heat rises, only reversed. Mana, maybe, gathering in the lowest ground until it pooled. In a place like this, a pool like that felt like an invitation for something hungry.
Except this was different.
I wasn’t seeing or smelling ingredients so much as feeling them. Sensing them.
Chemical Intuition. I currently was at a loss as to how it worked yet, but so far I was on board.
I crouched at the canal’s edge and forced myself not to think about what was growing in the scum line. The leather pantsuit creaked when I shifted, too loud in the damp quiet, but it was all I had between my skin and whatever lived down here.
The runoff crawled past like used ink. Algae matted the stone, faintly lit by the blue wall-crystals. I leaned closer, searching for anything that moved on its own, and found it: tiny bugs skating the surface and clinging to the slime. If there were bugs, there was a food chain, and that meant I was not alone.
That worked in my favor.
Biological activity, especially something more complex such as insects versus simple amoebas, meant energy transfer. Energy transfer meant reactions. Even learning that the water was a decent fertilizer would tell me something.
I delicately dipped a finger into the water and brought it up toward my nose, then hesitated as a bout of common sense cut through my excitement.
“Right,” I said to myself. “Maybe I’ll skip taste-testing sewer water.”
Instead, I rubbed a drop between my fingers. It was a little oily and highly alkaline, rich in calcium and iron, if my senses and new skill were telling me the truth.
My vision flickered, and another translucent window slid open without asking.
MATERIAL ANALYSIS (PASSIVE):
- Contaminated Water
- Trace Mana Residue
- Organic Waste
- Dissolved Salts (Unstable)
I blinked. “Mana residue.”
That was new.
Back home, water did not politely list its components. There was no granular view, no hydrogen or oxygen particles, just a basic list. Still, the fundamentals were there. Solvents. Impurities. Catalysts.
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The residue line bothered me. It felt concentrated. The lowest point of the canal had a heavier taste to it, like brine settling in a pan. The city above was leaking something down into its own basement, whether it meant to or not.
Magic had to be a unique form of physics in this world, and if there was physics, there had to be chemistry. And if there was chemistry, it had laws. It always did.
I had always been good at following certain laws, such as the law of conservation of mass. I was eager to see whether the basic laws of chemistry, like the law of definite proportions, still applied here, or how the rules had been adjusted.
I looked around again, this time with a more deliberate gaze. The glowing wall crystals caught my eye. They pulsed in a slow, faint rhythm, almost like a heartbeat.
They were a light source, and light was energy.
I reached out and touched one. It was cold to the touch and hard, as expected based on its crystalline nature.
MATERIAL ANALYSIS:
- Lumen Shard (Low-Grade)
- Properties: Light Emission, Minor Mana Conductivity
- Processing Potential: Yes
I smiled before muttering, “Processing potential.” That had possibilities.
As if the warning icon in my vision knew my intent, it began to pulsate faintly, a gentle but unignorable reminder that it was still there.
Unlicensed Alchemical Activity Detected.
“Yeah, yeah,” I thought. “You and I both know what I am about to do.”
I twisted one of the small glowing shards free from the wall. It snapped loose much easier than expected, leaving a blemish in the otherwise perfect crystalline surface. The shard dimmed slightly in my hand, almost as if it were offended.
Turning it over and studying its general structure, I found an imperfect lattice riddled with tiny stress fractures. Cheap material. The best kind.
In this case, pilfered technically, but free.
I crouched again, trying to do something besides think about the filth I was kneeling in, and gathered clumps of algae. Using the shard’s edge, I scraped mineral residue from the stone. I even reached into the canal and scooped a small amount of sludge into my palm, ignoring my better judgment.
“Genius or outright stupidity?” I thought. “The line between the two is finer than I expected.”
After looking around, I spotted a relatively dry patch of stone. It would have to do as a workspace. I had no tools. No glassware. No heat source.
In summary, no controlled environment whatsoever.
I focused, mentally laying out the process. Separation. Concentration. Controlled reaction.
Before I could begin, another window appeared.
CRAFTING ATTEMPT DETECTED Proceed? [Y/N]
My eyes lingered on the translucent “Yes.”
No license key. A lack of proper equipment, especially PPE. A workspace that was anything but sterile.
I grinned despite the tension in my chest.
“As in one life, so the next,” I said, and pressed “Yes.”
The materials reacted instantly. The algae darkened, breaking down into a viscous paste. The sludge frothed, releasing a sharp, acrid scent. The Lumen Shard grew warm, its light flaring as energy flowed through the mixture.
I stumbled back as the mass collapsed inward, condensing into a small, cloudy vial formed in a glass-like bottle. In my surprise, I dropped it and listened as it clinked gently against the stone.
ITEM CREATED: Crude Vitality Draught
- Restores minor stamina
- Side Effects: Nausea, Bitter Taste
- Quality: Poor
EXPERIENCE GAINED
I stared at the vial, my chest tightening further. I had no reason to be anxious. This was the same excitement I had felt the first time I synthesized LSA from seeds bought at an Organic Foods Market.
I had done it.
I had created a potion.
No guild membership. No license. No authority approval. And no idea what the long-term consequences might be.
It felt familiar. Comfortably reckless.
I picked up the potion and held it up to the crystal light. It swirled faintly, unstable but undeniably real.
The warning icon pulsed again, brighter this time.
I laughed under my breath.
“Well,” I said, tucking the vial away carefully, “guess I am officially an unlicensed alchemist.”
Somewhere above me, voices echoed again. Closer this time.
“…drip’s bad tonight…”
“…low wards always feed the deep…”
I stood, adrenaline pushing anxiety aside.
Surviving the Undercity suddenly felt a lot more possible.