Ultimate Level 1

Bardunac muttered under his breath, but Max could hear it with his sonar skill. “Idiot… showing my hand so badly. Mom was right; I’ll never succeed.”

Smiling at the dwarf, Max could see how he had slumped his shoulders as he talked to himself.

“Why don’t you tell me why it is worth so much? After that, I’ll tell you how I got it.”

Clearing his throat, Bardunac nodded and motioned for Max to follow him. “I have no doubt you were in the lizard dungeon, as getting one of those any other way is difficult at best. You already must know it is a rare spawn; even to say that does not do it justice. Only one or two of those are killed every year.”

Bardunac had led them to his counter, an ornate stone one with intricate carvings of dwarves battling different monsters along the front piece. A few stands with healing potions and other bottles filled with liquid caught Max’s eyes as the dwarf went around it.

Max chuckled when Bardunac reached the other side and suddenly stood six inches taller.

“It’s a platform,” Bardunac told him, smiling as he saw how Max had responded. “Being short doesn't make a standard counter easy to trade over.”

“That sounds very ingenious.”

The beardless dwarf nodded, then pulled a book out of thin air and set it down on the counter. “This is an advanced alchemy book. It has your standard notes on potions and other elixirs, but what you want is back here.”

The dwarf thumbed through the pages with precision, stopping at a tabbed sheet.

“The paw you have will be sought after by every alchemist in town.” Bardunac waited for Max to meet his gaze after looking at the book's page. “I am serious about that. Some may offer you more gold than I can, but I am willing to do something they aren’t. I will give you money and offer to share one of the elixirs I make.”

Max had heard about elixirs only once in his life. During his alchemist rotation, the alchemist in his hometown talked about how most would never see them because of the rarity of the required ingredients.

“What would the elixir you plan on making do?”

Bardunac grinned, excited that Max was considering his offer, and turned two more pages in his book. “This one,” he said, tapping the page. “An elixir of dexterity. Depending on how they turn out, it should add one or two dexterity points. Your paw should provide the ingredients for four of them. It will cost me a bit of money for the other ingredients, so all I would be willing to offer is twenty gold and one elixir.”

Max was doing his best not to look shocked and overwhelmed at that amount of gold and the thought of the item.

Twenty gold and a guaranteed one or two points of dexterity… goblin nuts, what have I missed reagent-wise?

Slowly nodding, Max kept a straight face and set the paw on the counter.

“I am interested in that deal but would also like to discuss a few other things and a possible long-term relationship.”

Without a beard to hide his excitement, Bardunac’s smile almost radiated light from the amount of white teeth he was showing.

Sitting in his usual booth, Max thumbed through the notes Bardunac had written down for him. There were a lot of alchemy ingredients he and the others had missed out on, especially on the rare monsters he had killed.

Bardunac had seemed quite disappointed to hear that he had killed an orc shaman and not harvested its eyes or heart. Both of those had magical properties suited for an alchemist and their skill.

Max also managed to learn one other interesting bit of knowledge. These elixirs all granted bonus experience to the one crafting them. If this was the case, he could speak with Mr. Wright or Aimee and see if there were also rare cooking ingredients.

“You seem lost in thought,” Big D stated as he dropped off another mug of ale and deposited tonight's meal beside it. “You are beginning to make me wonder if you are an adventurer or a scholar with how much reading and writing I see you doing.”

Max saw Big D smiling, proud of his joke. Smiling so his host wouldn’t feel his joke was that bad, Max pointed to the list he had been studying.

“I learned today that I have been missing out on easy money by not farming alchemist items from monsters. I really want to know why most adventurers don’t talk about this.”

Leaning over, Big D made a disgusted face before grumbling. “Well, that’s easy. How many people want to dissect a corpse for a few extra silver? I mean, you’re talking about a heart and eyeballs. Those would require certain tools to do such a thing. And how many times have you killed something by stabbing them in the heart?”

Stolen ; please report.

Tsking his tongue, Max nodded. He had stabbed a lot of creatures through the heart.

“I guess that means I’ll need to find another way to kill stuff.”

Roaring with laughter, Big D bobbed his head and playfully slapped Max on the shoulder. “That’s the rub, isn’t it? Can’t kill them how you want, which means you risk getting injured in order to make more money. That is why they don’t teach younger adventurers about alchemy ingredients. Imagine if you could only kill a boss by taking off its arms and legs. How many people would die?”

Max nodded, glancing down at his list again, and noticed Dick had walked away, answering a whistle from another patron needing something.

“There goes my easy money plan,” Max muttered, storing the list and turning his attention to the wonderful-smelling plate of food next to him. Roasted pheasant, an assortment of vegetables, and two large rolls. Off to the side of all the food was a small strawberry cake with what looked like the perfect amount of frosting.

Sharing what he had learned with the group, Max and the others cleared the ogre dungeon up to the boss portal. They decided it would be best to farm the dungeon for experience until each of the other three reached level twenty-five.

They managed to farm a few items to sell to Bardunac but quickly realized Big D was correct. It wasn’t worth the time or effort.

The best gift had been the potions Max had convinced Bardunac to give him at a reduced price. Two higher-quality healing potions now sat in each of their dimensional storage. Max had bound the necklace he had taken from James to himself and sold the other to Fowl at a significantly reduced price. They then purchased rings for both women that functioned as storage for potions. Each had three spots that could only carry a potion. They were still three gold each, but everyone saw their importance at this point.

Fowl struggled to believe Max would sell him a ten-slot dimensional storage for only five gold, knowing they were usually at least thirty gold.

Once done, Max took Aimee through two runs of the dungeon, earning her level ten. She mentioned there was something special for him to pick up later from her dad’s bakery and waved as he set off on one last task for the day.

“Seth, I don’t believe you. There is no way you can be done with this book.”

Max nodded, still holding the book for Sam to take, watching the older dwarf scowl. “I read it and have no more use for it. In fact, I even went into the lizard dungeon earlier this week and helped take down the rare red lizard.”

A coughing fit came over the older dwarf, who moved closer, grabbing Max’s arm and pulling him off to the side near some bookshelves.

“Don’t talk about that so loud,” Sam hissed after he stopped coughing. “People hear that kind of news and might be interested if you took the reagents from it.”

Nodding in realization, Max glanced around the shop and saw that the few patrons inside were not paying the two of them any attention.

“Yeah, I can see that. I was in the dungeon with a higher-level group, getting to see how the dungeon worked before me and my team go there. It was a scary thing to see. That thing was fast!”

Sam nodded, still looking around the warehouse and ensuring no one was paying attention to them. “I have heard stories. I’m glad you didn’t die during that encounter. Did it…” Sam paused, pulling Max between two bookshelves and walking further down the aisle before turning and whispering, “Have the ability to see all around itself?”

“I’m not sure I would say it saw around itself, but more of just knew. When I got close to help the warrior fighting it, its tail almost impaled me. At no point had it looked at me, yet it knew where I was moving and barely missed me as I stopped in time.” Max paused, knowing what Sam was fishing for as a keeper of books. “Even when it faced me, it knew where to attack the other warrior. It had damage done to its face and blood in its eyes. Perhaps it can hear or detect some other way to know what is around it?”

Sam’s eyes widened, and he pulled a notepad out of his dimensional storage and wrote quickly on the paper. He glanced up at Max and almost said something but stopped and wrote down a few more things. “You don’t mind if I use you as a source for this? I rarely get to talk to someone who has actually faced this beast. This knowledge could help others be prepared in the future if they study as you have.”

“Uh… can we not use my name? I’m not sure people would believe that Seth Pendal told you about how the lizard protects itself from all sides.”

Sam snorted and nodded. “That is true. I’ll handle the source side. Still, this will verify a few things with the academic community.”

“I think you are forgetting something else.”

Sam’s bushy eyebrows became one at the center of his forehead as he cocked his head at Max. “What is that?”

“You promised to pay for the next book I would need.”

Rolling his eyes, Sam cursed, “Bookworms and paper eaters!”

Coughing, Max couldn’t help but smile, wondering what kind of curse that was.

“Bookworms?”

“Yes, boy! Those things are a menace to people like me. I’ll have you know we pay good money every six months keeping this place safe from them!”

Waving the ranting dwarf off, Max didn’t press the issue. “Well then, how about we just be thankful for that, and you show me to this book you promised.”

Scowling, Sam shook his head and strode past Max as he grumbled. “I must be getting old, betting books like this.”

Sitting in his room, Max ran his fingers along the book's spine. Sam had been very specific about how it should be handled. It was his personal copy and had to be kept in storage when not being read in a room away from all food and drink.

“Rare Monsters: Skills and Powers.”

Having read the title out loud, Max couldn't help but shiver at the possible wealth of knowledge he might uncover in this book that was clearly older than him. Sam had told Max repeatedly how he took care of this book. The leather had faded in areas, and the creases along the spine showed wear, and the paper was a different quality than he was used to. It was thicker, and on each page were notes written by Sam as he learned new things about each monster.

I could use this to hunt down possible skills to consume…

He felt the smile on his lips as he considered that thought. There was a world of possibilities, and all he had to do was kill for them.