Brewing a Bond

John put the pistols into his holsters, grabbed the rail of the fire escape as he sailed past it, and felt his wrist nearly rip apart as that brought him to an abrupt stop. He pulled himself up and flipped back into the barrier, kicking Keith in the face in the process, who had walked to the edge of the roof. “Can’t get rid of me that easy,” John said as he shot Keith in the chest again.

Keith had a worried look on his face when John re-entered the barrier, but that was wiped away by John’s foot. John landed on his feet and spun around, taking the pistols out of the holsters. Keith nearly landed another bullet on John, but John settled into what was finally the correct stance with a pistol in each hand. That was enough.

New Skill: Gun-Kata, Level 1, Passive
A martial arts style similar to Wing Chun, but based around incorporating gun-play and modern day fighting techniques. In addition to close quarters combat, this also allows the user to perform acrobatics to dodge bullets and other projectiles easier.

It’s like The Matrix, John thought as his body moved as if on its own. He was in control, and he was directing every movement, but it was as if he suddenly knew what movements to make, as if an unseen **** was guiding his arms and legs to respond to all of Keith's attacks perfectly. This was impressive to John and Keith, as inexperienced with skilled martial arts combat as they were, but it was clear John still lacked any formal training. His movements were now the right ones, but they were still sloppy.

This was more than enough to overwhelm Keith’s utter lack of experience with this style. He flipped his pistol up into the air and disarmed Keith of both of his weapons at once. In a display of what was more a circus act than a fighting style, John juggled the pistols and fired with each of them once, landing four successful bullets on Keith, before letting the two in the air fall.

His victory was short lived as Keith’s fist in his face sent him off his high and knocked him back. “Alright, boyo, now you’ve got what ya need. I’ve got one more skill to teach ya, and then I’ll send you on yer way with some potions,” Keith explained as he put the pistols back on the rack and gestured for John to do the same.

“Alright, so I’m going to teach you what is probably the simplest bit of sound magic,” Keith explained, rubbing his palms together. “If you do it right, it’s an extremely useful tool. I want you to create your gloves again fer me.”

John did as he said, cracking his knuckles and forming the gloves simultaneously as Keith moved to the other end of the roof. “I call what I’m teaching ya a ‘Disrupting Blast,’” Keith called over as he started to breathe deeply, focusing his mana into his palms. “You clap, and you imbue your magic into the sound. If you do it wrong,” Keith began, clapping once. A soundwave that was just slightly tinged blue hit John, and his gloves grew a little bit. The physical **** from the clap was powerful; John could feel slight wind from it. “Then you will just strengthen your opponent's spell,” Keith finished, getting ready to demonstrate what John assumed was going to be the correct way to do it.

“If you do it correctly,” Keith began and clapped a second time, but this time the wave was totally invisible, and John’s gloves vibrated for a moment before melting away, “then you disrupt your opponent’s spell, and it fizzles out.”

“How am I supposed to aim it?” John asked as Keith approached.

“You direct the magic, not the sound. They’re both important, but the way you create it is the most important. That determines whether or not it’ll dispel or enhance,” Keith said as he took a blue vial from his bandolier on the couch, presumably a mana potion, and gulped it down. “Though I wouldn’t worry too much about the enhancement part,” Keith said, rubbing his chin, “you shouldn’t be putting enough magic into it for the enhancement, if it happens, to make much a difference.”

“Alright so I need to focus the magic into my hands and clap, that’s it?” John asked, doing just that, but trying to avoid activating Mana Construct or either of his barrier skills. I do a lot of things with my hands…

“It’s that simple, but it’s not,” Keith replied, clapping again. “It’s hard to exactly explain. The sound shouldn’t come from just your hands coming together, but from the magic surrounding them too,” Keith finished.

Maybe I should use Mana Construct then, John thought as he clapped with magic seeping from his hands and noticed that the result was the blue-tinged soundwave that Keith had already explained was wrong. John activated Mana Construct and formed a paper-thin cover on his hands. He clapped and it shattered, but the correct soundwave shot out into the distance.

New Skill: Disrupting Blast, Level 1, Variable MP
Reinforce a sound your produce with magic, causing it to interrupt the integrity of other spells it reaches, destabilizing them and dispelling them. The time the dispel needs to complete is dependant on the amount of mana used to cast this spell and the target spell’s ability to resist influences. Currently, you may only channel this effect through your hands.

“That was really weak, but it was right,” Keith said with a hint of disbelief. “There’s really no discretion between how fast you learn things. A spell in two minutes, a martial art in two hours.”

“Don’t hate the Gamer,” John replied with a shrug before looking down at his hands. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to do magic stuff with anything other than my hands. So far all my spells start there. Except for Move I guess…

John was snapped out of his thoughts by Keith, who said “Catch,” before throwing an empty bandolier at him. “I could give you free potions,” Keith started as John caught the light leather straps, “or, seeing as how you learn everything extremely quickly, I could teach you how to brew them.”

“Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for his life,” was John’s reply as he strapped the bandolier on, noticing that it magically fit his body size. He used Spy on it.

Vial Bandolier
Uncommon item. This leather implement used to hold potions magically fits to the wearer. Vials cannot be released from this implement without the consent of the owner (unless they’re ****).

“Woah, thanks,” John said as he swiped the information window away.

“Well, you seem like a good lad. You make the people I like happy,” Keith replied, gesturing for John to follow him off the roof.

I better step carefully, I’ve been thrown off or out of these barriers two too many times, John thought as he followed Keith down the fire escape and back into his apartment.

“First, read this,” Keith said, handing John a book with a light yellow cover which read “Alchemy 4 Dummies.” It was less than a hundred pages, and opening it prompted a popup.

Intellect Requirement Met! Instantly learn “Alchemy 4 Dummies?”
[Accept]/[Deny]

John hit accept, noticed the pages instantly went blank, and wondered if Keith knew that was going to happen.
”Alchemy 4 Dummies" learned. Relevant information will now show up when using Observe (or its variants).
The book didn’t seem to be worth very much anyway, so he didn’t worry too much about it. Keith seemed to be busy with a storage trunk regardless.

“Alchemy isn’t so different from cooking,” Keith began once he had gathered all the materials in front of them. John used Spy on each of the ingredients, which appeared to be a mushroom, a root of some sort, and a type of grain.

Imp Stool
Common item. This grey mushroom shaped plant grows near water sources and receives most of its nutrients from the water. The chemical makeup of the plant turns all water inside extremely acidic and renders the plant inedible. Extremely fragile and a common base in most low tier potions.

Comfrey Root
Common item. This bright red root is deadly if ingested raw yet has powerful healing properties when cooked or diluted into potions. Despite the abundance of it, prices have increased recently due to high demand. Can also be crushed and used as a salve.

Wheat
Common item. Normal wheat harvested from a field that used no pesticides or herbicides. Life in its simplest form.

“I’m going to teach you how to make a minor healing potion,” Keith started and put a mortar and pestle in front of John. “The first thing you need to do is crush together the Comfrey and the Imp Stool. That’s the mushroom and the root.”
“Right,” John said as he placed the plants in the mortar. He started to grind them together and noticed that the mushroom released water when crushed, which nearly overflowed the bowl. The root seemed to almost be dissolving in the water, and Keith nodded approvingly.

“Next, pour the mixture into the glass bowl over the flame. Then, cut up the wheat into tiny pieces, around two centimeters each,” Keith directed, and John poured the goopy mixture into the glass bowl that was being heated. Afterwards, he took the small knife laid on the alchemy station and cut the wheat into twenty equal pieces.

“After that, mix the wheat into the mixture and stir it into a solution, which is boiling now.” John did as he said, stirring it with a little rod next to the glass bowl. “Once the mixture has turned into a solution, you need to drop a catalyst inside. I have a couple dozen of these, so you can have this one.” Keith said, rolling a small sphere into the concoction. The sphere had multiple holes and seemed to be made of some metal similar to bronze. Due to “Alchemy 4 Dummies,” John knew that the potion would filter through the catalyst until eventually turning dark red, like a normal health potion. After a few minutes, just that happened.

“Now you need to remove the catalyst. This is very important for the next step. If you forget, it’ll mess up the whole thing,” Keith said, nonchalantly reaching his hand into the boiling liquid and bringing it back up with the bronze sphere, which seemed to be devoid of liquid despite having been submerged. He handed it to John, who winced as he touched it since it was boiling hot before putting it into his inventory and using Spy on it.

Alchemium Catalyst
An Alchemy Catalyst made out of "Alchemium," a metal named for its usefulness in alchemy catalysts. Charges remaining: 49/50

“Now’s the fun part. Since the catalyst is gone, nothing we add in now will change the effects of the potion. So you can add in whatever you want to make it taste good. Most factories skip this part, which is why their potions are nasty,” Keith explained as he pointed toward his fridge. “Grab anything you want, but nothing too big. The potion needs to stay a liquid after all.”

“Sounds great,” John said as he made his way over to the refrigerator and opened it. An assortment of fruits, meats, and candy littered the inside, with no vegetables to be seen. David, who had been watching John the whole time, popped out when he noticed the plethora of meats in the fridge. John allowed him to be physical for a few moments and gave him a scrap of what looked like chicken before he snatched up a chocolate bar. David, satisfied, became incorporeal again.

“Ah, that’s Kimberly’s… well, I’ll just buy her another one,” Keith said as John returned with the chocolate in hand. John unwrapped the chocolate and tossed it into the potion before stirring it again, noticing only the smell (and likely the taste) changed, but otherwise it looked the same.

New Skill: Alchemy, Level 1, Passive
The ancient art used to make potions all across the world. Passively increases the chances of critical successes and lowers the chances of critical failures by (Skill Level)%. Also instills within you the knowledge of how to make potions you’ve ingested or otherwise used.

“This’ll be good for around three potions,” Keith said as he flipped a switch and the liquid was pumped into tiny tubes which were connected to vials on the side of the station. “I’ve got a fancy setup, but all you need to make potions are ingredients, tools, a flame, and a catalyst. I’ve taken care of half the things for ya; that spell o’ yours which lets you make things will take care of one of the other ones,” Keith finished, handing John the three glass vials, which John slid into holders on the bandolier Keith had given him. He then used Spy on one of them.

Minor Health Potion
Common item. This health potion restores between 50 and 75 health and has been flavored to taste like Hershel’s Chocolate Bars. Created by: The Gamer.

“Alright, Jenny told me to tell you to meet her at the club when I was done with you, and I am, so off you go,” Keith explained, opening the window so John could leave. In typical John fashion, he tripped on his way out and fell out of the window and the barrier, thinking: