Potion Craft At Gun Point

Prithima kneels on the ground, she has all her potion crafting tools in front of her and further in front of her Doom stands. Nal is held dangling in front of him by a tentacle wrapped around her neck. His arms holding her legs open and a pair of cocks poised to penetrate her, "you understand?" he asks.

"Yes..." Prithima says and tries to ignore the continuous sound of the creature she had just birthed feeding on the breast milk of the still paralyzed and helpless Myrelia to Prithima's right.

"I want to hear you say it," Doom states.

"You want me to make you potions, if I try to trick you or resist your demands you'll kill Nal..." she answers.

"I will **** Nal... I will fuck and destroy her body as my tentacle strangles the life out of her," Doom corrects. He's slightly disappointed that Nal is still ****. He had hoped she'd be awake and conscious to be used as a threat. He could only imagine how she might beg and squirm in his grip as he described what he would do to her, "Oh and if you are thinking of trying to give me a potion that will harm me in some way... I will be testing each of them on your friend Myrelia first," he adds and Prithima gives a weak nod in response.

There's silence and then Doom speaks, "You may begin... I'd like you to explain as you go, teach me, as it were, about potion making. Tell me what kind of potion you are making and how it works," Doom commands and Prithima hesitantly nods.

"I... I'm going to make a healing potion first. They are the first and easiest potion most alchemists train with," she says as she places a flask in front of her and begins gathering her ingredients, "Well... technically a basic solvent is usually the first thing most would start with, but that's not really a potio-" she continues, but cuts off as Doom interrupts her.

"Stick to what's necessary, I'm not here to listen to your life story," he warns and she swallows and nods.

"right so... Ingredients are of course the most important part. For a basic healing potion you have a few options, there are a number of herbs and some synthetic materials that can provide the necessary healing components, a simple mixture of, well in this case just water, though I usually pre-" she starts and then hesitates and swallows, "er... so mix the ingredients into the solvent then heat it," she says, "heating it isn't technically necessary, but it makes the process a little quicker and except in certain cases it can increase the potency of the mix, less of the initial ingredients are... diluted," she explains.

Doom watches and listens. His class apparently gave him the ability to do this, but he wasn't actually sure how, it seemed like a skill that needed to be learned and it seemed pretty complex, knowing what ingredients and how specifically to mix them didn't seem to be something that he had just had naturally instilled. He thought about how he cast magic, most likely magic and the casting of it was complex, but he just had to think and it happened, he didn't understand how he did it, he let Prithima finish the healing potion which is a bright red and surprisingly appetizing looking potion. It looked like the kind of fruity drinks he'd often see people order at the bars he frequented. He wasn't a drinker, but there wasn't a better place he could think of to find targets. He'd never grab them at the bar of course, that would be a terrible idea, he just went to the bar, usually with some military friends and he'd just look for anyone who seemed like a good target. Then he'd learn what he could about them and he'd figure out a good time to grab them.

He took the potion and as promised he **** open Myrelia's mouth and poured some of it into her mouth and then observed for any effects. She didn't seem to have changed, which technically meant the healing potion could have been a dud, but with her fully paralyzed and uninjured, it wasn't likely to have a noticeable effect anyway.

He spoke to Prithima, "you only do alchemy or do you know any actual magic?" he asks and she hesitates.

"In theory I could cast magic... I understand the nature of it as well as any base sorcerer, but I've never bothered to try it in any practical sense," she answers, seemingly confused and concerned about this change in topic.

"That's good enough. Tell me, in order to actually cast a spell, knowing how magic works... is it normally a requisite?" he asks. She stares at him and then nods.

"Uh... yes knowing how magic works, is generally a requirement to cast magic," she answers. Doom nods and releases Nal's legs with one hand and holds it out. In his hand he creates a fireball.

"So... in theory how did I just do that?" he asks.

"Is this a trick of some kind, cause I d-" she starts and he snarls.

"Answer the question,"

"Fine... In theory creating a fireball requires transfer and manipulation of ambient heat. Essentially you just pull an amount of heat from around you and compress it into fire... The effect is usually negligible on the surroundings because the manipulation of the heat actually somewhat breaks the normal laws of energy. The ball of fire in your hand can last at least as long as you are casting it, sustain itself indefinitely and produce ambient heat without losing any of it's own or requiring more heat to be imbued into it... as a result while for a second or so after casting, the immediate area around you might have dropped a few degrees, the ball of heat would have essentially created energy to replace the energy consumed by making it," she explains.

"Okay so... first of all you people have an understanding of the laws of thermodynamics? Second... so if this is breaking the first law of thermodynamics by creating energy without reducing energy from around it... if I held it long enough would it just... cook this entire room or even the entire planet?" he asks.

"Of course... The existence of magic doesn't preclude the existence of science... It just... sort of side steps it, rather neatly in fact... And for your second question... No. The magic creates a sort of equilibrium state. There is no energy being expended to sustain the fire, but it also doesn't put more energy into the ambient surroundings than is necessary to return it to the state prior to the fire's creation. Also in case you're wondering, science is still important, because non-magically created fire, while it shares properties with magically created fire, does not have the same ability to sidestep or ignore the laws of thermodynamics. So, knowing them and how things work naturally when magic isn't involved is still important," she responds and then something seems to dawn on her.

"Wait... You actually don't know this... You don't know any of this, you have no idea how magic works, so how did you..." she starts and looks at the fire in his hand.

"Well that's why I was asking... Now I have another quick test to run," he says and roughly tosses Nal away and approaches Prithima, she jumps to her feet and backs away, surprised as Doom in fact stops and kneels down at the chemistry equipment, "What ingredients did you use? I don't remember... Perfect," he says and just grabs a beaker and some random ingredients and begins to mix them together. Prithima watches in a mixture of awe and horror as this haphazard mixture resolves into a healing potion, exactly the same in form at least as Prithima's own potion.

"That..." Prithima starts and then swallows, "that's a health potion alright... Made out of ingredients that should absolutely never go into a health potion, but I can't argue with results... This is a miracle..." she admits.

Doom couldn't believe it. He thought about how the goddesses had offered him cheats, but apparently there was one cheat they either hadn't mentioned or that they weren't even aware of. He wasn't beholden to knowledge of this world. It was game logic. He had the skill he could do it, it didn't matter if it made sense. He began to laugh. His laughter was interrupted however when suddenly lights turned on and the sound of machines running filled the area. The dungeon appeared to be functioning again at full capacity.