With a quick appraisal, Imelda confirmed that the paste was indeed the same Imbued Herbal Healing Ointment that Kori had intended to make, though at a quality of inferior which was likely due to the state of the moss that she had provided.

"It actually worked… water and moss…" She said, staring at the appraisal only she could see. "If I hadn't watched you do it, I'm not sure I'd ever believe it." She shook her head, "I assumed there must have been something special that you just didn't realise…" Pausing to think for a moment. "Maybe there still is, there could be something about the way the moss grows beneath the mountain or the water there or something…" She continued to try to rationalize away the illogic of the situation.

Kori just shrugged, moss was moss as far as she was concerned. The luminous stuff wasn't something they could really grow purposefully, but it wasn't hard to find in the many damp caves and tunnels that existed in the clan's domain. "Not sure. Our gatherers find the stuff all the time." She really didn't see why the woman was making such a big deal out of it, it's not like potions and healing magic didn't exist and do the same thing. "We can always try it with your moss and see what happens?" She asked.

Pulling her attention away from the little pot of paste sitting before her and the appraisal that she hadn't shared, it took the herbalist a moment to process what Kori had said, "Hmm, what? Oh, yes, that's the next step I suppose." To say that she was still skeptical of the ointment being anything other than a fluke would be an understatement.

They spent a few minutes properly cleaning the mortar and other implements that had been used and were ready to try again fairly quickly. The process differed only slightly with the sphagnum moss since it had already been dried; Kori suggested they try with the moss fresh as well, but unfortunately there was none on hand and it would take at least a day or two to procure any. The typical usage of the moss did not require it to be ground or hydrated like the luminous moss did; the dried fibers were used to pack wounds directly or in the making of bandages.

Grinding the moss into a paste was quite difficult, both because it was more fibrous and because one of its standout properties was its incredible potential to absorb moisture, making it need a great deal more of the tincture than expected. As she worked it, waiting for that telltale sense to add her mana, the paste remained an ugly brown and continued to absorb more and more of the tincture. When it seemed that she had finally reached the desired consistency and maybe gone a bit beyond, she stopped. The void waiting to be filled with her mana never came.

"It… didn't work." She sighed.

Imelda placed her hand on the kobold's shoulder, "It was only a first try. We can try again and if that doesn't work maybe make some changes or try something else." She attempted to reassure her.

It wasn't like she didn't know the process could fail, she had failed plenty of times in making her ointment, but this was also the first time she had tried to make something new on purpose. All of her previous discoveries, of which there were only two, had happened on her first try of making that particular recipe.

Trying not to let herself get discouraged they tried again, and again. The results unfortunately did not differ for either attempt.

"I guess the moss doesn't work…" Kori said disappointedly. In her head she knew that the chances that the first thing they tried was unlikely to give them the results that she was hoping for, but she still thought that it might make something.

"It's much too early to say that, Kori." Imelda replied with a smile. "There are still so many other things to tweak and change. We could try with fresh moss, once I can get some, or grind the moss into a powder first before mixing, or to use the tincture while it's still hot, or even to grind it while heating everything." She began listing off possible changes to their methodology, each potentially changing the outcome. "And if none of those work, maybe we can mix the two mosses, it won't be a replacement like we're looking for but it could stretch the moss or enhance the product in some way."

Kori hadn't thought of things quite like that, everything before was either something that worked or it didn't. Everything that she made was simply an extension of an existing process. All the little things she could change about what they were doing, that she could make changes not just in what she used but how she used it, opened her eyes to something joyous. Experimentation.

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it had been at the heart of everything she had done. From finding a way out of her pen as a hatchling to adding that first drop of tincture to the poultice before it ever called on her mana. It was just another word for something that described the heart of her being, curiosity. It was the practical application of her favorite question, 'Why?', into what she thought might become her second favorite, 'What if?'.

Reinvigorated with thoughts of each of the little experiments to come, they cleaned up once again and tried something new. Their first attempt, grinding the moss to a powder before mixing, was an abject failure and a mess. The doughy mass that eventually formed seemed to have neither an appetite for mana nor any practical usage, and after letting her curiosity overwhelm good sense, which was a pretty frequent occurrence for the youngling, she also found out it tasted horrid.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The second attempt with the hot tincture seemed to be going much better, the tea-like aroma given off by the mixture as she ground it into a paste was almost pleasant. Though with the fresh memories of the last attempt she withheld from trying a sip. When she reached the point that the ingredients had roughly the same consistency of her ointment, there was unfortunately no change from the prior attempts.

Unlike those first attempts, she kept going, long past when she would have given up and called it a failure and beyond the point where she no longer expected there to be any chance of success. A little niggling hopeful thought, so faint that she doubted it was anything but her imagination telling her what she wanted to hear, drove her to keep going.

As the ratio of liquid slowly pushed the concoction from a paste to more of a slurry or even something that could be described as a syrupy mess, she finally felt it. The pull on her mana was there, just waiting for her to let it flow.

With a wide grin broken out on her face, she called Imelda back over to her side, the woman had been cleaning up and working on her own things, "It… It's working!" She exclaimed excitedly. She wasn't sure what the other woman's reaction was, her attention focused on what she was making, as she let her mana flow into it. Whatever it was that she had made, it was hungrier for her mana than anything she had made before. It drew more and more as she opened her Status to watch the number plummet.

Ten mana, twenty mana, fifty. It hungrily drew on. She began to feel a little light headed, she'd never expended such a high quantity of her mana at one time before, well except that once when she expelled everything trying to learn [Mana Control]… but never on purpose at least. She'd used it over time to make large batches of ointment, but never anything that drew it so greedily or at such a pace. When it crested a full ninety of her mana it finally slowed and then stopped.

Over a third of her mana had disappeared into the contents of her mortar, she had thought her mana to be high considering how little it took to make the ointment, but if something could draw ninety-five points of it from her in a few seconds, she might just have to change that assumption.

To her magical senses the liquid that slowly moved about the mortar as she tipped it back and forth glowed like she had managed to finally cast the [Lantern] spell that had so eluded her. Though to anyone without, it was simply a syrup that had gone from a cloudy brown to a fully clarified one with a deep amber brown hue, similar to a sweet syrup she had tried at Mirabel's that was served on a fluffy confection called a pancake.

She ignored the light that was blinking just out of her vision as she reached for the little clay pot that had been prepared for the expected paste, not sure if it was really the right thing to use anymore but it was all that was on hand. She was fairly certain she knew what notification would be, it was probably her imbue Skill and anything truly interesting would come after they figured out what the scale she had just made.

"Wait, I'll get a vial or something." Imelda stopped her, barely tearing her attention away from what the youngling had made to rush off and find something more appropriate.

<<Skill proficiency improved. Imbue Concoction level 4 -> 5. Maximum level reached>>

Taking the moment she was forced to wait to quickly check and dismiss the notification that was exactly as she had expected, she spent the rest of the wait eagerly bouncing on the stool until she nearly toppled herself over and had to stop.

When Imelda returned with a collection of thin vials and flasks, they tried to measure out which would work best, eager to see what it would appraise as once they had decanted it. Finding that she had made roughly three hundred millilitres of the concoction they went with a flask. Kori was apprehensive of the extra space within since it could have contained nearly twice that, remembering the stark warning on the results of her last experiment about exposure to air and stability.

It took several long moments to pour the thick liquid solution and scrape what stuck to the mortar from its sides and deposit it into the flask before a stopper could be added and the moment of truth finally came.

Practically shoving it into Imelda's hands while telling her, "Quick! Appraise it!" Her tone was something between begging and an excited shriek as she asked her to discover what had just been created.

"Okay, okay." Imelda replied, taking the flask from her.

The woman's face went from excited to shocked and confused within moments, sputtering out what Kori could only assume passed for an expletive to the surface dweller. "Radiant's light!"

The suspense nearly unbearable, after a few moments with nothing else Kori poked the woman who seemed to forget that she was waiting to find out too, nearly causing her to fumble the flask when she was broken from her stupor, "Well, show me! Share the appraisal!" She pleaded.

"Oh. Right." Imelda replied absentmindedly.

The information appeared before her and it took her only moments to tell that it wasn't what she was trying to make. That's not to say it wasn't something useful, just not what she had hoped for.

Basic Suspension of Fortitude Tier 1, Uncommon

A suspension created from herbal ingredients imbued with mana. Upon ingestion increases Endurance and Vitality by 5 points for the duration of two hours. Only one such suspension may be used safely per twelve hours without causing illness and requiring a significantly longer recovery period.

This suspension will begin to lose its potency after a period of time.

This flask contains sufficient volume for seven doses of the suspension.

"Oh." Kori replied, her tone almost disappointed.

Imelda looked at her once again like she'd grown a second tail. "Oh?" She said with her tone elevated, "All you have to say is 'oh'?" She asked, though Kori was pretty sure that this was one of those weird questions that people sometimes asked without actually wanting you to answer it. The woman's bewildered expression slowly changed as she realized that Kori really didn't have any idea what she had just made. "You really don't get it, do you…"

"Get what? It increases a few Ability Scores by a few points for a couple of hours, I guess that's useful right?" Kori answered her. Sure, it was something new, but it was only five points and they weren't even useful abilities that it boosted.

Once again baffled by the young kobolds ability to create something with no understanding of its implications, the woman just stared at her for a few moments.

"It doesn't seem to matter how many times I say this… but I keep forgetting that you're only four…" She said shaking her head.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.