CH327

After he finished boiling the bones, getting everything he’d needed out of them, he left them to the side to dry out as he admired what he’d collected. Having it well boiled down, there was a bit less than fifty litres in the caldron, and of it, he would be getting ten.

No good greedy gods talking my pay down to a fifth.

<You of all people can’t be calling others greedy.>

And yet, I will.

At the very least it wasn’t all bad. He’d made sure to capture and save all of the steam as it boiled off and he doubted the gods would care too much about that, especially when it likely wouldn’t work for anything, at least not to the scale of what he currently had would. He would boil all of that down further, but for the time being he focused on making the potions, only doing minor modifications along the way.

From what his god had taught him, they were shockingly simple to put together in the end, only needing a few rarer components to make them as efficient as possible, letting the drinker get as much benefit as they could. Even if it wasn’t refined, it was likely to yield a benefit for the consumer anyway, that was how valuable the body a god died in was.

Which makes this almost certain to work.

With that he got to work, continuing to use the cauldron as he did, adding the ingredients Falk had prepared and placed to the side. The first of which being mythril, his teacher using his earth magic to force it into a solution to let it be added to the broth, followed by the main replacement he’d needed to make.

Back when he’d succeeded in making Thera a staff that wouldn’t break from a dryad’s tree, at least before he’d disappeared for months, he’d hollowed out its core in the process, saving the shavings from that in a box with all of his other odds and ends he’d been unwilling to part with, and they’d finally be playing a part in his work.

Having been boiled almost as long as the bones, the wood fibers broke down, letting all of it be blended into a paste before it was mixed in as well. Given just how inherently magical the trees it came from were, there was a good chance it would have actually been more useful than the original plants he was recommended, but if he was wrong it wasn’t the end of the world.

It was after that the ingredients became significantly more common, changing from materials that were meant to hold some inherent magical effect to match the bones to ingredients to improve the body’s ability to absorb the effects of the potion to the fullest extent, ingredients that were admittedly on the higher end of the spectrum in potion making, but still things they had on hand.

He stirred it all, each of his minds focused on every variable. When each ingredient went in, working the temperature of the mixture, making sure it was always at its most optimal, mixing speed and more. Everything was for the good of making the greatest potion he could with the skills he had, and once he was sure it was done, all that there was left was testing if it worked.

Taking more care than he ever had before, he carefully filled bottles one by one, making sure not to spill a single drop of the liquid as he went until he had forty identical ones.

“So that means we get to keep eight. Okay, that works. Falk, I’m going to see how it works out for the liquid we collected in the other pot, wanna hide the rest away somewhere nobody will find it till the church representative gets here to collect it all?”

He couldn’t help but be a little worried about it, each bottle was invaluable if it would work. How could anyone put a price on pure power? Not to mention that if one of them broke there was a non-zero chance one of the grumpier gods up there would call foul play and try to use it as an excuse to throw him into the infinite hells.

No use worrying about that, let’s just finish this up and head back.

He wanted to see if his idea would pay off more than anyone after all.

“Welcome home Ben,” Sonya called from the kitchen where she and Thera were preparing dinner. “I wasn’t expecting you so early.”

“I was feeling impatient to test something since I knew you were planning on being home early. Also, I brought a guest.”

“Hope you don’t mind the intrusion,” Falk said, giving his old friend a wide smile that she returned.

“Never. I’ll make an extra side, join us for dinner.”

“Er, might not be super necessary Sonya, you probably won’t be the most hungry after this,” Ben said, lifting his crate full of potions that she completely lacked the context for.

She shot him a questioning look, not understanding just where he was going with it. “Did you pick something up on the way?”

Yeah, there’s no easy way to explain this so I think I’m just going to rip the bandaid off.

“So long story short, I made some potions from the bones of some gods and need you to drink them. It will probably be fine.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Uh, what?” She asked, no idea how she was supposed to even begin reacting to that.

“I’m basically certain it will be fine, don’t worry,” He reassured. “I had to modify the recipe a bit, but considering what it is it’s actually shockingly flexible.”

“Pretty sure that wasn’t the part aunty had an issue with Ben,” Thera said, far from surprised by the turn of events since she walked in on him making them earlier. “What do they even do?”

“Oh, an excellent question. Everything.”

He let that hang for just a second, enjoying the shocked looks the statement got as he went on to explain in greater detail. “I’m told they’ll permanently raise your attributes, as well as help with your growth rates in all areas. If there was anything wrong with you I’m under the impression they’d help with healing too, but that’s more of a side effect than a goal. Anyway, drink up,” He said, taking out the first bottle and trying to force it into her hand.

“No, not anyway,” She said, stepping away from his hand. “Ben, that would be so clearly wasted on me. If you’re not using them yourself then give them to Thera.”

“Aunty, I agree with Ben here, you should take them.”