Bread’s eyes widened when she heard what Vlad just said. She looked at him with hope and eagerly nodded as if saying ‘Do it! Do it!’. Vladimir smiled at her.

On the other hand, the priestess seemed more amused than surprised. “Novice-grade? Maybe you have talent… Beginner-grade? Maybe after some time… For the apprentice-grade you need either magic or divinity,” she sneered at him as she explained.

“How much?” He asked, already knowing that everything can be bought with orcs. Even if they were priests.

“10 gold coins per set, 400 for borrowing the laboratory and tools for three days and another 50 for me,” she smiled, her eyes glistening with greed.

“Fine,” Vlad knew that he could not negotiate. He was here only thanks to the revolution. “What about information and books?” 

“No books here. Recipes will be prepared in your alchemy lab. And what kind of information do you desire?” 

“Everything… This world, city, political situation, history, devils… I have enough of guessing blindly,” he sighed.

“Hm… 100 gold for everything,” she replied, already counting in her head what she could buy for herself.

Vladimir knew she was overcharging, but again he could not choose. At least, he was safe for now, so was Bread. He glanced at her, his eyes unconsciously softened.

“Fine. Sold… The church still owes me 400. Send it to me, please,” he was to get the first money in this world ever. He could already feel a certain level of trepidation.

“Bread, the kids are in the church-owned village, south-west of the city around an hour from the gate. Do you want to go to them or be with Goulash? He is going to be unconscious anyway for at least three days, lest he won’t be healed,” the priestess offered.

“I… I want…,” she was sliding her eyes between Sular and Goulash rapidly. Vladimir could see that she could not make the decision. She clearly wanted to see the runts, but Goulash was too hurt right now.

“Can you promise she will be fine? Will she be escorted?” Vlad questioned Sular.

“She can wear temple guards gear and join the patrol with an orc commander. City guards won’t bother her. Her face will be hidden. Just another temple goblin,” she confirmed, trying to assure the human before her.

“If you want, you can go. I will take care of Goulash and try to make the potion,” he offered her. She looked at him with her cute big eyes that melted his heart, and hugged him, whispering ‘thank you’. Her perky breasts pressed into his lap and he had a perfect view of her cute, little ass covered only by a white toga. He hugged her back, which looked quite funny as he was bigger than her by almost a meter.

“Should I pay for the show? Or you want me to join you...” the priestess was immensely amused and teased them. 

“Ehm…” Vlad released the goblinette from his arms. They looked at each other, both slightly red.

“Tark!” Sular suddenly shouted for the guard at the entrance who swiftly arrived before her.

“Yes, bossa?” The guard promptly arrived.

“Take Bread into the armoury and let her join… Who has the closest patrol to Lian?”

“Templar Tofan, in two hours,” he respectfully replied.

“Perfect. Bread, go now, prepare. Kids are waiting for you,” she turned to her. She just nodded and left with the guard.

“Suri!” She yelled for one of her many assistants.

“Yea, milady?” A small goblinette arrived. Vlad wondered if she just conjured them or they were always waiting before the cell, former storage or whatever this place once was.

“Watch over Goulash. If anything changes, inform me immediately,” she gave the order and turned back to Vlad, “and the two of us will be going to the alchemists’ wing.”

Vlad followed Sular through the cellar to the upstairs to a small extension wing on the side of the temple that had alchemical steel covering walls, ground and even ceiling. Alchemical steel doors were around 5 metres from each other and as they walked around one, Vlad heard muffled explosions and extensive swearing from inside. Otherwise, the wing was empty, with no noise, the omnipresent hissing, or steam.

The stopped before opened doors, leading to a simple alchemical laboratory

“This is it. You have three days from now on. Again, for apprentice-grade potions, or serums you need magic or divinity. You lack both…” she shook her head.

“Can I buy some of your divinity?” Vlad asked.

“You can’t pay for it… It would be worth the spell itself. Well, good luck to you. If someone has a chance it’s you. After all, not everyone can adjust an orcen breathing technique for goblins in just a day…” she laughed again.

“Devil knows too, huh…” He sighed. He knew it would happen. That stupid quartermaster at the goblins’ camp… Why did he even do it? Well, who cares... 

“Well, there is something like an unofficial bounty on your head right now,” as she said that, Vlad winced. “Don’t worry, you are safe in the church unless you go parading in the main hall or into the sickbay. The church has clear orders from the arch-bishop on this,” she noticed it and added.

“What orders?” Vlad interrupted her. Something smelled funny to him here. He hoped it was only him, not the situation.

“This way; you made enemies and you made friends. I will explain later what it means,” she mysteriously said, winking at him. Then she continued the previous thought train, “Anyway, Ssirze was pretty much fuming… And the whore was laughing. It is said that she executed Kulgar and Dargan on the spot for letting you live, then allowing you to escape and failing to recapture you…” She giggled, but added, “but I doubt it… They are too important for this city.”

“Well… What do you know about me?” Vlad asked, fishing for info, while both of them entered the lab. It had a simple, but massive steel table on the right side. In the middle was an empty area, with a small platform and a few candle holders.

On the table were laid out clean tools. There was a crate near the table, where the resources were, including a few recipes. He immediately analysed and saved everything into his Encyclopaedia.

“What that cretin-ish traitor Ko’Rak spluttered, plus a few things from the lanista Lar’Ako and my own observations...” She listed out. She started to talk about it, probably happy that she had some reprieve from constant duties as a priestess, which were; pray, eat, sleep, pray, help sickly, pray, eat, sleep, fuck a goblin or an orc, eat… Some of those actions simultaneously. Cash-out money; that was her favourite.

“Hmm…” Vladimir half-ignored her as he was immersed in the lab, even though he was the one who asked. It was simple, yet effective. No distractions, only pure science… And yes, the candleholders weren’t helping when he was thinking of science, but didn’t that old science-fiction writer said; ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Well, this could be reversed; ‘Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science’...

His hands moved with superhuman speed, firmly yet gently, as he put together the alchemical apparatus without a single mistake.

He took the recipe out, to keep at least some of his abilities hidden, like an eidetic memory or analysis, and pretended to read it, while pulling out the needed sets of resources.

  [Potion of Superfluous Healing
Novice-grade potion; only able to heal small wounds. Favourite with children as it uses strawberry as an ingredient.
Resources: 1 gram of yellow Tri-Grass, 2 grams of pine bark, 10 grams of fresh strawberries, 50 ml of water.
Process: Heat the water to 51.21 °C, then add yellow Tri-Blade Grass, cook it for 3:21 minutes, add 2 grams of pine bark, simmer for 10:14 minutes. Finally, add 10 grams of mashed fresh strawberries for flavour and increase in effect. Let it cool down on fresh air.]

Vlad nodded and went according to the recipe. He could not believe it when it failed. Didn’t Onyx say it can’t fail? It’s a simple recipe! Then he noticed that the strawberries were infested with worms. He facepalmed that he had done such a stupid mistake.

The priestess was still talking, while closely observing how the human was doing. She chuckled when he added the bad strawberries but still let him make that mistake. Otherwise, she was surprised; the man knew his way around the laboratory. It was not a talent in alchemy, but something else. It was an experience that can only be acquired in the lifetime of a scientist.

Vlad was already able to discern the magical catalyst that allowed the potion to function. The Tri-Blade Grass had an extremely minuscule amount of magic in itself. Either it was producing it or gathered from the atmosphere. He did not know which, but already put in on the list of future experiments. Imagine that, a farm just for magic. Magical batteries, weaponry, true MECHAS! Not the scrawny exoskeletons. His mind roared at the possibilities of this deduction. There have to be much more potent flora or minerals. Then he remembered the crystals and felt like a complete moron. He derisively chuckled at himself.

The next potion was done right and perfect. There was no mistake in making it and the Onyx flashed.

  [New discipline unlocked: Science: Alchemy - novice-grade. Add recipes to the Encyclopaedia and make at least one perfected potion of it to advance in grade. Only mortal-grade.]

  [Do you wish to perfect the recipe? Estimated time: 25 minutes]

“Yes,” he happily agreed. He made another potion,

 “Good work. You know your way in the laboratory. That is good. Now, something harder, this was clearly below your level,” the priestess pressed the matter and Vlad started to wonder why she was even here. However, better to leave it that way.

Next was the Cure Disease potion of the beginner grade. He had only three sets now to be used.

  [Potion of Cure Disease
Beginner-grade version. Weaker than the original, made only for magic-less/ki-less beings. It is able to heal most of the normal corporeal diseases, like cancer (3rd-stage and less), heavy flues, rhinitis and others. Those diseases that cannot be healed are suppressed for an extended period of time (cannot be stacked).]

The resource list was getting long and the process was already exponentially more difficult. He could see that the alchemy could be very expensive; on resources and on time. There should be a whole class with plenty of passives to help with this. Too bad he could not get his hand on it as he needed to repair the Onyx AI first, which he didn't even know where to start.

Then the Limb Regrow potion. The potion would take around a day to even brew with no way around. He tried to analyse it but there was that wall with divinity/magic. The only idea he had was to ask the priestess for help.

“Hmm, I told you. I will not use my divinity unless you pay for it. However, if you could pay for it, you would not need to do the alchemy… Oh, by the way, the Superfluous Healing potions can be sold for 20 gold a piece,” she grinned. Even though alchemy was expensive, it also brought money.

“Can you explain to me now the history of the city?” He asked, waiting for the Onyx to be done with perfecting the recipe.

“Sure… You paid for it,” she shrugged. “It was established around 8 500 years ago, which makes it one of the younger cities in this world, by the steam god, Staumaz, during the war with the devil race. That day the goblins and orcs were working together, the power of steam was still unknown and the time was desperate. The devil race had access to magic. Orcs and goblins on the other hand were great warriors with powerful abilities based on the ki. 

The war continued, ravaging this land until Staumaz invented the steam-powered machines. He smartly used magic crystals, enchanting, coal and iron to create many powerful weapons, driving the devil race back. However as they won, he was offered to ascend to godhood. It was said that Staumaz was actually a powerful wizard, master of water but those are unconfirmed legends. However, this victory came with a prize. As he ascended, the orcen race lost his direct protection and the devils came back. We were able to hold them back for some time as there were only a few of them. In the end, they won and entered the city.

However, the god of steam was alive and more powerful than ever, unable to directly attack, but still, he could use the church and the divinity he gained. Devils could not directly capture the city, so they used their brains. They slowly gained power over individuals in the power, supporting greed, corruption and innate savageness of orcs. The goblins were suddenly enslaved, losing all of their rights in a matter of a few years, nobles became corrupt and it became the new normal,” she sighed at this and took another breath.

“From those days, the church of steam led by Staumaz himself fought the devils. The goblins who were able to run into now Blood Steppes turned savage by themselves and multiplied. Hence, the terrible reputation, especially in human and elven lands.

The devils were even able to build their tower here as an insult to Staumaz. The three crystals orbiting around the tower gather corruption and loyal-to-devils souls.

Your mother’s soul should be there too,” at that moment, Vlad lost every single cool he had.