Doyle laughs, “So many rich people pre-system would have melted away under that last potion. Though I have to ask, you say it isn’t cheap to make, so how would it end up in the hands of the poor?”

Moota shrugs, “The actual ingredients are stupid cheap to grow. What makes it costly is the fact some of the herbs are highly illegal. As you said, rich people have the money to perfect their physical appearance. Now if what happened is a true polymorph situation, my potion won’t do anything because that is their new body.”

“The rich won’t do that, though. They put importance on their bloodline, especially since there are some bloodline abilities which polymorph and similar would remove. Instead, the rich will use magic, surgery, and godly intervention to perfect themselves. A jolly fat merchant looks jolly because their face has been changed, so their face naturally smiles and they are just fat enough to look well off and non-threatening.”

“This goes doubly so for some nobility out there. They’ve been keeping the bloodline pure for so long every generation will have some problem. Magic of course can fix so many problems, and even if it can’t, any of the gods based around nobility can. This is only temporary, as even if they can fix the genetic mess, nature isn’t too keen on such a break in the natural order.”

“These herbs used in my pauper’s fix are one of the counters. You can find a herb or two that does this in every world. It is just that in a world with an entrenched group of people doing so will have those herbs become more and more weed-like. And of course nature doesn’t do things in halves. Almost every other ingredient in my potion is to weaken and specialize the poison. In the natural form, the herb kills the changed parts of the body.”

“That makes healing nearly impossible. Pauper’s fix guides the poison to break down the areas into usable material to heal with. This, of course, would not make the potion accepted by the traditional nobility and those long-lived families. Using those herbs in the recipe jacks up the price on certain worlds.”

Ally nods, “Yeah, I can understand that. Even the fae would run afoul of it, if only because enough of them would experiment with body modification when they get bored.”

Doyle frowns, “Pauper’s fix sounds nice enough, but it sounds more like a potion you created instead of a natural result. You’ve said already you are not an actual alchemist, so what’s up with that?”

Moota smiles, “That is easy enough to explain. While the result of what herbs I eat is somewhat random, it still follows a logic. Now, as a god, I even have some control over the changes. I’ve mostly used this to assure that when I eat poison, the result will be an antidote. Still, pauper’s fix took a lot of work to figure out.”

Doyle shakes his head, “No, I mean you said we could make it. From how I understood it, the potions you created out of your milk was not brewable.”

Moota snaps her fingers, “Oooh, that makes sense. I can see where the misunderstanding comes from. While most of what I can make are impossible potions, not all of them are. This is part of what took me so much effort. I had to figure out the exact ingredients that were needed so it wouldn’t be impossible to make.”

“And that is another reason I find the coalition’s view on impossible potions to be nonsense. If even me with my lack of general alchemy knowledge can work on getting an impossible potion till I can brew it, they just aren’t willing to try.”

Doyle nods, “So how do you know when it became possible to brew? If you don’t know alchemy, that doesn’t make sense.”

Moota shrugs, “I shouldn’t call it a lack of alchemy knowledge. That is just what the other gods tell me, and I shouldn’t have internalized it. They laugh at me because my knowledge is still within the realm of what they consider mortal knowledge. I am after all still an alchemy god. Now the knowledge isn’t my own. If I lost my godhood all the knowledge would vanish from my head. Still, with the boost I know enough to craft some higher tier potions. Not create new recipes, the boost doesn’t provide inspiration, but once I create a brewable potion with my milk, I can reverse engineer the recipe from it.”

Doyle blinks a couple of times when she finishes and then breaks into laughter. Moota is shocked and Ally glares at him, “What’s so funny about this? Her situation isn’t a laughing matter!”

Doyle rubs his face and tries to get the laughter under control. Still, it takes a few moments before he can answer. “I’ve figured out what godhood does”

Ally frowns and shrugs, “Not exactly a mystery. Even I could tell you it increases the skills related to what they became a god for. The more power they have as a god, the bigger a boost they get. Everyone knows this.”

Doyle laughs again while shaking his head. “No, hahaha, no, that isn’t. That isn’t what it is doing. My guess is it shows up in their character sheet as the skill’s level just being higher?”

Moota nods, “Yeah, like I said, it raises them beyond whatever they thought was their mortal limit.”

Doyle sighs, “Is there equipment that will boost a stat as long as you use it?”

Ally makes a face, “What does that have to do with anything? Of course there are, though some stats are harder to boost than others.”

Doyle smiles at this, “Let me guess, they don’t provide all the effects an increased stat would provide? And it doesn’t count towards any stat requirements, right?”

Ally shrugs, “Well yeah, why would it?”

Doyle lets out a single laugh, “So why should the godhood boost be any different? It doesn’t increase your skill level. Instead, it gives you increased ability to do what you already know how to do. This is why there are impossible potions. The alchemy gods assume their increased skill level means they should be able to figure out more things. In reality, it just gives them the mechanical ability to craft potions they couldn’t before and reverse engineer stuff they have experience with.”

“They won’t ever be able to create a potion beyond their original skill level. No figure out new concepts that might be possible with what their shown skill level would allow them to. Impossible potions are potions beyond what they consider their mortal limit. I bet those gods never try to improve upon the stuff they had been working on before becoming a god?”

Moota scoffs, “As if they would demean themselves on mortal work.”

Doyle nods, “Exactly! How can they improve if they never work on things at their actual skill level? Those gods assume they’ve reached the peak of their skill when they are just trying to improve on something they didn’t even understand.”

Ally frowns, “How would that even work? Like, gods aren’t unique to system based worlds. Without a system, where would the skill increase come from? Because I know gods get a boost to their skills everywhere.”

Doyle shakes his head, “No, that would make even more sense. This isn’t some system based skill improvement. It is something intrinsic to a god. The system detects an increase in skill so it shows up on their sheet. However, they don’t make any actual advancement after because they lack the understanding needed.”

Ally's frown deepens, “They should still be able to advance. Skills level up through use, so even if you don’t understand the system will level you up and give you the understanding. If anything gods should have their skills skyrocket at first because of them doing things at a higher skill level than their original.”

Doyle smiles and asks, “But are you sure about that? I don’t think skill boosting like this can be all that common. All the talk about gaining skill levels by grinding away and yet by talking about the people who become gods, we see something different. If all it takes is grinding, why are these people stalling out? They should be able to continue grinding away at the alchemy skill and get through the so-called bottleneck.”

“There has to be more to it. What if you need to have the capability to understand the new skill level? Maybe they aren’t wrong in thinking they had reached a bottleneck in their skill? Not that it excuses the gods. If anything it shows that those who continue to plug away are more worthy of the position. Not that they would bother, there is more to learn, so why interrupt their research time with nonsense political stuff?”

Moota has a conflicted look on her face. “This kind of knowledge isn’t exactly safe to know.”

Doyle laughs at this, “The knowledge itself isn’t dangerous. Rather, what is dangerous is too many people finding out it was planned. The system has this grand promise of being able to continue the grind for the rest of your life. We have so many who become gods because they are held back by it. Think of how many people there must be out there who reached a limit and just couldn’t do anything about it?”

“The system isn’t our friend. It isn’t there to help us understand what rules the universe now runs on. There must be some underlying rule to how skilled someone can be. If I had to bet, it would be connected to their stats. Though it is just as likely some hidden thing. Maybe a combination.”

Ally shrugs, “I guess that could be possible. But how does this affect us right now? You stopped us from going off on a tangent just to do it yourself. What are the terms for this deal?”

Doyle rubs the back of his neck, “Fair enough. Now how specific do we have to be with this deal? Should we get out some paper and write it all down, or is a verbal agreement enough?”

Ally crosses her arms, “Hmph, that’s more like it.”

Moota shakes her head, “Going to stay out of that. Anyway, we can do a verbal contract for this. You only need a written contract when it is going to be between more than the people signing on. As it is, we can just swear an oath after hashing out the details. Writing out the details would remove some of the actual intent behind our deal.”

Doyle shrugs, “Fair enough. So going by what we have said, we want mutual secrecy. You bring in some cows for the settlement, provide me with the patterns for cows up to level five, leave them a message, and provide me with the basic potions plus those three special ones. I work on spreading your religion to the cows including those in my dungeon, when I get a world sized floor I theme it after cows for you, and of course I stop destroying the alchemist vials and not revealing the secret of how to do so. Oh, and Ally, you’re also sworn to secrecy.”

Ally frowns, “We aren’t providing all that much, are we?”

Moota laughs, “You’re providing something. This isn’t my first time making a deal. Most of the time the way this goes is I show up with godly lights. Some old guy fake cowers then promises not to do it again or spread it around in exchange for some potions. Honestly? I will bet there is someone out there that knows how to do it and spreads it around. Way too many master alchemists seem to know the same method of destroying the vials.”

Akhier

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