Everlast Online

"Say, Nina..." Liz finally speaks after looking over the process to make eruption gel.

"Yeah, what's up?" Nina responded, gradually becoming bored of waiting for Smokey to do something.

"Have you ever considered becoming a terrorist?" What Smokey had asked was not what Nina had expected.

Just what the hell is on that paper? Nina thought.

Just the word 'terrorist' was a serious taboo in the modern day.

The last 'terrorist' group on Earth was around 60 years ago; and they honestly weren't even that. Just a group of lower class citizens that had become incredibly upset with the way society was progressing. As such they began protesting, but not just protesting - they fully stopped the movements of dozens of companies and it was estimated that billions were lost thanks to their action.

This was not seen too kindly.

3 days after the largest of their protests, 7 hospitals and 4 schools were blown up along with 4 city streets - all in lower class areas. Thousands died, and all of this was blamed on that group of protesters.

They and all of their immediate family and friends were captured by the government not 5 hours after the announcement. The 'terrorists' were brought out in front of cameras in the city centre of wherever they were captured and hung to death for millions, if not billions of people to watch live all across the world.

Not just the 'terrorist' group, but innocent children were killed; all to send a message.

No one believed it was the protesters that killed all of those people; it simply didn't make sense for them to attack the places that were destroyed, it didn't fit their ideology of improving the life of the working classes. Everyone knew who actually killed those people and why and yet despite literally everyone knowing who had done what, they couldn't act. They had shown what they were willing to do to people trying to fight back and between their cruelty and their superior military might, it just wasn't worth it: A message was sent that day and everyone received it.

Since then, 'terrorist' had become a word that had been lost to time.

"Of course not!" Nina shouted, looking around nervously.

"Calm down, I meant in the game. Obviously not on Earth" Liz handed over the eruption gel paper to Nina; though she had considered living a life of crime in the past, killing anyone she needed to in order to protect her sister.

It was silent for a moment as Nina read through the paper.

"Why will this help us?" Nina asked, she understood the concept of what they could do, but couldn't piece together the full plan.

"Listen numbnuts." Liz said, smacking Nina gently on the head with the paper she had taken back, "We only managed to get this stuff from the slums because of the low guard presence, that won't be possible for the archduke's estate or the trading firm." 

"We need a good distraction so you can sneak in, steal the goods and sneak out." Liz said, "Besides, after that last fight, Gloria's been knocked out of commission for twenty four hours."

Nina understood now and the pair began looking into their options.

Liz had most of the ingredients needed to make the eruption gel, but some would need to be acquired. Luckily, they were all things that were entirely inert on their own and should pose no... Complications, when she bought them.

Nina posed that simple letters and documents may not be enough and visual evidence could go a long way in completing the quest. Liz agreed but questioned how that would be possible, Nina had the answers to that one.

"They have this thing called a... 'Portrait Prism', it's basically a magic camera, but I'd need the gold for it." Nina said, Liz agreed with the utility of the item.

"Here, I'll send you the money." 

"Ah... Thanks!" Nina smiled, telling her how much she needed and so the 2 went off on their way.

Liz was running low on funds and decided to also use this period of 'alchemical opportunity' to inflate her bank account.

Making her way to the apothecaries place once again was simple, having already been there before, but as she did Liz took the time to again look over the recipe for eruption gel; not fully understanding some of the more technical parts.

Using her [Puppet Hand] skill Liz compared her own notes, the ones she made when creating potions, with the sheet of paper; as well as with the Blizz recipe. Hoping to reach a full understanding of the recipe, since it would play such a crucial part in the coming raid.

Luckily no one had spotted Nina or Liz during the 'Grimian Gang Incident' as it would soon be named, allowing the girls to casually make their way through the streets.

Liz could tell she was making progress as halfway to her destination she saw her skill had increased from 48% to 49% and more of the recipe cleared up, even at 48% she could fully create the gel, but with a perfect understanding of the method it would surely come out much better.

Liz made sure to keep the papers she had stolen from the gangsters secret, not for a moment believing that the 2 recipes were in any way legal. This definitely slowed her progress in comprehending the recipe, at the very least her desire to understand slowed her to the point she was unlikely to reach the materials store at any point soon.

Then as she turned the corner something popped out to her in the eruption gel recipe:

'ensure the usage of aged iron, else the product shall not properly function'

(A/N: There are many fantasy metals like mythril and adamantite, but also - for convenience - many metals, and other items, with the same names as Earth resources)

On her initial reading, this made little sense to her, 'what the hell is "aged iron"', she had thought, but this game had a mediaeval setting; maybe they just use different words that she was used to.

What happens when iron is left alone? She ran many ideas through her mind of looking at how iron ages and its use in creating explosives.

Before Liz had to leave school she was the top of her class in most, if not all, of her classes and so was quite familiar with chemical processes; as such the answer smacked her in the face like a ton of bricks:

RUST! Liz came to a complete stop, causing someone behind her to almost walk into her. Aged iron is referring to iron oxide! Rust!

Iron oxide was a very common oxidizer used in many chemical reactions to create fire and explosions, Liz specifically remembered it was commonly used in creating thermite due to the low cost and highly volatile nature of oxidisers.

And with the realisation came an increase in proficiency, putting her not just at 50% but 52% in [Apothecary].

It's pretty cool that IRL science can help improve stuff like this. Liz smiled, soon reaching the apothecaries to gather some of the materials she needed; though she would need to go somewhere else to get iron oxide or rust as it was unlikely to be useful here. 

Still, entering the shop came with a certain amount of shock.

Whenever Liz looked at a herb or material she instinctively understood things about them, properties about the item that she could never have known.

What the hell is this? Liz thought as she discovered that if mixed the right way 'Valiance Grass' could release a scent that acted as an aphrodisiac despite the grass typically working as a buffer to lower pH solution.

(A/N: Showing off my Chemistry A-level with stuff like pH and properties of oxidisers. I almost failed the exam, but still. Valiance grass is a turquoise-blue colour and named that way due to its aphrodisiac properties as it gives people confidence, fun bit of lore that has no bearing on the story)

What Liz had not known is that such occurrences were common. Many passive skills could more accurately be described as a large amount of skills rolled into one.

Take Gloria's [Demise Blade] passive skill. On its own it gave a better understanding of swordsmanship and a minor increase in strength, but as proficiency increased it also began to show other effects. Such as the black aura her weapon emits or the small damage over time effect.

Many passive skills acted this way, though only in higher ranked passives. Basic skills like [Swordsmanship] did not grant any bonuses until the skill evolved and became something else entirely.

Liz had so few passive skills that she never got the opportunity to realise this until now.

So, by reaching 50% proficiency in [Apothecary] as well as doing so by integrating personal knowledge to do so; Liz gained an ability that told her more details about items relating to alchemy.

Liz didn't understand why she had gotten this ability out of nowhere, but she was more than happy to make use of it.

She picked up a series of herbs from the shop that she did not expect she would want; she would be able to create eruption gel, but with her new ability she might be able to make something better.

Something that could help ensure she and Nina got what they needed. She was the distraction and so she would distract.

Liz was an excellent student and her ability in chemistry stood out among her other subjects. The reason was simple: She might be able to help Piper.

She put in much more effort into chemistry, before and after Piper became sick since pharmaceuticals were incredibly profitable and may lead to her finding something that could alleviate Piper's symptoms and though she would never admit it in public... Chemistry could very easily be weaponized.

Liz would do anything, kill anyone, if it would save Piper; luckily she never had to do anything like that.

But now, she could happily weaponise her knowledge in the game.

She gathered many items, ones that were poisonous, ones that emitted gas, ones that gave off incredible amounts of heat under the right conditions. She was fully prepared to create chemical weapons.

Once she had a large supply of plants and supplies, Liz made her way to the smithing part of the city; where an interesting conversation occurred:

"Hey, I need rust. You know where I can get some?" She asked, talking to the first, non-working, person she saw.

"Rust?... You want that shit?" The burly man asks, entirely confused, both by the request and the requester. Little girls didn't spend much time in the smithing district.

"Yeah, you got any?"

"Sure, but it mostly just goes in the trash." 

"Cool, can I have it?"

"But why do you want it?"

"I need it."

"But why?"

This went on for a while, back and forth as Liz obviously couldn't just say 'oh yeah, I need it to make explosives as a distraction to steal documents from a famous trading firm.'  She doubted that would be well received.

Eventually, she was pointed in the direction of the 'old weapons'; from there she was granted a large pouch of rust that she was free to take.

Liz now had an inventory stocked with materials that would soon be used to destroy things around him. Now was to find a place to produce these destructive items; outside the city was a large barren field, likely to show any approaching armies clearly as they have no place to hide.

On the other hand, it would be hard to do it in the city. There were places that allowed people to practise alchemy for a fee and even gave bonuses in creating potions; but doing so would put her in a precarious position, one door away from people seeing she was creating dangerous chemicals.

"Okay. That'll be the best place." Liz said, determining where she should go for this, "Back to the slums."

Liz made her way to the slums, taking a wide berth from the Grimian territory until she found a boarded up and abandoned building.

It was no issue for one of her soldiers to pull enough of the panels off so she could get inside and as part of being an undead, Liz had excellent night vision. It was the perfect place to practise making illegal chemical weapons.

So that is what she did. Taking notes the entire time, Nina had finished her task early and so Liz asked her to gather information on the 'Heavenly Grail' trading firm while she worked.

Other than just her weapons, Liz mass produced (using 2 pairs of her puppet hand skill) potions that she quickly placed on the market; she even found herself creating the latest potions she had bought and rising to 60% proficiency in [Apothecary] and 55% proficiency in [Multitask].

Liz entered 20 of her free points into AGI and the other 13 into INT in order to improve her ability with potion making, and it seemed to work.

From the sales of both the old potions and the new ones she was able to produce, Liz wound up with 531,677 gold; a record high for her to make in one go.

(A/N: This came about by the time the 2 were going to put their plan into action, so keep that in mind)

It seemed [Night Vision] was a highly sought after ability thanks to a number of dungeons being incredibly dark, her potion more or less eliminated this difficulty.

The [Chameleon Potion] was an obvious hit, especially among those who needed stealth but didn't have the [Stealth] skill.

Following her commercial success came her alchemical success:

She was able to regularly produce [Eruption Gel] in quantities that were large enough for her to use in the raid and likely still have some left over. But that wasn't all, as both she - and annoyingly the entire world - found that Liz's abilities had improved by more than she had expected:

[«WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT» A player has created a new potion recipe]

[Potion: <Brain Fog (E-)> has been produced for the first time by player: <Smokey>]

[Reward: <+5000 Rep>, <+Potion Recipe Rights>, <Alchemy Kit (A)>]

"This is definitely going to cause something..." Liz muttered, and as if on cue Liz received a message:

[Nina: omg wot did u do!!!!]

[Smokey: new potion]

Liz's messages went silent for a moment; on the other side Nina was fuming and trying to calm herself before responding back.

[Nina: i understand that]

[Nina: wot happened for u to make a new potion]

[Smokey: just mixed a plant that emits gas when heated with a plant that emits heat and a sleep inducing plant]

[Smokey: potion releases gas that makes people fall asleep]

[Nina: then do we need explosives]

[Smokey: backup plan]

The 2 had come to an understanding. Liz's new potion [Brain Fog] was perfect for espionage, but didn't fit well into their plan for creating a large set of explosives to create a distraction; as such the new potion would be used as the plan-A, while explosions would be plan-B, or unless they needed them.

The new potion worked in a way that was not quite how one would expect a potion to function. Instead of drinking it, you throw it and when the glass shatters, it releases a gas that will send people to sleep.

Liz then produced another set of [Chameleon Potions] for herself so that the 2 of them could sneak through the trading firm in the dark when they needed to. But Liz did not slack off in regards to plan-B.

She even decided to try and improve it, resulting in something quite extraordinary:

[Eruption Gel+ (C-)]

[Advanced Eruption Gel made by <Smokey>. Highly volatile and flammable gel. Creator <Smokey> has introduced a heating element allowing for instantaneous combustion once the protective casing is destroyed]

This was something new Liz had created, technically, and it pushed [Apothecary] to 80% proficiency. It took 4 attempts to make, resulting in her having to move to a different building every time as each failure created a large explosion that could have killed her without her summons to take the damage. 

(A/N: Creating new recipes, obviously, massively boosts proficiency)

It was only by use of an increased proficiency and her new A-ranked alchemy kit that she was able to even make the stuff in the first place.

Everything she had done was written down in her note book and so Liz could easily reproduce everything she needed.

Liz had everything she required to pull off the 'heist' and as the sun began to set, the plan would be put into action.

"Everything is ready." Liz said to Nina as they met up. Nina explained some of the information she had gathered and the 2 prepared to begin the operation.

"Absolutely nothing can go wrong!"

Liz was sure of it.