Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

"The Squall usually has a thick amount of mutant blood in it, turned to gas form. That is what causes players to take consistent damage, and what makes mutant immune to it," Doctor Finch explained. "It's become a habit of mine to try and analyze a way for players to enter the Squall, even in past batches. I've had no luck thus far… but that is, until now."

With the smile of triumph on his face, the scientist operated the screens in front of him, switching to a new panel, displaying what looked like an entire map of Endzone.

"See these locations?" He said, pointing with his finger at various rippling points on the low-contrast green map. "These are the locations of the armor sets you'll need to traverse through the Squall. I found them by tracing the energy signals within the Squall, inversing it, and using the radar I turned this building's lightning rod into in order to send out a search signal. I've done this before and never discovered anything, and I didn't get my hopes up going into this either. But what do you know… I actually managed to track down something this time around. Guess you're a lucky charm, eh, kid?"

He chuckled at Cyanide, who didn't return to smile and instead merely opened his inventory.

"Cool. Now, make me some potions."

Emptying his inventory of herbs on Doctor Finch's body, he left the room. The others did the same, with only Kirika giving Doctor Finch words of praise shortly before exiting as well.

"H-Hey! Oh, come on! This is a huge discovery!"

Yes, it sure was. One that Cyanide didn't need to worry about right now, given that all the armor locations are still well within the arena's borders, a long ways off from the Squall. When he needed them, he would go get them. But right now, potions came first.

*****

While Doctor Finch struggled with the potion creation, the rest of the group took this time to themselves. Ragnar left to head back to his own base since he claimed he didn't feel comfortable sleeping in the same building as Cyanide, even though they'd just dwelled in Envy's Lair together for a couple of nights, but whatever.

Kirika and Envy trained to improve her Wind Affinity skills since that was Envy's specialized element, possibly learning some special new moves, and Dianna seemed to be… training Ivy on sniping? Cyanide was a bit stunned to see this, but he decided not to question it and mind his own business—namely, making some potions himself.

Sure, Doctor Finch existed, but it was going to be nice to know how to make potions on the go should the situation ever call for it. As someone who was always prepared, this was an essential skill to Cyanide. As for Luna, she remained with the Doc, in case he needed any help. According to him, Anexerdyte, the green fluid Cyanide had obtained on his first day here, was a special serum that could be used as the base for any potion in place of Veridian, since apparently Veridian was an ingredient in Anexerdyte to begin with… but that's another story.

To do some practicing on his own, Cyanide kept some of his own ingredients, and brought up the Alchemy menu. He had unlocked this a long time ago, but never got the chance to actually use it due to the lack of materials. That problem was solved now, though, and he was immediately met with a tutorial as he opened the screen.

[Tutorial: Alchemy]

[In Endzone, Alchemy is the art of potion crafting. Potion crafting involves collecting the necessary materials to concoct a certain potion, and then using this menu to craft them. There are various levels of potions—low-grade ones are simply known as Potions, mid-grade ones are known as Serums, and high-grade ones are known as Elixirs. The difficulty of crafting each type scales with power, but perhaps Precepts of the Alchemist can raise your proficiency…]

So, basically, only things he knew already. But thankfully, there was a second page to the tutorial. Cyanide wasted no time clicking on it, and reading through:

[Tutorial: Alchemy II]

[To perform alchemy, all you must do is gather a correct combination of ingredients and put them into the alchemy menu. Then, tap on the 'brew' button at the bottom of the screen, and press 'stop' once the progress bar reaches the Perfect zone, marked with a bright blue highlight. Once a potion recipe has been unlocked, you can Quick-Craft that potion with a single click so long as you have the necessary materials.]

Next page…

[Tutorial: Alchemy III]

[A tip to figure out a possible combination of ingredients to make a potion: every potion has three factors. The base, the reactant, and the reactor. The base is usually Veridian, while the reactant is often a MILD substance. The reactor, on the hand, is more VIGOROUS, and tends to be have more AGGRESSIVE properties.]

"So… basically, trial and error, huh?" Cyanide murmured as he closed out of the tutorial screen. In all honesty, he wasn't a fan of this—he much preferred a more skill-based system, where the elite could come out on top. Yes, he very much believed in meritocracy philosophy.

Still, there was nothing to be done about the game system, and he just had to go along with it. Narrowing his eyes, he returned to the Alchemy menu from the tutorial and examined it. On the left half, his inventory was displayed, though it was limited only to items related to alchemy like herbs, and on the right half, there were three blank slots arranged in a triangular shape from one another on a circle's circumference that connected them all. It was somewhat similar to the Crafting menu, but far more simplistic and perhaps more archaic.

It was quite self-intuitive, actually. Looking at this now, Cyanide believed he could've figured out how to operate this menu without even reading the tutorial that popped up and filled his screen, but that's another matter.

Without further ado, he began his work.