Legendary Shelter Survival Guide

"Now that the powder is ready, how do I use it?" Lucas scratched his chin while looking for answers.

"I don't know," Sean said while taking a bite off a dried smoked meat piece.

"I didn't ask you."

"No, you did." Sean said half dazed looking outside as if he was not even paying attention to the talk.

Lucas stared at him, his emotions unknown until he formed a smile and just went on to work leaving the annoying guy alone.

If there was someone else who had some experience, they would see while Lucas may have been sleeping, his eyes were unfazed and sharp but Sean, as inexperienced as he could be just went on and kept annoying Lucas.

'What a bitch.' Lucas thought and kept on thinking as to what he would do with this powder.

In the end, he had no other way but to put it right inside the water in the cauldron without anything else.

He used a quarter of the amount he had and even threw some bigger ones that he had stored for later.

He made the fire start again with the help of Sarah who then properly asked for permission if she could stay or not unlike Sean.

Minutes passed and the color of the water stayed the same if ignored the little whitish hue all over it making him wonder if the powder had dissolved or not.

Soon, the point came where he had to put his mana inside the cauldron.

"Huff.." He took a deep breath with butterflies frolicking in his stomach.

Lucas was determined to not be stingy when it came to giving his mana points and he still had the mana staff which was something that was very useful for him other than Ella.

Lucas couldn't tell what was happening to the liquid as the boiling had made the bubbles move everywhere.

Several moments passed and Lucas kept giving it mana until finally, he couldn't.

The connection between the cauldron and him broke and finally, the process was completed from his side.

With the help of a pestle, he moved the cauldron from the firepit and let it cool down.

"Is it done?" Sarah asked with curiosity, her eyes glistening with hope.

"I don't know, it won't be anything most probably," Lucas remarked with another deep breath. He dipped a cup halfway and pulled it out after filling it up in half.

The water had turned whitish with no sediments visible, it was like a white glue filled with water.

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Impure water

Common

The impure water is made with the help of old worn-out teeth. The maker tried to invent something new but in turn, made something that is worthless on its own. The determination of the maker has helped make the liquid a bit more useful. It can be used in many types of productions.

One of the basic properties of the liquid is that if it comes in contact with a creature's skin, a series of rashes and itching will assault it for a few minutes.

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"Haaahhh... I can't believe it..." Lucas groaned after throwing the liquid back in the cauldron and the cup to the side.

"It wasn't successful?"

"It was but something useless is made instead of a potion," Lucas sighed in frustration as he gulped down some Normal level mana potions to replenish his mana.

He had put in a lot of effort into creating the potion, but all he ended up with was a useless liquid that couldn't even be called a concoction. He couldn't help but feel disappointed with the result.

Sarah looked at Lucas with concern. "Is there anything we can do from it? Maybe it can be used in some other way?"

Lucas pondered for a moment, considering Sarah's suggestion. "Perhaps... although it doesn't have any immediate beneficial effects, the description mentioned that it can be used in various productions. Maybe we can find a use for it in making something for the shelter. But look at the description before anything else."

Sarah nodded and tried to think of the usefulness of the liquid inside the cauldron. Soon, the description showed itself and Sarah read it leisurely.

She nodded, her curiosity piqued. "Well, at least it's not a total loss. We can still learn from this experience and try again."

Lucas mustered a small smile, appreciating Sarah's optimism. "You're right. We'll learn from this and make improvements for the next attempt. Failure is a part of the process."

"Heh... That's loser talk." Sean interjected while laughing. This time around, Lucas calmly picked up the cup from the ground that he threw before and filled it up with impure water again.

"Yeah, you are right. Let's see if you are a loser or not too. If you can suppress what's going to happen to you, I will make you the co-leader."

"Huh?" Sean didn't understand as Lucas blabbered on randomly. But then he saw Lucas move the cup further and the way he did it made his expression pale.

"W-Wait!"

It was too late, with a normal smile, Lucas threw some of the water on the guy's feet. It was the worst time as he was wearing no shoes as they were somewhere else inside the shelter's territory.

Sean with his heart right up in his mouth paled when he thought of the different things the liquid could do to him. He saw the smile on Lucas's face that was close to a sadistic one but soon, his expression became normal as he inspected the water that was splashed on him.

"Heh... jokes on you, nothing happened!" Seans exclaimed while laughing and pointing at Lucas who still had his smile on.

Lucas raised an eyebrow, amused by Sean's reaction. "Is that so? Well, let's wait a bit then."

As seconds ticked by, Sean's laughter gradually died down, replaced by a perplexed expression. His laughter turned into a nervous chuckle as he looked down at his feet, expecting something to happen. But to his surprise, nothing seemed to be occurring.

Lucas couldn't help but chuckle at Sean's confusion. "You see, Sean, that liquid is called impure water, and while it may not have an immediate effect but it can take some time to manifest. It's not called impure water for nothing."

Sarah joined in, trying to suppress her laughter. "Lucas, maybe you shouldn't have tested it on him. It could cause unnecessary panic in the group."

Lucas shrugged. "It's just a harmless prank, and Sean needed to learn a lesson about being less annoying. Plus, it's not like anything harmful will happen to him."

Sean didn't rebuke and while he gave Lucas some stink eyes, he also worried for his foot. There was a thought that Lucas wouldn't have done anything too serious on him as he like to be a goody two shoes in front of John.

But on the other hand, he knew that Lucas was downright crazy. There had been a few incidents and after correlating every one of them. It was finally agreed by the private voting pool of many that some of Lucas's brain screws were loose.

But Sean didn't have much time as the effect had clearly started to show itself on his feet.

His feet had some reddish skin and before his eyes, the skin started forming bulges like a pimple that is filled with water.

"The fuck?!" Sean shouted and had a strong urge to scratch his feet which he succumbed to started just a few seconds later.

Lucas felt elated looking at Sean's pale expression. He didn't do anything bad per see but it wasn't any good either. But Sean had to be shown that he couldn't mess and talk trash with the leader and more importantly, Lucas didn't like being talked down like that.

Soon John's father entered the small workstation when he heard the squeals of his son. Ella was with him when he entered.

"What happened?" John asked while looking at Sean who kept scratching his feet with panic. he also noticed that both Lucas and Sarah were trying to hold their laughs.

"Damnit Sean, did you do something bad again?"

"NO! This bastard threw some weird water on my feet! Look at it!

John's father, observing the situation, sighed. He walked over to Sean and gently held his arm, preventing him from scratching further.

"Sean, calm down. Let me take a look," he said, examining Sean's feet.

He could see the reddened skin and the bulges forming. It was clear that the impure water had indeed caused a reaction on Sean's skin.

Ella was concerned but in the end, Lucas blabbered to them about how annoying Sean was being and what he did in return.

"Lucas, I know that my son can be annoying but I didn't expect you to do something like this. Even if there is nothing seriously wrong with this, you shouldn't have done so." John said and he wasn't done talking. He continued with a small smile, "Maybe I should call your parents."

Lucas was till then calm and only thought about why John was acting like this but the talk of his parent made him alert again.

It seemed, for some fun and revenge, he might have shot on his own foot.

"I'm not scared, call them if you'd like!" Lucas said and went on with his brewing process without saying anything to anyone again leaving them chuckling on his rare childish behavior.

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Read the Author's Notes!