Chapter 196

The team worked efficiently at leveling up their bodysuits. Bit by bit, the material crept from gray toward white, becoming a shiny, bright, glossy color the shade of freshly fallen snow. Every so often, the team would return to the boss antechamber room and test their new level of heat resistance. That indeed seemed to be the functional purpose of the bodysuit: slowly, even dipping their hands into lava became tolerable.

But only ‘tolerable’ in the vaguest sense of the word. And only for short periods of time. None of them particularly wanted to submerge themselves completely and risk traversing the goop, especially considering the difficulty of moving around inside it. Getting cooked alive had to be one of the more gruesome ways to go, much less getting slow-cooked if they got lost or stuck. So they wanted plenty of protection.

But further killing of monsters seemed to have diminishing returns. Already glossy white, the bodysuit didn’t seem to have much more resistance to offer. It had capped out. Further safeguards would have to come from other means. Seeing how Zoey had alchemy skills to play with, and a collection of reagents she’d been gathering, it was time to see what she could make to help her team with the climactic battle of the third-tier shard.

As she had once before, Zoey set up an impromptu alchemy station, laid out her collected reagents, and got to work.

The most important discovery came rather quickly. Throughout the magma caverns, there had been glowing red ore nearly everywhere—something an inspection informed her was called ‘cinderstone ore’. Considering its prevalence and the way it radiated warmth even sitting in her palm, Zoey suspected it would catalyze into a number of heat-related potions. Perhaps even the exact one their team needed for easier passage through the lava lake.

And sure enough, a few test brews later, Zoey found something that did exactly that.

Igneous Salvation: Consume to improve resistance to environmental heat. Effectiveness rises proportionally to temperature.

Even better, it sounded like it was especially suited to what they needed. The potion might not do too much for staying cool in a sauna, for example, but it became proportionally stronger when dealing with extreme temperatures. Like submerging into lava.

It was a shame it wouldn’t help much against flame-based attacks, though. Environmental heat only, the description said.

She handed the first batch off to her team to experiment with. While they tested its duration and effectiveness, she continued working. While they weren’t in any dire rush, Zoey knew Rosalie didn’t want her to sit around and play with potions all day; she had to work quickly.

Next up, she created something suitable for combat, also catalyzed through cinderstone ore.

Potion of Infernal Shielding: Absorb a small amount of heat-based damage.

A simple, straightforward potion that would undoubtedly be useful in the upcoming fight. The team would appreciate having a few to quaff at appropriate times throughout the engagement. A more classical ‘useful’ potion, as would normally be expected from an alchemist.

After making extra batches of both those discoveries, Zoey focused her efforts on other promising reagents. She unsealed a bottle of sulfurous spring water, which the team had found less than an hour ago. The effect she ended up catalyzing she didn’t even intend to make—it happened nearly by accident. Sometimes, alchemy worked like that.

Potion of Lavasight: Improves visibility when submerged in lava.

The team had been prepared to fumble their way around, perhaps following a wall to make it to the other side, and it would have been unpleasant, having so little ability to navigate. Zoey hadn’t been looking forward to it. So, while not a strict necessity, this potion would also be a welcome utility.

Next, she pulled out a collection of scaldblossoms, red and orange flowers that the team had found infrequently gathered around lava lake shores. Peeling the petals off and crushing them into a fine dust—going slow, else they would burst into flames—she prepared the reagent.

Potion of Relieve Burn: Restores a moderate amount of health inflicted by heat-based attacks.

In a way, it was another variation of the flame shield potions. These just worked after the fact. Since individual potions became less effective when taken in immediate succession, the variance in technical effect was important. It meant both could be used at full strength without cannibalizing each other.

The last of Zoey’s successes came from ‘molten pearls’, which were shiny black orbs found inside roughly one in five of the scaldblossoms, which were already a rare resource. She only had four of them, and the first batch failed to catalyze. The second, though, succeeded.

Potion of Consume Blaze: When potion is broken, explode and extinguish nearby flames.