"'Forager's Fest...?'" Melona read out loud, "What's that?"
"Oh, it's you!" Melissa smiled as she looked towards the young witch, finally done pinning up both sides of the banner, "Drif's friend, right?"
"Oh! Uh, yeah." Melona blinked in surprise. Indeed, she had been here often with her friend Drif, a more typical potion-making savant who often dragged her along on her ingredient gathering excursions. But during those times Drif had done basically all of the talking, Melona simply hanging back and staying quiet as she usually did, making it a major surprise that she had been noticed at all, let alone remembered. Melissa slithered over to Melona, a gentle smile on her face.
"It's a promotion we hold every-so-often to help teach people about the joys of foraging!" Melissa started, clapping her clawed hands together in demure excitement, "For the next week, you'll be able to trade certain ingredients for points! The rarer the ingredient, the more points you'll earn, and the points can be exchanged for prizes, and whoever earns the most total points by the end of the week will get to take a potion from my private reserve!"
That gave Melona pause. An alchemist's "Private Reserve" are the potions in their collections which they deem their absolute best, often having highly rare effects and properties that are impossible to reproduce, even by the person who made them. And despite her boring personality, Melissa was still a very skilled and respected brewer and collector of potions, so being able to see her Selection, let alone being able to actually take one, was unbelievably generous for what was essentially a fancy scavenger hunt. Melissa let out a soft giggle, Melona's disbelief written clearly on her face.
"I know it's a little extreme as a prize," She started, "But that's also what makes it the most enticing for anyone to participate."
"But still..." Melona muttered, "Even if you get a bunch of free ingredients, it can't possibly add up to the cost of one of your best potions. Especially if people just decide to keep the nicest ingredients to themselves."
"Oh, you get all your ingredients back when the contest ends!" Melissa corrected, "I only take them to keep people from submitting the same thing twice!"
"Then that's even less of a reason!" The young witch argued, "You're just giving away a nice potion for nothing!"
"Not nothing!" Melissa laughed, "Although I can certainly see why it looks like so!" Her smile softened a bit. "Since I came to this town I've been a major provider of potion tools and ingredients. And I'm happy to do so, I think the joy of potion making is something everyone ought to experience. But I've also noticed a certain... Well, I don't want to say laziness, I'm sure you students are very busy people, but there's a lack of consideration for where each ingredient comes from." She slithered to a nearby shelf of product, lifting a bottle of clear liquid from rows of identical bottles. "Like this spring water!" She started, "Do you know what makes it such a good base for potions?"
"Well..." Melona scratched her chin, thinking, "It's purity?"
"That is certainly part of it." Melissa nodded, "It's lack of other properties make it perfect for basic potions, as you won't have to worry about any contaminates altering your intended effects. But most types of water are also quite pure, and purifying any other liquids isn't as difficult once you know what you're doing. And yet alchemists gravitate specifically to spring water, even in places where it's procurement is quite difficult. Why do you think that is?"
"...I'm not sure." Melona relented, unable to think of any reason.
"Spring water is special because it can only be found in natural springs in the mountains. These mountains are full of mana stones, which imbue the water with a concentration of mana that helps elevate the properties of living ingredients, and bring out the properties of dead or preserved ingredients." Melissa explained, "Any other type of liquid can be imbued with mana to operate the same, but only spring water comes naturally imbued with all of these properties."
"Oh, wow." Melona said, "I didn't realize it was that useful..."
"And that's not all!" Melissa said, eyes sparkling a bit, "You see, not just the water, but also any nearby plants will also be imbued with mana and gain special properties! If any animals eat these plants or drink this water, they will also take in mana. These animals then move on, fertilizing the ground with mana, or being eaten by carnivores who develop even more complex properties! And then when they migrate..." Melissa paused, seeming to realize how much she had been talking. She cleared her throat, blushing slightly and looking away, putting the bottle back on the shelf. "Erm, a-anyway... My point is that all alchemy ingredients come from various complex environmental circumstances, and by refusing to forage many young alchemists don't have an appreciation for the ingredients they use. By incentivizing them to forage for themselves and observe these processes in action, I'm hoping that they'll start to think about where the tools they use come from."
"I understand." Melona nodded, "Drif talks about that kind of stuff all the time. Where do I sign up?"
"You'll enter?" Melissa asked, surprised, probably expecting the worst given how embarrassed she had looked. Melona nodded. In all honesty, she had decided to participate the moment she heard what the prize was, but hearing Melissa's impassioned talk of ingredients made Melona realize that while she wasn't much of an alchemist, she wanted to understand ingredients better. Even if it doesn't make her able to make potions that work, she would at least understand Melissa a little better. She was starting to realize, after all, that perhaps it was presumptuous to assume the Naga didn't have anything interesting to say all this time.
"That's great!" Melissa grabbed a clipboard from the checkout counter and passed it to Melona, who signed her name at the top of the list. Once that was done, Melissa took the clipboard back and pulled out a pamphlet. Melona thumbed through it, seeing a basic outline of the rules, the ingredients and their point values, and some suggested foraging locations. "I'm looking forward to your submissions!"
At that, Melona decided it was time to head out, perusing the pamphlet as she walked...
~If you like what you've seen, consider supporting me at paypal.me/gigajules502, and let me know your thoughts/comments/suggestions!~
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