Chapter 113 - Potions

*(mood song: " Linkin Park - New Divide")

With the mushroom growing in the onsen and all the boiling water, Erik grabbed a basket, some dozens of giant chicken eggs from the fridge, and also a pot and a teaspoon, then filled the pot with clean seawater and carried them back to the onsen, putting the pot inside the onsen, letting the heat transfer, once the pot water was hot he put the eggs inside and left them eight minutes in the boiling salty water and took them out, waiting till they were colder and opened the top with the teaspoon, scooping out the white and then still slightly creamy orange interior, the perfect quick meal to eat with a spoon.

As he was eating his giant mutant chicken boiled egg the scouts and hunters started waking up so he gave them one each to eat and went upstairs with the rest, leaving the pot back at the kitchen, where he cooked some big steaks while ripping apart some raw meat with his teeth, he ate 4Kg of meat until he barely felt satisfied, also eating some crispy algae chips from Inky's secret spot, one of the top cabinets behind some metal bowls, she kept changing the hiding spots but Rose just told him every time.

Erik: [...I know I'm bigger and also pregnant but... isn't this too much hunger?]

Rose: [well, it's probably related to your myostatin reduction, with muscle mass growing all over your body it will consume much more energy, as myostatin serves the purpose of eliminating energy consuming muscle mass when it's not being used, for example, according to your planets data, some reptiles can digest their own bones and become smaller in periods of less abundance, but you have food to spare so maybe a bigger or fast digestion stomach would solve the problem?]

Erik: [... you are right, my body might outpace my digestive system at this rate, but growing so much....] he then remembered Beritkan, the crabman abomination [yeah, I still have to make him spill those potions, did you start planting the herbs already?]

Rose: [well, I scanned all the parchments so with the required temperature and needs to be added, and since it wasn't really hard I added an extension to the greenhouse, Beritkan is there now if you wanna see]

Erik: [alright, I will take a look, by the way, I was thinking that since my body is improved and the babies are growing faster I could probably keep them longer inside and give birth to developed babies]

Rose: [...Oh, found it, interesting... so human gestation is a nine months premature gestation due to your big heads, and using a soft skull... but it says in the data it would take 21 month's to fully develop and be born with the ability to move (^-^;) ]

Erik: [well, it's a technique that came to be with the development of external artificial uterus like the smaller versions I have here for animals, individuals were then born and showered in protective bacteria, they were more intelligent and lived longer, it's quite the old technology, but with this improved body I might be able to reach at least 12 months as my hip bones can separate without much pain due to the cartilage connections]

Rose: [well, that would be interesting to see (◉ω◉)]

--- Greenhouse, exterior ---

The waters were clear but dark due to the ice on top as Erik walked to the greenhouse with his normal power armor on, passing Trutk's puppet that was standing aside along with other three rock tribe puppets to act as guards, their pincers now heavily mechanized and senses replaced.

Once inside he quickly noticed the change, with most of the cages dismantled there was a lot more space as drones moved up and down the flooded greenhouse, its only inhabitants the hybrid elder who had given birth to Timberly's hybrid children already, delivered to the hybrid crab city as orphans to be taken care of, and was mostly confined to her cell room, and then there was the covered in explosives abomination, Beritkan who was currently slack jawed as he observed the drones weld and install an entire hallway with big rectangular aquariums to grow one type of medicinal algae each, by now the seeds were already planted and the aquariums labeled as the drones started to go back out and the water to drain.

Erik saw the floored in awe Beritkan and said "so? how does it look? feel like a savage yet?"

Beritkan was surprised out of his thoughts as he turned around as quickly as his grotesque body allowed him to, and became even more surprised seeing the being made of shiny metal "My humble self if called Beritkan, how might I address you?" giving a small bow.

Erik chuckled and said "Erik, though your people called me queen or Erika"

Beritkan eyes dilated as looked back at Erik "t-that can't be... Erika was a crab woman, but you..." looking at his legs "clearly aren't..."

Erik: "that was just a spare body I inhabited, I could even take your body if I wanted" he saw Beritkan's face tumors pale "but you are too ugly for that" making Beritkan sigh in relief.

Beritkan went into deep thought hearing that '...for once I'm glad to be ugly... but this kind of power... it's unstoppable, it goes beyond what should be possible, why make a perfect body when you can have one for every task... if I'm loyal... maybe one day this body...' and then bent over even lower "what do you require of me, my queen?"

Erik: "heh~, seems like you learned some manners after all..., I need a feeding potion, just that, a potion of concentrated nutrients to drink and substitute a meal, can you make something simple like that?"

Beritkan seemed to think about it and finally replied "it seems doable, but I would need to know how much meat can you eat and-" but at that moment the water level dropped below his head "w-what's going on?!"

Erik: "I'm emptying the water in here, now... let's go to my lab, I will allow you to enter so... don't try anything stupid... or I might have to install more devices inside your body"

Beritkan's face paled as he seriously nodded, thinking 'she can even control the waters...' and had to bend his head down a bit as he followed Erik into the spacious lab, being able to stand up without issue once inside, he then looked around and confused asked "where is the glow mushroom?"

Erik laughed as he got closer to one of the lab's heat plates "here it is, you turn the heat on with this button and set the desired temperature by turning this to the right, and turning to the left stops or lowers the heat, the numbers in the display show the heat level selected, so? what would you do first when making a potion?"

Beritkan: "...I would feed one stone to the fire mushroom..." Erik made a hand motion indicating him to go on "...and then use razor plant mucus to coat and clean the interior of the boiler and to seal the ingredients inside..."

Erik: "well, now there's no water so that's not a problem anymore, as for a container" he opened a cabinet and took a glass container "this is glass, to decontaminate them from biological residue you have a radiation cleaner there" pointing at another machine "put anything inside, close the door and click the button, and once the door opens again anything inside will be dead, as for cleaning use..." he opened another cabinet "these are alcohol bottles, can be used for cleaning, so what next?"

Beritkan: "then I would cut the ingredients and set them inside the slime, then close the lid, set the tubbing, the end bottle, and then just wait while feeding the mushroom..."

Erik: "well, here you don't have to feed any mushroom, I will demonstrate, you install the cover and then add the cristal tubbing, connect the cooling water pipes and set the end flask, that's it" [Rose, grow a screen on the wall]

Rose: [hehe~ got it]

Then Erik pointed at the wall and a screen grew out of it, stunning Beritkan "I will play some examples there and you need to follow as they do to test your skill, an iodine clock"

Beritkan: "... huh? what do you-" but before he could respond, a video started playing on the screen, surprising him, as a weird alien creature started talking, thankfully a translation followed right after.

"class 45 of basic chemistry, today we are going to create a basic iodine clock, something used by magicians to impress people in the past"

as he talked, Erik started setting the ingredients and needed tools on the table.

"First we will dissolve a teaspoon of corn starch into boiling water, and then we will filter it and add the same amount of Hydrogen peroxide, then in a different container we pour a teaspoon of vitamin C powder and dissolve it with just enough water, we then add the iodine and we can immediately see how the color disappears reacting with the vitamins, then we add some more water to fill the glass, and it's ready, now in a different container we will add a little bit of each of them and wait one minute" it suddenly went from clear to dark blue in an instant "and that's the iodine solution"

Erik looked at the surprised Beritkan "so? do you think you can do something easy like that? or do you need to see it again?"

Beritkan got serious and respectfully said "no my queen, once was enough, I just need you to tell me what are the labels for the materials"

Erik: "oh that, I set them in order from left to right on the table in the order he used them"

Beritkan nodded seriously "...alright" his face hardening as he carefully used a teaspoon to pour the corn starch and then boiled water and added it to it, all tools and materials were set on the table so he carefully followed all the steps and finally got the two liquids ready, amazed as they changed color 'so magical...' turning to Erik and respectfully saying "I succeeded my queen".

Erik nodded pleased 'He properly followed every step to the detail, his claws seemed to make handling a bit harder but he has a good pulse... It's a good recruit...'

Rose: [I will keep an eye on him, if he tries something then... hehe~ ( ▀ ͜͞ʖ▀) =ε/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ]

Erik: [I leave him to you then] "you have indeed passed this simple test, the plants you need are being grown in the transparent containers you saw earlier, they will be taken care of according to the information given by your people, you don't need to worry about that, just harvest and use them when you need them, while they grow keep watching vídeos there and learn, and above all, if you try anything I will know, this entire building is part of my body so if you mess up you will be turned into a puppet, you saw the big guard at the entrance? he's Trutk the tribe leader of the rock crab tribe, now he's just a puppet enslaved to me for eternity".

Beritkan had heard of Trutk before, the previous king had asked them to prepare lots of hallucinogens and drugs to trade with the rock crab tribe in exchange for some of their hybrid women and to cause strife if possible, but Trutk had rejected the deal and tore an entire division to threads like nothing, with only his soldiers accepting behind his back days later, 'a beast of a crabman like that was defeated and turned into a guard?....' his face paled "my queen... I would like to know... what are your plans for my people?"

Erik chuckled "not just your people, your entire race, I've already made a village for those that swore alliance to me, but all crab men who opposed me were turned into mindless workers, they will just work and eat for the rest of their lives, a destiny already shared by the armies your previous king sent after me, I will spare those useful and accept those that swear me alliance even if they aren't, but those worthless that go against me will just be turned into puppets, is that it? I have other things to do"

Beritkan paled even further "...that is all my queen..."

Erik: "good good~ now get to work and learn chemistry while the plants grow and maybe you will be able to apply the same techniques once you learn more, the vídeos will also teach you how to use most of the tools here, and most importantly... if you make yourself useful and a valuable asset, then I might consider saving more of your people"

Beritkan bowed "thank you my queen!"

As Erik went away though, Beritkan started trembling all over 'my entire race...' and looked at his hands as they started to tremble '...I just wanted to be important and now the destiny of my race could be in my hands... I need to be useful...' he went to the tv from earlier and studied "how do I activate this?... I should've asked the queen...-"

Rose: *What do you wanna watch today* a voice coming out of the tv.

Beritkan: "Woah!.... Chemistry chapter... one?"

Rose: *Chemistry chapter 1 introduction to chemistry now playing*

Beritkan carefully watched as the vídeo started.

--- outside the Greenhouse lab ---

Meanwhile, Erik calmly walked back on his power armor, finding relaxing the dim lighting under the ice, the water was cold but the power armor kept him warm, the mud moving as he walked over it, and then the sand plains, now devoid of attacking wild crabs, he walked to the new underground city site and found two thick stone walls surrounding a triangular stone entrance guarded by some hybrid crab women wearing bone armor and carrying plasma spears, and some puppet crab men standing like statues wearing heavy armor, he went inside along the tunnels, finally coming inside the city. He was pleasantly surprised when he came inside, the hybrid crab women seemed to be prospering and some of them even seemed to be pregnant, some octopeople also talking with them, he could see hybrid crab women drying algae, others squeezing the oil out, and some others frying algae and meat snacks with that oil.

Erik: 'seems like they are fond of fried food... hope they don't get fat... well they work a lot so that shouldn't happen...'

He stopped a nearby hybrid guard as he took off his helmet "I would like to know how's the taming of the small wild crabs been going?"

The guard bowed slightly and took him to a big side cavern, with lots of stone brick fenced pens, some hybrids observing the small crab larvae and feeding them "this is Anhuka's animal research place Fifth Elder, the researchers should be able to tell you all you need to know" and bowed again.

Erik: "Thanks, you can go" he then went to a nearby researcher hybrid crab woman, surprising her as he said from her back "How's the taming going?"

The researcher twitched surprised as she had been deeply thinking, then she slowly turned and said "you surprised me Fifth Elder... well, the taming seems to be going well for most of the eggs, they do seem a bit confused, almost like if they were trying to communicate with us and confused when they don't hear an answer"

Erik: "it could be an electrical signal in the water, we might be able to make a device to solve that, anything else?"

Researcher: "...yes, when we took them closer to one of the adult crabs you captured they immediately attacked us enraged, so we believe they can communicate, but they didn't move or made any sounds"

Erik: "yeah, the adult ones must still be pissed about loosing their queen"

Researcher: "...well, actually some of those bigger eggs were queens so we have some queen candidates already.

Erik: "great to hear, make sure to feed them well and keep them happy, and then he took a tunnel back to base, finding Anhuka and Inky arguing about something.

Erik: "alright, what happened?"

Inky: "we are arguing whose man is better for the female in this show"

Erik: "Oh... okay, leave you to that then, good night"

Inky: "Good night~"

Anhuka: "Sweet dreams~"