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Running and panicking down a dark and dirty alley. I never expected to find myself in such a situation. Being chased of all things by a couple of thugs in a city I just woke up in. I don’t know how many are behind me, but I don’t waste any time trying to look back. The only thing that can save me by this point is the small key I have in my hand. I just need to get to a door. Any door!

I can hear them behind me. Ragged breathing as they chase me through a maze of dingey dirty alleys. I am slowly getting away from them. A left. Then a right. I have no sense of direction here, just keep running and hope I don’t get caught. As I keep running, I finally look back only noticing after I barely hear anything that there is only one still chasing me, but he is far behind me.

Then I find myself blindsided as I am tackled by one of them who came out of a side alley just as I am passing it. I am knocked into a dirty puddle of water next to a dumpster. “You little bastard, just give us your wallet and everything you got on you and we won’t hurt you too bad!” my assailant shouts at me as he grabs the collar of my shirt with both hands.

Before he can get the chance to do anything else, I feel something with one of my hands and grab it. The thug doesn’t see the object I grabbed as he is raising his fist to strike me but before he can hit me, I strike first by taking what I now realize is a brick and slam it straight into his nose with a sickening crunch sending him falling back.

“Motherfucker!” the man screams in pain as he holds his face and screaming in agony as I quickly get up hearing shouting coming not far from behind me. Back to running again with the brick still in my hand I take a left turn leading out onto a dirty gloomy street with no one around besides a few rundown looking cars and a few streetlights illuminating the dark street.

Now having some options for doors to use with my key I run to the nearest car door. Hoping they won’t be smart enough to check the open car door and follow me in. Trying to get it in the lock of the driver side door I am struggling to do so from my panicked state of mind and failing to get it in the lock as I keep hitting the area around the lock. As I am about to finally get the key in the lock, I hear a loud bang and the driver side window shattering and I immediately get down as I move next to the hood of the car.

I hear another bang and a hiss as a tire loses its air. As I crouch walk along the passenger side of the car I hear my attacker, “You little bastard, if you hadn’t broken Bill’s nose and kicked Eddy in the balls this wouldn’t be happening to you,” he says as I try to find a way out of this situation, “If you had just given us your stuff, we would have just roughed you up and been on our way. Now we got to hurt you really bad man.”

As he finishes speaking, I look down below the car seeing his feet a couple of meters from the car keeping his distance, but he starts circling around to the back of the car. I then hear shouts coming from the alley as his buddies seem to be just now catching up. Remembering I still have the brick I form a risky plan.

As the man continues to try to get an angle on me, I figure out where he is exactly by using the passenger side mirror. Pulling my arm back while crouched and as I get up, I throw the brick simultaneously as the man tries to aim his gun at me but it’s too late.

The brick hits him right in his face and he fires a shot as he falls that misses me and hits a car off in the distance setting a car alarm off. As the man is still on the ground, I rush him and stomp down on the hand holding his gun and pin it on the ground.

He shouts and curses as he lets go of the gun and I fumble a little as I pick it up and step away from the man as he cradles his hand and looks up at me with fear in his eyes as I aim the gun at his head. He stops cradling his arm and raises both up while on his back, I can see the fear in his eyes. “Hey man, take it easy now!” he says to me in a nervous tone, trying to sound calm but failing. He was anything but that.

“I’m taking it easy, are you?” I say in a surprisingly calm voice.

“I wasn’t going to kill you man.” he says trying to reason with me with clear panic in his voice, as his uninjured hand this whole time was slowly inching down as I focus on keeping the gun trained on his head. “Hey man here is an idea, why don’t you just run away before all the guys get here, I can get them to leave you alone?” he says to me trying to bargain with me.

As I am listening to him plead with me, I take notice of his good hand reaching slowly down to his pants. Upon realizing what he is doing he forgoes all talking and tries to grab whatever it is, and I shoot him without hesitation. As the shot goes off, the man is now sporting a hole in his forehead as blood starts to form under his head on the road.

I hear more shouts and immediately run for that alley across the street I noticed earlier. As I just make it into the alley, I hear someone shout, “The motherfucker killed John!” and then one of them takes notice as I just get into the alley. “I think I saw him run into the alley. Come on let’s kill the fucker!” the man yells with a savage tone.

As I run even harder down the alley now knowing they have guns and are out for my blood I feel my mind trying to grasp at something. I feel my mind or maybe it’s my soul? Either way I am brought forth to a section of a massive cluster of what looks like stars in a swirling galaxy of them. Some were bigger and brighter than others. But each contained a reward should I manage to grab and hold it.

The nearest star I tried to grab was too much and I couldn’t hold it. Thankfully when it was over, my mind was returned to the here and now much like the first time when I got my first star. As if whatever I was doing in that strange place was so fast that time is slowed to a crawl where I was at originally, even if I don’t understand how that works I won’t complain about since it could be worse.

As I think this a loud bang goes off just as I take a right turn at a four way in the alley that impacts the wall ahead of me just as I turn. I hear more yelling and curses directed at me as I keep going trying to find a way to get away from them and escape.

And I finally catch a break, dead ahead of me is an old, rusted door that is cracked barely open. The door has seen better days with faded graffiti on it. I make a break for it only to have to take cover behind a dumpster as I hear a lot of footsteps coming behind me hoping they don’t find me.

“Where the fuck did he go!” one of them yells at the others.

“Hell if I know Bill.” One of them responds back with some venom in his voice.

“Then find him! He broke my nose, killed John and kicked Eddy in the balls. No one does that to our gang, I don’t give a damn if Penguin or even that sick fuck Joker gets in our way.”

“We are not going to find him at this rate Bill, there is too much ground for us to cover. Not to mention we may look like we are trying to move in on other territories by going throu-” before the man can finish his sentence, I hear a smack followed by a grunt of pain with the sound of splashing water.

“I said I don’t give a fuck about who protects him, and that means anyone that gets in our way. If we can’t find him as is, then split up and cover more ground. And if you ever question me again Jerome, I will do a lot worse than that to you. Do you understand me?” Bill questions him menacingly.

“Yeah, I understand Bill. It won’t happen again.” He answers him calmly though with an undercurrent of anger in it.

“Good, now get up and go find him.” Bill tells him smugly, obviously taking pleasure in showing who calls the shots.

Then several gunshots ring out off in the distance. Followed by more all over the place. It sounded like the area was becoming a warzone. “Shit. Well looks like we have a fight on our hands. Forget the kid for now, we need to back up the others.” Bill says this with some reluctance, obviously holding a grudge over everything that happened.

I hear several splashes as they run off through the puddles of water going to back up the rest of their gang, in fact the gunfire sounds like it’s getting worse. I was hoping this wouldn’t get any worse, but I guess that is the story of my life. I stay crouched behind the smelly dumpster to just make sure they are not coming back for a moment. Nothing. Alright, I need to get the hell out of here, that or hide. Right now, I think laying low is my best bet currently.

So, I decide to head towards the rusted door, slowly and carefully moving the door just enough so I have more room to pass through it. As I finish closing it behind me, I take in what little I can of the room, considering how dark it is. There is nothing in the initial room I walk in except for some pallets around the area. From the looks of it it’s been abandoned for some time.

I decide to take the gun out I got from John and keep it at the ready just in case I need it which I should have done before I entered the building. I have got to be smart about this or my luck will run out. As I walk down a hall from the back area, I see a few doors along the way down, checking each of them and finding nothing in any of them.

One looked like it was a storage closet used for cleaning supplies with the few empty bottles of cleaning chemicals and a mop in it with a bucket. I continue down the way and the last room along the hallway I find has an office desk with a chair in it.

I continue making my way to the rest of the building to make sure I am the only one here and I reach what is the front of the building. As I near the end of the hallway, I see another door at the end. Opening it with my pistol pointed ahead of me ready to shoot anything, I am met with several broken windows with metal bars placed on the inside of them to keep people out with a metal caged door on the wall across from me.

As I checked over the room, I find myself once more among a new section of stars. And this time I manage to grasp one! As the star gets absorbed into my very being I am filled with knowledge of the entire periodic table of elements and a lot of compounds.

However, it wasn’t just the periodic table and the compounds I gained knowledge of. I know how to make stimpaks and stuff like jet? As in the Fallout game series drugs? Alright that isn’t so bad now. At least I have something to fall back on if I get really desperate for money. I hope it won’t come to that, I always hated drugs after seeing what they did to people around me. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Once back in the here and now, I check out the rest of the room realizing I am safe since no one else is in here. I see several displays with the glass broken out of some of them with a metal fence that wouldn’t be uncommon above the displays, with shelves lining the walls behind the cage. Then all the cubby holes under the counter facing towards me. So, this place is an abandoned pawnshop I can only assume.

Guess no one is here because there is nothing to scavenge and from what I can only assume since I just got chased and almost killed by one, gangs are bad in this area so the homeless and others stay away. Alright I have a place I can temporarily stay at until things calm down enough or at least until I can figure something out to get out of this area. Well first things first I need to make sure the front door is secure.

I walk up to it with the pistol still in my hand just in case someone pops up. I check out the windows making sure no one would see me. Besides the sounds of constant gunfire in the night I don’t see anyone on the street right now. So, I head over to the door and check to see if it is locked. And currently it isn’t, as I twist the handle.

Which I immediately rectify by locking not only the doorknob, but the chain lock above said door along with the latch lock above that. Whoever owned this place took their security quite seriously. Not that I am going to complain about it. Now to head back and figure out what to do about the back door that looks like it’s about to fall off.

I head back through the door leading into the hallway taking note of another two locks on the other side of it that I failed to notice originally now that I am getting accustomed to the dark. It has a latch lock along with a lock on the doorknob. Jeez, how many locks did you need in here? I continue down the hallway as I finish that thought heading back to the storage area.

As I get back to the door, I double check by looking out the crack of the door to see if the coast is clear. Which it thankfully still is. At least for now. So, I start trying to think of a way to get this door to stay. The problem is that unlike the other doors in this place, the door is more akin to some of the ones at my old job.

The door handle is a half-circle metal bar, with the lock being separate from it. However, the lock is gone. As in it looks like someone just cut around the area of the lock and knocked it out. So, I can’t just lock it back up. And I have a rising feeling of panic start to well up inside of me at not knowing what to do.

I have to focus, stopping the feeling of panic in its tracks. So, first things first I start trying to figure out how I am going to block the doorway. Then I had an idea. But first I had to check to see if it had what I needed it to get it near the door.

Heading back out the door again by barely slipping through not wanting to make any noises with the door considering its condition with the rusted hinges, I check the dumpster to see if it has any wheels. And thankfully it does have wheels. Now knowing that I can start with my plan of blocking the door, so I start pulling the dumpster albeit struggling initially due to its weight.

As I keep pulling it slowly but surely to the door, as I get closer, I get off of the back and walk over to its side so I can pull it so it’s blocking the door entirely from sight. All the while I try not to gag from the smell of it. Who knows what is in it and for how long it’s been here for? I continue to struggle with the dumpster getting it closer to the door until the back two wheels decide to give out on me.

I try to pull a little more and no luck. It is too much for me to pull without the wheels. Not the end of the world by any means, it blocks the door and it’s close enough to make it a pain for anyone to get into the door with how close it is if they try to climb over it since it really blocks both sides of the alley enough that you can’t squeeze through.

I then barely squeeze through the back door, and I decide just to be sure to add some further things to help block the door in case the dumpster isn’t enough. So, I head over to one of the numerous pallets in the room that I now see is also filled with shelves along the walls for storage. As I go to grab a pallet, I am perturbed to find myself among all those stars again, and as I near one it floats away from me before I can grab it.

Trying to take whatever that is in stride I get back to looking for a pallet, I find one that would do the trick. So, I grab the pallet that has some weight to it, and I drag it over to the door and place it right at the foot of the door. I sigh with relief now that I have all of that done and hopefully have this place secured. My life has gotten really crazy in such a short amount of time.

Realizing I now have the time to go use my key, as I head down the hallway going to the office room, I start thinking on how this all got started. I was going to sleep in my bed after a long day at my job as a janitor at a high school.

Next thing I know I am waking up on top of a bunch of trash, while getting mugged by one of those gang members as I start coming to as he is sifting through my pockets, and I kicked him in the groin as I realized what was happening when I woke up enough to realize what was happening. Then everything that followed was because of that.

Reflecting on all of that and especially shooting their friend John. The messed-up part about it, I don’t even feel bad for what I did. I mean it was self-defense and he forced my hand by trying to grab whatever he had in his pants. Regardless most people I hear about even in self-defense usually have lingering guilt. I don’t even feel anything about it. Either way, he is dead and I’m not and to me that’s all that matters. No reason to feel bad for killing someone who just not only threatened me but was trying to kill me.

As I think that my mind turns to what I had heard those guys talking about. Specifically, when Bill talked about the Penguin and Joker. At the time I didn’t think much of it because I was trying to not get killed. But now that I can ponder on it, I am not liking the idea of where I have found myself at those names he dropped. No gangster or thug I knew of would name themselves after two of Batman’s more dangerous rogues gallery members.

The only reason I am even thinking this is true is because I was going to bed in my cheap apartment in Chicago. How the hell did I end up in a random city with my grocery shopping clothes on me on a pile of trash. I do believe in supernatural elements, such as ghosts and stuff of that sort. And there is no logical reason I can think of how the hell I end up here no less.

Though a small corner of my mind holds out on the possibility that this isn’t Gotham, it’s not real and I am just having a vivid fever dream or something of that nature. I make it to the office door as that final thought goes through my mind and take the decorative looking gold key I have in my pocket taking note that I do have my phone and wallet in my pockets as well.

I place the key in the lock of the closed office door and then open the door to be met with a long entrance hallway, not the office that should be here. Leaving the key in the door with it still open, I step through the doorway only to have my mind bombarded with information. The information I have now shows me where everything is at and all of what I have currently inside of here.

Once I process all of what is here, I look at the hallway properly now. The walls and ceiling are an immaculate white, and the floor being a simple gray concrete floor. Knowing where I need to go, I start walking along my personal reality entrance hallway. Just ahead of me is the workshop itself, having a workshop dedicated to making weapons. I open the door to be met with one hell of a forge and an anvil before me. Varying different tongs, chisels, and a good number of hammers and pliers alongside a lot of modern-day equipment used in forging as well.

Quite a few metals for crafting are all arranged before me ranging from simple things like bronze and iron to steel, it even had some silver and gold. And the kicker is with the information I have I know how to operate all of this! I can feel my heart beating in my chest thrumming with excitement, having finally sunk in that I have superpowers!

And I can live a little for once in my life once what happens outside blows over, though in this case a lot if I can get something that I could use a lot more than what I currently have. But regardless I will take what I can currently get. I step forward getting ready to start working with the forge I have before me to make something that I can use to defend myself besides the pistol.

As I look around for what I will need, I realize I should check to make sure my phone is intact, and my wallet has what I need in it. I reach into my jean pockets, and I am relieved to see that the phone is still intact. So, whatever put me here at least had the decency to give me two things that have a lot of sentimental value and they both are not damaged surprisingly.

My phone is still an outdated 2014 android that I could have replaced at any time but it’s one of the few things that I have left to remember my dad. Not just for the pictures stored on it of all the fun we had but the phone itself being one of the few things he got me before the end. And the old worn leather wallet belonging to my uncle Furgus. Both may be old, but they are reliable just like the men they came from.

With me now knowing that the phone and wallet are unharmed, I decide to check my wallet if my stuff is still in it. Upon opening it I see my ID. As I am about to check further, I am once more among all the stars swirling around me and I grab one. This one catches me off guard not expecting what I have crammed into my head.

It’s knowledge and memories of how to properly grind alchemy ingredients the right way depending on which ones for poisons and potions by a non-existent mentor. But the big thing that throws me for a loop is the memories shows me where this originated from is the Elder Scrolls universe. What gets me really excited after processing how much this will help me is that I am not limited to any one of the games alchemy potions you can make. I can do all of them!

Once I calm down at my excitement for the things I could do I notice new information coming to mind in the workshop on a new area that wasn’t there before. It’s a basic alchemy station with one ingredient for each effect for potions and the ingredients are restored after use within 48 hours. It may limit me initially but if I can bring in some outside ingredients such as going to a flower shop for some flowers or even some seeds for both alchemy and growing my own supplies could help in the long run.

As I go back to looking through my wallet, I find that I have $40 in cash I normally carry on me in case of an emergency. No social security or anything of notable importance I keep in it. Okay? So, whatever put me here gave me my wallet with the bare minimum in it along with my phone. Alright, I need to start with a plan.

Right now, I need to get a plan going with what I got to work with and get out of this area before someone sees the open portal I have here and kills me or who knows what with me. As I turn around, I see the alchemy station in the corner of the room with all the ingredients either hanging from up top or around it on various counters within glass bottles or just sitting there.

The only downside to them is that I only get one of each kind of effect, which means that I can’t make certain potions with what I got right now. Some of them don’t have any matching effects. And if I want them to work, I will need a third ingredient to act as a bridge between the two and some of them that’s not even an option.

No need to mention I don’t have the time to screw around with that. I mean it helps that I know a good bit of alchemy knowledge that marks me as not being a novice and with just a decade of practice I could be considered a master alchemist. The problem is that I don’t know if I will live that long to get to that point.

I need to make potions that I will need in the here and now to get other things that I need or to just survive. As I get ready to start making them, I start with the most important potion that I am going to make first before I start with the one I need to fix all the scrapes and bruises across my body. Most notably being the pain I am feeling from my back when Bill had tackled me to ground.

As I head over to the simple mortar and pestle to make the two potions I will need, I think about what I will need to focus on at the thought of Bill. That is if I live long enough to do it. And isn’t that a dark and morbid thought.

The most notable being getting into shape. I am not necessarily unhealthy per say, but I am barely above that line. If I am to survive in this hell hole I need to get on that fast and learn how to fight. I sucked at fighting when I was younger, knowing only the bare minimum to not get completely beaten at least. At that last thought in what you can barely call a long-term plan I finish on the first potion I need.

A potion of fortify intelligence, which should help me make better potions if Morrowind exploits are to be believed. I hope so considering I never played it… I take the potion I had just made and placed it in a glass vial that are conveniently stocked up over on a counter. I then drink the potion. Once I get done gulping it down, taking some effort to do so not because of the weird unidentifiable taste but because of the texture of it. Rough but also somehow slimy at the same time when going down.

After I down the last of it, feel like a veil has been partially lifted from my mind now that I can think somewhat clearer than I had before. Getting over this amazing feeling, I get to making the potions I need along with making some simple weapons to use besides the pistol. I do have limited ammo with it, and I don’t know how to make bullets, let alone having the necessary supplies in this place to do it which I don’t.

I mean technically I could, but I don’t have the time to figure out how to make the shell of the bullet. I can make the gunpowder for it, but otherwise I am out of luck on that. So next thing I start on is a simple health potion. However, I do take notice as I am going through the process of making it that I realize some things I could do to be more efficient and gain more out of the final product.

Not a lot sure, but every little bit helps. I finish drinking the newly made potion, I immediately take notice of all the pain I had is going away. Looking myself over I see that all the scrapes and bruises are fading away, the places where the scabs were at are now clear of cuts though the dried blood is still there as I wipe it away.

Well, that is one less thing to annoy me. And so, I spend the next few minutes working on potions that I will need with a plan that I can use the potions for. All the while I am getting faster and better at making the potions by small increments. The intelligence boosting potion has increased my rate of learning, but it is stacking with my alchemy prodigy ability helping me get better rather quickly, not super-fast but enough to be noticeable.

Regardless, it has proven itself useful. I down the next potion to help me craft the weapons I need by increasing my smithing capabilities. Taking the others, I leave them on a table as I get ready to head over to the forge. As I make my way over there, I am once more reaching for a star, though this time I fail to grasp it. Sighing to myself in annoyance, as I get to the forge ignoring the power I just missed.

I ponder for a few seconds on what weapon I need. I could make a mace or hammer, that or just a sword. But the problem with those is that they would be hard to hide. And most importantly I have no idea how to properly use a sword, a hammer sure. Not that difficult to club someone on the head, the problem is that it would weigh a lot for the bigger ones, and a hammer the size of a nail hammer isn’t easy to hide much less so for the bigger hammers.

So, I went with something simple that wouldn’t take me long to make a lot of. I head over to the forge and grabbed the appropriate tools to make a couple of knives. As dumb as it may sound, knives have proven effective weapons. Just ask Jim Bowie, the man who was famed for his skill with them and his knife that got named after him. Knives don’t weigh much usually, and they are easy to conceal. And above all else I can make a decent amount of them in comparison to the time it would take me to make a bigger weapon.

So, I grab myself some carbon steel and take it towards the section of the forge that has modern day electric tools and equipment. Normally I would have a piece of paper with a design on it that I want for the knives, but I don’t like being in here any longer than necessary, so I skip that and just get started on making what I need. With me taking the smithing potion combined with the intelligence enhancement I can make the initial knives far faster than I could hope too normally.

I did learn a decent bit from making them noticing that the last few are somewhat better in comparison to first one. Regardless thanks to the potions in my system helping me see what I could do to make them better and more efficiently craft them. Once I got done with the initial 5 throwing knives, I focused on the final one which would have to be my personal knife to use in close range.

I began on the final one making a knife that will have a handle to it in comparison to the thrown ones. After I got done with the blade, it was longer by a few inches in comparison to the others, I grab them all and start grinding them all into shape and giving them their edge on a grinder. And finally start on heat treating them all to keep their sharpness, though I make sure to do the thrown ones first because it will help me figure out better methods to not screw up the main knife and they don’t need to be perfect when it comes to being sharp.

Once I am done with the throwing knives and regular knife, I check to make sure the throwing knives will work by testing them on a plank of wood I have set up against a counter and test each one a few times. Most of them stuck into the wood once thrown, though the few times they didn’t I think was more due to me trying to figure out and test better methods of throwing them.

All in all, they are pretty good in comparison to the knives I made when I was back home considering they went further into the wood than any I had before. Then I go to the blade of the close range one and start getting a handle made from some aluminum for it, all the while I keep checking my phone occasionally checking the time worrying about how long I have been in here. After several nerve-racking minutes, I am done with the main knife. All the while being drenched in sweat from both stress and the amount of effort I am putting into these weapons to ensure they don’t fail me.

I then head over and grab some leather to make several sheaths to keep the knives in which thankfully the workshop came with that. The sheaths connected to a leather shoulder harness on my left side, hidden by my walking dead jacket being over it. Then the sheath for the main knife is attached to a leather belt I make to go with my jeans on my left hip, though I hold off on placing the knives in there holsters just yet. Though I make sure to put the pistol while double checking the safety is on in the right shoulder holster.

I head back over to the alchemy part of the workshop grabbing the only bottle of poison I had time to make, then grabbing a square plastic container and bringing both over to the knives. The rest was just making sure the blades of each knife were submerged and covered in the poison. After that I make sure to place each knife carefully back into their holsters. Sighing with relief that most of everything was done.

After I make it back through the doorway, I feel relieved that no one has come in and discovered anything. However, my anxiety returns full force with the sounds of gunfire being all around me. Ranging from pistol shots to shotguns, but I even here automatic weapons with the sirens of police cars and emergency responders. It looks like this area has become even worse in the time I spent in the workshop. The big question now is do I try my luck and run or stay and hope to wait this out?

That big question gets answered rather quickly when I hear loud yelling and banging coming from the front of the building. I take out the potions I was hoping to hold off on taking and start downing them like there is no tomorrow and good thing because I hear a loud bang from what sounded like a shotgun followed by another.

As this happens, I ignore my failed attempt at another star. As my mind returns to the here and now, I hear a loud slam along with the thunderous sounds of people running. Of course, murphy had to come calling.

Each purchase of this adds to your Personal Reality, a Workshop needed to perform a specific type of craft, which is to be specified when purchase is made. It comes with a basic set of tools and supplies. Good for fixing or creating all sorts of things, although any complex parts or nonstandard supplies will have to be brought in from outside. Additional purchases can add different types of Workshops to your Personal Reality or expand existing ones. Anything built in one of those workshops is fiat backed to be restored to its original condition within 48 hours if damaged or destroyed

* Grants fiat backing to anything constructed within

Groovy! Knowledge of chemistry has given you the ability to recite the entire periodic table, as well as knowledge of many exciting compounds such as dipotassium phosphate! Oh, and you can also make less exciting things like Stimpacks and Psycho, but why would you do that?

One of the most profitable and respected professions in Tamriel, a good alchemist can find lucrative work just about anywhere on Nirn, from Necrom to Stros M'Kai. Aside from a good bit of experience in identifying herbs that can be used for medicinal (or malign) creations, you have enough experience to work with up to Rank Five solvents and oils (Purified Water and Pitch Vile respectively), with a whole decade to learn even more. Healing potions, potions to bolster physical attributes, or even debilitating poisons can not only be produced, but with adequate testing you can even begin to mix and match their effects by combining the right ingredients.