EDIT: Whoops. Beaten to the punch by a faster typist! Never mind, I said it slightly differently. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Hi,
You don't actually buy the skill itself - you're just buying the knowledge needed to develop it. To activate a skill you need to spend some of those skills points that you get when levelling up (it lights up a red box near your portrait when you have some to spend. Click on it to open up a 'tree' showing the skills you currently have available to build up).
Alchemy works differently from DD. No bottles needed, and you can't use the mushrooms any more. You need some points in the Alchemy skill. Then you collect those things that look like coloured bushes (from barrels etc) and combine them. Search the forum for some good posts with all the combos.
Hope that's what you needed to know. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
