Tears of Alron (The Alchemist Book #3): LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  With nothing else to do, the group had been forced to remember that humans were the toughest animals on the planet, heading out of the city on their own two legs after stopping by the temple to unlock the attributes they needed. Forian had insisted on the children unlocking everything they’d need. But there was a problem.

  You can’t unlock Protection. Due to the agreement with Crobar, that attribute can only be given by school representatives ranked magistrate or higher.

  It suddenly made sense why Ronan had had to ask the gray for help unlocking protection. Even the viceroy wouldn’t have been able to do anything for his beloved son. But that certainly didn’t seem fair, and Tailyn even felt a twinge of envy toward Crobar. Why did the enemies of the mages get the cream of the crop — regeneration and protection, for instance? Why was the academy so limited? Was it really because they were able to recharge cards? That didn’t make sense. Or was there something else only the provost knew about, something Tailyn couldn’t even guess? That seemed closer to the truth. The great mages of the past couldn’t have lost out so thoroughly... Ultimately, the boy ended up adding just one new parameter. From what his mentor said, it was going to come in handy later.

  You spent 1000 gold to unlock a skill.

  Mentality skill learned: Analysis. A skill that lets you study the foundations of the world and find the ties that bind them. Addition for the Alchemist class: lets you study the properties of ingredients for alchemical reactions, using them to create new recipes.

  Valia, on the other hand, went wild. Forian and Valanil both worked her over, making the girl unlock more than twenty new attributes and skills. Of course, most of them had to do with the cooking skill, with a muttering Valanil forcing her to buy ten recipes for different dishes. But Valia was at least ready for anything, from creating cards to cooking. The only thing she couldn’t do was mine crystals...

  “Are you going to be counting crows for long?” Valanil asked with a glare sent in the direction of the boy, who was lost to his daydreams. “Who’s going to activate the protective barrier? Valia! What are you doing?! Have you never lit a fire before? Oh, this is crazy — a bunch of useless city folk, and I’m supposed to do something with you...”

  Who would ever need cooking? Valia complained in her head. Tailyn just smiled back at her. He’d glanced over the recipes she’d bought, and that had told him exactly why cooking was important. Every dish cooked over a fire came with useful bonuses. And if Valia was able to get her hands on a few rare or epic recipes, she’d be practically the most valuable person in the entire empire. The only challenge was finding the recipes.

  “Student, come here.” Having finally caught his breath, Forian called Tailyn over. “Here, you need to read these. It’s time for you to become a real alchemist — there are already plenty of mages out there. You have two years, and I’ll be very disappointed if it takes any longer.”

  Tailyn’s eyes lit up as his mentor handed him eight fat books. The one on top bore a proud title: Alchemy Textbook for the First Year at the Magic Academy. Underneath it, there was the second book, followed by the third, and so on, all the way down to the seventh year. The eighth book was titled, Expanded Alchemy and Its Uniqueness. Putting the textbooks aside to open the last tome on expanded alchemy, the boy was disappointed when the System just gave him a slap on the wrist.

  You don’t meet the requirements to open Expanded Alchemy and Its Uniqueness. You must first study Alchemy Textbook for the Seventh Year at the Magic Academy.

  With the exception of the first-year textbook, every other one had a similar message. Tailyn opened the only one he could, already frustrated — modern books were designed to keep the reader from moving on to the next page until they’d learned the previous one. And not only that, but if the System decided you’d forgotten something from a previous page, it might just block the rest until you went back and relearned it. Tailyn had been put through the ringer for The Mage’s Encyclopedia, and all seven of the textbooks his mentor had just handed him were thicker than it had been. While Valia slaved away over the cooking, her trainer hovering above her the whole time, the boy decided to learn at least one page. The text was pointless, something about how amazing it was to be an alchemist, and how lucky he was to begin his journey along the alchemist’s path, but the boy’s hand reached out automatically to turn the page just as he was getting ready to go back over that it.

  And it worked.

  The page turned easily, offering him access to the next paragraph. And while there was nothing in it Tailyn didn’t already know, he quickly read through it so he could take hold of that page and...

  And turn it, too!

  That’s because we have bookshelves, Valia said as soon as Tailyn shared the happy news with her. Everything you read is recorded there. You don’t have to memorize it since you can always grab it off the shelf and go back over it. Actually, I just figured that out recently when I was going through a textbook. I thought you knew...

  I’m not a reader like you are, Tailyn muttered in reply as he continued plowing through the book. Forian had told him to read all the textbooks within two years. If he had the time, he could get them done in a week.

  But what the boy didn’t know was that while he’d have plenty of time, he just wouldn’t have the energy to read. The group’s runs through the Gray Lands didn’t turn out to be nearly as easy as they’d thought they would be initially. In fact, it was only Tailyn’s regeneration that kept him from giving up the ghost on the second day. He was forced to continually heal Valia, pouring enormous streams of mana into her to help her muscles keep up. Forian, in turn, was taken care of by oceans of mana from Valanil. But it was dangerous — that kind of regeneration came with side effects, though Valanil kept them from drinking lesser regeneration potions too frequently. With each passing day, they spent less time running and more time resting. Finally, it got to the point that Forian announced they were taking the next day off.

  Judging by the map, they were still a week away from their destination — the group had only just crossed the halfway point. But it was like the Gray Lands were deserted, with neither lixes nor animals crossing their path. Still, there were plenty of yak tracks. Valanil clucked her tongue, in fact, when she saw how many there were. An entire army had passed by not long before.

  You finished studying the first-year alchemy textbook.

  All your potion and ability skills receive +1.

  Tailyn just about let out a happy shout. And it wasn’t because of the bonus; it was that he’d finally completed the book. It had taken eight days, though the book and its blue glow had taken up a spot on his shelf. Meanwhile, Valia had fallen asleep without bothering to cook anything. And nobody had bothered her about that — for the past three days, they’d all had barely enough energy to eat the food they bought at the store. But the boy didn’t want to jump right into the second book. He wasn’t looking to rest, either. Unlike the others, his regeneration worked wonders, and the journey had gotten easier for him as it had worn longer. The group wasn’t far from the mountains, though they hadn’t gotten that close to them. The boy’s stories about the kind of monsters over there were enough for them to stay well enough away. But while it was true that they were better off fighting steppe wolves as opposed to ancient monsters, Tailyn knew better than anyone that you could find all kinds of interesting things in the mountains. He wanted to get closer and see what Raptor showed him. What if he got lucky and came across an ancient? The area they were making their way through wasn’t particularly popular. It was possible.

  “Where are you going?” Forian asked when he saw Tailyn get up.

  “I want to take a walk, pick some flowers,” the boy replied, quickly thinking up a good reason for his mentor. “My map showed... Oh, you’re kidding!”

  His surprised gasp brought the adults to their feet, and they began looking around in search of the enemy. But there was none — the steppe was abandoned. Nothing was moving in the mountains.

&nb
sp; “Tailyn, what did you notice?” Valanil asked anxiously, though she calmed down when she saw the stupefied expression on her student’s face. They weren’t in danger.

  “Student, you were asked a question,” Forian said, his voice forceful. “Out with it — clear and simple. What did you notice?”

  “An amilio,” the boy whispered, not taking his eye off the virtual map. He was so used to it being dotted with simple flowers that he’d stopped paying attention. That is, until he noticed the brightly shining star labeled Amilio. It was impossible to miss.

  Would you like to set up notifications for when an Amilio is discovered?

  Of course, he did. A wave of fire ran down the boy’s body — how many flowers had he missed because he hadn’t had notifications set up? If he’d only known he could do that.

  “Is it far?” Forian asked.

  “Two kilometers away, up in the mountains,” the boy replied before asking a question with unease in his voice. “My herbalism is at forty if you include enhancement. What is yours?”

  “I don’t have it — I just use cards,” Forian said, pulling out a thick deck. “So, you’re going to have to pick the flower. Or...”

  The mage looked over at Valanil only to see her shrug.

  “I don’t have amilio, and I can’t get it. But I sure do want to see one in the wild. They say, they’re incredibly beautiful. Lead on, my boy.”

  Shaking Valia awake with some difficulty, Tailyn deactivated the tent and led the group up into the mountains. The amilio had managed to sprout in a gully that was incredibly difficult to get to. The group had to spend a few hours clambering up nearly sheer cliffs before climbing right back down the other side. But with the help of ropes and the boy’s agility, which made him something akin to a mountain goat, they eventually made it. Getting to the top and looking around, Tailyn could barely contain an exclamation of delight. The crevice where the amilio was growing looked like an enormous artificial pit cut out by some giant. And the fact that it was hidden by the surrounding mountains lent it an air of mystery and intrigue. The boy gave the others a hand before setting the ropes down on the rock.

  “Stay here. You can’t go any further, otherwise the flower will disappear.”

  Almost half the space in front of Tailyn was made up of a gigantic spiderweb that he alone could see. The flower was right in the middle, shining in the light of the sparks pouring off it. The previous time, it had been a miracle that kept the boy from stepping on one of the invisible threads and ruining his future. Back then, two years before, he’d been young and inexperienced. But he was an academy student then, even though he was taking a forced sabbatical, and so he wasn’t going to brook a mistake.

  A knife flashed in his hand — he needed it to cut the threads in the right order. And his perception told him what that order was. By combining with his herbalism — amilio skill, it took just seconds to find a path to the flower, highlighting several hundred threads. The ones highlighted red were the ones he had to stay away from; the ones highlighted blue were supposed to be cut. Not only that, but the boy also saw footprints leading away from him. The System was showing him where to step in order to make sure everything went well.

  “Take your time,” Forian said when he saw Tailyn set off fairly quickly toward the flower. The mage remembered how it took Keran half an hour to harvest the last amilio, so he assumed it would take his student at least an hour.

  But Tailyn was done ten minutes later, five of which were spent gazing at the flower. Reaching out, he squeezed through the thick red threads before grabbing the stalk and yanking on it.

  You found an Amilio and were able to extract it.

  You receive +2 to a random attribute and a random skill.

  Monster Knowledge +2 (17).

  Device Control +2 (5).

  Valia and Valanil gasped in unison — even just being there had given them each +1 to a random skill, and the latter had even unlocked a new skill. Amilio was henceforth going to be among the list of flowers she could harvest.

  “Tailyn, you need to pay us our share,” Forian said suddenly. “That’s the rule. Amilios cost ninety thousand gold on the open market, and there are four of us, so you owe each of us twenty-two thousand five hundred.”

  “What kind of dumb rule is that?” Valia asked, sticking up for the boy the way she usually did. “Tailyn found it, Tailyn picked it, he gave us each a skill, and now he’s supposed to pay us, too?”

  “That’s its will,” Forian replied implacably. “The god recognized us as worthy of a share by giving us a reward. And amilios aren’t worth messing with — if Tailyn doesn’t give us what we’re owed, it will make sure that’s the last one he finds. Better give the god its due than put your future in jeopardy.”

  “I’ll pay the shares.” Tailyn didn’t want to part with a pile of gold that enormous, but he didn’t see a way to change his mentor’s mind. After materializing three large gold coins, he handed one of them to Forian. He was better off parting with the money than the flower.

  “I recognize that you paid my share,” Forian said as he took the gold. Suddenly, he was shrouded in a white light.

  “What, did you summon the god while we weren’t listening?” Valanil asked, though she fell silent when she saw the expression on Forian’s face. She’d never seen him so shocked. And that was no surprise — the mage was used to getting everything himself, which was what made the god’s gift so unusual. It had declared its will, only Forian wasn’t sure whether to dance for joy or clench his fists in rage. He’d had a new attribute forced on him.

  Faith. Description: an attribute given on special occasions to true clerics. The higher the value of the attribute, the more attentive the god will be toward you, blessing or punishing you for your actions. Cannot be increased using free or random points. Only actions related to the faith and pleasing to the god can increase or decrease it. Cannot be removed even with Tears of Alron, Soul of Negral, or Whitener. After each 50 attribute levels, the owner receives a new spiritual title. Current title: deacon. Title bonuses: none.

  Even the mage’s description had changed. There was an additional note:

  Forian Tarn (human). Mage. Age 35. Level 51. Deacon.

  Tailyn handed the others their gold and flinched each time they told him they considered his debt paid. Forian had insisted on it. But there were no more surprises, the boy simply parting with the money and ending up with the sole right to the incredible flower.

  “Do I need to tell you that amilios grown naturally are considered much more valuable than the ones you can get in the store?” Forian asked as if in passing, pointing out of the crevice at the same time. “We’re done here. Let’s head back to the steppe.”

  “But...” Tailyn looked around. He wanted to explore the unusual area.

  “Tomorrow. I don’t want to risk being stuck in the mountains at night, so you can come back tomorrow, Student. For now, we’re heading back.”

  Only that turned out to be problematic.

  As soon as the group began to let down the ropes, their gaze was arrested by a cloud of dust kicked up on the horizon. Almost fifty fat, furry yaks were working their way across the dry steppe, a small army of lixes seated on their powerful humps. Ten minutes later, the cavalcade had stopped not far from the cliff.

  “Where?” boomed a powerful voice. It belonged to a large character completely enclosed in level four armor. But Tailyn’s initial count was wrong — there was one more strange creature in among the yaks. A level sixty-three black lix was riding an oversized lizard big enough to swallow a fattened pig. The unusual animal wandered impatiently around the area in search of something to chow down on. Licking its lips, it glanced over at the yaks, making them jump backward like a group of grasshoppers. But one subtle move from its master was enough to calm the beast. Peering closer at the lix, Tailyn grunted thoughtfully — yet another creature with an extra bit of information. And that meant their new opponent wasn’t as ordinary as he’d first thought. />
  Dur-Sha-Gun (black lix). Warrior. Age 39. Level 63. Advisor to Halas.

  “Here, Master.” One of the lix shamans goaded his yak over to the advisor, and Tailyn was surprised once again. The group was incredibly varied. Not only were there red and brown lixes together, there were even two humans. From their positions seated on yaks, they stared intently up at the mountains, and the boy felt a shiver run down his spine. They were dangerous. Perhaps, more dangerous than all the rest of the detachment put together. Real killers. And judging by Valanil’s muttering, she was seeing the same thing.

  “I don’t sense anything,” the advisor barked.

  “But the flower was definitely here.” The shaman ducked, expecting a blow. “I discovered it yesterday and sent word immediately, exactly how Halas ordered us to do it. So, it should be here... But I don’t sense it, either.”