It was a careful matter that they couldn’t hope to solve all on their own.
As the message was passed and circulated, Di and Wu made sure to pass out punishment to the Girus ruling family Jonsain and had captured Luke Jonsain, the one who had gone against the Alchemist Association. The young man, filled with a sense of superiority, didn’t think that the Alchemist Association would care about a simple person like Erik.
This kind of thinking wasn’t rare and was normal to most who grew up privileged. Though to the Alchemist Association, it didn’t matter one’s background, only their ability with Alchemy.
Journeyman Di couldn’t help but feel personally at fault and headed over to where Erik and his companions were staying. He had heard that one of them was badly hurt and that Erik was taking care of him personally. Di hoped to relieve some of the tensions by helping out Erik’s hurt friend.
He made it to the residence. Knocking on the door, he was greeted by a man. “Hello, I am Journeyman Di. I was wondering if I could meet with Erik?” Di asked.
“Certainly. Please come in.” The man waved him in.
“Erik! Journeyman Di to see you!” the man yelled, shocking Journeyman Di somewhat.
“One second!” Erik yelled from a room farther back.
The man at the door led Journeyman Di to some seating as Erik came out from the rooms and greeted Journeyman Di.
“I have come to tell you what is going on,” Journeyman Di said.
Erik sat down as the man from the door started preparing some tea before another, younger man took over.
“Luke Jonsain is being held, his punishment unknown at this time. For breaking the Alchemist Association’s rules, he will likely get the death penalty. His family and Girus city have also been punished, with the king of the Hechonate kingdom having to pay a heavy fine and his queen is to take over the ruling of the country. His sister passed through the tests legitimately and we got an oath from her confirming that she knew nothing of what her brother was doing, so she will be continuing on to the third trial.”
The young man served the tea to them both. Di studied him. He looked similar to the broken man he had seen earlier. He dismissed it because there was no way that he would be up and walking around.
“The transportation to the third trial has been prepared. We will leave in two days and it will take us two weeks to arrive at the Resam Regional Headquarters. This is the prize that you won for the second trial.” Journeyman Di pulled out a box.
Erik took it and put it to the side. “Thank you for bringing this all over, Journeyman Di.”
“It is the least that I can do. I overlooked what was happening in Girus.” Journeyman Di’s expression turned dark before he took a deep breath.
“I have also prepared these that might help you along your path. Think of it as a personal gift for my negligence.” He pulled out several boxes of ingredients.
He could see that Erik was about to refuse when Di spoke up. “Please, I have erred. I might be a Journeyman alchemist but one must know when they have made an error and make amends, even an old man like myself.”
Erik couldn’t find it in himself to refuse the gift and put it away.
“I also saw your friend was in grave condition. I was wondering if I could offer my services to help?” Journeyman Di said.
“Thank you, Journeyman Di, but as you can see, he is a lot better than he was.” Erik waved to the young man who had served them tea.
He bowed to them and stood quietly to the side.
For him to recover so fast… Journeyman Di held back from shaking his head. There were miracle concoctions one could use to recover, though in the lower-grade medications there were sure to be pill poisons left over in the body. Using so many potions at once was a sure way to build up these poisons. One might recover quickly, but later on their life would be affected.
What he didn’t know was that Erik knew about these pill poisons and used healing spells and concoctions in concert to heal Domonos, using the positives of both and removing many of the issues and shortcomings.
As an alchemist, why would Journeyman Di look into the world of healers and their spells?
Journeyman Di talked with Erik for some time before saying his good-byes.
***
As Di left, Erik turned to the reward and gifts that he had been given.
He opened up the first box.
Inside there were twenty-five Mana stones and two formulas. Erik pulled them out.
“High-Journeyman-grade potion and pill.” Erik looked at them both before he turned to the piles of ingredients.
He looked through them all before a wry smile appeared on his face. “Well, looks like Journeyman Di is pretty generous. There are ten sets of ingredients for both of the formulas.” Erik laughed.
Matt, who was eating something he had found, pulled out a sack and threw it to Erik. “Here are your Mana stones—forgot about them.” He sat down on one of the chairs. “I miss television.” Matt sighed and continued to eat, before pulling a beer out from his storage ring.
Erik checked the bag of Mana stones. “We got many more supplies to sell?” Erik calculated his total wealth. He had just over one hundred Mana stones.
“Yeah, got a few contacts—going to try to offload a few here,” Matt said.
“Sounds good,” Erik said. The Iron Skin potion cost me nearly a Mana stone for one set of ingredients. For a mid-Journeyman-level potion and pill… Why do I feel even with more wealth than ever before that I’m about to be poor?
“Matt, could you get me a few more sets of ingredients? I’ll make you a list.” Erik needed to restock their Mana, Stamina, and healing concoctions, and he doubted that ten sets of ingredients would be enough for him.
He pulled out the pill formula again and read the name.
Defender’s Might—it was as if this pill was made for me. I’ve been looking for a concoction that could increase my combat capabilities!
***
Rugrat whistled to himself as he moved through the market.
While Erik had been focused on making his potion, Rugrat had looked around at the different people to see what kind of gear they were working with. He didn’t know what kind of thing the alchemist’s path would be but he knew that the tools he made for Erik wouldn’t be enough, so he was on the hunt for new ones.
Before, he had been focused on weapons, armor, and larger components, unless it was for his rifle, which had been an absolute pain in the ass to try to hammer small components together. It was one of the reasons that he had been so happy when he had gotten the Mana Blade spell.
Though he had learned that just going in one direction was not the way to increase his ability. If he just focused on smithing large items with his hammer and anvil, then he was missing out on half of the process.
Seeing Erik use tools and seeing the tools that were used in Alchemy, Rugrat had something of a breakthrough. Against his better thoughts and with more than a few crass jokes, bigger was not always better, he knew that’s not what SHE said, but whatever!
Now that he didn’t have access to the majority of his Mana, he hadn’t been able to just force his smithing. He had taken the time to look through the results of alloying iron with enhancers. He had looked at the detailed work that he could complete, reducing the stress on him and the energy he had to use.
He had been thinking of smithing in stages, but he hadn’t applied that to the items he was working on, breaking them into components. With the different components made to assist and help one another, then the overall strength of the weapon would increase.
He had been looking at the mechanical side of smithing, not paying attention to the magical. This was due to a lack of formations, yes, but he had allowed that to limit his mind.
So now he was in an Alchemy store, looking at various Alchemy tools. Not only would they be useful for Erik, but they might provide inspiration for Rugrat.
“Right now I can make a musket, but what if I was able to
make a machine gun?” Rugrat grinned to himself, making a few of the people in the room back away from him and share scared glances with their friends.
Rugrat stood and looked to the man behind the counter. “Hello. I was wondering if I could get a flame torch? And that mortar and pestle? Do you know of any places that might have formations for sale?”
“Uh, I will get those prepared for you. We have a few formations that are oriented toward Alchemy, such as formations to calm the mind, make it easier to manipulate Mana and such.”
“Show me,” Rugrat said. If I can get something to assist in Mana manipulation, then doesn’t that mean I could use less Mana for the exact same effects?
Rugrat bought the Calming Man formation, as well as the flame torch which was essentially a Bunsen burner, and the magical mortar and pestle. Then he headed off toward a grain mill, where harvested Alchemy ingredients were partially processed to increase their value and remove the unneeded parts of the ingredient.
Rugrat found the building, seeing farmers arrive, dump out their storage rings filled with ingredients before they were weighed, and then placed into massive grinders. Mages stood around the grinders, pouring in their Mana, causing the formations to light up and run, breaking down the ingredients.
Rugrat got into line as a smile appeared on his face.
“Next!” The woman at the counter yelled over the noise of the mills as Rugrat stepped up.
“How much? What grade?” she asked.
“I don’t have goods to process. I was wondering if I could purchase the formation plans for your grinders,” Rugrat said.
The woman actually looked at Rugrat. “Those formations keep us in business.”
“Well, I am just passing through, going to Resam in a couple of days,” Rugrat said.
Her expression turned curious.
Rugrat leaned forward, as if to make it easier to hear her. “I’m really interested in it, and I promise it’s not to make a mill.” He placed a Mana stone into her hand.
“Out back in thirty minutes?” she asked. The Mana stone disappeared.
Rugrat grinned and nodded.
Forty minutes later and Rugrat had a formation design in his hands. It was really simple, but Rugrat had big plans for it.
He looked at his storage ring. He had been buying enhancers all over the place, without selling anything or making any winnings like Erik. Even with the money that Matt had made them from Temple of Earth’s Divinity, he’d spent a total of twelve Mana stones on all of the items. Formations were rare, thus their higher cost and items for alchemists were specialized, again giving them a reason to pump up the prices. Rugrat let out a sigh before he smiled.
“Not like it’s my first time being broke!” Rugrat laughed to himself and patted George, who moved around on his shoulders.
He nipped at Rugrat’s hand.
“Yes, I know you’re annoyed at being small and not able to do anything.” Rugrat tossed a piece of meat in the air.
George jumped off his shoulder, grabbed it in his mouth and then landed back on his shoulder, looking at Rugrat for more.
“Glutton. Do you know how expensive you are?” Rugrat complained as he tossed George a monster core.
His eyes lit up as he swallowed it whole.
“Wish I could use the power from the monster cores all the time to rank up,” Rugrat complained.
The two of them wandered back toward where they were staying.
Chapter: Zatan Confederation
Chief Jasmi Zaneli looked around the hall. The subchiefs of the Zatan Confederation all sat around the table.
They had been a bunch of nomads, moving from place to place, until Zaneli united them and turned them into a cohesive fighting force. By working together, they were able to take over some trade routes between nearby territories. The different kingdoms, countries, and empires didn’t take kindly and sent their armies to clear them out.
The problem was that the nomads were great fighters in the broken land, while the armies were used to fighting on plains and places where they could organize themselves.
They had starved out the cities by blocking the trade routes before taking over the cities and growing to the power that they now held. The different tribes still fought one another and the forces that they had taken land from.
Still, they looked to expand—taking more cities, lands with profitable mines and resources. It had led them to being in a constant state of war.
“You have a report?” Jasmi looked at one of the nomad traders. Although they had taken over a lot of land, they were still in need of items so they used their traders and darker connections to get food and weapons and armor that they needed for fighting.
“Chief Zaneli, I went to the Vermire Trading Outpost to procure weapons and food supplies when I learned about a healing house that has appeared in the trading outpost. I completed my trades and reported this to my manager and he brought me here,” the trader said.
“A healing house? Why would one appear in such a remote location?”
“I do not know, but they are not a healing house that I have heard of before. They don’t seem to have a connection to anyone but Vermire,” the trader said.
“Oh?” Jasmi sat forward.
They had tried to pull a healing house over to their side. When fighting, having healers to call on was a massive resource. Even if they were able to heal just the infections, they could save ten percent of their fighting force after each battle. Right now they were relying on the same old healing remedies that had been passed down for generations. They were nothing more than herbs thrown together to hopefully help the injured.
“Find out their background and see if we can find a way to pull them to our cause. General Tabur, if they do not wish to be bought, then it will be up to you and your people to bring them to us by any means necessary,” Jasmi said.
“We might risk offending the lord of Vermire,” General Tabur said.
“He might have a few connections and allow us to do trade there, but he is not the only place we can get our goods. I want to see just how he can fight with our army,” Jasmi said.
General Tabur nodded, receiving his orders.
***
“Father, are you sure about this?” Wren Silaz asked as his father stepped up to his carriage.
“I feel like there will be big changes within the Beast Mountain Range in the future and I hope that we can make the most use of them. You have my trust in dealing with business in Chonglu, so I will leave it to you,” Elan Silaz said.
“Yes, Father.” Wren sighed as he cupped his hands to his father.
Elan smiled and closed the door to the carriage as it started off, heading for the Wild Reaches Trading Outpost.
***
Old Man Hei stood at the front of an auditorium. All of the students were silent as he talked, their attention focused on just him.
Some were hurriedly scribbling down notes as others had thoughtful expressions.
All of them wore emblems of the Alchemist Association.
The door to the auditorium opened suddenly.
Old Hei and the class looked to the person entering.
“I am sorry, Expert Hei, for the interruption.” The man bowed deeply.
“Well, what is this about?” Old Hei’s voice rose in annoyance.
“There has been a message concerning a man with your emblem by the name of Erik,” the man said. Sweat appeared on his face.
Instead of yelling at him, Old Hei let out a pleased laugh and stood up, his face breaking into a wide smile.
“Looks like he’s faster than I thought! I will be ending my lecture here today. To make up for it, I will make a peak-Journeyman-level pill when I return for your viewing,” Old Hei said. The displeased expressions turned into ones of excitement as he rose and moved to the man at the door.
“There was a message with it.” The man passed Old Hei a note.
“That little rascal. A mid-Journeyman-level concoction! Seems tha
t he’s been working hard!” Old Hei signaled to a guard waiting nearby. “Captain Khasar, prepare a flying beast. We’re going to the Resam Regional Headquarters!” Old Hei said before laughing to himself. His eyes shone in excitement. “I wonder what he’s learned since I saw him last?”
***
Erik knew that advancing through the Path of Alchemy trial wouldn’t be easy. He needed to gain an additional advantage. He already planned to spend as much time as possible looking over the two formulas he had won from Khusai’s contest.
He fell into thought before he snapped his fingers. “I have a number of Mana stones. If I could use those to open my twelfth Mana gate, then I would be able to increase my title to Mana King, which would increase my control with my flames and their strength.”
He sunk into thought for a few more minutes. “It’s the only thing I can think of that would immediately increase my ability with Alchemy. I have the Iron Castle as well so I can use that, but it’s only a support.”
Erik felt a twinge of regret. As he was thinking of opening his Mana gate, Rugrat was unable to do anything to improve the condition of his Mana channels.
The Resam Regional Headquarters was a city owned by the Alchemist Association. He hoped that he would be able to find answers to Rugrat’s problems there.
Erik didn’t want to show off his attempt to open his Mana gate to Rugrat, not wanting to make him think on his own failings.
Erik used a Mana Gathering plate. He sat down in the middle of it and pulled out the dungeon core. It floated in front of him as he pulled out Mana stones. The Mana stones dissolved.
The Mana in the area seemed to become almost liquid-like in density as it was absorbed by the dungeon core. Cleaned of impurities, the density only increased but its volume decreased.
Erik sat there, pushing Mana out of his Mana gates and then drawing it back in through the pierced Mana gate. As the Mana was flushed from his body, it was captured by the Mana Gathering formation and poured into the dungeon core that purified it.
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