by Nikostar A
The most important step of the recipe was to properly measure the volume of material used. He needed to be accurate but with modern measuring equipment, it was an easy feat.
Soon the materials were ready. Alexander poured the thick brown paste in the water and mixed everything well. All that was left to do was to wait for the potion to reduce.
In the meanwhile, Alexander started grilling a few materials here and there. He would mix a few liquids together and randomly add in a few herbs. Alexander did not care about the outcome of these materials; they were the excess he had bought to mislead the people who were watching him.
He just needed to use them in one way or another. There was still quite a bit of material left but it did not matter. Alexander was more or less certain that no one else would be able to replicate the potion he had in hand.
When the water level dropped to a certain level, Alexander turned off the heater and allowed the potion to cool down. He sent the rest of the materials to the warehouse to be stored and cleaned up the equipment he used.
When the potion's temperature dropped to an acceptable level, Alexander grabbed the pot and directly started gulping down the potion. It was brown and viscous. No one in their right mind would want to drink it.
Alexander closed his eyes and forced himself to finish the potion. When he was done, he quickly jumped to the sink and washed his mouth several times in an attempt to get rid of the bitter aftertaste.
"Ahh, never again. It's a good thing I only need to drink this once."
Just as he spoke those words, Alexander felt his stomach rumbling and a few seconds later, he burped out loudly, allowing the foul stench of the potion to escape from his mouth.
"Ewww... I better return home as soon as possible to brush my teeth. I hope the potion will work. I did not drink that foul potion for nothing!"
Chapter 16: Personal space
Back in his room, Alexander washed himself and brushed his teeth three times to get rid of the stench. Then, he wore a set of comfortable clothes and sat cross-legged on his bed, ready for a meditation session.
With the potion still in his stomach, Alexander started to manipulate his mana. He slowly pushed the mana into his spirit circuits according to the formula in his memories. Soon, the gagging reflex described in the manual started to appear and then, an intense pain started to flow around Alexander's body like a snake.
It was the first time he was experiencing this degree of pain. Although it was described in the manual as a painful experience equivalent to giving birth to a child, Alexander never expected it to hurt that much. His body instinctively contracted and he rolled over, falling on the floor but the pain did not stop.
Once initiated, Alexander could only wait for the entire process to end. Meanwhile, the pain did not decrease at all. He felt like insects were ravaging his body slowly eating him up from the inside.
Alexander rolled on the floor. His head banged against the leg of his desk but he did not feel anything. The pain of the process was so much that a mere headbanging would not even be felt.
Eventually, Alexander was unable to suppress the pain any longer and lost consciousness.
***
An unknown amount of time later, Alexander found himself lying on the floor of his room. He got up, feeling dizzy and sat on his bed. "What happened? Did I succeed?"
He did not even bother to check the bruises on his arms and quickly shifted his attention to his spirit circuits and mana reservoir. An expression of joy bloomed on Alexander's face, he had succeeded! His mana reservoir and his spirit circuit had both shrunk in size.
Yes, they both became smaller. The goal of all mages was to increase the size of their spirit circuit and mana reservoir to be able to use more spells at once but Alexander's technique was rather unique.
It originated from one of the most fearsome clans of one of the worlds beyond the rifts, the Anterlope clan. They were a famous clan in their world; not because of their spells as they were actually the weakest mages there due to their shrunk spirit circuits. They were famous because of the utility they provided and were even called, 'Walking Warehouses'.
Alexander examined his internal body. He could not directly estimate how much mana his mana source had lost during the process but according to the manual, he should have already lost about 20% of his mana. His mana reservoir shrunk but it was still barely large enough to allow him to cast an intermediate spell. As for his spirit circuits, they were now half of their original size.
However, aside from those three magic components, Alexander's internal body now housed a fourth magic component. It was described in the manual as a 'Seed'. When Alexander tried to examine it, his consciousness was pulled into the Seed.
When Alexander opened his eyes, he found himself standing onto a vast desolate plot of land. There was only an empty land around him and nothing else. Alexander excitedly looked around him and even got down to grab some soil. The soil was completely dry and the surface was cracked in some areas.
The soil felt like sand. Alexander smiled as he noticed the brown marks on his hands. "I have succeeded! This is my own space, my own pocket dimension!" He shouted with joy without care. There was no one else in this space, he could do anything he wanted.
The Anterlope clan, the only clan that never bothered to build their own residence. The only clan that could freely roam around the world. All because they themselves were the owner of such a space. They were free to enter their own dimension and only return after they rested.
Whenever a member of the Anterlope clan would enter their own space, their entire body would disappear from the world. Only their Seed would remain in the original world but the Seeds were completely undetectable by people other than the members of the Anterlope clan. This made the members of the Anterlope clan unstoppable as no one was able to catch them.
The trade-off for this incredible power was naturally the severe shrinking of their spirit circuits and mana reservoir, resulting in them having negligible fighting power. But the Anterlope clan did not care. They could simply hide in their pocket dimension and wait for the danger to leave.
With their unique abilities, the Anterlope clan became one of the most prosperous clans of the world. They thought they were invincible but the situation did not last for long. People would always find ways to go around problems and soon, someone developed a spell for the sole purpose of destroying Seeds!
One by one, the members of the Anterlope clan perished. They could no longer hide in their own dimension and their combat aptitude was mediocre at best. In the end, the Anterlope clan swore loyalty to the emperor of the world and since then, they lived under the umbrella of that powerful entity. Even after its members lowered their heads, the Anterlope clan remained a powerful clan and it was thanks to the great utility they provided that the emperor was able to conquer the rest of the world.
It was the path Alexander had chosen. He knew he was not destined to be a great elemental mage. His mana source was only average compared to the geniuses of the world and even if he had the memories of his past life, he might not necessarily be able to defeat them. As a result, he chose to sacrifice his spirit circuits and mana reservoir to obtain a Seed.
Why did Alexander choose to become a mage even after he traveled back in time? It was to protect his loved ones: his mother, Aila and the other friends he remembered from his past life. Even with his power as a stargazer, Alexander was not confident in saying that he would be able to reverse the situation when the Xal would invade Earth.
Forming a Seed was Alexander's way of saving his loved ones. By bringing them all with him inside his own personal world, his loved ones would be safe. Was it wrong to run away from the problem rather than to face it? Maybe! But Alexander would rather be a coward who managed to save his family rather than a courageous mage who namelessly perished in a war. Besides, didn't all the world leaders do the same thing by running away to the moon? Alexander was just preparing for the worst-case scenario.
Furthermore, although Alexander sacrificed a lot of his strength as an elemental mage, he still had his power as a stargazer which placed him in a much better position than any member of the Anterlope clan. He had always planned to use the stars as his main weapon as using his mana would only end up shortening his life span.
Alexander looked at the empty landscape and smiled. Right now, his space was only in its most basic form. He needed to bring in a lot of materials to make it habitable. There was still a long journey ahead but Alexander already could not stop smiling. According to the manual, his pocket dimension was only a giant cube with each side being 100m long but soon, it will become as large as a whole planet.
Alexander returned to Earth and found himself standing in his previous position. The dirt on his hand was still there. He briefly went to the bathroom to wash himself and returned to his bed. His X-Driver was still displaying 22:08. He could meditate a little more but instead of doing so, Alexander started practicing his body postures.
Since he no longer had access to advanced spells at the moment, Alexander wanted to increase his own strength as a stargazer. Using the body postures or hand seals were not hard. He did not really need to train into them; the key was to be able to rapidly switch between the postures and to adopt the postures consistently. It was easy to randomly adopt a body posture once, but to be able to do so consistently, he needed to practice.
Tonight, Alexander was focusing on the fifth constellation, [Egriss, the Archivist]
Compared to the first three constellations, Egriss did not provide any combat skills but instead, its skill was meant to be used as a utility tool. Egriss allowed its user to freely look back at his own memories!
It was why Alexander started remembering a lot more since he became a stargazer. By using Egriss, he could have a peek at his previous life and use the information to his advantage. It was only an average constellation to the stargazers but to Alexander, Egriss might very well be the most useful constellation of the set.
The Archivist's body posture was very similar to the lotus position. As Alexander was not very flexible at first, he had some trouble adopting the correct posture but after forcing a little bit, he managed to somewhat feel the power from the fifth constellation.
By looking at his memories, Alexander briefly checked the contents of the manual he obtained from the dead member of the Anterlope clan. According to the manual, he could now freely send in any materials inside but they could not be too large. Unfortunately, no exact measurements were specified; he would need to experiment by himself.
The manual suggested the user to not aim at expanding his space but rather to try to turn it into a fertile land first. He should focus on finding a source of water and some fertile soil to mix with his arid land. Ideally, he should also add in some minerals.
"There is a lot of work to do... I suppose it is a good thing that I can purchase some materials from the crafting club. It should not be too hard to get some plants from there in the future."
After having practiced Egriss, Alexander moved on to the fourth and sixth constellation respectively. The fourth constellation was completely useless to him at the moment. It was called [Dew, the Whisperer] and had the ability to allow stargazers to communicate with each other from a distance. Unfortunately, Alexander was currently the only stargazer on Earth.
On the other hand, the sixth constellation was very useful to Alexander. [Felcana, the Tempest] had the same effect as [Cali, the Arsonist]. The only difference was that instead of giving him control over fire, it allowed Alexander to freely control the wind around him.
Two hours later, Alexander finally put an end to his practice. He did not master the first six constellations perfectly yet but he could already transition from one to another reasonably well.
It was time to sleep. According to his timetable, tomorrow's classes would be the language class and the biology class. Both were boring subjects that Alexander had already mastered in his past life.
He lay down on his bed as his mind started to wander. "I wonder what Aila is doing... She is probably messing around with some random guy... It is painful but how can I explain the situation to Aila without it ending in her trying to silence me."
***
In the club next to the main square, a group of students were busy chatting among themselves while drinking, another group was swinging their body wildly on the dance floor. Other students were busy making out with each other in more private booths. The music was loud and everybody was having a good time.
Suddenly, two silhouettes appeared at the entrance of the club and the entire atmosphere changed. The music continued to play but none of the students on the dance floor moved. The heads of all the male students inevitably turned toward the two beauties at the entrance. Even those currently making out with their girlfriends found it irresistible to stop and have a peek at the newcomers.
The shorter girl slowly led the taller one inside the club. She smiled brightly, instantly attracting the gazes of the whole room. She walked slowly, making sure that everyone could notice her perfect pair of legs. She swung her waist delicately, making full use of her tight dress to show her thin waistline. When she arrived at the bar, the girl turned toward the taller one.
"Aila, you do not seem to be in the mood today. What's bothering you?"
Aila smiled to the shorter girl. "I'm fine, Lyana. I was just thinking that my charm must have gotten rusty after the holidays. My last prey has yet to contact me. I thought he would be like all the other ones and actively ask to meet me again but he has yet to do so."
The two girls leaned against the counter and Lyana winked at the bartender. "Haha, don't think too much about it. There is still a lot of fishes in the ocean. Just look around, I'm sure you'll find someone to eat tonight. Since you are not in the mood, the drinks are on me tonight."
The bartender quickly approached the two girls. He tried to appear professional but his heart was racing. He could not even hold eye contact for one second behold his gaze fell on the two girls' voluptuous chest.
After ordering, Aila smiled at Lyana. "I don't know. He was quite good at it you know. Strange for a virgin... Do you think I should try to go to his room? I still remember where he lives."
"You can try if you want. He is the champion of my cohort, right? I haven't met him yet but if I get the chance, I'll lead him to you. No man can resist you, Aila," said Lyana. She laughed and winked at her sister.
***
In another part of the city, Carmen Ashmore glanced at the email in front of her. It was a short email from Professor Johnson of the crafting club but attached to it was the exact list of materials Alexander ordered earlier.
"So he really bought a lot of material from the club. Although it only totals up to 2500, I can allow him to keep 500 credits. However, why do I feel like he did not randomly pick those materials..."
She briefly skimmed through the list. Unfortunately, her knowledge of crafting was very limited. After thinking for a while, she replied to Professor Johnson:
"Keep an eye on the student. Also, try the different combination of the materials he used. See if anything comes out."
Chapter 17: Weekend
The next day, Alexander resumed his normal student life. As it was just the first week, the lectures were rather light. During the rest of the week, Alexander made a couple of new friends at his different lectures. With everyone having a different timetable, Alexander would often see new faces and chat with them.
The classes were not very interesting. After having had his memories refreshed by Egriss, the Archivist, Alexander did not even need to attend them to remember the entire course. However, as attendance was compulsory, Alexander would still always turn up but his mind was always wandering elsewhere.
He would often use the time in the classroom to practice hand seals and to meditate. The lecturers would naturally notice his abnormal behavior but whenever they would call him out, Alexander would show off his knowledge, proving
to the lecturers that he had been paying attention. It left them without any room for discussion.
He returned to the crafting club once to mess around with his materials. Apart from that, Alexander would mostly meditate in his free time. Since the day he told Stephano that he could learn advanced spells at the library, many students suddenly became hardworking and most of the seats at the library were taken.
However, Alexander was certain that it would not last for long. Soon, the students would understand how hard it was to cast an advanced spell and would return to going at the pace of the lectures.
The end of the week was approaching and with it, the weekly examination. The academy would closely monitor the development of the students and every Friday, they would hold some sort of exams.
After looking in his memories, Alexander saw that the first exam was rather simple. All the students needed to do was to destroy a certain ore using their magic only. The ore was one that was commonly used at the crafting club to make the talisman of protection. The examination was simply an easy way to find cheap labor to break the ores into smaller pieces, reducing the workload of the craftsmen but that was something the students were unaware of.