“I noticed that you are using purple grass,” she said after she finished writing everything down. “Can you not use something like red spirit grass? Wouldn’t that be better?”
“Not for a healing pill.” I shook my head. “Red spirit grass is used to refine pills that enhance or reforge something. The Spiritual Booster Pill is a good example of where you want to use red spirit grass. When consumed, it will temporarily boost that person’s Spiritual Power. That’s what the red spirit grass does. It boosts or enhances something. It can also be used to reforge muscles. It doesn’t heal so much as enhance the body’s own natural healing, which is why we use red spirit grass in pills like the Body Forging Pill instead of purple grass, which is used purely for its healing effects.”
Feinrea nodded as I grabbed the nirnroot and a knife. I held the nirnroot over the beaker and slowly sliced off small shavings, which drifted into the boiling purple water. I continued this until I had completely finished slicing up the nirnroot, and then I let it sit. I waited several seconds for the nirnroot to dissolve, answering several questions Feinrea posed to me, and then added the monster core powder into the beaker and stirred.
By this point in time, the beaker had become a deep purple that glowed with repressed Spiritual Power. A soft, gentle fragrance floated through the air. Feinrea, who’d probably never smelled this fragrance before in her life, sighed and relaxed, her posture visibly untensing.
I removed the burner underneath the beaker. It was still hot to touch, so I let it sit and grabbed the two liters of spirit essence. I poured 100 milliliters into a flask, and then poured what was in the flask into the cauldron. The beaker had cooled by then. I grabbed the beaker and poured the contents into the cauldron, which I stirred, ignoring the lightning that shot out in arcs, until everything was properly mixed together. After which, I grabbed the cauldron and began pouring my Spiritual Power into the ingredients.
“This is the most important part in pill refining,” I said.
Feinrea nodded. “You’re willing the ingredients to transform into a pill by infusing it with your Spiritual Power. I know about this part, though I have never seen anyone actually do it. Do you mind if I watch from a closer position?”
“Go ahead.”
With my permission given, Feinrea stood up and walked until she was right next to me. I didn’t quite ignore her, but most of my attention was on the pill refining process. The ingredients inside of the cauldron were bubbling as lightning crackled along the surface. All of the liquid inside was being compressed and slowly undulating as I forced it into the shape of a sphere. It didn’t take more than thirty seconds for the liquid to form a spherical shape. Once that was done, I used my Spiritual Power to compress and harden the outside layer into a shell.
Not even a minute later, I reached in and held the pill out to the sparkly-eyed Feinrea, whose expression was so reverent it bordered on disturbing. She reminded me of the alchemists I knew from Midgard’s Alchemist Association. Every single one of them had been a pill nut who got off on seeing newly made alchemy pills.
“So this is how you make a true alchemy pill,” the woman uttered in a soft, almost reverent voice. “How extraordinary.”
“This is a pretty low-tier pill,” I said. “Higher tier pills require a lot more ingredients, but low-tier ones generally don’t need more than four or five ingredients.”
“Can you make any high-tier pills?” asked Feinrea.
“A few.” I shrugged as I let her take the pill I’d refined and examine it. She was like a child whose parents had just bought her some candy. “However, I would only be considered an intermediate-level alchemist. I’m not really that talented.”
“You are more talented than anyone else I know,” Feinrea said, her lips curling into a delicate and beautiful smile. “With your help, I think the Alchemy Association will be able to finally rise from the destitute state that it’s currently in.”
“That’s the plan,” I said.
I spent the rest of the day refining pills under the fascinated and watchful eyes of Feinrea. By the time I left, I was so exhausted that I nearly forgot to create the Spiritual Technique that would become the star of the auction.
Chapter 4
Finding a New Look
I was floating in a void. It was like my body had disappeared and my spirit soared endlessly through this vast, empty space. Time was meaningless here. I had no idea how much of it had passed. Days? Months? Years? Did it even matter? Everyone I knew was probably dead. The people I had gathered after Nevaria’s destruction, the little boy I had carried as we crossed the desert, and Kari… they were likely all gone.
A thought crossed my mind as I floated through this void—namely, why was I not dead? Maybe I actually was dead and just didn’t know it. It wasn’t like I could feel anything.
However, just as I was thinking that, something surged inside of me. A dull ache appeared in my head. Before I could figure out what was going on, the blackness of this void slowly vanished, and I opened my eyes.
I frowned for a moment as something that looked like a ribbed tarp appeared before me. As I stared at the shaking ceiling, I became aware of the dull ache in my body, the splitting headache crushing my skull, and the way I was being jostled back and forth. It felt like I was inside something that was moving.
Even though I didn’t know where I was, I kept my composure as I tried to figure out what my situation was like. I was alive. That much was clear. Judging from this tarp-like thing over my head and the fact that my body was being jostled, I could only assume someone found me and decided to take me with them. I remembered seeing several carriages before passing out. Maybe the ones who saved me and Kari was them.
Kari…
The name of the woman I loved made me remember that she had passed out just before I did. With a strength I didn’t know I had, I tried to sit up—tried being the keyword. I couldn’t. There was something weighing me down.
I looked down and realized that the object on top of me was, in fact, Kari. She was lying on my chest. Her breathing was deep and even, which caused me to sigh in relief. With the knowledge that she was alive and with me calming my panic, the strength that had surged through my body left. All I could do was wrap my arms around her and weep with relief.
Time moved by slowly as the carriage I was in continued traveling. I got used to the feeling of my body shaking back and forth. That said, I wasn’t too sure how much time had passed, though the carriage did eventually stop and voices came from outside. I strained my ears to listen.
“All right! It’s time to rest up for the night! Get the fires going!” a loud male voice shouted. It sounded gruff and coarse, like the desert sands I’d walked across before passing out.
“Will do, Boss! You gonna check on those two?” asked another voice, also male.
“That’s right. Hopefully, they’ll be awake by now.”
The dull crunching of footsteps reached me after the two finished speaking, growing closer with every second. They walked with a strange grinding noise. For some reason, my mind couldn’t help but focus on that sound.
The footsteps stopped and the flap near my feet was suddenly pulled open. A dark-skinned face peered inside. The man it belonged to looked like no one I’d ever seen. Aside from his skin being nearly obsidian, he had a somewhat flat, wide nose, and his eyes were incomparably dark, like the night sky without stars. His square face gave him an imposing appearance. He had a strong jawline and wore some kind of wide-rimmed hat over his head. When he saw me looking at him, a relieved smile appeared on his face.
“It looks like at least one of you is awake,” he said. “I am glad to see you managed to survive. The two of you were in rough shape. There were times these past few days where I honestly didn’t think you’d make it.” The man paused for a moment, shook his head, and then chuckled. “Sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Zane Nyevu. I am the leader of the caravan who found you.”
I nodded at the man’
s introduction and tried to introduce myself, but my throat was incredibly dry, so the moment I took in a breath, I started to hack and cough.
“Easy now,” Zane said. “There should be a flask of water next to you. It’s just above your head. Take a swig before speaking. You haven’t been able to drink anything for several days.”
Unable to do anything else, I fumbled around beside my head and finally found the flask he was talking about. My fingers curled around something that appeared to be made of animal skin. When I grabbed it, I discovered that it was a bean-shaped flask. The sound of sloshing water inside of it caused my mouth to go dryer than it already was.
I put the flask to my mouth after undoing the cap. The water was warm, but I honestly didn’t care. The feeling of liquid rushing down my throat, both quenching my thirst and moisturizing my throat, gave me an indescribable feeling of relief. I reluctantly pulled the flask from my mouth and capped it. Kari would need something to drink when she woke up.
“My name is Eryk Veiger,” I said. While I could speak, my voice was still hoarse. Talking hurt. “Thank you for rescuing us.”
The man who called himself Zane shook his head. “You need not thank me for that. In this desert, us nomads have an unspoken rule to always help others when we are able to. That said…” His eyes suddenly hardened. “I must question what you were doing wandering the Endless Desert without any protection. This is a harsh and unforgiving place, and yet you wandered through it without water, shade, or food. Just what were you thinking?”
“We didn’t have much of a choice…” I mumbled as a desolate feeling surged within me. Guilt slugged me in the stomach like a lead weight. “My people were forced to flee for our lives. We were being chased by Demon Beasts. I thought we would be safe in this desert. I didn’t… didn’t know about the dangers.”
Zane sighed. “So this is your first time in the desert. I suppose you wouldn’t know about the dangers then, and it does sound like you were in a desperate situation.”
“Do you mind if I ask something?” I asked.
“Feel free to ask what you want.”
“There was a little boy who was with us,” I said, raising my head to look at Zane. “What happened to him?”
Zane said nothing as his expression, which had been more or less friendly up to this point, grew suddenly reserved. However, from his silence, I already knew the answer. I gritted my teeth as I thought about that little boy. He had called himself my rival at one point. His one-sided crush on Kari had been cute, and I would always respond to his challenges and watch him storm off in a huff after he lost. Now he was gone. He was dead, and it was my fault.
“Get some rest,” Zane finally said with a kind smile. “We will talk more when you feel better.”
I nodded but didn’t say anything. The curtain fell again, darkness settled upon me, and I clenched my eyes shut as grief and guilt washed over me like a heavy downpour.
There was probably something wrong with me, which I’ve known for a while, but it was really being hammered home lately.
I had gotten used to sleeping with the snake who was now my roommate. Whenever I went to bed at night, it would slither underneath the covers with me and curl around my body as though it was trying to suck out all my warmth. Snakes were cold blooded. That meant its body was cold. I used to shiver every night and try to push it off my bed, but now I’d gotten so used to it that I’d wake up to find myself hugging it like it was a large pillow.
Something was definitely wrong with me.
Yawning as the first rays of morning light leaked in from the open window, I unwound my arms from around the snake, unwound the snake from around me, and climbed out of bed. I stretched my arms and listened to the satisfying pops as my bones cracked. Someone I knew once said the sound of bones popping was disgusting, but the incredible relief I felt afterward made me not care.
I walked over to the window and looked outside. The sunlight had risen a while ago. I judged it to be a few hours after dawn. Fay would probably be arriving soon, which meant I should freshen up.
After washing myself by the water basin, I put on a fresh pair of clothes, the dark pants and long-sleeved white shirt that had just finished drying the other day. Smoothing out the wrinkles after I donned them, I frowned at the rough feeling. This fabric was quite coarse. Even now, after so many days had passed, I still wasn’t used to the rough fabric of these clothes.
A knock sounded at the door. I figured it was Fay since she was the only person aside from Ms. Nadine who knew where I lived. She was also the only person who would come over. No one else had a reason to.
“Morning,” I greeted after opening the door and discovering that, indeed, the person on the other side was Fay.
Her clothing was not the same as what I usually saw. A dark blue sleeveless vest with a high collar traveled across her torso. There were two straps. The first strap was near the collar, while the second strap was just below her breasts. Even though they kept the vest closed, there was a gap near her cleavage and another triangle-shaped gap below that. A belt sat around her waist. The fabrics of the vest went into the belt before flaring out behind her in a two-tailed pattern that extended to the middle of her calves.
A pair of black shorts stretched taut across her hips, extending only to the middle of her thighs. There was a small gap of skin between her shorts and the stockings she wore, which were also black. The stockings flowed into equally black boots. Her elegant ensemble was finished off with a pair of black sleeveless gloves that extended to the middle of her biceps.
“Good morning,” Fay greeted me. Her cheeks were a light pink, perhaps out of embarrassment for coming back to the place where I’d cured her Spiritual Poisoning. I wondered if she was remembering what happened between us in this very room, even as I tried not to let myself blush.
“Morning. Come on in.” I opened the door further and stepped aside so she could enter.
Fay entered my room, pausing as she looked at the bathtub, which immediately caused her cheeks to darken. She tore her gaze from the bathtub. Her eyes scanned the room some more. They stopped on my bed.
“Is that snake sleeping in your bed?” she asked in the sort of “I can’t believe what I’m seeing” tone of voice that I probably would have had if I’d been in her shoes.
“Ugh… yeah…” I sighed. “Pay it no mind. That creature does whatever it wants.” Even though I told her not to give it any attention, she still continued to give the snake a hard look. I rolled my eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous of a snake.”
“W-what?” Fay’s eyes widened as she looked back at me. The blush that had just left immediately returned. “D-don’t be ridiculous! Why would I be jealous of a snake?! I’m not jealous of that stupid creature!”
Fay’s response was a little worrying, but I just rolled my eyes again. “I was just kidding.”
“O-oh…” Fay settled down and looked away. She crossed her arms as if to present a strong front of denial, then cleared her throat with a loud “ahem” that startled the snake, causing it to raise its head and look at us before setting it back down. “A-anyway, I’m here to talk about the Spiritual Technique and alchemy pills we discussed.”
“They’re right over here.” I wandered into the room and over to a corner, where six glass jars were sitting. Each jar contained exactly five pills of varying color. Leaning against the wall beside them was a goatskin scroll.
I grabbed the scroll and the jars, which I placed into a wool sack, and then I walked back to Fay. The girl stared at me the whole time I went about my tasks. Her eyes tracked me until I was standing beside her.
I held out the bag. “I made enough pills that your family head or whoever can test them to verify that they do indeed work. Also, the goatskin scroll contains the Spiritual Technique. It’s a fire technique.”
Fay nodded at my words, but rather than take the bag, she pushed my hand back. I looked at her in confusion. While I was wondering about her actions, she slowl
y shook her head.
“I have spoken to my father,” she told me. “However, while he has expressed an interest in auctioning these items, he said that he would like to meet with you first. I believe he wants to discuss the terms of the auction. You will also need to be the one who convinces him that your items are indeed worth holding an auction for.” She paused, her eyes turning dark. “I should warn you beforehand: my father is an incredibly stubborn man. To convince him that you are worth his time will take a lot of work.”
“That’s just great.” I tried not to grimace. “I get to deal with a stubborn old person.”
Fay laughed at my plight, but all that did was make me glare at her, which she seemed to find even more amusing. I could only feel a sense of helplessness as I waited for her to calm down. Dealing with stubborn people was normally something I was good at, but my method of dealing with them often involved beating them up. Kari was the one who persuaded others with words.
“I don’t think you will have that much trouble,” Fay assured me. “He is stubborn, but once he sees how useful your pills are, I believe he’ll be convinced. That said…”
“What is it?” I asked when Fay looked me up and down. There was a frown on her face, and I didn’t like it.
“If you are going to meet with my father, then you can’t go looking like that,” she said at last, her narrowed emerald eyes finally going to my face. “We need to get some clothes that will make you look presentable.”
The moment she said those words, I looked down at myself, at my coarse clothes, which were the most obvious symbol of my status. The black pants and shirt were made from a rough material. I had no idea what the fabric was, but it wasn’t comfortable. Certainly, it was nowhere near as nice as the silk clothing I used to wear underneath my armor had been.
WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Volume 2 Page 6