Aiden pulled himself up from the floor and began to clean up the explosion site. He hurried over to his cauldron first worried that it had been damaged. Luckily, the strong defensive properties of the earth element were showing true today and although slightly blackened with soot, the shell was unmarred.
This also had to do with the fact that the strength of the blast was pretty low. Afterall he was a beginner Alchemist who had just reached the stage of Muscle Like Steel, he wasn't yet at the stage where a blown cauldron could be deadly.
Nonetheless he had to take this as a learning experience and be more cautious in the future. Afterall, what if he had been concocting poison and it blew up all over him? That would be a disaster!
Aiden stared bitterly at the cauldron with his small cheeks bulging. Why did you blow up you stupid turtle!? After throwing the blame onto the poor innocent turtle shell, Aiden cheered himself up and began to sweep and scrub the soot off of the cavern floor and the inside of the turtle shell.
When he was done, Aiden sat down and began to run through the process again mentally to figure out what had gone wrong.He felt that it was because he wasn't fluent enough with his mental power. He had struggled to dissolve each of the herbs and then manipulate them within the solution. The only remedy for this was to practice, as he did it more times ease would come to him.
Aiden clenched his immature fist and tried to pump himself up. Which great master didn't have a few bumps on their road to greatness? This was just a small problem. He took a few deep breaths to steady his mind and waited until he felt like he had enough energy to try again.
Soon the water was boiling and the first herb, the Eidle Root was in the cauldron. His mental power slowly but surely broke it down and dissolved it. Sure enough, it was a little easier this time! Aiden carefully split off a strand of mental power before moving on to the Dewdrop Parasols, they too dissolved at a faster rate than before.
Finally, it was just the Stripers which seemed to almost melt away as his mental power exerted force on them. Three glowing orbs of essence were suspended within the boiling water, his fingers wove elegantly through the air as they manipulated aura and the orbs seemed to shine brighter.
Aiden's mental strength kept a tight leash on each of the essences to prevent them from getting out of hand. The essences got to the final point of merging once again seemingly fused, but this time Aiden enveloped the whole orb with his mental strength forcibly compressing it. His hands moved faster as aura poured into the cauldron, the energy evaporated the water almost instantly steam rising rapidly from within.
Moments later, his mental strength felt a slight give and the essences were fused. The aura dissipated leaving behind a powder in the bottom of the cauldron. Aiden sat heavily on the ground panting, with sweat drenching his clothes. He had succeeded! Although it had been smoother this time, it was far from easy.
There were several times where he had felt his mental power grow taut with the strain, but he had gritted his teeth and powered through it. Nothing could compare with this feeling of triumph. Aiden felt like he was glowing, his whole body thrumming with excitement. I can truly be called an Alchemist now! My first true Alchemy recipe successfully concocted!
When his breath slowed, he got up and carefully gathered the powder using his almost depleted mental strength and poured it into one of his empty bamboo canisters. Then he set about scattering some across the entrance of the cave, might as well see how effective this stuff was. The light gray powder fell softly onto the floor leaving a small trail as Aiden poured it.
Almost immediately a small spider that had been close to the entrance scurried away. Aiden raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise, this was some good stuff. Once that was done, he sat down to meditate slowly replaying the steps of the concoction in his brain. He wanted to engrave each moment in his memory so that it would become instinct when he needed to make more.
Then there was the matter of improvement, he slowly combed over his every action, trying to come up with what he could have done better or more efficiently. He had hesitated during the dissolution of the Eidle Root, this was probably his largest flaw during the whole thing. His hesitation was just him being a little gun shy, afterall it was the first time something had blown up in his face. Unfortunately, hesitation like that could lead to a vicious cycle of failure and lack of confidence.
Aiden frowned, this wouldn't do! He would have to work on that, even when he was unsure he couldn't be timid. Caution was one thing, cowardice is another.
After resolving his concerns Aiden began to cultivate. He focused on going back over his skin and muscles before feeling like they couldn't take any more energy before moving back to his tendons. This was a thought that had just struck him. He realized that although he felt as though he was years behind his peers, he was progressing at an extremely fast speed for someone who had just started.
This concerned him, although he was eager to be strong, Aiden didn't want to leave a weak foundation due to quick success. So he resolved himself to go a little slower but steadier. This would help him in the long run, the stronger your foundation was the more powerful you would be. Even at the same rank there were some people who could surpass their peers by a large margin, some of it had to do with talent, but a lot of it was related to how stable your foundation was. Of course, knowing that you needed a strong foundation did not mean you could achieve it.
The Golden Lion Kingdom was limited in resources, and only the strongest were worthy to claim them. What this meant was that the larger clans and families could dedicate more herbs and elixirs to strengthening their warrior's bodies and building up their foundations. Just like the tonic that Aiden had made for himself out of the Mud Snapper, there were many such things to help cultivators. But most people didn't have the means to get them. Alchemists were a rare breed, and each was more arrogant than the last. The potions and pills they crafted sold at sky high prices, beyond what most people could afford. Not to mention that most of the Alchemists in the kingdom were in the employ of the big clans and families, thus monopolizing such resources. Aiden Would be at a unique advantage in the future as he could supply his own tonics and elixirs, as long as he could find the herbs.
Soon, Aiden moved on to strengthening his mental power. As an alchemist this was his most important tool. Every step needed it in some way, so it was necessary to exercise it as much as possible.
Within his mental landscape, threads of mental power seemed to drift around slow and aimless. He urged the threads to meet each other and merge together. It was an arduous task, if Aiden was even the slightest bit distracted they would bounce apart, ruining all his effort.
This was the second round of fusion, the first when he merged the wisps within his consciousness. Each round of fusion would only get more difficult as the mental power resisted being condensed. Aiden took a deep breath and bound two threads together with as much force as he could muster. The threads wriggled and jerked trying to free themselves, but he just pushed harder until their forms became one. It was a slightly thicker thread, hard to distinguish from the previous one by vision alone. But make no mistake, it was quite a bit stronger.
When Aiden withdrew from cultivation, the fire had burned down to smoldering embers. He had merged a total of three threads, a small sum but it had exhausted him. Even then, he could sense that his next attempt at alchemy would be smoother. After having a small meal and restocking the fire, Aiden headed back out of the cave to get more fresh water and perhaps some more herbs. Tomorrow was a new day, and he couldn't wait to try Alchemy again.