The morning sun greeted him as he left his cabin.
His current place of residence was located in the outskirts of a town called Riverrock. The name of which was derived from the large rock situated in the middle of the river running through the town.
Even though most people that had travelled around considered the town small, it was only relative to the other towns situated this close to the capital. It was a seedy place which the main traffic avoided.
A perfect place for Theo.
The people kept to themselves, avoiding contact with strangers. Though they did observe everyone around them with an intense focus. It was normal for people to disappear only to appear at a later date as lifeless corpses.
Theo glanced towards an alley between two shops and saw a completely naked man lying there, slumped, as if asleep. In his mouth was a small wooden pipe that still produced a trail of smoke.
'Stupid.' That was the only thought that came to Theo's mind as he saw it.
The man was almost certainly dead. Anyone with a functioning brain would know to avoid sleeping out in the open, especially this close to the center of the town. If none of the commoners did anything to you, you could be sure that the gangs within the city would steal everything on you.
The pipe in his mouth only served to reinforce that idea. It was a common occurrence for people around here to be found dead with a pipe in their mouth. It served as a warning.
It was their own fault. He had given out specific warnings that smoking too much of it would kill them.
Theo continued to make his way through the sparse crowds of commoners mulling about. His destination was the only store in this dingy shithole that sold the herbs he needed.
Along the way he saw even more people smoking the same type of pipe, but at least they were all standing and lively.
There were no guards patrolling the streets as in most cities and towns. Or, well. They existed, but no one could call them guards.
The entire city guard had long been integrated into the Bronze Fang gang that controlled the city. Even the mayor was under their control.
There was at least one such guard tailing him. It wasn't a malicious tailing. More of a quiet guardianship. Something that had been arranged by the gang in exchange for his services.
Two more of such guards were standing guard in front of the shop as Theo arrived. They glanced at him, nodded, and let him proceed inside without a problem.
The door let out a loud creaking sound as he entered the wooden interior of the shop. There were huge shelves littered around the place, as if randomly. They were filled with all sort of random trash, most of it being subpar produce.
Whoever had designed the interior had no idea on how to properly arrange a working outlook for their shop.
"Get what you need and get out." A gruff voice said without bothering to look at who had entered.
There was a counter at the back of the room, on top of which a bald old man with an impressive white beard sat on.
Theo didn't mind it and walked straight towards the shopkeeper.
"Get me an ounce of Sangan." Theo said.
The old man looked up at him and his mouth curled up into a little smile while his hands rubbed like they always did when the old geezer saw an opportunity to butter someone up.
"Why, young master, of course." The old man jumped down from the counter with impressive agility. "Just say it and Jack shall provide."
"Yeah, yeah," Theo looked at the man straight in the eyes. "I'm not in the mood for chitchat. Go get it."
Jack shut up quickly and nodded. He tapped something with his foot behind the counter and disappeared underneath for a moment before reappearing back up.
"Here you go. An ounce of Sangan." Jack placed a pouch on the counter. "That'll be eight copper pieces."
Theo didn't immediately pay, and instead inspected the product first.
Opening the pouch revealed a small handful of reddish moss. He looked intently and confirmed that there was nothing unnecessary inside of it before weighing it.
Jack looked a little offended at his display, but he should have been used to it by now. Theo had long since stopped trusting shopkeepers such as him. You could only be scammed a couple of times before you realized how to deal with it.
"Here you go." Theo tossed eight copper coins at him. Jack caught them deftly.
Theo left the store before Jack had the chance to try and chat with him again. It was annoying, but it was something that he had to put up with because no one else in this town sold herbs even remotely of the same quality as that old man.
He arrived back at his little wooden cabin with no trouble along the way. The guard that had been tailing him stopped and stayed in the usual spot, preventing people from approaching his quaint abode.
Something he had requested the Bronze Fang to do. The reason he had given them was that he needed complete silence to make the drug.
They bought it up. He was the only herbalist they had who could make it, so they had to believe him.
It wasn't actually needed, but it was better to tell them that so that they would restrict the amount of people who knew who he was and what he was doing.
The real reason he had requested it was to avoid the prying gaze of the gang itself. They didn't know he was practicing using the scroll. They only thought of him as their golden goose.
If they saw him practicing, they might realize that it was only a matter of time before he left them. And obviously that wasn't good for their business.
His first aetherial pathway was almost finished, anyway. So, he would need to keep up the ruse of a content drug maker only for a little while longer.
Theo stood in front of the table. The herbs had already been prepared. Only the Sangan was needed to start. So, he did just that.
He took out the mortar and pestle and settled them onto the table, then he went outside for a while and brought back a bucket that was filled with water. He set it down next to the table.
He emptied the contents of the pouch onto a piece of cloth, which he then dipped into the bucket of water he had just bought in.
The Sangan was something that absorbed water like a sponge. It was a peculiar herb, with strange properties so it was imperative that he worked quickly.
He quickly overturned the cloth and dumped the Sangan into the mortar before starting to smash it as fast as he could.
The end result was a red, sticky paste. It had always amazed him that a plant could absorb so much water, and then make it seem as though it disappeared.
In reality, the Sangan had the special quality that allowed it to bind the water to it very tightly. It grew in difficult and dry terrain, so it had to evolve in such a way to survive.
It was the herb that you used when you had to mix in a relatively large amount of water into a mixture without bloating it.
'The hard part is over.' Theo thought as he gave himself a little breather.
You had to be fast when processing Sangan, otherwise it would harden, and you would have to wait for hours to days till it consumed all the water and softened.
The following procedures were simple. Theo had to mix in a few supplementary herbs into the paste to make it loosen up a little, before he started crushing in the Amplifying Grass.
The Amplifying Grass needed a lot of water to activate the special aetherially infused properties it held, but if you used just water, it would dilute the herb too thin, and the effect would be almost imperceptible.
Using the Sangan, combined with a few other herbs helped keep the concentration high. The mixture helped him take control of his aether with far more ease, thus he was able to use more time directing it, instead of wasting it on trying to grab small streams in the hopes that they wouldn't slip from his grasp.
The created mixture was the reason he might still be able to attend the Cobalt Academy, something he had thought almost impossible thanks to his years of running.
Years during which he had had no time to even try and establish the aetherial pathway.
The academy had strict rules on who could enter it. No one over the age of twenty were even tested, as it was judged that they were too old to learn and internalize all the intricacies of an Arcanist.
Theo was currently sixteen, turning seventeen in just a couple of weeks, if he remembered correctly. And he had already almost finished the second step, maybe he could even finish it today.
He gathered the mixture he had just made into a small glass bottle he kept on his person at all times, before thoroughly rinsing and cleaning his equipment.
After he was done, he set them all away and took out the scroll before laying it down on the table.
Theo took a deep breath; he would push himself as far as he could today. The entrance exam of the Academy was just around the corner. He needed to be fast.
He went though all the steps once more before taking a step back, uncorking the bottle and swallowing half of the mixture.
It felt like he was swallowing something that absolutely didn't want to enter his body, but Theo didn't drink anything to help it go down.
If he did that, it would dilute the essence of the mixture and waste his efforts, so he just had to sit and wait till his throat forced it into his gullet.
It was an uncomfortable while for him, but nothing unfamiliar.
Soon, he felt an almost imperceptible wave of something radiating from his stomach. It meant that the mixture was starting to dissolve, and that it was time for him to start.
Theo took a calming deep breath before directing his senses to his soul.
The body was the physical representation of the soul, so it was no surprise that the soul looked almost identical to the physical body. What was surprising was seeing the translucent nature of the soul, or the sheer whiteness it radiated.
The color of the soul and aether represented the rank of the being, with a white soul being the starting point of everyone.
His parents had told him that the soul was separated into two parts, the outer core, and the inner core. The inner core was easy to perceive, as it was where all the aether resided in, it was located in the middle of one's chest.
The outer core in contrast was hard to perceive. In fact, Theo wouldn't even know about it if he hadn't been told it existed.
'Focus!' Theo berated himself for getting distracted recalling such stupid things. He was wasting the precious mixture gawking at his soul as if he was twelve all over again.
He focused all his attention on the inner core, at the sea of aether that had slowly accumulated there.
Theo took hold of as much aether within the sea as he could and started to direct it on the path he had slowly been carving for the past year.
The aether surged into the created pathway, filling it to the brim and ultimately crashing against the dead end it encountered.
Theo took hold of it after it stilled, pushed it back and then pushed it forwards once more. The aether continued to ram into the wall of the soul, slowly eroding a path for it to flow through.
Each time the raging torrent hit against the wall; a wave of pain exploded out. Theo gritted his teeth and continued the process.
The scroll had two methods on carving the first aetherial pathway. The first one was to utilize a small, continuous stream of aether to slowly erode out the path. It was slow, but almost completely painless.
The second method was to grab as much aether as you could and ram it against the wall repeatedly, as many times as you could. It was fast, but taxing and painful, so many people opted for the first method.
Theo spent the next five hours grunting occasionally as he continued to carve his first aetherial pathway. He stopped when he realized that the aether within the pathway was decreasing, his grip on it was getting weaker and he felt exhausted.
The essence had been fully used up and he was back to his normal self.
He retracted his senses from within and focused on the world once more.
"I'm almost there… almost." Theo muttered under his breath as he clenched his fists. "Tomorrow…"
Theo felt both anticipation and dread at the prospect of finishing the pathway. One on hand, it meant that he was that much closer to becoming an Arcanist.
On the other, it also meant that he was about to see if he truly possessed the capability to become an Arcanist.
If he failed at the third step, he would never be able to become an Arcanist and would forever be relegated to the title of a Warrior at most, just like his father.
That meant that he would have no access to the channels, knowledge, and resources he so desperately needed.
Commoners might respect Warriors, but Arcanists were practically nobles, no matter their origins.
Theo fished out the envelope and stared at it, unblinking. The apprehension for his future slowly vanished and was replaced with determination.
"Nothing will stop me. Not even if I fail tomorrow."