Audrohorn Hotel…
It was early in the morning after Chrysos ate a delicious meal from a restaurant. After having such a great meal, Chrysos woke up with a lot of energy and felt very invigorated.
He felt amazing. From day one, he was just a nobody who brewed potions for a living. He then learned more about this world and lived accordingly to it.
Even though it had only been a month, it felt like so much had happened already.
And from his fight, he realized how weak he currently was.
If Shalra wasn't injured, she could've killed him in one slash only. In a real battle, would an opponent give him the time and resources to prepare for their attacks?
No! Of course not.
He had to become stronger. He had to consider his next steps from this point on. He could try being an adventurer and complete quests. Although, bounty hunting is pretty profitable too, so that can be considered. He had a delicious dinner last night and he couldn't help but salivate whenever he thought of the delicious chicken cooked by a Blood Alchemist.
It's funny that the domineering title of 'Blood Alchemist' is also regarded as fine professionals who serve the rarest and most expensive meals to the middle and high class people here in the Divine Lands. Aside from some of them being part time chefs, they are regarded as a class who can provide strength and power to those who eat their consumables.
At first, you'd think that Blood Alchemists who work with blood and flesh related alchemy would be considered as brutal and cold-hearted people, but most of them respect life which in turn, made them heavily respected by the nobles and common folk. Unless of course, if they are corrupted ones.
Awakened ones are divided into two sides.
The Heroic ones, and the Corrupted ones.
Divinious is willed by emotions resonating deep in the soul. Depending on the user's emotions, it could be corrupted or heroic. Positive emotions wills Heroic Divinious and negative emotions unleashes Corrupted Divinious which is considered as evil and malicious.
This caused a long lasted hostility between the two sides.
…
Chrysos tidied his room as usual and took a bath. They have faucets and showers here, which is surprising for sure, but the shower isn't the usual one that sprinkles water, but instead a bigger faucet that just dumps a ton of water on you. But Chrysos couldn't complain since he still found it relaxing.
He then went down to eat another delicious meal from the hotel's dining hall.
Chrysos approached the counter and looked at the options.
"Oh? Desert Lizard Soup, Grilled Apeskin, Creamgrass Goat Edlari, Unmoved Fang Fish… " Chrysos found meals with meat very interesting. Especially the Goat Edlari which is a style of cooking that uses everything from an animal like the skin, bones, organs, and flesh in one meal. In the Divine Lands, many types of Edlari style cooking are done by humans all over the human populated continents.
His eyes then shifted to the plant based food next. "Fingerbiting Tree Leaf Salad, Fried Footpiercer Grass, Sweetcrescent Fruit Rolls, Ilora Flower Cakes…"
Chrysos finally decided on his order and told his order to the lady wearing a simple white apron with her hair tied into a bun. "Ma'am, can you please get me a medium serving of Creamgrass Goat Edlari, twelve pieces of Fried Footpiercer Grass and five Ilora Flower Cakes."
The lady smiled and said, "Your order is coming right up sir, kindly wait at your seat and come back in ten minutes."
Chrysos nodded and found an empty table before sitting on it. And having nothing to do, he decided to read books about alchemy to pass the time.
10 minutes later…
Chrysos lifted the lower part of his mask, revealing his mouth to allow him to eat the food. The Goat Edlari was very delicious and milky. He finished the meal and snacked on the five inch Footpiercer Grass covered in salt and spices. You can treat them as large green leafy french fries. He then ate the Avilora Flower Cakes without any rush. Chrysos liked to savor good things like these.
As he ate, his huge backpack looked very out of place and he attracted some curious gazes from time to time.
"With a bag like that, he's probably a traveler or something.." A man who saw Chrysos thought to himself.
..
When Chrysos finished eating, he went to the counter and asked the lady, "How much was my meal worth?"
The lady looked at the book next to her and said, "Sir, it's fifty seven silver coins."
Chrysos checked his wallet and paid for his meal. At the same time, he thought about how to spend his money wisely and what he would like to spend it on.
"After this, I would like some armor and a weapon.. My knife is too short and it couldn't possibly defend me at all times, so I would definitely like a sword instead of an axe, mace or a bow."
Chrysos made up his mind and looked for a blacksmith.
He left the hotel.
...
He packed his stuff and went outside. The city was bustling as usual. People were walking left and right, carriages filled with goods were going to the market to sell their products, and overall the place was very lovely.
Chrysos went to the market first to get some directions.
Ironmountain community market..
Chrysos saw a fisherman unloading wooden boxes of fish from his stall. He approached the man and asked, "Sir, do you know where a blacksmith forge is?"
The man looked at him and said, "You just need to go to Calmoal Street and you'll see a bunch of blacksmith forges, potion shops, jewelry shops, stores that sells magicware, and many more stores like mechanical tool shops run by craftsmen." The fisherman continued on with his work.
"Thank you." Chrysos took out ten silver coins and gave it to the man.
The fisherman shook his hand and rejected the coins. "It's just basic knowledge, you don't have to pay me for it."
"But you still helped me.. Here, take them." Chrysos insisted.
"Well if you insist.." The fisherman pocketed the coins and laughed. "Take care of yourself out there, young man"
"You too." Chrysos replied.
...
Chrysos followed the fisherman's directions and reached Calmoal Street. The sight surprised Chrysos because of how many stores there are.
Gareil Jewelry Shop, Redfox Tail Mining Company, Mage Association's Magic Artifacts Store, etc.
Chrysos looked around for a while and saw a sign saying "Roqius Forge" with an anvil and hammer. Since he saw what he was looking for, he went inside the building without hesitation.
Creak.
When he went inside, he saw a desk and a muscular man sitting behind the desk. When the man saw that he entered the building, he said, "Welcome to our forge, what would you like to buy, good sir?"
"Can I see your swords and armor?" Chrysos asked the muscular man wearing black gloves and boots, and a gray shirt under his leather breastplate.
"Right that way." The man pointed to a bunch of blacksmiths forging weapons and next to them, there was a bunch of shelves filled to the brim with weapons and armor.
Chrysos walked towards the armory and checked the swords first. He wanted a lightweight but durable sword so that he could easily carry it around along with his other stuff.
There were many swords in different shapes and sizes. To distinguish the best sword for him, he used his unique ability, Material Detection.
Shzooom..
A small, golden structure made of Divinious formed as a circle with unique symbols in his right eye.
Scanning the swords, he saw that all of them were made with different kinds of iron with special traits and characteristics. Some had less dense materials used to forge them, some had more rigid formation, and so much more. Using Material Detection, he could discern the good weapons from the bad ones.
However, a sword caught his attention. It has small contents of Dark Blue Alizuite. A type of metal that is harder and stronger than metal. Not only that, it has lighter density than iron and it's also a magical material, meaning it's even easier to use with Divinious techniques and skills.
However, the Alizuite contents are too small and from the naked eye, the sword looks just like normal iron.
But with its magical properties, perhaps Chrysos could turn this iron sword into a pure dark blue sword made of Alizuite.
As an alchemist, he also had experience with rocks and metals. In his memories, he saw that he managed to create infinite iron by using a potion that solidifies and turns into a pure iron chunk. However, the potion is more expensive than mining the iron itself, and the time needed for brewing is too time consuming.
The sword is good in shape, good in length and the grip is comfortable and it doesn't impede his swings and slashes.
So with that all in mind, he took it.
...
Chrysos went looking for armor next.
He looked for armor with the same Alizuite content but he wasn't as lucky so far.
When he couldn't find anything that suited him, he went back to the man at the front desk.
"Ah, did you find something that caught your eye?" The man asked nicely.
"Yep, and I was also wondering, do you guys have armor made of something stronger than iron?" Chrysos asked.
"Yes, but only customers who bought the privilege token can buy our higher quality equipment." The man mentioned the privilege token on purpose to make Chrysos buy it.
"How much is the privilege token?" Chrysos asked with a tone that is neither displeased or happy.
"The cheapest privilege token costs thirty silver coins if you want to buy one. And it costs seventy five silver coins to renew every month. Of course, it depends on what token you'd buy. There's a bronze token, a silver token and a gold token." The man smiled.
"Okay I'll take a silver one." Chrysos took out thirty silver coins and paid the man for the token.
"Wonderful! Now whenever you shop in our forge, you'll be able to buy higher quality equipment to your liking. Now just place your Divinious and the token will be able to recognize it. We made that security feature so that no one can use your token if it's stolen." The man tossed him a silver token with the symbol of the Roqius Forge.
Chrysos controlled his Divinious into the token and it glowed with a faint orange-red color. He then went to the next room where only customers with privilege can enter.
And sure enough, the armor and weapons inside were better quality than those outside.
However, even though the swords he saw were technically better quality than his sword right now, Chrysos was confident that once he refined his weapon into full Alizuite, it's going to be much more powerful.
He then looked for armor and found an armor set that fit his body well enough. Not only that, even though they don't have Alizuite, they have small amounts of Taronite instead.
Taronite is a stronger material than iron, but its molecular structure is so solid that equipment made of Taronite is extremely rare especially for the folk in Ironmountain.
It's very heat resistant and it isn't really a common metal that anyone could find.
So, he took the armor set and paid for it.
...
Chrysos wore his new armor and went out of the forge. He spent a total of forty two silver coins.
Chrysos then bought a lot of Divinious crystals and ingredients for potions. He was planning to refine his new equipment immediately.
If this was the Chrysos before, he wouldn't be skilled or knowledgeable enough to do this. But having knowledge from a modern era gave it's benefits.
Gerald would listen and study chemistry lessons from professional and renowned professors and chemists from all over the world. Back then, he felt that these were useless since he didn't plan to pursue chemistry anyways. But now, he laughed at how much he needed these lessons at this time.
...
He didn't return to the hotel, but instead he went to an alchemy store called "Venesar's Alchemy House" He rented a private room to refine his sword and armor that cost him two gold coins. After all of that was done, he saw a large luxurious room solely dedicated to alchemy. His eyes couldn't help but shine at this magnificent sight. "Alright, now it's time to begin." Chrysos used Material Detection to monitor the metal's states during the refining process.
Chrysos lit up the Rare Tier Cauldron in his room and grabbed a Rare Tier Divinious-III crystal. Divinious crystals are rare and are mostly used as power sources or materials for alchemy, potion making, forging, and many more.
Chrysos mixed his ingredients and successfully brewed the Alizuite refinement recipe that he made.
He dipped his sword into the pot and the sword trembled before a small dark blue spot emerged on the tip of the sword.
Chrysos' eyes brightened. "It's successful!" He rejoiced. Chrysos then put a Divinious crystal and the dark spot slowly spread by a few centimeters. Seeing that it wasn't enough, he put another Divinious crystal.
The Alizuite consumed the iron and converted it into Alizuite again, but it wasn't enough. Chrysos tossed one Divinious crystal after another. Each crystal cost him ten gold coins. He was burning money quickly.
However, he didn't care. He tossed one crystal after another and finally, the sword was fully made out of Alizuite! And when he looked at how much he spent today, it was over a staggering 190 gold coins! He spent 180 gold just on his sword alone!
Chrysos smiled bitterly at this. "Even though it's expensive, it's the only way I know right now that can help me get stronger in a short amount of time." Chrysos sighed.
He then went ahead to process his armor too.
...
Chrysos saw the pale orange armor in front of him made of Taronite. However, the cost wasn't within his expectations. He spent much more Divinious crystals on his armor set and he was only left with 231 gold coins.
"Ahh, well at least I got what I needed.. With my knowledge of modern chemistry and how elements work, I managed to convert iron to Alizuite and Taronite.. The atomic composition of these materials are much more complicated than those on earth because there's an unknown factor involved which is Divinious." Chrysos clicked his tongue.
After packing his stuff, he left the Alchemy House and went towards Ironmountain City Residence Hall to buy a house.
It didn't have to be huge, he just needed a roof over his head.
Chrysos sighed at his current state. "I wish I could earn more money soon.. Being a lone alchemist isn't cheap.."