Midnight, Chrysos' house.
Meiros couldn't believe his ears. Even though he was supposed to be sleeping an hour ago while Chrysos brewed potions in the kitchen, it wasn't the clanking bottles and weak explosions that kept him awake.
It was the information that he just received from his master about atoms, the different states of matter, chemical reactions, and the strange periodic table that he has never heard of before.
At first, he just thought of them as theories that came from Chrysos' own perception, and when Chrysos showed him a simple brewing method, he didn't think much of it.
But when he was the one who did it, it went wrong somehow. But he did exactly what his master did, so how could it go wrong? And when Chrysos explained, he realized that the things his master told him weren't just mere theories. They had evidence backing them up.
They aren't proven, but they are likely true.
This new information gave him a whole new perspective on alchemy. It was just too much to handle for an eighteen year old who never received higher education in his life.
"I didn't know alchemy could be this amazing." Meiros slept with a smile on his face.
...
Tomorrow morning, Iqualius City, Viscount Agarius' Mansion...
Alvira was enjoying her recovery after a few weeks. She couldn't use Divinious when she was still bedridden, so they didn't know what class she had.
But it was revealed that her class was a rogue. She had the unique abilities called Quick Reflexes, Danger Sense, Flexibility, Greater Swiftness, Perfect Eyesight, Intermediate Trajectory Prediction, Weightlessness, Strength Outburst, Superior Blood Circulation, and Increased Regeneration.
A total of 11 unique abilities!
She has been training ever since in her own training hall.
Rienan came inside the huge and spacious room and brought Alvira food. He placed the tray on the table and looked at his sister and asked, "How are you feeling?"
Alvira slashed the air one last time before turning around. "Never been better." Alvira wiped her sweat as she grabbed a pastry on the tray. "So, when am I going to meet Gerald?"
"Not now, the nobles are gathering for the Grand Majorii Ironfist Tournament selection of our city and it will be held two weeks from now. I have to prepare or else we're not going to get a chance to visit the Ironfist Divinious Fountain." Rienan shook his head. "I know how eager you are to meet him, but it has to wait."
Ironmountain and Iqualius City both belong to a Majorii called Majorii Ironfist. A Majorii is a collection of great cities for a reason. Majorii Ironfist is one of the 18 Majoriis under the country Alvizos Norin. And Alvizos Norin is only one of the countries under the continent Supremia Aliqierta.
Taking that context, the scale of the 22 Spirit Continents owned by humans and therefore their territory, combined with the other continents of other races speaks volumes about how massive the Divine Lands truly is.
Those cities with a mark of Major Recognition are only the ones invited to the Grand Majorii Ironfist Tournament. Major Recognition means that the nobility are recognized by the royal ministers or by the noble family of the Majorii through their strength and they are permitted to join the grand tournaments.
Even if a noble who is originally from a city without Major Recognition moves to a city with Major Recognition, since their family crest aren't granted nor recognized by the Major Recognition which is a powerful Divinious marking, they won't be allowed to join the grand tournaments no matter what.
Only those of noble blood are allowed to join in order to limit the contenders for the tournament every six months. However, they can also be people who are affiliated to nobility, but it's rare for nobles to give up their slots for someone who doesn't belong in their family. And not only that, the noble family must entrust their family crest to that person which is even more inconceivable.
Going back to the two siblings, Alvira revealed a displeased expression but she quickly hid it. "I understand."
Rienan sighed. His sister has been in bed for almost her entire life. Of course she was eager to explore and check everything she missed out on.
After Rienan left the training hall, Alvira continued training.
"I wonder what he's doing right now.." Alvira sighed and thought about her saviour.
...
City of Ironmountain.
Chrysos was guiding Meiros on how to brew a basic healing potion.
"Good, now put the leaves inside the extractor and squeeze it to get the essence out." Chrysos reminded Meiros who was busy mixing different ingredients.
Meiros nodded and tossed the purple leaves inside the extractor. A small alchemical apparatus that resembles a microscope back on earth except for the fact that it has multiple strainers and a collection funnel powered by a Divinious-I crystal. It is used by those who doesn't have the "Extraction" unique ability.
He then twisted a small wheel attached to extractor and the leaves were being squeezed very slowly.
After the essence was collected, Meiros grabbed a small bowl and turned on the faucet. The essence from the extractor then went into the small bowl and Meiros continued brewing.
After five minutes, Meiros successfully brewed his first potion.
"Master Gerald, I did it!" Meiros gave Chrysos the small vial with bright red liquid inside.
"Good job." Chrysos opened the vial and put a drop of it on his finger. After examining it for a while by looking at it closely, he was impressed. "It's an Uncommon Rank, High Tier healing potion. Not bad."
After receiving his master's praise, Meiros jumped in happiness. "Yes! I knew I could do it!" Meiros then said, "But master, in your books, why are there a lot of erased words and rewrites?" Meiros grabbed the book and pointed to different areas of the book where it's clearly modified.
"Different elements, different rules. Even though this recipe book that I bought was good, it wasn't great so I modified it with my own perspective. And guess what? Do you think that the brewing process became easier and less complicated?" Chrysos asked Meiros.
"Uhm, it did feel easier than I expected.." Meiros replied after thinking it over. "How did you think about the new recipes by yourself?"
"It takes a lot of knowledge and experience. Believe me, I've been doing this for years and it's not at all surprising." Chrysos yawned to emphasize how much of a cakewalk this was for him. "And I also think that it would be nice if you use your own abilities when you brew potions."
Meiros scratched his head. "How am I supposed to do that?"
"Did you explore the full potential of your abilities?" Chrysos pointed at Meiros' hand that was holding the potion.
"I didn't want to because..." Meiros was about to explain, but Chrysos quickly cut him off.
"Because you think that corrupted Divinious is evil, am I right?" Chrysos crossed his arms.
Meiros was stunned for a while before responding. "But it is.. I'm afraid that the more I use it, I might hurt people.. like you."
Chrysos laughed. "To me, Divinious is an energy that can be drawn out using two different things. Positive and negative emotions. You can use Heroic Divinious by expressing bravery, love, happiness, resolution, valiance, peacefulness and many more. That's the same for Corrupted Divinious.. it's drawn out by expressing anger, sadness, pain, sorrow, loneliness, regret, and any other negative emotion. But why is it that people think that every corrupted Divinious user is evil?"
"Because they allowed themselves to be consumed by evil?" Meiros answered meekly.
"No, the world isn't all happiness and perfection. People feel negative emotions all the time. They also feel helplessness when they encounter something they can't face. When faced against things they have no control, humans wish to become stronger and corrupted Divinious does exactly that for them. For me, Divinious isn't good or evil. It depends on the user."
"And you, are an example of that." Chrysos pointed to Meiros.
Chrysos unsheathed his Alizuite sword. "Like this sword for example, is it evil or good?" Chrysos flipped the sword and grabbed it by the blade, the handle was now facing towards Meiros.
Meiros grabbed the sword and was shocked that it was incredibly light. "It's neither good nor bad.. it depends on who's using it, right?" Meiros gave the sword back to Chrysos.
"Correct." Chrysos took the sword and sheathed it back. "Since you're not a bad guy, why are you afraid of using it?"
"You're right.." Meiros looked around and used his Divinious. His Divinious came from desperation, sadness and pain. All of those years being alone, always on the run, desperate to survive, it was his Divinious.
Using his Divinious, Meiros carried a glass bottle towards him.
"Telekinesis..." Chrysos spoke in his mind.
Meiros grabbed the bottle and smiled. "Thank you.. master."
"For what?" Chrysos smiled under his mask.
"For accepting who I am." Meiros was very grateful to Chrysos. He was the only one who didn't show him disgust because of who he was. Chrysos taught him and helped him understand himself better.
"Then you're welcome. But..." Chrysos stretched his finger out. "Don't use it recklessly outside because even if I'm not discriminating against corrupted Divinious, the others still do."
Meiros laughed. "I understand."
"Great. Now let's move on with another lesson, shall we?" Chrysos clapped his hands together and began teaching him more recipes and guided him the entire time.
Sure, even though Meiros could recall things with perfect accuracy, he still made mistakes despite his fast learning capacity.
And that made Meiros happy. That means alchemy isn't that simple that he could always rely on his powerful mind.
After a long lesson about potion brewing, Meiros ate breakfast with Chrysos.
"Don't eat too quickly, you'll choke on your food." Chrysos grabbed a slice of meat and ate it with potatoes.
"Got it.. Also, what makes the Gray Swamp Moss stick on things?" Meiros asked.
"Oh, I forgot to mention that to you earlier right?" Chrysos drank some water first and said, "Eleptium Ore makes it do that because of a strange reaction I discovered with its composition."
"Oh, I see.." Meiros nodded as he munched on his meal.
"Finish your food, we're going to do quests later." Chrysos finally finished his meal and refilled Meiros' glass.
"Really?? But I have no weapons or armor.." Meiros also finished his meal.
"Don't worry about it. I know a place where we can get some." Chrysos stood up from his seat and walked towards his drawer filled with his weapons and armor.
He took his gear and put on his coat and stuffed his belt with different potions.
Meiros didn't ask any further and followed behind.
They both left the house and was about to go to the guild before Meiros reminded Chrysos to lock the door because he forgot.
Arriving at the adventurer's guild.
Chrysos accepted a quest from the guild and left with Meiros. Chrysos received a map as usual and walked together with his student.
There was some security in one of the city gates, but with Chrysos' identity as a low ranked adventurer, they didn't get caught.
They traveled for a long time until they reached the Nilcrest Forest. A forest known for its numerous monsters and bountiful resources.
Normally, this forest would've been cut down and turned into human territory by now. However, the ecosystem being destroyed would also destroy the resources in the forest. Knowing this, humans left it alone and let adventurers get the resources themselves.
Walking in the forest covered in mist, Meiros could feel a creepy air filling the entire forest.
Meiros looked around the forest and saw that the trail that they were following was getting smaller and smaller.
Pinching Chrysos' sleeve he asked nervously. "Master Gerald, are we going the right way?" He has been walking for three hours now. He was getting skeptical if they were going the right way.
"Yep, we'll be there in about.... now." Chrysos stopped and from afar, Meiros could see the tall trees filled with treehouses and torches everywhere.
"Is that... a greenflesh beast village?" Meiros found these creatures amusing.
"I prefer to call them goblins.." Chrysos said to himself.
"Yep, it is a greenflesh beast village. And remember, these things attack humans because they view anything as a threat. And before you feel sympathy for them, remember that the world isn't kind, you have to be cruel sometimes."
"Can't we spare some of them?" Meiros suggested.
"They'll attack other humans in the future if we do that. Just because a hero is a hero for us, that same hero could be seen as a monster to our enemies." Chrysos sighed. For him, Meiros was still a kid. He didn't have the heart to kill yet.
"I understand." Meiros looked at the lively village with pity.
A golden light flashed in his eyes. Seeing how many goblins he could slaughter, his bloodlust was triggered.
Before Chrysos did anything, he said, "Meiros, try using your abilities here as practice to enhance your skills. And don't get too close. I allow you to kill this time."
"Ahm, got it.." Meiros swallowed his words as he saw Chrysos getting farther away.
Chrysos jumped out of the bushes and ran towards the village to start his attack.
Meanwhile, Meiros used mind control and connected his mind with a goblin that he could see from one of the treehouses.
"Okay, I hope this works…" Meiros shot the purple lightning towards a random spot in the village.
Once the purple lightning hit something, Meiros suddenly found himself in the body of a greenflesh beast equipped with cracked armor and a crudely sharpened iron sword.
He felt resistance coming from the depths of the beast's body. He spent a great deal of concentration and psychic energy just to weaken the consciousness within this body.
After a great deal of effort, he managed to win in the end.
Immersing himself in this unique feeling, he tried to feel this controlled body of his and found it hard to move as if there was something wrong with the joints. It was like a newbie without experience trying to make a stringed puppet move.
He could also feel his human body that was far away and he could even control it.
It's like his consciousness was in two bodies at once. He followed Chrysos' advice to try and develop his abilities more often, and he did what he was told.
"Woah, I can walk with my original body and control this one at the same time?" Meiros moved his greenflesh counterpart and swung the sword a few times while his original body was walking and got the hang of it. But he quickly made his original body sit down because the drain of controlling two bodies at the same time was too much to handle at his stage.
His point of view was split by two but he was somehow comprehending both of them at the same time. But he could feel that his control over his original body was stronger than the bodies he was controlling.
"Okay, so how do I do this?" Meiros saw that there were other greenflesh beasts looking at him strangely.
Meiros took a deep breath and attacked the closest greenflesh beast. He raised his sword and slashed the stomach.
"Rah!!" The greenflesh beast didn't expect that his fellow tribesman would suddenly attack him for no reason.
It retaliated and pushed Meiros back, before swinging its sword to Meiros' neck.
"Woah!" Meiros ducked down and slashed the beast's feet.
The beast was incapacitated and the other beasts attacked Meiros. Of course, he couldn't face this many beasts at once, so this vessel was quickly killed.
Swoosh!
Meiros' focus returned to his original body with cold sweat all over his back. "That was... too scary.." Meiros held his neck and was relieved that it was still there.