Chereads / The Alchemist Of The Divine Lands / Chapter 29 - Destruction From The Inside

Chapter 29 - Destruction From The Inside

Carrying his student in his arms, Chrysos examined Meiros' condition. So far, he was just tired from overexertion and he has no injuries.

However, Chrysos personally wouldn't let that slide.

The thick dust from the explosion cleared up revealing the rhino with steel skin.

Steam came out of its nostrils and it was looking at Chrysos seriously. It knew that he was a threat. The explosion from earlier was like a human receiving a punch on the sternum. It wasn't deadly, but it posed a significant threat.

"You know, I wouldn't let you run away after what you did." Chrysos flicked his arm and casted three freezing arrows towards the rhino.

The rhino roared in a very rough voice.

ROAR!

The rhino charged towards Chrysos. It completely ignored the freezing arrows.

The freezing arrows hit the rhino but it didn't deal too much damage. Well, at least the freezing aftereffect successfully blocked the rhino's eyes, creating spiky frost on its eyes.

After seeing this, Chrysos tightened his left arm that was carrying Meiros and ran towards the forest.

When the rhino shook off the ice that had been previously hindering its vision, Chrysos was already gone.

Hiding in the thick greenery, Chrysos took a healing potion and made Meiros drink it. Meiros still had a bit of consciousness, so he managed to heal himself because of that.

"Master, I almost died." Meiros said with a weak voice.

"Can you defend yourself at the moment?" Chrysos asked.

Meiros closed his eyes and examined himself three times before he responded. "Yes..." Meiros nodded at Chrysos.

"I'm going to kill that rhino. Make sure that you hide here without revealing yourself, alright?" Chrysos said with a serious tone.

"Yes, master." Meiros sat upright and caught his breath.

Chrysos stood up and was about to leave with his sword in his hand when Meiros held his arm.

He turned around and saw Meiros hesitating whether he should say what he had on his mind or just stay silent.

Meiros took a low breath and said with his head down, "I'm sorry for being useless." Meiros apologized in front of Chrysos.

He was still weak after all.

Chrysos' tense expression loosened up.

"It's not your fault." Chrysos sighed to himself and realized that Meiros had a long way to go before he became stronger. And to do just that, he must guide him as his master.

Chrysos also has a responsibility to uphold. And once he realized this, he felt a heavy weight wrap around his body as if it were giant chains that bound him tightly.

"Alright, just stay here and be quiet to not attract any attention. When we get home, I'm going to train you physically instead of teaching you control over Divinious. Is that alright?" Chrysos then used his Divinious to over-refine the moss in his body. Killing them in the process.

The moss turned into dried black dust before falling off his clothes.

Meiros nodded. "I'll do my best, master Gerald." In his mind he swore to become stronger. He also knew that he couldn't always depend on his master whenever he faced danger in his life.

Meanwhile, at the furious rhino…

The rhino shook its head vigorously to get rid of the remaining ice blocking its vision.

It looked around for Chrysos, but it couldn't detect anyone.

It wasn't until it heard bushes rustling from the right. It saw a tall figure slowly come out from the darkness.

Chrysos walked out of the thick shrubbery and sensed the rhino's gray metallic eyes locked on him. It craved for blood, specifically blood from its own enemies.

Suddenly, the rhino charged forward.

ROAR!

Chrysos summoned a magic circle and quickly threw it on his blade, locking it securely. He swung his sword and shot out a wind blade towards the charging rhino. The rhino moved to the left and dodged the arc coming towards it.

Chrysos jumped up, causing the rhino missed its target. Chrysos summoned a stack of blue magic circles on his palm before flicking his arm. Sending ten freezing arrows towards the rhino. Of course, it couldn't dodge all of it, so eight arrows hit the rhino's back.

However, there was no damage as usual because of the rhino's incredibly high defense.

The rhino didn't see Chrysos as a threat anymore. All of Chrysos' attacks didn't even damage it like how it expected. So, the rhino became even more fierce when it came to its attacks.

Chrysos jumped a lot just to dodge the charge attacks. And while he was in the air, he used wind slash to attack the rhino from a safe distance. Chrysos was being careful instead of the reckless fighting style that he used to do.

Fire trails, freezing arrows, and many wind blades all hit the rhino after Chrysos dodged it time and time again.

Everytime it tried to attack him, he would move out of the way and either slash the rhino's eyes and body or shoot an arrow or a wind blade. He stopped using the fire trail to attack since it doesn't do anything except waste his Divinious.

Whenever the rhino gets slashed by Chrysos' Alizuite sword, the rhino's skin would release sparks, leaving white marks on its skin, but no damage.

Chrysos dodged another charge and slashed the eyes of the rhino, but a thick transparent scale was protecting the eyeballs. He didn't even leave a mark.

But despite his useless wave of attacks, Chrysos wasn't feeling down.

Slowly but surely, Chrysos' excess Divinious was covering the rhino because of how many spells the rhino received head on.

This fight continued on for another two minutes...

Roar!

Chrysos leapt in front of the rhino, stepping on its head and avoided another charge. The rhino turned around and madly charged towards Chrysos again.

However, when Chrysos was about to dodge the charge attack, the rhino used a Divinious ability

It was waiting for a moment where Chrysos was letting his guard down.

The rhino's speed increased by twenty times and the charging power increased as well. If this was compared to Rafouri's punch in rage mode, the force would be three and a half times more powerful compared to the punch.

Chrysos sensed the imminent danger approaching.

However, he didn't show any signs of panicking. He knew that the rhino could use Divinious for a while now. He used the crimson elephant's ability to see Divinious, so he knew that the elephant's ability was speed and strength enhancement.

The rhino was about to hit Chrysos, but he just tilted his body to the right and the rhino just ran past him.

The rhino slammed on many trees before stopping.

The rhino was so confused on why it even missed. It knew that the charge attack it unleashed was fast and should've caught the human off guard.

It turned around and looked at Chrysos. But when it did, the rhino felt that something was terribly wrong.

Chrysos laughed at the rhino who was eying him with caution. It didn't dare to be reckless as it was before.

"What? confused about how you missed?" Chrysos pointed his sword at the rhino. "I wouldn't bother explaining since you wouldn't understand me."

So, what exactly happened?

What Chrysos did earlier was to bombard the rhino with spells because each spell that hits anything will leave residual Divinious.

Chrysos used the excess Divinious that accumulated in the rhino's body to cast his last and most unassuming spell.

"Farsight."

The magic circle of the Farsight spell doesn't have to work by being on the user's eyes. It was just recommended that it should be. Therefore, it was a dynamic magic circle.

Knowing this fact about the Farsight spell, Chrysos snuck a weak Farsight magic circle on the rhino's eyes. And gradually activated it to mess with the rhino's vision. Of course, a magic circle cannot exist without a source of Divinious.

That was the reason why Chrysos kept attacking the rhino even though his spells didn't really do anything. It was to provide the magic circle with a steady supply of Divinious energy.

Going back to the fight…

Chrysos took a Divinious recovery potion and emptied the vial.

The rhino shook its head and roared. It began charging towards Chrysos once more. It made up its mind.

"No more, this has to stop." Chrysos controlled the magic circle on the rhino's eyes and maximized the magnification!

Now, the rhino was as good as blind. Rhinos from earth are also blind, but creatures in the Divine Lands are just better and different. In fact, it doesn't even look like a standard rhino at all. If it weren't for the translation issues between the Aliqiertan language and English, the true name of the rhino would be Bleeding Steel Horned Beast.

It was because of the appearance of Albert Tesla and Nikola Einstein that the namings became different. They even helped with the measurement system and developed Divinious technology and implemented things from earth to use as 'inspiration.'

But from Chrysos' point of view, they weren't that knowledgeable in terms of practical machinery and medicine. They appeared to be two people who managed to climb up the ranks and influence all 20 Great Divine Empires.

Putting Chrysos' displeasure towards the two reincarntor's luck aside for now, the rhino roared and attacked randomly. It even charged at random places.

It couldn't use Chrysos' scent to track him because Chrysos still had the scent masking potion from earlier.

This opportunity was gold.

Chrysos summoned and attached a wind magic circle and swung his sword at the rhino. He also opened a bottle of Inferno Mist and shot nine windblades of the orange gas.

When they hit the mindless raging rhino, the orange fog spread out.

Chrysos ran away from the rhino and approached a safe distance before he flicked his palm open, revealing the Fire Trail magic circle, igniting the Inferno Mist from a safe distance.

BOOM!

Bright white light filled the area. The ear splitting sound of the explosion reached a large raidus which even caused Chrysos to cover his ears tightly.

The rhino fell down from the explosion's impact.

It tried to stand up with shaking legs but it suddenly opened its mouth.

"Kah!" The rhino coughed out blood. This time, it was the real deal.

The rhino's nostrils were leaking out blood. From this, Chrysos knew that the explosion didn't really do much damage to the rhino's skin, but it did damage the organs inside.

Chrysos shot out more windblades filled with the Inferno Mist and detonated the fog using Fire Trail. An explosion after another roared loudly in the forest. The birds flew away in fear and the nearby creatures ran away for their lives.

After the fifteenth explosion, the rhino's brain was too shaken from the impact that it turned into mush.

Because of this, the rhino was finally dead.

"Yes!" Chrysos raised his arms with a victorious shout. He managed to kill the rhino! Now, he could receive 50 silver coins for killing a dangerous beast and getting rid of its dangers, and a bonus was that he could turn his muscular composition into that of the rhino by brewing its body into a Potion of Evolution.

None of his strikes dealt any damage to the rhino, this was a testament to the rhino's powerful defense, of course he's happy that he's going to receive such an upgrade. He just needs to remember that he isn't invincible since his organs are still vulnerable.

The rhino's skin is strong, but when it dies, the durability will drastically drop. Because it needs Divinious to keep it strong. Normally, the rhino would be damaged by Chrysos if it wasn't using its superior skin hardening ability.

But since it was using a Divinious enhancement ability, when the rhino dies, the durability drops as well.

Even though that's the case, the rhino is more durable than the Crimson Elephant by a considerable margin even without its ability to toughen its own skin.

Knowing this, Chrysos took the corpse of the rhino and chopped it into pieces. He took a huge sack from his backpack to carry the rhino's body parts.

He then used a scent masking potion to hide the bloody scent of the rhino. He didn't want anything to attack him and Meiros as they went home.

Chrysos took a rope and tied the huge sack filled with dismembered rhino parts to his back.

"Using a sword as a butcher's knife isn't as efficient as I first thought it would." Chrysos' expectations were crushed once again by the reality of this world.

Chrysos went back to Meiros' hiding spot and found him meditating.

"Hey, I'm back." Chrysos patted Meiros' shoulder lightly.

"Ah? Master?" Meiros turned around and saw Chrysos with a huge bloody sack behind him. "You killed it?"

"Ah, no it's still alive.." Chrysos said sarcastically. "Oh, of course it's dead, why wouldn't it be?" Chrysos tapped his own forehead as he gestured exaggeratedly.

"I was just asking.." Meiros replied with a click of his tongue.

Ignoring his student's displeasure towards his sarcastic reply, Chrysos gave him another Weightlessness Potion and said, "Alright, drink this to decrease your weight because we'll be heading back now." Chrysos laughed at Meiros' expression.

"Wait wait wait, I'm still not used to-!!" Meiros shook his head vigorously.

Chrysos carried Meiros and ran as fast as he could before Meiros could finish his sentence.

Two hours later...

The two of them arrived at Ironmountain.

Chrysos gently dropped Meiros on the ground.

Surprisingly, Meiros didn't feel as shaky as he used to during the first one. Maybe after experiencing it once, he is slightly used to it now. But he still wouldn't be willing to go through that if given the choice.

"Are you feeling alright?" Chrysos turned to look at Meiros.

"Never been better." Meiros said as he took deep breaths.

"Good, let's go now." Chrysos gestured with his hand for Meiros to follow him.

Meiros calmed his mind down and followed Chrysos from behind.

As they walked, many people looked at Chrysos' bloody sack.

After all, it was large and many people assume a lot of things.

Knowing this, Chrysos wasn't having it he snapped and said with an underlying anger in his tone, "What are you looking at?" Chrysos turned to one of the people looking at him.

The man behind him was surprised before he scurried away in fear.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Chrysos laughed in his mind.

He went through an inspection check on his way, and after noticing that nothing was wrong, he was allowed to enter the city.

After getting back home and knowing that he acquired a valuable ingredient to increase his strength, Chrysos finally got a chance to brew the potion.

Meiros on the other hand, was training to use his sword.

Listening to the quiet atmosphere in his house, Chrysos took a deep breath.

"Ah, finally.. peace and quiet." Chrysos rubbed his hands together and got to work with the steel rhino's flesh and bones. The reward from the adventurer's guild can wait.

Chrysos took his time and started carefully.

He extracted the Red Poison Vine Snake Scales as usual and mixed it with the Golden Tongued Lizard's Tears and the mixture sizzled.

He put the crushed rare tier spirit ore into the mix and it sizzled even more violently. The Blazing Layered Herb came next and the "hellfire" appeared as usual.

After blending it together, he added an extra ingredient. A refined liquid from the petal of the Purple Loopthorn Rose.

The hypertraining fluid became much more potent because of this.

He then put the hypertraining fluid into a wooden barrel full of the rhino's muscle potion that he brewed prior to the hypertraining fluid. The contents of the entire barrel was quickly consumed by the fluid and Chrysos was left with 5% of the potion's mass from earlier.

He poured the muscle hardening potion from the barrel into a bowl.

Before Chrysos drank the potion, he grabbed a small bottle filled with the numbing gel of the numbing frog and the Qilsio snake's venom mixed with other ingredients. It was a small bottle filled with crystal clear blue liquid.

He then removed his mask and his coat because the weather was quite humid. His refined and chiseled muscles came into view.

Chrysos brewed this powerful blue numbing substance just for the rhino's Potion of Evolution. Last time, the numbing frog's gel wasn't enough to numb the pain enough. He wasn't going to let that happen again, so he had to take precautions this time around.

Chrysos drank the numbing substance and quickly drank the new and improved Potion of Evolution in order not to be suddenly paralyzed before he got to drink his chance to evolve further.

He calmly sat on his chair and waited for the pain from his skin and muscles being reformed to arrive.

His flesh and veins started to writhe under his skin. They looked like snakes trying to dig out of his body. He felt a little stinging pain, but that was it.

But as his muscle fibers and veins continue to shift in terrifying ways, clear blue liquid with the consistency of water came out of his eyes, mouth, nose and ears.

It was the potion that used to numb the pain from his body.

Now that it was gone, the pain suddenly attacked his nerves like he was being sawed into shreds, pulled into his limits, sliced and chopped multiple times, pricked by large needles and being compressed all at the same time. What's worse it that Chrysos could perceive and feel the pain all at the same time.

His previously golden eyes turned bloodshot red, red sweat covered his body, making him look like a bloody mess.

Chrysos fell from his chair and moved his arms and legs erratically from the floor as if he was being electrocuted.

"GAHH!" Chrysos screamed in agony as his vocal cords felt like it was being peeled off over and over again.

He fidgeted randomly at the ground and the pain wasn't going away. All that Chrysos could think of was to stay sane.

He scratched the wooden floor and his jaw was tightly clenched.

From his blurry vision, he could see Meiros coming over to check on him. Chrysos couldn't hear him, but he knew that Meiros was trying to help.

When he felt that he was about to go insane from the pain, he felt it dissipate in an instant. His body felt relieved all of a sudden. But the pain was still there, just weakened.

"What…?" Chrysos could now hear Meiros' voice.

"Master! Master! What's going on with you?" Meiros saw Chrysos' body shift in grotesque ways. His body looked like it wasn't human anymore.

Knowing that the pain suppression is limited, Chrysos used his remaining sanity to speak. "Meiros, brew a numbing potion! Use the- GAHH!! Use the numbing frog's gel! Use the Qilsio snake venom! B- Bottom right corner of that… that shelf!" Chrysos moved his gloved finger with difficulty and pointed towards a specific shelf in the corner.

"T- there's a recipe in my backpack, grab the one titled… Urghh…" Chrysos spat out blood on the floor as he spoke, further intensifying the fear that gripped Meiros' heart.

"Numbing essence! Don't add the last-! GAHAHHHH!" Chrysos spoke with great difficulty.

Meiros acted fast and knew that time is something that he doesn't have plenty of.

Flicking his hand, he used telekinesis and took the numbing frog and the jar filed with snake venom. Purple energy pulled the ingredients from the shelves and put them on the table.

He then used his unique ability, "Fast Thinking" which made his time perception extremely slow. Everything around him moved like they were submerged in tar. He turned around and reached his arm out where the backpack is located.

His telekinetic energy opened Chrysos backpack hanged on a rack. He opened it and grabbed a small book titled, "Recipes."

He used Farsight in slow motion and flipped through the recipe book as he scanned through it. Once he did so in just a few milliseconds, he spotted a page titled in red ink, "Numbing Essence."

He increased his Divinious output and quickly memorized it.

After he finished reading the entire page, he leapt to the kitchen in the fastest way possible according to his mind's calculations. He then used telekinesis to grab all the ingredients and tools he needed to brew it.

He grabbed, Rocktree Bark, Pearlstinger Fish Eyes, Sutoan Cow Milk, Qilsio Snake Venom, Numbing Frog Gel, Glue Mushrooms and Crushed Lake Crocodile Teeth. Excluding the last ingredient which is Yellow Bubblefish Oil

Meiros grabbed an extractor, a strainer, a spoon and bowl, mortar and pestle, and a syringe dipped in green cleansing oil.

He multitasked and extracted the Rocktree Bark, he crushed the Lake Crocodile Teeth using the mortal and pestle, mixed the cow milk, snake venom and frog gel and left the Pearlstinger Fish Eyes alone.

Once he got the gray sludge from the tree bark, he used telekinesis and grabbed it and placed it on the bowl. He added the crocodile teeth and scattered it evenly. He mixed it quickly and added the fish eyes lastly.

However, it would take long for the potion to form. To solve this, Meiros used the alchemy technique his master told him.

The Heat Quickening Method.

He used Firesmoke leaves and dumped it into the mixture, furiously heating it up. He didn't slack and used as much psychic energy he could muster to blend the mixture so fast in under five seconds. He used telekinesis to pour the mixture into the syringe. Making it look like it came alive and decided to enter the syringe.

Once it was filled, he sealed the syringe and threw the syringe on Chrysos' arm like a throwing knife and used telekinesis to push the essence into Chrysos' body.

All of that only took 25 seconds.

Chrysos felt a wave of relief wash over him. He was exhausted from the pain, and he could hold on any longer.

He fell asleep.