Chrysos' residence…
Chrysos was trying to help Meiros learn how to use heroic Divinious, by teaching him scraps of information he got from the original Chrysos' memories.
However, it seemed like he was too optimistic. How could it be easy to switch Divinious affinity? If that was the case, many corrupted ones would've been able to disguise themselves and sneak into cities, majoriis and even migrate to other countries or continents.
But then again, as for migration between continents, that is a difficult course of action for anyone.
Sitting on the floor, Chrysos guided Meiros to circulate his Divinious around his body as he thought of positive memories to evoke heroic Divinious.
Circulating Divinious is a very magical feeling. It feels like you're controlling trillions and trillions and trillions of individual particles of extremely small matter that you can individually perceive what each of the particles are doing in great detail, and at the same time, extremely blurry.
Meiros thought of positive memories to create positive emotions and tried to condense them into Divinious.
But this attempt turned into another failure. His Divinious Heart being a corrupted Divinious source was damaged after it tried making heroic Divinious which even managed to cause minor damage to Meiros.
After feeling the uncomfortable pain of needles pricking his heart and throat, Meiros coughed and exhaled. "Ah, it's another failure."
Chrysos sighed. "If only there was a way to change your Divinious easily, we wouldn't be stuck without a solution."
Meiros remembered something that Chrysos mentioned to him once.
"Master, you have corruption reversal potions right?" Meiros snapped his fingers in realization. This could be a solution.
Chrysos hit him in the head. "Are you insane? For starters, you don't have incompatible Divinious related sickness. And second of all, this will reverse the negative Divinious in your Divinious Heart into positive Divinious. But your Divinious reserves will still continue making corrupted Divinious and attack the heroic Divinious, causing a hell of a battle in your own body. It's painful enough in small amounts, but on a large scale? You're just committing suicide at that point." Chrysos sighed after explaining the dangers of corruption reversal to Meiros.
Chrysos also stopped using the word 'Divinious' for a moment since it felt like a fake word after repeatedly using it in a sentence.
"So it's literally poison for me?" Meiros gulped in fear. The bottle of corruption reversal that he looked at earlier didn't look like a savior to him anymore. Now, it looked like a bottle of poison that would kill him slowly and painfully.
"Nghh.." Meiros shivered at the thought.
Chrysos clapped his hands together to get his attention back. "Alright, I'll go to the market and sell potions now. What do you want me to get you when I get home?"
"Uhh... nothing." Meiros said after thinking for a while.
"How about food? Surely you want something, right?" Chrysos really wanted to give Meiros something nice.
"Hmm, how about a smoothie?" Meiros personally liked the flavor of mango.
"Sure, I'll make some when I get home." Chrysos packed his vials full of potions.
Thinking of smoothies, Meiros couldn't help but wonder..
"Master, when are we going to sell smoothies again? I had fun selling them." Meiros asked as he sat down on a chair.
"I'm planning to sell the recipe to a company.. I really can't be bothered to keep selling them." Chrysos opened the door and stepped out of the house. "Alright, make sure to lock the doors and don't let anyone but me inside."
"Got it." Meiros locked the door when Chrysos left.
It was a simple routine. Arrive at the market, sell stuff, buy stuff, and leave.
When Chrysos arrived at the market, many adventurers who recognized him immediately came over.
"Ah, it's the alchemist!" An adventurer approached him and said, "Do you have uncommon strength potions?"
"Hey, I would also like to buy something. Do you have Dark Sight potions? The more the better, my team is going on an expedition." An adventurer with a large sword in his back asked.
"Mr. Alchemist, are you going to sell smoothies again?" A female awakened one asked.
"Yeah, those were so good."
The amount of people that flocked to Chrysos made him feel like he was back on earth as a famous celebrity. Of course, he had to calm the people down so that he'll be able to tend to them easier.
"I apologize, but I won't be selling smoothies again." The moment these words came out of Chrysos' mouth, the crowd couldn't help but get disappointed.
"But, I intend to sell the recipe to a food company here in Ironmountain. I can't support too many orders from people, so it would be better if I sold it to someone who can."
This piece of news made the crowd excited.
When they finally got their answer, the people who would like to buy potions from Chrysos lined up and waited for their turn. Since Chrysos doesn't raise the prices too much, the potions that the adventurers bought were high quality and cheap for their income.
This good deal from Chrysos was the reason why many adventurers lined up early in the morning every time Chrysos sold potions on the ninth day of the week. Yes, because of the Divine Lands having an incredibly large size, they have 11 days in a week and 21 months in a year.
Ensolles, Hielyisess, Sachtnores, Onant, Rohce, Mehklim, Iastin, Tidhre, Opisacht, Scetin, Sirua, Entuirin, Cadijes, Irmunt, Rovyiehar, Ifuenhte, Mopehtel, Ailiu, Stamtehrte, Deosgossa, and the last month, Divinterus.
And the eleven days are called Hefith, and depending on the day, for example, the tenth day, humans in the Divine Lands say Hefith Altath, which translates to "day ten" in Aliqiertan. It is also worth noting that there's language differences in each of the continents.
The numbers from one to ten in Aliqiertan are called Al, Eif, Ath, Othal, Lenra, Gept, Yual, Apeth, Fiun, and Altath. To say anything from eleven above, they say Al Altath for eleven, Eif Altath for twelve and so on. For numbers, like twenty or thirty though, they say Eifef and Athef. They add the "-ef" in the end to signify the 20's, 30's, 40's and so forth. Zero is called Ingel
If it has a number in the end though, like 42 and 57, it will be called Eif Othalef and Yual Lenref. Obviously, 100 is Altathef.
Moving on from learning how to count in Aliqiertan…
Chrysos eagerly sold his potions to his customers. He recommended them different potions, explained their effects, and sold them to the people who sought them.
It only took Chrysos an hour to sell all of his potions.
After this, he went to the adventurer's guild to take a quest. The quest was an intermediate quest with a reward of 90 silver coins to kill five thousand Earthshelled Underground Hornets.
They are invasive species that destroy trees and kill animals for food. They are extremely violent as well.
Before the hornet nest grows any further, the adventurer's guild wants them all dead.
Even though Ironmountain is human territory, the farther towns and villages are from cities, naturally it would be more dangerous because monsters would lurk there more often.
Chrysos could buy a mount, but it costs 1000 gold coins just for it to be effective enough for battle and lengthy transportations. But of course, Chrysos wouldn't settle for a mount that costs 1000 gold coins. He wanted a good quality mount that he could actually depend on.
But since he's still poor compared to the nobles, he had to stick to running at incredible speeds. It's effective, but Chrysos doesn't like running for hours just to get from one destination to another. He gets tired, or in more truthful terms, lazy if the quest is too far from Ironmountain.
But wouldn't it be good if he ran? The exercise would be beneficial. Well, Chrysos has the unorthodox hypertraining fluids and Potions of Evolution that were unheard of in the Divine Lands. Of course he wouldn't need exercise for extra strength, but he would need it to maintain his current state.
He actually found it funny and thought to himself, "Technically, I am not human anymore, can I classify as another race then?" Chrysos didn't know what to call himself now.
But of course, he was still human. It was just that his body was copying features from other creatures to strengthen itself.
As Chrysos walked, he couldn't help but think that despite being in a world where other intelligent creatures exist, he never saw one before. Ever since he woke up in this world, he never encountered any other intelligent species at all.
But sadly, the only times a human would see an intelligent non-human race would be in slave shops where they will get bought by wealthy individuals. Or if the times are chaotic, they could see some in war.
Chrysos wasn't going to wait for a war and just stand there like a statue, so he went back home and saw that Meiros was practicing with his iron sword.
Opening the door, Chrysos praised his student's perseverance. "You've been busy while I'm gone, that's impressive." Chrysos liked how hardworking Meiros was. He didn't know if it was normal for people in the Divine Lands to be so hardworking, or if he was too lazy back on earth. Either way, he liked this kind of attitude.
"I had nothing else to do except feed the mushroom pig and train." Meiros said as he swung his sword.
"Mushroom pig? Oh, the pig! I almost forgot about that guy." Chrysos remembered that he bought a pig that can grow mushrooms on its back when he was making smoothies a while ago.
"Let it stay here. It does nothing but sleep all day." Chrysos laughed. There was no harm in letting it live with them.
"What should we name it?" Meiros asked while practicing a parrying stance with his sword.
"Call it however you'd like." Chrysos waved his hand as a gesture that he wasn't interested.
"I'll call it Vaf." Meiros thought of a normal pet name.
"Sure, I like that. Now come on, we have a quest to do." Chrysos took some potions and placed the vials and small bottles in his belt.
"Alright." Meiros wiped the sweat off his face and he donned his armor.
The master and student went on their way to finish the quest.
Outside…
Meiros has been with Chrysos for more than two months now. And since then, he has been using his Divinious more and he even practiced using it to the best of his abilities.
He didn't use his Divinious in public and Chrysos always told him to stay low profile when they're outside so that he wouldn't look too suspicious when they're outside.
After all, if anyone finds out that Chrysos has been keeping a corrupted one with him, he'll be heavily implicated. And worse, possibly executed for treason.
Chrysos has heard of a device that heroic awakened ones use to sneak in organizations of corrupted ones. It disguises their Divinious from heroic to corrupted. If he could get his hands on one of those devices, he could give it to Meiros so that he wouldn't be seen as a threat anymore.
That device is called the Divinious Clouding Cloak. And it costs a staggering 6000 gold coins.
Chrysos could only look at it from afar. But soon, he hoped that he could get it one day. Chrysos wanted to get it one day and surprise Meiros. But for now, he had to focus on the quest.
It took one hour of running, but they made it in the end.
Meiros experienced being carried at high speeds once again. This time, he felt completely fine and wasn't bothered at all unlike the previous experiences that he had.
Chrysos was impressed with a psychic's mental adaptability. If it was a normal human, they would've been traumatized and would have to recover for weeks or months if it's severe.
"Alright, this quest is very easy if you know how to exploit it." Chrysos took out five ingredients and basic alchemy equipment. "I have a test for you. From what you've learned, what can you make with these that will kill the hornets quickly?"
"Uhhh... Except for Fragrant Scented Oils I honestly have no idea." Meiros recognized the special characteristics of the ingredients. "How are scented oils going to help me kill them?"
"Think smart, not hard." Chrysos took a sheet of sheepskin and laid it on the ground. "Sit there.. Alright, what do you know about hornets?"
Scratching his head, Meiros answered, "Aggressive?" Meiros couldn't think of a good answer.
"Okay, since that's the only thing you know from them, I'll lecture you while you're brewing that chemical." Chrysos gestured to the ingredients and the alchemy tools.
Meiros got the signal and began working on the substance.
"Earthshelled Underground Hornets are colony type insects that follow commands from a queen hornet. They know what task to follow from birth because of pheromones that the queen hornet assigned them the moment they were born."
"There are different smells for each pheromone. They have a very good sense of smell, so when they sniff what kind of pheromone is on them, they'll know if they are a worker type that gathers food for the colony, a breeder type that inseminates the eggs of the queen for more hornets to be born, a digger type that digs tunnels for more space in the colony, or a soldier type that is assigned to protect the colony from threats."
"Since they smell their fellow hornets, they have unique pheromones that work as an identification of some sort for the hornets. So, even if a similar looking hornet came from a distant colony, they can identify it as a threat because of the hornet's smell. That's how their pheromones work. So, why are the Scented Oils important?" Chrysos asked Meiros as he brewed the chemical.
"Uhh, it will confuse them, right?." Meiros was mixing two different mixtures before refining the last ingredient.
"Almost correct. It will strip out their pheromones and they will smell like a different hornet. Basically, since they no longer smell like a fellow hornet of the colony, they will start killing and attacking each other." Chrysos laughed with a proud smile. "That's how powerful alchemy is."
As Chrysos finished his explanation, Meiros was also done with the chemical. "Okay, I'm done. Now what? Just pour it in the hole of the colony?"
"Yes, be careful and don't step too rashly, they'll detect the vibrations of your footsteps if you step near the colony." Chrysos warned Meiros before he poured the contents of the bottle.
"Rest assured master, I'll get it done." Meiros grabbed the bottle and slowly walked towards the hornet nest's entrance.
Step by step, he gently placed his foot in order to create as little vibration as possible. He didn't want to alert the hornets because they are three inches long. No one would want to get attacked by that many hornets that size. Not only that, they can all use Divinious.
After a few more steps, he was at the entrance of the nest. He slowly poured the chemicals in and then walked back to Chrysos slowly.
"Did I do it right?" Meiros looked at Chrysos with an expectant look.
"Yep, you brewed it correctly. Well done." Chrysos clapped his hands three times. "Now let's wait until these guys are finally done killing each other." Chrysos sat down.
"Okay." Meiros watched the colony's entrance and saw it vibrate slightly. He knew that his master's analysis was correct.
"Alchemy is indeed powerful..." Meiros thought to himself as he watched the entire colony massacre each other.
"By the way…" Chrysos suddenly spoke.
Turning his head, Meiros listened for what his master wanted to say.
"There's a reason why I only bought ingredients instead of buying the oils themselves. Can you guess what that reason is?" Chrysos looked at Meiros as he grabbed the empty vial of the scented oil that Meiros brewed.
Meiros already knew. "You wanted me to learn, so you tested my skills. Isn't that right?"
"Nope, buying the ingredients was cheaper." Chrysos laughed. "Soon, you'll know the importance of proper expenditures."
Meiros chuckled seeing his master laugh at his own joke. He muttered to himself. "Cheapskate.."