The next day, early in the morning at Chrysos' House…
Chrysos stretched his body after getting out of the bed. Meiros was still asleep and was currently breaking apart the principles of the different sword striking techniques that he saw from the corrupted swordsman back then, and studying them one by one.
Chrysos didn't disturb Meiros. He went straight for the sink to wash his face and to brush his teeth. Opening the faucet, he scooped up the water using both of his hands, his golden fingers were surprisingly good at keeping water from leaking from his hands.
After that, he flipped open a cabinet and took a piece of bread and a bottle of cheese. He sat down on the table, broke apart the piece of bread using his fingers and used a spoon to evenly spread the cheese before eating it.
Once he ate something to provide him some energy, he put on his gas mask and tightly sealed it on his face by activating the locks on the back. He had to tie his hair in order to fit the mask perfectly.
He went to the shed, grabbed his ingredients, materials and alchemy equipment to begin brewing.
Taking the meat and bones of an Irontoothed Bear, he took the sack and placed it on the wide table. Chrysos opened the book titled, "Useless and Dangerous Potion Recipes."
It was a recipe book that he found when he still lived back in the old cabin deep in the woods. He cleaned up the entire cabin and happened to find this book in the garbage pile. At first, Gerald didn't see it as important at all. But when he started making the Potions of Evolution, this book became one of his most important reference material.
Quickly flipping the book open, flipping through it, he stopped at page 14, there was a recipe titled, "Bone Nourishment Convergence Pill." Chrysos didn't stop researching the Potions of Evolution despite making huge breakthroughs. He kept studying and improving it even further.
This day was just one of the days where he researched the potion even more.
He began brewing the hypertraining fluids as usual. It was the same brewing procedure with the same ingredients. And of course, the same bowl spewing out a bright steady burst of flames. He also used parts of the bear's bones to make it.
But this time, he was going to add something else into the mix.
The reason why he had the recipe for the Bone Nourishment Convergence Pill, or for the sake of shortening, will be called, Bone NC Pill.
The Bone NC Pill's fatal flaw was that in the recipe, it was meant to be paired with another pill called, Bone Nourishment Pill. The Bone Nourishment Pill, like in the name, nourishes the consumer's bones by using the characteristics of the main ingredient which is the tough, nutrient rich skeleton of a Bladedbone Sharpbeak. A powerful bird with a large wingspan, gray feathers for its head, brown feathers for its wings and legs, and gray for the rest of the body.
And once one has consumed many of these Nourishment Pills, it leaves a lot of excess nourishing properties. But by using the Bone NC Pill, it will bring all of those nourishing properties scattered all over the consumer's skeleton.
But the bad thing was that, even though it does converge all of the nourishing properties together, it only attracts them together, it does not bind them to the skeleton which in turn, creates protrusions and bumps made of bones on the consumer's body. And in some cases, death wasn't out of the question.
And because the past Chrysos didn't have a way to fix this, the pill was scrapped altogether.
Gerald on the other hand, had a way to fix this. And that was by using the Potions of Evolution. It evenly distributes the genetic material all over the body which solves the problem altogether.
Chrysos took the skeleton of the Irontoothed Bear and began making Bone Nourishment Pills and the Bone NC Pill. He crushed the large skeleton of the bear by using his fists. Yes, by punching the sack, crushing the skeleton into small fingertip sized pieces.
After bashing the sack with violence, he used 35 grams of Eplitine Herbs, a plant with dried, crispy looking leaves that are rich with thick oils that are rich with rejuvenating properties for bones. Chrysos also took 15 grams of Ploate Herbs, and 11 drops of refined Blood Sap Mushrooms.
Chrysos made two batches of these.
Chrysos extracted the Eplitine Herbs, drawing out their oils and placing them on a bowl. He chopped up the Ploate Herbs into a bunch of small bits. Next, he used the Blood Sap Mushrooms and refined it multiple times until the mushroom became glossier and even redder.
He extracted it and put the mixture into a bowl. Chrysos took a bunch of the bear's bones and blended it, refined it and blended it again until it had a jelly-like consistency. He added it into the bowl and blended it.
Seeing the sticky mixture of herbs and bone blend into itself, Chrysos watched it with interest. He waited for 4 minutes until the mixture became firm enough to roll into finger sized pills.
In the other batch of the pill, Chrysos added 4 ounces of Brittlestar Extract, 3 ounces of refined Sweet Orbfruit Juice and a cup of liquid Divinious. He added all the ingredients and blended them altogether. After finishing this, he used it for the hypertraining fluid.
He left the bowls of the pill mixture alone and opened a cabinet under the desk, revealing a brown alchemy rat with large, defined muscles.
The rat looked very healthy and vigorous, it didn't even resemble a rat anymore because of how bulky it looked. These rats are called alchemy rats because alchemical awakened ones use them for their similar physiology with humans to test potions. Chrysos was no exception.
He took a generous amount of the Bone Nourishment Pill and fed it to the rat. The rat nibbled on the mixture and ate it all. After consuming so many Potions of Evolution from Chrysos, the rat wasn't too concerned about what it's being fed.
Watching the rat for a while, it didn't show any signs of negative side effects. He could tell because it wasn't squealing in pain or showing any signs of discomfort.
Seeing this, he proceeded to feed it the hypertraining fluid mixed with the Bone Nourishment Convergence Pill. He took a small drop and fed it to the rat using his finger. The rat sipped the potion clean, completely drinking it not too long after.
Chrysos watched the rat react. It began to feel the comfortable feeling within its body and eventually slept.
Chrysos' eyes gleamed.
"It seems that it worked…" Gerald wasn't really believing it at first. However, the instincts that belonged to Chrysos, did.
Chrysos decided to inspect it even further.
Driving out a large amount of Divinious from his Divinious Heart, he touched the rat's head and began to inspect its body by feeling the internal organs, bones, nerves, and even the body temperature.
Sadly, as someone from the alchemist Divine Path, Chrysos didn't have powerful detection methods just by using Divinious. Other Divine Paths had the ability to release their Divinious around them to predict incoming attacks and react to them accordingly.
Scanning the rat's entirety, Chrysos didn't find anything wrong. In fact, he saw that the rat was improving in terms of physical strength.
Chrysos was pleasantly surprised. He didn't expect for this casual experiment to yield great results.
He looked at the pill mixture and decided to eat some of it. His goal of strengthening the bones succeeded. Although the Potions of Evolution changes the body dramatically in terms of the flesh, organs and Divinious usage, he soon noticed that the hypertraining fluids weren't able to reach and affect the bones that much. So, this was a problem that he had to solve, especially since his strength was still low to begin with. If he had to strengthen his bones if he already reached a high level, it would be a great hassle and a waste of time.
"Honestly, Chrysos was on the right track. He just didn't have the right ingredient that could negate the pill's negative side effect. I don't know if it's just me, but I somehow feel that he would be happy if he saw this." Gerald sighed. He couldn't figure out how he should go when it comes to the body he was currently occupying.
After eating the pill mixture, he drank the new and improved hypertraining fluids that improved his flesh, and bones.
After that, he slept lazily on a chair.
And at the same moment he slept, Meiros just woke up and went to wash himself in the sink. He brushed his teeth and went to the living room to see Chrysos asleep.
Meiros' first instinct was to see if his master was alright. He walked up to the sleeping Meiros to check on him, only to hear him snoring as he approached.
"Ah, so the master is just sleeping.." Meiros went to the shed. Completely used to Chrysos sleeping after drinking a special potion. And to be honest, Meiros was curious what that potion is.
"No, no, if master Gerald isn't telling you what it is, it's probably something that I shouldn't learn about yet." Meiros threw those thoughts off his head.
Suddenly, as Meiros stood in the living room, he heard a clattering sound coming from the shed.
That wasn't normal.
Meiros' eyebrows began to knit together. He slowly made his way to shed, careful not to make any sound just in case.
And when he got inside the shed, he saw used equipment and ingredients still laying around. However, the clattering sound could still be heard from a cabinet down on his feet.
Meiros crouched down and opened the cabinet. What he saw was a brown, muscular rat chewing on the metal cage. And terrifyingly enough, it was actually managing to destroy the cage bit by bit.
"What the hell?" Meiros said, imitating his master's speech whenever Chrysos saw something really strange.
The rat squeaked and tried to bite even harder.
Meiros sighed. He opened his palm, activating his unique ability, "Mind Connection" and shot an invisible psychic link with him and the rat.
Suddenly, he could understand the rat and the rat could understand him without any obstructions.
"Look, if my master finds you trying to get out, even I wouldn't know how you would end up. Please make things easier for us and yourself and stop doing that." Meiros relayed the meaning of his thoughts through the connection.
The rat got the message and began to calm down. It stopped biting the cage open.
"Good." Meiros closed the cabinet and went to the kitchen.
He cooked breakfast using eggs and some beef as he waited for Chrysos to wake up.
An hour later…
In the stables, Chrysos, fully awake now, was wearing his armor and approached Ralfor who was soundly sleeping on a pile of hay.
"Hey Ralfor, time for a quest." Chrysos tapped on the gate, waking him up.
Ralfor opened his eyes, yawned and stood up. He walked outside when Chrysos opened the gate to his stable.
When he fully got out, Chrysos picked up a saddle hanging from a wall and placed it on Ralfor's back. The saddle had a special compartment where Vaf could be placed.
Why did Chrysos spend money for this? It was because Vaf is part of the Greenwood Household now.
Chrysos took Ralfor out of the stables and set off with Meiros.
Meiros was very excited to try out his Divinious in public. He has never used his Divinious recklessly because of his fear that he might get caught the more he used it.
He was playing with a silver coin using telekinesis. The coin was floating mid air and it looked alive as Meiros made it fly around his hand.
"Hahaha... it feels so nice being able to do this outside." Meiros canceled the psychic energy and caught the coin before it fell.
"I'm glad that you're having so much fun with the cloak." Chrysos was the driver so he couldn't turn his head to talk to Meiros. "Now, make sure to hold on because we're going full speed."
Meiros pocketed the coin and locked the safety strap on Vaf.
"Oink?" Vaf sniffed the leather belt curiously.
The moment Ralfor left Ironmountain, Chrysos told Meiros to communicate with Ralfor.
"Tell him to speed it up." Chrysos wasn't willing to be slow because he really wanted to save his time.
Meiros nodded and used his Divinious to connect to Ralfor's mind.
Fwoom…
Ralfor felt the mental transmission and looked at Chrysos with a somewhat confused expression.
"It's alright." Chrysos assured him by petting his mane.
Seeing that his owner didn't mean any harm, Ralfor let the mental transmission enter his mind with some hesitation.
Ralfor felt the energy connect to his mind and he received a piece of information. It was in human language, but he could understand it somehow.
It was telling him to go faster.
Ralfor followed the command, and he bolted forward.
Swoosh!
"Woohoo!" Chrysos felt like the speed that they were going was fast, but not as fast as a sports car. "Meiros, tell him to go left!"
Meiros was behind Chrysos so he was being protected from the powerful winds. He couldn't even hear Chrysos' voice that well.
"G- Got it!" Meiros extended his Divinious to Ralfor's mind and told him to go left.
Ralfor heard the command and he followed it.
The speed that Ralfor was running at startled some adventurers along the way. Vaf was sticking his tongue out to enjoy the wind. So it was quite normal for some adventurers to look at them to try and digest if what they saw was real.
On the way, Chrysos told Meiros specific commands so that Meiros could relay it to Ralfor's mind through mind connection.
And as they traveled like the wind, passing through numerous trees in a second, Chrysos felt a strange sense of familiarity with his surroundings.
Chrysos saw a familiar landmark from his memories. It was two boulders with a small pond between them. There was also a fallen tree that he found very similar to the memory.
"Meiros, tell him to go right." Chrysos continued to analyze their surroundings as he spoke.
Meiros nodded and closed his eyes. He spoke to Ralfor and said, "Go right."
Chrysos saw another familiar landmark. He saw multiple tree stumps and mossy logs in the area. From what he could deduce, it was probably from a previous battle.
"Now tell him to run towards that specific direction." Chrysos pointed to a tree stump that had a little bit more damage than the rest.
Meiros relayed the command. "Go where master Gerald is pointing at."
Ralfor breathed out, spewing steam from his nose. He ran towards the area where Chrysos was pointing earlier.
A few minutes later...
Chrysos told Meiros to stop Ralfor when they arrived at the place from the memory fragment that he received from the crimson elephant.
Chrysos looked around and he confirmed that it was indeed the right place. "Get down, the crimson elephant is around here somewhere." Chrysos hopped off from Ralfor's back.
Meiros took a mushroom from Vaf's back and fed it to Vaf.
Vaf happily munched on the mushroom and he showed a satisfied burp later. Meiros patted his head because he couldn't resist doing so.
After feeding Vaf, Meiros jumped off Ralfor's back as well. And from the height, he bent his knees for a bit to sustain the impact.
"You alright?" Chrysos turned his head to Meiros.
"Mhm." Meiros dusted off his sleeves. Looking entirely nonchalant.
"Alright then, we'll look for the crimson elephant. It's very eye-catching, so you'll know what it is the moment you see it." Chrysos spoke to Meiros with a serious tone. "Also, relay the information to Ralfor and tell him explicitly not to hurt it no matter what."
"Will do." Meiros gave him a thumbs up before closing his eyes to tell Ralfor what Chrysos just said.
Chrysos added Meiros before he could finish the transmission. "And tell him to split up with us so that we'll cover more ground easily. Make sure to remind him to roar or alert us when he finds the elephant."
Meiros nodded as he formed a stable mental connection.
Ralfor absorbed the information that Meiros gave him and when Ralfor opened his eyes, he began sniffing the ground for any trace of the crimson elephant.
Chrysos and Meiros went together to find any traces of the crimson elephant.
The two of them wandered the forest for a while when Chrysos felt a trace of Divinious from the trees.
Chrysos looked around the forest warily. His eyes began to narrow as he felt something amiss.
He was checking everything from trees, rocks, grass and leaves very suspiciously.
"Master, what's wrong? Why do you keep looking everywhere with so much vigilance?" Meiros looked in the general direction where Chrysos was looking and saw nothing else but leaves and branches.
"It just feels like something is off." Chrysos didn't lower his ground. He continued moving while keeping his voice down.
Meiros raised an eyebrow. "Are we being stalked?" Meiros unsheathed his sword. He made sure to do it carefully so that it doesn't make too much noise.
"Probably." Chrysos answered with an unsure tone. "Or not, and I'm just being paranoid."
"It's better than being reckless." Meiros responded. "Especially during 'that' time."
"We do not speak of 'that' time." Chrysos didn't want to remember how he acted more or less like an animal back at the greenflesh beast village.
The both of them stopped walking to observe their surroundings. And after nothing happened for a while, they kept moving once again.
Meiros held his sword in front of him and watched his surroundings carefully when Chrysos suddenly pulled him back from his arm.
"Ah?" Meiros was about to speak when a metal claw sprung up in front of him.
The metal claw jumped out from the ground and clasped together, catching nothing.
It was a trap.
Meiros felt cold sweat run down his back.
"What on Kharuen's name? Who places traps like this here?!" Meiros was glad that Chrysos pulled him back. If he walked forward carelessly, he would've died.
"So that's where the Divinious trace came from." Chrysos narrowed his eyes. He continued spreading his Divinious all over the place.
"Huh?" Meiros looked at the trap and saw Divinious markings on the trap. It was exquisitely made and it was obvious that it came from a trapmaker.
"It seems that we're not the only ones looking for the crimson elephant. We might have some competition later." Chrysos didn't see this as a good sign. "C'mon, let's keep looking. Just be careful not to step on anything next time." Chrysos observed the trap and saw that the markings were glowing.
The glow in the markings were moving towards a specific area. It was a Divinious circuit being activated.
When he saw that the glow from the Divinious energy was about to power a red orb in the trap, Chrysos unsheathed his sword extremely quickly and sliced the markings and prevented the energy in the trap from reaching the red orb.
This quick motion startled Meiros for a little bit.
"Master Gerald, what's the matter?" Meiros turned to look at the trap.
"The trap has an alarm feature. If I didn't slice the Divinious markings. The red orb would've sent a signal to whoever this trap belongs to." Chrysos sheathed his sword back to his waist. "And don't try to break the red orb. That Divinious mechanism will send a signal as well when it's broken."
Meiros nodded in understanding. "I'll be careful."
"Of course you should. You're the one who has better mental recognition than me." Chrysos laughed.
Meiros sighed. "Master, you know that it doesn't work like that..."
"I know, I know.. I was just joking." Chrysos stretched his arms forward.
Meanwhile, Ralfor was sniffing the ground carefully for a while. And as he was doing so, he found a trace of a scent belonging to a strange animal. The scent was getting stronger and stronger as well.
By following the scent, he found that the source was very close by.
He looked forward and deduced that the scent was coming from the bushes in front of him.
Releasing a low growl, Ralfor treaded carefully. He used his left paw to spread the bush aside to get a clear view of what's behind the bushes.
What he saw behind the bush wasn't an elephant, but a boar.
Ralfor immediately showed a face of disappointment. This boar wasn't what he was looking for.
When he was about to leave, the boar was suddenly pounced on by a blood red creature from the patch of tall grass behind the boar. The creature killed the boar in one hit and began to eat its remains.
Ralfor was startled. He began to act more seriously this time.
He looked at the red skinned creature and saw that it was a young elephant. A crimson tusk, ruby like eyes, and a powerful hunger for blood.
Ralfor was very exuberant. This was what his owner told him to find! He could already smell the delicious meal that he would receive after completing his task.
Just imagining that saucy steak made his mouth water.
Licking his lips, Ralfor approached the elephant quietly so that it wouldn't run away before he could catch it.
But from the corner of his eye, he could see a net made of Divinious shoot out from the trees, capturing the elephant.
He decided to hide and watch what would happen. Ralfor lowered his head into the grass.
Unsurprisingly, the elephant saw the glowing net powered by Divinious, but it was too late. The net snared it which made the elephant unable to move from its position. It was trapped.
The elephant made loud trumpet sounds as it tried to get out of the net.
Ralfor tried to find where the net came from. He needed to see and wait it out just in case it was a threat that he couldn't deal with.
His decision to hide was correct.
Later, men started jumping down from the trees.
"Oh there it is! The bait worked!" An archer laughed happily.
"This guy's going to sell for a lot." A dark skinned martial artist rubbed her hands excitedly. "Hey, I get 20% of the profit right?" When the martial artist was discussing profit, her eyes gleamed with greed.
"Yes, just as we agreed on." The trapmaker behind her nodded his head. "Alright, let's get it out of here so that we can finally sell it."
"Sure." A berserker carried the elephant on his back. The elephant squirmed desperately inside the net.
Watching this from the bushes, Ralfor was having trouble knowing what to do.
Should he let them go? Or should he save the elephant? But doing so will get himself in danger.
However, his instinct to retreat was stronger.
He decided that the best decision was to walk away when he saw from the corner of his peripheral vision that Vaf went ahead and confronted the four awakened ones by himself.
Ralfor immediately lost color from his face seeing Vaf run towards danger.
Oink!
Vaf approached the four of them and angrily shouted. He seemed conflicted that they caught the elephant despite it being so helpless.
But of course, the humans didn't understand Vaf.
"Hm? What's up with this pig?" The archer crossed his arms, finding him weird.
"I don't care, just kill it or something." The trapmaker couldn't be bothered with a mere pig. He has a lot of things to worry about instead of this.
The berserker snorted. "Fine." The berserker pulled the huge greatsword from his back and chopped down.
However..
Before his sword could land on Vaf, Ralfor dashed out from the bushes and used his claws to block the sword!
Clink!
Sparks flew out from the collision.
The berserker stepped back and was shocked at the lion's sudden arrival.
"An Infernal Gale Lion? What the hell is this doing in Ironmountain?" The trapmaker recognized Ralfor almost instantly.
"Who cares? Kill it!" The archer already went ahead and shot several arrows towards Ralfor.
ROAR!
Ralfor used his ability and his speed increased fivefold. Small flares of scorching fire came out from Ralfor's mane. He ran towards Vaf and carried him using his mouth.
His species really deserved the name of Infernal Gale Lion.
He looked very ferocious at this moment because of the fiery Divinious covering his entire body. And after carrying Vaf, he threw him to his back and released a low growl for intimidation.
Vaf oinked and strapped himself in the special compartment. Quite smart for a pig.
Vaf was only a mushroom pig that has a unique skin that allows Scarlet Diamond Mushrooms to grow on his back, therefore the name Scarlet Diamond Mushroom pig.
But, Scarlet Diamond Mushrooms have the ability to absorb little amounts of Divinious. That's why Chrysos bought him in the first place.
And after being patted by Meiros for so long, his mushrooms began to collect psychic energy to the point that the prolonged exposure made him a little smarter.
The four awakened ones stood their guard.
Ralfor didn't recklessly fight the awakened ones. He decided to roar as loud as he could as an attempt to call for reinforcements.
And from far away, the sound reached a specific area…
Chrysos was still searching for traces of the elephant when he heard a loud roar. He and Meiros both heard it.
"Meiros… it seems that Ralfor found him." A deep frown etched itself on Chrysos' face.