Day 2 before moving to Iqualius city. Ironmountain city, at Chrysos' house...
Chrysos was planning to upgrade his sword. Even though it was made of Alizuite and it has an amazing affinity to magic and it's also extremely tough and resistant to damage, it wasn't keeping up with Chrysos' strength of two bears and three boars. His current problem is just the leftover bear mental energy stuck in his head.
He was planning to collect enough beast thoughts in his mind so that he could absorb them all at once or else he'll be paying Svaria more than he had to.
His plan today was to buy an iron ingot with Illorite metal fragments. A rare metal with weak affinity to magic, but is a highly sought item by potionmakers.
Chrysos wasn't going to make a potion using it, but he was planning to get it so that he could use it to convert his Alizuite sword into pure Ziluite metal.
Ziluite metal is part of the special metal category that is conductive to Divinious energy. Alizuite is conductive to Divinious, however, Ziluite has better conductivity when it comes to magic energy, higher durability and damage resistance, and its weight is lighter than Alizuite as well, hence the shorter naming. A tradition for Aliqiertans and neighboring continents is to name ores shorter or longer depending on their weight.
And because of that, the special steel, Farkenisloutehenalismakithrenoum steel, is known as one of the heaviest steel ever used for forging weapons.
Going back to Chrysos…
He was currently training Meiros in the empty second floor. When Chrysos renovated his house, he had no idea what to put on the second floor. And because he couldn't think of anything, he just decided to make it a training room instead of using the place for alchemy, since he already had the shed for it.
Meiros held his arms forward to guard his face while his legs were spaced together in order to quickly react to any sudden movements.
Chrysos wasn't wearing his mask during this. He was just wearing casual home clothes and gloves. He was currently training Meiros' prediction abilities and his combat sense.
Seeing his master stretch his arms, Meiros didn't dare to get careless because his master could attack him at any moment.
And just like what he predicted, Chrysos suddenly lunged forward and punched with his left fist, only to be dodged as Meiros quickly reacted and ducked diagonally to send a punch of his own. Chrysos retracted his left fist and guarded against Meiros' punch.
Chrysos blocked this punch by raising his forearm to face it. And when Meiros' fist met against Chrysos' arm, it felt as if he wasn't punching flesh, but a bar of pure steel.
Reddening his knuckles from the pain, Meiros knew that he couldn't win by hand to hand combat. He clenched his jaw and dodged an incoming jab from Chrysos' left fist once again.
Meiros faced his back to Chrysos' left and stepped back to avoid the punch. But before he could catch his breath, Chrysos sent a left roundhouse kick towards Meiros.
He lowered his head and avoided the kick. Chrysos spun his body and landed on his left leg to send a back kick towards Meiros in such a quick succession to the point that Meiros was forced to dodge very early just to avoid the back kick.
Meiros felt the wall on his back. He had to avoid the strikes before they even happened because Chrysos' speed far outmatched him.
Turning around, Chrysos lunged forward again and sent a quick series of jabs. This left Meiros no choice but to sidestep to the right consecutively just to avoid getting punched. Chrysos knew that this was just training, so his punches stopped right at the wall before he could destroy it.
Meiros kept moving until Chrysos' right leg kicked him which prompted him to increase his strength on his arms to lessen the might of the blow.
"Gahh!" Meiros felt a heavy strike land on both of his forearms, reddening them in the process.
Chrysos wasn't done yet, he quickly balanced himself and kicked Meiros using his left leg. Meiros had to block this as well, causing him to limp to the right because of the power of the blow.
Of course as a good master, Chrysos knew that there is no good student that learns without pain.
He sent a right kick, and a left kick in quick succession to see how Meiros would react to it. And to his surprise, Meiros' self preservation attempts of blocking the strikes despite the pain from them never stopped. But even with Meiros' will that was difficult to erode, his form and energy was lacking to defend him.
Chrysos took this opportunity and circled Meiros from his left. He wrapped his arms around his neck and held him firmly. Meiros tried to break free, but Chrysos was just too strong for him to do anything.
"Okay, okay, I give up!" Meiros tapped twice on Chrysos' arm. He felt quite lightheaded from the lack of oxygen reaching his brain.
Chrysos loosened his arms, causing Meiros to drop to the floor.
"Not bad.. You managed to avoid more hits than before." Chrysos gave a lighthearted chuckle as he took a weakened version of the hypertraining fluid from a small bag on his waist and gave it to Meiros.
"Here, drink this and try to work on your predictive abilities." Chrysos gave him a vial of light blue liquid that looked very diluted.
Meiros showed a grin of self accomplishment even after all of the painful kicks that he had to endure. "At least there was improvement…" Meiros uncapped the vial and downed the fluid.
"Alright, this training session is over.. I'll set off for now and remember to guard rhe house while I'm gone." Chrysos clapped his hands twice and went down to the first floor to get dressed.
He wore his coat, armor, gas mask and his potion belts. Chrysos didn't forget his money, his sword and his key. After getting all he needed, he went out and locked the door as he left.
Chrysos went on a short stroll to go to Berige's Mining Organization. A mining company that belonged to Kloren Berige, a merchant that has a pretty big organization that deals with mining ores and gemstones.
Because of this, he is the first one who gets contacted by many blacksmiths, weaponsmiths, and armorsmiths.
And since Kloren also owns Divinious crystal mines and gemstone mines, he also gets contacted by jewelers, enchanters, runesmiths, and even by alchemy type awakened ones as well.
Looking at the rectangular stone building from afar, many carriages were shipping out large amounts of iron in bulk. From this alone, Chrysos could see that the people around here are very busy.
Chrysos went inside and saw a large group of people working nonstop. He found a reception table and approached the person in front of the desk.
"Excuse me sir, where can I buy ingots?" Chrysos spoke to the man who was busily writing on his book behind the light brown wooden desk.
"Hah? How many? Are you going to buy it in bulk?" The man's voice was deep and it seemed that he wasn't in a good mood.
He was rather short, but his large build made up for that, making him look quite comical. The man had brownish hair and eyes, he wasn't wearing any kind of uniform and just decided to wear leather clothing.
"Just one." Chrysos raised one finger as he looked at the brightly lit swan lamp on the man's desk.
The man snorted. "Over there, that's where we process the ores and that's where you can also buy good processed ingots. However, if you want to look for the special type of metals, then it's stored in that area. Talk to the guy and he'll allow you to pick what you fancy." The man pointed to different areas in the building.
"Thank you." Chrysos gave the man two gold coins.
The man shook his head. "We can't take anything from customers. Take it back." Unlike his boorish appearance, the man seemed to respect company policies very well.
Chrysos shrugged and took back the two gold coins.
He went to the area where the man told him where to get processed ingots. It was a little crowded though. The only people here are probably the ones who only needed one more ingot or lone blacksmiths who needed an extra piece of iron ingot to forge a weapon.
He waited for a while until it was his turn. Chrysos waited in the line, which meant that he had to listen to people talking about recent news in Ironmountain, what they were going to eat this afternoon, what kind of perfume they think fits best and many other topics that didn't concern him at all.
And finally, after the two men in front of him bought what they needed, Chrysos got to buy what he needed.
"Do you have Illorite and Cevitire ingots?" Chrysos asked the man behind the desk.
"Yes, how many do you need?" The man asked while scratching his long mustache.
The man was around the same height as Chrysos. He had small brown eyes and black hair. He wore a long brown coat that extended to his knees, round glasses that sat on his high nose bridge and black belted boots. His hair was slicked back and was neatly combed.
"One of each." Chrysos responded to the man. He curiously looked at the bunch of buttons and switches behind the man. He could even see gears from the horizontal gaps of the wall.
The man turned around by spinning his seat and pressed some buttons on the wall that formed some kind of code. He then spun the chair and turned back to Chrysos. "Go to the pick up area right there and you'll find someone who'll give you the ores. You can pay me here directly." The man opened a book and said, "It'll be 561 gold coins."
Chrysos felt that his pocket became a little lighter as he took twelve 5th Cabrital gold coins to pay for it. When he received his change, he went to the pick up area and saw someone nearby a conveyor belt with a sack filled with ingots.
"Here's your order." The man gave Chrysos the sack of Illorite and Cevitire ingots.
Chrysos thanked the man and left the building.
He then went to Nalkar's Market to buy other ingredients which did not take him too long. After obtaining everything that he needed for the conversion, he went to Venesar's Alchemy House once again to turn the ingots into Ziluite.
"…"
When he entered the alchemy house, he rented a private room and bought some ingredients along the way.
Approaching a young woman wearing a uniform for alchemists, he coughed to get her attention.
"Excuse me ma'am, are there any rooms with rare tier equipment that I can use?" Chrysos addressed the woman politely as he bowed slightly.
The woman smirked and said, "Oh this brother right here… No need to be so reserved!" She patted Chrysos on the shoulder twice which reminded Chrysos just how strong women here are compared to earth. Chrysos also found her accent nice to hear.
"Ah, alright then…" Chrysos wasn't expecting the woman to be so outgoing and effervescent.
"Hm?" The woman looked at Chrysos once more and said, "Strange… normally other men don't like to be this close with me." Her arm was still resting on Chrysos' shoulder as she spoke. "Well then, pure maiden.. Follow me, I'll get you to your room."
As Chrysos watched her walk, he thought to himself blankly. "Pure maiden..?? What does she mean by that???" Chrysos, with very little contact with the Aliqiertan society, was very confused by the woman's words.
He followed the woman to an available room. And when they arrived, the woman spoke.
"So, this is your room, it costs 5 gold." The woman reached out her hand.
Chrysos took a 2nd Cabrital gold coin and gave it to the woman.
The woman smiled and said, "Alright, I'm going to head off. Make sure to keep yourself safe there.. After all, losing a cutie like you would be terrible." She then turned around and walked away.
"Wait…" Chrysos reached his hand out and called her back.
"Hm? What's up?" The woman stopped on her tracks.
"Why did you call me young maiden earlier? I don't get what you meant by that." Just from Chrysos' tone, one could tell that he was entirely clueless.
The woman paused before laughing. "Oh, that? Hahaha! It's just… it's just that you act so formal and meek like a white flower.. I wasn't expecting that you were that soft.." The woman chuckled before leaving.
"White flower..?" Chrysos finally understood what she meant. Apparently, because of the equal status of men and women in the Great Divine Kingdoms, that goes the same for male and female attraction. Those who act soft and meek back on earth would be called girlish, but here, they were referred to as "white flowers."
Meaning, the woman from earlier treated Chrysos as if he was a woman and as if she was a man. Gerald wasn't entirely used to the gender orientation of this new world.
Ignoring that, he just entered the room as he wiped the blush off his face.
The alchemy room had a fireplace, a table and multiple equipment that he could use.
Preparing his ingredients on the table, Chrysos brought the cauldron next to him so that he could begin brewing.
The ingredients that he bought are,
-2 Lone Grave Flowers
-5kg Shadow Horse Bones
-4g Scales of Long Tongued Swamp Snake
-2ml Venom of a Corrosive Bite Beetle
-2 tentacles of a Bronze Spear Armed Octopus
-5 Redbloom Mushroom caps
-10ml Molten Periociate metal
-20-30 rare tier, high grade Divinious crystals
Chrysos began the conversion process.
First, he took the cauldron and used his spell, "Fire Trail" to start the fire.
He heated it up until the cauldron was starting to release steam. He tossed the two grave flowers and they immediately wilted and released thick black goo.
He took the wilted flowers out of the cauldron and tossed them away.
He then extracted the bones of the Shadow Horse and a gray liquid came out of the bones. He poured this gray liquid into the cauldron and blended them together.
When the black goo and the gray liquid was finished mixing, they slowly crystallized under the heat, forming a strange and shiny black crystal formation in the cauldron.
Using the scales of the Long Tongued Swamp Snake, Chrysos mixed it with the venom of the Corrosive Bite Beetle to refine the corrosiveness and increase its effectiveness.
He crushed the black crystals in the cauldron and poured the venom to melt it. The contents of the cauldron sizzled and it released a very putrid smell.
It was a very good thing that Chrysos always wore a gas mask.
He then took out the tentacles of the Bronze Spear Armed Octopus and chopped them in small portions as if he was slicing a carrot.
Usually, the bronze tentacles could fend against iron swords. But against Chrysos and his Alizuite sword, it was as easy as chopping soft vegetables. What's more was that he was slicing it without using his full strength.
Chrysos then tossed the octopus slices into the cauldron and the substance started to dissolve the tentacle slices into a bronze mush.
The substance was mixed with the bronze mush and it slowly turned into a black metallic liquid. Chrysos added the Redbloom Mushroom caps to remove the corrosive properties of the substance.
The bronze liquid devoured the mushroom caps and it sizzled wildly.
Chrysos blended them using his Divinious and the bronze liquid started to spin. He also added the Illorite and Cevitire ingots in the mix to create the conversion mixture.
He blended it for five minutes which made the bronze color of the liquid start to turn into a pearly white color. It was already beautiful. He poured the last ingredient, the molten Periociate metal to start the conversion process.
He mixed the liquid and then he unsheathed his sword and dipped it in the cauldron. The tip of the sword was slightly submerged in the mixture.
He tossed one high grade Divinious crystal after another into the cauldron. And suddenly, the dark blue color of his sword started to turn into a bluish white.
He kept throwing away more and more crystals until Chrysos saw that he was starting to run out, but the conversion process was still below 23%
"Oh c'mon..." Chrysos groaned. He dumped all of the crystals into the cauldron and went outside his room to buy more Divinious crystals.
...
...
One minute and 685 gold coins later, he had more than enough Divinious crystals to continue the conversion process according to his estimation.
He tossed more and more Divinious crystals into the cauldron.
While doing this, Chrysos couldn't help but remember that he would be bleeding in pain whenever he spent 400 gold coins, but now he could spend 600 gold coins in the blink of an eye.
He laughed it off and continued adding more and more Divinious crystals.
Not too long later, he was finally finished with his work.
He took his sword from the cauldron which made him stumble backwards for a bit because when he grabbed his sword, he was expecting for it to be the same weight as his Alizuite sword. But after being converted into Ziluite, it became even lighter, causing him to apply too much strength trying to grab it.
"Amazing..." Chrysos examined the sword closely and he couldn't help but admire it. A raw ore of Ziluite was already a piece of art itself, but as a sword, it had its own beauty.
He tried all of his sword techniques and found out that they were easier to execute than he did with the Alizuite sword.
Chrysos' eyes sparkled. "Oh, this deserves a name.." He stroked his chin while thinking of a name. "What about... Angelfeather?"
Pausing for three seconds to contemplate if he was alright going with that name, he decided to agree with it.
"Angelfeather sounds nice." Chrysos swung his sword several times to get used to it.
After that, he left the alchemy house and walked back home.
The reason why Angelfeather took too many Divinious crystals to convert is because of the runes that it absorbed when it was still made of Alizuite. The runes were absorbing the Divinious, both delaying and making the conversion process even more pricey. However, Chrysos didn't even notice it.
...
When he left the luxurious alchemy house, someone who was about to enter the building caught a glimpse of his Ziluite sword and was immediately interested.
The man called him. "Hey mister, that's a nice sword you have there." The man had two guards beside him.
When Chrysos turned to look at the man, he recognized it as Vedian Nacoris. The son of Viscount Nacoris.
He was wearing a gray coat with red metallic designs all over it. His armor was made of special steel and his garments are made of Kerozium silk, a very powerful material rarely found even in Ironmountain.
He also had a silver magical blade with different functions and special built in abilities. The runes and gemstones embedded on it were enough to entice someone's greed.
Chrysos didn't act recklessly though. "Oh, it's sir Vedian.. it's an honor being noticed by you." Chrysos responded politely. He recognized the noble that was in front of him.
"Haha, I'm flattered. I'll go straight to the point, I'm really interested in your sword. If I'm correct, is it made of Ziluite?" Vedian eyed Angelfeather greedily.
Chrysos recognized the scent of trouble.
"Correct, it is made of Ziluite." Chrysos knew that Vedian already knows that it's Ziluite, so it's pointless lying to him. It might even be used against him if he does lie.
"Amazing stuff. So, how much is it?" Vedian smiled. "Tell me a price and I'll get it for you."
"I apologize sir Vedian, but it's not for sale." Chrysos shook his hand at him and walked away.
Vedian stopped him by stretching out his arm.
"What do you mean by apologizing? I'm giving you a choice here. Honestly, I could just take it, but I'm feeling nice today. So? Are you sure you want to leave?" Vedian's kind expression had an underlying threat.
Chrysos stopped in his tracks. "Sir Vedian... I don't think you want to go that far."
"Oh I actually do… Wait, are you really going to disobey my order?" Vedian and Chrysos' conversation attracted quite a bit of people.
Some of them started to walk away just in case a fight between the two occurred.
Chrysos sneered as a trail of golden light viciously flashed on his eyes. "Vedian, who are you to order me? For someone so idiotically arrogant, I wonder what happens if I cave your damn nose in your face? I'm not sure if you can still show your filth after that."
Chrysos was the one speaking. Not Gerald.
Vedian knitted his eyebrows together.
"You sealed your own fate.." Vedian snapped his fingers. "You two, get him and make him grovel beneath my feet. I don't want to see him walk ever again."
"Yes, young master..." The two men behind Vedian took out their weapons and pointed them at Chrysos.
Seeing this, Chrysos unsheathed his sword.
Chrysos sighed in exasperation. "I really don't have time for this nonsense."