Fortunately, Morgan's group found a cave behind the waterfall while walking along the river. Inside it, there were two wooden chests with different contents. The first chest had five plates, while the second contained gems and potions.
Now, Albert and Lilia were sitting cross-legged in the cave, watching the maps menu that Albert brought up. Initially, Albert thought the map contained areas with cave icons and monsters, but his expectations were upside down.
To be able to open the whole map, they had to explore it. The term in the menu is the percentage of fog exploration.
"We have to go explore this place. If we split up, the possibility of exploration will be fast," Albert explained.
"But it's dangerous to spread out. What if you encounter an Arcana student?" asked Lilia, Albert sighed in annoyance.
"If only I was stronger, maybe we wouldn't be in such trouble," Albert replied.
Albert turned his head to the side and looked at Morgan, who was sitting cross-legged quietly at the cave entrance that directly faced the waterfall. Morgan's voice hadn't been heard since the young man sat cross-legged in that spot.
"What do you think, Morgan?" asked Albert.
Morgan was still silent and did not respond. Lilia and Albert looked at each other for a moment. Lilia shook her head, having no idea what Morgan was doing.
In Morgan's mind, he was in the soul realm and met Morgana in her Avalon Garden, complete with blooming flowers and a stone throne.
Morgan was standing on a floor similar to a water surface. A slight wave on the water's surface followed each of his steps.
"I didn't expect you to come to visit me," Morgana greeted gruffly.
The woman in the black rose-patterned dress sat gracefully while resting her face in her hands, staring ahead with a fierce gaze aimed at Morgan.
"This is my soul realm. I am free to come here as I wish," Morgan stated firmly.
"Yours becomes mine as well. I'm quite impressed with this place; your soul feels refreshing," Morgana explained.
"I need your help," Morgan pleaded.
"Hmm?"
"I need you to go explore this forest. It will help my group a lot in this exam," Morgan explained.
"HAHA!"
"You think I'm a raven that you can command me like that?" asked Morgana, annoyed.
"With your powers, you can kill them all easily."
"I'm a rune class student. I might be able to win against other rune class students, but I can't win against Arcana students. That would make them suspicious," Morgan explained.
"You can use the ability to disappear as a servant. That would be very helpful so there would be no fight," Morgan continued.
Morgana smiled and shook her head. She rose from her seat on the stone throne as she strolled through her Avalon garden. As she continued to walk toward Morgan, the woman's steps were halted as she realized an invisible wall separated her and the young man.
"Even if I did, you'd better offer me something worthy," Morgana explained, glaring cynically with both eyes narrowed.
Morgan took a gem from his storage bracelet. It was a mysterious red-colored gem, but Morgana knew exactly what it was.
"A moon-red gem of the Amethyst type. Do you think I'd be interested in such a lowly gem?" Morgana asked.
"It is the main gem in making third-level jewels. I found this formula in the Trident library. It is said to increase the servant's combat power like a servant in the second expansion," Morgan explained.
"I know. Are you a fool? A third-level jewel can't be created with one gem," Morgana explained.
"Oh, about that," Morgan explained, taking back another gem of the same color, red.
Morgan showed her two other gems, first-level maroon gems. Morgana smiled and then looked away rudely, reluctant to stare at Morgan. The woman seemed to cross her arms as she continued to walk through the Avalon garden she had created.
"I will only assist you if you succeed in making the jewelry," Morgana explained.
"If you agree, I'll make it right now!" insisted Morgan, looking enthusiastic.
"Go for it. I want to see your frustrated face when you fail to make it."
Morgan closed his eyes, returning his body from the soul to the natural realm. As Morgan's eyes opened, the waterfall ahead continued to flow endlessly. Morgan looked back, seeing Albert and Lilia having a discussion.
"How was it?" asked Morgan, approaching them.
"We should go explore the woods. What have you been doing?" Albert asked.
"Just sitting and restoring my mana capacity," replied Morgan.
"Alright. I'll try to explore the north, you both can go west," Morgan explained, deciding on the result of the discussion, "If you encounter danger, don't fight if you're not confident enough. Do you understand?"
"We do."
After hearing the decision, Albert and Lilia began to move west together while Morgan would go north alone. However, he had to do something as he had promised Morgana.
'Since they've left, I'd better start doing the jewel formulation,' Morgan explained.
According to what Mira taught Morgan, jewel formulation has five stages: creation, destruction, unification, refinement, and finishing.
There are seven levels of jewels with independent formulation abilities, not affected by one's magic arcana. People skilled at performing jewel formulation are called alchemists with different tiers.
Creating a third-level jewel requires the ability of a third-tier alchemist or being at the Expert Stage. However, Morgan was confident in his capabilities.
"Start!" said Morgan.
[First Phase: Formation of the Compounding Sphere]
Morgan's two palms came together, the energy stream began to be concentrated into Morgan's body from nature. Morgan's eyes were closed, trying to balance the input of the energy stream with the creation of the compounding sphere.
[First Phase Successful]
The compounding sphere was successfully created and floated right before Morgan. Now, he was ready to proceed to the second phase, destroying the gems inside the sphere.
[Second Phase: Material Destruction]
As three gems entered the sphere, Morgan's energy stream was directed forward, continuing to wrap around the sphere to stabilize the destruction process.
Morgan's eyes saw the three gems shattered into pieces, causing the turmoil of energy inside the sphere to increase. Both of Morgan's hands continued to point forward, transmitting more power.
The red smoke inside the sphere faded away. Morgan's eyes could see three gem cores glowing white, waiting for unification.
[Second phase successful]
[Third phase: Material Core Unification]
The third phase was the most complex and crucial, requiring a balance of strength and calmness of soul to pull off.
Morgan began to guide the three gem cores to fuse inside the sphere, and red flames appeared, signaling the initial resistance in the gem core fusion process.
'I can't fail here!' Morgan insisted.
In Morgan's soul realm, Morgana could only smile as she sat on her stone throne. She could see what Morgan saw.
"Reckless boy! He's pushing his strength,' Morgana explained.
The turmoil of fire resistance grew stronger until Morgan had no other choice. He picked up a River Lotus Gem and crushed it with one hand.
[STR+]
The gem entered Morgan's mouth and increased the young man's strength, especially the power to control the magic flow.
"HYAA!"
A stream of blue magic began to wrap around the sphere, a sign that the Carmine gem used by Morgan had worked well. The turmoil of the flame resistance began to subside, the three gem cores started to combine and form a new white-colored glowing gem, still in rough shape.
[Third phase successful]
[Fourth phase: Refinement]
Now, Morgan had to focus his mind and strength on creating the final layer of the gem. To make a high-quality gem, Morgan needed to use two high-level magic elements to layering the gem.
[High Magic: Earth-Sweeping Wind]
[High Magic: Sky Burning Fire]
The left hand summoned wind magic, and the right-hand fire magic. Both magic elements rushed into the sphere to begin wrapping the gem's core. Morgana smiled, rising from her stone throne to see the jewel's formulation more clearly.
"He truly needed my help, even to the point of using two high-level magics," Morgana explained.
"Interesting boy," Morgana added, crossing her arms.
The last layer of the gem began to take shape, a mix of green and red colors based on the elements used, fire and wind. With the entire core of the gem layered with elemental magic, Morgan was left to complete the jewel's formulation in the final phase.
[Fourth phase successful]
[Fifth Phase: Jewel Formulation Completion]
In this phase, Morgan only needed to take the formulated gem from the sphere. Morgan's right hand stretched out, ready to receive the gem. It was not difficult for Morgan to catch the gem and complete the entire phase of jewel formulation.
"I did it," smiled Morgan.
[Fifth Phase Successful]
[Jewel Formulation Complete]
[Congratulations!]
[Name: Flame Earth Jewel]
[Status: Level 3]
[Rise Up!]
[You've gained an Alchemist star]
[Alchemist Stage: Adept]
[Star Alchemist: 4]
'Hmm... looks like I managed to rise from two to four stars, a drastic improvement,' Morgan explained.
Morgan got up from his seat with his right palm still holding the Flame Land Jewelry. He immediately called Morgana to show his achievement.
In the dark smoke mixed with red flames, Morgana appeared in the same dress. Her arms crossed over her breast as she looked away, reluctant to admit Morgan's skill.
"I made it. So, you have to help me!" said Morgan.
"Hmm."
Her right hand stretched out, asking Morgan for the jewel. As Morgan handed it over, Morgana began to thoroughly examine the jewel.
"It's just your luck," Morgana snickered.
The item disappeared into Morgana's storage. The woman began to walk past Morgan to reach the cave entrance. Morgan turned to look at Morgana.
"I'm just helping you explore this forest. After that, I won't help you with anything else!" Morgana declared, disappearing in a thousand crows from Morgan's sight.
Morgan nodded, letting his servant explore the fog so his group could explore safely.
"She's actually a nice lady," Morgan revealed.
The young man tried to open the map menu and saw the map was starting to be explored by Albert, Lilia, and Morgana. Morgana spread her ravens all over the place, increasing the fog exploration percentage significantly.
[Maps Menu]
[Fog Exploration: 40%]
[Cave Found: 24]
[Monsters: 59]
"Now, exploring will be easier than I imagined," Morgan explained.
Morgan's eyes followed Albert and Lilia to the west. Surprisingly, red dots signaling monsters appeared around them.
"Shit!"
"They're in danger."