Chapter 21  

The next day Kai woke up at the first light of dawn. He slept only six hours but felt fresh and ready to tackle the new day. He walked the shore for his usual routine. It was slightly cold outside, but after having swum in the middle of winter, a chill breeze was almost pleasant.

Another benefit of improving your race grade was a reduced need for sleep or so he read. The book in question said that at the highest grades, people could manage with sleeping once per year. Even if the author herself admitted such a statement had not been verified and was based on hearsay and a good dose of speculation.

Kai had yet to decide if not needing to sleep would be more cool or unsettling. Sure, he often wished he had more hours in the day, but to live without any sleep would be weird. Who doesn't love to take a good nap or fall asleep after a long day? And what about dreams?

He couldn’t come up with an answer. Not that he needed to worry about this problem, probably ever. For now, needing one or two hours less a day was a total net positive in his book.

Now that I think about it, I bet Elijah is going to increase my training time. Fuck my life!

Speaking of which, in his excitement, he had forgotten to check his next race enhancement. Orange wasn’t the end of the road, just the first step. With a mental command, the familiar window appeared in front of him.

Race: Human

Grade: Orange ★

Next enhancement ➔ 0/100,000 XP

Kai stared blankly at the message for a dozen seconds.

What the actual fuck. That’s more than all Red combined!

He had suspected there was going to be a big jump, but not a 100 thousand XP leap. It would be hard to even reach one more enhancement before fourteen.

By doubling his number of skills, his experience gains would spike, but his old skills were slowing down. He had no more easy gains.

After level 50, skills gave 50% more XP and that rose to 100% after 75, which for Red skills was 150 XP and 200 XP per level, respectively. But the increase did not make up for how much harder each new level got.

Well, if it was that easy everybody would do it. There is a reason most people in the Archipelago have their race stuck at the beginning of Orange.

Kai tried not to get discouraged. One step at a time he would get there, eventually.

He continued with his morning session of meditation and put those thoughts to rest.

When he reopened his eyes, Elijah was looming over him staring with a flat expression. Kai casually stood up. That had stopped working months ago, it would take more than this to spook him.

He expected to have a long conversation with Virya, but she just congratulated him for achieving Orange in an ‘acceptable time’ and sent him his way.

What did change was his routine. Kai thought he was finally done with Running and Swimming. The reason he trained those skills so frantically had been achieved.

Elijah had something to say about that. Physical training was the best way to get used to his new attributes.

It was kind of exhilarating, Kai felt like he was flying when he ran at full speed by the sea. Contending with the wind to go even faster.

That lasted about twenty minutes, then he discovered he could get tired all the same. If he could do more, he would be pushed all the way till he was as exhausted as before.

“C’mon, get up. We are not done yet.”

Kai was heaving on the beach, that was how each training session ended. If he could still stand, he had not pushed hard enough.

Kai glared at the pale man, what else did he want from him? He stood up with a groan, but before he could protest, Elijah threw a stick his way.

Kai fumbled to catch it. It had been purposefully a short throw. He stared daggers at the butler before looking at what he was holding. It was less than a meter in length, with an unmistakable shape. Kai threw a questioning look.

“That is called a sword, a wooden imitation of one at least, but you should still hold it from the handle, not from the pointy end,” Elijah said slowly enunciating each word and showing how to wield an identical wooden sword.

Kai took a deep breath. He was only trying to provoke him, “I know what a goddamn sword is! But why am I holding a wooden practice sword?”

Elijah smirked, “You are holding one because I just gave one to you,”—he threw him a worried look—“have you already forgotten? Did you hit your head while you were swimming?”

This jerk!

A vein pulsed on Kai’s head.

Elijah didn’t give him the time to come up with the right retort and continued speaking with a slightly less irritating tone, “There are two reasons. First, everyone should be able to wield a weapon well enough not to embarrass themselves. If you live long enough, you will find yourself in a situation where a sword or a knife is the only thing standing between death and survival.”

His words lost all his sarcastic undertone, “Even if you somehow become something resembling a mage, there will be plenty of times when you will be unable to use your mana. A sword is more reliable and often faster than a spell.

“Secondly, there are many ways to use magic.” Elijah extended his sword sideways, in the blink of an eye blue flames spread to its entirety.

Kai took a step back without realizing, the wave of heat he expected to feel didn’t come. The blue flame burned brightly, but he could hardly feel its warmth.

Before he could question if it was all an illusion, Elijah drew a line in the sand between them. The change was almost instantaneous. The sand melted in an instant, a burning wave of air hitting him in the face.

Elijah smugly looked at him, extinguishing the flames with a flick of his wrist.

He hated giving the butler satisfaction, but he could only stare in awe at the incandescent sand. That was damn impressive.

The image was partly ruined when a burnt smell hit his nose. The practice sword Elijah had been holding had turned into a charred piece of wood.

The pale man seemed to notice too. He nonchalantly threw the wooden remains towards the jungle a couple hundred meters away to get rid of the evidence.

The poor practice sword couldn’t take it anymore and broke in two pieces mid-flight, only one of which reached the tree line. The other proudly stood in the sand where it got stuck.

Elijah glared at the charred wood, “…none of that would happen with a proper mana blade.”

He tried to keep up his nonchalant act, but the spell had been broken, and Kai regained his bearing. It was his turn to smirk annoyingly now.

Considering the heat was high enough to melt the sand, it was impressive enough that even a carbonized piece of wood remained. Obviously, he was never going to tell him that.

Another practice sword appeared in Elijah’s hand, “Don’t stand there like an idiot. Go get rid of that piece of wood, it ruins the view. We have a lesson to start, and I don’t have all day.”

Kai couldn’t believe his shamelessness. What about the line of melted sand he created, did that not ‘ruin the view’ too? He swallowed his words. He was sure he would need to clean that up too if he pointed it out.

The lesson proceeded how he expected. Elijah guided him through a few basic sword stances. Slash, thrust, lunge, parry, sweep, block.

Then made him repeat them, slowly at first, then faster and in random order. Each move wasn’t hard by itself, but it was hard to keep his whole body in mind. The elbow was in the wrong position, his feet faced the wrong direction, he swung with only his arm, not his whole body.

Kai tried his best, but as soon as he fixed something, he did something else wrong. He was already tired from the previous workout, and he had to fight to keep his body steady.

Elijah gave him half a second to get back into position between each move. He wasn’t good enough to learn how to chain them together yet.

I’ve been wielding a sword for less than an hour, what do you expect of me?

“Barely acceptable. This is all the time we have today, we’ll continue tomorrow. Dora must be waiting for you.” Elijah passed his judgment and left.

Kai thought he did great all things considered and was just glad it was over. He went to take a shower as fast as he could, which admittedly wasn’t very fast, and walked towards the familiar garden.

Dora was waiting with a smile and a suspicious concoction for him. He drank the slimy potion as fast as he could. He knew the reason they looked and tasted like garbage was because she used only the most basic ingredients. Ingredients most alchemists would consider trash.

With the low mana density of the archipelago, you couldn’t grow much else in bulk. She was trying to create recipes that could be brewed using local plants.

It was an admirable project. The only issue was that he was the one who had to test them.

A few mint leaves helped get rid of the aftertaste, but nothing rid him of the experience.

He had no time for sulking, since Dora's next words completely changed his mood, “Are you ready for your first alchemy lesson?”

“Really!?”

Dora smiled back, “Of course, it would be best to wait to familiarize yourself with your new skills, but seeing the destination will also help. Come on, follow me. A true alchemist needs to know how to gather his ingredients.”

Kai followed her outside. She didn’t lead him towards the familiar garden, but towards the greenhouse to the side. He felt his excitement rising. This was where she grew her precious ingredients.

He had tried to peek inside many times, but somehow the glass panels made everything blurry. No matter how close he got, he still couldn’t make out anything.

The glass door opened without a squeak and Kai excitedly stepped inside. The first thing he noticed was the increased mana density. The mana around the estate was already higher, but inside the greenhouse, it was a step beyond.

Even if the glass blocked the sight from the outside, from the inside he could clearly see out. The light of the sun also seemed to have no problem making it through.

Rows of exotic and colorful plants greeted him. They were beautiful, but it was when he activated his Mana Sense that they revealed all their glory. Each plant lit up like a Christmas tree, blinding his senses.

Dora smiled seeing him gawking, “Don’t touch anything, dear. Not all plants are as harmless as they look.”

Kai noticed the greenhouse's far wall didn’t lead to the outside, but to a separate section. Judging from how big this part was, there were still around two-thirds remaining. He would have liked to see them too, but he knew those were for another day.

Following Dora’s instructions, Kai harvested three sets of dragonroot and lifebloom. He carefully read their mana flow to understand where to cut without harming the plants permanently.

He never worked with these plants, but Dora had made him study a book with all the common herbs used in alchemy. At least he knew the theory.

The two ingredients were used in many potions, but with them alone, he could guess they were going to prepare an energizing tonic. It was as basic as they came, but Kai was more relieved than disappointed. It would be hard to mess this up.

Back in the laboratory, he followed Dora's instructions to clean and process the root and flower correctly. He eliminated the unnecessary parts and left their magical properties intact.

Kai knew what to do, but it was his first time, so he was a bit nervous. He had to use Mana Sense to not harm the small mana veins of the lifebloom. The dragonroot was a lot less delicate; the hard part was in controlling the temperature as it boiled first.

“Now add the lifeboom.” Dora hurriedly said.

Kai threw the purple flower inside the cauldron without hesitation.

“Pay attention to the process with Mana Sense, I’ll take care of the rest,” Dora said.

Like a hawk with his prey, Kai observed as the mana of the two plants meshed inside the cauldron, giving birth to something new. It wasn’t a completely peaceful process. Kai noticed several points where the two energies clashed instead of assimilating, getting destroyed or forming impurities. This only happened in a few instances as most of the ingredients fused together properly.

After cooling and sifting it through a paper filter, they were left with a dark orange-ish solution.

“Come on, drink up.” Dora smilingly offered him the potion.

Of course I have to drink it.

Kai downed the tonic. The taste was a bit earthy, quite good considering what he usually drank.

The effect was almost immediate. As if a liter of coffee had been directly injected into his veins, Kai felt more awake than ever, ready to run a marathon and memorize an encyclopaedia.

Dora smiled, “I can still remember when I drank the first potion I made. It feels like yesterday. The full effect of your potion should last about ten minutes, then it will start waning till it disappears after half an hour.”

“How old are you, auntie Dora?” Kai asked before his brain could catch up to his mouth. This was certainly a side effect of the tonic. He had always been curious, she looked around forty, maybe a bit more. He couldn’t really tell.

Thankfully, she seemed to take it in stride and laughed out loud adjusting her red curly hair.

“Oh, dear… I will only say I’ll be in my second century for a few more decades.”

Kai’s jaw hung low.

“I know, dear, I know. No one would guess I was a day over a century. Maybe one day I’ll share my secret recipe.” Dora winked at him, misunderstanding the reason for his astonishment.

“Now let’s finish this up, we still have two sets of ingredients to go through. I’ll do the next. So watch carefully and don’t miss a single detail, you’ll do the last.”

Without waiting for an answer, hurricane Dora proceeded to process the dragonroot and lifebloom. Explaining the how and whys she did something and what he did wrong.

It had taken Kai almost forty minutes to complete the process. Dora finished in ten while she also slowed down for the explanation. Her hand moving fast and precise, the mana of the plants seemed to shine brighter when she was done.

She easily controlled the temperature of the cauldron and showed how to correctly stir the mixture.

Kai observed the whole process with Mana Sense. The two energies seemed to willingly mesh without any sign of clash or impurities.

The result was a clearer pale orange liquid with a strong mana signature.

“Come on, dear. Now it's your turn for the final batch.”

Kai sighed. Dora made it seem so easy, but replicating her actions was not. He did his best to correct the mistakes she had pointed out and follow her tips.

He worked methodically, taking his time with each step. When it was time to put the ingredients together, Dora once more took charge and told him to observe.

The magical properties of the two plants fused better on his second try, but it didn’t come close to Dora’s. It didn’t take long to see the first clash appear. However, instead of the expected destruction, a thin tendril of mana intervened and calmed the situation.

Dora was commanding half a dozen mana tendrils through the concoction to placate any clashing energies.

“Look Kai, this is what it means to do alchemy. Processing the ingredients in the right way can solve many problems, but some mistakes are inevitable. A good apothecary can also use mana-rich ingredients, but only an alchemist knows how to apply mana to save the concoction when things go wrong.

“And not all ingredients fuse so easily like dragonroot and lifebloom. Some won’t mesh no matter how you prepare them. It’s right then where a true alchemist intervenes to encourage the desired result.”

Filtering the concoction, the energizing tonic was indistinguishable from the second one, despite all his mistakes during the preparation process.

“When you’re able to prepare this potion by yourself and achieve a similar result, you’ll receive the Alchemy skill.”

Kai now knew what he wanted in his last skill slot.