Chapter 1 Part 1 of 3 (Patreon)

Chapter: Behind the Times

Mid-afternoon mana-light revealed the shifting dust inside the lecture hall, the comfortable warmth, tried to draw the eyes closed into sweet sleep.

Pens scrawled across pages, the student’s attention captured by the lecturer.

Erik rubbed his face, no notepad in front of him as he rested his chin on his hand.

“Alchemy is combining different ingredients together into a concoction. Looking at the four different stages, growing, harvesting preparing and concocting we can see a pattern start to emerge in relation to the elements. Ingredients grown in places with higher concentration of elements or mana then harvested and prepared in ways to maintain the elements and mana within the ingredients have a higher efficacy.” Delilah’s words captured the room as no warming rays could.

“Elements and mana, they are the cornerstone of all concoctions. A spell made physical through ingredients. As we refine mana and elements within our bodies, so do the plants around us, we are merely using their different methods of refining of ingredients together with our skills. As we see in chemistry and we see with the practice of pure magic, it is possible to change one thing to another in combination.”

Delilah’s words settled through the room, her eyes carried through the rows of students to where Erik sat.

He pushed his lips into a line of a smile.

“Our own Lord West, consuming different ingredients, being placed in a cultivation pod was able to turn his blood into a concoction for many. Changing the input to the ingredients, increasing the concentrations. We already know this makes better ingredients. But they are just the vehicle, absorbing elements to be used in alchemy.”

Erik rubbed his arm, trying to not scratch it lest he upset the dungeon core shards embedded into it.

“When looking at the pill refinement process we know that pills can absorb elements and power from their surroundings after they are completed. This is similar to how one can cast a fire spell on the living floor and the fire floor and the spell will be much stronger on the fire floor. I like to call this Sympathetic Elemental Reaction.”

She pushed a rolling chalkboard out of the way, showing an image.

“I will be undertaking a study to see the effect of creating several pills and then introducing them to highly concentrated elemental parameters. It is my hope that with this we can make say a novice level pill, but through an incubation period, the pill’s efficacy would make it as strong as an apprentice or Journeyman level pill!” Murmurs ran through the students.

“I will also be studying the effects of one consuming a pill in different elemental environments, if the pill is tuned to an element or not, does it change the effects? Look at how people temper their body with the fire element now. They consume a fire tempering pill, then they go into a cultivation pod where the fire elements are slowly increased at the same time their vitals are stabilized with the pods medical abilities. If we were to give them a pill that drew in more of the surrounding elements could we decrease the cost of tempering? Could we speed up the process? I believe that concoctions are really just the spell circles of the human body. They ignite change and then draw upon the ten realms to complete the change, and if they don’t already, then we should. After all, isn’t using external mana and elements one of the key ways we cast powerful spells, why not have that with pills as well?”

Delilah smiled and bowed her head.

The room lifted in applause, Erik frowned and then stood, clapping with them, pushing out a smile. People in the front row moved forward to talk with Delilah as the clapping died down, filled with excited chatter as praise and debates filled the hall.

He grimaced seeing the press of people, his eyes hardening, seeing the badges on their chest that marked them as mid or high level expert Alchemists.

"'Scuse me," Erik said, moving past a few people coming towards him, he headed down through the press of people, his security detail moved to surround him as he palmed off his alchemy badge and stuffed it into his storage ring.

Storbon, leading his team in protecting Erik took them through a door to the side of the lecture hall reserved for lecturers.

I can't even remember the last time I lectured on anything of importance.

He sighed and bent forward, taking out a healing pill and swallowing it as he leaned against the cold wall in the stark white mana-lit hall.

"Do you need a chair sir?" Storbon asked.

Erik gritted his teeth, standing up straight, ignoring the flashes of pain through his body, forcing it to not catch in his voice.

"No, I'm fine."

Conversation died in that hall as Erik looked at the door.

"Come on dammit," He could feel the aches in his chest starting, moving to the legs and the arms. The legs were the worst. A deep bone ache that once settled in, took hours to get rid of and all he wanted to do was sit down again.

Where the hell is she?

The minutes ticked by, Erik was half of a mind to go out there and call her back to the hallway.

He ran his knuckles down his leg, trying to relieve the stiffness.

"Are you sure you don't want a seat sir?" Storbon said.

"I'm fine," Erik growled, flicking his eyes over and back to the door.

His thoughts swirled as he stood there, the deep muscle tremors kicking in.

The door let in a flood of noise.

"We'll figure out a time to chat, sorry I really need to go!"

Delilah passed through the door with her security detail looking flushed, a smile spread across her face as she turned towards Erik. The door closed off the sound of the lecture hall once again.

"Teacher," Her face dropped, seeing him standing there, kneading his leg.

Erik felt a twinge of anger flare adding an edge to his pressed smile.

"Didn't know you'd be so long."

Delilah schooled her expression and looked down.

"Good lecture there, seemed a lot of people were interested by it," Erik turned and started walking, shaking his legs to get some life back into them.

She moved to walk with him, a half-step back in the tight quarters as Storbon's Special Team led the way.

"I got the ideas from the gardens you planted on the living floor of the dungeon and how you used your body with the cultivation pod to create the blood revival concoction."

"That is all in the past." Erik grunted. "You are your own person Delilah, your path of Alchemy is still wide open." His fist tightened around his storage ring feeling it dig into his skin, holding his alchemist badge.

He cleared his throat.

"I heard that there is a group heading to the eighth realm to attempt the test. I wanted to let you know Rugrat and I will be going as well." Erik turned his head.

"Teacher," Delilah's face fell as she strained her voice.

"We were injured, we're not invalid."

"I never,"

"We're going, I wanted to tell you so you could organize things."

Delilah clamped her teeth together and raised her head, a hardness entering her expression.

"We haven't sent any teams to the higher realms before, we don't really know what is up there. By all accounts there is a question and a fight that happens."

"And how many realms have Rugrat and I been to, how many times have we scouted the way for Alva? Do you think we can't do it?" He glared at Delilah.

"You were both injured, at the very least- get checked out by the medical staff." She said as if surfacing from the deep.

Do they know the situation within my body any better than I do? Others had surpassed him in their fighting ability, they had surpassed him in their alchemy. He still held onto his ability in healing above all others.

Erik looked away so he didn't have to suppress his snarl.

"Storbon we'll head to the hospital right away, at this time, Jules should be around. I'll tell Rugrat to meet us there."

They reached an intersection in the hallways.

"Thank you for your time Council Leader, Rugrat and I will be ready to go with the team leaving in two days."

Delilah slowed her steps and moved out of the way with her detail as Erik continued with his group.

Erik felt a prisoner within his own home, seeking permission to leave. I'm an adult yet they treat me as a child.

He rubbed his arm absently trying to release the tension as he activated his sound transmission device.