Chapter 89 - Alchemy

Jessica, Jack and their animal entourage walk the short distance to the alchemy workshop, wagons are being unloaded full of raw minerals. That should be a delivery from the mining village, 'Perhaps we should use these pills on that dog too... Brownie?' Jack mutters in his mind as they walk by the wagons.

It's a short walk from the city hall building to the alchemy laboratory which has now been unlocked, Jack gives Fenrir a last pat before telling him to wait outside. The wolf looks at the rat once before sitting down like an obedient dog. Xueli hasn't disappeared yet as she is peeking outside his sleeve now and then.

Pushing through the door, their eyes instantly water from the strong medicinal smell that permeates the air, Jack walks in stunned at the sight of about 20 people passing around medicinal herbs and bottles to store the finished product frantically.

Jack stands for a few moments trying to watch what's going on as Jessica stands behind him watching the oddly calm rat, he's just watching the various piles of herbs, powders and pills be passed around trying to identify them with what he gathered previously.

The rest of the room is blocked from view, but someone comes up to greet Jack and Jessica.

"Lord." an attendant greets Jack who is standing near the doorway.

"What's going on?"

"Miss Lead Alchemist is refining thousands of medicines, it's tough work but it's amazing. She can do so many things at once that I'd suspect she is at least of the Pill King level."

"She's doing thousands of medicines at a time? Well, that explains the air quality in here, what's a Pill King?"

"Yes, she has been working hard, uhh lord I would like to explain more about alchemy but could you please move, I need to fetch some spiritual water from the storehouse" the attendant asks Jack, he's standing in the doorway while Jessica has gone onto her seat leaving him there by himself.

Jack moves out of the way while the attendant rushes out of the room and several more pile in. He looks at Jessica wondering why she said nothing. She snickers and sticks her tongue out as she plays with the rat.

"Do we wait?" Jack asks while standing beside Jessica watching everything going on.

"She'll be done soon." Jessica responds and closes her eyes.

Jack is watching what's going on when he feels a touch at his side, Jessica has reached out to hold on to his hand. The two have a private moment as they sit there in silence just watching everything going on.

An attendant walks out of the work area, allowing a view of Lunamarie where Jack is standing.

She has several large furnaces before her and many smaller ones, they all have a grey glow over them at the same time as her body is brightly glowing with the strange runic character. Her hands dance through the air as they process the herbs into their required forms and combines them.

It looks impressive as the herbs dance about in the air.

A single plant can be turned into many products while she checks over all the various goods, Jack is impressed as he watches what she does.

A stalk of orange grass with 3 dots on it floats before her, Lunamarie waves her hands crushing the stalk into a liquid as 3 glowing spheres float out of the middle. She makes another hand movement, crushing those 3 glowing spheres into a powder.

Jack uses his divine sense to look into one of the furnaces that she is working on. He's following the herbs that she just processed as they fall into a furnace. A spark of flame comes to life in the cauldron. Jack quickly withdraws his divine sense.

*Bang*

Lunamarie is frowning as she wipes the sweat off her forehead, she looks into the cauldron trying to work out what went wrong before looking around the room seeing Jack staring at her. Her expression settles down as the runic characters on her skin stop shifting around.

A single large blade floats before her, she suddenly cuts it up into hundreds of small segments that fly into various cauldrons that slam their lids on at the same moment, cutting down on most of the medicinal smell in the air.

A waft of the medicinal smell still fills the air as the inferior quality cauldrons each shake and sometimes crack.

Jessica stands up walking toward Lunamarie holding Jack's hand still. The bunny girl is wiping her sweat down as the runic characters continue to glow over her skin. Jack can feel his body heat as he watches the attractive woman tend to herself, the strange energy connection between them getting more and more clear and stronger as they approach each other.

Jack uses this chance to cycle his spiritual energy and store the moon qi that is strangely pouring into his body. If he doesn't do this, then his internal energy will become unbalanced and unusable.

"You made me messed up." Lunamarie says as Jack is just about to greet her. She is frowning deeply at him, Jessica just smiles at his misfortune..

"Uh Sorry, I just wanted to watch it plus most of these herbs are mine..." Jack mutters but stops as it's not worth it to argue with her.

"Ugh, It's like I showed you on the carriage but this way, it won't blow up everything but you had to ruin it. I was going so well and nearly broke my record of over 320 cauldrons going at once." Lunamarie sighs and continues, "these are simple formula so they don't need many compressions so that's lucky otherwise these shoddy cauldrons couldn't handle it. That spiritual sense... forget it. So how did that pill go on the rat?"

Jessica holds the rat out, it's no longer squirming around as it sniffs the air. Lunamarie inspects it as Jack speaks.

"I think the medicine went fine, but it looks like it wasn't strong enough or there weren't enough. It looks like it started forming, but it needed lots of energy to finish the job and it wasn't available."

"Let me look, I know what the effects should be as that is a basic tier 1 pill that all alchemists should know."

Jessica passes her the rat, she uses her spiritual strength to peer through it. Lunamarie frowns as she surveys the rat, it's not really known what she is frowning about though.

"The pill's effects weren't able to balance with the effects of your weird blood, I'll make something now and you provide something fresh during the process."

"Do you have a medicine that works on the other beasts too? Would giving them my blood help?"

"You could, but it's wasteful at this stage. I'm just experimenting and these herbs are weak, we need some higher tier ones if you're talking about the stinky wolves or those horses."

"What about the high tier herbs I got before?" Jack asks as Lunamarie prepares herbs on a workbench nearby, the surrounding attendants inspect the cauldrons and patching up any cracks that appear.

"These furnaces can't handle them and I don't really know those herbs that well, I feel rusty or something about this place is weird. Is the wolf gone?" Lunamarie manually processes some herbs.

"He's outside, and he's fine, just be careful about the other wolves..." Jack will not tell her about Tahel yet. It might give her a sense of false bravado.

"I don't care, tell him to go away as I can't afford to have any distractions right now. Do you know how hard it is to balance all these cauldrons?"

"He's not harming you outside so settle down, didn't you want to see the little dragon larvling?"

Jack tries to nudge Xueli out of his sleeve but she refuses to budge, "I'm sure you have something to give her if she comes out, don't you?"

Lunamarie's mood suddenly shifts as she walks over, leaving the attendants to process the herbs, "I could make a tier 2 uplifting spirit pill, but perhaps I should make some Royal Dragon Elixir."

Xueli suddenly stiffens and sticks her neck out of the armhole, she sticking her head out of his sleeve looking at Lunamarie.

"Oh Royal Dragon Elixir, well I could make a jar of it from the ingredients we collected already but unfortunately it won't be very pure, only low grade."

'How long will it take?' Xueli asks taking the bait

"It'll be done at the same time as all the other medicines, I need to get started on something else and get right on it." Lunamarie reaches out to pet Xueli's head.

'Ok, please hurry as this Lord has had none in some time' Xueli lets her touch her head before disappearing again.

Lunamarie smiles at this interaction then goes back to tending to the herbs, Jack is curious why Lunamarie so driven right now but won't ask as the distraction worked. Jessica takes the rat back as Jack remembers a question that he should ask.

A crystal appears in his hand, it's one of the crystals that the goblin prophet provided him in the underground section. They've been collecting this so far and haven't used them as it feels wasteful and also stupid to just use something like this without vetting it. Last night's demonstration with the seed gave him an idea though.

Flame engulfs the crystal, the white flame covers the whole crystal as the temperature causes fluctuations in the air. Strange black liquid drips from the crystal as everyone in the room watches it floating in the air.

Lunamarie has turned to watch it whilst frowning, she suddenly widens her eyes and runs off to order the attendants to grab many more herbs and prepare a cauldron.

The black liquid drips from onto the ground, it smells quite foul. No one wants to approach it because it has a sensation of evil on it as it sits there on the ground.

It takes several breaths for the black liquid to stop dripping; it has evaporated into nothing as the black marks on the ground remain.

The flame dies away revealing a small red brightly glowing crystal, Lunamarie appears, "Quick give it to me, that's perfect for the Tier 3 Erupting Volcano Pill."

Jack lets Lunamarie take it as she goes to a large cauldron. The attendants pile in process herbs, powders and liquids, Lunamarie quickly starts sweating and panting as containing the red crystal seems to draw a lot of energy from her. The red crystal floats into the cauldron.

*CRACK*

The large cauldron loudly develops a crack that is essentially throbbing every time a new ingredient is added.

They stop adding more after the fifteenth ingredient, "Compress!" Lunamarie yells as the runes on her body light up, the energy travels down her hands into the cauldron.

She does this three more times before the lid is promptly shut, she's panting. Jack rushes over to support her as she nearly falls over, Jessica is following too passing Lunamarie a towel as the attendants leave them.

Lunamarie pats herself down, supported by Jack, his hand resting on her hip. A faint blush comes over her face but Jack can't see it as she wipes her face down, Jessica gives her a knowing smile to which Lunamarie responds with looking away. Jack isn't aware of their silent conversation as he looks at the cauldron, it's throbbing with energy and looks like it might explode.

"What does it do and how long until it's ready?"

"It's an upper tier 2 medicine that will cause someone's inner energy to erupt, it's a volcano because it forces the body to erupt and adapt to the new energy. It's like the popular and common tier 2 Erupting Blaze pill, but this one is much stronger. Where did you get that energy crystal from?"

"We have a few of them from the goblins, can you make more of them?" Jack pulls out another crystal. Lunamarie takes that crystal from his and inspects it while frowning and shaking her head.

"I can't use it with this stuff on it, you must clear them up. It has a lot of impurities or something, I don't want to risk it and that white flame of yours seems able to do clean them up."

Jack processes the crystal with the flame. This time is quicker than the previous as the black liquid runs off like a viscous liquid. The crystal is slightly smaller than the last one. Jessica also processes one, but it's much slower than Jack. Lunamarie collects the crystals in a grey barrier, the barrier is weak showing that she's overdrawing her internal energies.

"These aren't suitable for a Tier 3 pill, it'll be suitable for multiple tier 2s though." Lunamarie quickly processes that cauldron and shuts it, it's so quick that they're barely given anytime to process what she is doing.

"Erupting Blaze was the most popular medicine to sell to the freshman at school, it has the mildest effects while being easy to make. I could do it in my sleep." Lunamarie brags after seeing their stunned faces.

"Does a single pill need a single energy crystal?" Jack asks.

"No, but as I don't really know the equivalent herbs yet, the yields won't be very good. It might be possible to make up to 8 pills from a single crystal, but it really depends on the energy contained within them." Lunamarie responds while wiping herself down again.

"Ma'am, it's time for the first batch." an attendant comes up, interrupting the small group.

"Ah right, I'll need to tend to that." Lunamarie tells her farewells for now after promising Xueli to give her the elixir shortly. Jack watches her as she tends to the pills, pulling some out of cauldrons while just checking on others. The ones that she pulled out were met with both frowns and smiles, they're an assortment of various colours and shapes. Some big and some small.

She returns to them after this, "Alright now the beast pill. All the other cauldrons should have had enough time to stabilize. Come with me." Lunamarie drags Jack away with the rat, there's a cushion by a small cauldron on the ground.

Lunamarie sits on it while Jack is left standing, she doesn't wait for him to say anything as she sets into motion pulling out herbs and processing them quickly gathering them into a pile of various liquids and powders.

She puts them into the cauldron in a specific order, "When I say, drop your blood on it."

The ingredients merge in a beautiful group of colours; they come together. Some repulse each other while the others join together creating a rather interesting effect.

"Now!" Lunamarie shouts, not giving Jack anytime to watch the show anymore.

Jack drops his blood on the group of colourful liquid that will become the pill.

The drop of blood hovers on the exterior of the pill as Lunamarie lowers it into the cauldron, just as it crosses the threshold the blood joins with liquid.

*BANG*

A small explosion comes from the cauldron but it's covered by a grey barrier, the runic markings on Lunamarie's skin are blindingly bright as they move around her skin.

The energies in the cauldron settle down into a pill shape, "Compress!" Lunamarie announces in a commanding tone.

The pill shrinks down and splits into two balls of liquid; she repeats the process when it becomes 10 balls of liquid.

The runic markings stop moving as she places the lid on the cauldron.

"There that should be enough, that's about my limit for today as maintaining all this alchemy is tiring but it's a great stabilizing factor. I had done no nonceremonial alchemy for some time, so thanks for this workshop."

"No problem, how much longer until you're finished here?"

"The longest will be about 12 hours, most around 6 hours though."

"Damn 12 hours, so you need to stay here then?"

"If we don't want to waste the ingredients and risk me suffering a backlash. I can't really even leave this room until it's all done."

"No problem, there an auction tomorrow and it would have been a great opportunity to show you around the cities."

Lunamarie smiles at him, "Thank you for thinking about me, I just arrived here so I need time to settle. If my family and school aren't around, then I need to be cautious, plus I like it around here."

Jessica walks up to the town talking, "It's ok, I'll watch over her tonight."

"You're fine with not going to the auction either?"

"I don't think it'll be that safe until you clear up the issues at Sacred City." Jessica responds.

"How do you know about that?"

"I do have some power around here." Jessica sticks her tongue out at Jack. He responds in kind, causing Lunamarie to laugh.

"You two are very alike." Lunamarie says as she giggles at the two of them sticking tongues out at each other.

Jessica blushes while Jack feels awkward over their exchange being commented on, "Sure, well if you two don't want to come tonight then I should get ready. Guess I'll need to find some gifts."

"Of course you will, I hope you find something appropriate and expensive."

"Ohh expensive especially." the two girls giggle with each other. Jack stands up to walk away, Lunamarie wants to keep Xueli around until she brews the elixir but she doesn't want to separate from Jack. They let him leave without fuss, Jack exits the building where he's greeted with Fenrir who seems to be searching for something.

"That rat needs to hang around for a while, do you want to come hunting with me?" Jack asks Fenrir. He responds with a bark like some trained dog. Jack whistles, shortly after Sleipner comes running up the road.

Jack mounts Sleipner quickly checking in with City Hall and the military outpost, Tahel has already taken his post as Jack spots him watching over Lunamarie from the distance. There's nothing that he desperately needs to do and to give time for the guards tonight to finish with their training, he decides to fill in the time.

The three of them ride outside of the village looking for bugs, they work as a team to kill them. The bugs seem to be everywhere, but so does the small and harmless wildlife. Jack thinks about the issues at hand while killing everything that seems pest like such as rabbits, boar, deer and countless smaller bugs, reaching the border of the village territory before too long.

The border situation is strange as outside seems sinister, like evil is just present in the air while inside the territory the air is crisp and clear. It's like going from a haunted forest to the middle of spring simply by crossing an invisible line.

Jack ponders this but can't answer what's going on.

He turns around and heads back into his territory killing things along the way, he comes across the usual soldiers that have the same issues from before but these low level creatures are mostly just training. Their weapons cannot cause much damage so it ends up being a battle of attrition.

Jack spots a centipede scurrying about, he grips his spear tightly and jumps into action after helping a group of soldiers take care of some flying bugs.