Alchemy

Kantan had gone through a few rooms of the dungeon, collecting the pre-programmed loot that Veri had set up for his first floor dive. In order to speed things up she had taken the time to hand tailor the monsters and rooms. She had used rooms that normally weren't in the first floor rotation, allowing him to run this route as much as he needed to without the risk of running into others who might recognize him.

The first room he had gone through had another imp, which he felled easily like the first one he had faced off against. This time though, the followup was different. He had managed to face off against the imp without activating his chi, relying solely on his evolved body to achieve victory. He only took one small gash to his forearm, but in taking the hit he managed to kill the demon in one fell swoop.

Since the imp had been freshly spawned, it hadn't had time to absorb any of the dungeon's excess essence. That meant that none of the creatures he was going to face were any higher than a freshly evolved rank 1 demon. Not only that, they had not gone through any battles so their battle capabilities were limited to the standard instincts of the species of demon they were. It had only taken cycling his chi a few times before the wound on his forearm was mostly healed. Once it stopped bleeding he ignored it, knowing his body would take care of the rest over time.

When it came to absorbing the Imp, Kantan had Veri take care of it since he hadn't gotten the forging and alchemist tools. The absorption process was very similar to last time, the invigorating energy spread to his whole body like the first imp he had absorbed. This time though he felt the energy crescendo slightly, a short euphoric burst washed over him. At the same time a dark blackish substance began to seep out of his pores. As he noticed the thick dark liquid, it began to evaporate into a fine mist before it merged with the air.

He had asked Veri what was going on, and she had plenty of knowledge on it. "As demon's develop toward the next rank, their body begins to take the steps needed to be reborn. Human's undergo similar effects when they are nearing the next rebirthing rank. You will notice this at each stage of your evolution though, unlike them. You just replaced some of your body with chi enhanced replacements, and then your body expelled the leftover waste."

Kantan had never heard about the process before, especially when it came to demons and how they evolved. The Astaire clan might be famous for hunting demons, but it wasn't like they could safely study such dangerous creatures as they evolved. Demon's outside of a dungeon need to create nests or lairs since its hard to come across demonic essence naturally. By spending enough time in a specific area their presence will begin to change the land around them, like an infection.

"How come it evaporated?" It was something he couldn't make heads or tails of, but he had a feeling that Veri would know.

He was proved correct by her explanation, "Normally it wouldn't, but like I had brought up earlier, the dungeon abhors messes. If you think that having dozens and dozens of slowly evolving demons leaving black tar all over the place all day wouldn't be a problem, then you are dead wrong. Since you have an identifying mark through me, the dungeon collected the inanimate waste."

Kantan nodded at her words, recognizing the trend of wanting a clean and tidy home. He often had to clean for his grandfather who was no better about the mess he left around the house. If he could have the house do all the cleaning than he'd take that in a heartbeat. Now that they had absorbed another demon that was a rank 1, he asked Veri something he was wondering. "If we used the same ranking system that you used earlier, we should be around rank 1.2 now, right?" At the same time that he quarried his resident expert, he practiced one of the martial forms he had been taught throughout the years.

His body felt stronger, not by a large amount, but it was still noticeable. If he had to clarify the feeling, he felt that it was not dissimilar to how he felt when his chi was activated. The strength in each of his cells felt empowered compared to before, but thankfully the euphoria and sense of power did not accompany it. When his chi was flowing through him, it was like anything was possible. The power his body generated was more passive, as if he had trained harder throughout his life and was more fit.

"I would agree that you are at rank 1.2, but I am noticing a bit of diminishing returns. Each time you absorb the same species of demon, its less and less beneficial to your growth." Veri didn't seem surprised by this, and she quickly shared a few memories of previous demon's that she had seen follow the same trend. "If I had to say, I think you can get away with one more Imp before you won't gain any growth from them. Your body can still use them as food or sustenance, but they won't make you stronger after that."

Kantan was slightly sad at hearing that he would have to fight a wider variety, but he couldn't complain too much. Once he got up to rank 1.3 he imagined that most fresh rank 1 demon's would not put up too much of a fight. "In your past experiences, what would happen if a demon who had maxed out on a certain species ate a peak rank 1 demon of that species?"

Veri didn't have an answer for that, "I am not sure, I always controlled what each demon fought to evolve. Once I noticed that they weren't getting anything, I would move them to something else until they evolved. After I became strong enough, I could generally just create the demon's with specific traits at various levels. Once I had better control over spawning them, I generally left them to evolve through eating humans."

After checking his wound, Kantan had gone to collect the loot from the first room, which had been a red crystal set in a silver artifact. When he had inquired about it, Veri had told him that it was used to create alchemical flames for pill refining. Since he was limited to the darkness aspect, they would need help refining the materials.

The second room had contained another imp and a small cauldron, much to his dismay. He had been hoping that the cauldron would come last, since each part of the refining process he obtained was another step toward needed to eat the demon's directly. He had managed to convince Veri to wait until they returned to the control room before he started doing everything on his own. He didn't want to spend a long time trying to learn how to control everything, only to be attacked by demon's for loitering in a room.

After absorbing the third imp, he reached rank 1.3 and noticed that this part was significantly less intense than the previous 2 times. Once the demonic energy settled in his body he once again felt a small bump to his physical capabilities. He ran a few tests and got used to his new speed and strength before he inspected the cauldron.

It was a small ornate bowl with deep walls that flared inwards and then out as you got toward the top. It had silver runes that covered almost every inch of its surface, small gemstones of various colors filled in the rest of the space. Unfortunately they were not powered or full of energy. Veri had told him as soon as she recognized the disappointment that he would need to power it himself. He was slightly concerned that he wouldn't be able to activate the more advanced gems, as they stored significantly more energy based on the rank.

"You don't have to power the whole thing, silly. The runes do the work, the gemstones just store extra energy to help for long refining processes. You can store energy in them when you are not actively making something, and then use that stored energy to power the process. Also, after we absorbed the third imp, I can now verify something I was testing. As your body has begun to prepare for its second evolution the amount of energy I can store is also increasing. It isn't a large difference, but you can probably empower another 2-3 attacks before I will start to suffer from chi deprivation." The last sentence was full of her normal bubbly spirit, which help cure Kantan of the gloom of his future dining experience.