Aetheric Essence

Cynthia began working with the apparatus. She started by grinding up the ingredients. "Fang of a Dimension serpent. A clump of Revival grass. Scales of a puppetmaster. Mix with the dew of a dream shade. Fragment of an elemental. and a shard from living armor." The energies of the material swirled as she placed each piece into the apparatus. The liquid was mixed, heated, cooled, condensed, evaporated, and repeated.

The process looked complex but calculated as each step seemed to lead to the next step. Asher watched as turquoise light flew from Cynthia's fingertips, and she moved her fingers as if she was puppeter. The light flowed into an apparatus, moving the process along. New lights formed around the turquoise lights and blended in a harmony of lights distilled into an empty vial as a transparent liquid.

Once the vial was filled, Cynthia sealed the vial and dispersed the turquoise light. She then turned around and led Asher up to the roof. "Now sit and drink this." Asher sat and took the vial as he looked it over, Asher. His system chimed as he focused on the vial.

[Unknown potion]

Your scan ability is too low to identify this potion. Please increase your scan ability to recognize this potion properly.

"What is it?" Asher had to ask before he downed a suspicious liquid of any kind. He checked from all angles, and all he could come up with was that it looked like a water vial.

"This is an old alchemist trick. Mixing energy from ingredients with elements you have will make it easier to gather Aetheric Essence from the surrounding area. It will speed up the process somewhat, but you won't be able to use this trick too much." Cynthia explained to Asher, encouraging him to drink the vial.

Asher guessed that there was a fifty-fifty shot that whatever was in this vial was poisonous. So reluctantly, he swallowed the whole vial in one gulp. The dizzy spell quickly set Asher's head, and his eyes closed as they became heavy. He found himself back in the starry ocean that he went to after defeating the knight slime.

Asher sat in quiet complementation as more stars came into view. Before, Asher had to reach out to grab some of the stars, but now they seem to drift without any encouragement quickly. More and more stars filled the space and just came to him individually. To him, it was not too much different than breathing.

When Asher closed his eyes, it was early noon at least. When he opened his eyes again, he found it was late afternoon. The sun had already begun to set low in the afternoon sky, and it was as if he had missed an entire day. Before fully understanding what had happened, his system chimed with an update.

[Medatation complete]

[Medatation results]

[+100 illusion essence]

[+80 Taming essence]

[+75 Enchantment essence]

[+68 Enhancement Essence]

[+59 Spaical essence]

[+50 Alchemic essence]

[Due to your skill 'Cultivation,' your mana pool has been increasing by +100]

Asher almost choked. Thanks to that potion, not only has their mana pool now doubled, he gained a ton of aetheric essence for each element. If he didn't feel like a cheater before, he certainly did now.

"Good to see you all energetic." Cynthia steps out onto the roof. The store's roof was on the third story and had a small cobblestone space with cast iron railing surrounding it. Cynthia walked over and sat at the table with a tray of tea. She sat down and poured a glass for Asher before setting it across from her and pouring herself a cup. "I assume you had some success."

"Yes, that potion was very effective. If I keep using it ..."

"Out of the question." Cynthia cut him off before he could finish his thought. "The position helps you but at a cost. If you use it too much, you will find it difficult to control your magic in the future. It is a good pick me up, but prolonged use could leave you in a bind."

'So it is like a performance-enhancing drug. Sure it gives me a short boost to my power, but if I continue to take it, my body will need it to function properly. Maybe let's avoid that outcome.' Cynthia pulled out a book and placed it in front of Asher, and Asher wasted no time opening it. It seems like a grimoire of plants that details their descriptions, attributes, and uses.

Some plants had ratings based on how difficult they were to acquire, and others showed skulls and crossbones, showing how dangerous they were. "I want you to start studying these herbs. To master alchemy, you must carefully consider the ingredients when deciding your desired outcome. If you are unfamiliar with the ingredients, you can easily make poison rather than a potion."

This wasn't what Asher had in mind when he learned about alchemy's abilities. "This is mostly potion making. What about the weapons on the second floor?"

Cynthia set down the cup she was drinking from before turning her attention to Asher. "You are talking about transmutation. And yes, it is a branch of alchemy, but it is rather difficult to master until you have some basics. When you master that, we will move on to enchanting; sprinkle some of the other elements, so you have a decent grasp of them. You will work in the shop in the afternoon and meditate in the evening. Without the potion, The time you can meditate will be much shorter. The mornings will be your free time. You may do with them as you wish."

Asher nodded as he listened carefully to Cynthia's instruction. "So it's okay if I continue to work at the guild?"

"I wouldn't go and take any big jobs, but running a few errands around the city should be good for your physic. As you grow stronger, you will be able to handle tougher jobs. As for that knight core, make sure you hold on to it, and you could make a decent magic weapon out of it." Cynthia sat down her cup, and her eyes narrowed on Asher, making him feel like prey before a predator. "This is the most important thing. You can not let anyone know you learned how to use magic without a core."

"Why is that the most important thing?" Asher had trouble believing that was at all important.

"You are something of an oddity. And when oddities appear, it either means fortune or disaster. Most people would want to kill the oddity rather than find out if it has any function that might benefit them. It's the idea that a weapon is better destroyed rather than helping my enemy." Cynthia went back to sipping her tea like she did not just tell Asher his life might be in danger if people found out what he could do.

Asher was frozen stiff. It made sense to him that people would not want to deal with an unknown power, but acting violently to it seemed a little extreme. Asher took the herbology grimoire, thanked Cynthia, and left to head home. Cynthia looked into the city and watched as the boy disappeared into the streets as the shadows of the evening grew long.

"Well, I always say that my days have become boring." Cynthia took another sip of her tea. "But to think that the son of a duke would wander into my shop. And under a false name, no less. Think might start to become entraining. How did that old curse go? Living in interesting times. I don't think it couldn't get much more interesting than that." She picks up the tea and tray. "I will have to put up a barrier to ensure we don't have any unwanted guests. I might send Henry a message telling him I will accept that teaching position after all."

Henry contacted Cynthia at the manor to come and teach the duke's sons. She and he went away back before he worked exclusively at the duke manor. Cynthia was going to decline the offer, but now that she had met one of them, it was too good a chance to pass on. She was not particularly interested in the child that became an omnimage. Still, the hexamage boldly came into her shop with a knight-quality monster core and wanted to learn alchemy. It was perfect.

Over the next few days, Asher went through the same steps. In the morning, he would sneak out before the break of dawn and head to the guild, where he would run an errand quest throughout the city. They were simple jobs. 'Help me move furniture,' 'Cover my shift at the cafe,' 'Find my cat,' and 'Pick up these items from the market' were some of his quests. They were not difficult and went relatively smoothly.

In the afternoon, he worked as a clerk at Cynthia's shop. It was relatively slow work. Occasionally someone would show up with something to sell or a specific request like a magic weapon or potion. Usually, it was handled by Cynthia. Few, if any, batted so much as an eye toward Asher. If they did, Cynthia would introduce him using his fake name, and no one questioned the appearance of her little apprentice beyond that.

Mostly he was restricted to housekeeping. He was organizing the books and materials. Sometimes Cynthia would spring surprise quizzes on the uses and descriptions of whatever material he was holding. The first few times he had mistaken for an ingredient, Cynthia hit him on the head and told him to study harder. But as time passed, Asher was getting more and more correct. Cynthia was even impressed that he could identify one herb that was not in the grimoire she gave him, showing he was working on his own.

During the evenings, while Cynthia began to close up shop, Asher sat on the rooftop terrace and mediated till he couldn't. This was the most tedious part of his day. Without the potion, the process was slow. He would be lucky to get over 13 Essences in a single element during one mediation. Honestly, it showed how much of a hacked character he was. He supposed it could be worse. He could be an omnimage with all those elements to cultivate. But he just had his six.

After four weeks of this repeating schedule, he finally reached the end of his core formation. He pulled up the status screen to see how close he was. Thanks to his cultivation skill, his mana pool was now maxed out at 500. There was a limit to how much mana someone without a core could contain at once. His cultivation now just told him to create a new core to continue to grow.

[New quest, 'Create the Core']

[Create the Core]

[Thanks to Cynthia, you now know enough to take the next step to become stronger. You will have to gather aetheric essence using meditation for the material, and then you will have to form the core itself.]

[Objective]

Gather Aetheric essence

[Conditions]

Illusion essence 500/500

Enchantment essence 487/500

Spacial essence 489/500

Enchantment 491/500

Taming essence 482/500

Alchemic essence 487/500

[Objective unknown]

[Objective Unknown]

Failure conditions: None

Time limit: None

Rewards: Novice Mage Title

Asher closed his eyes, letting his mind wander to the starry ocean. He was finally going to finish this time-exhausting quest.