Alchemy

Aiden sat on the stone floor of the cave, his amber eyes brimming with anticipation. In his mind he was flipping through recipes to try out these new ingredients. He soon came upon a cuisine which utilized earth based magical beasts and was a good strengthening tonic for cultivators in the early Body Tempering stages. It seemed perfect for his current condition, he beamed uncontrollably.

Quickly hurrying outside, he had to harvest some other materials to make up the rest of the recipe. Cuisine paid a lot less attention to specific ingredients, and put more emphasis on the balance of the elements and properties of the ingredients that the alchemist himself chose.

Under the guidance of his various inheritance materials, Aiden soon came back arms full of herbs and vegetables. He sat back down and laid the shell over the fire, before adding in some fresh water. The Rising Phoenix Palms indicated that at higher levels of alchemy, such preparations would be far from enough to fuse the powerful reagents that formed the elixirs and potions sought after. With the more powerful concoctions, you would suspend the reagents within your own mental strength and fuse them with a combination of aura and a high ranked flame.

But as a beginner trying low level recipes, this would suffice. He took one of the herbs he had picked, it was a long and thin stem that turned a deep green at the top before corkscrewing. At the very end of the corkscrew, was a large light green bulb that seemed as if it should be too heavy to carry. This was called Swaddlegrass, it was a mildly wind biased herb that played the role of stabilizing the stronger components in the brew.

He carefully broke off the bulb and squeezed out all of its essence into the boiling water. Aiden monitored it for a few seconds before beginning to add in the chunks of Mudsnapper meat. As soon as the first two ingredients were in he sensed the aura above the pot begin to stir slightly. He grabbed the next ingredient.

It was a vegetable known as Riverleaf, a large wide leafed plant that grew along the banks. It was very wood biased and was used in the brew to stimulate body growth. Aiden trimmed off the leaves, tossing them in one after the other. The aura in the air became more agitated.

The last ingredient was a Coal Pepper, a very dark and spicy pepper of the fire element. Its role in the brew was to burn away the old and weak tissues to make way for the new stronger tissue. This was the trickiest part of the recipe, because although the earth element of the Mudsnapper meat would bolster the wood element of the Riverleaf, the fire element of the Coal Pepper could overwhelm it if the wrong amount was put in.

The wind element of the Swaddlegrass would help suppress the fire element because the earth energy was acting as a balance point for it. In some recipes wind could also be used to bolster fire element ingredients. But in this recipe it was used for suppression.

The moment the Coal Pepper was added, the roiling aura reached an unprecedented violence and Aiden sprung into action. His hands flew as they formed the gestures illustrated in The Rising Phoenix Palms, each form taming the wild energy and binding it to his will. It was strange, this was clearly the first time he had used these hand signs, but they felt extremely natural. He barely had to think and his hands were already forming the next sign. As his hands sped up they resembled the soaring wings of the legendary bird. It was as if you could see the faint silhouette of a phoenix flitting through the fire light.

Aiden poured all his senses into monitoring the situation of the brew. If one ingredient began to get out of hand he would direct the aura to bolster a different ingredient, at the same time he made sure that each ingredient was melding into the tonic properly. The last sign finished and there was a faint release of aura, and Aiden felt a wave of energy breeze past him rustling his hair.

In the turtle shell was a slightly green broth with small pieces of meat floating among the stewed Riverleaves. The smell was actually quite appealing, and Aiden couldn't wait to dig in. It was steaming hot, and Aiden was sure that he must have burned his tongue. Soon though he felt the heat continue down to the rest of his body. It traveled through his veins, to his muscles and then bones.

Aiden realized that this was the effect of the Coal Pepper, it was burning away weak tissue. He continued to eat the Fortifying Tonic so that he could get the full effect. The feeling was reminiscent of when he set himself ablaze for the cleansing. Muscle and other tissue that was weak and malnourished was cleared away, and under the effect of the Riverleaf, new stronger flesh grew back in its place.

It was a painful and extremely itchy process as his body seemed to contract and expand in stages. Aiden gritted his teeth and endured it. This was a good thing, he was bettering his body so that next time he was being pursued he wouldn't be caught so easily. Out here in the forest, his ability to escape or fight is what would determine how long he lived. A magical beast wouldn't show mercy to its food after all.

Soon the turtle shell was empty, and Aiden was lying on the stone floor trying to endure the constant itching from his entire body as tissue regrow. When it was done, Aiden was exhausted but happy. His muscles, albeit sore, felt much more powerful. At least he felt as though he wouldn't tire out as fast anymore. His appearance also looked healthier, he actually had some flesh on his bones and didn't look like a poor starved peasant child anymore. His long maroon hair was shiny and vibrant, his skin was smooth and radiant, and his cheeks slightly plump with baby fat.

Aiden struggled to drag himself up and clean the area. It was a small cave after all, it wouldn't do to let it clutter up. After the cleanup was over Aiden sat down to continue his cultivation, he stretched his senses to the limit as he searched for strands to absorb.

He looked near where he had harvested the Coal Pepper and found a few strands of fire energy. That was what he needed! After struggling a bit with the angry aura strands his second stage of Body Tempering was getting more and more complete. After the third fire strand was absorbed he felt the barrier, it was stronger than the one separating him from the first stage. Aiden put all his focus into pulling a couple fire strands over and then rapidly absorbing them. He used the large surge of energy to attack the area, attempting to burn through it.

With a tremble the barrier seemed to give way and the energy rushed through continuing through each muscle strengthening and tempering every muscle strand. Aiden felt that at that moment he had achieved the second stage of tempering, Muscles Like Steel. He withdrew his senses from cultivation to take stock of his current body.

The compounded effects of both the Fortifying Tonic and the second stage, his body was thrumming with energy and a strength he had never before known. He experimented with a few punches and kicks to acclimate to the difference. It was shocking to think that only a few days ago he had been a weak mortal who seemed as if the wind could blow him over, and now he was a cultivator of the second stage of Body Tempering.

Aiden took a few deep breaths to calm himself and adjust his state of mind. When he had stabilized his mood, he began to cultivate his mental strength. He continued to gather the wisps, feeling much more fluent than the last time they quickly piled up. Soon his mental space was filled with these thin cotton like threads of mental power. When enough strands gathered together they seemed to fuse into thicker threads. When he focused on them, Aiden found that he was able to manipulate them with great difficulty. He could direct these threads as an extension of his will. So whereas his will power could only affect aura, mental strength could affect the material world. An Alchemist would use their mental strength to suspend and manipulate reagents during crafting. They could also use it to prevent explosions when a mistake happens. In fact there were many ways that mental strength was used in Alchemy, it was an essential auxiliary skill. After Aiden finished practicing with his meager mental strength, he cooked a bit of the Mudsnapper and an Eidle Root before heading off to sleep. It had been a long day.