Learning Alchemy

Returning the smile, Siar collapsed back into her jacket bed, her body so weak that she could barely keep her head up.

"We'll let you recover, just let us know if you need anything." Minos said, standing back up to rejoin Lon.

"How's her condition?" Lon asked quietly.

"She's alive, which is already a miracle. Though it's hard to say just how long it will take her to recover…"

"Wouldn't it just be smarter to… You know…" Lon said, his implication clear.

"You can go if you want, but I can't just abandon someone like that." Minos said as he shook his head.

Given Siar's condition, it would take at least a couple months to recover somewhat, which just isn't the kind of time they had at the moment.

Meaning they would essentially have to carry her on their backs for the rest of this journey, which obviously wasn't practical nor easy, not to mention she was ultimately just a stranger to the two of them.

Looking at Siar, then at Minos, Lon couldn't help but struggle for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"Sorry Captain, but I'm just not willing to take so many more risks for a person I don't even know…" Lon finally said after a tough internal battle.

"There's nothing to feel sorry about, your life, your decisions." Minos replied, not taking Lon's choice personally.

"Well then, take care Captain…" Lon said with a long sigh before leaving the cave, leaving only Minos and Siar.

While Siar was weak, she wasn't so weak as to not hear this conversation, having understood everything in full.

Looking at Minos's stoic face as he sat up against the cave wall, his mood seemingly unaffected, her heart couldn't help but slightly quiver.

"Why are you helping me so much?" Siar couldn't help but ask in a weak voice, using all her strength to look up and into Minos's eyes.

"Why not?" Minos replied, his eyes as still as water.

"Your friend is right, I'm dead weight, you shouldn't waste your energy on me…" Siar said between coughs.

"It's alright, I have plenty of energy, I can afford to waste some." Minos said with a soft laugh, causing a smile to unconsciously form on Siar's face.

"You're a very strange man, you know that?"

"Maybe. Anyways, we'd better get moving, the sunlight won't last us much longer." Minos said.

"I can't move, how are we meant to travel?" Siar asked.

"Like I said, I have plenty of energy." Minos responded, before he proceeded to roll Siar up in his jacket and toss her over his shoulder.

After securing Siar on his shoulder, Minos headed out, once again aiming for the volcano range.

With Minos's strength, carrying Siar wasn't actually much of a burden and he managed to easily make his way back.

He didn't really have any goals in mind at the moment, but it was always a good choice to head to the center of the realm, so that's what he planned to do.

After once again scaling a small volcano with Siar on his shoulder, he retrieved his telescope and began peering back out into the distance.

The realm was so massive that it was impossible to really tell which direction was heading inwards rather than outwards, so Minos could only make an educated guess based on what he already knew.

After deciding a route, he spent another half hour figuring out the safest route of travel before he began moving.

…

With Minos's cautious nature coupled with all the extra effort he put into finding a safer route, the journey was a relatively peaceful one.

He still had no idea where he was going, but since he chose a path, he could only keep walking until he found something.

"Shouldn't we find a place to rest." Siar asked in a weak voice.

"You're right." Minos replied as he looked up at the distant 'sun' that was beginning to descend.

It was common sense that night was always more dangerous than day, and in an unknown realm, the danger would only be more, never less.

Minos wanted to find a cave to rest in, but his luck wasn't as good as it was in the morning, and after a quick inspection, he found all the caves were already occupied by demon beasts.

Not wanting to fight, he could only find a large tree and make his way up, securing Siar onto a relatively thick branch before he leaned back to rest as well.

Siar stayed quiet the whole time, not wanting to burden Minos anymore than she already had.

"You're an alchemist." Minos suddenly asked out of the blue, catching Siar slightly off guard.

"Yes, that's right. Why do you ask?"

"I've always wanted to learn alchemy, just never had the chance. Do you mind telling me what it's like?"

"Well just like how the sword is considered the king of all weapons, alchemy is similarly considered the king of all occupations."

"Of course this isn't to say the other occupations are worse, it's just that when it comes to cultivation, pills happen to be the most useful, hence why alchemists are so revered."

"As for what it's like, I'm not sure about other occupations, but alchemy is a test of two skills, memory and control."

"The amount of herbs, plants, fruits, etc that an alchemist has to remember fully is unimaginable, so memory goes without saying."

"As for making the pills themselves, this requires a near perfect control of the fire and timing, so anyone with unsteady hands has no chance." Siar explained.

Normally she wasn't very talkative, but Minos was her lifesaver, not to mention she no longer had the strength to do anything other than talk, so she didn't mind having a conversation with Minos.

At first she just thought that Minos was just an average amateur who knew nothing about alchemy, but as the two discussed, she was shocked to find his knowledge was improving rapidly.

He only ever had to hear an answer once and it seemed the results were permanently inscribed into his mind, making it impossible for him to ever forget.

And as he learned, he began asking harder and harder questions, even asking her about common materials she dealt with when making pills.

As she taught Minos more and more, his level quickly went from an amateur to a novice, and in her estimation, he was already comparable to an alchemist apprentice who'd been training for at least a few months, and this was after only an hour of talking!

She was no stranger to geniuses, after all she was one herself, but as she communicated with Minos, she realized what a true genius looked like.

Given Minos's appearance, she initially assumed he was more brawn than brain, which is actually what most people thought when they first saw him.

But as she talked to him, she realized his large stature was hiding an even larger mind, one that made her feel dwarfed.

"What kind of monster are you…" Siar couldn't help but say softly under her breath as she weakly lifted her head and stared straight at him.

"The smart kind." Minos said with a smile, having heard her words despite her weak voice.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that." Siar quickly apologized.

"It's fine, just teach me more and I'll let bygones be bygones."

"I'd love to, but I don't really have the strength. Just read this, it's what all alchemist apprentices are required to memorize before they're allowed to move onto the next stage." Siar said, as she struggled to hand Minos a large book from her spatial ring.

Quickly helping her lift the massive book, Minos thanked her before flipping it over, finding that it was an encyclopedia of alchemy materials.

Each page was dedicated to a certain plant, flower, fruit etc, filled with information about the material in question.

Not to mention each page was quite wide and tall, and the words were extremely tiny, so each page was like a book all in of itself.

And there were easily thousands of such pages, so it was immediately clear why Siar felt memory was such a critical skill to alchemists.

Seeing Minos's surprised face at the massive overflow of information, Siar couldn't help but giggle slightly before speaking.

"Alchemist apprentices only have to remember 20% of this book at first, so it's not as impossible as you may imagine."

"20% is still incredible, it must still take years." Minos said.

"Of course, after all, most alchemists are trained from an extremely young age. They'll spend their entire childhoods memorizing that book, just in time to put their skills into practice once they reach adulthood."

"It's no wonder alchemists are so rare." Minos said.

In comparison, most talisman apprentices could make their first talisman after a few months of training, but an alchemy apprentice first had to spend years memorizing 20% of this book before they could even get started on the basics.