Chapter 17: Vitality Pills

"Let me try again," Luca said, wanting to confirm something. He inserted his Ki thread back into the Whispering Fern, and sure enough, instead of three, there were now five parts of the essence.

Sensing the smallest one, Luca encased it with his Ki and slowly pulled it out.

This time, he clearly felt the essence moving alongside his Ki. However, when his Ki exited, there was still no essence.

So, he guided his Ki into the Whispering Fern again and picked the smallest chunk out of all seven.

This time, when his Ki came out, there was a tiny drop of essence wrapped inside it. Luca carefully controlled his Ki and dropped it onto the plate.

"Look at that—I succeeded!" Luca proudly declared. He had finally figured out the trick to extracting the essence.

Meanwhile, Kai, who had been watching everything, had an excited look on his face. Just as he was having thoughts of giving up on the D-rank Gift [Ki Control], Luca pulled through and successfully extracted the essence from the Whispering Fern.

"This is even purer than the one I extract with the help of Firestones," Kai said as he picked up the plate with the Whispering Fern essence and carefully examined it.

Although he didn't know exactly how Luca had managed to extract that drop of essence, he was certain that with his knowledge, he should be able to extract essence more easily than Luca.

It should only take him ten minutes to extract the essence of herbs, and with the help of his Ki, he could even speed up the process of refining pills.

If Kai acquired the D-rank Gift [Ki Control], it would only take him around half an hour to refine a batch of pills—something that originally takes two hours to complete.

Thinking about the future, Kai smiled from ear to ear.

"Do you need help with something else?" Meanwhile, Luca saw Kai lost in thought and asked.

"No, that's all. I got all the answers I needed."

After some small talk, Kai and Luca parted ways.

After returning to his room, Kai was fired up. The gloomy emotions and feelings that had been building inside him for the past week vanished instantly.

He had finally found the solution to his biggest problem.

[Ki: 156]

After absorbing Ki for two hours, Kai relaxed and slowly drifted into sleep.

[Ancient Calendar: 13 April 0001]

Waking up the next day, Kai freshened up and headed straight to work.

"Here is your brewing list." Miya handed Kai the brewing list and returned to her desk.

Kai took the brewing list and headed to his Alchemy room.

[Brewing List]

Name: Kai

Date: Year 0, Month 4, Day 13

Task: 30 Basic Vitality Pills, 4 Essence Boost Potions]

Looking at the brewing list, Kai started by refining the pills first.

In two batches, Kai refined 33 Basic Vitality Pills and then made the Essence Boost Potions.

After he was done, he cleaned his Alchemy room, made a list of the herbs used, and headed out.

"Done already? Did he give up on the broken Knowledge Sea?" Miya wondered to herself as she saw Kai coming toward her with the pills and potions.

"Here's my card. Also, I would like to buy some pills." Kai handed over all the pills and potions he had made, along with the list of herbs he used.

Making sure everything was correct, Miya asked for his employee card.

"What kind of pills do you want to buy?" Marking Kai's employee card, Miya asked what type of pills he was looking for.

"I need pills to increase my Ki reserve quickly."

He needed pills that could increase his Ki quickly so that he could undergo his third Heavenly Trial and obtain the D-rank Gift [Ki Control].

Although he could refine Basic Vitality Pills that increased one's Ki, they only increased Ki by one unit—and taking too many led to stomach issues.

So he was looking for a stronger pill that could increase his Ki significantly.

"To increase your Ki reserve? You should buy these two."

Thinking it over for a moment, Miya placed two pills before Kai.

Kai was still at Level 2, and more powerful pills might cause his body to explode.

[Lesser Vitality Pill]

Grade: Low

Effect: +10 Ki

Description: A pill for increasing Ki. Taking too many may lead to stomach problems.]

[Vitality Pill]

Grade: Low

Effect: +100 Ki

Description: A pill for increasing Ki. Taking too many may lead to stomach problems.]

"What's the price?"

Looking at the pills, Kai asked for their cost. He had only been refining Basic Vitality Pills and knew that one Basic Vitality Pill sold for around 60 copper coins.

However, he had no idea how much the Lesser Vitality Pill or the Vitality Pill cost.

"Lesser Vitality Pill is 8 silver coins, and the Vitality Pill is 10 gold coins each. Which one do you want?"

Miya told Kai the prices and wondered to herself:

Why does this Human want to buy pills to increase Ki? Did he…?

Suddenly, a thought crossed Miya's mind.

"Did you find a Gift that can help you?" Miya asked Kai, trying to confirm her suspicion.

"How did you know…" Kai was surprised that Miya had figured out he found a Gift that could help him perform Herb Weaving.

When Miya heard Kai's words, she was stunned. The words of her elder echoed in her mind:

My child, you shouldn't look down on anyone taking part in the Ascension Program. His Majesty has invited an honorable Path Master to create paths for those in the program. You will come across many unique powers—be sure to gather as much information about them as possible.

Miya hadn't taken her elder's words to heart. However, now they seemed to be coming true.

This wasn't the first time Miya or Faires had encountered someone walking the Path of Ki. In fact, in the Ascension Verse, the Path of Ki was the most dominant one.

So Miya was quite familiar with Transcendents begging Fairies to refine weapons, pills, potions, robes, and so on for them.

But this was the first time Miya had heard of a Mortal walking the Path of Ki who was able to extract the essence of herbs without contaminating them.

"Are you sure that Gift will help you? I'm not doubting your words or anything, but this is the first time I've heard of someone using Ki to refine pills and potions," Miya asked again, trying to get some information out of Kai.

Although it was considered impossible to refine pills with Ki, the Verse was vast, and there were certainly some unorthodox methods of pill refinement that might involve the assistance of Ki. Miya wanted to know exactly how he planned to refine pills using it.

After all, the traditional method used by Fairies wasn't compatible with Ki, as extracting the essence of herbs with Ki would normally contaminate it.