Alchemy Room...

It had only just been set up in the mansion quite recently and it was where Hal had been spending a lot of his time with Arya.

After pillaging the treasuries of all the Plebeian families, his wealth had swelled significantly and even after buying Green grade cultivation techniques for the Commoner families, what was still left far exceeded a billion Gold coins.

It was no hassle at all for him to purchase the ingredients required to make the Blood replenishing pills he wanted but it was then things got annoying.

According to Arya, while her spiritual sense was more than enough to refine the pill, the number of pills he needed was of such a large amount it would take her very long to complete.

It was made more so because it was a Rank 5 intermediate pill which made it very close to Rank 6 and Rank 6 pills were so far her limit and would still waste materials and time to make it adequately.

At first, Hal had told her she could take as long as she needed but he soon grew impatient and wanted it done faster.

And he could not be blamed.

This happened to be something he wished to take care of as soon as he could because the arrival of the Envoy from Melinda's home was fast approaching and whether or not it was to escort her back to the Duchy capital or to check up on her, it was still the sign that it was time to leave.

Hal had calculated his plans with that in mind and thanks to the {Upset Victory package} he received for successfully winning the war and defeating the hidden Master Arya, transporting those he wished to transport was no issue.

Well, actually it was two Upset victory packages but that is an issue for later.

Anyway,

He had his men working on the double and was even enlisting the service of the favored families to sway the others to come under his wing and was quite confident it would all be ready in time to leave.

The only issue was these pills.

He needed them done right now.

So he wracked his brain and finally discovered something that might work and it was what he had been working on for the past three days.

"*Cough* *Cough* I told you it wouldn't work. Master, you are attempting the impossible" Arya said and waved her hand to clear the smoke before her.

But that was futile as the room was completely saturated by the stuff.

Hal on the other hand was not really bothered by the smoke and only continued to stare at the damaged Cauldron in front of him.

It was as though he had not heard Arya's concerns,

"Damn it. Astral Energy is still seeping in." He said.

Even though he was lamenting, Hal was still smiling.

His adventurous nature who lived to take risks was loving every minute of his experiments.

He was like a Mad scientist.

This was what Hal had discovered and felt could work;

He wanted to become an Alchemist.

When he had first told it to Arya, she had looked at him as though he was insane and to be fair, Hal had felt he was insane as well but the more he worked on his idea, the more he felt that it truly could work.

The key was {Equipoise}.

As a skill he had received from Grimoire, Equipoise grew stronger with him just like his invisibility with which he could know even make others invisible.

Anyway, Hal had an epiphany three days ago which was that the only true difference between Astral sense and spiritual sense was the absence of Astral energy in the latter and the presence in the former.

Equipoise allowed him to store Astral Energy in his body and kept it away from the Cosmic energy. It helped him gain balance so why could it not help him separate Astral energy from his Astral sense.

It was all about attaining balance and that was the only thing Hal had not being able to achieve.

Grimoire had given him tips after admitting to the likeability of it being possible but also warned him that it was dangerous.

Should he lose the balance during pill refining, then it could prove fatal.

This was not the first explosion and he had told Arya to leave but she said she could not possibly leave him to risk his life. Besides, with her cultivation, the Explosion of a Rank 1 pill was not enough to cause her any harm.

Hal planned to successfully separate Astral energy from his Astral sense and then assist Arya in the refining of the Blood Replenishing pills.

Had he been able to purchase the pills with Gold or at the very least, their equivalent worth of Blue gems in gold, then he would not have needed to do this.

When he had pointed this out to Grimoire, the book had laughed and mocked him for being impatient and cheap.

Today was the last day Hal would attempt it.

Not that he would give up forever of course, but he would give up for now and allow Arya to refine the pills at her own pace.

He would just have to be satisfied with whatever amount she was able to refine.

He purchased another cauldron from Grimoire and Arya was more than a little surprised to see him pull out another Cauldron seemingly out of nowhere but she asked no questions.

She was no longer a stranger to Hal's mysterious peculiarities.

Hal lit the flames and he began another attempt which...

*Bang*

...failed.

...

Melinda and Rita walked across the halls towards the Alchemy room not out of worry for Hal who they knew was alright but to get an inkling of how much longer he planned to spend inside that room.

They met Sassy outside of the Door, her eyes were only just closing back up. Clearly, she had been disturbed by the Explosive sound and was only just getting back to her nap.

However, when they got closer, Sassy raised her head and eyed them before resting her head back on her coupled body.

While she was now capable of human speech, Sassy usually preferred to be quiet and use gestures and this time, the sentiment was clear;

'Hal was still busy and entering at that moment could distract him'.

The ladies sighed and Marla glared at the door before cracking her Knuckles,

"Just wait and see how I'm going to beat up that Green eyes bitch" she said in a menacing tone, completely disregarding the fact that Arya was about four cultivation realms stronger than her.

...

It was many hours later before Hal seemed to finally get the hang of it.

He was preparing himself mentally to attempt it again while Grimoire told him the disadvantages of what he was attempting.

Apart from it being dangerous of course,

'You do know that increasing your rank as an Alchemist and a Runemaster will go hand in hand.

While other Alchemists simply try, fail, try, fail and eventually succeed to advance, you will have to advance the same way you advance your Astral sense. You will have to advance them simultaneously.'

Hal smiled,

'That's not really a disadvantage. It's just things remaining virtually the same' he replied.

Grimoire sighed,

'I know it's not really a disadvantage but it's something to think about' it said.

'Don't worry Grimmy, I'll be fine'

Hal told the book before attempting once again and this time, things went better and at the end of it when Arya expected to hear another Explosion, Hal yelled instead,

"Success!"