Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 89

Even after giving Addison a moment, she didn’t seem to have the intention of walking forward of her own volition. She just stood there, staring at him. It seemed that Daniel gave her no warning.

Dante let out a sigh and began walking toward her, Jayden silently following in his wake.

A bag. That was the answer. He had plenty of them from the grain he took from the caravans. Two holes poked into it so he could see, and maybe a few smaller holes so he could breath easily. Even if he still drew attention with a bag over his head, it couldn’t be this bad.

He could only hope that the reactions he was currently getting were from the surprise and not his appearance itself. After being gone for so long and coming back completely changed, anyone would be shocked. Those who saw him for the first time wouldn’t have a reaction as exaggerated as Addison’s. Hopefully.

“Addison.”

Addison snapped out of her dazed state. “Huh?” A light tinge of red spread across her cheeks, as though embarrassed for her lapse in concentration.

Dante calmed himself. Patience. Patience was key in this situation. “My unit is going to be moving to the eastern front, what groups are currently fighting there, and who can you give us?” Dante looked at Daniel, who was still standing nearby as though he was a part of the conversation. “Go practice on your accuracy.”

That awarded him a glare from Daniel, but the Mage still left all the same.

“There are four of our weaker mercenary groups currently on that front. All of them are made up of close combat fighters and archers, they also have a few utility combatants. Other than them, we have focused a decent number of our conscripted troops on that field. In total, there are around five thousand combatants on our side of the eastern front. Those conscripted troops are far more varied, but some of them might have decent Classifications or skills.”

Dante’s expression dulled. That was the lousiest description he had ever heard. “That’s all you know? Who is currently leading the forces on that front?”

Addison’s expression faltered slightly after hearing his reproachful tone. “We haven’t really focused on that front. We don’t take many losses there, so we have just focused on keeping them at bay. The command of our forces is in the hands of those mercenary groups, they each independently command a portion of the troops, and they just focus on keeping their losses to a minimum.”

So basically, he had five thousand troops with unknown abilities. Some of them utility combatants.

Utility combatants were Classifications that aided in combat, but mostly indirectly. Basically, Classifications like Geomancers among a few others. They weren’t to be mistaken for support Classifications though. Support Classifications had skills that have a very direct impact during combat. The opposing mage that could create a barrier was an example.

Dante gave Jayden a cursory glance to make sure he was paying attention. Jayden’s eyes were wandering, but that didn’t mean much. He fully intended to make use of his Strategist Classification. “I’ll be taking command of those four mercenary groups. Other than those five thousand troops, how many others can you give me? Mounted troops or Combatants that excel in speed would be preferable.”

Addison seemed to be taken aback by the straightforward command. “I may be able to move around a few of the conscripted units, but I can’t spare any mercenary groups. Especially mounted ones. Almost all of them are engaged in the main front.”

That sounded pretty terrible, but Dante still looked at Jayden in askance.

Jayden shrugged. “I would need to see the totality of the opposing force as well as the variety of their troop composition prior to having a definitive opinion. It sounds hopeless though.”

After getting that confirmation, he returned his attention to Addison. “That isn’t going to work. Relocate other groups from the main and western fronts if you need to.”

Addison had a complicated look on her face. “That’s impossible. We would incur too many losses. It could cost us the entire war.”

Dante pushed further. “From what I’ve heard, we are already at a disadvantage on all three of the larger fronts, only barely fighting to a standstill on one of them. If we don’t handle those three mercenary groups, we will lose sooner or later anyways.”

Addison bit her lip as a look of contemplation covered her face.

Jayden stepped up, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Allow me, dear brother.”

Jayden stepped closer to Addison, far closer than necessary, then leaned toward her as he began to whisper into her ear. Strangely, he couldn’t hear what Jayden said at all, even with his newfound hearing ability.

Addison looked just as surprised as Dante when Jayden began to whisper into her ear, but as the whispering continued, a look of shock replaced the surprise. Her face began to drain of blood, her complexion becoming increasingly pale as her mouth widened.

Then only a few seconds later, her face flushed bright red, she looked infuriated, jerking away from Jaden and stomped on his foot. Dante winced as he heard a loud crack.

Jayden shrieked, then began hopping around on one foot in a comical manner. Despite definitely having a broken foot, he was very clearly putting on a show.

“I’ll send the extra forces to the eastern front in a week’s time.” After saying those words through gritted teeth, Addison spun on her heels and sauntered away.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch.”

Dante followed Jayden’s hopping form, he was headed directly toward Tabitha and the others.

Jayden hopped closer until he was directly in front of Tabitha, then he slumped on the floor, holding his injured foot up in front of her. Tabitha just continued to knit as she spoke of the salvation given to those who worship the Goddess.

Jayden wiggled his foot in front of her, as though trying to get her attention. It was an action that must have caused a severe amount of pain, but Jayden seemed to completely ignore it. “Good lady Tabitha, I have suffered under the misdeeds of others.”

Tabitha continued to knit, ignoring him, and Jayden seemed content to wait patiently.

To the side, Dante cleared his throat.

Jayden looked up. “Fear not, dear brother, Miss Tabitha is simply too kind. I’m sure she will aid me as soon as she is able. You need not worry yourself.”

Dante glanced at Tabitha, she didn’t bat an eyelash. “You’re certainly in good hands.” He shifted his gaze back to Jayden. “What did you tell Addison to make her give in?”

“Oh, that?” Jayden waved a hand dismissively. “I merely convinced her that helping us is preferable to the alternative.”

Thinking back to the rapid change in Addison’s expression, Jayden’s explanation seemed to be quite lacking. “And what is the alternative?”

Jayden’s lips curled into a light smile. “I simply explained the situation to her. Not only does she require your presence to even have the chance of surviving this war, but she is also quite smitten by you.”

Dante rolled his eyes. That explained the flushed face and foot stomp. He vaguely wondered what Jayden had said, but didn’t really care. He looked over the other combatants in his unit. “We are going to join the eastern front within a week, prepare yourselves.” The reception was mixed, a few of the combatants seemed happy to finally see some action, the rest didn’t seem too excited. The second group was far smarter in his opinion.

After the announcement, Dante stepped far off to the side and pulled out his alchemy tools. He wanted to see if there were any changes in his level of skill now that his sensitivity with mana and world essence had increased.

He would have preferred to work in the privacy of his tent, but that wasn’t really an option when he needed to utilize an open fire.

After setting up the fire and getting the tools ready, he began going through his stores of plants. It was unfortunate, but Victoria didn’t have enough preservation jars to hold all of the plants he had collected, meaning that most of them were just sitting in his storage. Inevitably, more than half of them were beginning to spoil after more than a month of sitting out.

He began to sort through them, stacking the useless plants off to the side and keeping the ones that were moderately okay in his storage. He would need to restock soon.

Dante pulled out the rest of the vials and beakers needed to mix the plants and other alchemic reagents. Then he pulled out the recipe book and began flipping through it. The selection of possibilities was definitely limited. The book only had a few tier one pill recipes, as they were only foundational recipes for beginners. And of those few recipes, many of them required plants or other materials that he didn’t have.

It left him with two choices. A simple energy boosting pill that didn’t even have a name, and a tier one ‘essence pill’.

The essence pill was a simple pill that worked similarly to essence crystals. When made, different additional ingredients could be added, and those ingredients would give a portion of their world essence to the person who consumed the pill. At the tier one level, only one ingredient could have the world essence extricated, and only a small percentage of the world essence within the ingredient would be given to the person who consumed the pill.

At his level, the world essence was inconsequential unless he found an incomparably rare ingredient to use.

With what he had on hand, a created pill would give him roughly 5-10 world essence depending on the quality of the pill he created.

It was unfortunate that Victoria didn’t have a larger skillset in the field of alchemy. The book she had given him also had recipes for different elixirs and powders, but she had no skill in those fields and was unable to teach him anything. Some of them would have been much more useful, and could even be made with the ingredients he currently had on hand.

Dante set out the ingredients needed for the essence pill and got to work.

The first step was incomparably smooth compared to his past experiences, but that didn’t say much. Processing the different ingredients was always relatively easy, because until they were mixed with essence, nothing exploded. It was a crucial step though, as even a slight mistake so early in the process could have disastrous effects on the final product.

After processing the plants, he began to liquify them. Even the mineral reagents had to be reduced to a liquid. It wasn’t a hard process, he simply pushed his red world essence into the processed ingredient and held it over the enchanted flame, careful not to overdo it on the amount of world essence.

After that, came the mixing process. The risky part. For some reason, things tended to explode during this phase. A lesson he had learned several past experiences.

Things were different this time though. He had a feel for the integrity of the mixture as he combined different amounts of the liquified ingredients. Every time that he came close to adding too much of one thing to the mixture, a feeling of instability seemed to radiate out from the world essence that was inside of it, and it was easy to adjust after that.

After finishing the mixture, he held the finished product over the enchanted fire and began to rid it of the liquid and form it into a pill with his mana. This time around there was no overload of world essence, he slowly increased the amount until it was roughly acceptable, then easily formed the pill.

Dante held the pill out in front of him. No lumps, no discoloration. He looked up at the sun, an hour had passed. That was ridiculously fast compared to the other times he had practiced alchemy. He tossed the pill in his mouth, chewed it, then swallowed it. Then he opened up his Status. 7 world essence gained from the essence pill.

Dante looked at his ingredients, he had enough for one more.

He repeated the process. This time things went even smoother. Every step of the process was ever so slightly easier, and closer to perfection. He couldn’t be sure, but he was pretty sure that he finished the second pill even faster.

When done, Dante ate the pill and checked his Status. 8 world essence this time.

A wide smile spread across his face. As a tier one pill, even a novice alchemist could have replicated the feat with almost no practice, but that wasn’t the point. The implications of this were huge. His new sensitivity to mana and world essence increased his ability in alchemy several fold, and he was just scratching the surface.

But there was no need to stop there. This would apply to all crafts. Specifically, enchanting. Just thinking of the impact that would have on the weapons he created filled him with excitement.

Dante stood. He had seven days until his unit moved to the eastern front, and a pile of coins in his storage. He just needed to find a way to spend it. It was time to take a trip.