Traveling through the forest took eleven days total. Nothing earth shattering occurred, and there was no singular event worth retelling, but the slow grind and following improvement warrants an executive summary at least.

Starting with my companions, I would like to state my approval of Tagalong Girl’s progress. In our mid-quarter report I believe I understated her affinity for adventuring. Only in comparison to protagonists does she fall short—while that may be the category she is aiming for, where she is at can not be called falling behind. Though only moderate at interrelating knowledge, breadth of knowledge has certainly increased. Tagalong Girl is capable of recognizing at least three dozen plants to a satisfactory degree. It would be possible for her to survive solely on foraged materials alone. In combat, considering she was a novice only a few short weeks ago, it is impressive to see her move now. I would estimate that she could fend off three goblins with ease.

Ria naturally is not in the position to experience much advancement, however in contrast to her status in the village, things look optimistic. After day five of our journey, she has ceased to use every waking moment to complain. That in itself is praiseworthy, but in addition her semi-lucid state lengthened with time as well. Ria can hold on for to her faculties about an hour a day, and that amount of time could be ‘saved up’; to what extent I remain uncertain. She generally does not exert herself overly, so there is no way to tell if she actually cannot stay awake any longer, or if she just doesn’t want to talk. Tagalong Girl’s suspicion of Ria has led to a mutually uncooperative tone between the two of them. That is still at the top of my list of things to try and fix.

To conclude this report I have left the most empirical data, my own advances in the realm of spellcasting. Controlling the grave shadows has gotten much easier, and my radius of interaction has been expanded to its maximum 950 meters, due to constantly rotating patrols around us. Compared to zombies, there are more variances when giving orders; however all of them continue to follow commands to the letter. Some remnants of their soul likely remain to introduce a modicum of interpretation to their pseudo-intelligence.

Much like regular skeletons compared to Clavi, most grave shadows have too little intelligence for that to matter. Following that line of thought, Grave Shadow, who I pulled out of the skull, seems to have a higher potential than her cohorts. She and Clavi both follow their orders, but while the little skeleton has displayed a ‘joking’ personality, Grave Shadow is ruthless.

This sort of behaviour gave me great insight into the relationship between the soul and the minion. Despite the implications of being a carnivore, she is reluctant to attack those who cross the boundary I designated. Other grave shadows will attack if a creature comes even close to the line, but Grave Shadow exercises restraint. A loaded spring, she does not attack anything until absolutely necessary when it crosses over the invisible border. Through the mental link I can detect a faint aura of tension that build beforehand, which is released in the single moment it takes for her to kill the intruder.

Exemplifying that the spirit remains, and over long periods can develop persistent emotions, Grave Shadow has shown me a great deal about some of the minutia of her kind. Further experiments will be needed to see how those transfer to other {Ghost} entities, but for now my hands are tied.

While I am putting off practicing necromancy in front of my companions, there are some other realms where I train openly. , has developed to the point where I feel relatively confident in imparting its mysteries to Tagalong Girl. Given the lack of magical activity, it is not an urgent matter, but it is beneficial to start soon to get used to it. After all, I have only just reached the point where I can comfortably maintain it, although I do have several other sensory spells constantly up as well.

With training, the sensitivity of the sensory spells has increased; though I have yet to invent an SI unit for measuring the quantities. It’s a bit of a bother, but I want to come up with Kelvin, not Fahrenheit or Celsius. This is doubly a problem when reporting to you, as it is likely you are incapable of seeing the aura of death, and making relative comparisons is more or less meaningless without understanding the baseline. Trying to abridge would be useless and only serve to lengthen this extensive summary, so I will just tell you that my improvement is about on the same scale as a handheld magnifying glass to standard eyesight.

As for the method of improvement, both with practice of an individual spell, and an undefined attribute affect the quality of the spell. There are a great deal of interdependent variables, which I doubt I can fully explore on my own. I will likely need to find a magical organization to collect data to proceed in my understanding. There has yet to be any conflict between training different abilities, so there is no need to slow down, something to be grateful for.

My final improvements over the last week and a half are within the realm of alchemy. While difficult to practice while on the move, processing various ingredients served as a dietary supplement. Most reagents found in the forest are edible herbs, though there is a lack of mineral-type resources. This has led to the development and alteration of a large variety of potions and salves.

Perhaps the greatest discovery was my change of the Callus Ointment into something into what I like to call a Claw Salve. Experimenting with new materials as I lacked a supply of rock nuts; by combining Flint Moss(which was really more of a crusty lichen), sap from the faux-oak trees, Morrin buds as well as roots from the same, I ended up with a sticky and viscous ointment that slightly improved the durability of skin, but vastly improved the hardness of one’s nails.

Unfortunately as Theodore told me during our lessons, new concoctions are not so easily brewed. Though I recall what materials were used, I’ve yet to be able to replicate it. He stressed the importance of standardizing the potency of reagents, but that wasn’t something that could be done while traveling.

I realize I intended to write up an executive summary to inform you of the progress we made during our travels in a swift fashion, but this is an excellent point to segue deeper into the process of alchemy. It is largely a profession of trial and error and is not particularly exciting to read or regale. However as a power derived from the world, I should not wholly gloss over the finer details.

I’ll first go over why I chose the ingredients I did. Callus Ointment is formed from rock nuts and rhuvines, but it is better to think of the situation as needing reagents that contain a certain property—this would be true whether they gained their power from the flow of life or their physical composition. True mastery of alchemy came from balancing the excess, and the FDAA hardly came around to make sure each piece was to an industry standard, with a list of active ingredients.

First I reduced my algorithm to only include materials I had access to(obviously), followed by selecting those that seemed to have strong protection or solidification abilities. This was guesswork accomplished by cross-referencing potions with similar effects or ingredients, though since I didn’t have much to work with I mainly relied on the variations of the healing potion. Flint Moss needed to be ‘softened’ with fiery or destructive, lest it take its toll on the body by making the body brittle. Since usually a large quantity of destructive essence was used, the power of flint moss seemed high.

The sap from the fauxk trees was a response to the apparent ‘stiffness’ of flint moss. Used in many healing potions and ointments, it served as a solvent of sorts to turn particulates into a homogenous fluid or gel. The fauxk sap was a go-to ingredient in many of my experiments, other than feeling slightly bloated, there were few to no negative effects associated with it, on top of its easily accessible nature. However even though it had a mild effect, it tended to mute the effect of whatever it was mixed with, leaving it unsuitable for use with sensitive reagents.

This settled the primary effect of strengthening, however it still required a catalyst, despite fauxk sap naturally mixing with the flint moss. Unlike its more proper terminology, a catalyst didn’t merely allow different reagents to combine properly. Present even in some rare ‘single’ ingredient concoctions, it also allowed the body to use it in many cases. However, since I suspected myself to be nearing a successful formula, I tried picking a catalyst with few apparent side properties.

Morrin roots were my choice in this case. Morrin’s Snare is the smaller cousin of Devil’s Snare, which tried to wrap around and either crush or starve its prey—a vicious plant that would be much scarier if only it exceeded a foot in length. As it grappled prey, it needed to have a sturdy root system. Older plants tended to have their deep root network start to fuse with the surrounding soil, and processing them was a tiring matter. However the roots only anchored Morrin’s Snare. The bud at the tip of the vine unfurled to devour its prey and absorb the nutrients; though tough to know what parts to remove, Morrin roots were largely inert. Since Morrin roots would have only fused with the earth, that likely also gave me additional room for error in the specific instance.

I tried with these three elements numerous times, developing a host of short lived rashes. Despite constantly adjusting the ratio, I couldn’t strike a balance between the ointment thickening the skin without immobilizing it, and accidentally creating a shell, not to mention the various smaller issues that didn’t affect utility such as fluctuating temperatures.

Not giving up immediately on the primary trio, a few other ingredients could probably be used for balance. A few dozen trials later, I moved on to Morris buds. With their ability to digest creatures, it would likely be able to weaken the effects of the flint moss, at the same time not promoting congealment into a shell.

As the ‘teeth’ of the plant, using too much would probably be a bit risky for common use, but I was only experimenting on myself. A bit of caustic material wouldn’t be the end of me, still I only started with applying it to my pinky at first.

A wise decision, because despite the skin slightly hardening, over the course of a few minutes an icy-hot situation slowly ate away at it. My regeneration could keep up since I applied it to such a small area, so it was actually a relatively minor downside. On whole, the skin really was toughened—at least the patchy bits that remained did. An if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger, but if it kills you you’ll be dead kind of situation, resulting in a patchy iron hide with numerous holes.

Being a pugilist with acidic fists seemed fun, but overall it wouldn’t be much benefit to anyone other than myself. So I continued my trials, and eventually struck gold.

Slowly mitigating the caustic nature, the recipe infinitesimally moved closer to what I was seeking. Casually slapping the newest mixture over my fingers, slowly flexing them as the ointment soaked into my skin. While I once again stumbled upon a result with no downsides, pressuring my skin revealed there was hardly any effect.

Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair, pulling and resetting my ponytail. About to wash up, a flicker of pain crossed my scalp. Thinking it to be an itch, I scratched, and my hitpoints dipped thrice before I stopped.

Pulling my hand out of my hair, faint smears of blood covered my nails. Thinking such a thing odd, I grabbed a branch from the ground and pinched it. The ointment had not suddenly sharpened them, but my nails did not give as they usually would, and after applying further pressure grooves were etched into the wood.

It may not have been the Callus Ointment I was attempting to replicate, but as a previously unknown formula, I was still grateful for it. Seemingly flawless, the strength of the skin had been reinforced enough to support the new level of force the nails were subject to. My raw power meant I thrived in unarmed combat, but so far I had only done so as an impact type. With the Claw Salve, I could expand to piercing, or perhaps slashing type damage as well.

Excitably testing the limits, I tried to remain somewhat hushed as the girls slept. Capable of easily gouging thin trenches in the surrounding trees, my claws still weren’t at Killua’s level. Sturdy, as I gradually used more power, my nails and the surrounding flesh couldn’t stand the strain.

The infusion of alchemical mixtures is not something that magically applies properties to an object. It’s important to remember that while it may seem fantastical that pulping a few random plants together could create a salve that when applied topically stitched you back together, but that just happened to be how the world worked. Rules and limitations hid under the apparently magical exterior.

While a bit obtuse at times, and unable to be fully analyzed, it definitely worked according to rules set by its physical properties. Unlike true magic which worked apparently by fiat, as my experiments probed the edges of the abilities of alchemy, the walls that confined it became more clear.

The world, while it may have certain elements of one, was not a game. No one came in and balanced anything. It may appear to the newbie that the powers of alchemy were limitless, but it was already being outpaced by the strength of my body. There’s simply no way to compare the potential of something that requires reagents and ability that grows with an arbitrarily signed integer. And there was no reason for them to be comparable either—in real life, what was, was.

Still, despite alchemy being a waste of skillpoints, I wasn’t going to give it up. There only cost of experimentation was time, and I do enjoy having a variety of novel skills, even if they are suboptimal.

Besides, magic was an inner part of myself, able to be practiced whenever I pleased. Passing through the forest meant there were plenty of ingredients around to be collected, so it would be wasteful not to make use of them.

And so just like that, our journey into the territory of Medean quickly turned from an uneasy equilibrium between new travelers to an uneventful grindfest.