Dragging his worn out body home, he ate dinner with his mother. Finding out his dad went to sell his powders and buy some stuff, Kael was dreaming about shiny, shiny, gold. Planning on heading upstairs to continue his dreams of gold he was interrupted by his mother. “Don’t think a hard days work means you get to skip cultivating. Follow me, young man.”

Taking Kael out into the backyard, Alavarah headed over to a large barrel of water she had prepared earlier. Dumping a package of skin refining powder into it and stirring it up. She waited until the powder was dissolved before picking up Kael and dropping him in it. “Meditate in this until all the medicine is absorbed, then you can bathe and go to sleep.” Turning around, she left her son to his own devices.

Standing in the neck high, cold, and stinky water he watched in a daze as his mom left. Thinking, Tomorrow this needs to be filled half way so I can sit. Kael began to run his father's cultivation technique. Originally, the Mountain Forging technique was designed to be used with quiet meditation until the dantian was full. Afterward the cultivator would burst the energy out into the skin of a specific location to refine it. Combined with absorbing the medicine and his talent, his father had estimated it would take 3 to 4 days for him to break through. However, he did not have a dantian.

After some struggling and creative thinking he came up with a solution. Instead of gathering qi to make large bursts, he came up with a small burst concept. Pretending his dantian was just part of his meridian system, he ran the technique until his meridians were painfully full. At that point, he would push the energy out and into his skin. The downside of this was that it was extremely painful. Designed for one wave of pain every 30 minutes to an hour in a small location, Kael had to deal with entire body pain every minute or so.

Something that should have taken 4 hours or less, ended up taking 6 hours. Nearly falling asleep on his feet, he dried off, skipped the bath, and went directly to bed. Waking up in the morning to his mom’s yelling for breakfast, he crawled out of bed. His muscles felt like someone had peeled back the skin and sandpapered them down. Tonight, less water, and I have to make a blend of powders. My changes to the cultivation technique are tearing me up already. Dad’s technique is like using the weight of a mountain to forge the body, mine is more like using 10,000 pebbles.

His day blurred by, almost a carbon copy of the last one. The only difference was that Muta layed out 10 boards with 100 holes in each. After that, he plopped a 4-foot diameter thick steel bucket into the middle of the hearths pit. Filling it up with pig iron, they melted it down into slag. Popping open a nozzle located on the side near the bottom, they filled the boards with melted iron. Once the boards were full, they plugged the nozzle and dropped the boards into ice cold water. A few minutes later they took them out, flipped them over, hit the back of the board with a hammer, and out came nails. After an entire day of making nails, Kael was sure he could have rebuilt the entire village and have some left.

Getting home, he stopped his mother before she took him outside. He mixed a dose of each body strengthening powder and skin refining powder together. After that, he mixed a half dose of wound recovery powder with a half dose of minor recovery powder together. I need to change the names of these things, they sound the same, but one is topical and one internal. Blending it all together, he split it into three doses. Looking over to his mom he said, “Trust me, I had to alter dads technique since my dantian basically doesn’t exist yet. It works but it is damaging my muscles.”

“Ok honey, you can give it a try tonight, if it doesn’t help, stop cultivating until your father returns. Altering a cultivation technique is not something you should be doing. Especially trying it before even talking to us!”

“Alright mom, I’ll tell you in the future. Let's just get this over with, I am super worn out.” Heading outside, Kael poured out enough water so he could sit this time, and then helped his mom mix the powder in. Climbing into the barrel he began cultivating under his mother's supervision. The mixture actually worked wonders. The body strengthening reduced the damage, and the two recovery powders repaired it as it went. He wasn’t sure but it felt like his muscles were being refined, just at a slower pace, at the same time as his skin. The reduction in pain and practice from yesterday made it so he finished in just the scheduled 4 hours. Taking a nice warm bath before falling asleep he began his new routine.

On the third day, Alavarah noticed that Kael’s Qi was only being sent to his skin. Stopping him 15 minutes into his cultivation she asked him, “Honey, have you reached Rank 2 body refinement already?”

Kael was confused by his mother stopping him, but replied, “No mom, I am still in Rank 1, why?”

“Oh dear, your father told you to slow down and read in detail. You are trying to refine your skin when you haven’t finished refining your body.”

“Are you sure mom? The book sounded like I had to refine my skin to step into the skin refinement rank.”

“I’m sure son, that is why it is called skin refinement rank not refined skin rank.”

Sighing, Kael went back to using the heart burst method. Alternating between bursting the energy and absorbing the medicines. Each burst of energy would push out some more black sludge. Just before he finished refining the medicines he heard the voice he had been waiting for.

Congratulations, you have stepped into Rank 2, Skin Refinement.

Cultivation rank increased Body by 1 point.

Cultivation technique increased Body by 1 point.

Continue to make persistent efforts!

Standing up with a smile, he looked at his mom and said, “There now I am rank 2.”

Alavarah rubbed his head while saying, “Congratulations on not permanently damaging your cultivation. In the future pay more attention, or you may end your path before you even start it.”

Shrugging off the hand on his head, he said, “Ok mom.” before rushing upstairs to bed.

The following 6 days were more of the same. Kael had watched Muta make forks, spoons, buckles, hinges, shoe tacks, and door handles of various sizes. Continuing to cultivate with his altered technique and improved powder recipe he managed to break through again. Feeling his skin tighten and his muscle bulge, his strength increased by 2.

The following morning when Raen found out he already broke through again she was shocked and mad. Demanding to know what he was doing differently he told her it was a mixture of his families technique and different combination of powders in his medicine bath. Pouting about not having a good cultivation method, Raen tried to pry his cultivation method out of him before Muta finally intervened. Giving in to part of her demands he told her he could make her better powders for cultivation. She would need to give him 2 stone coat, 8 bupleurum, 8 cinnamon, 5 sage, and 5 hoelen for a week's worth of powders.

Rean was shocked at the number of herbs Kael was using. Looking to Muta she asked, “Is that normal?”

Muta grumpily nodded to her, “I knew nothing good would come of letting you mix with this brat. Just absorb nature's energy slowly like the rest of the villagers.”

Pouting, Raen threw the ore she had in her hand on the ground before running upstairs.

“Sorry sir, I had no idea, I normally just go pick the herbs myself. It’s only really effective in the first disciple ranks. Rank 3 and rank 4 it is only about 30% effective.”

Seeing that Kael was genuinely clueless Muta said, “Don’t worry brat, when you go home I’ll give you the herbs to make her happy.”

Continuing a blurry day of pumping air, Kael was totally disenchanted with butter knife day. Muta stopped at about 2 pm. Telling Kael they would be doing arrowheads tomorrow, but he should head home now to refine the herbs. He left the smithy to return a few minutes later with a box of the herbs required. Taking them, Kael headed back to his house.

Quickly refining the herbs, he could feel the reduction in exp for multiple creations. With a gain of less than 100 exp, he was a little depressed. Looking down at the huge pile of powders he just refined, he realized he totally screwed up. He told Muta he needed one set of herbs per combination, not even considering the doses. After mixing it up and separating it out, he put 90 doses of his mixed powder into a box for Raen. Looking at the 75 doses of wound sealing powder and 60 doses of minor recovery powder left over he decided to set them aside for Muta.

Around dinner time Kael noticed his mother placed three sets of dishes. “Mom, is dad back already?” His question was answered by his father's shout from upstairs,

“What do you mean already? I ran my as… self tired to buy things for you!” Coming downstairs Iradin looked at his excited son. “I’ll go over what I got after dinner.”

Alavarah’s snort of approval ended any further conversation. After a decent welcome home dinner, the three sat down in the living room.

“Ok Kael, let me tell you how this works. Generally, an alchemist charges three times the cost of herbs. That cost is then divided by the number of average dans made. Powders are not alchemy, they are pharmacology, so you only get 2 times the cost instead of three.”

Listening to this Kael thought, This world actually prices things in a reasonable way.

Iradin continued, “So, mortal rank herbs are dirt cheap. The value of wound sealing powder is 6 silver per dose, minor recovery powder is 5 silver. The cultivating powders are a bit better at 14.5 silver for the minor body strengthening, and 24.5 silver for the skin refining powder. The shops would only buy at 80% of sales price, and that was only due to excellent quality.

Before I give you the total price you should know the herbs used were valued at 1 gold 110 silver.”

“Wait, dad, 110 silver? Why not 2 gold 10 silver?”

Shaking her head Alavarah interrupted, “We had this conversation, you just forgot. Everything is base 1000. I know you think base 100 is easier, but that is not how the world works. Copper to silver to gold to jade. All of them are 1000 to 1 in order."

“Ok mom, your right, we had that discussion, I still think it is dumb though.”

Iradin watching his son and wife debating broke in; “Ok whatever, 1 gold, 110 silver in production. 900 wound sealing powder made 4 gold, 320 silver. 750 minor recovery powder made 3 gold. 150 minor body strengthening powder made 1 gold, 740 silver. 150 skin refining powder made 2 gold, 940 silver. The total was 12 gold. So you made almost 11 gold in profit. More than 10 times what the average is. Therefore, you need to be careful, or someone will lock you away to use you as slave labor.”

Thinking of the three boxes Kael had laid aside, he decided he would take some out for himself to avoid suspicion.

“I know you think you are rich, but let me tell you, that knife of mine you like so much cost over 200 jade coins. That was with us supplying most of the materials. So remember, you are just playing with mortal tier items. Things made by and for mortals are in no way comparable to things made by and for cultivators.” When Iradin was done lecturing his son, he took out his pouch.

“I bought the recipes for muscle refining and bone refining powders for 2 gold. I bought the recipes for minor bone setting, minor qi gathering, and qi gathering potions for 4 gold. I bought you 10 sets of herbs for the muscle refining and bone refining powders, as well as the minor Qi gathering potion. I bought you 20 sets of herbs for the minor recovery and wound sealing powders. Finally, I bought you 20 sets of herbs for the Qi gathering potion and bone setting potion. The things I bought you in sets of 20 are to be resold to a mercenary group I met. They will buy at 90% of store cost. Oh, your broke and owe me 670 silver by the way.”

In first impression, Kael wanted to cry but had no tears. Stopping to consider the sweet talent points though, he decided he could deal with it. Glancing between his mother and father he said, “Ok, we will do it your way, but in the future half the money is mine and half is yours and moms. That is money from profit, not gross sales. Also, you have to do me a really big favor.”