MASTER ARCHMAGE

Lynne had furiously traveled for nearly six hours before finally coming to a stop, secluding himself within an isolated ravine, deep inside a naturally made cave. The Primal Beast had already returned back into the sect realm, and even the lizard he obtained randomly was invited. As the creature could talk in human tongue – since it passed seven evolutions – Lynne was able to learn that his name was Rugg, and that he was a Dragonkin Lizard. Although the Dragon bloodline within him was extremely – extremely – faint, it still counted for something.

When Rugg entered the sect realm, Lynne could hear his happy screams, and he even fell onto his knees and kowtowed three times at Lynne, thanking him.

“Hai, but of course; when I have ever mistreated my friends? Hu hu.” was Lynne’s response.

While Lynne’s heart still pounded heavily, he forced it calm by constantly sending Mana into it. That experience just now was too terrifying for him. Even though he, technically, managed to escape two great massacres, if someone asked him to do it again, he’d rather eat dirt for an entire year. Although he didn’t lack confidence in his strength – especially since he regularly started sparring against that youth inside the sect’s Garden of Flames – it didn’t mean he was complacent enough to believe himself invincible.

“I need to increase my strength – and I need to do it right now,” Lynne mused lowly as he stroke his chin. He felt faint traces of subtle under his fingers, but paid them no heed. “The quickest way is definitely through the Origin Laws, but understanding a fart of those requires way too much time. My battle experience is growing each day, so I can disregard that for now as well. All that’s left is simply increasing the strength of my Spell Arts as well as Mana… huh, looks like it’s high time I concocted a useful pill.”

Although Lynne was able to concoct Rank 10 pills and potions for quite some time, most of the pills were ordinary ones. This was due to the fact that he lacked proficiency in controlling flames, as well as the fact that he could barely use two. Now that he had stabilized his insights into fire, as well as learned the third type of Natural Flames, he was confident in being able to concoct Rank 10 pill that he had been eying ever since the monkey gave him the Alchemist Manual.

The name of the pill was Frostfire Surge, and Lynne only had enough ingredients for two attempts. Although the effects of the pill were far from heaven-defying, it was perfect for someone who focused on fire path. Not only would the pill give his Mana faint fire attribute, it would also make it so that he’d be able to mask the warmth of his flame – hence the ‘frost’ in its name.

Taking out two batches of herbs, he solemnly looked over them before taking in a deep breath. Putting one back into the space pouch, he spent additional hour stabilizing his condition. Before him lay twenty-seven different types of herbs, some relatively common, others relatively rare. The reason he was unable to concoct Frostfire Surge before was because some ingredients required the green flame as a catalyst.

His eyes flashed with glint of determination and he immediately caused three floating spheres of flames to appear. He had long since discarded the idea of concocting pills through the usage of equipment. When the monkey told him that Rank 11 through Rank 14 and above pills can only be concocted manually, although it stung, he pushed through it. Now, he was more or less as proficient as some Alchemy geniuses using equipment to concoct high-ranking pills.

Separating the herbs into three batches, he caused the golden flame to wreathe heavily as he began pouring one herb after another into it. As they got processed, they left behind a single, liquified drop; some were lime green, some were chilly blue, some were completely translucent… after about two hours, nine herbs in the first batch – which passed through the golden flames – were transformed into nine liquified drops floating in the air.

Lynne quickly recovered his Mana and Soul Force. Using tinges of Soul Force here and there eased the process quite a lot, which is why he merely spent two hours. After recovering, he repeated the same process with the second batch – leaving behind twelve drops created through the blue flames. At last, the third batch went through the green flames, leaving behind six drops, each identically scarlet.

However, amongst all the drops, two appeared the most dominant: the one from the first batch which was chilly blue in color, emitting deep aura of cold. This drop was the exact reason for the ‘frost’ in the name of the pill. The second was a droplet from the second batch, wreathing in the golden, seemingly ablaze. The current of warmth oozed from it, filling the entire room to a brim, nearly nullifying the effects of the blue drop.

After recovering yet again, Lynne took in a deep breath as his expression grew solemn. He had extracted droplets in similar fashion before, so he had some experience, but he had never attempted melding so many different types into a pill, which was the most difficult part.

Nudging his fingers forward slightly, the droplets hovering in the air trembled slightly. The two dominant droplets closed in towards one another, while all others rotated around them like moons for a few moments. Medical fragrance and aroma exploded as the droplets were extinguished one by one. A small tornado, with two dominant droplets at the center, drew in all the aroma from the exploded droplets, preventing the escape.

Golden and blue droplets slowly began crystallizing while growing larger, their corners shifting further together, slowly beginning to bond.

“Come on,” he muttered nervously. “You better do as this granddaddy instructed, else I’ll cook you for dinner and feed you to the dogs. Ai, ai, stop fighting back!!” he cried ever more so nervously as he nearly lost control over the entire process. “Don’t listen to me, it’s just rumbling of a madman. Who listens to a madman anyway? Other madmen, obviously! You definitely aren’t madmen! Hell, you aren’t even men! Dammit!!”

Lynne bit his lip as he began feeling dizzy. This was the most exhausted he felt ever since he started learning Alchemy. Each pill, in addition to its general ranking, was also divided into different qualities: low, middle, high and supreme. Lynne, so far, had mostly concocted low ranked pills, with some middle ones thrown in there from time to time. However, Frostfire Surge was High Rank 10 pill, and it was amongst the best in that department. Naturally, the process of creating it wouldn’t be easy.

“Holy shit!!” Lynne exclaimed loudly, his eyes bloodshot red, his stomach grumbling from hunger. “It’s been almost eleven hours! Eleven freaking hours! An entire orphanage of babies could have been made by this point! Come on, please, just stop playing will-they won’t-they game. Nobody likes it! I promise you that much! Just will… just will, please!!”

Even though he had enough herbs for the second attempt, Lynne felt he’d rather run back to Lady Fen’er and ask for her help rather than doing this all over again. The only reason he managed to persist thus far was because of his complete desperation. His father’s execution was less than a month away. Although, deep down, he knew that nothing he did would make him strong enough to change anything, he still stubbornly persisted; it was, in a way, his way of coping. He didn’t want to feel the regret over having ignored Magic for so long. Thus, he believed that every inch he took was actually a mile in reality. Just like this pill.

In the end, after thirteen hours of painstaking process, the fusion was complete and the pill, shimmering in cold, peach color appeared after a blinding flash of light and slight tremor. The pill was actually quite big – much bigger than those thumb-sized pills he was used to concocting. It was nearly three times as large, and Lynne began wondering just how the hell will he swallow it.

Despite the exhaustion, he didn’t rest, and instead immediately popped it into his mouth. While figuring out how to swallow the damn thing, the pill actually began melting inside his mouth. Strange sensation of being both ablaze and frozen stung his body throughout, causing him to be both frozen in place and extremely jumpy. Although strange, it wasn’t truly unpleasant or uncomfortable, hence he easily endured it.

He felt the medical portion of the pill fuse into his veins as it melted down his throat, slowly flowing towards his soul. At the same time, he separated a part of his consciousness to study something he didn’t in a while: his Origin Spell, Infinite Faces. He realized he can’t actually change his aura yet, and decided he needed to evolve it immediately. This, in addition to the surge of Mana reserves, he felt, should be enough to push him up an entire rank.

With split attention, his Gift of Comprehension truly came into play; others would find it practically impossible to divide their attention to two exhausting tasks, yet Lynne felt at a relative ease throughout it. He felt far more exhausted while focusing his entire attention to the fusion process, so this turned out like a camping trip for him in comparison.

An hour… ten… soon, an entire day passed, and Lynne jolted his eyes open, his lips curled up in a complacent smile. The effects of the Frostfire Surge pill were extremely magical; he felt his Mana faintly burn in flaming sensation, with his reserves having nearly doubled! Naturally, he’d have to spend upwards of half a year expelling all the side-effects of the pill, but he couldn’t care less about that for a moment. In addition to the rise in his Mana reserves, he also succeeded in the first evolution of his Origin Spell: Infinite Faces!

In addition to just outward, general appearance, he could now change his aura, his voice, and even attribute of his Mana to a certain degree. He could nearly become a whole another person. Extremely pleased with himself, before he could do anything else, he collapsed onto the floor and immediately fell asleep. Exhaustion finally caught up to him, and he couldn’t fight it off anymore.

“Heh, who said I suck, huh?” he murmured softly as he was enveloped in a pleasant dream. “Your mother sucks! Look at me, becoming Master Archmage just like that! Heh, just you wait… soon, I’ll… krrrr…” his lips parted like horse’s, and he began snoring loudly, his face writhed in smiles.