As night fell, the mountain was ablaze with fire once more. Creatures of varying size roamed the mountainside, their skeletal bodies covered in a burning gelatinous substance. Trees once dead burned with renewed life, their branches filled with flames as fiery birds streaked through the skies like burning comets.

The fires of failure burn beautifully. I sighed, stroking a hand over the fiery rabbit shape Pyr. Behind me the temple's disciples stood in small groups, their voices a low murmur as they gazed at the altered wildlife.

For now, none of the creatures intruded on the plateau, but I did not trust it would stay that way. Keeping them out, meant we would need to speed up construction of the wall around the future town. Though, a wall would do little to stop the fast flying balls of fire that burst across the skies.

“High priestess.” A low masculine voice broke me from my contemplation of forming a giant domed roof over the town.

I turned to see a tawny haired man dressed in the robes of an alchemy disciple.

“Disciple Atticus,” I responded, arching a brow at the man in question.

“Would you be able to direct me in researching burn salves? I believe there shall soon be great need of them,” Atticus said, gesturing to the flaming wildlife.

“First, you must consider what is needed to treat such a wound. What are the aspects a burn salve should have? What do you want to achieve with your salve?”

He nodded, looking thoughtful. “It should nullify the pain, soothe the skin, and repair the damage.”

“Start with looking at how the basic salve is made, which uses honey, aloe vera and Muroosa oil. Look at the properties of those reagents, look for ways to improve the quality of them or find better ones with similar properties.” I suggested with a smile.

Atticus seemed to be proving himself a studious disciple, who’d already completed four out of the twenty research projects posted on the board inside the alchemy tower. He’d also shown an interest in attending Brodel’s transmutation classes, and Meissa’s astrology ones. Which showed he understood that to be successful as an alchemist in this world, he required knowledge in all three areas.

He was one of the few who’d become a direct disciple that showed himself truly worthy of the position. The others either didn’t respond to my calling them to the temple, or left shortly after arriving. It was disappointing, but their departure meant I had fair reason to remove them as direct disciples and make room for others.

I spoke with Atticus for a few more moments before turning my attention to the other two alchemy disciples who were currently residing in the temple.

Both had been granted the position of inner disciple after gaining the needed points with brewing tasks, which was the fastest method of gathering points in the alchemy department. Even so, it wasn’t easy to brew potions using my recipes, as it required them to follow the recipe exactly in order for the silver fox insignia to appear on the vial. One mistake, and the batch would not be valid, resulting in far fewer points earned.

“I will be creating research tasks for the investigation into these creatures,” I informed the group, holding up Pyr as I spoke. “In the morning, my disciple Natalie will come to the tower to post the tasks on the board, and shall bring Pyr for you all to examine. After that, you will need to capture a specimen of your own to conduct research with. This specimen can remain wild, however, I have found bonding with specimens of high alchemic value makes them easier to handle.”

“They glow really brightly.” The one who spoke was Kensa, a pretty elven girl with hair a shade of light purple.

“They’re on fire, so obviously they glow.” Peran snorted, rolling his eyes. I narrowed my eyes at the man, whilst he’d earned his place as an inner disciple, I was finding his attitude towards the females in the temple less than pleasant.

“I was referring to their alchemic nature,” Kensa retorted, her lips pressing into a tight line.

As the two began arguing, I moved away from the group whilst making a mental note to keep an eye on Peran. If his behavior continued, something would need to be done.

Brodel stood surrounded by his disciples, speaking to them in low tones as he lectured them on the proper formation of a wall. As he began speaking about foundations, my cheeks burned hotly as I recalled the wall I had built in Sēkrit. In a way, it was fortunate the brotherhood stole that land from us, as it saved the embarrassment we would have suffered when the wall crumbled.

I was quick to move away from the group, not wanting to risk any of the disciples asking me questions, and thus reveal my inexperience. It was better to use the guise of Natalie to interact with the disciples, as it allowed me to be open about my lack of knowledge in certain areas, after all Natalie was a disciple too.

Meissa, and her disciples stood off in the distance, their arms held above them as they practiced imbuing star points to cast a blessing. The star dancers would be paired with the transmutation disciples working on the wall, casting blessings to aid their mana, and stamina regeneration.

Movement further down the mountain caught my eye, and I turned to watch as a group of six people made their way to the plateau.

Bright pink hair stood out amongst the group, signifying it was the hunting team I sent to investigate, and capture some of the fiery creatures now inhabiting the mountain.

As they drew closer, I set Pyr down, leaving the flaming rabbit to hop along behind me as I moved to greet the team.

“How did it go?” I asked, eyeing the cart the broad shouldered Loyd pulled. Large glass jars filled with a reddish liquid sat stacked in the back of the cart, alongside piles of blackened bones, and sealed stone boxes.

“Why is it always fire with you, Foxy?” Rainy asked with sigh, showing me both her arms which were covered in bandages.

“I’m a Kitsune, fire is an integral part of our nature.” I replied, inspecting a jar containing dark red orbs. “Are these the cores from the Pyrthirío?”

“You get to name your very own species, and that is what you choose?” The dryad scoffed.

I ignored her, still looking over the different items the guild team brought back. It wasn’t like she, or any of the others had a better name, and considering it was Pyr who played a part in creating them, it only made sense to name them as such.

“Please bring these items to the lab,” I directed Loyd, who nodded.

As each member of the team trudged past me, I handed them a plain canvas pouch with continued four vials of pain relieving tincture, and a jar of basic burn salve along with ten gold coins. In addition to the monetary reward, each of the participating members would get points from both myself, and the guild for the hunt.

If hunting the Pyrthirío was anything like combating the original Pyr, they more than earned the gold. The only way to kill Pyr that I had discovered, was to starve it of oxygen or shatter the core at the very center of its body.

Water only caused Pyr’s fire to spread, so dousing the wisp wasn’t an option, and the wisp could melt most weapons used to physically attack it, which made shattering the core difficult. Thus, the most effective method was to trap the wisp within a stone box, which in itself wasn’t an easy task to achieve even with a transmuter to create said box.

The plan had been for the team to dig a series of holes, then it was only a matter of getting the Pyrthirío’s into said holes for Roswyn to seal them inside. Though, as Rainy explained on our way into the temple, that was easier said than done.

“The smaller ones seem placid for the most part, behaving like normal animals, but once you attack them they go completely feral.” Rainy explained, her slender fingers forming claws that slashed at the air as she described a fight with a Pyrthirío squirrel. “We didn’t come across many larger animals, aside from a rather angry bear that almost killed Sasha, and Hughe as it chased them back to the pit.”

“I am glad there were no casualties.” I murmured, only half paying attention as I watched the hunting team start carrying my goodies up the stairs to my personal quarters.

My mind whirled with the possibilities for what could be created with the components from these creatures. They, like Pyr, were living alchemic fire, the burning ooze which coated their forms was a highly concerted version of the substance which filled the fire orbs I created. On its own, that flaming substance was a strong weapon if thrown, but I was certain there was more it could be used for.

There were also the skeletons, and cores to consider as well. Could we create a new version of the undying fire array, switching the fire wisp core for these ones? Would it create a normal fire, or something different? Did these creatures regenerate as Pyr did, if placed in a fire for a long enough time? What about the charred black Skeletons with their necromantic taint? What could those be used for?

“There's also a few humanoid ones running around, but we avoided those as they gave off a strong aura.”

Rainy’s words brought my thoughts to a grinding halt. “Humanoid?”

Wide eyed, I turned to face the green skinned dryad who nodded.

“They must have been caught in the fire.” She said.

“I, er,” I stumbled over my words, trying to formulate a reply. “Can players, and citizens be raised as necromantic creatures?”

“Yes,” she nodded again, brushing a strand of pink hair behind her ear. “If you’re corrupted before death, the body won’t disappear, but will rise as a necromantic being. When you revive, your mana will be heavily depleted, and you either have to restore it through hunting, or by killing your tainted other half. It’s part of why people hate Nerco’s so much, they can set you back a lot if they manage to corrupt your core. The only way to prevent it, is to seek out a magic user to be cleansed, or to bless you with protection.”

“Like the blessing you put on our team when we were hunting in the dungeons,” I recalled, remembering the druidic blessings Rainy would bestow on our team before hunting trips.

“Exactly.” She said, plucking a petal from her hair, which she flicked towards a blackened shard of bone. “Healers, Druids, and Water Mages all have a form of cleansing or protective magic to prevent corruption, as do most light oriented magic classes.”

I watched as the petal touched the bone, the darkness receding to leave a patch of white around the petal. “It’s not very effective,” I observed.

Rainy sighed. “Unfortunately, I haven’t put much focus into cleansing magic, which is why I couldn’t help Kip with his shoulder. I should probably work on it some more since you’ve decided to pollute the mountain with your tainted Pyr pets.”

“They’re not creatures of necromancy, but of alchemic ingenuity.” I said, picking up the bone to examine it closely.

The bone did give off a faint feeling of darkness, but it wasn’t anywhere near the level Pyr gave off whilst corrupted, or that which could be felt from the vial of taint I infected the wing-eared rabbit with.

The dryad let out a snort, muttering something under her breath that sounded a lot like “Bullshit”.

“What was that,” I asked, raising a brow at the woman.

“Hopefully the ones who died on the mountain weren’t members of the guild, or disciples.” Rainy said.

I narrowed my eyes, that wasn’t what she had said at all, but I would let it slide, she had helped bring me my new experiments after all.

“You say that, yet it is highly likely they were one of the two. Why else would they be on the mountain, if not to visit the temple?” I grumbled, setting the bone back down.

“Plenty of reasons,” the dryad said thoughtfully. “Hunting, gathering plants, wood, or mining stone. The mountain was a good place for gathering various resources.”

“And now it’s burned to a crisp,” a new voice cut in, causing us both to turn around in surprise.

“What are you doing here?” I growled at the intruder standing in the doorway to my lab.

Just when I thought I had enough problems to deal with, another one comes waltzing through the door!