While the latest elixir wasn’t anywhere near his goal, it was still better than the previous batch by a whole percent. It was an awesome improvement to make in one day, especially when he didn’t even know that alchemy existed eight hours ago. And if the limit of quality went up to a hundred as he suspected, it meant Leon was a good chunk of the way there already, even if it did get exponentially more difficult the closer one got to complete refinement.
He was proud of his efforts. Despite being incredibly anxious regarding the survival of his friends and family, he couldn’t help but feel good about improving himself.
Especially when that improvement could directly help people.
Leon glanced up at Claire. She was standing to his left at the kitchen bench, humming a tune. Leon stood up to see what she was doing and immediately regretted it. She had the squirrel splayed open, its guts hanging out and its skin pulled back so that she could see its muscles and entrails.
Leon gagged. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Hmm?” Claire said, a self-satisfied grin plastered on her face. “What’s wrong? You asked me to skin the squirrel so here I am, skinning it.”
“I can see that, but how are you so calm? At least pretend to be a normal girl and act disgusted.”
“Why? You don’t like tough and capable women?”
“No, it just makes you look crazy is all. Humming a jaunty tune is something you do when chopping vegetables or doing laundry, not dissecting a demon squirrel with bioluminescent fur.”
“If you’ll recall, you snapped this innocent little creature’s neck with your bare hands, you monster,” She said, a devious glint flashing in her eye. “And what do you mean I should be doing laundry and chopping vegetables? You wouldn’t be saying that because I’m a girl, right?”
“What does being a woman have to do with anything?” Like a rabbit with its foot halfway into a snare, Leon knew a trap when he saw one. “I was merely suggesting that a bit of restraint would go a long way. City slickers like myself are not as attuned to the natural world as people like you. Things like this can be jarring, you see.”
Claire shook her head at Leon. “You assume I’m white trash because I can carve an animal? A sexist and a classist both, I see.”
Sighing, Leon cut off the losing conversation by drinking the nine percent Bloodroot Extract he had saved for himself. It was lukewarm and made him sway on his feet as it settled in his stomach. Seconds later, his bruises faded away and his ribs stopped hurting, allowing him to finally take a deep breath without feeling any stabbing pains.
Leon turned back to Claire, holding back a mischievous grin himself. “I’m also a serial killer, but you don’t know that yet since we just met.”
“I hope you’re joking,” Claire chuckled, hacking off one of the squirrel’s legs. “If you’re genuinely curious about where I learned how to gut animals, my uncle used to take me and Sophia to his cabin in the Alps. I liked to spend my weekends there whenever life at home got too much for me.”
“Got into trouble for spendin’ too much time with the neighbour boy when you should’a been shucking corn?” Leon said, ignoring her withering glare. “No, wait! You were taking selfies while churnin’ da butter and the milk curdled seein’ as you were distracted?”
“My papa is a high-level executive at an accounting firm,” Claire huffed, making a point by slamming the knife into the squirrel’s shoulder. “And he works closely with a lot of companies owned by people who come from old money, my own family included, thank you very much.”
“Oh, so you were the spoiled rich girl who couldn’t live up to her parent’s standards then?”
“Yes and no. I got decent grades and we lived a normal life. No mansion or servants but we had a nice house in a good area and could afford vacations. It was my hobbies that were the problem. Not lady-like enough, my father liked to say. I refused to stop so he spent a lot of money hiring an etiquette tutor for me in hopes that I wouldn’t embarrass him again.”
“Again, you say? What happened the first time?”
“After we went to dinner with a client of his, I…”
“What did you do?” Leon said, sensing a juicy story.
“I dropped my sippy cup and shouted out ‘shit!’ when it spilled all over me. Mama said I learned it from Papa when he slipped on some hard ice on our driveway.”
Leon burst out laughing.
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. My mom tells the story every year on my birthday and Christmas so I’m used to it.”
“From then on, I became infamous in certain social circles due to it being told as a funny story. My papa wanted me to become an ideal lady, the raised pinky not withholding, since people were still talking about it years later and embarrassing him. I learned proper etiquette and so on, but I gained a passion for some rather unladylike hobbies because of him trying to force me to be something I’m not. He tried to make me stop but my mama was supportive of me, not to mention I was doing well in competitions and my teachers said I was- Hold on, what’s this?”
Leon walked over and blocked his nose, finding Claire’s knife poking into the belly of the squirrel. Just beneath its stomach was a glowing golden… something. It was stuck deep in its flesh so Claire jammed her knife in and cut it out, the wet squelch making Leon’s stomach turn.
When she was done, Claire held up a half-formed sphere of tarnished gold. It was the size of his pinky nail and glowed in the shade of the house. The orb was so hot that he flinched when she handed it to him, the warmth nearly enough to burn him. Still, while the heat was strange, he was more surprised by its texture.
The half-formed sphere was more solid than a rock.
“What do you think it is?” Claire said.
“I have no idea, but I’m guessing it’s some cultivator nonsense.”
“You want to try and make an elixir out of it?”
Leon nodded and tossed the thing into some hot water. He spent five minutes blasting it with concentrated flames, however, his eyes widened in shock when he looked into the cauldron. The chunk of gold was unchanged. Leon tried again after some deliberation with Claire, only this time he put the rock into the hot coals themselves.
Twenty minutes later, they gave up and fished the rock out with a stick. Leon was hesitant to get too close, but after some careful prodding, he discovered that the temperature hadn’t changed at all. It was back in his hand less than ten seconds after pulling out of the coals.
“Damn,” Leon said, wrapping the stone in a ripped-up pair of underwear. “I want to cultivate tonight and try to advance again so let’s leave this for another time. We probably need to do something special to work this thing anyway.”
“Eww,” Claire said, her nose scrunched up at the sight of his underwear. “Why do you still have those?”
“I couldn’t find a bin, I guess,” Leon said, doing a double take and rounding on her when he realised what she had just said. “You say ‘eww’ to old underwear but not magical squirrel entrails?”
Claire laughed at that. “You have to be joking? The inside of this squirrel is probably much cleaner than that biohazard you’re holding.”
“Hey, the world just got nuked,” Leon said, putting the wrapped stone in his pack. “I’m not going to contribute any more to its destruction by improperly disposing of biohazard material. Not that there’s anything other than sweat on these.”
“Whatever you say, poopy pants.”
Leon sighed. “Also, sorry to ask but do you mind preparing dinner tonight while I rest and cultivate? I’m about to fall over I’m so tired.”
“Sure, you did kind of help out today.”
“I ‘kind of’ saved your sister’s life and ‘kind of’ gave you several one-of-a-kind healing elixirs for free?”
Claire rolled her eyes and got back to butchering. “Yes, and I never did thank you for that.”
“You can now?”
“Yes, I guess I could.”
When she didn’t say anything, pointedly winking and ignoring him, Leon chuckled and rolled his sleeping bag out beside the fire. Claire was probably still pissed at him, which was understandable. Who wouldn’t after they were almost murdered? Sitting down on his sleeping bag, Leon began to cultivate. He wanted to see if he would get another first title for reaching the next stage of Foundation Forging.
If what he was breaking into was the next stage and not another minor breakthrough, that is.
Exhaling, Leon’s Qi spread throughout his body. Despite this minor breakthrough being focused on the senses, almost every part of his body absorbed some Qi. One would think only the eyes, ears, and nose would be affected, but those weren’t the only senses. Heat, pain, balance, proprioception, and several more were likely involved in the breakthrough. All of them were senses that the brain could interpret, and thus they were all enhanced by Qi in this stage.
After half an hour of slowly imbuing his flesh with Qi, Leon felt no change or sensation. He began to wonder what he could try to melt the squirrel stone, but those thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind when he suddenly broke through. His skin began to tingle, sound disappeared as he went deaf, and his eyes filled with pressure to the point they began to ache.
His Qi continued to flow but his body no longer accepted the power of his spirit. He had finished breaking through, his flesh undergoing a change that temporarily halted its ability to absorb Qi. Still, the difference in what he previously experienced made him confused.
Leon had fainted on his first advancement and almost passed out again on his second, so why was he fine now? Even the sensations were much weaker than before, the mild discomfort simply not on the same scale as his brain being zapped by a lightning storm or his nerves turning into molten metal as they seared into his flesh.
This breakthrough, his skin tingled a little and his eyes felt weird and… yeah, that was about it.
Leon opened his eyes and immediately began to tip over. The world was spinning around him, his body swaying to correct his balance. A haze of green blanketed the forest. While it was mostly transparent, some flowers and herbs appeared as if they had fireflies sitting atop them. There was also a blue mist hanging over the stream of water.
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Staring gave Leon a splitting headache. Still, he pushed through the agony in hopes of making sense of the chaotic world around him. A breeze drifted over him, and with it came a yellow mist, almost like he was looking through stained glass. This was aura. Suddenly, everything made sense in Leon’s mind.
He was seeing aura.
Leon reached into his pack and almost blinded himself. The stone from the squirrel was like a light bulb it was so bright. His hand brushed past the golden mist, and to his surprise, he actually felt something tangible above the rock. It was like pushing his hand into a warm bowl of water, only far less dense and subtle to his new senses. The golden orange glow was comforting and warm, reminding him of the light of a new day; a gentle sunrise.
Thankfully, Leon’s nausea quickly subsided, allowing him to examine the world around him. It was a beautiful cacophony of colours, the dominant two being red and gold from the trees and grass around him. Between the two, however, was a rainbow of different aura.
Leon walked over to Claire and examined the butchered remains of the squirrel. There were flakes of purple, but it was mired in a haze of red like the Bloodroot Berries he had collected in a small bowl. Leon stared into the cloud of red surrounding the berries but he couldn’t figure out why it looked wrong. He moved the bowl over to the carcass and instantly discovered the difference.
The red mist, which he decided to call blood aura, was distinctly brighter and less dense than the red aura clinging to the berries. They were different types of the same thing, like charcoal and wood. Or maybe that was wrong. The berries were useful, their essences able to induce change in the real world compared to the blood aura clinging to the squirrel.
A better example would be a log compared to a wooden bowl, one raw and the other directed into a shape that was useful for humans.
Leon chatted with Claire about his discovery until dinner was ready. To his shock, her pack was full of herbs and spices. The duo had been at their uncle’s cabin before they were brought here, meaning they had to bring their own spices if they wanted to eat anything with flavour.
Claire prepared steaks and some kind of meaty stew out of the less tender parts of the squirrel. While it was no surf and turf, it was infinitely better than what Leon could’ve prepared with his limited ingredients.
Claire woke her little sister up and brought her up to speed on what was going on. Leon had given her an elixir earlier in the day but she was half asleep at the time. When Claire pointed him out, Sophia watched him like a hawk, her eyes radiating concern at his presence. She had seen him attack Claire, something that still made him feel extremely guilty despite their growing rapport.
Still, he would have probably done the same thing if he could go back and redo their first encounter.
Sophia began to frown at Leon, making his heart skip a beat. If she had a major issue with him being there, he may have to find his way out of this forest on his own.
Claire turned and called him over, introducing Leon and how he had given her the healing elixir. Sophia was probably eleven or twelve, meaning she was old enough to grasp a reasonably nuanced situation such as this.
Whatever Claire had said to her sister allowed things to move smoothly from there.
Once the food was dished up, everyone sat down beside the fire in silence. Leon wanted to make a joke about how they must’ve looked like a family at a campsite, but he bit his tongue and remained silent.
He didn’t want to give Claire the wrong idea about his intentions, especially with the way he noticed her looking at him. Above all, Leon was not unfaithful. He would never cheat on Mila even if they were on the cusp of breaking up and the relationship was over in all but name. Something about the thought of being disloyal made his stomach turn.
“By the way,” Leon said, glancing at Claire, “I never asked what stage your cultivation was. And have you started cultivating yet Sophia?”
“I am at the early stage of Foundation Forging and recently empowered my nerves with Qi a few days-”
“I have ninety-two points of aura saturation!” Sophia said, beaming up at Leon. “Only another week or two before I can start fighting like you guys.”
Leon blinked, wondering where her enthusiasm came from. She’d been staring at him with a complicated expression the last five minutes, pressuring him to try and come up with some way to smooth things out between them.
“That’s very good,” Leon encouraged. “If you’re interested, I might have a skill or two for you to learn when the time comes.”
“You would really do that for a stranger?”
“Of course.”
It took up a good chunk of his time, but Leon was more than happy to share his power. It wasn’t like any of his skills were that complicated, either. A smart adult could probably decipher them if they watched him use one a few times.
“Interesting. How many stages ahead of my sister are you?”
Leon chuckled. “I’m one minor step ahead. I just broke through to middle Foundation Forging earlier today, meaning your sister is only one step behind me.”
“Really? I thought you would be around two or three steps ahead at the very least.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because of how easily you beat her up.”
Claire choked on her squirrel, levelling a glare at Sophie who pretended not to notice.
“Ah,” Leon delayed, feeling he should choose his words carefully. “Well, I beat her because I’ve been learning martial arts since I was about six years old. If Claire had a few years of fighting experience she might’ve killed me since I was unarmed.”
“But my big sister has been learning to fight since she was four?”
Leon felt his eye twitch. “She has?”
“My sister is a kickboxer. We travelled to watch her compete last year and then we spent two weeks at a resort to celebrate her coming third in a national tournament.”
“Must have been my superior cultivation then,” Leon gave a weak chuckle, not daring to glance at Claire. “Plus she was exhausted.”
“You were also exhausted, not to mention the bruises and your crippled arm. And besides, didn’t you just say that you only advanced today? That means you were at the same cultivation stage as my sister when you fought-”
“Shut up and eat your squirrel steaks or there will be no brain jelly for dessert, young lady,” Claire snapped, unable to stay quiet any longer.
“Did you actually make brain jelly?” Sophia gagged. “I didn’t think your cooking skills were as bad as your fighting skills.”
Claire reached over and tried to pinch her little sister. She jumped behind Leon and tried to use him as a shield, but Claire just pinched them both. Sophia yelped and rubbed her arm while Leon didn’t even bother to react beyond laughing at the sibling squabble. He was exhausted, not to mention he’d been through much worse today. A little pinching was fine as long as it got the anger out of Claire’s system.
He could tell she was a genuinely nice person, just frazzled by the events of the last two weeks. He was as well. Leon never would’ve attacked someone like that before today, but when someone’s life was on the line, it meant making tough decisions in the moment. Even if he had to live with the consequences after.
Leon hoped to drain some of those emotions by letting her pinch him, but instead of making her feel better, she only became more upset for some reason.
“What are you made of? Steel? You must have fifty points in your Body stat, for heaven’s sake!”
“That’s a good question, actually. I haven’t looked at my status in a while.”
Status
Name: Leon Hartwell
Stage: Middle Foundation Forging
Race: [Mortal] Human
Level: 8
Titles: First Step, Prodigy III, Inspired III, Executioner IV, Refined, Disciple of Fire.
Mind: 3.48
Body: 3.59
Spirit: 2.36
Skills
Qi Bullet (R), True Sight (Un), Flame Control.
Starting from the top, Leon exulted in the fact that he had finally reached middle Foundation Forging. He’d been terrified that each breakthrough was only for one sense.
If his guess was correct, he could now start working on refining his body. The middle stage should be focused on the asset he knew best, and hopefully breaking through to the next major realm would also come with a fun little surprise like his new aura sight.
Next, all of Leon’s stats had increased by around half a point. Mind and Spirit both a little more while Body had increased a tiny bit less than the other two. He had strained himself terribly after using Qi Bullet twice, hurting every part of himself.
It was no wonder that his stats had improved so rapidly. It was just a shame that the numbers were so abstract, making it hard to conceptualise what the improvement meant. Since Leon wasn’t sure how the changes scaled in the real world, he decided to ask the girls if they knew anything about how stats worked.
And to his surprise, they did.
“One point in the Body stat means you should be able to bench press around fifty kilograms. We tried to figure out Mind and Spirit, but unlike the simplicity of weight lifting, it was far too difficult to find an objective test for either of them. Do we have people solve math problems? Compete in a chess tournament? What about a staring contest to measure their ability to focus? None of the tests we tried had consistent results, so we gave up.”
Leon nodded, recalling that his Body stat had been a little above two when he first ignited his life essence and gained access to his status. Compared to his personal best on bench, which was a single rep of a hundred kilograms, he found that Claire’s knowledge should border on the truth.
Did that mean Leon could now bench nearly two hundred kilograms? He balked at that, feeling slighted that any random person could do what he did in a decade with less than a month of work. Of course, while there was a flash of bitterness, it was swallowed up by the fact that his strength had nearly doubled in around two weeks. If he was training hard, he could probably raise his personal best by two to five kilograms in six months.
Now he was improving ten times more in a tenth of the time.