Weird night a sleep that night. I'm taken into the white void again. And meet with the greater god again… He just said that I've already been infected.
“What when!?”
“Well, it could have happened when you took that sip of tea. That is all it needs… Or either of those pepper bombs that hit you would have given you one. I didn't just use one method, I'll let you go now since I have to remove around ten thousand soul leeches from food around you… Also from some of your men since you're a spoil sport who would give up if I leave them in there. Also, tell Zergnar to calm down on eating… He has twelve different leeches inside him from the amounts of food he's eaten.”
“Does that mean I have more than one?”
“Nope, I killed them off already as soon as you went to sleep. You only had one so increasing the amount might ruin the experiment of your life.”
“Great. Hey whats up with that tree? What kind of food does it have? Who is going to be the next general to die? What is it like being a god?”
“Hahaha, you're as greedy as ever when it comes to information. I'll answer one question before I go.”
“Which general is the next to die and can I stop it?”
“...I'll only give you a hint since it is spoilers. It is the general who cares for you the most.”
“WHAT KIND OF VAGUE BULLSHIT IS THAT!?”
“Hahaha, I knew you would ask that and I left it vague on purpose. I'll let you think of who it could be… I know you'll never guess it either. The answer is right in front of your face and you'll let them travel right to their own death.”
I wake up... Why did I even ask that? It's not like I can do anything with that information. I look over in my bed… All of my pets have moved into my room and are laying on my bed. Besides Darkclaw who would take up the majority of it so he sleeps in a pile of spider silk I had made for him in the corner of the room.
I got over the fact that Red could change into a human form quickly. She never transformed when I was Greed, it must have been an upgrade from an evolution path after I died.
I look at all my pets. The number of them is more than I thought was possible to get. I can still tame 3 more… Morpheus has bonded with me… All of my pets are bonded with me. I try and remember something about each one.
Sock was my first pet, he was a wolf that changed into a direwere. Pokodo was my second, she was a ferret that changed into a pure white variant that could heal. They've spent the most time with me. Darkclaw was next, I bonded him the moment we laid eyes on each other, I knew we were bound together. Morpheus was technically next, even though he took longer to bond with then Blue. He didn't get a new class when he evolved. He didn't gain anything he could teach me either… Going to Blue next.
Blue is sitting up. He is the only pet awake right now. Sitting on the edge of the bed. He looks somewhat sad at something. I gesture to him. We leave the room and begin to talk in the hallway.
“Master… I haven't been completely honest with you… You aren't my first master. I was the partner of an adventurer before. We traveled together for two years. Most people wouldn't try to tame a weakling imp but she saw something in me… I let her down. She died without my help. I let a group of bandits kill her when we were outnumbered… Then ran away. I'm still ashamed at what I've done. I was so scared back then, I thought my next master would have to be so strong I wouldn't have to worry. When we met… You were anything but strong. I still bonded with you and I couldn't understand why. I made up reasons for it but never really thought about it… With all the pets you have, the people you've been drawing in. I understand why now. I wasn't looking for a strong master. I was looking for a leader to follow.”
“I knew something was wrong with you Blue. You've always seemed like you had a darkness about you. Less trusting than my other pets. Just understand, I don't mind if your cowardly. It suits me a lot if you haven't noticed. I myself am a giant coward. That is why I am such a good leader. I'm not above going the cheap route if it will mean the safety of my men. Even if it seems cowardly or unfair. I wont die Blue... I can't die yet.”
We head back in the room and I look over my other pets. Purple is sleeping above the bed upside down. He has changed in appearance since his last evolution. He started to get darker in color, getting even smaller than he was before. He is now very close to the fastest in my army. Barely behind Darkclaw in speed. His telepathic abilities might have been the biggest upgrade out of all of my pets. The ability to communicate to other people without speaking could be very helpful for stealth missions. He also didn't gain a new class or skill when he evolved.
Red is no longer nude. While she can change forms at will, she prefers to stay human. I added a druid badge to her kimono I specially made for her. I learned how to make it but haven't had a reason to make gear without just enchanting it with visual distortion. In a fit of inspiration I made kimonos for all of my female generals to wear around when they aren't expecting to fight… Red doesn't wear underwear…
I realized I haven't taught my pets any classes since they've evolved. I'll have to train with them later. First, I still need to do some things around the village. I want to learn the ninjutsu skills and transmutation first. So I can level them up while in the time tree. I'll let my sleeping pets continue to sleep.
I'll have to convince Nami and find a transmutation master today. I'll start with the transmutation. I ask around and I'm sent outside the village walls. The transmutation master has a hut set up on the outskirts of the other side of the village. The side opposite of the boats. So the main reason I didn't find it was because of that. It is the beginning of the day, I hope I have enough time to learn both things today.
I rush through the village. I'd rather not change into dragon form and scare all the villagers… On second thought, I might be attacked by the ninjas if I change. I am strong but they have countermeasures against dragons. If I get hit with pepper bombs I can't use my strongest attacks...
I make it through the village. I can see smoke coming from inside the forest here. That must be where the transmutation master is. I turn into griffin form and fly up. I shouldn't be shot down if I'm only a griffin… Hopefully… I see a hut with a fire in front of it. The hermit on the outskirts of town is stirring a pot of some kind on the fire… He's very old. Maybe even older than the shogun. Clumps of fur is missing from his skin. I'll have to approach carefully or risk scaring him to death.
I land out of sight and try to approach him slowly. When he notices me he screams.
“AHHHHH! Who are you!?”
“I sorry to intrude, I was looking for the transmutation master.”
“HIHEHAHO! That would be me. Why are you visiting? Have you come to be my apprentice?”
“I… Yes I have. How did you know?”
“Well. I figured someone would come to learn from me before I died. You're a weird looking murine though? You sure you're not here for some of my famous hair restoring tonic?”
As he says that he pours some of the liquid he was stirring on himself. It immediately strips the hair where it was poured… I get the feeling that this person is crazy.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“No thank you, your teachings is the main reason I'm here.”
“Ok then lets get started.”
His hand points at some barrels in the corner.
“As my new apprentice, you need to fill these barrels up with water from the ocean. We'll go over what to do after that.”
I get to it. He lives a distance away from the ocean so it takes a long time. The second I get them back he asks the next step.
“Here's an ax, cut down ten trees and hall them here.”
I get to work again. I see him messing with the water. Continuing to cut the trees down. It doesn't take as long as fetching the water. I'm still wasting a big portion of time on getting materials… If I find out he's making me gather materials for making his stupid hair growth formula I'll be super mad. I cut them and wait for my next instructions.
“Here is a list of herbs to purchase from the town. You should also buy a few pieces of equipment with any spare money you have.”
“You can use my gear if you want.”
“How can I use your gear? It is fairly enchanted already. It seems you know the applications of all the three branching paths already. I wouldn't be able to transmute the enchants onto your gear.”
...Was he playing stupid to make me drop my guard.
“While your in town you should pick some of the flowers from the castles flowerbeds. They're the tastiest.”
...I guess not. It does seem like he takes his profession seriously. He could be a very good teacher if I can see his brilliance through his madness.
I go and buy the herbs on the list. He'll show me how to make them into potions. I've… never seen any potions made with these herbs… None of them have any healing properties or harming properties in them… I swear if he's making me buy ingredients for his hair tonic! I buy three sets of gear with a gold coin I had on me. It doesn't even take a full gold and I have to buy more than I would like to break the gold into all the silver the store had. While heading back I see some herbs that can be used to make potions and grab them.
“Welcome back. Take a sip of this soup I've been making.”
He takes a ladle full out of the pot he was making the hair tonic in. And immediately spits it out.
“Needs more salt. So, did you get those ingredients?”
“Yes, I also found some ingredients you can make potions with.”
He looks inside the sac and pulls the herbs you could use to make potions for. He licks them then throws them on the ground.
“These potions are only good for alchemy. We don't need them for transmuting the herbs.”
He begins to grind the herbs inside a mortar and pestle. If he was making a potion he wouldn't need to do that. Whatever he is doing, I've never seen any other alchemist do. He grinds it down into a powder and starts putting them into little containers. I've never seen these before. I grab one and squeeze it. It is squishy and bouncy like slime gel, except it isn't wet. What is this?
“What I'm making right now is a pill. You can eat it to gain different effects than if you distilled the ingredients with an alchemy alembic.”
He hands me one of the pills and urges me to eat it. I risk being poisoned and consume the pill. I feel the effects immediately. I get a boost of regen. What he just made with a regen potion, that could be made for much cheaper. It would also be safer to carry since it would be in pill form. Less likely for the glass to break. This is amazing!
“Hand me one of those pieces of armor.”
He begins to put mana in all the pieces. I go to help but he stops me. I'm not sure what he is doing but I will see soon enough. A few moments later he stacks the pieces all together. Neatly folding them all into a single pile like you would do if you were planning on swimming or bathing. I noticed that he placed them onto a circle. It had symbols mixed in with them. He begins to channel again but this time he is adding an enchant to them. When he finished, every piece of gear had a single enchant of weak intelligence increase. But wearing all of them gave the set bonus of strong intelligence increase. What an amazing time saver for boosting sets of armor for my troops.
“Give me the other two sets of gear.”
I continue to watch him do this two more times. The three identical sets of gear are now enchanted with a weak versions of a stat. One intelligence set, one strength set and one dexterity set. He lays the three sets on top of each other… If they were rare that might cause feedback… I'm not sure though. He starts channeling again, it should take days or even weeks to combine the armor if it is similar to synthesizing… It is done within five minutes though! What the hell? He is sweating from the work he was doing.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. So, this is transmuting more than one piece of gear together. The biggest difference between this and regular synthesis is that depending on the difficulty, it puts your transmutation on cooldown… Meaning you wouldn't even be able to enchant or make pills without risking problems from occurring. You also have to do it within a transmutation circle or it will be impossible. There are many different types of transmutation circles. This one is for creation.”
Job unlocked Transmutation- able to combine or mix things together to make them better
Transmutation secret skill gained Mana to matter- from excessive knowledge of multiple jobs, You can create things out thin air with mana, you can create anything as long as you've inspected or used detect on it before
Enchanting upgraded- enchanting gear restrictions removed
Synthesis upgraded- advanced set making learned
Alchemy upgraded- Philosopher's stone recipes learned
WHAT!? Knowledge pours into my head. I know so many new things. With the gear restrictions removed, I can now make anything a void storage container. The advanced set making I just learned allows me to make sets of gear even out of rare enchants. The stones I learned how to make…