Inside a small apartment in Birming, Ian slumped onto the bean bag, exhausted from his travel. His mind drifted into a deep slumber. The summer heat and bright rays woke him up at midday the following day. He flipped his Orcon phone up from his palm and opened up an unread message.

"Congratulation on your acceptance to the Orcon Alchemy Union."

He had passed the alchemy test with 66 points and it was only a matter of time until the AU accepted his membership.

With access to the first level of data, he scoured through the different formulas and ingredients. The pills to increase spiritual powers was vital to his progress. If he reaches 10 SP, it would allow him to perform spells.

Pneumata pill required several rank-A plants, which was difficult for him to acquire. There were two pills available using rank C plants. The first pill could increase 5 SP, but was only effective one time. The second pill could increase 2 SP, but was ineffective after a person achieved more than 50 SP. However, there was one major restriction; it was ineffective for people without a geist.

Ian used all his profits to order the D-rank, which will be used to graft intoC-rank plants, from other alchemists within the Orcon forum. Most of the alchemists on the forum exchanged information and materials, but few of them chatted in the general forum section. There were likely more private exchanges between them. Ian was unsure of the total members, but the forum appeared active. Buying from a merchant was typically faster, but Ian was lucky there were members with D-rank plants readily available.

While waiting for the plants to ship to the Orcon warehouse, he examined the pneumata pill. The scent from the pneumata pill still gave him migraine, so he avoided smelling the pill. Instead, Ian stared at the pill and sketched the round shape over and over again in his notebook. Most pills had the same shape and it wasn't an interesting shape to draw.

The key to drawing the pill wasn’t the physical shape, but a mythical glyph hidden in the aura. It was easier to analyze the aura from within the otherworld realm. Most magicians could identify the usage of the pill by analyzing its aura. For Ian, he wondered if there was a way to see the form in the real world.

After a week, Ian picked up the plants from Buck.

“Congratulations! You’re a local celebrity now,” Buck congratulated Ian on his acceptance into the Orcon Alchemy guild.

“Thanks,” Ian replied. He looked at the four potted plants in front of him, the rioto, germalo, gankin, and keplerat. “Do you know where Malady gets all their plants? It’s all from different regions.”

“Malady101? That user doesn’t really talk much in the forum, but is active with exchanging high level plants,” siad Buck. “My guess is that they are in an s-ranked city that provides a cultivation environment for growing different plants.”

“Like the Amazonian realm?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Could be. We aren’t privy of the location of the materials. It's to keep our members' identities safe.”

Ian was at least thankful that the Orcon could keep locations a secret. He chatted with Buck briefly before heading toward the Neumann's realm.

It was Ian first time seeing a C-rank rioto plant within the otherworld. He was concerned about bringing a blue glowing plant. He wasn’t sure what potential problem it would cause, such as a ranker being able to sense high ranking spiritual plants.

Despite the risk, he wanted to examine the blue aura around the plant. He always wondered why C-rank plants had a bluish glow and why it was different from the D-plants. The color tier of spiritual items made sense from a game theory perspective, but it made little sense in terms of wavelengths.

From the scent of the mana, the rioto gave a nightly scent with blue undertones. There were no other way to describe the feeling under than blue. The D-rank had a different undertone. Whatever scent it was, as for why it manifested as green, it was still a mystery.

The main reason Ian came in was to draw the mana manifestation of all the D-rank plants. Once all the plants were documented, Ian it took him a week to form the pills.

With the successful pills, he entered the otherworld realm to test them out. If they worked, he could confirm he had a geist. If they failed, then he wasted a lot of money to confirm he was still a non-ranker.

He waited for his body to react. He felt something, but it wasn’t enough. He decided to take another one. This time, Ian felt himself becoming slightly stronger.

One of the best ways to test his SP outside of the scanner was to test out a spell. Flame and water spells were considered survival spells that all magicians needed to learn in order to survive within a realm. When separated from the group, fire could provide eat and cook food. Water spells basically allow a person to survive.

Water spells condensed the aero mana and produced water. The glyphs for both spells were extensively studied and published online for everyone to study and learn. Most magicians could produce a cup of water a day, but it wasn’t enough to enter battle and be useful. Flame magicians had more offensive attacks.

Ian formulated the water glyph inside of his head and tried to cast a spell. It failed, but it was within his expectations. From his backpack, he retrieved a stack of talismans he had created a few years ago. They were mainly hydro glyphs, consisting of 148 strokes of lines, curves, and circles.

One of the problems most magicians had was spatial cognition. To properly create the glyphs in their head was difficult. Many resorted to drawing out the glyphs using talismans. There were pre-made talismans with glyphs on them, and the magician simply had to trace or look at it to activate the spell.

He concentrated all his focus onto the glyph on the talisman. He drew in the surrounding mana, mainly aero and hydro, and used them to create the circle and lines in his head. After the initial casting, he concentrated on his hand as the designated source and then a beaker as the target. The source was the starting location of the spell, the area that the spell originated from. The target was the final location from the source. Stronger magicians can designate the source locations several yards away from them, and the target could be placed even farther. For most beginners, the hand was the easiest source point to control.

After Ian casted the spell and focused the source on his index finger, small droplets started to form. The talisman disintegrated into dust and broke Ian’s focus. The beaker had five droplets of water after exhausting all of the spiritual powers. It would likely take him a night’s rest to replenish.

Ian chuckled. He really did have a geist, but it certainly wasn’t the most powerful.

Using the various pills, Ian eventually reached 10 SP.