[Note from the Story Channeling System: Names were translated into their phonetical versions of the world they are channeled into. The name for females were translated to end in the letter A or E or Y, with the names for males ending in any of the other letters.]
As Sip was walking towards the library of the Torec Academy of Aura, he suddenly stopped, realizing he remembered something very important, and breathed a sigh of relief. When the entire planet was sacrificed, he though that his last thoughts were his wish to use up all the energy of the blood sacrifice, but he now remembers something which happened in-between his two lives, after he no longer had a body, he was somehow actively thinking on how such a wish could be implemented to have as little drawbacks as possible. His thoughts are separate from his memories, and to ensure that his memories from his previous lives cannot be used against him, as well as to ensure that he lives as many lives as possible, he wished for his thoughts to be able to access his previous memories, but for an outside observer those memories and thoughts to not be observed, instead to look more like instinct or pure luck or channeling. And channeling it was, because he was channeling his higher self for some of the thinking. This would also prevent the duplication of memories, which could easily reduce the number of lives he could have, and exponentially so. And he might have gotten more energy from the sacrifice than he thought, because his soul making the wish was more familiar to those who were sacrificed together with him than the soul of someone from another world.
Then he started walking again, slowly, deeply in thought. He remembered a bit about fighting with a sword from his past life, not him fighting, but seeing others fight, and almost all of that fighting was not real fighting and was not even made to be realistic, but the use of aura could make those experiences useful for leveling up with a sword, too, at least enough to help him defend himself if he's really unlucky to have to fight. His knowledge of technology was fairly advanced, so he could probably get from the stone age to the early industrial revolution, given enough time, resources, and humans to work with and for him. But none of that was immediately useful, and especially less useful for cultivators, though it could have a significant impact on non-cultivators, possibly freeing enough of their time to increase the number of cultivators in the areas with increased technology accessible to non-cultivators, and especially usable and useful for non-cultivators. And it's important to not have his discoveries stolen by others, or used to portray him as a spy.
Thankfully, everyone gets a single-room house with a bathroom attached, the bathroom having a toilet which uses aura to mix and pressure-cook everything inside it so it can then be thrown into the garden as fertilizer, without having to deal with the smell or to wait a few years for the human manure (aka. humanure) to properly decompose into a fertilizer usable for plants intended to be eaten by humans. And this also made the humanure useful for growing aura herbs, which are herbs which have absorbed aura from the environment and used that aura to get some benefits which can be used in the formation of pills. Well, technically, everything follows that definition, though most plants have an aura concentration so low that most people think it's not worth using them for alchemy. And that is something Sip will definitely have to try, especially since he has some knowledge of chemistry. In particular, he is going to try distilling, using a centrifuge, fermenting, simmering, and blending, when he will have the necessary equipment to test it.
There isn't a shower, but there is a bath tub made from what looks like a piece of roc which had a part of it scooped, and there is a small fireplace below the bathtub, and a small heating inscription connected to a smaller scooped part of the rock where the aura crystals are to be placed, for heating the water.
Lost in thoughts, he finally reached the library. As he stepped in, it takes only a glance for the librarian to know that he failed his first trial. As soon as Sip stopped near the counter, the middle-aged-looking male librarian's voice started speaking into Sip's head.
"Do not get discouraged by momentary failures. Most people fail a few times when advancing the first two aura levels. Barely half of those who try to advance from the Stone Level to the Copper Level are successful in their first 3 tries, and a little less than 1 in 87 manage to level from Stone Level to Copper level before the age of 14, and you're barely 14 and 2 months. And you can always learn something else, if the sword is not for you. If you need some advice, let me know, and I'll try to help you with some advice. I cannot lower the prices for you, or let you read books for free, but I can help you to find the books you need, or the person you need to find to get what you need, if it's not something too rare.", said the man, looking at me with patience.
"Thank you, mister librarian! I have decided to start learning alchemy. Since I do not have a stable income, and the menial work is the only way for me to make money right now, I decided to start learning alchemy, to have a better job to earn money, and because it helps me get the pills I need for much cheaper, at least for the first two aura advancements. And I heard that there are books which can teach me to better sense aura, in order for me to learn alchemy faster, and in order for me to waste less money learning alchemy before I make a profit. Could you help me pick books for that? If it's relevant at all, I am planning to advance my aura using alchemy and then learn enchanting, especially rune-making, and use both to advance my aura again. I really wish there was a technique I could use to read books for free, but if such a technique exists, I have neither the money nor the access to it, and what I can read with it is probably not that useful to me anyway, but it would be a nice shortcut to take. Maybe learning formations for the third aura advancement can help me not fail.", said Sipper, looking a bit sad.
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"True. But there is something which can help you understand cultivation techniques from others who use it at higher levels than you. And the same technique can help you with understanding how existing runes look, including the runes you made. It's use in alchemy is mostly limited to finding herbs with aura a bit more easily, and if you have a high-enough compatibility or proficiency with it, it could also help you better understand what happens in an alchemic cauldron. 102 Flows for the book. Would be 126, but while I cannot offer you a discount for a single book, I can offer you a discount if you buy another book with it, and you said you want an alchemy book, too, right? Giving me all those details about rune-making and the idea of reading without paying helped, not that I would allow anyone to read without paying, but people happily showcase their weapons and techniques while sparring, and their tools and techniques while doing alchemy, and already-made runes can be found anywhere, even in your toilet. Two suggestions for making runes: A light rune which you can use during the night, and runes which amplify light which are used on a piece of glass which you hold in front of your eyes in order to see in the dark. Add on the side of the light-amplifying enchanted glass 3 light-producing runes with different brightness options, and you can have a stealth mode which barely gives enough light for you to not bump into something, a normal mode for using at a normal speed, and a bright mode for using it while running away from danger. Of, and the alchemy book is 98 Flows, for a total of 200 flows, and the alchemy book is so expensive because it also teaches alchemy for scavengers and how to properly grow and harvest things in a small garden. Worth it, I can assure you. If you cannot afford them right now, I can hold them for you for 3 weeks at most, but no longer than that. If you buy them, I can write for you where to get a good cheap alchemy cauldron and the book will teach you about cauldrons and books, so you know what kind of cauldron suits you and so you don't get tricked when buying herbs.", said the man with a stern look.
"How much would a good cheap cauldron be, vaguely? I need to know if I can afford all that right now.", said Sipper, inquisitively.
"For making one pill at a time, 50 Flows. For you, it might be better to get a cauldron big-enough for making 5 pills at once, for roughly 80 Flows. Sill small, but enough to train yourself with wild grass growing right outside the forest for the outer students. And if you go in the morning, you should be able to hold the bottom of the front of your shirt with one hand and put the grass in the bowl-like part of the shirt made this way. When the sun is high in the sky, you should have enough low level aura grass to make a small aura pill which to help you get healed without needing to eat. How much money do you have?", said the librarian.
"I only have 301 Flows.", Sip said.
"Hmm, that's cutting it close. Uncomfortably close. Tell you what, if you buy those books for 200 Flows, I'll use my aura to help you get healed faster. Buy the books then start absorbing aura in front of me, and I will release some of my aura into the air next to you and hold it there, so you can absorb it much faster. I will stop giving you aura when the remaining wounds won't be enough to have you need to eat, so you can then buy the cauldron, then until your wounds get healed you can keep cultivating to replenish your aura which gets used to heal your body, then use the rest of the day to read the books, and after you're healed you can start learning the Aura Eyes technique to see how dense the aura in the air is, in order to find plants and grass with more aura. And you should still have some 15-20 Flows for 2 or 3 tries to make a pill which usually sells for 40-50 flows. The pill I'm referring to only needs that plant and a few aura pills made from grass, depending on their purity, and you might be lucky enough to find it growing on the outskirts of the Outer Disciple Torec Forest.", said the man enthusiastically.
"Deal.", Sip said, after which the librarian brought Sip the books, for which Sip paid then started absorbing aura, which was followed by the librarian making the aura around Sip increase in concentration, making it much easier for Sip to absorb it and use it to heal his injuries.
After thanking the librarian, Sip moved the heavy books he just bought to his free-rent tiny home in the sect, then he started reading. First reading the Aura Eyes technique, since it could help him find places with more aura, to get healed faster, and because it was less than a quarter of the thickness and writing size of the other one, then finally reading through the entire Alchemy Book once, then re-reading a few times the parts he found most important to him and which he feels he needs to better understand. The reading was boring, so he often took time to daydream, both about random things, and about alchemy from his limited understanding of it, and also about his dreams of a good life safe from the worst dangers.
3 weeks later, he left his home completely healed and headed to the shop the librarian recommended him, and with only 94 left after spending 7 flows on a sandwich with a flat bread sliced in two and with a thick bean paste in the middle, which he needed if he wanted to be productive in searching for herbs today, he kept walking through the market right outside the Torec Academy's Outer Walls until he found the shop the librarian recommended, and after stopping in front of the shop and looking at some of the objects exposed on a table, a voice spoke to him from behind the goods.