Notes from the Story Channeling System: Names were translated into their phonetical versions of the world they are channeled into. The names for the futa/hermaphrodites can end in any letter. 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. Some information is censored or modified, to fit into the world it is channeled into, due to the limits and filters set upon information entering the world from outside of the world. Some information is censored or modified, to fit into the world it is channeled into, due to the limits and filters set upon information entering the world from outside of the world. Many terms were translated into their equivalent in the world they are channeled into.
image [https://www.royalroad.com/dist/img/ornaments/22.png]
"Welcome home, young lady. You're a few minutes late. We saw and heard everything around you today, including during classes. We want to know your opinions about that boy and his future we should account for. We're not going to eat or sleep until this matter is settled." Zora's mother said, with a stern look on her face.
Zora had no chance than to do what she was told, once she recovered from the surprise of what just happened.
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As per usual, Sipher headed to the cafeteria on autopilot, ate his food, his mind still repeating the words of his new friend before her departure, then headed back to his new home, where he proceeded to sleep. There will be no classes tomorrow, so he could sleep as much as he wanted. And he sure as heavens would spend some time in bed even after waking up, thinking of what Zora said, and what his next actions should be.
On the next day, after a morning of thinking about his situation, he started heading back to school, to look at the map, and see what other classes were available in the school, and think if he should try to join them or not. After reading the map for the classrooms, he noticed that there were no other classes listed, which meant that either those were all the classes and the time from 14 to 15 is for rest and eating for those who need it, or for socializing, or that there were other classes but they were not listed.
As he was looking at the map, thinking if he should ask the librarian about that, the female alchemy teacher walked out of the building and slowly headed towards the gate. After thinking it for a few seconds, he decided that asking her might be the best course of action, so he approached her from a side, keeping his distance.
image [https://www.royalroad.com/dist/img/ornaments/22.png]
"Whoever said that being a teacher is easy, either had others to do their job, or didn't do that great of a job, probably both, even if they got good results. Or used some sort of shortcut I can't use.", the female alchemy teacher thought, exiting the school after a full day of reviewing the test results for those who advanced to Iron level in the last year.
"It's always more work. You'd think teachers work less than others just because they teach for less time, but everyone forgets about everything else that needs to be done once you're a teacher.", she thought, rolling her eyes before walking out of the academy building.
Just as she thought she might have time to get a sandwich from the cafeteria, one of the Copper Level students starts speaking to her from a side, causing her to stop after 3 more steps.
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"Greetings, teacher! Please excuse my rudeness, but would you spare a few moments for some questions I have?", Sipher said, somewhat afraid that his actions would be seen as disrespectful.
"Speak.", said the female teacher.
"I have noticed that there is a period of time when there are no classes listed, in the middle of the day. I would like to ask if there are classes scheduled for that period of time, or what the purpose of that period of time is.", he said, the curiousity clearly visible on his face.
"Name a few classes which could fit in that time period, and why you think they might not be listed.", said the female teacher.
"Well, first of all, they might not be listed because they are intended to be secret. For example, the families of powerful people could have their children join those classes. Or they are not happening frequently, or they are not happening in the two nearby buildings I have classes in. Or that time is reserved for class-like group events organized by the students or organized by the teachers and managed by the students. Or that period of time is there for those who need to recover their aura or otherwise tend to themselves in order to be productive for the remaining classes. The pause is after the alchemy classes, and if accidents are plentiful, allocating one hour for recovery, before the enchantment classes, might be the cause for the period with no classes listed.", he said, looking to the left of the teacher, eyes wandering from the ground to the sky, and to the scenery, in random order.
"As for the classes, maybe crafting classes which do not necessarily require aura, at least in the beginning. Pottery for making cooking and eating containers, then eventually making bottles for pills and elixirs, and in the end, making alchemical cauldrons. Woodworking to make art and objects of utility, carving in different materials for similar purposes. Paper making, first for normal people, and later for enchantments.", he continued, looking to the right of the teacher, his eyes wandering around in the same way.
"And the one I find most interesting, but which I cannot name, would be a class for what I can only call enchantments used without the safety measures and instead controlled by one's will, and useful in the middle of a battle without preparing them ahead of time and without needing a long preparation time like with normal enchantments.", said Sipher, his eyes shimmering with excitement, while looking the teacher in the eyes.
"Correct. All of the above. And it's called spelling. If you spell the same groups of words really fast, for long periods of time, you might end up turning that group of words into a single word. That's the origin of the term, and it's a fairly recent discovery, how to use that for enchantments. Though some say that it was merely re-discovered, but that's irrelevant. All those classes are invite-only, and the exam has no bearing in joining such classes. Most such classes require those enrolled to be part of an organization or a group which works in that field, and to work for them for at least a few days a week. Not many would give up that amount of time.", said the female teacher, with a slight smile on her face.
"For the spelling class, the best way to join is to find someone who uses them inside the academy, or to start using them yourself and tell a teacher. However, do not even attempt to do anything like that at your level. Iron level is the bare minimum needed to join the spelling class, and those who join before getting close to advancing from Iron to Silver are so few they can only be called exceptions. If you can make a spell yourself after reaching Iron level, you can join, but whatever you do, even if you find plenty of such spells before reaching the Iron level, do not attempt to use them. The classes are reserved for after Iron level for a reason. And if you find more than a dozen different spells before you get to Iron level, you can let me know, and I will see if the spelling teacher will let you join as soon as you stabilize your Iron level. But you must keep everything about the spelling class a secret from others. When invited to join, you will also be told what to tell others about the period of time when the classes are in session. This is all the time I can spare.", said the teacher, starting with a joyful voice, and her voice gradually turning more serious, and ending on a more quiet note.
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"Good luck learning, boy." said the teacher while walking away, before using a door in the air similar in function to the one used by Zora, but larger and with ornaments Zora's door did not have.
"Thank you, teacher! Your help is appreciated.", said Sipher, managing to finish saying it right before the teacher stepped through the portal.
image [https://www.royalroad.com/dist/img/ornaments/22.png]
After stepping through the portal, somewhere else in the academy, the alchemy teacher knocked on a door, the door opened by itself, and after stepping into the door, she greeted the only other person inside.
"When was the last time you took a break from your research?", she said, using aura to hold one sandwich in the air and eating another one with her right hand covered in a glove made from her aura.
"A few months ago, when I wanted to test something while being well rested.", the other person said.
"That was 7 months ago! The new school year just started! You're taking a break in 5 minutes, so save your progress already.", she said.
"Come on! At least give me half an hour!", the other person said.
"Fine, but first put a tracker on one of the students, and I'll show you the recording of why I came to visit.", she said.
One tracker placement and 30 minutes later, the alchemy teacher showed the other person a recording of the events from the moment the student was told to speak, until the teacher left through the portal.
The other person watching the recording stood there thinking in silence for a few minutes, then spoke.
"Copper level, first advancement in alchemy, after failing an advancement in sword aura. Bad scores all around, but barely made it in most classes, and somehow even made it in the sound aura classes. It would be a shame if he tried using spells before being taught how to stay safe doing so. Too many people with potential died by trying to research spells.", said the other person, looking disappointed and ending on a sad note.
"I'm tempted to have him taught the basics of dispelling when he starts making runes. The outer librarian sold him an Aura Eyes book.", she said.
"That lazy guy did? Then either he's got many more loose screws than I thought, or they boy really is special, somehow. Too bad that technique doesn't work for most people and barely works for the few it does work for. But for an orphan who doesn't have the money or connections to train his aura, that technique, even if barely functional, if it works at all, could get him closer to being an average student. Alright, then, tell one of the rune class teachers you have my approval for that. I don't care which one, I never bothered to learn their names or faces. Now, with that out of the way, is that all you came to talk with me about?", the other person said.
"Yes, but since you didn't take a break in half a year, I'm going to tell you what happened during that time. And when I'm done, I expect you to go outside and move for a few hours, then sleep until after the sun rises. We can't have you faint and trigger an alarm again. And while you listen, eat this sandwich. So here's what happened while you were out.", she continued talking for a few hours, pausing only when the other person asks for clarifications.
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Sipher finally arrived home, after thinking for a few hours in front of where the alchemy teacher teleported from. Having the body of a 14 years old is surely inconvenient. Even if he has the mental maturity to know how to think about things and experiences from living on Earth, he still has to think those thoughts, and he can only do that at the speed and depth his current body can sustain. And that means thinking takes a lot more time than he initially expected.
He expects this limit to be very annoying, until he advances to a high-enough level where speed is no longer a problem, or ages enough for the depth of the thoughts to no longer be a problem. Thankfully, the speed and memory which come with advancements can simulate the effects of deeper thoughts with merely lots of extra steps, but it is doable, and he will definitely have to use it a lot.
Once home, he changed his clothes to the dirty ones, and still deep in thought, he went to gather grass, in order to make more pills and elixirs, whose aura to absorb to progress towards advancing, and towards not needing to eat nearly as frequently.
Alchemy is such a time saver that even most weapon cultivators learn to make a few pills, especially for aura recovery, healing, and removing the effects of low level pills like the numbing liquid and paralysis smoke from the alchemy lesson.
image [https://www.royalroad.com/dist/img/ornaments/22.png]
Once home with a lot of grass, Sipher started making pills and elixirs from the grass.
For the pills, the difficult part was removing the impurities which cannot hold aura, then split the remaining into softer parts which can hold more aura, and harder parts which to cover the softer parts, and then his aura to forcefully pull the aura of the herbs from the parts which aren't part of the two types listed above, and compress it into the soft parts which can hold all that extra aura, hold it there, then use more aura to make the harder parts form a shell around the soft bits, and use his aura to completely seal the soft bits inside, including the part of aura he used to compress the extra aura of the herbs.
Given a few hours, his aura would disperse and no longer respond to his commands. But if the pill is consumed a few minutes later, after his aura had time to spread around and mix with the aura of the alchemical ingredients, but before his aura completely dissipates and no longer responds to his commands, then he can more easily absorb the aura of the pill, usually making the pill around one fifth easier to absorb, and introduce around one tenth less impurities, in the case of a pill made from grass, and much lower in the case of pills made from proper alchemical ingredients for higher level pills.
For the elixirs, the difficult part is removing the impurities which cannot hold aura, then moving the aura from the solid parts which hold aura, using a somewhat similar process as with the pills, to get small pills of soft parts with lots of aura, then once enough of those pills were made, without taking them out of the liquid, stir the liquid by moving the pills, then use his aura to stop the aura from the pills from moving while the pill is trying to move, which often causes the pill to break or splinter, if his fine control of aura is lacking, then get the parts which still have the aura of the ingredients to form more of those small pills, while removing his aura from the parts which no longer have the aura of the ingredients, and keep repeating that until there is no longer any solid with the aura of the ingredients, after which he has to use his aura to compress the parts of the grass which no longer have the aura of the ingredients, into a pill which gets removed from the liquid, and the liquid gets stirred with aura until the aura in the liquid is uniform.
Similarly to the pills, the elixir also has a bonus for consumption with the aura of the maker mixed with the aura of the ingredients. Unlike with the pill, the aura is less concentrated, which makes it better for using in drinks and in cooking, but which also makes it worse for achieving high concentrations of aura, like the ones people often use for advancing to Silver level and higher, but it is still used to progress in Iron level closer to the advancement, by those who are too poor to speed up the process by using pills. That's why most people don't use elixirs after advancing to Iron level, but the poor people have no better choice, since the elixirs of that level are cheaper, exactly because people cannot use it to advance to Silver level.
And because the pills last longer before they lose their effects, which makes them more expensive, Sipher's goal is to focus more on making pills, and make elixirs only for practice and for his own consumption.