“You pull the copper handle, then put your hands under the spray. It will sting a bit, which is why it’s best if you have a water flask and a bit of your own damp linen ready.”
Alex nodded his thanks as he turned from the bronze contraption where one would normally expect a sink after using communal facilities that truly looked like a cross between a high end Roman bath house and a surprisingly modern public bathroom. And though he never appreciated Biochemical Mastery more than after taking care of his business, the fact that these public stalls actually had a pulley system complete with copper perforated pipes and basins to wash his hands after doing the deed was beyond remarkable. No doubt the cultural focus on cleanliness, as well as the hot dry desert climate, did wonders to help keep illnesses and parasite infestations in check.
Though the fact that there was no soap provided was less than optimal, he quickly found out why the youth still smiling politely his way had warned him about using his own water. The minute he felt the alkaline sting, it was clear that lye had been added directly to the rinse water, perhaps to keep it from being stolen by thirsty travelers, as this was a world of desert cities and oases. Still, the sting of heavily diluted lye wasn’t even an irritant, thanks to his Draconic Essence, Vitality, and Prismatic Fox Restoration Technique, but he made a point of rinsing his hands with a quick splash of his hip flask onto a linen cloth he pulled from his storage ring while digging between the folds of his cloak, perfectly mirroring the hurried actions of one of the robed townsfolk who, quite to Alex’s surprise, didn’t glare or curse under his breath when he caught Alex looking his way.
In fact, he nodded and smiled, as if pleased to see Alex aping his movements.
“First time to Liushi?”
Alex reflexively smiled in relief not to catch the hostile glares Yidushi had prepared him for so thoroughly. “Yes, actually. The cleaning basin’s new to me… but extremely clever, and sanitary. I’m surprised more cities don’t use it.”
The man laughed good-naturedly, looking up at Alex’s six-foot-two frame. “I take you don’t have such things in your Ruidian communes?”
Alex winced, forcing a chuckle. “That’s… a difficult question to answer.”
But the man had already raised his hands. Not to mock, but to apologize, much to Alex’s surprise.
“Forgive me, honored guest of our city. I did not mean to put you on the spot, or offend.”
Alex blinked, truly taking in the worried-looking man and grinning boy, wearing similar robes and features like those of most of the city inhabitants. The farthest thing from pinched-faced Yidushian nobility, and without a trace of the derision, contempt, or barely concealed distaste he had sensed from so many Sacred City denizens of his past life, even from those shopkeepers trying to put on a good front.
Alex shook his head in wonder, finally understanding why he was falling in love with this airy, spacious city, so well protected by shade and full of cheerful merchants selling so many tasty treats, and dozens of stalls and stores he was eager to explore and would do so for days on end, if he wasn’t feeling pressed for time.
It was that all the smiles had been genuine. The looks of warmth, the farthest thing from an act.
It was as if this desert city was an oasis both figuratively and literally where he wasn’t just tolerated, but treated with genuine interest and concern.
As if he actually mattered.
As human as anyone else.
Alex couldn’t help looking away to rub his eyes and swallow the lump in his throat, shaken to find himself so moved by the basic courtesy of strangers. He who had endured so much mockery, derision, and outright malice. Who had learned to laugh right in the face of genocidal hate and return such pain to his enemies that he felt no shame when they labeled him a monster in truth.
But this?
This brought tears to his eyes that no amount of personal suffering had ever brought him since being reborn.
Alex bowed low, low enough to startle both concerned-looking strangers.
“This student of the way thanks you both for your kindness,” he murmured before making a beeline of the curved exit, no germ-covered door needed to be touched on his way out, showing an enlightenment, or at least a desire for clean-smelling hands, that was almost as surprising as the unexpected kindness that had moved him so much he couldn’t bare another minute feeling so vulnerable and grateful, to complete strangers.
For a second he wondered if he were lost in delusion, a broken crippled wreck with a steel collar fastened to his neck, about to be yanked back to cruel bitter reality as some monster bearing the stamp of Shalu’s taint upon his features gloated and mocked before tormenting Alex with all the bitter malice his countless enemies could fathom.
Yet sure enough, the moment he wiped his eyes and forced himself to laugh at life’s vagaries and fortunes, the blazing sun overhead muted by the double rows of date trees proving glorious shade with their near twenty-foot long leaves… nothing had changed. He didn’t wake up to cynical smiles, derisive snorts, or the mocking laughter of his enemies.
He was still here.
Still in a daze, he continued to steel furtive glances at the casually strolling passersby, showcasing an equal assortment of turbans and white robes as well as silken cheongsams and changshan tunics worn over various styles of free-flowing leggings. Their dark skin and features, what on Earth would have been a beautiful blend of Southeast Asian and Middle-eastern, were, for all their individual differences, near uniform in the warm gazes and brilliant white smiles that so many passersby honored him with when he dared to meet their gaze.
No fear, derision, or disdain.
Only warmth and welcome, wherever he looked.
His heart started to race, struck by sudden dizziness.
Really, it was beyond belief.
Grateful caravanners were one thing. He had certainly earned their respect, any interaction muted by the deference they showed Reny and Qing Wu, Alex having effectively been a guest under their roof.
But this?
He shook his head in wonder.
He had learned to revel in the bitterness for so long…
he almost couldn’t bear the sweet.
And if Alex did purchase far more than he needed to from the ubiquitous merchants selling candied dates or honey covered barely cakes smiling as warmly at him as they did everyone else, he certainly wasn’t eating his feelings, though the surprised looks and grateful bows he received from a simple copper feather tip only encouraged him to spend that much more. Soon, he was down three whole silvers, not a small sum, yet he now had a good week’s worth of sweet deliciousness he never needed to fear going bad in his storage ring, so he considered it more than fair. Especially when the final date seller almost eagerly gave him directions to the Silver Sands academy, which he had quite lost his bearings in trying to find, so profound had been his daze.
“Oh yes, Silver Sands is just a few blocks along the boulevard, then turn toward our beloved oasis and you can’t miss it. It’s the grandest collection of buildings besides the royal palace!”
Alex smiled, solemnly bowing his head. “This one thanks you for your assistance.”
“Oh not at all!” The gregarious man waved Alex’s words away. “It is we who should be thanking you for your services to our sanctuary. May the heavenly sun forever light your path and speed you on your journey!”
Alex blinked, about to say something before immediately clamping his lips shut, refusing to raise any red flags or otherwise rupture the beautiful spell he was under by pointing out that he had absolutely no idea what the man was talking about regarding services to the sanctuary.
Instead he dipped his head one more time and immediately headed in the direction of the academy, his mind racing with the merchant’s implied words.
Was Alex expected to perform some service? Could this be why everyone was being so nice to him?
His furrowed brow turned to a rueful chuckle, suddenly feeling far more at peace with the way of the world if everyone’s grace was, in effect, gratitude for services to be rendered as opposed to having encountered a city utterly free of the taint of spite-filled gods determined to make all the world as ugly and bitter as they.
But still, even if a service was expected of him.. so what? No different than Earth, really. What professions were more revered than that of a doctor or surgeon? Men and women who were, in return, expected to devote their lives or at least their professional careers towards healing people directly or advancing medicine as a whole. Prestige, respect, and pay all exchanged in return for men and women who could and would literally save your life when you needed them the most.
And if, by some miracle, Ruidians actually had a niche in this city that made them valued enough that even strangers would politely smile his way despite the different cast to his features, treating him just like everyone else, then that was a more than fair trade in his book… so long as he knew exactly what was expected of him.
He couldn’t help but flash a half-cynical smile. “As long as no one’s leading me to a fucking alter… it doesn’t hurt to see exactly what’s expected of me,” he said to himself between sips of a flask of water he need never worry about emptying, thanks to his increasing mastery of the element of Water, having found much to his delight and relief that Qi-forged water that was swallowed or unleashed was well and truly water in every way that counted, even if surprisingly rich with spiritual energy. “I wonder, if I got into brewing, what kind of spirits or wine I could make?” He smirked at the thought, wondering if perhaps brewing as well as alchemy might be in his future, determined as he was to savor this second chance at a life free of the malice and spite that had haunted his existence for so long. And if he truly had endless centuries to endure… he’d do his utmost to enjoy and savor every day he could feel the sun’s warmth bless his skin.
But first, before he lost himself along any other path.. he was determined to grow in ways he suspected he never had before.
His nostrils widened as enticing scents abruptly broke his muse, catching notes of desert lilies, sage, thyme, dried nettles and cactus blossoms, all coming from the apothecary just across the street. Curiosity turned to sudden alarm that compelled him forward, ducking inside the shop just in time to see a panicked looking young shopkeeper knock over a glass flask filled with a basic healing liniment about to splatter upon the hard stone tiles. And the feet of a pair of elderly customers gazing at the glass beaker with wide-eyed dismay.
Quickness check made!
Moving faster than shopkeeper or customers could blink, his hands just barely caught the bubbling beaker in time. The elderly couple continued to stare in frozen disbelief at the sight of him, what they must have seen as a hulking blond-haired giant with piercing blue-eyes and a brilliant smile who appeared out of nowhere. Or at least, that was what Alex saw of his own expression through the glass of the wildly bubbling beaker frothing in his hands.
The young shopkeeper’s expression was a mix between surprise, relief, and dismay.
“Thank you, kind sir, but best you throw that outside right now before...”
Her words cut off when Alex nearly slammed right into her… yet moved so gracefully that she hardly felt the air brush against her as he dove past her, his hands going right into her carefully organized boxes of dried cuttings and fungi.
Surprised gratitude turned to sudden alarm, even a trace of fear. “What are you...”
her words cut off when she abruptly understood, wide almond eyes gazing at Alex with something close to wonder that Alex refused to let distract him, for all that his Spirit Qi was revealing far more than he was expecting as he crushed a certain amount of Linghzi and Lion’s Mane into the brew.
“Those fungi are not cheap...”
Alex grinned, solemnly handing the young apothecary her brew. “You’re right, they aren’t. But your tincture is stabilized and should treat most upper respiratory infections and allow for a healing rate nearly twenty-fold that of standard.”
The girl’s mouth opened wide, no words coming out.
“Well, say thank you to the nice young Ruidian, Yana!” urged the older woman, smiling Alex’s way.
The elder man nodded. “And ask him if he wants a job. He clearly knows what he’s doing, and who would have thought there were Ruidian apothecaries?”
“Of course there are, dear,” his obvious wife scolded. “No doubt their clans need herbalists just as much as the rest of us.”
The girl, Yana, continued to gaze at Alex, cheeks blushing as she suddenly became aware of her own rapt gaze, earning a snort from the elderly couple.
Alex broke the unexpected tension with a chuckle. “My name’s Alex. And if you have a wax tablet and stylus, or bark, paper, and charcoal, I’d be happy to share with you a modified, and very stable variant, of the healing tincture you were compounding.”
“How?”
Alex shrugged. “I was an apothecary, once upon a time, and I’ve always had a good nose for the craft.”
Yana continued to gaze at Alex in wonder. “And you just knew, out of the blue, that...”
He nodded. “I could smell the instability. Like I said, I have a nose for the craft. But now you have a tincture that’s 220% of median market potency and 340% more stable than your baseline formulae. Best of all, the ingredients you need are clearly accessible to you.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Are Ruidian noses truly that sensitive?” The elderly man wondered, before taking the potion a dazed Yana handed him with a bow. “And Yana is looking for an assistant, so your timing is impeccable,” he said with a cheerful smile, leaving a full silver on the counter as his wife took his arm.
“She could use a good husband, too. Something to consider, dear,” the wife said with a chuckle for Yana’s suddenly blazing cheeks before heading out the door.
The girl, who looked the epitome of adorably stressed college intern of a lifetime ago, continued to gaze at Alex in speechless mortification.
Alex chuckled. “Older patients always enjoy playing matchmaker or putting us on the spot, don’t they?” he said like a shared joke between them, doing his best to relieve the tension.
Yana gave a nervous titter, before nodding. “They do indeed.” She then curtseyed before him, bowing her head as she did so. “This one thanks you for arriving just in the nick of time. I take it you’re also an apothecary?”
Alex sighed, smile turning wistful. “I was apprenticed to one once, what now feels like a lifetime ago.”
She blinked, eyes widening. “You were just an apprentice? But you seemed so comfortable with the shop layout and you’ve never been here before, knowing exactly how to spare me a disaster I really can’t afford right now.” She sighed, gazing solemnly at the silver. “I suppose it would only be fair if...”
Alex grinned. “I’m glad I could help out. Now let me write that formulae for you, and I’ll be off.”
“Would you like a job?” The girl swallowed as soon as she said the words, the nervousness and hope in her gaze clearly unfeigned.
Alex gave her his warmest smile. “Actually, I was on my way to Silver Sands when I sensed trouble brewing here.”
Yana’s smile turned strained. “Ah, of course you were. Of course you were! Forgive me, it’s just that...”
Alex quickly shook his head. “No, nothing to apologize for. You paid me a great compliment, and I thank you for it.” He tilted his head thoughtfully, taking in the homey shop, noting the carefully organized and tended herbs and dried cuttings, the cleanliness of her workstation, his nose already picking up whiffs of freshly tended cuttings that he supposed were growing in her own private garden.
He smiled his approval. “But I can tell you run a top-notch operation with ingredients well above median market potency at an age where most people are still working under their mentors or masters.”
Her spine stiffened. “I’ll have you know this was my father’s shop, and I spent my entire childhood learning everything I know from him.”
Alex bowed his head. “The best way to do it, if you ask me. I think you’ll do him proud.”
Her scowl immediately brightened to a hopeful smile. “Thank you, I… yes, I hope so too.” Her gaze turned hopeful. “If you’d ever like to stop by and discuss craft… I would be happy for your company.”
Alex gave a considering nod, ignoring her flushed cheeks and hopeful gaze. “Maybe I will, at that, depending on what life at Silver Sands is like. Assuming, of course, that they will take me at all.”
This earned a surprised blink. “You’re Ruidian, right? A jewel master? Of course they’ll take you, and gratefully, paying you extremely fair wages for all the beast cores you would sell them.” She sighed then. “Sadly more than I can afford, no matter how much those cores would strengthen my...”
Her eyes widened when Alex was suddenly before her. “Wait, you know how to use beast cores in your tinctures?”
Yana blinked, “Of course I...” Then she flushed, lowering her gaze. “Please, let’s keep that between you and me, alright?”
Her flush turned to a look of awe when Alex solemnly handed her a small beast core.
“Show me.”
In very short order she did just that, Alex losing himself in the sheer joy of compounding and creation as Yana demonstrated that alchemists and artificers weren’t the only ones who could make use of beast cores and the most potent spiritual ingredients. It soon became clear that with the right distillations and reagents, almost any apothecary mixture could be strengthened to a profound degree with the added potency of beast cores. And as rapidly became clear as Alex first watched, then directly assisted in the compounding of several dozen different batches, beast cores were every bit as helpful to apothecaries as alchemists, perhaps much more so, as a single meridian cleansing potion could translate to over 100 doses of medicinal tinctures all at 200-300% of median market potency.
By the end of the day the pair of them had fallen into a pattern of working together like a well-oiled machine, and Alex had absolutely no problems letting Yana take the lead, and the very few times her brow furrowed quickly turned to pleased smiles when Alex’s last-second additions never failed to help stabilize or intensify the brew. They would then pause only long enough for her to scribe quick notes of his alterations as the last of Yana’s lingering awkwardness turned to professional courtesy and genuine warmth.
By the time their last tincture had been made, the final liniment prepared, and over a score of fresh customers served in between their own beast-core enhanced batches, Yana was glowing with a mix of excitement and satisfaction. In fact, if Alex didn’t know better, he would think she was on the verge of her own breakthrough, for all that Alex sensed only a single pair of clogged meridian channels, which still put her in the top 5% of the population, even if it was clear she had never cultivated a day of her life.
Of course, preparing dozens of perfectly prepared compounds with the help of beast cores, bridging the gap between apothecary and alchemy, had also helped him to grow in ways significant and profound, making it clear it had been time well spent indeed.
You have studied under an expert on how best to use beast cores in ways that compliment the breadth of all previous apothecary and alchemical lessons learned.
Alchemy is now Rank 4!
“Now our workstations are perfectly clean,” Alex said with a smile, having made perhaps a bit freer use of Biochemical Mastery than he should have, but the look Yana had given him had made it obvious that there was very little he could do to impress her any more than he already had, so what was a little ethyl alcohol clean-up between friends?
Yana just shook her head, wearing the same helpless grin she had for the last hour. “And still you continue to amaze.” She flashed him a teasing smile. “And paying you back with the silver the shop made today is only fair.” Her eyes grew strangely intent, desperately looking for something in his own, and it wasn’t quite Ya Ling’s gaze, where Alex knew exactly what she wanted… what maybe they both wanted… but this was something different, even if only be degrees.
“Are you absolutely sure you’re not a hidden master looking for a worthy disciple?” she finally asked.
Alex snorted and laughed. “You were taking the lead with all our concoctions, remember? Honestly, with what I learned working under your direction today, I’m the one who should be tipping you.”
Yana adamantly shook her head. “Absolutely not… Alex.” for some reason, she blushed at his name. “Thanks to your gift, my potions are at least twice as potent as they would otherwise be. Lives will be saved that otherwise nothing but an extremely expensive alchemist’s brew could have rescued. And with your help… and corrections, we’ve generated three dozens such tinctures and poultices that will keep for months in my storage containers.”
Alex smiled in admiration for the one thing Liu Jian’s apothecary had lacked, any sort of preservation talisman, or hardwood cabinets seared in with the same. Whether because of the rapid turnover or keeping a low profile from his enemies still at Dragon Academy, his old master had never made use of such. Yet Yana, Alex was happy to see, had no such reservations at all.
She gave him an apologetic smile. “I can tell you have a passion and a talent for this craft. Enough that you instead of wasting your day punching people at Silver Sands… you’re here, working to save lives with me.”
Alex couldn’t help chuckling at that. “And it was a day well spent… even if tomorrow I’ll be happily punching people at Silver Sands.” He then teasingly flexed his muscles. “I mean, have you seen these guns? Practically a waste, not flexing them in front of a dozen wide-eyed cultivating beauties.”
She winced. For a heartbeat, he was afraid he had gone too far. Then she broke out in throaty laughter. “And you would look quite the handsome peacock, wouldn’t you?” She snorted. “Well, at least you spent one useful day before losing yourself in the flirting and preening that I suspect is most of a young aspirant’s life, when not engaging in ‘dual cultivation’ with whatever pretty peacock or dove catches one’s eye.”
She sighed, her teasing smile turning solemn. “But I shouldn’t joke, should I? After all, it’s only thanks to you all that our sanctuary’s even possible.” She then bowed, hand over fist. “Honor for your sacrifice.”
Alex suppressed a wince, smile firmly in place, once again forced to wonder what giant tab was coming due on the warmth and gratitude he had never in a dozen lives expected to receive from strangers in this reality.
Yana shook away the solemn moment. “Well, the least I can do for the hero who helped save my shop is treat him to a nice meal.” She tilted her head. “If I were to bet… this is your first time here. So how about I show you the best eating house on the block?”
Alex’s eye twinkled. He gamely held out his arm. “Let’s do just that.”
For some reason Yana stiffened, gazing at him with wide eyes before flowing to his side, linking her arm around his like it was the most natural thing in the world.
The next few hours that past were a storybook rendition of budding friendships and wonder.
The moon’s gentle light reflected off Yana’s rapt gaze when Alex shared an edited account of how he had arrived here, friends made and a single band of bandits fought off making an adventure out of what would have otherwise been a boring trip to a new city and the academy he hoped would accept him, and how surprised he had been when a single odd scent while passing her shot had transformed into a miraculous save, insightful lessons, and blossoming friendship.
“To friendship,” Yana said with a warm twinkle in her soft brown eyes, clinking her wine glass against his own, Alex still gazing with wonder at glassware that was, if anything, superior to anything he had seen in Yidushi or Baidushi, cities that were at least ten if not dozens of times more populous than Liushi, for all that the spacious city protectively circled the rich, fecund oasis for miles in all directions.
“To friendship,” Alex replied with a gentle smile, belly happily full with both pita bread covered in rich, spicy hummus and fresh baked faccocia covered in chutney, aromatic and delicious, tasting of olive oil, herbs and buttery goodness, an excellent complement to their extremely spicy and delicious peppercorn and spirit meat stew. All in all, it was a glorious meal, and though his cheeks were warm with good food and even better company, his mind was as clear as prudence dictated it forever be, no matter how glorious or beautiful the surroundings.
Yana slung back the last of her wine and burped, breaking out into sudden giggles that earned more than one indulgent smile from the other customers of their upscale dining establishment, and how strange it was to see both men and women gazing boldly their way, and not a one glowering with tiring disapproval.
When Alex raised his hand, their servitor manifested as if by cultivation technique, a wax tablet in his hands depicting an exotic script that Alex was determined to study until his Linguistic Interface mastered it… yet the puzzle was solved miraculously when a pair of his silvers flashed, with copper change received in turn.
“Such gratuity is by no means necessary, great one,” the servitor breathlessly explained when Alex tried to give the poor young lady a copper feather, so he merely nodded and smiled, deliberately pressing it on the table as he gently gathered a dazed Yana in his arms and made his way out of the restaurant, earning nothing but a good-natured chuckle or two as he carried the young compounder back to her shop in his arms.
With his strength it was effortless, he himself wearing comfortable attire that fit him as well as if he had worn it for a lifetime, straw hat replaced with the tricorn and cloak he just felt like wearing, the night-time desert air definitely cool, for all that it was warmer than it would have been mid-desert, instead of beside the grand oasis, and even if he felt it as nothing but a delightful tingle, a shivering Yana snuggled happily into his thick, plush cloak.
“Yana, we’re here.”
Alex smiled down at the petite woman as she murmured sleepily and snuggled further into his cloak-padded shoulder, realizing she wouldn’t be getting up any time soon. With a discreet look around, sensing absolutely no one stalking the shadows or otherwise eyeing him and his charge, it was nothing for him to put a hand on the copper doorknob and click open the latch with a surge of water and blood as thick and viscous as his Dark Qi equivalent had once been, a lifetime ago.
Congratulations! You have successfully picked – Complex Lock belonging to a culture with highly sophisticated Bronze & Copper smithing technologies! All pins have been effortlessly aligned to sheer point.
Lock Picking is now Rank 4!
Insight gained! You understand the affinities and similarities of Water to blood, as well as all other elements that resonate with the concept and flow of life.
Prismatc Fox Restoration Technique is now Rank 5 and incorporates Basic Blood Mastery! (You may use Blood in place of Water for all Water Qi Applications. Note! Additional cost of Health points in addition to Qi Points will be expended upon such use and application, subject to normal regenerative properties of Prismatic Fox. You now enjoy a base passive regeneration rate of (16) health points per minute!
Alex lurched forward in surprise, almost stumbling over as he made it past the threshold, beyond surprised by the interface messages as his mind shivered with possibilities and understanding, as if he had just reread a complex passage for the dozenth time after a good night (millenia’s) sleep, making connections that had always slipped past him before. Because of course Water and Blood resonated almost perfectly together, when one factored Blood as being equivalent of Water saturated with all the elements of life.
It suddenly clicked as well, how Dark and Light Qi were mirrors of one another on so many levels, and how the prism of eight elements seen at just the right angle did indeed shimmer and blend into a perfect carmine hue.
It was a surge of insight that fueled and invigorated him, filling him with a sudden fierce surge of delight as the blurry comprehension he strove for blazed into sudden sharp focus.
Alex took a deep breath as the pulse and surge of wonderful glorious life flooded through his meridians and veins, life-giving blood and spiritual currents echoing each other perfectly as he gazed towards the celestial heavens through the bronze window bars of the shops and imagined the scintillating flashes of a distant star to be nothing less than the super cable of his soul whirling with ever greater speed. The flood of insights and comprehension served to further smooth and refined his super cable’s rotational velocity as increasing mastery over himself brought him ever closer to mastering his cable, his core… and whatever came after.
He shivered as a sudden chill caressed his soul, not sure if the shadowy path he dared would lead to ascension or ultimate oblivion, but determined to step forward nonetheless, pausing only a moment to carefully lock the door behind him before racing up the sandalwood steps to the second floor, careful not to jostle the precious charge now sleeping in his arms.
A quick search and crimson surges of probing tendrils of blood quickly unveiling so many of Yana’s secrets, earning nothing but a sad, oddly understanding smile from Alex before finding her bedroom and gently placing Yana in her bed.
The sleepy kiss she gave him was one he truly hadn’t been expecting, tasting so strongly of spiced wine and a desperate hunger.
His soft chuckle as he stroked her cheek and hair, before gently wrapping her in linen sheets after washing her hands and feet and freeing the ribbons from her tresses was enough to soothe her back into sleep as he carefully went back down the steps once more, checking her shop and home one final time to assure her safety before embracing the lotus position in the center of the store and embracing all the insights he had been struck by on this wonderful glorious night, so filled with revelations and the promise of adventure.
And for all that he tasted the tantalizing caress of hearth and home, a single effortless choice branching his path along directions that would bring him sweetest satisfaction, it is was a cultivators insights that he was most eager to hold tightly to him that night, solidifying his foundation as he embraced Desert Fox Cultivation and Prismatic Fox Restoration for hours before allowing it all to flow into Prismatic Shield.
But it was only when he felt the eight elements blazing through his body and soul in perfect harmony, that his blade also crackled with three feet of rainbow hued fire as he honed his understanding of what was perhaps his most profound and deadly art outside the mad fury of mortal combat. A Pristine Technique he had had to challenge the very gods, or at least their rapacious memory, to claim as his own.
Yet he could only hold that sense of a crackling prismatic blade for bare minutes at a time, as no carefully hidden Potency Mastery skill was flooding his psyche and soul with spiritual energy torn free of his dying foes. This was all him, his own careful strides toward mastery of his deadliest and most important skills. Even if advancing such would take weeks, months, or years without the drug-like vampiric crutch of sucking his foes dry, he was beyond content to embrace simple sweet practice for its own sake, stabilizing his foundation and making the skills so much more than desperately clutched glimpses of epiphany and dream.
He was determined to make those skills forever his own. Just an extension of his will, as effortless as breathing.
All he needed was practice and time.
When he eventually came back to himself, slipping free of that state of pristine clarity, he felt utterly in tune with his environment and his place within it. Despite a sleepless night, he was not exhausted so much as invigorated, and it was still hours before dawn.
So he plucked free another beast core of near the exact same quality as the one he and Yana had used the night before, and slowly, then with increasing familiarity and comfort, replicated all the alchemical formulae he and Yana had made together that day, such that by the time morning’s first light was casting a warm glow through the bronze bars of the open air windows of the apothecary and the front door rang with the bell of the day’s first customer, Alex was already putting away the final tincture he had created, instinctively reaching for the door with a smile, when he heard a surprised intake of breath, turning to gaze at a sleepy-eyed Yana gazing at him with an odd mixture of alarm, wonder, and what seemed an undisguised sliver of happiness… before getting the door and greeting their first guest with a smile.
“Welcome to Yana’s apothecary, where you’ll find the best quality balms and tinctures anywhere. What can we get for you today?”