Two boys, one with long black hair and the other with short red hair, sat together in a large tub. No words were exchanged and only the sound of water splashing and sponge moving against skin filled the emptiness between them. Each boy was content to commune with their own thoughts.

Sam remained inexperienced with interacting with people his own age. By now the adrenaline and enthusiasm that came with his father’s promise of a breakthrough had already been washed away by the bath water he soaked in.

As he scrubs the back of this guest of his, he couldn’t help but wonder as he recalled Will’s background as a crown prince. In his understanding, the crown prince, was the successor of a king or an emperor. So logically speaking, Will must be walking the ruler’s path… The emperor’s path.

In other words, his dream.

Sam’s scrubbing then takes on more forceful strokes.

“Why were those mercenaries trying to kill you guys anyway?” Sam asks trying to clear the envy from his thoughts.

Will’s body stiffens slightly but he relaxes soon after. His shoulder’s sag further as he ponders the question.

With a sigh, he replies, “I am not sure, either. Auntie Rose thinks it's because they want to take me hostage to use me against my father.”

“The Ironborn King, right? Is he strong?”

Will smiles at the memory of his father. With pride, he replies, “Yes. Very strong. The strongest!”

“Stronger than the Dawn Emperor?” Sam counters skeptically.

Will furrows his brow. Dawn Emperor?

“I don’t know about this Emperor of Dawn.” Will replies with a shake of his head. “Is he one of the Great Emperors of old?”

“Yes!” Sam’s voice comes out more enthusiastic than he’d like. “The strongest!”

“While I don’t know whether he is the strongest, I do know that most of the names of the emperors of old were lost along with their inheritances in that war long ago. Auntie Rose tells me that only a few hidden orthodoxies and major superpowers have records pertaining to that time.” Will explained academically.

“I see...” Sam deflated.

“But I believe my father is the strongest,” Will added with confidence. “At least, he is the strongest in the warrior’s path.”

Sam thought for a moment but didn’t reply.

The bath continued in silence and before long, the boy’s dried themselves off and left the bathroom. Will dressed himself in another set of Sam’s clothes, much to the irritation of the latter. After that they began to make their way to their workshop.

Entering the workshop, the boys were greeted by the sight of Rose sitting on the ground in the lotus position with her hands joined just below her naval. Her aura was suffocating and the pair could feel their eyes sting and tears well up inside them when they looked at her for too long. Will knew that she was breaking through, an act he had seen a few times in Aurum.

Sam on the other hand had never seen anything of the sort. His face paled slightly and he couldn’t help but take a few steps back when he felt her presence. It reminded him of some of the alphas of the dire wolf packs or Fire Ape troops. He also recalled similar suffocating presences from the mercenaries he encountered the previous day.

Sam searched around anxiously and when he spotted his mother at the end of the room, he rushed in that direction.

As for Will, he found himself in a strange state. He felt inexplicably comfortable and his blood flow become smoother and more vigorous. He also noticed that some of the grime and impurities clogging his remaining three meridians were slowly being washed away. It was a surreal experience.

“Mama, today you’re supposed to help me breakthrough to mana condensation,” Sam beamed when he arrived at his mother’s workbench.

Sam knew that she was extracting the essence from the herbs she was grinding with her pestle as he had seen her do it countless times when she gave him herbology lessons. He had never practised alchemy, his mother wouldn’t teach him, but he had plucked herbs and helped in essence extraction a few times. Then she would teach him how to make a few basic healing elixirs, balms and salves that in her opinion, every capable warrior ought to know about.

“Healers will not always be available when you are out adventuring, little Sam,” His mother would say. “Are you supposed to just sit and wait for death if you get injured?”

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Sure, she would say that, but whenever he asked her to teach him anything beyond essence extraction she would reply, “I will teach you when you want to learn.”

Sam had never understood what that meant. He was asking, so he clearly wanted to learn.

“Yes,” Neva responded to Sam’s question in sign language. “But you did not bring back the herbs I asked for yesterday.”

Sam’s face reddened in shame. He had tried to gloss over the subject hoping she wouldn’t remember.

However, he remembered his father’s words and his confidence resurfaced. “Papa said it was fine and that I could come here.”

With a shake of her head, Neva acquiesced. “Okay, go gather the ingredients for the mana eruption pill from the garden outside.”

Excited, the boy scampered off and exited the greenhouse like apothecary.

Lena, and Will who had just arrived, noticed the odd hand signs Neva made to her son but they didn’t comment on it. Every family had their quirks.

“In actuality,” Neva said to the two remaining children, reverting back to using voice transmission as she returned to her conversation with Lena. “Below Divine physiques there are Heavenly physiques. Below Heavenly physiques are Earthen Physiques. I’m sure there are categorizations below the Earth tier but those aren’t worth mentioning.”

She poured the herbal essence into an empty crucible before placing it beside two others filled with herbal essence.

“On this continent, in this age, all tiers of special physiques are exceedingly rare but Earthen physique constitution will appear every once in a while. It’s only a matter of if the holder can awaken the physique or not.”

Neva opened the lid of the small furnace cauldron on the table and begun to heat it up.

“As for Heavenly physiques,” Neva paused as if trying to recall something. “I think one or two of those emperors of old managed to awaken them. The rest should have awakened Earthen physiques and below."

Lena and Will contemplated the information in silence while Neva begun to pour the essence extractions into the furnace. A faint pleasant smell wafted out accompanied by residual medicinal essence that soothed Lena’s meridians and mana core. She felt her senses clear up and the pain and discomfort she felt in her frontal lobe eased.

There were no pronounced benefits for Will other than maybe his meridian blockages loosening but the increase was too minimal in comparison to when he had just entered the greenhouse apothecary.

Less than five minutes later, Sam returned with a basket of herbs that he placed on the opposite end of the workbench where Neva was pill concocting.

He looked at his mother then at Will and Lena who were observing her before turning his attention to Rose who was just opposite the exit door. He shivered. Sam and Lena could not see it, but to him, Rose looked larger than life. There seemed to be an enormous phantasm in her image that extended out of her body behind her. It was also seated in also seated in the lotus position but it was so suffocating and overpowering that Sam felt his eyes go bloodshot just looking at it.

Gritting his teeth, he plopped himself down beside the workbench and settled in a lotus position. Then he began to practise the breathing method for the Transformations of the Lotus technique.

His breathing was steady and followed a rhythm that cycled between the white lotus, red lotus, yellow lotus, and blue lotus. His anxious nerves and quick heart rate – from looking at Rose, calmed down as the inhaled the herbal essence wafting from his mother’s furnace. It travelled through his twenty meridians to his frontal lobe where, according to his mother, the soul chamber resided.

With each cycle, Sam felt his thoughts become quicker and his environmental awareness strengthen. Soon, he begun to reflect on the spar he had with Will earlier.

The prince was weak to be sure, much to Sam’s dismay. But had somehow expected that when he saw the boy. More than that, Will seemed… slow, for lack of a better term. His movements were full of openings and even when he made an excellent feint and Sam believed he was caught, Will would telegraph the follow up attack, allowing Sam to take evasive action.

It was only at this moment, when Sam was circulating the lotus transformation technique that he finally understood the usefulness and importance of the technique his mother insisted he practice. It strengthened his soul! And as all the essence travelled through his body and settled in his soul chamber, clearing thoughts and aiding his introspection, he understood the benefits of a strong soul.

“Seems like all that dancing paid off,” Sam joked to himself as he opened his eyes.

All the stray essence had been used up by this point and the sealed furnace gave no hope for more leftovers.

Not long after, Neva opened turned off the heat and reached into her furnace and extracted a batch of six pellet sized pills. She pulled a vial from the shelf behind her and placed five of them inside. The vial was then corked and placed in a drawer compartment just below the workbench.

Neva looked to the front of her small apothecary where she noticed her husband, Aziel, was giving some pointers to Rose. The mage had solidified her Runic foundations with the refined mana in the room and had managed to breakthrough a minor stage as well.

She smiled.

“This pill is still much too potent for you,” Neva said to Lena via voice transmission. She then crushed the pill and diluted it in water and presented it to Lena.

Lena reached out to the pill – no elixir, presented to her but hesitated. She looked at Neva who gave her an approving nod before she held the elixir and swallowed it one gulp before sitting down cross-legged to absorb and refine the elixir.

Neva smiled and watched the girl for a while. When she was satisfied that the medicine was working as intended, she turned her attention to Sam.

“Come help me extract the essence for your pill,” Neva said in sign language.

Sam didn’t need to be told twice.

“Mama, you were right.” Sam said as he pulled his own mortar and pestle from a storage compartment. “I couldn’t see it when I fought with papa, but my soul is strong. I could see Will’s attacks before he made them. And now that I think about it, I can see things other people can’t see.”

Thus Sam begun an endless prattle as he ground herbs. Will also listened in on Sam’s gabble hoping to hear some nuggets of secret information or techniques his new master had taught him. However, besides not learning anything, his face turned dark.

“For example, this prince Will is so weak but he wasn’t affected when big sis Rose was cultivating.” Sam said while pointing his lips at Will. “Then I realised it’s because he’s so weak that he isn’t affected!”

Will nearly pounced on the bumpkin for his insolence. At the end of the day, he was still an imperial prince!

Neva merely chuckled in amusement when she saw Will’s expression.