The Notorious Misadventures of an Alchemist and a Phoenix, Chapter 8
A massive archway stood pridefully in the centre of a great trade hub. It sparkled like a tackey picture made by a child who thought the height of art was generous amounts of glitter.
It was a testimony of what a person with a Master tier class could do. Alchemy had its Philosopher's Stone and Enchanting had its bridge gates. Noah had been waiting for his turn to travel but before him, there was a ginormous party full of warriors of all classes. Fortunately, Noah didn't have to wait for each person to go separately as the whole group was going to the Realm of war.
The official name was Criakkodolon but no one used it because it was a silly name. It was a world that had caused its own special type of Armageddon. Two species had laid waste to each other, unable or unwilling to share their homeworld and ultimately causing a time loop. They were stuck in a time loop that they couldn't escape from and didn't even know they were in. Each month they would start over killing, and fighting only to be reset at the end.
This was sad but that didn't stop people across the multiverse from joining the battle on mass and taking advantage of the experience orbs the trapped species dropped and then leaving just before the realm reset itself.
Noah was damn sure he wasn't ever going there because while you could get a fortune in experience orbs you could get stuck there in the time loop or worse, killed. Noah watched the group leave and free up the next portal to Virulent Stratum, the poison realm.
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Noah was the only person waiting for this as the poison realm was very unpopular. The realm consistently poisoned whoever entered and while it was filled with lush plants and minerals it was also jam-packed with undead and poisonous beings. You had to repeatedly administer an all-purpose antidote to counter the effects. It was just too costly for almost anyone to mine or search for rare and expensive herbs.
Passing through the gate felt like you were pushing through a very thin layer of dry custard skin but the distance was instant. One second Noah was in the city and then he wasn't.
The poison plane was just a vast forest with swamps. Noah took a deep breath filling his lungs with the toxic miasma and then released that same breath with a dry cough. While the poison air healed Noah thanks to his resistance and rings it still smelled like rotten fruit.
This was why Noah had come here. It would take a second apocalyptic disaster to kill him here and he doubt the gods would be so mean to do that to him.
"Let's get started" Noah nudged the phoenix
Sighing to himself the phoenix lazily took to the air. Noah knew how this realm worked as he had been here once before. When he was just an Intermediate Alchemist he planned to take advantage of this realm by collecting the near priceless resources and developing antidotes for the masses. He was soon forced to change his plans not due to the undead or other creatures in this realm but due to a passing assassin who thought it was a good idea to kill a weak Alchemist and take the loot for himself. Noah only got away by diving into an incredibly poisonous river that swept him away fast enough from the agility-stat-heavy assassin. From that point on Noah hadn't entered any realm due to the chance of death. Now tho, he had a powerful phoenix that might defend him and if that fell and burned out he had other tricks.
The phoenix dived down into an elegant plume of fire. He was excellent at flying but an absolute mess when landing, which was proven when he landed in a contorted mess.
Quickly the phoenix jumped to his feet as if nothing happened and pointed to his left. "A herd of poison shamblers about fifty meters"
Now it was time for Noah to power level, power level with a capital "Pew Pew"