Chapter 119:

Hiring an Alchemist

The Unified States of Mana



“You’ve grown.” Eshya says, holding me tight as her wondering hands get a feel of me. The mana friction forming between us is affecting her more than me, as I’ve already overtaken her in terms of sheer power. “You broke into liquid stage?”

“Sure have.” I reply. “Not as cleanly as you have, my mana forms gotten a little strange from the development, but it works.”

Shen crawls from her shoulders to mine, running her tail around us as she cheerfully bounces about. It takes a little effort to restrain the panic reaction inside me taking over.

“Good.” Eshya says, gritting her teeth as she embraces me closer. Her warm breath runs down my neck. “We need to be strong. The war isn’t going as well as it could be.”

“My new citizens should help on the warfront.” I say, “So long as they’re up for a little bit of a fight.”

“Let’s hope they get along with everyone.” Nel says, running her hand up my arm comfortingly as she gazes towards them. She looks at them with the same doubtful expression that I see from Lakesh as he looks at us. There’s still plenty of time to assuage these doubts.

“It’ll be fine.” I reply, embracing the familiar warmth spreading through my chest.

I’m back.

“If anyone causes trouble, I’ll take them aside and deal with them. Still, I doubt these vampire lizards will try to take over, so at worst I expect them to take some time to gather themselves before heading out on their own. So long as we can convince them to stay in that time, we’ll be fine.”

Nel nods, letting out a long sigh, as she cracks her knuckles and stretches. With a smirk she lifts Shen from my shoulders and wraps me up from behind.

“Me too! Group hug!” Vii shouts, leaping at us and wrapping her wings around us.

The warmth and the pressure is comforting, but their affection is even more heavy, in a good way. It’s like my feet are finally touching the ground again, that the world is back to what it should be. I’m not alone among strangers, I’m surrounded by people who know me and love me.

I didn’t realize how close I was to having a breakdown.

“I’m glad that you’re back safe.” Nel says in a low whisper. “I’ve been worried.”

“I’ve been worried about all of you, too.” I say. “Thank you for keeping my empire safe while I’ve been away. Thank you for being here to welcome me back, it’s…”

“Yes, yes.” Nel says, lifting a hand to pat at my head. “Everything is fine now. We’re all together again.”

“Together!” Shen shouts from the side of the room, inspiring a few chuckles.

“Who’s touching my butt?” I ask.

“Guilty.” Eshya says with a shrug and a smile.

“Enough, enough.” I say, looking past them at the citizens still watching us. “I thought you were meant to be embarrassed about doing these things in front of people?”

She blushes bright, in a way that I rarely see of her.

“This much is fine.” She says, shaking off the looks that our people are giving us.

“Back to task.” I say standing straighter and brushing the cloth parts of my armour back into place. “Thank you for keeping my empire alive in my absence.”

“That was mostly Red.” Eshya says, grumbling a little as she clenches and unclenches her fists. “I’ve barely been any help. Nel is still keeping everything running behind the scenes, though.”

“Someone needs to ensure that everything is going where it’s needed.” Nel replies. “Now that our stockpiles are properly recorded, and I have proper locks on everything, it’s not nearly so difficult on me.”

“That’s good, because I have some crystal to add to that collection. At least until we can get it into Ria’s hands.” I say, “It could potentially work as a mana battery. I’ll need to ask her and our other crafters about some new projects to reinforce the walls down here, and buttering them up with gifts might make it easier to ask.”

“I’m sure.” Nel replies with a small nod. “Though so long as they have something interesting to work on, I don’t think they’ll mind.”

“How blessed I am.” I say feeling warm inside as I turn to look between the girls. “To have so many talented people working with me.”

“We should do something more to incentivise them to stay.” Nel says. “We can’t take them for granted.”

“Well then, what would you want?” I ask.

“Me?” She asks waving a hand at herself, continuing in a business-like tone. “Love and affection.”

“Ah, well, we still have some time tonight before this next weeklong excursion. I just have to deal with one more thing, and my time is yours.” I say, resigned to the fact that I can’t spend more time here in peace. I have to act now to ensure that we have time later.

“You mean all of ours?” Vii asks, bobbing up by my side and continuing in a whisper. “You used that Skill I gave you?”

“I did.” I reply, “Though there was a little time it was inactive. I ran my mana dry in a few battles.”

“I should’ve thought of that.” She whispers back, a little sadly.

“What are you two whispering about?” Eshya asks, leaning over the two of us and wrapping her arms around our shoulders.

“Nothing important,” Vii says, perking up. “It’s something… I’ll share it later. It’s a secret for now, okay. It’s nothing dangerous or anything.”

“No need to get all nervous about it.” Eshya laughs, “But now you’ve got me curious.”

“I’m sure she’s going to make a great reveal of it sometime soon.” I say, watching Vii nervously shift about. She’s rather cute when she’s like this, a little like a small bird nervously looking all about.

“So long as we keep it between us.” Vii says. “We shouldn’t share this around, right now.”

I don’t get why she’s so nervous at the thought of sharing around her neat new recording Skill, but I’ll trust her advice since she’s the one who made it.

To the side of us, Shen leaps about the shoulders of those people she’s most familiar with, hanging around Red especially. She gazes affectionately at the new people that I’ve brought to our cause.

“Together!” She cries gathering attention of everyone in the room.

“Together!” The shout resounds about the room from a dozen different voices, spreading further.

It seems we have our little empires slogan, and potential mascot. Though I’m not quite sure a mind controlling face hugger really makes for the best representative of my ideals for this empire… Then again, judging Shen for her character rather than her species might be more true to the values I want to build up.

“There have been no issues with rulebreakers since you were last here, nor any ethical issues of significance.” Adler says, standing a little to the side and seeming a little alienated. She’s yet to fully settle down with us, her soft little ears only serving to express her stiffness and worry that much more.

“That’s good.” I say.

“I have a few thoughts I’d like to run by you, however. Especially considering these gremlins and what issues we might encounter as the conflict continues.” She says, quickly adding, “If that’s alright with you.”

“I don’t mind.” I say, walking over to her and wrapping my arm through hers to bring her closer. She resists in confusion for a moment, but quickly gives in and walks beside me. I was hoping that with time she’d settle in on her own, but it seems I might need to be a little more forceful with her. She’s holding herself back from fitting in properly.

“I’ll be heading out,” I shout to the group here, “Send me a message if there are any issues.”

“Message?” Lakash asks.

“We’ll get you set up with some new model support devices in a week, hopefully we’ll have enough gathered by then. For now, know that the others can contact me at any time.” I say, inspiring a little interest in the vampire lizards. I’m sure after a week we’ll know if they plan to stay or not, and it gives me time to figure out if I want to arm them with new model Chips if they do leave.

“We’ll be your guards.” Leai says as she slips up to my side with a sharp smile. Her twin sister is at her side.

“You’ve been well?” I ask. “How’s the fishing been going, any big catches?”

“We got close recently when Bessy helped us out, but even then the slippery bugger got away!” She says.

“You’re talking about the giant monster in the lake, right?” I ask, recalling the thing. It doesn’t quite compare to the titan, but it’s certainly larger than most whales.

“Yeah, that thing.” She says.

“We fight better in the water.” Seia reminds me as they lead us out of our little home in the dungeon.

Nel takes a few packages from the bar before leading us out of the cellar that we’re making into a home. At my questioning look she lifts the package a little higher.

“It’s dinner.” She explains. “Better than the mana-less food we’re served on the surface.”

I nod my understanding as I pull a stiff Adler along at my side, her skin causing a little friction on my own. Her mana pool is still a bit deeper than my own.

“You shouldn’t be so nervous with me.” I say. “When I broke your collar, you became one of us. So, let’s discuss these ethical problems of yours while heading up to the surface. We can hear everyone’s opinions on it.”

“I was hoping for a little more private time.” Eshya says, shifting about as she looks towards me.

“When we’re free from the dungeon, and after I’ve spoken with our alchemist.” I say, rather excited for the thought of some time alone with these girls.

“Alchemist?” Nel asks, “I’ve been looking but haven’t found anyone who would be willing to assist us.”

“Thresh.” I say the name, wondering how correct it really is. “I stumbled across her in the alchemy class when I first visited. She has a few interesting ideas that she can’t fully realize just yet, it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince her to join us, and I’m sure she can manage basic healing potions.”

“Not ideal, but something is better than nothing.” Nel admits tapping at her lips.

“Back to topic.” I say, “Ethical conundrums?”

“Yes, what should we do if any of the gremlins surrender?” Adler asks. “It’s obvious that we can’t simply trust them just because of that alone, but killing them when they’ve surrendered would be… I wouldn’t want that.”

“Interesting… I’d have to ask their intentions.” I say. “If they want to join my empire, I think they should have a chance to prove themselves.”

“They might just be trying to find a chance to stab us in the back.” Eshya says. “Even if they’re weak they could hurt our crafters, or steal some of our things. Maybe they can even act as a spy for more powerful enemies.”

“So, we’d have to watch them carefully.” Vii says. “If we catch them spying, we can punish them or cast them out or something.”

“What are your thoughts, Adler?” I ask.

“I don’t mind your conclusions so far.” She says with a difficult expression. “It would put us at significant risk, however. Collars really do serve an important purpose…”

“They’re too easily abused, and it makes for an awful image of our empire.” I say shaking my head. “Maybe we can come up with something similar using Skills in Chip, but no collars.”

“Awful image?” Vii asks.

“I broke these people from their collars. I don’t think it would be good to turn around and start using those same collars for my own purposes.” I say. “That and I’d rather allow much more freedom in my empire, even if it comes with risk. I’ll punish harshly those who do something wrong, but I hate the idea of stripping a person’s freedom to that point.”

“Okay then, what about…” She continues to pluck examples of ethical quandaries that seem overly realistic considering our circumstances. Less, trolly problem, more what do I do when a gremlin toddler picks up a knife and stabs someone. If they’re easily disarmed, what should we do about them?

What to do if we suspect a murder has taken place? A rape, where we have little actual evidence? Stolen property, and all other sorts of things.

We leave behind the twins, with some pleasant goodbyes and a promise to go fishing together at some point. They certainly seem to be enjoying their adventures and battles down in the dungeon.

I’m glad, it would be a little depressing to hear that they regret their choice of joining me. It’s good that they’re useful, but it’s even more important that they’re happy.

“Give me a moment to deal with this alchemist.” I say, as I try to figure out which way I have to go. Thresh, is an arachnid half-elf and should be easy enough to see when I get to the right meeting spot. She has agreed to meet with me, thankfully, but that’s no guarantee that she’ll join my cause.

“Should we go with you?” Vii asks.

“It’d be best with fewer people along.” I say. “I get the feeling we’ll get off track a little, or maybe even intimidate her if we’re not careful.”

“Are you saying we’re intimidating?” Eshya asks, with a giddy smile. “Because that sounds like a compliment to me.”

“I’m sure.” I say repressing a laugh. “Warm up our dinner, this shouldn’t take long.” Thresh isn’t the biggest conversationalist, keeping our text conversations short and to the point.

“Sure thing, honey.” Eshya says, leaning in for a kiss. “Everything will be ready for when you arrive home.”

“Don’t take too long.” Vii says, hesitant to imitate Eshya. I pull her close in a hug and kiss her cheek while she takes her time thinking about it. She wriggles happily before I let go.

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t get lost.” Nel says, with a light smile wrapping her arm through mine. “Where are we going?”

“The courtyard near the crafting class building, apparently? How do we get there?”

Nel leads me through the city streets without needing to ask any further questions. The sun isn’t yet sunk, though it does flirt with the horizon, while hiding among the lowest leaves of the world tree above us.

The courtyard is busy enough that we don’t stand out much, even while I wear my amour. I probably should have changed out of it, but in my rush to get home, I’ve forgotten about it. I’ve grown rather comfortable in the armour recently.

When I find the young alchemist, she’s standing awkwardly in the middle of the courtyard, wringing her hands and rubbing at her eyes. A few messages pop up, asking where I am. Her fingers are stained bright green, from some sort of lab mishap, I would assume.

“You can help me?” She asks as she sees me, her voice breaking as she rubs her tired eyes. “How can you help me?”

“A better system of recording reactions and recipes than some weighty codex.”

“I’m not using a codex, I’d fill up so many pages with my work that I’d fill a library. No, I’m trying to develop a Skill.” She replies, with a long, tired sigh. “I’m just… it’s going to work. I just need time, and materials, but…”

“I can’t give you more time.” I say, “But I do have some things to spare if you’d be willing and able to make some healing potions in return.”

“How have you even got ingredients to spare?” She asks, sounding uninterested. “Let me guess, you swiped a little extra fawn grass from the lessons and think that’ll be enough to convince me.”

“That’s what you think? You haven’t gotten involved in the fallen business then?” I ask, “The world under the surface, none of that?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She says.

“I’m talking about fresh and potent ingredients.” I say, pulling out a small slice, from a small cut of the titan. Some organ that I’ve been told alchemists might be interested in. “This is somewhat exceptional even for my standards, but I thought it might help convince you.”

She rubs her eyes again looking down at the flesh steeped in liquid mana. It’s been treated to keep the mana from decaying out of the flesh as I understand it. Magical jerky or something?

“This…” She touches it, but I pull my hand back before she can take it.

“Can you make healing potions?” I ask. “If so, how good?”

“I…” she shakes her head quickly, before meeting my gaze. “I might be able to manage something. I’m still a student, so don’t expect some perfect elixir of recovery.”

“How about something to keep people alive when they’re dying. At least long enough to get them to a healer?” I ask. First aid in a bottle is essentially what I’m asking for. Isn’t magic great.

“I can make something like that.” She replies, thoughtfully. “You’d have to get me the ingredients for it… and somewhere to work. I can’t explain where I got your ingredients from. Also, some ingredients for my own use and study.”

“I might be able to offer something to help you further.” I say thinking of giving her an improved model of Chip. “We’ll set that aside for later however, until we’ve developed some trust.”

“I’m busy this coming week.” She says, drooping a little as she shifts some of the equipment around on her spider abdomen.

“What a coincidence. I’ve got some combat course business this week.”

“Oh, well we might be going the same place.”

“You joined the combat course?” I ask in confusion.

“No, no, no. It’s cooperative. There are some ingredients that can only be processed on site. This is to prepare us to get used to such excursions. The combat course students are giving us protection and guidance, I think?”

“Ah, well. I hope it’s going to be peaceful.” I say, scratching my cheek. Things are never peaceful.

“Why don’t we group up for the exercise?” She offers. “If we’re allowed to, that is.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I reply, pushing down a yawn.

“If that’s all, I have some packing to do.” She says, shifting her gear around again.

“Then I’ll let you get to it. I have some business to tend to myself.” I say, looking over to Nel who smiles brightly.

“Yes, we do need to discuss a few matters.” Nel says. “I hope all goes well for the excursion. Do take care of one another.”

“Until tomorrow.” Thresh says, waving us goodbye before leaving.

“Now, let’s go get dinner.” I say, feeling the stress fall from my shoulders as the last of my responsibilities are dealt with.

Nel pulls my arm close to her side as she pulls me along to our dorm rooms, while I try to figure out a quick way to get out of this armour.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 1869 units

~Mana distribution:

Defence: 0/37%

Offense: 0/57%

Mana sense: 0/73%

Recovery: 30/30%

Gluttony: 0/26%

Misc.: 0/42%

Efficiency: 30/100%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Reactive defence

-Fire burst punch

-Annihilation magic

-Charged casting (Annihilation)

-Mana form flow fixer

-Branching magic

This Novel Contains Mature Content

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