My fists clenched tightly as the embodiment of the Goddess of Death left the room, her body turning into motes of black energy. If Julian were truly the woman I knew before she fell, then there was no question about what I had to do. In order to fulfill this oath and return to her, I needed to gather all of the positive karma that I could.

However, I also had to be careful. If I rushed matters, I wouldn’t be sure that I had the appropriate amount of karma. In my past life, I don’t know entirely what it was that allowed me to benefit as greatly as I had. I did many charitable works with my pharmaceutical company, but there were many who were just as generous without ever making it into the heavenly palace.

Part of it could potentially be attributed to luck, with those that I helped being more positively aligned than negative. If that was the case, my karma would have built up little by little. Unfortunately, I would not be able to rely on luck this time, and would need a more surefire way to determine the increase in my karma.

Thinking back, I recalled the information that I found earlier, stating that the Goddess of Ki had the ability to sense one’s karmic balance. If I performed some good deeds for her people, perhaps I could request her to use that skill on me? That was currently the only known method in any world to definitively determine one’s ‘alignment’ outside of directly conversing with the Goddess of Death. Something which I am not sure she would agree to without a proper reason.

Leaning back on the bed, I closed my eyes and focused. My strong suits were as an alchemist and a businessman. The martial spirits that the Goddess of Ki ruled over were energy lifeforms, so they had no real need for medicines… or did they?

With that thought in mind, I bolted upright. Pulling the terminal crystal from my pocket, I placed it on the desk and activated it. I needed to perform a new search.

I had never tried this field myself before, because in my time, energy bodies were not so widespread. Medicine was required for those that had blood and bone, not wisps of smoke making up their being. They were able to reform their existence with a thought, immune to normal diseases.

However, as I searched, I found that the world truly had changed in the time I was away. Now… there were illnesses which specifically targeted energy. One such disease, known as manablight, directly targeted a person’s mana. Powerful mages were capable of alleviating the symptoms on their own, but only divine magic had proven effective to treat the disease itself.

Another one, dying blood, was an energy-based disease which targeted both ki and spiritual energy. This was a disease which was especially dangerous to martial spirits, similarly only treatable with divine power. Stroking my chin, I began to devise a new plan.

While there were no known medicines for these diseases specifically, there were several sites mentioning that different herbs contained energy which had an impact on the recovery rate of energy-based entities. If I wanted to create a connection with the Goddess of Ki, I now knew two pills which I needed to create.

As I walked out of my room, I began to mutter to myself. “If I want to get the resources for this, I need to have a way for this to benefit Hanbei as a whole. I can’t simply spend this nation’s power to help another country.”

Thankfully, I had become familiar with the currency exchange that had swept over the world in recent times. The nation I was in could be considered fairly wealthy, as they worshipped Bihena, and thus typically received tokens of her faith. Meanwhile, Tryval’s tokens were ranked one place less than Bihena’s. Meaning that each token of Bihean was worth two from Tryval.

With this, I should have plenty of access to the herbs I need for experiments. Soon, I saw a maid passing me in the halls, stopping and smiling at her. “Janet, would you let the queen know that I need tokens of Tryval and Leowynn? I have to perform some alchemy experiments requiring specific materials.”

The woman blinked a bit, before nodding her head. “Of course, Sir Lorient. I’ll let her know right away.” After she said that, she continued walking down the hall, though I could feel magical fluctuations from her. No doubt every maid in the palace had a way to communicate with the queen if the need arose.

However, as long as my message was delivered, it would be fine. I simply needed to wait in the room that had been prepared as my office rather than my quarters. As soon as I got to the room in question, I was surprised to find a piece of paper waiting for me on my desk.

The message on the paper seemed to be written in the queen’s style, and I could see a magical brand on the bottom corner. While I was surprised with how quickly she responded, it seemed as if she had become too busy with my previous suggestion to meet with me in person. As for the contents of the letter… she was simply asking me to list whatever materials I needed, and they would be delivered to me.

A thin smirk crossed my face at that. There was the chance that this was a ploy by another noble, one that had intercepted the message being sent to the queen earlier. I had dealt with many such cases in the past of someone trying to tamper with the lines of communication.

As such, I began to list materials on the back of the paper one after another. Seven Shine Grass, Amica Peach, the stem of a Spiritblossom at least six centimeters long, a reset fruit… the list went on. While many of these materials were those that had been confirmed to have effects on energy beings, and several others were merely my conjecture or ones I believed might have supportive effects for the previously mentioned herbs, there were others that I listed as well. These herbs were meant to throw off anyone trying to pry into my plans by assessing the nature of the materials I asked for.

Theoretically, each new plant that I listed opened up more and more possibilities to obscure my true intentions. Finally, once I was done with the herbs, I began listing animal components. These would have to be purchased with Accalia tokens, which were incredibly valuable, but they were similarly needed for my plans. However, because of the expense, I made sure to not list as many red herrings.

Once the list was completed, I placed my hand on the magical brand on the paper to activate it. Whoever sent the message, whether they were truly the queen or not, would receive the completed list. Of course, there were other oddities within my list as well, such as the fact that I only asked for one of each material.

Anyone that had performed experiments would know that they came with a cost. Usually, this cost came in the form of a large amount of materials that would be consumed in order to find the right formula. However, I had invested my talents in a different direction, and it was this difference which allowed my company to prosper despite the incredibly low prices of my products.

It took a grand total of two hours before the materials I requested had been delivered to me, arriving in a large crate that was deposited in front of my office. I opened the lid of the crate, seeing numerous boxes stacked within, and nodded my head. Only after moving the crate inside and closing the door did I get to work.

“Open archive.” I muttered, placing my hand atop the crate. Three spell diagrams formed, one above and below the crate while the other passed over it. Where the third circle passed, the crate vanished.

This was a second-tier spell that I had spent far too long devising in the past. In exchange for destroying an item, it allowed me to memorize it in its entirety, ensuring that the information was fully transferred to my mind. On its own, the spell seemed quite wasteful, but it was the lynchpin for a unique skill I had developed.

I moved to sit at my desk, closing my eyes and focusing. My archive of materials had been deleted when I died, or I would not have needed all of the items that I asked for. Now that I had some more…

A large space opened in my mind, filled with numerous aisles of shelves. These shelves sat empty, darkness filling the space. However, in the middle of one aisle, a large crate appeared. With a thought, the wood and cardboard vanished, leaving only a series of floating materials, which lifted themselves into the air to be arranged neatly on various shelves.

Finally, at the end of the aisle was my personal masterpiece, assembled through my intricate knowledge of alchemy. A workstation with every type of tool I was familiar with. Although the materials themselves were magically imprinted on my mind, these tools were products of my own creation. Thus, they were not destroyed when I died.

This was how I always managed to save money on research to receive the best results. “Begin simulation.”

Several materials appeared on the desk, breaking themselves apart with the various tools. Although I had to focus on the task, I did not physically need to do anything. So long as I had the material, I could infinitely experiment. This was a skill created through the high-level scholar ability, Mental Archive, and my own personal insights.

Unfortunately, this skill did have its limitations. While I could find any number of formulas to create pills with ease, they were still only theories until I was able to test them. For this, I needed to archive samples of whatever disease I intended to treat.

If we were discussing a normal disease, I could gather a sample of it in the same way that I sampled the materials. Then, I could test the effects of the drug on the disease sample to estimate its effects.

Unfortunately, such a thing was not possible for an energy-based disease. If I were to scan it with the spell I had devised, I would surely be infected. Perhaps even my Mental Archive would collapse from the corruption. That was a risk that I couldn’t afford.

For now, my archive would merely be a simulated area where I tested the formulas for different pills, finding recipes that would not explode due to the clash of energies. Once I had a formula that I was satisfied with, I would need a separate testing environment to produce them.

Like this, I could gradually solve the problem of energy-based medicine. I was certain that it was possible to create a similar effect through high-tier magic, but such has always been the case. The benefit of alchemy is not that it allows you to do things magic is incapable of, but rather it allows such effects to be mass-produced and used as needed.

Now I needed a method to contact the Goddess of Ki. As she was a ‘lesser god’, I would not necessarily get her attention by praying to her. Instead, I would need to send an actual messenger. Which meant that I needed to bring my plans forward to the queen of Hanbei.