Book 1 Chapter 7: The beginnings of a humanoid cat’s replacement for claws 
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So, fun fact, this entire chapter was originally just the lead-up to what I'd intended to be chapter seven. Then I realized I needed to do a bit more explanation here, and a bit more fight there, and then it would've been hard to stop in the middle of the

Spoiler

training montage test

[collapse]

and so, it got to be over 10k words without me realizing it. Oops. I'd planned to expand a lot on last chapter's imperial feud, but I only did so a bit... the rest of that will have to wait until chapter eight

My second death since gaining a human form - or rather, my second time getting assassinated - was also a wake-up call, reminding me of something I’d forgotten. Most alchemists have some way to defend themselves in a fight, since they’re prime targets for thieves and kidnappers. The former because they tend to have a lot of valuable pills and materials in their spatial rings, the latter because some hope to obtain an exclusive alchemist, even if they have to be forced to refine pills, and both are compounded by the fact that they’re not a combat-oriented role, so they’re low-risk targets if it comes to a fight. 

Even if it’s just dabbling in some form of martial arts or learning the basics of swordplay, it’s rare to find an alchemist who doesn’t have some means to survive an armed robbery without giving up everything they own. Meanwhile, my methods of self defense could be counted on one paw. I had Leon’s level 10 skill, lion’s roar... which didn’t work on higher-level targets, and even if it did, it’d at most scare them into fleeing. Well, I also had my claws, but... both of those also come with the drawback of revealing my shape-shifting. 

My other options were all alchemical in nature, either poison pills, which... how would I force someone to ingest something in a fight? Alternatively, poison powders and gasses, which come with the drawback of not discriminating who they affect, and I don’t really have any effective way to clean the area up afterwards, so the room that fight occurs in could become uninhabitable for several days at least. 

I need an actual weapon, as the best I have is the scalpel I use to make precise cuts when separating portions of a material, or various blunt objects, such as the bones I’ve saved for later use. Neither lends itself to a wide range of uses in a fight.

 

[You could summon me, however. I’m strong enough to defeat whoever gets close to you, in the vast majority of cases. I am level 48, after all

[You’re also huge. Not 48 meters long, but almost a tenth of that. If I were to get ambushed in my room, you’d get stuck long before you managed to kill my assailant, unless you crushed him when you appeared]

 

Having eliminated that option as well, I was left with three others. The first was to buy a weapon from the Association, while the second was to go outside of the Association to buy one. Finally, I could try to condense an elemental seed, but not only would that take a long time, I’m not sure my control is good enough. It’s close, at least, despite my level being well below the standard level at which one normally would be able to try. That’s due almost entirely to my having spent centuries cultivating at this point. 

 

After some deliberation, I chose to go in the order I just presented them in, for the sake of not spending any more time than I needed to, and not taking as much of a risk if I didn’t need to. Sure, whatever happened, I’d almost certainly survive, but I don’t like dying. I’m not a masochist. So, off to the Association store I went.

 

“Weapons? No, we don’t carry such things here. The best you’re gonna get is a bone saw, but that’s not much more useful in a fight than a large bone”

“I already considered my bone collection... and decided it’s not versatile enough. Any recommendations on where I could... obtain something easy to use... in a lot of situations?”

“Well, you could always try the morningside marketplaces in the morningside - you know, I always hate how it’s not called the eastern... something... section. We have the northern nobility, southern slums, western workers, and then the morningside markets - anyways, you could try the markets in the eastern section of the capital, but a Pill Apprentice really shouldn’t be worried... about... pro... tect... ing... himself...”

 

When he started talking about Pill Apprentices, I realized I was still wearing the set of blue over robes I’d put on to replace the set ruined during my most recent assassination, so I rolled up the sleeve to show the red robe underneath. That, of course, caused his train of thought to derail - though, that term didn’t exist at the time - and his speech to slow down to the point where mine would be considered fast in comparison. Once he comprehended my rank, he changed his attitude, and became quite a bit more respectful.

“Of course, for a Pill Master such as yourself, a good means of protection is a necessity. I don’t know any specific shops, but I’d recommend a dagger, perhaps two. Not a lot of skill is needed to wield one effectively enough to get out of a dangerous situation, and for someone with your short stature, a shorter blade is better than a long one”

I mean, I know I’m short, but does it really matter that much? Wouldn’t it be better for me to have something with enough reach to make up for my short arms?


“In addition, I’d recommend trying to find a magic weapon, or better yet, a spirit weapon, with some interesting or useful skills, as those can save your life in a pinch, and surprise a foe who isn’t expecting your weapon to, say, burst into flames. Can I get you anything that’s not weapon related, or answer any other questions you may have?”

“Hmm... Do you have any... heartlake water? Three vials is enough”

 

His eyebrows rose at my request, but he dutifully flipped through the catalog until he found what I was looking for.

 

“We have... let’s see... only two vials, sorry. It’s not a popular item, so we don’t stock much. Might I ask what you plan to use it for? I believe bloodpitcher dew works better in just about every situation, no?”

“It does, unless you don’t want to... add in something to neutralize... the psychedelic effects of the dew”

“But that’s not a problem, violet chamomile powder is cheap and has no side effects”

“But it violently reacts with vermillion sparrow marrow”

“Who uses that in conjunction with-”

 

We debated the uses and interactions of various materials for another half an hour - although it would’ve been far less, had I not been slowed down by my pesky voice problems - until someone else showed up to purchase some materials. I took that as an opportunity to leave, obtain a new robe, and go to bed early, so that I could reach the morningside markets early the next day. Of course, I told Master Chen about my plan, and he went to Grandmaster White to request that I be stealthily followed by some guards, a request that he unhesitantly approved.

I figured that request was pointless, as it ought to take a while for the Shadows Guild to discover that I was still alive, given that three poisoned arrows had hit me - one of them inflicting a wound that would normally be fatal even without poison - so it would be natural to assume I’d died. Well, I had, but that’s not the point. I also requested a set of white over robes with five orange stripes, so I could pass myself off as a Pill Apprentice a step away from a Pill Adept, but if the need arose, I could show off the red robe underneath.

 

The next morning, I woke up an hour before dawn, and was out of the Association’s gates before the sun had truly begun to show itself above the horizon. I didn’t know if the two guards I’d been assigned were following me or not, and chose to assume that they were skilled enough that I simply couldn’t detect them, despite their close proximity to me. I made my way towards the markets, and was there in time to see the stalls getting erected and the shops opening their doors. 

I made my way into one of the buildings that displayed several varieties of weapons behind its windows, and found an even larger selection within. Racks on the walls carried uniquely crafted greatswords, katana, halberds, pikes, warhammers, battleaxes, morning stars, and more weapons I couldn’t name. Racks standing on the floor bore mass-produced spears, longswords, shields, and so on, while barrels dotted around carried miscellaneous weapons. I searched for a brief period of time, but the smallest weapon I could find was a single-edged shortsword, which was not what I needed. I asked the scowling owner if there were any I’d missed, and he gruffly uttered a curt response.

 

“No, we don’t carry daggers. Buy something else or leave”

“A fine way to lose customers, good sir. And now, I bid you adieu”

 

My halting voice dripped with sarcasm as I gave an overexaggerated bow, then turned and walked out the door and to the next stall bearing weaponry. That one carried bows, crossbows, arrows, and other long-range hunting weaponry, as well as knives meant more for dismantling dead beasts than making those beasts become dead. In such a manner, I went from stall to stall, shop to shop, and bought a few well-crafted daggers that did not bear any spirit inscriptions. 

Then, just before noon, I came across something that couldn’t even be called a stall, it was just a tarp with various items placed on it while a man sat on the far side from the street. One of the displayed items was a pair of daggers, which drew my attention due to the density of spirit contained within, and leaking out of, the ordinary-looking leather sheaths. The man was selling them for an extremely low price, at least when compared to other spirit weapons I’d seen that morning. 

Even if they weren’t spirit weapons, just one of the iridescent gemstones set into their pommels was worth more than what he was asking for the pair of daggers. I didn’t hesitate to purchase the set, accidentally paying him 20% more than he was asking for. Even at that price, it was still negligible in comparison to what they should have been sold for. Even if I couldn’t wield them because their weapon spirit didn’t accept me, I still could turn a profit just by extracting the gemstones and selling them. 

The other items the man was trying to sell were, for the most part, overpriced, ornate garbage, with the exception of a long strip of silvery cloth he used to tie a set of cloth armor into a single bundle. That was soulspider silk, a material Master had used to make his robes due to its beneficial effects towards focus, mental stamina, and memory.

However, those were only secondary, the main reason it was so valuable was the protection it provided against attacks that would damage one’s soul, as well as the fact that it increased the speed at which one’s soul would heal after it had been damaged. Evidently, this man had raided some tomb or secret area, and didn’t know the true value of the items he obtained, instead pricing them based solely on appearances. 

I bought the armor, the silk coming with it, and stored those within my void spirit realm, while the two daggers went in an interior pocket of my robes, since they couldn’t be stored in my void spirit realm due to having their own, functional weapon spirit. After that, I continued looking around for a few more hours, unfortunately finding only two more spirit weapons in the form of a dagger. The first one actively disliked me, so I had no reason to purchase it, while the second...

 

“How much does this one cost?”

“More than you can afford, I can tell you that much. That there’s a genuine level 20 mid-grade spirit weapon, the minimum price for one of those in spirit stones is a few tens of thousands, or at least ten grade 4 spirit stones”

“I can afford... quite a f-”

 

Just then, I heard a sword being drawn right behind me, so I spun around to face the source of the sound, raising the dagger in my hand to block the blade now descending towards my head. However, the dagger was sliced in two, only managing to divert the sword slightly to the side, such that it cut off my left arm at the shoulder instead of splitting my skull. I put my arm into my void spirit realm while throwing the remainder of the cheap dagger towards my assailant’s hooded head, as I bolted for the exit. However, the clerk waved his hand, and the door locked itself, trapping me within.

 

“You break it, you buy it. Pay up”

“Fuck off, he’s the one... who cut it in half”

“You moved it into the path of his sword, it wouldn’t have been cut otherwise”

 

I don’t believe it, someone was almost murdered - and is still in the process of trying not to be - and he’s locking them in a small space with their would-be murderer until they pay for the thing they used to defend themselves. I jumped over a display table, the man slashing it in two so he could reach me faster, a trickle of blood running down his cheek that was exposed when the dagger broke off a piece of his mask. I grabbed a mace from the wall, hurling it at the floor to ceiling window nearest me, shattering the glass and startling the people walking by outside. 

As I did so, the man’s sword stabbed through the upper portion of my remaining arm, but I paid that no mind as I jumped through the jagged frame of glass to the street outside, the assassin right on my proverbial tail. I raced through the crowd, the blood pouring from my wounds leaving a clear trail painted in red behind me, as I pulled a healing pill from my spirit realm (my spatial ring being on the hand not attached to my body at the moment) and consumed it. 

Over the next few minutes, the wound on my right arm closed, while my left shoulder stopped bleeding anywhere near as much as before. When I got to an open area, I looked back briefly, and saw him pushing through the crowd towards me, but he seemed to be slowed down by several short lacerations on his calves, presumably from the broken glass he jumped through to chase me.

 

He followed me through alleys and side streets, across fences and rooftops, with my guards nowhere to be found. I made a bit of a show of pulling out a spare piece of cloth (my blue salesman’s outer robe) and pressing it to my wound, cutting off my trail of blood. 

He continued to chase after me, until I finally turned a corner to find nobody within sight. I immediately shifted to cat form, stored all of my items in my spirit realm other than the two daggers, then I dove into a sewer entrance. There, I hid myself and the blood once again flowing from my cut off foreleg as best I could, with the daggers tucked away underneath and behind my small form, and I breathlessly waited for him to hurtle by my hiding spot. 

Not too long passed before he did exactly that, but I continued to wait. I waited for an hour, then a second and a third since he doubled back down the alley I was hiding underneath a few times. He even once went down the sewer entrance, completely oblivious to the watchful gaze of the three-legged cat whose black fur blended into the dark recesses of the sewers. 

 

During that time, when he wasn’t near me, I pulled my severed arm out, placed it against the wound from my impromptu amputation, and ate several Flesh Reforging pills. My severed arm slowly dissolved into pure spirit, which my flesh absorbed to regrow the portion of my arm that had returned to my body in that manner. Now, normally that wouldn’t happen, but my body is special. Ordinarily, once a limb, or even a finger, has been cut off, it will only decay naturally, and a stronger pill than a Flesh Reforging pill is needed to regrow it. 

However, thanks to my having consumed the immortal salve, my body is part of my soul, and my soul is part of my body, the line between them being blurred. Even if something has been cut off, it’s still connected to me by the piece of my soul contained within, and thus can be returned to my being in that manner. Even if my whole body is annihilated, it could be reconstructed from the remnants of my soul, and likewise, if my soul were to be completely obliterated, it could be reconstructed from a single cell of my body. 

It’d take a while, but I can heal myself actively from any wound at the cost of spirit, and I naturally do so passively to a lesser extent. Whenever someone came near, I put away my severed arm, and my stump stopped healing, but it couldn’t be helped. Better to take it slow than to be discovered and subsequently thought of as a cat that eats severed arms. 

It was almost sunset by the time I finished healing, jumped out of the sewer, and ran through the capital until I neared the Association’s gate, whereupon I found another deserted alley to shift back and reclothe myself in my yet again bloodied robes, this set had one sleeve missing with the edge stained with copious amounts of blood, and the other bore two holes with smaller bloodstains around each. That appearance was enough to startle the gray-robed gate guards, and I went straight to Grandmaster White, intentionally not changing to intact clothing.

 

“What happened to your robe? Where’s the sleeve?”

“What happened to me being followed... by a pair of guards? Where were they?”

“They should’ve followed you out... I’ll check”

 

He led me through half a dozen hallways, until we came to a room containing several racks collectively bearing a few hundred rectangular pieces of wood, each half the size of my palm and the thickness of a single finger. Every single one of those wooden blocks bore a name etched into their surface and filled with some sort of glowing material, save for three blocks whose names had faded into darkness.

 

“Oh dear... who were the three...”

 

He walked to the two racks containing the three darkened nameplates, pulled them off, and then read the names.

 

“I’m afraid both of your guards are dead now. Whoever was hired to kill you evidently isn’t afraid of any repercussions that might arise when he kills people other than his target, and his employer is the same. Since he managed to take out two guards near the peak of tier 3, he had to have been at least level 25, if not higher. I’m impressed you managed to make it out alive... or did you?”

“I did, but my arm... his sword managed to cut it off... without any resistance at all. Hence the missing sleeve. I was able to hide... after a long period of time... where he was chasing me. Then I reattached my severed arm... and made my way back here. Even so, at least I got... what I went out to get. I think”

 

I showed him the daggers, which got an impressed whistle and a question about their price, which I answered while laughing. When he processed the disparity between their value and sale price, he was unable to suppress a smile too.

 

“Well, the big question now is, can you use them? Does the artifact's will reject or accept you?”

“Let’s see. I never got the chance... to try them out”

 

He led me to a different room with a few mannequins made of varying materials, from straw to wood and even clay and metal. Once he closed the door behind us, I attached both sheathes to either side of my belt, before drawing both blades at the same time. They didn’t shake themselves free from my hands, so that’s a good sign. 

Having unsheathed them for the first time, I finally saw their full appearance, which was a pair of single edged wooden quillon daggers, each with a metallic crossguard appearing to be encased in a thin layer of ice. While the crossguard was mostly straight, the ends flared out slightly, giving them a narrow hourglass shape when seen from the side.

Set into the pommel - or more accurately, forming most of the pommel - was a brightly colored, translucent ruby that seemed to contain a dancing flame within, which often took a shape vaguely similar to a bird, feather, or wing, yet was always changing from moment to moment. The gem was cut such that it left a point at one end, with a pentagonal cross-section and perfect rotational symmetry, or as close to perfect as one can get with a cut gem.

The sharp point was left exposed as a pseudo-talon - and I say pseudo because it’s in line with the blade, and not at an angle that allows for a slash, instead being optimized for stabbing - even as the wood seemed to have grown around the wide section of the gem to securely hold it in place.

 

“Interesting... they seem to be composed of all five major elements in more or less perfect harmony. Wood is the most obvious one, given the wooden blade, while metal and water take the form of the froststeel crossguard. Fire and earth are represented by the phoenix ruby. I suspect the wood isn’t normal either, but I don’t know what it could be. Probably something with an effect on synthesis or containment of conflicting elements, but that’s still quite a long list”

"I get the feeling that... they are eager to be used... though I don’t have... anyone to test them on... at the moment, anyways. I-”

 

At that moment, one of them ripped itself out of my left hand, floating in midair.

 

[We like you so far, kiddo. Not just anyone could understand our emotions when we’re trying to hide them and only let a little portion escape. Now, let’s see what you can do. En garde!]

 

With those two words as my only warning, the floating dagger flew at me in an almost horizontal arc rising slightly, tracing a path not unlike the slash from someone of an average height for an adult human, holding it in a reverse grip with their left hand. I hastily blocked with the dagger held in a hammer grip with my right hand, but my grip was awkward, and I dropped it when the two blades collided. After I picked it back up, I had no time to breathe.

 

[Again!]

 

The same arc was traced, eliciting the same hasty block in response, and the same dagger fell to the floor.

 

[Again!]

 

This time, I was ready, and instead of taking the force head-on, I angled my blade to deflect the other further up and over my head.

 

“I did it!”

[Don’t lose focus!]

 

In my excitement, I didn’t notice the dagger stabbing at me from above until it pierced my left shoulder, though it stopped immediately after drawing blood, leaving what could only be called a superficial wound.

 

[Again!]

 

I struggled with the stab, accumulating almost a dozen more small wounds, until I realized that it had a rigid path and limited range, and I simply stepped to the right and out of range. After that came a rising slash that was almost vertical, and then the orientation of the floating dagger shifted to mirror mine, with the blade pointing forward and out in my simulated opponent’s right hand. I dealt with stabs from several angles, wide slashes that shifted in direction when I least expected it, and more. Whenever I failed to block or deflect the flying dagger, I was left with a small wound, and soon enough, my robe was covered in small spots and streaks of blood. 

Meanwhile, Grandmaster White was watching from the side, having pulled a small bag of explosive seeds out. Every now and then, he’d grab a few in the palm of his hand, create a flame that briefly engulfed them, and the hard yellow shell would split to release the edible whites within, which were quickly thrown into his mouth. I still had no idea what those were, but they seemed to be a great hit with the other alchemists.

 

[Let’s step things up a notch]

 

I had no idea what they meant by that, but my confusion didn’t last long as the blade turned a light blue, ice covering the wood to change the shape of the blade until it was similar to a shortsword, the air left in the wake of its slashes filling with mist as the water vapor condensed. I blocked the first slash, and felt a burst of cold assaulting my fingers. The second slash knocked the dagger from my numbed hand, and the third left a layer of frost coating the long slice across my chest, a line of frozen blood bulging from my pale skin.

 

“C-cold... how d-did you do th-that?”

[It’s one of our skills. For our wielder, using them is not unlike using the skill of one’s spirit companion. In fact, there’s almost no difference, as a spirit tool’s skills come from their spirit inscriptions, each one formed from ten spirit lines, akin to spirit rings condensed from spirit patterns for a spirit beast or spirit seed. You can think of spirit tools as having levels too, and in that case, this is our level 10 skill, elemental shift. Well, it’s one facet of it, at least. Try doing what we did]

“Easy for you to say... I have a void spirit realm. You think I’ve ever used... a level 10 skill?”

[But you-]

“My situation is... complicated”

 

I heard a short guffaw from the side as shrapnel from the explosive seeds sprayed from Grandmaster White’s mouth.

 

“Complicated, he says. Complicated... That’s probably the understatement of the year. It’s unheard of! A mystery beyond human understanding! A void spirit realm, but also level 12. Alive, but already died dozens of times. The best alchemist we’ve seen in decades, yet never refined a pill until a few months ago”

 

Even though I’d never used any of Leon’s skills besides his level 40 transformation skill, I tried, and after some work, managed to coat the blade with a layer of ice thin enough that I could see the blue-colored wood underneath. Unfortunately, that ice was thin enough that it shattered immediately upon contact with the larger blade of ice extending from the other dagger.

 

[Again! This time, make it thicker and longer!]

 

We must have repeated that one exchange a few dozen times, until I eventually was able to control the ice to a degree satisfactory to the weapon spirit. It took time for me to understand that I had to channel spirit through the ice on the metallic crossguard to shift its attribute to water, and then control it to take the shape I wished for, but when I did, my spirit control made shaping the ice frighteningly easy. After that, we spent some time clashing with those pseudo-swords, and just when I thought I’d gotten to where I could fight on more or less even footing, portions of my ice disappeared wherever they got near my opponent’s blade.

 

[Level 20 skill: five-element absorption! If the elemental shift of our blade is of the same or superior element to the element of a skill we come into contact with, we can absorb the spirit driving that skill to strengthen ourselves and our wielder. Try to absorb our ice this time. En garde!]

 

Trial and error - lots of errors - gave me the realization that I had to use water-attributed spirit to reach beyond my blade to my opponent’s blade, mix it with their water-attributed spirit, and then pull both back into my blade. A further hour of practice with that allowed me to accurately mix my spirit with the maximum amount of theirs it could mix with without making me lose control of both, and do so extremely quickly.

 

[It’s something one can do without our skills, if one has an elemental seed of the right element. However, the efficiency is often lower that way, because you generally wouldn’t be good at melding someone else’s spirit with your own to the point you could use it yourself without side effects, whereas the Yggdrasil wood that makes up the core of our blades excels in that sort of thing]

 

There was a thud as Grandmaster White's bag fell to the floor, his explosive seeds spilling out to spread their coating of oil across the previously pristine white tiles.

Yggdrasil wood?! I thought the phoenix rubies would be the most expensive portion, but they’re nothing in comparison to Yggdrasil wood!”

“What kind of tree is a Yggdrasil?”

“There’s only one Yggdrasil tree, which is the core of the Major Realm of Wood. Perhaps it’d be best to explain it another way: All of the countless planes - the small, flat worlds - in that realm are each just a single leaf on that tree. It’s comparable to the Divine Sea surrounding the isles of the Major Realm of Water, the True Heart Sky Flame shining within the Major Realm of Fire, the Pure Gold Sun Lake at the center of the Major Realm of Metal, and the Core Stone Pillars that support the Major Realm of Earth”

 

I still don’t know what those are, but they sound important. However, my focus was still on the giant tree, and its wood.

 

“But if it’s so big... why is it rare and expensive?”

[Because of how hard it is to separate from the tree. The wood at our core took an eighth tier cultivator several years to carve out, but he did it so his son could have the best weapons he possibly could use for the centennial sect entrance examinations]

 

Dunno what those are either, but it’s probably not important.

“So how’d you end up here? You obviously were in... another realm, at some point in the past”

[The idiot who made us invested everything in his son’s equipment, and didn’t think to train his son’s combat abilities. So, his son got crippled in the examinations, and he chose to blame it on us, the obviously faulty spirit treasures, and cast us aside to drift in the void between realms. Eventually, we drifted into the Mortal Realm by ourselves, fell to the ground, and... Someone came across us, picked us up, and chose to sell us when he couldn’t draw us]

“Couldn’t draw you? Are there some restrictions on who can do so? I mean, obviously there are, you are at least a mid-grade spirit artifact, so...”

[Only someone whose main affinity doesn’t conflict with any of our elements can make use of our powers. We have no idea what your main affinity is, but it meets that criteria, so... there you go. That idiot’s son had an affinity for the imperial element, which is rare and impressive, but practically useless in a fight. Anyways, now that we’ve gone down this tangent, let’s get back to testing you]

 

Shit... my arms hurt, I’m exhausted, and overall... I’m not up to doing much more right now.

 

“Can we not? We’ve been at this for a while... you’ll get a better idea of my skills and potential... when I’m not still recovering from an impromptu amputation”

[Fair enough. Get some rest, finish healing your arm, and then draw us again when you’re ready to continue with the test]

 

Having said that, the dagger still in my hand tugged itself free and flew to its sheath at the same time the other one did, and their artifact spirit fell silent.

 

“Well... that was exciting, and overall unexpected. You’ve got some surprisingly good luck, kiddo. And a good eye for valuable items”

“Given the life I lived before you met me... it would be more surprising if I didn’t”

“Didn’t have good luck, or a good eye?”

“Yes”

 

With those as my parting words, I opened the door that had remained shut from the time we entered the room until that moment, and was shocked at the daylight streaming into the hallway through the exterior windows. The moons hadn’t even risen when we’d gone in, and when I left, the sun had been up for at least two hours, by my estimation. And considering that it was already Midwinter, the nights were long, with only about nine hours of actual daylight each day. That meant we’d been in there for almost seventeen hours, and I’d been fighting without rest for most of that time.

 

[You know, I’m thinking that they’re not testing you, so much as training you to wield them effectively. A test like this shouldn’t take a dozen hours, let alone still have more to do after that time period]

[Why do you only speak when there’s some expositing to be done?]

[Oh, come on, I gave that suggestion that got you the broken cauldron a while back, didn’t I? That wasn’t expositing, was it?]

 

I... uh... There’s nothing much I can say to rebut that.

 

[Anyways, on the subject of this test, if it could actually be called that... what more do you think there is for me to be tested on, or to learn from it, as the case may be?]

[Changing the topic when you lose even the most minor of arguments, eh? Well, to answer that question... those things have five elements, do they not? You’ve only been dealing with one, water. Wood, metal, fire, and earth still have yet to come into play, in terms of abilities. And I can’t discern their level, so they might have a level 30 skill, or even more]

[You can’t even guess their level, or even tell if they’re at the peak of tier three or not?]

[...]

 

Oh, now who’s the one with nothing to say? I think it’s the one who just started licking his paws, but I might be wrong... yeah, no, there’s no other option. Also, why does he feel the need to do that? It’s not like he could get dirty in my void spirit realm, after all.

 

[I figured you’d be able to ascertain which one of you two is a higher level, no?]

[Shuddup. It’s hard for most people to even attempt to judge a spirit artifact’s level or grade. If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you try to do it yourself?]

[I can just ask the next time I spar with them. Now, as for the most important question right now... how do I get back to my room?]

[Ask Grandmaster White, or go along the roof until you get somewhere you’re familiar with]

 

I did just that, and followed him to get an early lunch, with a small detour to report the deaths of both of my guards, as well as the third person, who I don’t know anything about, actually. After eating, I went back to my room to get a much-needed rest, especially since I used up a lot of spirit actively regrowing my arm. 

When I awoke the next day, the dark blue sky was painted orange near the horizon, as false dawn chased away the moons - well, two of them. The last of the three moons visible today, and largest of all five, was drawing nearer to the sunrise with each passing moment, its turquoise surface going dark as the light from the sun began to cast shadows on it from behind instead of reflecting towards us off of it. 

 

I got up, stretched, dressed myself in my last set of undamaged and unstained robes, and left my room to get an early breakfast. Turns out, false dawn is when the majority of the people here make their way towards the mess hall for the first meal of the day. Or second, if you count a midnight snack as a meal. I’m not even kidding - err, kittening?

Whatever, the mess hall opens for an hour around midnight because so many are working through the night, and want something to eat between dinner and breakfast, although can you really call it breakfast when you’re not breaking an overnight fast? How long does one need to go between meals for it to be called a fast?

 

[Your thought process seems to have once again lost its original focus]

[I’m a cat, can you blame me for having a short attention span?]

[I’m a cat too. A big one, but still a feline. So, what was your point regarding the majority of alchemists going to eat breakfast before dawn?]

[Ah, right. Basically, I - hey, you know what’s happening around me too, why’re you asking me?]

[Because I’m a stereotypical lazy cat]

 

Slothful lion aside, I bumped into a decent-sized crowd as soon as I got out of my room, and someone thought it’d be funny to play with fire. It’s not uncommon, actually, but it was unfortunate for all parties involved that he chose to try to ignite my casual clothing, instead of the usual hazing of the Pill Apprentices. For me, it was unfortunate because yet another set of clothing got ruined. I know the heavens hate me, but do they really have to take it out on my clothes of all things? Meanwhile, for him, it was unfortunate because he got stripped of his only red stripe.

 

“You can’t blame him for thinking you’re an Apprentice, right?”

“I can blame him for thinking... it’s fine to do it to an alchemist. Even the Apprentices have rights”

“It’s been this way for-”

“It doesn’t matter. I, at least, won’t tolerate it if I find out. Although, I do appreciate a good prank... that doesn’t have any harm in it... so feel free to come up with those. Bonus points for doing it alchemically”

 

With that, I turned and walked away, not before remembering to cover my slightly singed body with more than just the undergarments that survived the fire. A red robe was enough, though slightly too warm given the proximity of the Masters’ table to the blazing fireplace in the center of the mess hall. I obtained my usual meat, fish, and a mug of warm milk, and sat down at one end of the table.

Nobody I really knew was eating when I got there, nor did any come while I ate in silent solitude. I wasn’t alone at the table, but I was... alone. The other Masters there were deliberately avoiding talking to me, presumably because they were some of the ones whose research I’d made obsolete, and of those, the subset that was more mad about it than they were interested in learning from me.

Once I’d left the mess hall, the sun still hadn’t quite finished rising above the mountains to the east, and I made my way back to the large, seldom used training room in a secluded part of the association. Once I got there, I unsheathed the daggers once more, and the test resumed - after some grumbling from their spirit.

 

[Took long enough. We’d almost thought you’d forgotten about us]

“I wouldn’t forget about you... I’m looking forward to our cooperation. So, what will I be learning today?”

[You’ve gotten a passable understanding of how to use our water elemental shift, so let’s move on to fire, shall we? Watch and learn, kiddo]

 

Both of them tugged free of my hands, the blades turning a radiant crimson, the edge and spine coated in a thin stripe of white-hot fire, and then one slashed out in a wide arc, followed by the other thrusting in a perfectly straight motion. A crescent of flames flew out from the wake of the slash, growing larger but fainter as it moved away from the original slash. From the stab, a dense line of fire shot out, barely dimming before it struck the barrier on the distant wall and exploded, assaulting me with a wave of heat and blinding light. 

Soon after, the two floating daggers began moving somewhat in sync, sometimes slashing, sometimes thrusting, each movement releasing a blaze that extended the range of the attack as they flew about in a beautiful but deadly dance. After a moment where I took in the stunning sight, the flames began moving in my direction, and I hastily dodged, getting singed several dozen times before my movements grew fluid enough for me to be able to react to the attacks in time. 

 

Almost two hours passed before the veritable firestorm finally relented, and I nearly collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. The muscles in my legs and torso burned, not because they’d been hit by fire, but because of overexertion. There wasn’t any pill I knew of to deal with the buildup of lactic acid, so I had to sit on the floor, leaning against the wall, as I rested for nearly half an hour. 

In that time, I familiarized myself with the method of moving my spirit through the phoenix ruby and then splitting it along both the spine and the cutting edge, so the flames could accentuate the sharpness of the blade and leave a trail of fire behind the cut. The process for the stab was different, as I moved it through the interior core of the dagger and then condensed it on the tip after changing its element with the gem in the pommel.

 

[Now that you’ve had time to rest, are you ready to try it in actual combat? For reference, your dominant hand ought to hold the blade facing forwards and out, while your other hand would do better to use a reverse grip. The former allows for a strong stab in a difficult spot to guard, and means your slashes will have a wider range, although somewhat less power. However, given the keen edge of our blade, especially when augmented with the fire elemental shift, that shouldn’t be a problem]

[Then why bring it up? It’s like you’re trying to pad the word count... quite unnecessarily too, I might add]

[Leon, stop it. I don’t know what you’re doing or what you’re talking about but that’s the real unnecessary inclusion]

 

The daggers continued on unperturbed, and I had to ask them to repeat what they said.

 

[Meanwhile, the left hand using a reverse grip provides more options for defense and the ability to trap your opponent’s blade more easily, as well as an extremely powerful downwards stab towards your opponent’s heart if given the opportunity... assuming you’re right handed, of course. Lefties don’t have that advantage, but it does give rise to several more options against right handed foes instead]

“I’m ambidextrous, so... let’s start with the right”

[Ambisinistrous, more like. Until recently, you didn’t have opposable thumbs]

[What was that word you’d used before? Oh, right. Shuddup]

 

Ignoring the continued unhelpful quips from an oversized furball, I got up and assumed a decent imitation of a proper neutral stance. This time, instead of using only one dagger to fight against the other one, I was told to use both, and try to use a varied set of attacks as though I was trying to pressure someone else into a defensive position. If I left a decently large opening, they’d tell me, and I’d have to start again.

After another two hours, once I managed to keep the pressure up on my imaginary opponent for ten minutes straight, I was told I’d passed, and we moved on to doing the same with my grips swapped, which only took an hour to get to a satisfactory level of mastery. That was followed by learning how to fight with both in a reverse grip, and then both in a hammer grip, taking up another hour or so.

Then, I was instructed on various methods of changing my grip quickly, fluidly, and accurately, without making use of anything but that one hand. It was hard, and even after I got it down for the most part, I was told that I’d need to practice it in my spare time for a while. Still, it’s a worthwhile skill.

 

[Great. Now, it’s time for our third elemental shift - and probably the most useless if you’re not having to absorb an earth-element attack - the metal shift. Take note]

 

At first, I thought that nothing changed, but then I noticed that... the blades turned a metallic grey. No other differences could be found by sight alone, but when I tested one against a nearby piece of metal... which had once been a training dummy before a stray burst of flames melted it. Oops... Anyways, it cut through the chunk of steel like a hot knife through butter. The blade was cool to the touch though, so it had to simply have increased the daggers’ sharpness.

 

“Besides a color change... and a boost to cutting power... is there any other feature to this shift?”

[No... well, we’re harder to damage, but... it’s embarrassing, okay? Let’s move onwards to the earth elemental shift, which is... interesting, to say the least]

 

They were right, it was interesting, to say the least. I couldn’t call them daggers anymore, nor even any kind of bladed weapon. They turned into a pair of stone clubs with the same short, one handed wooden handle, the only edge or point being the sharpened tip of the ruby that formed the pommel. The portion that covered the blade was made up of numerous pebble-sized stones, held together through some unknown mechanism. Well, it’s the effect of spirit, of course, but the specific way it’s doing so isn’t obvious.

It became even more interesting when one of them swung in a broad arc, as several of the stones were released from their positions and scattered with a great deal of force and a wide area of effect, to the point that I couldn’t tell which, between this and the flame blade, would be better for dealing with a group of enemies at a medium distance.

Unfortunately, when I went to try that method of attack for myself, I found that they were so heavy that I couldn’t swing one without partially losing my balance, let alone both in succession. It was perhaps more accurate to say that the clubs were swinging me than it was to say I was wielding them. However, it’s definitely possible for me to control the number and direction of the shot stones, but it requires precise timing, something I’m lacking.

 

[Well, we’ll work on that later. For now, it’s time to work on the final shift, which is our personal favorite, the wood elemental shift. It shouldn’t be too hard for you to get a handle on this one, kiddo]

 

They split up, one staying in my hand, one floating in midair, as we began sparring. I didn’t notice anything unusual, but as soon as I fell into a rhythm, something changed. When I blocked yet another seemingly ordinary slash, the other dagger’s wooden blade extended and twisted, bending around the dagger in my hand like a willow branch, to strike my face as though it was a whip. 

Each time I thought I’d managed to block or avoid it, it’d change shape and seemingly defy the laws of physics as I knew them in order to hit me. And whenever I tried to attack - even though I knew it’d be useless to attack a nonexistent target - my strike would be blocked in an impossible manner, or it’d be caught as the other blade split in two to wrap around mine.

 

[The benefit of this shift is the flexibility to strike around your opponent’s guard, and to guard an attack that would otherwise be impossible to block. The process for controlling the shape is the same as with the ice blade from the water elemental shift, so this shouldn’t be hard for you to grasp]

 

By the time they’d finished saying that, the blade in my hand had begun to sway to and fro like a thin tree in a breeze. Within five minutes, I’d gotten good enough at controlling it that we were able to resume our mock fight, neither of us having much of an advantage. Then, when we’d reached a deadlock, I suddenly shifted my blade’s element to fire, and released a flaming crescent that was immediately followed by a stab with a rapier of ice. Neither hit, of course, because there wasn’t a body for them to hit, but it wasn’t hard to believe that at least one of them would have done so were I up against a human wielding the other dagger.

 

[Excellent! You came up with that idea all on your own. Changing the blade’s elemental shift is something that you should be able to do almost instantaneously, with enough practice. The faster you are at doing so, the more likely you’ll be able to counter an opponent’s moves in time]

 

The dagger they controlled to float in the air had stopped attacking, or even defending anything but its actual body, and so I stopped my attacks as it moved to my free hand, after which I backed up a few steps to slide down the wall and rest sitting with it at my back. Mostly, my legs were sore from the cuts and soon-to-be bruises, as I wasn’t able to protect them as well as my head and torso.

 

[However, back to the wood shift. Here’s a fun exercise... take hold of both daggers... now, point them at one another while holding them at arm's length in front of you]

 

I did so, the point of each dagger spaced as far from the other one’s tip as it was from the hand holding it.


[There you go, that’s right. Don’t move your hands at all, just your spirit. Using the wood shift, split both blades in two, and use the four blade tips to conduct a mock fight, as though it was between two people each wielding a pair of floating daggers. Got that? Try it. See how long you can keep it up]

 

I did my best, but it was extremely hard. Even after an hour of practice, my brain still wasn’t able to keep that level of concentration up for more than just a minute or so. However, my spirit control was improving at a noticeable rate, something quite beneficial to my pursuit of alchemy... or rather, I felt that some of the pills I had trouble with were within my grasp after this exercise.

 

[Well, we only have a few things remaining to teach you. The first one is that our two blades can have different elemental shifts at the same time. That’s why you have to be able to split your attention like you did for that fight simulation we had you do with the wood shift. Controlling two different elements is... harder than... it... sounds... or not?]

 

The reason they trailed off near the end was that I started playing with separate shifts as they were saying that. Without letting them say anything more, I stood back up, shifting the dagger in my right hand to earth, the one in my left extending and splitting. 

I then slashed from right to left with the cobblestone club, but as soon as I finished, I shifted it to fire, all the stones having been released with the first swing. Immediately, I traced the same arc in reverse, the crescent of flames quickly catching up to the group of flying rocks, and partially melting the surface of each projectile as it passed by. The semi-molten pebbles embedded themselves in the dummies and walls they hit, but I didn’t stop there, as I had caught a few within the branches of my wood-shifted dagger. Each of those I thrust my flaming blade into in turn, as I released them from their bindings one by one.

I had expected to melt them significantly more as they were blasted forwards, but instead they exploded into a hailstorm of extremely hot fragments that traveled in a cone about 60 degrees from the central line of fire produced by my thrust. The floor, ceiling, and back wall were suddenly peppered with indentations where the fragments melted small divots into the floor, turned small sections of the walls to molten metal as they pierced several inches of steel until their momentum was spent, or bounced off the ceiling to leave some metal to drip off.

 

[We’ve never seen that before. Wow... that’s innovative. Sure, following a rock barrage with a flaming crescent is pretty standard, but creating a directional explosion of sharp, semi-molten stone fragments is absolutely not something we’ve come up with, and we’ve had time to think of lots of unexpected ways to use our skills. Speaking of our skills, we have one last skill you’ve yet to learn]

“So, you’re level 30?”

[Yeah. Our materials could’ve been used to make a peak-grade spirit artifact of at least level 70, or a high-grade spirit artifact of level 100 even, but because our level was forcefully kept down to 30 so that we would be allowed into the tournament, we’re at the upper edge of the artificial spirit treasures, better than many natural spirit treasures]

 

They spoke with pride, as though it was their accomplishment that they were the rank they were, and not the achievement of the one that forged them to have that rank.

 

“What comes after those? Like, I know about how most artifacts rank... magic artifacts, which have effects because of... the materials, they don’t have spirit lines... then, low-grade spirit artifacts, mid-grade, high-grade... and peak-grade spirit artifacts. But it seems like there’s more... to that list, no? What are spirit treasures, and why are they separated... between artificial and natural?”

 

The daggers within my hands trembled a bit, which I assumed was their version of pacing while thinking hard, but eventually I got an answer.

 

[After peak-grade spirit artifacts come the spirit treasures. Artificial and natural are basically the same in terms of properties, the only two differences being their origins and if they’re able to be stored in a spatial tool of natural spirit treasure grade. Artificial spirit treasures are crafted, natural spirit treasures formed basically entirely on their own. Spirit treasures as a whole can’t be stored in spatial rings, as those are all crafted items, and thus at most artificial spirit treasures]

 

I suppose that makes sense, but the emphasis on the word ‘rings’ implies that some other spatial artifacts can.

 

[Spatial treasures, on the other hand, can store natural spirit treasures if they’re one of a finite list. After natural spirit treasures come the primordial spirit treasures, the ancestral spirit treasures, and then... well, these are only myths, in all probability, but there’re the three origin spirit treasures. One made the nine major realms and all the normal flora and fauna, - the cultivators, in other words - one made the spirit beasts, and one made the spirit seeds]

“Anything else about those three? What they look like, names, past users? No?”

[That’s basically all we know about them, honestly. We heard a legend saying that one of them looks like an ordinary grimoire, a plain black cover with a bronze-ish metal border, and a pair of eyes as the only decoration. No name, nothing but the eyes and the border]

 

Okay, that could be somewhat creepy, or it’d be easy to glance over. Or both. Since I’ve got the time, maybe I’ll look for that book at some point in the distant future. Maybe not, a single book is going to be hard to find across the entirety of the nine major realms, and it might be drifting between realms, for all I know.


[The eyes on the cover don’t follow you, or blink, or anything else that screams ‘there’s something special about this grimoire’, but, at least according to that particular legend, they do change their color and shape every now and then, over the course of several decades, if not on the order of centuries. We didn’t bother paying attention to the rest of that bard’s tale, since... does it even matter to us?]

“Probably not. If such an artifact exists... either nobody can use it... or nobody can find it. Otherwise, we’d’ve heard of it... well, maybe not in this backwards empire. Here, people who’ve reached level 50 are... the stuff of myths and legends... as far as the general public is concerned”

 

Outside of the emperor himself and his most elite guards, the highest leveled people are around level 40 to 45. Oh, sure, people like Master are probably living here and there, but they don’t interact with others much, or they hide their level for one reason or another.

 

“Oh, right. What’s your level 30 skill?”

[Fivefold foothold. If it’s made of earth, fire, water, wood, or metal, you can stand on it no matter the angle. Just send a constant stream of spirit through whichever medium corresponds to the material you’ll be walking on, then make it run through your body, then out your foot. Push it into the surface, and then loop it back into your body, almost like you’re trying to absorb the material with our level 20 skill using your feet. That will pull the two together, and the rest is a matter of balance and muscle strength. It works with other body parts too, by the way, so you can attach your back or elbow to a cliff, if need be]

 

I tried, to disastrous results. I fell on my back more times than I care to remember, before eventually giving up entirely. Maybe I’d be able to do it once I’d gotten more used to manipulating spirit that has an element, or maybe once I had more spirit to work with. It’s a level 30 skill, I’m not even half that level myself.

 

[In other words, you’re procrastinating. Why did I choose to bind myself to such a weak-willed person?]

“Because you’re just as lazy, if not more so. If you’ve got the mental energy to gripe... you could use it to give me some advice... on doing this sort of thing instead, no?”

[What? Where did that come from? We’re not lazy, nor are we griping about anything]

 

Oops. I forgot that there was someone else here, so I replied to Leon verbally instead of telepathically. Whelp. Cat’s at least partially out of the bag now.

 

“You’re not the only spirit here... but don’t tell anyone”

[Ah, talking to your... no, according to that geezer, you’ve got a void spirit realm, so no spirit companion. Any other spirit, we’d be able to detect, most likely. There’re a few in some of those dummies, but they aren’t able to communicate, due to only being low-grade spirit artifacts]

“No, I’ve got a spirit companion. Yes, I have a void spirit realm, but... I can gain up to ten spirit companions... in return. I’ve only got one right now, though”

 

After a bit of discussion on that subject followed by a few more hours of practice, I left that room to go have a late lunch. I couldn’t put them into a spatial ring, nor into my void spirit realm, so I kept the pair of daggers in their sheaths, strapped onto my forearms and hidden by the sleeves of my red robes.

And that's the last chapter I've got ready to go! Next update... whenever the hell I finish writing chapter eight. Maybe sometime in April? Once I'm done with the first arc, future arcs are going to be batched like this arc had been, one or two chapters a week, every week, until I've released the whole arc. However, for the rest of arc one, I'll release the chapters as I write them. In the meantime, there's plenty more interesting stuff for you to read in my Discord.

EDIT: Unfortunately, the quarantine/pandemic/etc situation is messing with my ability to write, or rather, my health has taken a huge blow due to... well, non-essential medical treatments being put on hold. This means a constant, daily, debilitating headache, fatigue to match, and... like, it took until late April for me to have a day good enough for me to be able to realize "hmm... maybe I should add a note on the latest chapter...". Most days, I struggle to put together a full paragraph in under an hour. I've made some bullet point notes for the next few chapters, but I've not written anything that'd go in the actual chapter since 28 days ago.

EDIT 2: Treatments have resumed as of May 13th, but it might well take a month or more for me to be back to "normal" (I say normal in quotation marks because it's not truly normal, neither for me - because my normal is what I'm feeling right now, or actually, it'd be worse, because there are still a bunch of meds that I'm on - nor is it good enough to be normal for the average/typical healthy person) since that's how long it took when I first started them. Of course, I'm hopeful it'll be faster, but... we'll see.

EDIT 3: all chapters, including this one, have the atrocious dialogue formatting fixed... for those who remember that. Hopefully none of you do. I'm ashamed of that monstrosity lmao

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