Book 1 Chapter 2: The beginnings of an alchemist
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The same year that I broke through to level ten, the castle groundskeeper retired and a cat hater took his place. Meet Adon. Whenever I come across him, I hear the same thing, and he always tries to kick me or cut me with his dagger.

 

“Damned cat! Scram!”

“Nya! (I’m what keeps the rats away from the garden!)” 

 

Of course, I don’t actually tell him that in any way he could understand. He’s not able to do any damage to me with his kicks, though I do fly pretty far away on the rare occasions when he solidly hits me with one. His dagger has inflicted a mortal wound on me once, but I managed to hide myself before I died and came back to life a week and a half later. He’s barely reached level 11, so he wouldn’t be able to overwhelm me in an all-out fight, but even if he could, why would he waste that much effort on killing one ordinary cat?

It was a day like any other when my life changed. I’d gotten hit by one of Adon’s kicks, caught two rats, and ate one of them, as well as some fish the cooks gave me (it was one of a type that was slightly poisonous when prepared wrong or not at all, so I got a stomach ache from it) and napped in the sun on a statue near the entrance to the emperor’s pavilion. Then, I saw the Emperor, a tall yet still very much obese man with greying hair, as he emerged from the ornate entrance, dragging a spirit beast by the neck with one hand, the other gripping one side of his pudgy face that bore an expression twisted in rage.

 

“I pay you trash to bring me a sixth tier golden-tailed panther to complete my spirit ring, and you bring me a fifth tier copper-tailed lion! How blind must you be! GET. ME. THE. RIGHT. BEAST!”

 

With that, he threw the beast into the garden, its windpipe crushed, ordering his servants to clean up the beast’s carcass after it died in agony. However, I could tell that it was still alive, but not for long... so, I decided to put it out of its misery. I hopped down from the statue, padded over to its neck, and raised a paw, my claws glinting in the sunlight. I was about to swing them down and cut its jugular when it spoke to me with telepathy.

 

[Save... me...]

[How? I don’t have the power to do so, I think...]

[You possess... the void spirit realm... you can... take me... as your first... spirit companion. I’ll heal... and you’ll... be able to cultivate... it’s... mutually beneficial... is it not?]

[I don’t know how...]

 

It looked at me, then wheezed when it tried to sigh.

 

[Open your spirit realm... and try to take me in. If I were to resist... at all... you wouldn’t be able to... but I won’t. I would rather serve you... than die... after all]

[Okay. I’ll do it, or at least try]

 

I opened my spirit realm, and the lion appeared inside, disappearing from the physical world at the same time. I hopped back onto my perch on the statue’s upraised shield, and napped for a while longer. The servants were in a frenzy when they discovered that the lion had escaped, but they decided to leave it alone, pretending like they’d dealt with it, after they searched for a while and couldn’t find it.

 

[Once I heal, I’ll help you condense your spirit pond. Oh, since I’m here and have nothing to do, I may as well teach you my pattern obscurance art. It’ll prevent people from being able to tell what level you and I are at, which will be very helpful to you, since you are a MUCH lower level than I. Level 10 versus level 48... don’t want to have that kind of attention drawn to yourself, you know. Also, my name is Leon]

[Thanks for that... Leon. So, how do I do it?]

[It’s pretty easy, just...] 

 

He taught me, and I got the hang of it within a few minutes. Now, anyone less than ten levels above Leon’s couldn’t tell that I was a cultivator at all, in other words, the only ones in the empire who could tell was the emperor and his personal guards. Well, and a few of the best cultivators who’ve holed themselves up for centuries here and there, but those won’t be wandering around the palace very much. I could even change how many patterns one could detect, if I wanted to present myself as just level 10.

 

[You should get some training, you know. I’ve looked through your memories, and you know a lot about pill refining and formula creation. If you sold that kind of information to a group, say, a school or sect, you could get access to their resources easily, and your cultivation speed would increase by leaps and bounds] 

[Have you no concept of privacy?]

[What’s there to be private about? We’re partners, bound by body and soul, you know] 

 

I... fair enough. Even so, I felt a bit annoyed by that, but Leon’s suggestion was still a good one. Next time I faked my death, I would go find a school or sect to trade my information with. 

A week later, Leon had healed, and began working on condensing my spirit pond. Since he was level 48, the work went fast, and he completed it flawlessly after a day and a half. However, there was a lot of energy left over, which I used to enhance my body’s ability to gather and control spirit. While doing so, I was completely focused on that task, and so Adon managed to catch me unawares and plant his dagger in my heart. Ow. That killed me almost instantly, and he simply tossed my corpse into the street outside the palace afterwards. 

 

[You know, if you’d set my copper body as the active skill, you might have lived that...]

[Huh? Say what?]

[Do you know ANYTHING about your void spirit realm?]

[I know that it’s often seen as a trash realm, one whose bearer is fated to despair by the heavens]

[The spirit beasts, the ones with even a modicum of intelligence, at least, know better. Fah! It’s one hated by the heavens, yes, but only because its strength can grow to be heaven-defying. Its bearer has the potential to topple the order of the gods, as it can take in up to ten different spirit beasts, seeds, or even spirit equipment as a spirit companion, often called void spirit companions. Each one has its own special skills unlocked with each spirit ring, like a normal spirit beast or spirit seed, but unlike a normal cultivator’s spirit companion, a given void spirit companion can only have one active skill at a time, and only one of the void spirit companions can have a specific level’s ability active at any given time] 

 

I still don’t get it.  

 

[Dumb it down for me?]

[Think of it as having ten, no, eleven slots, one for each multiple of ten levels plus one for level 0. Each one can hold one spirit companion of its level or higher. When a spirit companion is in the level 10 slot, its level 10 skill is able to be used. My level 20 skill is copper body, which increases your body’s defense tenfold]

 

I think I get it now...

 

[Just so we’re clear, what are your skills right now?]

[Level 10 gives the active skill lion’s roar, which startles opponents, and sometimes makes them run or be paralyzed with fear. Level 20 gives the passive skill copper body, which I explained already. Level 30 gives a passive skill you can learn yourself, feline flight. No, it doesn’t let you fly, but it increases your movement speed threefold. Level 40 gives some passive transformation skill. Not sure what you transform into, if you were anything other than a feline, I’d say you’d be able to turn into a cat or a lion like me, but since you are, who knows? Level 50 will give you the ability to fly, regardless of what spirit companion you have in that slot]

[Well, let’s get to an alleyway and test out the transformation skill, shall we? Oh, how do I-]

[Meditate. That’s all you need to do. Once you are in a meditative state, you can look into your spirit world, and reorganize the stuff inside of it. Oh, speaking of, you also have the ability to store items inside your void spirit realm, though not much right now, you only have a dozen cubic meters or so of space for that, but it’ll increase as you level up. Taking objects in is the same as the way you took me in, but you can’t do it to objects that have spirits themselves, as they would probably resist if you hadn’t gained their complete trust]

 

I walked into an alley, then another and a third, until finally finding an empty one. I sat down in a position as close to cross-legged as my feline body could achieve, and meditated. I saw an empty space, save for a glittering light teal pond and a small gazebo floating just above its center. In addition, there were a multitude of little specks of light in various sizes and colors drifting around in the space above the pond, and the pond itself was surrounded by eleven silver-colored circles, numbered 00 through 100, in multiples of 10. The one numbered 00 contained a golden lion with a copper tail, staring back at me with a grin on his face.

With just a thought, a translucent silver bridge formed, connecting the 00 and 40 spots, which Leon then padded across. Once he sat down, the bridge vanished, and my consciousness left the spirit realm. I tried to transform, and then looked at my body, to find it appearing to be a human boy’s body, of around 13 years old. Old enough to be called a young adult, young enough nobody would pay me much attention or give me much respect if I didn’t earn it through my actions. Based off of the reflection in a pool of stagnant water nearby, I had green eyes, pale skin, and my hair was entirely black save for a white streak down the middle, mirroring the white patch on my forehead when in cat form.

Oh, and I was naked. I quickly changed back, and went to a second-hand clothes stall. The owner was a crook, his prices 30% or more above the price the items should have been sold for, were they in the condition he said they were (they weren’t anywhere near as good as that), so I didn’t feel bad stealing a few sets of clothes from his piles and putting them into my spirit realm. They appeared in the pavilion, by the way.

 

[While I normally wouldn’t condone stealing like this, right now, I am fine with it, given your choice of victim and the necessity of gaining clothes to wear. Try to refrain from such actions in the future, however]

 

I didn’t bother with a response, since he obviously knew my reason for doing what I did, and I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have to do the same thing in the future. Instead, I just returned to the alley and put on the clothes, which was hard to do the first few times. After an hour or so of practice, it became easy enough, and I also realized that I could make them appear on my body from my spirit realm. I then began to practice moving around, walking, jumping, running, sitting down and standing up, so that I could blend in with normal humans and not be given away by my jerky and uncoordinated movements.

That took several days, but I managed to do so faster than the few weeks that I’d thought it would take. Perhaps that was aided by my learning to walk on two legs in cat form. Last... talking.

 

[Oh my gods... talking. How can I learn to do that? Maybe I can just try to pass myself off as mute and communicate with telepathy? No, that’d give me away as a cultivator... I can’t write either...]

[It won’t be that bad. Work out how to make the basic sounds, then you’ll have it. Start with A. Try saying Nya, then pitch up the end]

“Nya-ay”

[Close enough. Now cut out the first bit]

“Yay... [I did it, right?]”

[Better, but you still have a bit to trim off of the front]

 

Proceeding like that, I got down A, then the other vowels. After that were the soft consonants, starting with N, M, and going from there. A month later, I could speak like a human, albeit slowly, and with one other issue...

 

“I... can... talk... nyow”

[Ooh, so close. That verbal tic is going to be a problem]

[I don’t care. I am fed up with this. It’s time I find an alchemist, and have them teach me the basics of pill refining, like the way to use a pill furnace]

[If you want to, go ahead. I won’t stop you. However... how are you going to pay for the lessons?]

[That’s a good point... maybe I can teach him some pill formulae in exchange? Yeah, let’s go with that]

 

I went out of the alley and to someone who looked friendly and not busy, and asked a simple question.

 

“Where... can... I find... an alchemist?”

“The Alchemist Association is in a large building a few minutes walk down the street that way, with a sign showing a set of pills, herbs, and a furnace. If you want an alchemist who-”

“Thank... you...”

 

I left the man mid-sentence, and walked in the direction he pointed. I found the sign soon after, and went in. After waiting in line for a while, I got to the information counter, where I asked if I could learn how to become an alchemist. Of course, I spoke slowly and carefully, which made the blue robed receptionist frown.

 

“I’m sorry, I don’t think a simpleton would be accepted-” 

“I’m... nyot... simple. I just have... speech problems”

“Fine... we’ll let you take the exam. That’ll be 150 gold”

“I... don’t have... money. Master... didn’t leave me... anya. But... I’m confident... in my ability... to learn... so I’ll work... it off... fast, if-”

“Enough. What did your master teach you?”

“Pill... formulae... but not... how to use... a furnace. I was... too young... or something... like that. But... I have... ancient formulae. I know... how to make... Jade Spirit pills... for example”

“Ja- Jade- Come with me. Now”

 

I went with him to a room in the back with a small pill furnace, where we were joined by a thirty-something year old man in the red robes of a Pill Master.

 

“Write the formula, or dictate it if you can’t write. I’ll look it over, if it looks like it might work, I’ll gather the materials and refine a batch. If it turns out well, we’ll pay you for the recipe”

“Skin and seeds... from two... jadesoul fruits. One stalk of... spirit gathering... grass. Thirteen... hearthflame stoneseeds. Seven drops... life water...” 

 

I listed off seventeen more ingredients, then the method to refine their essences and then refine them all into a pill. The Pill Master wrote it down furiously, then, once I’d finished, he read it thrice over.

 

“This... might actually work. The yang of jadesoul fruits conflicts with the yin of spirit gathering grass, but the life water can reduce the reaction, and the lack of the flesh removes the majority of the yang energy. It just might work... I’ll gather the materials now!”

 

Half an hour later, he came back with a large basket filled with the materials, three times what was needed of everything, to be exact. He immediately began to refine the pill, and I watched carefully. Fifteen minutes in, he was about to make a mistake, so I acted quickly.

 

[Three seeds, not four!]

 

He flinched, but put in three hearthflame stoneseeds. I corrected him twice more throughout the two hours it took to finish the batch of pills, and the five jade green pills came out perfectly... well, with about 60% purity. That’s still a lower-mid grade pill, and one of them was up at 70%, which is upper-mid grade. Considering it was the guy’s first time making them, that’s very impressive. It would have been normal for them to be low grade pills, in the 50-60% range, and wouldn’t have been too surprising to be bottom grade (40-50% purity) with a few failed pills in the batch.

 

“Well, I’ve got a few things to talk about. First, was that you?”

[If you’re talking about the telepathy, yes, that was me. Since I can’t speak well, I learned how to communicate this way instead, but I’m still trying to get better at speaking normally. Since it was urgent...]

“Fair enough”

“Huh? What? I don’t follow...”

 

I didn’t realize the receptionist was still here until he spoke, actually... and evidently, neither did the Pill Master.

 

“Why are you still here? Don’t you have your own job? And don’t speak of any of this to anyone else”

“Master Chen, I... sorry. I’ll leave now”

 

He left, and the Pill Master... Master Chen turned back to face me.

 

“This matches the records I’ve seen regarding these pills, based on the degraded ones that’ve been found in ancient ruins and tombs, at least. Anyways... let’s test the efficacy of this pill. Down the hatch!”

 

He just swallowed it... you’re supposed to let it dissolve in your mouth. Well, it won’t hurt him badly, but he will be uncomfortable for a long while.

 

“Uh... you nyow... it's a... sublingual... right? You’ll get... far less... of the effect... this way... and instead... be quite... gassy... for a few days”

“Oops... BBRRRRAAAAAPPPP... Uh... well, I can feel my spiritual strength recovering quickly now, but... UURRRAAAAAAPPPP... this could be annoying. Fortunately, there’s a AAAPPPPP pill for this...”

 

He took a pill from his spatial ring, swallowed it, and a relieved smile spread across his face soon after. 

 

“Okay... I think this formula is worth somewhere around... hmmm... two million gold? No, two and a half million. That’s the same as two and a half thousand spirit stones. I’ll also take you on as my disciple, if you’d like... though, if I’m being honest, even a Pill Grandmaster might want to take you on, if you have any talent. I’ll guide you through the refinements of a few batches of a simple pill, the Spirit Replenishing pill, and see how much talent you have with that”

 

He did exactly that, and I succeeded on the third batch, producing three bottom grade and a low grade pill. The fourth batch was three low grades and a failed pill, while the fifth was a upper-low grade and three lower-mid grade. At that, my skill more or less plateaued, but that was already very impressive to Master Chen.

 

“Normally, it takes a dozen or so batches to reach low grade, and mid grade comes after several months of study. Your talent is... phenomenal. Even Grandmaster White might take you on as a disciple, if you asked him to do so”

“I don’t need... the best alchemist... as a teacher. I need... the best teacher... among... the good alchemists. Who do you... think that... would be?”

 

At first, all I got was a sigh in response, but that then changed into a ponderous expression and soon after, a reply, with a bit of a smile accompanying his words.

 

“That... would probably be me, actually. I have had six disciples, five of whom have reached Master level, only one is still just a Pill Adept. I simply can’t get you to Pill Grandmaster like Grandmaster White can”

“That’s fine... I’m a walking library... of pill formulae”

 

He blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. Then he smiled, a broad smile showing all of his pearly white teeth.

 

“If you have even a single ancient formula besides the Jade Spirit pill, you won’t have to pay for your discipleship. How many pill formulae do you know, ancient or not, excluding the forbidden ones?”

“I don’t know... which of them... would be considered ancient... nor if they’re... what you’d call... forbidden pills. I mean, a few... I can guess... but... I've got... about 14,300... give or take”

 

He fell down at that, prompting me to ask both if he was fine and why he fell.

 

“Yes, I’m fine. I fell because there are only 9237 known pill formulae in the Alchemist Association’s library, and that’s including the forbidden pills. Who the hell was your master, and how did he learn and teach you five thousand formulae we don’t have?”

“That... that’s something... I can’t say. Sorry... I mostly don't know... who he is... er... who he was. However... most of them... we figured out... on our own”

“I understand. Well, it’s time to get you the Pill Apprentice’s robes. They’ll be much better than what you’re currently wearing, I must say. Let’s get you a meal after that, it’s almost time for lunch”

“Thank you... Master Chen”

 

He brought me to the storeroom, where we quickly found a few sets of Pill Apprentice’s robes that fit me. They were white with red accents, and a single thick orange line on the sleeves, denoting my being a first level Pill Apprentice.

 

“Master Chen... what is the... ranking system... exactly?”

“I forgot to explain that, I guess. White robes mark a Pill Apprentice, orange mark a Pill Adept, red a Pill Master, and black a Pill Grandmaster. Above that are the golden robed Pill Legends, but we haven’t produced or found one in over nine hundred years, not since the head of the Association during the Dusk of Ages. Each rank is divided into five levels, marked by one to five stripes on the sleeves of the next rank’s color. As a Master, I wear red robes, and the stripes are black to represent my progress towards becoming a Grandmaster”

 

He motioned to his sleeves, bearing three black stripes.

 

“There are exams to go up ranks and levels, generally asking you to make a difficult pill of the tier you’re advancing into, and it has to be of at least a certain purity. For instance, the most recent exam I took, making me a level three Pill Master, asked me to make the third tier Spirit Harmony pill - which helps calm your spirit bodies to make them easier to form, expand, and even merge - at at least 55% purity. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s a hard pill to make without losing more than half of the essence”

“Eh? That’s a hard pill? It’s simple...”

“Eh? That’s a simple pill? It takes four days and three nights, and has 1277 steps”

“Nyo... it takes... about four hours... and has 38 steps..."

 

We stared at one another, and he wordlessly brought me to a furnace by way of a storeroom. I gathered the needed materials, and then I made the pill as he watched in mute astonishment. Four hours later, I had a trio of 52-54% purity Spirit Harmony pills, or pills with the same appearance and effect at least.

 

“THREE? And this purity... Make them again. See if you can make them be a bit more pure”

 

Unfortunately, the next batch caused a furnace explosion, but the third one gave a pill at each of 53, 55, and 58 percent purity. He took the six Spirit Harmony pills, the four remaining Jade Spirit pills, the ingredients for two more batches of both kinds of pills, and dragged me to speak with an elderly man in black robes that had four gold stripes on each sleeve.

 

“Grandmaster White, I’m sorry to disturb you, but look at these pills”

“This better be good. If you just had this new disciple make a 50% quality batch of Spirit Replenishing pills... What? What is this green pill? And these Spirit Harmony pills... they’re all less than a day old... and above 50% purity! Who all made these?”

“That would be this new disciple-”

 

Grandmaster White cut Master Chen off, a frown on his face as he stroked his long white beard.

 

“It’s not like you to make jokes. Tell me the truth. Who made these pills?”

“I said the truth. Watch him make them if you don’t believe me”

“I don’t have the four days to waste on that-"

“Four hours...”

 

Grandmaster White froze when I interrupted him, then spoke slowly and carefully, disbelief written all over his face.

 

“What... did... you... just... say? Four... HOURS?”

“Four hours. Maybe eight... if I fail... the first time. I have... a two in three... success rate”

“Show me”

 

And so I did, and four hours later, I had a new batch of three pills, each one at about 60% purity. Grandmaster White fainted, and only woke up half an hour later. When he did, he asked me to make the pills used in the exams for level one and two Pill Masters, which I simplified as well. I failed once or twice on each of them, but succeeded within three batches nevertheless.

 

“A god of alchemy... he must be a god... or an ancient Pill Master... oh, right... what’s the green pill?”

“They’re Jade Spirit pills”

“Promote this fellow to first level Pill Master. I don’t care what others think, having him waste his talent climbing through the ranks is unacceptable! If he can make Jade Spirit pills, he’s better than most Pill Masters”

 

I raised my hand, my voice being too faint to draw much attention otherwise.

 

"Yes? What is it... oh, I never got your name"

“I'm Tama. For the... Jade Spirit Pills... I am unable... to make them. My spirit... isn’t strong enough... I just guided... Master Chen... through the process”

“Even so. First level Pill Master. Get him the robes... no, they’d need to be custom made for someone this small... Get him fitted for the robes. Until then, make do with a Pill Adept’s robes, we should have some that size, I think. Put five stripes on the sleeves too”

 

Master Chen and I left, going to the tailor’s rooms to get me fitted for the red robes of a Pill Master, but the tailor said that it would be simple to just trim and hem a larger set, which he did quickly. Therefore, half an hour later, I walked out in an eye-catching set of robes that marked me as a Pill Master, and went to have breakfast in the mess hall, since my series of pill refinements took the entire afternoon and night to complete.

Of course, as a young new face wearing a red robe walking in with Master Chen, a wave of silence rippled out from the entrance, followed by whispered discussions. Master Chen brought me to the Pill Masters’ table, where two others were seated and already eating. One of them was a bald headed and dark skinned man who looked to be about forty years old, the other a woman in her early twenties with fiery red eyes, which matched the hair that reached down to pool on the floor when she was sitting down.

 

“Oi, what’s this? I don’t recall us having a Master this young. Who are you?”

“Master Antonius, this is my new disciple, Tama. Tama, this is Master Antonius, and that’s Master Mia. Until today, she was the youngest Pill Master in the mortal realm in recorded history, reaching the post at the age of sixteen. Master Antonius, on the other hand, is the highest ranking Pill Master of the Alchemist Association, and both have pride to match”

 

Noted. I will endeavor to avoid pissing them off.

 

“Little Chen, Little Chen, how many times have I reminded you not to talk about your betters like that? I think it’s been at least a dozen times this month”

“Nine. Nine times. However, I have an achievement you’ll never beat, and that’s being the holder of the formula for the Jade Spirit pill”

 

I spoke slightly angrily as I lightly kicked Chen under the table, or tried to at any rate, but I missed because of how short my legs were.

 

“Hey! I was the one... who gave you... that formula!”

“Oh, right... sorry about that”

“So... Little Tama... How long have you been an alchemist?”

 

Hmm... what should I say? 

 

[Master Chen, should I tell them the truth?] 

 

He nodded subtly, and I said that my first time refining a pill was the day before, which they didn’t believe, of course.

 

“Tell us the truth, please. How could you have passed all of the tests to reach Pill Master in just a day? The Soul Nourishment pill alone takes five days!”

“It is the truth... He was raised by an alchemist, but was only allowed to read the formulae, not to make them himself. However, he’s a natural at it, it turns out. It only took him two tries to create a pure enough batch of five - FIVE - Soul Nourishment pills using a heavily modified formula, which has fewer side effects, higher success rate, higher yield, and lower cost in both time and materials. He’s a genius, honestly”

“Okay, this? This I have to see for myself”

“Mia... I first have to figure out how to pay him for the pill formulae that he’s shared with me, besides taking him on as a disciple, that is. I mean, gold is good, but when it gets to the point that you talk about it in the tens or hundreds of billions, it’s a bit excessive, right? Spirit stones are better, I guess, but even so... I can’t pay him with my own pill formulae, he probably has a better one for anything I might have to offer. Materials? As a Pill Master, he can obtain more than enough of them on credit and reap a tenfold profit or more once he refines them into pills and sells them”

“Since his spiritual strength appears to be quite low, maybe you could lend him your hands in making pills that require more than what he has?”

“But then I’d be learning more formulae, further increasing my debt”

 

While they were talking, I was listening and, at the same time, wolfing down two steaks and three fish dishes. The three of them noticed that, and all of them silently stared at me as I ate my fourth large fish and my third steak.

 

“Pay him in food?”

“Perhaps. He’s quite the glutton”

“I haven’t eaten... properly... since my master died... a long time ago... okay?”

 

Antonius grimaced as he realized he might have touched on a sore subject, but Chen looked like he thought himself an idiot for some reason.

 

“I just realized... I don’t know exactly how old you are, nor your level or spirit companion, nor your master’s name or anything about him - I assume your master was male, but I might be wrong there too...”

“I’m about thirteen... I don’t know my exact age. I have the void spirit realm... but I’ve condensed... a spirit pond despite it. My advancement a week... or so ago is what... made me feel like I... could work as an alchemist... and thus, I came here. Master was just master... I don’t know... his real name. Maybe he even... forgot it himself... given that he died... of old age... at level 80... and was... quite the recluse. He died when I... was ten or so, and I spent a while... living off of whatever... food I could beg from... various cooks... and the rats... that I caught myself... up until... a few days ago... when I sought out... an alchemy teacher”

 

Of course, my age was said in centuries both times. An ordinary level 11 human would be dead several times over before reaching my real age. Since I look like I could be about thirteen years old, nobody thought twice about it. After that discussion finished and I’d revealed some more portions of my past (skipping over or slightly editing anything that could identify me as being feline or older than they thought I was, and completely omitting anything about Leon or living in the palace), I was given a lesson on the finer tricks and techniques used when using a pill furnace. 

In addition to that, I was taught some exercises meant to increase my control over spirit, before we all realized I had no need for them, as my control had already been refined to near perfection thanks to a millennium of practice. I then, once more, showed off my knowledge of pill formulae as I refined a difficult third tier pill made into an easy second tier pill with a modified recipe, received praise from the other Pill Masters, and so on. All in all, a good first day of being an alchemist. Could've used a bit more fish though.

Another shameless plug for my discord server, where you can learn more about this intricate world I'm building, chat with other readers (and one VIP guest who's also writing something for the SH contest, and doing pretty well in the rankings), as well as just hang out and chat about completely off-topic stuff

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