[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 152 – Alchemical Ambitions

Raiko placed the [Spirit Lantern] down against the Sacred Tree’s trunk, checking it over.

She looked over her shoulder at Sam, who was asleep still. Concern boiled over and Raiko swept her senses through the man.

While Raiko was no healer that could detect physical wounds within a person, she could discern certain things through her bloodline. Usually fairly impractical things such as whether a creature was truly sleeping or not, or if they were having a nightmare rather than a dream.

The more useful being whether a person was doing more than just sleeping.

A part of Sam’s mind and spirit was somewhere else.

Raiko stiffened, and stalked over to Komachi, who was trading coins with Chompers.

She didn’t even ask to pick her up, which was admittedly a rather rude thing to do. Komachi grunted and gave Raiko a disgruntled look, until she was plopped back onto Sam’s head.

Komachi’s annoyance faded away, and she shut her eyes contentedly, purring quietly.

While she was no wise Haman, the cat seemed to be well on her way to becoming a full-fledged soul aeder.

Her mood was a good indicator whether Sam was in any genuine danger or not.

A part of her worried that the Dream Kindred was visiting Sam. But there was no hint of a dark and oppressive force upon him.

Raiko wasn’t sure what she would do if that happened. Hopefully, the immortal wouldn’t ensnare him into one of her Worldshard-wide schemes.

Or worse, take a personal interest in Sam, a War Incarnate. Really, the odds weren’t in Raiko’s favor.

Returning to the [Spirit Lantern], she channeled mana through her arm and pressed her Glyph-marked hand into the dimly glowing coals.

Usually, liquified mana did the trick for passing energy between objects. Typically, only certain magical substances would take on that form, so it was a bit of a convenient quirk that Raiko could conjure liquified mana through her Glyph-sleeve.

Certain Glyphs needed mana in a non-pure energy form, and so it was converted. It wasn’t much of a surprise considering they took on the shape of esoteric script.

Fortunately, this ability wasn’t sullied by Chaos mana, or else she might’ve been infecting others with that apocalyptic power.

Maybe it wouldn’t, but it seemed like something terrible Chaos would do.

Thus far, most of her Glyphs had not taken on any characteristic pertaining to that, so she felt reasonably safe in putting her hand into the lantern.

Even if it was uncomfortably cold.

The process wasn’t easy, nor was it efficient. Though she was level 30 Ninja, her Path hadn’t quite caught up. She needed even more stats to do this properly.

The [Spirit Lantern’s] coals brightened considerably, but none of those ghostly flames danced about the frame.

The lantern needed something more, though its Shardscript information wasn’t revealing much. Without Lenal around, there was no one to identify further details about the [Spirit Lantern].

Unwilling to leave Sam undefended, even in the Sacred Tree’s presence, Raiko turned to her new Alchemy Profession.

Taking out the various crafting tools, Raiko sifted through her Inventory in search of something that might produce a [Basic Mana Tincture].

She knew that was a bit more advanced than refining ingredients, but the [Spirit Lantern] needed to be refueled. It was largely what tethered the Professors from the Aker Academy to this material plane.

Effectively, there was a chance that if it fully went out, they might be severed from this plane permanently. Raiko didn’t know for sure. It was really just a guess, but that wasn’t something she wanted to gamble with.

Besides, Raiko already practiced Alchemy on old Islegard. She lost a lot of that knowledge, being tied up with those pre-Ascension skills, but how hard could it be a second time?

I’m totally not tempting fate or anything, she thought wryly.

“What’cha doin’?” Komachi asked, suddenly beside her and sticking her head into the lantern.

Her whiskers caught fire.

She did not seem to notice, even as the cat pulled her head out to regard the Ninja.

Raiko stared, wide-eyed, and quickly snuffed them out between pinched fingers, one at a time.

Nothing was amiss in Komachi’s world.

“Well?” the cat prompted.

“This needs to be fueled with mana. A tincture, maybe.”

“Your fancy tattoos not doin’ it?”

“Unfortunately not. It doesn’t seem to linger or like to be anything but a Glyph.”

Komachi nodded. “Need ingredients then? What do they look like?”

While the cat’s Awareness was more than likely one of her dump stats, she had a good handle on certain things. Not all things, for sure. Just some.

“Blue probably?” Raiko shrugged.

“You… dunno?” Komachi tilted her head to the side. Chompers scurried over and tried to—such as the creature that he was—mimic the cat.

His treasure chest-like body toppled onto its side, his corgi paws kicking in the air.

Unable to stop herself from smiling at the mimic’s amusing antics, Raiko motioned towards one side of the bamboo encircling the tree. “I can feel some over there, just not specifically.”

“So it’s a sense, huh? Okay, let’s go find it.” Komachi pushed on Chompers, helping him back onto his feet, then went off with Raiko into the fragrant bamboo.

Her small cat-body wove in and out of the spindly stalks, much easier than Raiko, but the Merchant didn’t have [Reagent Sense]. Raiko could feel the general direction of what she was looking for, and hopefully it wasn’t just more [Red Herba].

The skill just wasn’t that specific yet. Maybe it wouldn’t ever be.

Though they put Chompers on guard duty for Sam, the pair didn’t go far. Sparkling motes drew Raiko’s attention to a patch of [Green Herba], which unfortunately wasn’t what she needed.

Still, it was useful to harvest, anyway.

Kneeling, she took out the [Simple Harvest Sickle] with a frown. If Raiko had been given a choice, she would have picked another tool for the job. Something more sophisticated for sure. Not anything remotely scythe-like.

As it was, the [Simple Harvest Sickle] was made of a basic metal that didn’t take to mana channeling whatsoever. Most of her magical stats were going to do basically nothing for procuring crafting reagents.

She didn’t even have a skill for gathering ingredients, so all Raiko had to begrudgingly rely on was her Dexterity, Agility, and probably Awareness and Insight.

“Please, please let leveling up Alchemy give me some kind of gathering skill,” Raiko muttered.

“I could try to [Bribe] it if you’re that intimidated by picking up some weeds,” Komachi said. “Always got muh cat claws too.”

“They’re not weeds!”

The [Green Herba] absolutely resembled weeds.

Raiko was not going to admit that.

“If you say so.” Komachi shrugged. If you’ve never seen a cat shrug, it’s a very impressive motion that nevertheless conveys just how much a cat doesn’t care.

Honing her concentration to a razor’s edge, Raiko began to delicately slice into the [Green Herba].

The ingredient seemed to come alive at her presence. It glowed a rich green, sparkling with even greater ferocity that was almost blinding.

“Damn, turn down the brightness!” Raiko groused.

And worse, the leafy stalks moved from an unseen wind. With the mana currents swirling about the Skyshard, it wasn’t that unreasonable that a mana-saturated plant might respond to them.

It just didn’t have to be at such an inconvenient time.

“Did you just cut that in half? And sideways? Dang gurl.” Komachi shook her head.

Grumbling, Raiko collected the rest, just as shamefully inefficiently too.

You gather (2) [Green Herba Bunch].

You gain additional Alchemy Experience for your partially successful gathering attempt!

That caught Raiko by surprise. “I gained Alchemy Experience for harvesting this…”

“Hold up, what? Did you level up?” Komachi darted over, sniffing at the remaining bits of [Green Herba] poking out of the dirt.

“No, it was just an additional modifier.”

“That’s low, isn’t it?”

“Seems to be,” Raiko agreed, putting away the [Green Herba Bunch]. “And yet, you don’t seem to need quite as much Experience to level up something low. Maybe that holds different for Professions, but that’s not likely.”

“I was actually getting Merchant Experience trading coins with Chompers,” Komachi admitted. “It was ‘additional’ too, the first time anyway.”

“Makes sense. You’re doing Merchant related things.” Raiko reached out and pet Komachi’s side. “It’s strange, yet hugely beneficial, that I gained Profession Experience for just gathering something related to my craft. Never used to be like that on Islegard.”

“But it is now!” Komachi cried excitedly. “Wonder what else I can do for Merchant. I don’t exactly need materials, though I do need goods and monies.”

“I’m not sure, there’s likely a way,” Raiko said, growing distracted. As much as she enjoyed Komachi’s company, even if she was a bit of a heckler, she dearly missed Haman.

Overwhelming fatigue washed over Raiko. Everything went blurry, and her body slumped to the ground.

Raiko’s vision shifted to somewhere else. In the distance, across a blue expanse, the little pobul tilled land. Bountiful crops grew all around him.

Whiskers twitching, Haman looked up tiredly.

And a coal-skinned drow Samurai unsheathed his bloody tachi behind the otter.

Terror lanced through Raiko, and then fury. “How dare—”

She woke up to Komachi yowling and shaking her, back on Sil’mara.

“Raiko!” Komachi cried. “Are you okay?”

“I’m… I’m all right,” she said groggily, getting to her feet. The cat climbed up her armor and clung to her neck, hiding beneath the elemental scarf.

Though Raiko’s affliction was getting worse, her vision gave some hope that Haman was out there. Unfortunately, she recognized that drow, though she hadn’t at first.

They continued to search, though with less enthusiasm. The cat was scared, and rightly so, as much as Raiko didn’t want to think about it.

If that happened during battle, she’d be as good as dead.

And if not, somebody else would get injured trying to protect her.

She didn’t know how long she had been out.

Unable to do anything about it, Raiko put it out of her mind, searching for the alchemical ingredients for a [Basic Mana Tincture].

After a while, Komachi got the hang of it. Though she didn’t have [Herba Sense] guiding her, she was able to spot a patch of [Blue Herba] before Raiko.

Not as high rarity as the one Raiko soon found, but useful all the same.

Altogether, she had collected a couple bunches of [Green Herba] and a few [Blue Herba]. Fortunately, she didn’t accidentally lower the rarity of most of the [Blue Herba].

Unlike the green, which were all downgraded to Primitive rarity now. She was pretty sure they started out as Uncommon.

Together they returned to the tree and Sam, where Raiko went to work.

“Is that pretty easy?” Komachi asked, watching Raiko use the [Simple Mortar and Pestle] to gradually turn the [Blue Herba] into a vibrant paste.

Unlike the sickle, the pestle readily drank up mana. Her Path, Legend, and Job primarily granted magical stats and Talents, so that worked in Raiko’s favor for the magically-inclined Alchemy Profession.

Since the pestle required mana to be handled effectively, she held it in her Glyph-marked hand. It seemed to channel mana slightly better than her sword arm, despite the regular casting of rifts.

It took some time to get the flow of mana right. The process wasn’t like any spell she was used to.

The progress started to go up more as the mana spread from the pestle and into the bowl of the mortar, surrounding the in-process craft with a thin and patchy veil of energy that Raiko could just barely feel.

“Yeah, I got this. How hard can it be? A [Basic Mana Tincture] isn’t even potion grade.” Raiko eyed the roiling mixture within the mortar.

It wasn’t supposed to be doing that.

In fact, she remembered it being a literal paste moments ago.

“…You got this?” the cat asked slowly.

“Why do you sound so skeptical? It’s fine, I can get it under control.” The paste was beginning to whip around in the bowl, the mana within the mortar ignoring her efforts.

“Eh, y’know...” The following non-committal noise didn’t do much to smooth things over. Clearly, this soul aeder wasn’t the most charismatic of beings.

Raiko glared at Komachi, who glared right back.

The mixture circled around an almost glassy orb that flashed red.

You’re [Artisan Orb] turns unstable!

What the ashen hells is that?

Knowledge from the Alchemy Profession surged to the forefront of Raiko’s awareness. An [Artisan Orb] was an integral facet to crafting. Among the many things it did, and could do, was hold influence over a crafting recipe.

And in turn, it could be influenced. Like utilizing crafting crystals.

Raiko hurried to pull some [Nature Crystals] out of her Inventory, but it was too late.

Your [Artisan Orb] turns volatile!

The concoction exploded, splattering Raiko, Komachi and the area in blue paint-like liquid. Far more than should have been in the mortar.

“You got this huh.” Komachi meowed sourly.

Level Up!

Your Alchemy Profession reaches Level 1.

+5 Arcane | +4 Resonance | +3 Control

+3 Mind

Raiko laughed. Despite failing the recipe, she enjoyed the challenge. And leveling up was always encouraging. “You might want to back up, I’m going to try it again.”

Komachi scampered away, comically slipped on some blue, then darted off again.