章 289: Chapter Eighty Nine - I haven’t made these in a while
An alchemist battle was not like a normal battle; most Alchemists couldn't use weapons and they couldn't go around just throwing pills at each other.
Jian Juren; I beg to disagree!
So in the centre of the mage field, a platform had been placed just for this rarely seen challenge. On top of the platform were three tables and on two of those there were alchemy stoves, simple cauldrons, kettles, pestle and mortars and bowls as well as a jade plate on each. On the third table was an array of various herbs both common and uncommon, their refreshing scents caught on the wind and teasing the senses of observers even from their distances.
Standing behind one of the tables, Leon felt very uncomfortable; so many eyes were staring down at him. He felt as if the heat from each their eyes increased his core temperature by a half degree, the accumulation of such was burning him to a crisp. With reddened cheeks, he pushed his glasses up his nose as he tried to listen to what the Teacher was saying.
This Teacher happened to be from the alchemist school, but mostly taught inner school students. She, as well as a Teacher from the scholars school, was replacing the Teachers from the martial arts and beast tamer schools just for the alchemy competition. The mage judge remained; this was taking place on mage school grounds after all.
"Jude from the outer alchemist school has challenged Leo also from the outer alchemist school to a battle of alchemy and Leo has accepted. In this challenge, Leo, as the challenged, will be asked to blindly chose a pill from their recorded repertoires. After being informed which pill they will be creating, they must gather the correct herbs from the selection in front and begin the process of making the pill. They are given a maximum time in which to complete this of thirty minutes. They can make as many attempts as is necessary in this period and can chose the final product for the judges to consider. We will then declare a winner between the two. The loser must give the victor ten points as is usual amongst these challenges. Do both parties understand?"
This last part was spoken without the aid of vocal enhancement spells and just to the alchemist students. Leon nodded, while Jude sneered in his direction though he covered up his expression when glanced at by their Teacher. "Yes, of course," he said, politely.
"Then Leo, if you could select from this box," the woman told him, bringing forth a small, lidded trunk with numerous folded pieces of parchment inside. This sort of blind selection was not unfamiliar to Leon having seen such things in school and on television more than a few times. He felt it was even a bit amusing as he carefully picked a slightly buried piece of parchment out of the box and passed it to the Teacher, who smiled as she grasped it. Passing the box to a student beside her, she unfolded the parchment. As it was sealed with a special wax, this wasn't something that others could tamper with ensuring that the challenge was fair.
She showed the words written on the parchment to the other Teachers who nodded in confirmation before declaring the type of pill that they would be creating. "The Seven Steps Pill!"
The Seven Steps Pill was an enhancement pill and a combat pill used to increase the speed of the one who consumed it for a period of time. Leon had investigated this pill as Leo, even made numerous attempts to create it before successfully developing one. Had to be noted that this type of pill was not easy to make for an alchemy student of primary stage. This was as their inner-seas were generally small and their control over their spiritual energy was not great. However Leo had probably succeeded as his control and concentration (unchanged as Leon) was good as was his patience. Still, this had been just before the accident and Leon, who had regressed thanks to his lost memories, hadn't formed this pill since. Thankfully, by this time his memory had mostly returned...
Both youths approached the table with the herbs upon it. As it was winter, some of the less hardy herbs were not exactly fresh, there was even some purposefully dried herbs amongst the batches. Despite this, their aromas were still quite good. Leon glanced over them, seeking what they would need for the Seven Steps Pill.
Probably not coincidentally, the Seven Steps Pill required seven herbs. Jude beside him identified them quickly, grabbing what he required before hurrying back to his cauldron. The person who finished first with a qualified pill could gain favourability from the judges. Leon didn't hurry, frowning as he noticed the False Nettle herb beside a few other types of Nettle, but as it was the snowy jade Nettle he required, he was not fooled by this. The snowy jade Nettle had pale green leaves, but also hardened stalks that looked as if they were made from white jade. The blood red taint that gave away the False Nettle's identity would be too easily seen if it attempted to mimic the other plant.
Leon took a stalk that was particularly lustrous, for no other reason than it looked good as well as some purple spirit grass, wise fools folly (a succulent herb with a backstory, not unlike the concubines jade beads), wyrm's breath, twilight grass, ice rose for its amber and umber spike moss. He chose the freshest looking herbs with the exception of the ice rose stalk.
Ice Rose amber was a part of the herb the ice rose, but it was an accidental by-product found inside the stalk. Some said that it was a hardened blockage of golden coloured sap which built up inside the lower part of the stem, but Leo had discovered in his own curious way, that the more wilted the ice rose, the larger the amber and that the amber contained in a rose that had budded but not bloomed before dying was usually more pure. The stem he had chosen was weak and on the dry side, it's closed bloom black and without life. Sure enough, amongst the uneven bulges in the lower stem, there was one quite decent in size.
With a provided knife, he swiftly cut open the stem as water boiled in the kettle on the stove. As was his usual habit when making tea based concoctions, he thoroughly boiled the water before using it in the recipe. Inside the stem was a translucent, amber stone, which he placed in a bowl to one side before preparing the other herbs, crushing the plucked spines of the moss, which were shaped as small balls and juicing the succulent pods.
Others would toss the herbs in together to make the tea brew, it wasn't necessary to separate them. But the wyrm's breath flowers weren't needed for the tea, so he frugally cut them off of their fine array of stems before cutting the stems into pieces and adding them to the purple spirit grass and the black and blue blades of the twilight grass into the boiling water to seep. Placing the kettle to one side, he put the cauldron onto the stove. This was part of the recipe that needed his concentration the most.
At the bottom of the cauldron, he placed the amber before quickly reaching into his innersea for his spiritual energy in order to deftly control the flame. In order to melt the amber, the flame needed to be white hot, but as soon as it had melted to a thick goo, the heat needed to be reduced vastly or it would continue to melt to a watery consistency, becoming spoiled.
Leon suddenly paused. As he stirred to life the small galaxy of stars within his inner sea, he noticed something was not quite right. There seemed to be one sparkling glint that was acting contrary to his spiritual energy, weaving in and out against the natural flow. It even seemed to hop over another star! He wanted to watch it further, but snapped out of the notion recalling that he was in the midst of a competition and had limited time. Generally, a Seven Steps Pill would need the majority of this time in order to be completed! Also, it wasn't causing the flow of his energy to falter in anyway, so he decided to let it be, examine it later and focus on the challenge for now.
His spiritual energies stirred, they rushed forward to fuel the flames condensing the heat in addition to further enhance the fire. The flames were visibly white under his control and the amber began to melt. At the point he recognised the amber was sufficient, he reshaped his energies to lower the temperature of the flame and cauldron, allowing the amber to retain consistency.
He then slowly added the tea, stirring it with a split section of his energies and kneading the liquid into the amber goo until the amber was swollen with the tea. Of course it was not complete yet, he needed to also add the mixed juices of the succulents and the crushed spines of the moss balls. But first, he needed to combine them together quickly. This was another test of the alchemist's abilities, multitasking. The powder and liquid could only be mixed together for a short while or the powder would dissolve and lose its qualities. But neither could be added to the amber separately; the powder would thicken the amber too much, the liquid would ruin the even consistency.
Leon was able to do this second task while preventing the amber from burning without much difficulty. He also mentally kneaded the second combination into the amber without losing any of the efficacy of the herbs. He couldn't help but wipe his brow after this step was done; all of those cauldron explosions Leo had caused thanks to this recipe really were worth it in the end. Finally, he used his spiritual energy to form four golden coloured pills, before removing the cauldron from the heat and withdrawing his remaining spirit. The four pills he placed into the dish were all equally of good quality, so he didn't feel it was too much of a big deal to hand one to the Teacher at random to be judged.
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