Capítulo 25: Barren
"Hey, Alchemist, test proctor or whoever you are! Is the test set up properly? Did all these years waiting for a candidate to arrive kill off the vegetation?" My head is tilted back as I address the empty dark blue sky, swinging my unfamiliar little arms in exasperation.
"..." The voice stays silent as I survey the barren land floating in the void.
"Why limit the number of questions I can ask?"
"..." There's only silence.
This situation is terrible. There's not much food in my bags. It's all perishables scavenged along the way. Speaking of my bags... The weight tied to my belt seems lighter. It's almost as if...
I take a bag from my waist and place my hand inside. My hand doesn't meet the expected hard glass bottles and fibrous wild vegetables. Only the empty flexible fabric of the bag greets my hand...
My belongings are gone! Nia's jade phoenix included.
A wave of anxiety causes my insides to tighten and my breathing becomes fast and shallow.
"Hey! Hey! Old man! What about food? Do you want me to starve?"
"..."
"Your precious inheritance candidate may die here!"
"..."
"Hey! Come on!"
"…" The void around me offers no response as usual.
No... No, Panicking is not good. Take a deep breath.
Huff... Phew...
Think about the context… There's no sign of a thief. To escape my notice the thief would have to be ridiculously powerful. However, none of my possessions are valuable enough to tempt someone that powerful... Perhaps, my belongings weren't teleported with me? But, I still have my clothes and bags, only there's nothing in them... The test must only teleport living things and cloth.
Is this all in the alchemist's design? The knowledge being tested isn't basic knowledge of alchemical plants. Rather, it tests my ability to create from only the land itself with no aid from outside materials...? Yes, it's either that, or there's an error in the test.
"Well, let's investigate."
I start with the rock walls. The materials of the two walls are different. One is ruff and crumbles when pressed. The other is smooth and hard. Unfortunately, I'm not knowledgeable about common stones or ores.
Climbing the wall isn't difficult. The tops of the walls extend several soil-covered paces outward. Lowering my body, I stick my head over the edge on the far side. A slight breeze catches my hair, but there's only darkness below. The gradient of the sky goes from blue above to black below. I toss a small piece of rock off the edge. It falls away into oblivion and disappears.
Is it gone forever? But, there's also a stream of water falling into the void. Assuming this place has been here for a while why hasn't it run out of water?
I push around the nearby soil with my foot it's only a few hand-widths deep before I hit the stone of the cliff.
Thunk! "Gah!" My body flinches as a rock falls out of the sky spraying soil onto my shoes.
Luckily, no one saw my awkward flinching pose.
After examining the sky for more falling rocks, I dig it out for examination. It's the same rock I threw into the void, nothing is different about it except for some chipping caused by the impact.
"Hmm... Let's see how long it takes to fall." I throw the rock and count in my head. Because it will take some time to return, I cross the field and climb the smooth wall to investigate the water source.
331... 332...333...
Thunk! A small cloud of dust puffs upward on the far wall.
Is the time course repeatable?
I toss a rock off my current side and start counting. This time, I watch the sky. At 324 the rock in the sky becomes a growing dot above me. No other phenomena are heralding its return. The void could be a looped space.
332…333…
Thunk! The rock lands nearby spraying dirt.
Water seeps out of the solid rock. I reinforce my hands with Qi clawing and punching at the stone in an attempt to find the water source, but the rock's too tough.
Sigh.
I toss a couple of handfuls of water into the void. They disappear below like the rocks, but nothing returns raining from the sky.
Water seems to be processed differently. Or maybe, it's not a looped space... What would happen to a living thing?
As the only living thing, I'm not that desperate to find out.
I jump off the cliff. Not into the void, but to the fields below to investigate its features.
The lava is too hot to touch even with my fiery Qi's protection. The blue-tinted, frost-covered ground is cold and frozen solid. I'm half certain the black water pond is a poisonous mixture of decayed organic matter water and black oil. The clear water pond and stream are potable but devoid of life.
The whole test area is an unnatural rectangle floating in a void... what do I do?
* * * * *
A sphere of hardening lava wrapped in my <Lesser Magic Hand> arrives at my makeshift crucible. Its short journey through the cool air creates a black crust around it. I tap it on the shabby crucible rim breaking it open with a sound reminiscent of shattering glass. The gooey, glowing center spills into the black pasty mixture in the crucible.
Fizz!
"Ugg! I'm out of Qi again"
As it sizzles and pops, I rush to mix it using a rock pestle. The process is messy like making scrambled eggs. If I had the Qi, I would utilize the alchemical techniques that I've been re-learning to combine the materials more elegantly.
As it hardens, I do my best to force the brittle substance into a round shape. Then I dump it in the sand next to several dozen other attempts. They are all varying mixtures of the basic, yet unfortunately non-magical, materials found in the test grounds.
My Qi is drained, so I navigate around the holes dug in my search for clues and new materials to get as close as I can bear to the lava pool. My hand confirms the ground isn't too hot, and I sit cross-legged to practice <Sputtering Candle's Dying Breath>.
The mantra flows through my mind: The candle's brightest point is balanced just before it flickers out.
Natural energy is more concentrated inside the test grounds than outside. Cultivating my firey Qi near the lava pool increases my intake speed and Qi purity. I return there to try to calm my hunger a bit with Qi intake.
My Qi pushes against the bottleneck. I'll reach the next step soon.
After about an hour, I return to investigate my products.
Most of the black balls crumble or splinter when touched, but a few are relatively intact.
I hold the intact pellets over my head and shout, "Do any of these count as an alchemical pill?
"…"
"No?
"…"
I pick out one with a vague swirl pattern. "But, on this one, I used <Revolving Sphere Synthesis> to mix the materials."
"…"
"Still no?"
"…"
"Seriously? Is this even the correct method for turning in the pill?
"…"
"Please, tell me how I should turn in my alchemical pill when it's completed?"
"…"
"You even there?"
"…" It's like I'm talking to myself… The last of my muddy creations falls from my hand with a thunk.
"Bye then. I'll just keep trying…" I cast my head down and flip my right hand dismissively above my head.
These mudballs are not going to work. Time to change strategy.
I return to the cave I dug from the loamy cliff. There's no night here in the void so I excavated the cave to escape the constant light. My makeshift crucibles came from the excavated rock.
Perhaps the key is hidden and I only need to sense it.
Let's practice a sensory technique, <Defiant Seer's Coiling Chains>. I can't remember the later parts of the technique, but I shouldn't be able to get past the beginning stages at my level anyway.
My body appears in my mind. Coiling strands of fiery qi fan out around me slowly rotating, but the area is too small. I try to enlarge the area, but the strands fray apart.
"Again!"
With more practice, these strands of energy will become chains and be able to read the features of the land around me.
Rumble! Although intaking energy to form Qi helps a little with hunger, my stomach still tries to distract me with its protests.
Sigh! Time to intake Qi by the lava again.
Rumble! After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the Qi in my body surges furiously as I break through the bottleneck to the 7th layer of Condensation.
"Well, at least one good thing happened today…"
I activate <Internal Reflection>. My hunger is beginning to atrophy some of my less-used muscles, but my Qi circulation looks great. My phoenix soul floats wrapped in flames and a ring surrounds it.
Eh, a ring? That guy made it in? How did I overlook something so obvious?
"Hey Void-Soul Spirit-Housing, do you have a solution to my situation?"
"[More specific input is required.]" A monotone voice lacking emotion replies in my head.
So, he's been here all along...
"Are you able to produce alchemical pills or spirit herbs?"
"[No.]"
Although I was expecting this disappointing response, the housing did seem to have a close relationship with spirit herbs. Hmm. What had I seen before?
"When I found a spirit herb earlier, light surrounded and labeled it. Did you do that? Can you detect and catalog spirit herbs?"
"[The housing is not responsible.]"
Huh? My eyes squint as I cock an eyebrow in surprise. Is there something else unknown to me messing with my mind and body?
"Housing can you identify what would cause the labeling?"
"[The housing has been analyzing damage. It has developed a theoretical model of events that could explain this phenomenon… Void-Soul Spirit-Housing received massive damage via eldritch entity.]"
"Wait, you mean the horror in the castle? Wasn't it after my memories? Why was it affecting you?"
"[The eldritch entity erased an acquired system. This system had a spirit and ego that likely aided your integration of the soul satellite. Your description of the phenomena around the spirit herb matches functions of this erased spirit entity.]"
"Hmm, but if it's erased how can it still affect me?"
"[Suggesting when host and spirit ego were damaged, elements of missing spirit integrated with host consciousness.]"
"What? How is this possible?"
"[Unknown.]"
"When the eldritch horror eats my memories, can outside elements enter my mind?"
"[Unknown.]"
"No wonder you sound so different now, you're a different entity than the original spirit."
"[Correct.]"
"What were the other functions of this system?"
"[Functions include, environmental scanning, cataloging data on spirit herbs, duplication of spirit herbs, ego duplication.]"
"It has duplication functions?"
"[Yes, it was capable of duplicating its ego to overwrite the host's ego…]"
"What? It would have taken over my body?
"[Correct. Host's ego can consider itself lucky.]"
Cold sweat forms on my forehead. My past life's decision to accept the housing into my soul was far too hasty. Luckily, when one has too many curses, they begin to cancel each other out. Despite this silver lining, I paid a steep price... My early memories were eaten and who knows how else my mind has been altered? If the housing is correct and some of its powers were integrated into me, could its missing ego have been blended into my mind as well? It's as if my mind is slowly becoming a messy chimera with parts being added, subtracted, and blended.
I cover my forehead with a dirty unfamiliar hand to firm my resolve. Are the dangers the housing poses truly resolved?
"Will the housing reform its ego?"
"[Without foreign input it will not.]"
This isn't enough to reassure me completely, but I'll put it aside until my current stranded in the void situation is resolved.
"What about the spirit herb duplication?" This could be my way to pass this test.
"[System could duplicate a fully analyzed spirit herb given the correct materials.]"
Yes! This is it! I clench my fist in excitement.
"How do I access these abilities?"
"[Unknown.]" I facepalm and smelly grime from my hand sticks to my face.
How did power activate last time? It happened on its own by simply viewing the spirit herb… This might be troublesome.
. . .
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
NitrogenousBeing
NitrogenousBeing Ah, real life things are blowing up everywhere and stealing my writing time! Someone save me! I apologize in advance. This next month and a half will be unstable updates. :(
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