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"You little shit," I said. "But… this is your prey, so it’s on you. But I’m not going to cook for you."

He turned to me sharply, and I saw the half-groomed blood all over him. That made me laugh. "Just kidding."

I reached into my backpack and took out some cooked reiga meat, which I had put into a Tupperware. The moment I ate some, my body flooded with energy, and I felt like I could continue forever. I threw a piece to my little fattie, who didn’t look like he could eat but still found room somehow. Then I took the meat and put it into a preservation box, as it was my sustenance, and built a fire. I needed equipment for cooking, but I didn’t have any. So I just found a flat stone, built a fire, put the stone inside, and then put the reiga slices onto it. It’d probably burn—but I couldn’t eat it raw. I couldn’t even chew it.

I returned to work after that, practicing my magic spells on the augmented herbs until I got tired—and took more maralune syrup. I ate a bite of meat and kept going. A few hours later, I became proficient in my spells.

"You feeling confident?" Lithco asked.

"You think I should be?" I asked.

"You’re doing remarkably well."

"Then I am."

"Good. Let’s get started."

I opened the preservation arrays, pulled out the ingredients I had been simulating with for the last eight hours, and took a deep breath. Then, I started working with them.

First, I cut the bashak and squeezed it, capturing it in a bowl as I had seen. That was the easy part—but it was messy.

"How do I get rid of this?" I asked, rubbing my hands together.

"You have a spell called Skin Barrier that prevents ingredients from sticking to your hands, but I don’t recommend it without training. It has some undesired effects. Instead, I recommend you use a water sphere and wash your hands in it. Repeat after me: Antícho procháro, télos tis hélion."

It took me ten minutes to get down the accent, but once I got the chant down, water started balling up above my hands.

I got so excited that I broke my concentration, and it fell.

"Like that, but catch it next time," Lithco sighed.

I puffed out my lip but then smiled like a little child, doing it again. This time, I caught the ball, and it splashed cool water onto my hands. Convenient.

"Okay. Use purify and let’s continue."

I used my purification spell, and all the grime on my hands slipped off. Then, I returned to work.

Next, I took the tram, dried out the flower with desiccation, and then put it into a mortar, grinding it into dust. I did that for three flowers until I weighed out 250 milligrams and put them into a mixing bowl.

I then minced another plant and mixed two cups of water from a water dispenser array at the station. After combining the two, I used Essence Extraction to pull out the golden essence from the plant. It actually did sparkle slightly.

I took these three ingredients and mixed them together vigorously, wishing I had an electric mixer. Pulling a beaker off a shelf, I purified it and put it onto a tiny heating array that brought the temperature up to an oddly specific 253 degrees Fahrenheit. I took the mixture, added it to the beaker, and put it on to simmer. Five minutes later, I added a type of sugar and a binding agent provided to me to make it into a syrup.

Now, it was onto the potion. I pulled out some berries that were on the list, mashed them up, and added a ground-up plant with detoxification properties. Despite having a hundred berries, I only had a fourth of a cup, which was lower than I needed.

"Should I get more?" I asked.

"No, it’ll be fine," Lithco said. "Potions are like cooking. They don’t require a set recipe for how much spice or ingredients you should use. By contrast, elixirs are like baking. While there isn’t a set amount of any given ingredient, scientific measurements are required to balance out ingredients to get your desired effects. So just mix it like lemonade.

My heart thudded, and I went back to stirring the ingredients in the beaker. It would’ve been bad if I had forgotten, and I knew I’d lose "points" with the Guide and gods if Lithco had helped me too much.

"Good call," he said from behind me. "Anyway, that has all the active ingredients you need for the cleansing elixir. This potion is an amplifier. It’s not necessary, but it will increase the efficacy."

"I see," I said, turning back to the ingredients. "Then I’ll make do."

I mixed in the berries with the herbs and added water. Then, I used essence extraction.

"Hoh? Why are you using essence extraction on it?" Lithco mused. "I didn’t tell you to do that."

"I recall you saying something really dickish when you taught me the spell," I said, recalling a period a few hours prior. I turned to him with a mocking smile. "What was it? Oh, yes. ’This’s an essence plant and that’s an essence extraction spell. What do you think?’" I said with a deep, mocking voice. "Well, this is also an essence plant, and this is an essence extraction spell."

"Bravo," Lithco said. "You’re not defenseless without me. Now stir your elixir."

My eyes widened, and I whirled around, mixing the beaker while grumbling, "Didn’t even needa stir it. Just wanted a scapegoat. Prick." But I knew that it was important to stir it regularly, so I didn’t mind it.

Once I finished, I poured the light blue potion to fill the rest of the beaker, creating a surreal mixture of blues and purples and reds that marbled together, unwilling to bind without heat and a binding agent. Finally, after letting it simmer for a while, I added alcohol and a powdered binding agent provided at the station, and the liquid developed a golden glow that cut through the blues and reds and purples. It was surreal.

That’s when I got the chime.

—---

Congratulations! Neophyte Mira Hill has created her first alchemic creation.

Name: Minor Cleansing Elixir.

Effect: Cleanses the body of impurities and opens up mana pathways.

Estimated purity: 51%.

—---

I blinked twice at the screen. Then, I got another notification that left me shaken.

—---

Neophyte Mira Hill has been offered a new Legacy Quest.

Quest: Aspire to be a Goddess

Quest Summary: Goddesses aren’t satisfied with petty gains—they seek purity. To have eternal youth, health, and beauty. To radiate under the light. These are skills that a goddess can truly obtain as an alchemist who pursues creations that alchemists covet and monopolize. Since you’ve showcased an innate talent for alchemy, prove that you’re willing to risk it all to obtain a mana core capable of shaking the first domain. If you succeed, you will be offered the legacy of a renown alchemy god.

Requirement(s):

Obtain the ingredients to make the Lumidran Awakening Elixir.

Create the elixir before the end of the trial.

Accept or refuse this quest now.

Pursue this quest until you complete it or the time limit runs out.

Rewards:

Legacy Reward.

Epic Alchemy Equipment.

—---

I got a bad feeling as I read it, leaving my arms prickling with electricity.

"Lithco," I whispered. "Can I ask questions about this?"

A new pop-up shot up to the side of the legacy quest. It contained a single word. "Yes."

"Great…" I said. "because I feel like this Legacy Quest’s gonna fuck me. Is it?"

"Probably," he wrote. "If you accept this, it’ll probably eat up all your time. Then you won’t be able to do any more voluntary quests or pursue the soulmancy legacy. That’s the point."

I leaned against a counter. "So they’re strong-arming me."

"If you consider bribes of mansions and private jets ’strong-arming’—then yes."

"I see…" I walked out of the gazebo, summoned a water sphere above my head, and let it crash down over my hair. It felt refreshing. "But why?" I asked. "It’s not like I’m a genius alchemist."

"That doesn’t matter. You’re in a forest with millions of rare alchemic ingredients. If you can live here, you’re an invaluable asset. Not just to alchemy gods—but the multiverse."

"And they want to monopolize these resources?" I asked.

"Yes."

"That makes sense… but. This’s what I don’t get. If these resources are so valuable, why haven’t they sent people to live here?" Humans survive in worse conditions. It’s hard to believe they hadn’t conquered the forest yet.

"It has to do with the domain system. But that question is beyond the purview of this discussion."

"I see…" I sighed and sat beside Kline. I created a water sphere and let it fill my hands. He got up and drank happily. "So what can I do with this legacy? Start a beauty line?"

"It leads with immortality and health, but you focused on beauty?" I could hear the sarcasm beyond those words. "This legacy has alchemic recipes for restoring lost limbs, and even bringing the recently deceased back to life. And yes, should you desire unlimited wealth, you can use it as a beauty line. It’s not a silver spoon, Mira—it’s a diamond spoon. Not just on the outside—but in this forest."

I ran my fingers through the grass. Between this and soulmancy—there just didn’t seem to be a competition. For some reason, I knew that I would choose soulmancy if it were on the table—but it wasn’t. But this was, and Alchemy was about to boost my power—Kline’s power. It saved our lives. By contrast, it could take decades or even centuries to do anything with soulmancy. Blindly turning down such a valuable legacy for an unknown legacy that isn’t guaranteed… just seemed stupid.

"And I can’t have two legacies?" I asked.

"You can, but gods don’t like sharing—so they’ll veto it. You might get a blessed subclass or another freakish deal between gods, but that’s beyond your control. You should focus on obtaining a legacy."

I nodded and thought about it for a while. "Do you think I can do it? Create this awakening elixir?"

"It won’t be easy. But yes."

"And I can still fight for the soulmancy legacy if I succeed?"

"Yes."

I clapped my hands and then stood up. "Then let’s do this. Lithco—use an information request to list out the challenges I’ll face completing this quest. I’ll find solutions just out of spite."

An hour later, I walked up to the shenai fruit tree, carefully picking the fruits and throwing them against trees to see how much force it took for them to explode. It turned out that it depended on what stage of decay they were at. The ones right off the tree forced me to treat them like a fastball. The ones on the ground exploded if I even stepped on them—and, unfortunately, those were the ones I needed. So I carefully put them into my bag and tip-toed out of there like I was walking on a minefield.

I was careful, but I accidentally stepped on a shenai fruit buried under a pile of leaves, and it exploded like a claymore, soaking my clothing.

"I…" I seethed. "Fucking hate these things!"

Ten minutes later, I was covered in fruit juice and seeds, walking over plants with one boot like some dilapidated swamp monster. It was annoying, but I used Water Sphere and Purify during my next break to remove the plant matter and clean myself. It was convenient. Win.

That’s when I continued collecting the poisonous plants I researched. I became giddy just imagining how spectacularly deadly they were. I also reached a very special plant that left me feeling… evil—but I threw it into my foraging bag with a grin anyway.

Once I finished, I returned to the shelter, elixir in hand. It was a minor cleansing elixir—but there wasn’t anything stopping me from taking a better one later. So, I planned to use this one tonight to build up my and Kline’s strength.

Things would turn deadly tomorrow. I would make sure of it.