AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

“Isn’t this a little too much? I mean, I promised to cooperate with you…”

Johann looked at the girl with pleading eyes, but she just rolled her eyes and ignored him. The Mage sighed and move back to analyzing the strange metal bracelet, he could feel wind energy and magic energy coming from it, but nothing else. He fought the urge to test it again, this morning incident was still vivid in his memory. Why was life doing this to him? Was this what they called fate’s irony? Even though Thundery was dead, he was still being shocked.

In the morning, Karl had finally come to see Johann and free him. After talking a couple of times, they reach an agreement, the Mage you accompany them and Karl would help him understand his wind crystal body better. However, to be freed, he had to agree to be restrained until they arrived at their new settlement, which could take one or two seasons in the Alchemist's predictions.

Johann was completely confused when he heard this, they said he would be allowed to leave the barrier and would need to walk with the others through the Forest, so how would they restrain him? Still uncertain of what waited for him, the Mage accepted the conditions and anxiously waited for the day of his freedom. Imagine Johann’s surprise when he found out the restriction meant suppressing his powers. Even when Karl put the metal bracelet on his wrist, he still couldn’t believe the “artifact” would prevent him from casting a spell.

Actually, the bracelet didn’t suppress his power, as Karl explained, the bracelet only sent a lightning discharge when it sensed wind energy. How could Johann believe such a thing without testing it? At the moment Karl finished explaining, he pushed his energy to form a small Breeze, but before the spell was completed, a strong lighting shock brought the screaming Mage to the ground. While Johann was angry and dumbfounded by the artifact, the other party only said in a mocking tone:

“Now we know it’s working…”

The wind Mage brushed off the memory before the anger took over him and ended up activating the lighting restraint, for now, it was best to stay quiet. Johann turned his attention to the sea of people, orderly walking through the forest, he was impressed by the ex-villagers discipline and resistance to energy, after all, they have been walking for almost ten hours and nobody seemed to be experiencing any symptoms.

“Hey… Girl, how much longer do you think we need to walk before stopping? It’s almost dusk… Argh, it’s so strange to call you girl, isn’t it time to tell me your name?”

“No… What? Are you already tired? Shouldn’t Mages have stronger psyches?”

Hanna’s words were clearly aimed to mock him, but Johann welcomed the game.

“Yes, but we’re used to travel mounted or in carriages… Don’t you have those here?”

“Humph… So you know it, we do have mount beasts.”

Strangely, Johann didn’t doubt her words, the bracelet restraining him was proof enough of their resourcefulness.

Fortunately, they only walked 30 more minutes before stopping at a clearing. Again, the Mage was left speechless by their organization, in less than an hour, a basic camp was built and he could already smell wind meat being prepared over the campfires. Although the living conditions could only be called primitive, as they weren’t allowed to even a tent to sleep, their meals were on pair with a noble feast. How they transformed LQ meat into something so delicious and magically nutritious was also a mystery to him. Johann could barely keep himself from drooling when he imagined how MQ meat would taste on the hands of these natural chefs.

However, something else broke the Mage out of his daze, a thin blue barrier slowly spread from the center of the camp until it stopped at the borders. He couldn’t keep his mouth closed as everyone continued to move around doing their chores. Soon, Hanna came back and shoved a clay pot filled with a fragrant meal into his hand.

“What was that?”

“Hum? You mean, the barrier? It’s just another artifact…”

Johann almost choked at the girl’s dismissive attitude. Just an artifact? Where did they get so many artifacts? Originless lies, this wasn’t an artifact. But he couldn’t find another explanation, they could have a Mage amongst them, but this would have to be the job of a Commander at least. Even with it was a Commander, how did the Mage push away the high-density energy?

Although everybody looked unfazed, the barrier also stunned another group. The non-direct disciples were also amazed by this new barrier, they heard about it, but seeing how it spread slowly pushing away the high-density energy in one go made their eagerness to improve all tools grow even stronger.

Actually, this modification has been done ever since they created the detoxifying tool, they just didn’t have an opportunity to use it since the camp barrier was always active. The inspiration hit Karl when he observed the detoxifying tool moving the excess energy. Couldn’t they do the same for the magic barrier? Of course, the modification would also bring some negative points, like the time and cost to erect the barrier. However, these problems could be ignored if the new barrier could provide a healthy environment from the go.

Because of their tight schedule, Karl only discussed the modifications with his direct disciples, and together, they came up with two options. Use an additional Array (Manipulation) to move the high-density energy outside the barrier perimeter before erecting it, which was quickly dismissed due to its enormous consumption, or form the protection barrier slowly to push the energy as it grew. The last option ended up being within their abilities to supply energy and worth its cost.

The actual modification was just in the Direction Array (triangle form), which would direct the effect from its center to the border Array. Johann tried to forget this new mind-wrecking topic as he turned his attention to the food. Since he woke, the wind meals had become even more attractive to him, the fragrance of the herbs and wild berries prepared his taste buds for the task to come while his mind dived completely in the experience of identifying and separating the smells.

“Ground coriander and basil added at the beginning of low-heat cooking. Dandelion and rosemary roughly sliced sprinkled in the last minutes of the preparation…”

The Mage took a bit out of the roasted meat and savored it before adding:

“Roasted with rosemary and sage to flavor it… And wait, there’s another herb, something spicy…”

Hanna just rolled her eyes at the Mage’s antics, did she really feared him at some point? This was just too embarrassing.

***

Diana activated the fire-enhancing Array just in time to slash the wild cat. She jumped back to join her three comrades, panting heavily. Another beast jumped forward but the defender blocked it, while the archer prepared her last arrow. Diana wanted to exchange places with the boy but any opening could give the three remaining beasts a chance to attack.

The defender ignored the pain in his bruised arm and pushed the beast back, inviting another wild cat to attack the gap he opened by stepping forward. However, he was trained to engage the beasts upfront without hesitating, so he threw back the advancing wild cat.

Diana didn’t waste this chance, with two beasts occupied she had a chance against the other two. She yelled an order before dashing towards the beasts, the closer cat could only fall back at her wild swings, but the other one was ready to attack her side. The archer mentally cursed Diana for trusting her aim so much but didn’t hesitate to shoot the last arrow. The beast was jumping towards Diana but the arrow hit its back and made it unable to proceed.

The attacker slashed her sword at the wounded beast, finishing it before jumping back to avoid the attack of the other wild cat. Alone, the beast wasn’t capable of lasting two minutes against her unending attacks. Soon, Diana also helped the battered defender to slay the remaining beasts. At this time, the operator was already moving on the defender with the portable healing tool and a balm for contusions.

However, Diana passed the healing task to the archer and urged the operator to do the magic locator readings while she secured the perimeter. She was one of the Councilors that advocated for including one magic operator in each hunting team, but she was starting to regret the decision, maybe basic training was insufficient to place them in this position. Maybe they should start training hunters to be operators instead of outsourcing. Five minutes later the operator called Diana.

“The area is clear of MQ beasts and other groups… We made it, it’s there”

Diana traced the boy's hand to a hill. She smiled before saying:

”Let’s camp here… Tomorrow morning we’ll explore this mine…”