Go Big To Go Home: A Kaiju-Fighting Isekai LitRPG (Book 1 Complete!)

A large box hit the counter of the alchemy shop with a thunk. "Here ya go," Geng grunted, a toothy grin splitting his beard.

Mikayla blinked. "This is a potion?"

"Don't be daft. This is a heavily reinforced storage case," The dwarf pulled out a key and offered it to Mikayla.

She took it, finding the lock underneath the case's lid. With a click, the box slid open on its own, revealing three large vials and a dozen smaller ones. Little paper tags denoted that one was the Neidan potion itself, two were the brews made from the Roc Eyes, and the rest were made of the remaining Raiju essence.

"There ya go. A whole year's worth of Neidan Enhancement," Geng grunted. "The case will stop them from spoiling and keep them safe in transit, or if anything happens,"

"Just a few things ye should remember," Geng jabbed a sausage-like finger at Mikayla. "Right now, this ain't a Lightning Neidan, it's a

Storm

Neidan. Once ye've adjusted enough to take the Roc Eyes brews, that'll make Lightning the dominant part of it. But when you start drinking the rest of these, it'll add more Storm stuff to yer mix,"

"This is what you warned me about before, right? It'll put impurities in my channels?" Mikayla recalled.

"Aye. Neidans are called internal alchemies for a reason, lass. Previously, ye've been taught to remove all of yer impurities, but that won't be the case no more. Ye're gonna have to pick and choose which ones you like, find the right mix. Treat yer body like a garden and

cultivate

the energies ye want,"

"Okay, but how will I know which ones are the ones I want?" Mikayla asked, her brow furrowing. A Storm Neidan, rather than Lightning . . would that be better? She remembered the Raiju's wind powers, the way the Roc could summon clouds as a smokescreen . . would that be better? Wasn't 'lightning' just part of a storm? Or was there a matter of quality over quantity involved?

"It'll be obvious," Geng assured her.

Mikayla voiced her questions, and Geng hummed. "Deliberately making it a Storm thing would make it harder to balance. Less stable, more chance of the elements in yer body coming into conflict and needing to be beaten down more often. And aye, it would mean yer lighting ain't as lightning-y. Might be worth it to have more options though . . but hey, don't make up yer mind now. Ye'll have time to experiment. See how Storm feels after ye drink up, see how a purer Lightning thing feels after ye take the Roc Eyes,"

He snapped his fingers. "Ah! That reminds me, don't ye drink more than one of these in a month. Yer body needs time to adjust. Drink this one today," he gestured at the brew, "this one next month and that the month after," he pointed at the Roc potions, "and work yer way through the rest until this time next year,"

"Cooldown, got it," Mikayla nodded. "I guess I'll try it both ways and see which works better for me,"

"Aye!" Geng nodded. "And one other thing. Because most of this is made from the same creature, ye'll get diminishing returns on the Raiju brews. Not nothing, but if ye bring me any other lightning or storm monsters or get more Neidan enhancement brews from someone else, put them afore finishing off the Raiju. Diversity is healthy!"

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind," Mikayla beamed. "Thanks so much for this!"

"Thank me with yer wallet, ye spoiled little brat," Geng cackled. "Now get out of here before ye drink up. And do it outdoors, ye might make a mess,"

Well. That was ominous.

<=====}—o

After returning to Cloudscraper via train, Mikayla and Nya paused in an unused training yard. Keldryn appeared seemingly out of nowhere, commenting, "Like I'm going to miss my best friend doing something like this,"

Mikayla sat down and stared at the cloudy grey potion. ". . I'm having choice paralysis. I'm still not sure if I should do this," she admitted, looking between her friends and the potion. "It's going to change me. Forever. Even if it is for the better, it'll still be a big change,"

"For what it's worth, I still do think you should take it," Nya diplomatically opined.

"It'll make you harder to kill. That's all that matters," Keldryn contributed.

"Sure, but . ." Mikayla took a deep breath. She was being silly, she knew she was. The only real drawback of gaining this Neidan now was that she'd never be able to get any other Neidan. That, and . . despite all the promises, could she

really

be

sure

that this wouldn't wreak unspeakable havoc on her very being?

. . of course, it wasn't like refusing it was without risk. She'd already been in way too many life-or-death situations, and it was only a matter of time until more mortal peril came her way. This power could be the difference between whether or not she lived long enough to find her way home.

She clapped her hands together to spur herself into motion. She'd already laid out all the pros and cons plenty of times. She'd made her decision already, she just had to follow through.

So Mikayla, not giving herself any more time to think, uncorked the potion and chugged it in a single, smooth motion.

It was cool. It was fizzy. It felt like wet cotton sliding down her throat. It was disgusting and yet oddly satisfying to take inside herself.

Using the sense she had nurtured for the inside of her body, Mikayla felt the brew flow down her throat and into her body. At first, it behaved similarly to how a potion did; flowing through her veins and into her network of vital energies.

But the difference became apparent as soon as she'd finished swallowing. It was like the inside of her mouth and throat were stained a cloudy grey, in a way that reminded her of the impurities Asika had helped her burn out when she cleared the first Schema Lock. But these impurities were different; unlike the useless, disgusting filth that she'd had purged months ago, the stormy sludge crackled with power.

Like treacle, the potion continued to spread through her body, thousands of tiny chemical reactions triggered when it came into contact with her blood, her stomach acid, her

bone marrow

. She panicked a bit, but it didn't hurt. It tingled, like lightning-flavoured chilli, with a texture like a wet cloth being wiped across her skin.

Mikayla marvelled at the process, feeling it spread and stain her, painting the inside of her body and seeping through her pores.

And then she realised that was entirely literal, as she suddenly seemed to be sweating storm clouds. Her shoulders and arms were coated in a deep grey mist that was spreading down towards her hands.

"Uh," She waved her arm, and the clouds moved with her, leaving trails in the air. "This is, um. Weird and useless," She flicked her wrist ineffectually. "Is this supposed to happen?"

"The Neidan should be bonding to your vital energies, try to use them!" Nya suggested.

"But not while facing towards us!" Keldryn added.

"Right!" Mikayla span on her heels and channeled her Mana down the length of her arm - and it shone. A wave of red lightning flashed down from her shoulder, reaching the tips of her fingers in half a second and then discharging into forked tendrils of pure heat that carved scorch marks into the ground.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

". . . whoa,"

That had done something. Opened the floodgates. Stormclouds were seeping out of every part of her skin, through her robes and out of her orifices. The Neidan was rampaging through her rivers of vital energies, spreading and binding itself to them. She gasped involuntarily, and a wave of electricity emerged from her mouth in place of sound.

It was like there was an animal inside her, clawing and scratching, trying to chew its way out. It still didn't exactly hurt, but it was

nauseating

, and Mikayla could feel every inch of her body struggling with the Neidan as it finished permeating her vital energies.

She slammed down on it, marshalling her Mana and directing it with all the Willpower she could muster. But for the first time since her impulsive stat allocations on her first day in Raibalie, she felt like her Willpower wasn't sufficient. Her legs gave out, and she hit the ground, the impact forcing the air from her lungs except that the air was more grey clouds and by this point she was entirely surrounded by them.

Unbeknownst to her, Keldryn had tried to charge into the growing storm as soon as he lost sight of Mikayla, only for Nya to hold him back. "She must do this herself! It is her power!"

"Shut the frank up, she's my friend!" he growled, struggling.

"You'd only be sabotaging her!"

Mikayla was oblivious to this, entirely focused on trying to pacify the energy rampaging in her body. It wasn't responding to her gentle coaxing or attempts to guide it, like her Mana usually did. Up until now, her Mana had always been hyperactive, on a hair-trigger, almost too responsive to her whims, but now it felt belligerent, aggravated. Rowdy.

Growling to herself as it slipped free of her mental grasp again, in a moment of sheer frustration she abandoned all subtlety and precision and simply demanded with every iota of her being that it all

stay still!

And that

worked

. The clouds around her stilled, the chaos inside her freezing.

Mikayka was so surprised that her brute-force effort had borne results that she lost her grip and the magic inside her started venting in bursts through her pores again.

But now she understood. She just didn't have the Willpower to control this new type of Mana as well as she had been able to control her basic, unattuned Mana. She'd taken the Neidan too soon after all. Or maybe this would have happened no matter when she'd drunk the potion.

If she couldn't afford precision, then she would have to make do without it.

She clapped her hands together and the roar of thunder came from them, using the shockwave to stagger and interrupt the energy in her arms. Was that a sonic attack? Not relevant! She squashed and flattened the energy, forcing it into somewhat crude lines within her channels. Slapping herself on the chest earned a similar result, and Mikayla kept going, pounding herself all over and generating clouds, sparks and soundbursts that grew weaker and weaker the more she internalised the energy.

It was drying, Mikayla discovered as she finished the process. Bonding with her body, like glue. It would not be impossible to scrape away, but difficult enough that she doubted she had the strength for it. She barely understood the complexity of the material that had become part of her body, but it looked like she had the rest of her life to figure it out.

A popup appeared between her eyes and her eyelids, which was quite disorienting.

[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE GAINED THE NEIDAN: CONSTITUTION OF BALEFUL THUNDERSTORM]

[CONSTITUTION OF BALEFUL THUNDERSTORM: Your Mana takes on the properties of electricity in its natural state. You are able to produce conductive clouds using your Stamina.]

"Mikayla?" She opened her eyes to find that the clouds had vanished, and Keldryn and Nya were watching her, concerned.

"Okay. Okay," She breathed heavily, checking herself over. She wasn't smoking anymore. She didn't look any different that she could tell, outside of some new singe marks on her uniform. "I think I'm okay. Do I look different? Feel different?"

Nya chuckled. "You are truly vain, to still be so concerned about your appearance,"

Keldryn pursed his lips. "Your hair,"

Mikayla blanched. "What happened to my hair?" Her dull brown hair wasn't particularly special, but she liked it!

"It's gone all frizzy. Spiky. You should wash it,"

Feeling herself over and pulling a lock of her hair into her field of vision, Mikayla breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that it hadn't changed. "I'll do that. Yeah,"

She probed her insides, testing her vital energies, and the reaction was immediate. Her Mana erupted through her pores into roiling grey mist that brimmed with thunder and flashes of red light.

"Ah, great. That was way too easy. I'm going to have to learn to control my Mana all over again, aren't I?" She'd previously believed that her regular lessons of vital energy control with Nya had been paying dividends in her ability to properly leverage Techniques. But now she was worried about electrocuting herself in her sleep.

". . actually, hey," Shaping her Mana into a cone and pushing it out through her finger gave her a small bolt of lightning, and she pressed it into the little finger of her other hand, bracing for pain. But nothing happened.

"Oh! I can't electrocute myself? Awesome!"

"Did you forget?" Nya frowned. "Neidans will never hurt their users, it is hard-coded into the System. You've seen the frequency with which Shao sets herself on fire,"

"Still had to test it," Mikayla covered for herself. She totally hadn't momentarily forgotten that.

She looked back at her hand, summoning another small burst of electricity, and winced, noticing for the first time its distinct appearance. "Okay, seriously though? Red lightning? It looks evil," Mikayla complained.

"It looks

badass,"

Keldryn corrected her.

"What did you expect, given your aura colour?" Nya pointed out. "It's certainly appropriately intimidating for someone who actually uses a Black Knight Core,"

"Yeah, but . . I'm just a historian, damnit," Mikayla whined.

Keldryn regarded her, arms folded and ears flattened. "Not anymore," was all he had to say on that subject.

"I don't disagree. Take pride in the strength you have acquired, Mikayla. There is value in cultivating an aura of menace. Your foes will take you all the more seriously as a result,"

Mikayla focused, channeling her Mana, and marvelled at the grey clouds that emerged from her wrist. Focusing in on her channels let her observe the process; the impurities in her body were acting like filters, converting the Mana that passed through them into storm energy. There was no Technique involved, she didn't need to sculpt her Mana into forms that evoked clouds or lightning. It all just felt natural.

She pushed a bit harder and a fresh bolt of red electricity flew into the air. "Yup. Still red. Wonder if I can make it a less Sith-y colour?"

"I know what will make you feel better," Nya interrupted.

"What?"

"We ought to go and show your new power to Shao," Nya suggested with a knowing smile. "She is going to be thrilled,"

"Oh, definitely," Mikayla grinned.