New System, Who Dis?

Tutorial Day 37

My eyes were glued to the screen where my Tutorial Points were displayed. I had practically nothing left. I had spent nearly everything I had, strictly because of what Veronique had told me at the end of our meeting. What I was doing now was a bit of a risk. But if it paid off, well, then it would all be worth it.

I was sitting in my room inside the Alchemy Academy. I believed I'd made the difficult decision to move into Claude's Dojo, especially if I didn't need to keep my room here. But before I did, I needed to get something done. My eyes moved off my Status Screen and onto an object that was new to my room. Well, a couple of objects.

Sitting just in front of the Magical Shower was a large copper tub, because I couldn't currently afford the Demonic Vault's Alchemy Body Enhancing Tub, and a massive barrel, filled with the most expensive E-Rank Stat Breakthrough Liquid, and atop its lid were two of my Rejuvenation Pills.

It may look like a simple procedure, finally removing the cap on my Stats. Something that I was going to try anyway in the future. It had been one of my first priorities once I had enough Tp. But there was now another reason I had rushed to do it.

I went over the conversation with Veronique again. Specifically, the properties she had told me the Rejuvenation Pill contained. They were the same properties that made me choose to keep them as a limited resource at auction.

The first property, according to Veronique and her tester, was that it restored 'health' and Mana. Now, it wasn't like a Potion in that it almost instantly restored it. Instead, the Pills created an effect where your 'health' and Mana would constantly regenerate at a rate of about a hundred points per second for about thirty seconds.

My first question after Veronique's claim was about health. Had Smegma been right all those times when he had said that health had a Pool? Veronique had simply claimed that it's not a resource like Mana, Qi, or Soul. But Potions and Pills could act like a Healing Spell that targeted injuries and repaired the damage. In the case of the Rejuvenation Pill, the healing was channeled like a Skill.

The effects ended after thirty seconds, but having such a life-saving treasure, which could continually feed you Mana and heal injuries, was already a huge deal. Besides those regenerative properties of the Pill, it was only when I took into account it's other effects, that I understood the astronomical starting price-point Veronique suggested.

At first, the tester thought the Pill contained a Weakening side effect. The tester claimed that the Pill had left him disgustingly smelly, dirty and exhausted. However, it wasn't until his third try with the Pill that he truly understood what was happening.

The Rejuvenation Pill cleaned out impurities in the Body, Mana, and Soul. It had a limit, certainly, and after he'd taken two Pills, the third hadn't done anything—however, the tester claimed that he could feel the difference once he looked for it. His Mana, Qi and Soul Pools moved easier, responded faster, and seemed just slightly more effective. He'd concluded that it was either that or his body had somehow become stronger as a result of the cleansing of his Pools.

He'd been unclear on the final bit—but by piecing it together with some things Claude and Smegma had said, I had a suspicion.

In Claude's 'motivational' speech, which admittedly, had been about Qi and Soul growth fundamentals, Claude had referenced a tree. To help motivate me to focus on fundamentals, he had said that if a tree had a sturdy and wide trunk, it could become taller. It could weather the wind in a storm. However, according to Claude's next words, I got a very different meaning. For example, a tree could constantly grow wider at its base. But what if it was limited by rocks or how deep its roots could delve?

That consideration made me immediately transform Claude's tree concept into something more akin to examples humans might use. Personally, I pictured a pyramid. If one wanted to build a tall structure in the distant medieval past that would last for any meaningful length of time, it had to resemble a triangle. Thus, the wider the base at the bottom of the pyramid, the higher it could reach. So, what if you skimped on that base?

Sure, there could always be other limiting factors. What if the tree or the pyramid didn't get enough resources? What if the builder didn't have enough stone to construct it as high as he wanted? These issues could later leave him with a shorter structure than he desired. However, if he didn't focus on the pyramid base, pick the perfect soil, or clear away other restraints that could exist early on, then he would be left with no other option but to build a small structure, or have an unhealthy tree.

That, or he could try to force the tree to grow with an abundance of nutrients. Try to widen the base of the Pyramid after the fact…

It might work—but it also might end in disaster.

These Rejuvenation Pills of mine might truly be widening that base. They might make it possible for me to have an Evolution in my Stats that allowed me, in the later stages, to continue to grow. Or perhaps it increased my potential for growth through clearing and deepening the soil? I truly wasn't sure of the right wording for my hypothesis yet.

How did the Pills do that?

Well, again, everything was just a theory and a feeling. I believed that removing those impurities in all the Pools also removed the impurities in my body, which would allow my muscles, my bones, and everything else to be unrestricted on Evolution. I also theorized that any Evolution might be 'permanent' or have a baseline state that could help or hinder growth.

Going back to the Card Evolutions Smegma had spoken of all that time ago left me thinking I was onto something. If First Aid could become Minor Heal, or Bind, or anything else based on how it was used… Then what about a secondary Evolution? Could it convert from Bind and become Heal? I doubted it. I felt that Stats might hold that same potential and simultaneously get locked to a pathway once Evolved.

Worst case scenario, I was wrong—and I lost nothing…

Since when has twenty thousand or more Tutorial Points become nothing to me? I lamented.

After taking a deep breath, and then another, I picked up the first Pill and sat cross-legged on the ground between the tub and the Magical Shower. If the tester was correct, I was going to finish this thirty-second ordeal smelly, dirty, and feel absolutely disgusted with the state of my hygiene. I examined the Pill, noting its multi-hued coloring, sucked on my tooth for a moment in hesitation, and then popped it into my mouth. This was my first time eating an Alchemical Pill…

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It didn't taste good.

In fact, it tasted like concentrated leaf juice. Worse, it melted as if it were some sort of decadent chocolate. The juices immediately spread over my tongue, into my cheeks, between my teeth, and then began to flow down my throat.

The sensation that accompanied it, other than the immediate urge to retch, was akin to consuming about ten thousand milligrams of caffeine. My entire body began to tingle. My brain warned me that this was how I was going to explode like a balloon. It felt as if something was building inside of me. To help myself concentrate, I tightly closed my eyes and retreated into my Mental Universe. Once there, it was as if the stars I had seen multiple times before had become brighter, more vibrant than ever. I spun my consciousness, absorbing the scene as those stars seemed to stream their light into my Mana Pool.

I blinked and carefully watched, mesmerized, as my Mana Pool began to glow brighter, as if it were transforming into a blue sun, similar to the Demonic Vault Skill. Speaking of which—from the Demonic Vault's side, all the stars behind it actually fed their Mana streams directly into that red sun. Confused, I opened my eyes and then opened the Demonic Shop to find that my Mana Coins were indeed increasing. Not by much, roughly ten per second. But that was good to know.

It was especially good when I considered that ten Mana Coins was at one point my limit after a few hours of recharge. So, I could theoretically direct any Mana overflow to the Shop?

However, I had a feeling that the process my Mana Pool was undergoing was necessary for the detoxification that the tester had claimed would occur. So, since I could make more of these Rejuvenation Pills, I let the situation continue. As my Mana Pool brightened, I had to eventually exit my Mental Universe because I couldn't look at it anymore without my eyes watering in both the metaphysical and the physical world.

My hand moved to my eyes, and I wiped. What I found surprised me. My eyes, in the physical world, weren't watering. Well, I'm sure a certain component of this was water, but another component was black sludge. It looked and smelled awful. I didn't even inhale through my nose and I was already getting a whiff of something akin to rotten eggs. It felt as if I had just entered a sulfur mine. That, or perhaps I was taking a whiff of the smoke from a match that had just caught fire. It was strange. The consistency on my fingers was that of sediment and oil.

Turning over my hand, I realized that the sludge hadn't solely been from wiping my eyes. Little beads of black sweat bubbled up from my skin along my forearm and on the back of my hand. The oily sweat began to drip like I was running a marathon in 100-degree weather. It was horrifying to watch.

I took a quick peek inside my Mental Universe and discovered that the brightness of my Mana Pool was forcing out deep, deep strands of almost inky shadows from within. Where those went, I couldn't quite tell because they were hidden by the contant of light. I had to exit my Mental Universe again because my Mana Pool was still far too bright to look at for long.

A quick check on my Skills, specifically the red planet that was Reptilian Body, which was still leaking red mist, showed me no activity. It was glowing mildly brighter, but it wasn't disgorging anything dark or inky like my Mana Pool was. Perhaps that was because it was a Skill. Could I check on my actual Qi? I hadn't quite figured out the trick there yet; nor my Soul. I had no idea how to enter a metaphysical space and check on those Pools.

Still, just watching in the physical plane, my skin turned from its normal shade of tanned to speckled, dripping sludge. Before I knew it, the thirty seconds were over. Part of me wanted to immediately jump in the Magical Shower, but first I checked in on my Mental Universe to see if the process continued there. It was back to normal. The stars no longer emitted their light and the Mana Pool had dimmed.

The wave of weariness and weakness the tester had mentioned hit me then. And if it wasn't for the rotten egg smell that was attempting to invade my nostrils, I probably could have fallen asleep on the spot. Instead, I stood up, walked into the shower, which flashed and cleaned my body and clothes, before I walked back out and collapsed onto the bed. I was asleep before I could even get my head to the pillow.

* * *

When I woke up, I still felt slightly groggy but was immediately excited to try taking the second Pill. Sure, it likely wouldn't be that effective, but according to the tester, I still had some impurities left within my body. I practically vaulted out of my bed and arrived at the same spot between the tub and the Magical Shower.

Once there, I reached my hand out and grabbed the second Pill. My body immediately began to shudder, remembering the taste of concentrated pine-leaf juice. But before I could think better of it, I popped the second Pill into my mouth. The same horrid sensation of the melting, disgusting decadence of chocolate was still present, running throughout my mouth and down my throat, followed by the exact same exhilarating feeling of my body coming alive.

This time, when I entered my Mental Universe, I did try one further thing. The stars behind Demonic Vault, which had fed it probably about three hundred Mana points, should be going to my Mana Pool. Closing my eyes, I attempted to dissuade Demonic Vault from accepting any Mana. At first, it rebelled under my attention, but when I doubled down, I saw the red planet dim, then grow dark, as if it was a rock or a moon floating in space.

My awareness stared at it, stunned, even as the streams of light from the stars behind it wrapped around and continued toward my Mana Pool.

Why did I do this?

Well, three hundred Mana Coins weren't going to do much for me inside the Demonic Vault Shop. However, if there were deeper impurities within my Mana Pool that my body could excise, I was going to try my very best to get them out.

Once my Mana Pool grew too bright again, I exited my Mental Universe and watched as sweat, this time far less oily and far less dark, began exiting my skin. Moles I had grown very accustomed to seeing, or what you might call beauty marks, popped off my skin and were swept away as the sweat began to drip, just like I had been running a marathon again.

Ingrown hairs, zits, pus—all those began to exit my body. I was surprised at first that the first application of the Rejuvenation Pill hadn't taken care of those. But then I realized that the leftover oils and impurities that the first Pill had begun forcing out of my body hadn't made it. Instead, they had sat there near the finish line as I napped. And my body had turned them into zits and other skin blemishes, since it didn't have the ability to force them out.

They were now getting the final push they needed. All this happened while a warm flush of regenerative heat swept across my body, feeling like sun on my skin, and—I could feel deeper—my bones, muscles, and organs seemed to warm and—harden? Likely not the right word. Maybe healed or changed? I shook off the tangent, focusing back to my Pool.

A few more dark shadows exited my Mana Pool in the glimpses I managed through the glare.

This time, when the thirty seconds ended, I wasn't as bone weary. And while I smelled, it was far less invasive to my nostrils. That, or I was still nose-blind from earlier.

A quick check of the Sunstone—something I should have done earlier, told me it was mid-afternoon. So, unless I had napped for longer than an entire day—I still had time to return to Claude and give him my answer. And yet, was I truly finished?

I still had two more Rejuvenation Pills, and I'd seen more shadows exiting my Mana Pool…

Sure, it was a bit of a waste, but in theory, the first two could be a waste as well—either I saw my hypothesis through to the end, or I didn't. Also, it wasn't like I couldn't make more.

Growling at myself, I popped a third Pill into my mouth and did it all over again. Starting with shutting off the Demonic Vault Skill.

When I looked into my Mental Universe after ten seconds, I didn't find swirling shadows intermingling in the Mana. Instead, the light the Pool emitted was clean and powerful.

The sweat that was forced from my skin didn't seem to contain impurities, either. I was about to conclude the final Pill was a waste and unnecessary, when the thirty seconds elapsed.

Exhaustion crashed over me—and my brain became somewhat static. For the second time today, I stood, entered the Magical Shower, and collapsed onto my bed.