The Combat Alchemist

Lukas huffed and puffed as he crawled out of the water, his arms trembling as he flopped down, sprawling out in the muddy grass of the river bank, too exhausted to do much more than that. Staring up at the pale blue sky above, he tried to catch his breath after coming so close to drowning. He'd barely made it out in time and had felt his lungs burn, as if they were about to implode. That being said, he'd still been able to loot the monster before dragging himself out of the water.

He'd been surprised at how long he could last without needing to breathe. The struggle under water had lasted nearly two minutes, far longer than Lukas could hold his breath before. It was a change that had come from his stats and the Stone of Rebirth; there was no doubt about that. And he wondered, not for the first time, just how much he and his body had changed since taking on that miraculous stone.

Before Lukas could dedicate too much brain power to the topic, Akira came over, blocking his view of the sky as she looked down at him.

"Not bad," she grinned, "though I'm not sure if I should be impressed or disappointed."

"Fuck. You," Lukas panted.

Laughing, Akira waved her hand, and a tangle of roots emerged from the ground beside Lukas. Sitting, she leaned back, propping herself up with both arms. He noticed in passing that her new "seat" was low enough so that they were roughly level, but just high enough to keep her out of the mud.

"If it's any consolation, I was about to step in and help you out when you dropped that thing in the water."

"Oh, so you were only going to let me drown a little bit before helping me out?"

"Exactly," she said happily, "but you figured out how to get out of there on your own, killing the elemental along the way."

Lukas' only answer was a disgruntled huff.

"Honestly, I'm surprised you managed to kill it at all, given your current tool kit."

"My original plan was to dump a bunch of poison in the river to change and corrupt the elemental's magic, but I found a better solution."

Akira turned her gaze from the exhausted Lukas to the boiling river. "Yeah, this solution is better, if barely. I don't think the settlements downstream would've liked their lifeline full of a poison that would melt their insides and make them bleed out of their eyes."

"Ugh, shit," Lukas swore, facepalming his mask. "I didn't think about that. Do I need to get that out of there before it causes problems?"

"No, it'll be fine. The closest settlement is a few miles away; the water should be cool by then. I'm more interested in the fact that you knew how to handle the elemental. Did you read about them?"

Lukas shook his head. "Not here, but we have stories back home. Pretty much all of them say that elementals are just clumps of magic that inhabit a certain element, like water, lava, clouds, whatever. I figured if I could disrupt the magic I'd be able to dispel or kill the elemental."

"You had the right idea, and elementals are a lot like essences, actually."

Lukas lifted his head out of the mud and looked at Akira. "Really? How so?"

"The way they form is similar. I'm not big into magic like you are, so I don't know all the details, but when enough mana of a certain affinity or attunement gathers, it can condense into an essence or become an elemental."

"What causes the mana to become one or the other?"

Akira just shrugged. "Not sure. Like I said, I don't know the specifics. I do know that the process gives the elementals a consciousness, though."

"A consciousness? Does that mean they're sapient?"

"No, not until they reach a higher rank, same as other beasts."

Lukas sat up out of the mud and stared at Akira. "Hang on, you're telling me that beasts can gain sapience?"

"Of course. It usually happens around gold rank as the rank-ups improve them in every way, but it can take longer depending on how simple the creature is."

Mind blown, Lukas couldn't do much other than gape. The fact that simple beasts could eventually gain sapience and become as smart as him—or smarter—was incredible. Quite frankly, he didn't know how to handle the fact.

They sat in silence for a while, letting Lukas recover his resources and wrap his mind around what he'd just learned. It only lasted a few minutes before Akira spoke again.

"Can I see that conjured weapon of yours?"

Pulled from his thoughts, Lukas rolled his head to look at her, "Hm? Why?"

"Because it's pretty, and I want to see it."

"You didn't strike as a girl who likes pretty things," Lukas said, "considering the whole 'killing beasts and monsters' thing."

"Says the guy sitting in mud," she rolled her eyes, waving her hand to grow more roots, this time under Lukas to lift him out of the muck. "Besides, killing stuff and liking pretty things isn't mutually exclusive, and I like feeling girly and feminine from time to time. I've got depth. Now, hand it over."

"Alright, alright," Lukas smiled, doing as commanded.

Conjuring a starry dagger, he handed it over to Akira, though he wasn't sure if it would work. The summoned weapons had left his hands multiple times without incident or issue during a fight, but Lukas wasn't sure if that would change if someone else held it. He didn't see why there'd be a problem, but he was new to magic. Besides, this new world seemed to have some video game elements, and summoning a weapon for someone else to use seemed kind of broken.

Fortunately, there were no problems, and Akira took hold of the dagger with glee. She held it up, admiring it from different angles and marveling at its unique properties.

"It's beautiful," she said, "like a window to the stars."

She continued moving it around, holding it up to the sky, bringing it close to her face, and moving it back and forth just to peek at the stars and nebulae.

"This is amazing, but I thought it was a short sword?"

"It was. I'm able to conjure up anything I'm familiar with."

The dagger in Akira's hands dissipated as a hefty lumber axe appeared in Lukas'. Offering it to her, she took it, inspecting it like the dagger.

"Why an axe?"

Lukas shrugged. "I'm really only familiar with the dagger, short sword, and various kinds of axes."

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"Do you use them in combat?"

"The axes? Eh, only a little," he said, waving his hand in a so-so gesture. "I've experimented with swapping weapons in a fight during an opportune moment, but haven't gotten to do so very much. None at all since coming to the city."

Akira sat in silent contemplation as she ran a finger along the axe's edge. "You should learn to use as many weapons as possible; being able to pull out the right tool for the job is important. Switching between weapons during a fight isn't a bad idea either. It adds an unpredictability to your fighting style that will make you hard to pin down and defend against. Then there's the surprise factor."

"I was thinking something similar, but I've got a lot on my plate already, and I'm not sure I can handle more."

"That's fine. We can add some weapons training to your routine without taking up too much time."

"And you're okay with that?" Lukas asked teasingly. "I know how you are about your time."

"Funny," she said, kicking his leg lightly, "and yes, it'll be fine. You learned the basics quickly enough, and the time our training sessions take has dropped drastically. I don't have to teach you much anyway. I can give you the basics of weapons training, and you can do self-guided training after that. I shouldn't have to hold your hand."

Half an hour later, they were ready to get moving again. Before they could head out, though, Lukas needed to retrieve the Gem of Molten Brimstone—a task he really wasn't looking forward to. When he had first dropped the gem in the river, it had taken less than a minute for the cool and refreshing waters to turn into something resembling a pot of boiling water, with Lukas as the lobster. Suffice to say, the gem had a lot of fire- and lava-affinity mana that it gave off, something the water elemental had not liked very much.

The affinities of the gem shredded through the elemental like a lawnmower through tall grass. It tried to get away and escape, but the gem poured out its mana at an unbelievable rate. It was to the point that the surrounding affinities changed, further hastening the elemental's death.

In order to retrieve the extremely valuable natural treasure, Lukas had to dive down to the bottom of a boiling river. It wasn't fun. The only plus side was that all the mud got washed off. Scrambling out of the river, he was red all over and absolutely covered in burns, his health pool quite a bit lower than before. All he could do at that point was take a potion and hope he'd recovered enough before they reached their next contract.

Not long before they reached their next destination, Lukas was mostly healed, in large part due to having consumed another potion. They were passing through a small village that couldn't have supported more than a few hundred people, most of whom seemed to be out and about walking the streets.

Lukas was looking around at the shops curiously when Akira grabbed his arm, dragging him off toward what looked like a town hall. It was larger than all the other buildings in the village, which wasn't saying much as they were all relatively small one-story buildings. The town hall barely reached two stories due to having a church-like steeple that held a bell—one used to warn the villagers of a beast attack.

He wondered what was so special about the building that Akira felt the need to drag him over, and so he asked.

"Do you know what this is?" she asked in return, gesturing to a bulletin board near the building's entrance.

"The town's notice board?" he said, scanning its contents. Just as he said, the board was full of information and flyers for events, news, and job openings.

"And what's this?"

Lukas looked at the specific posting she was pointing to. "A contract? Why is there a..? Oh, that makes sense. Towns and villages put those up for people passing through?"

"Exactly. They're a nice side earner that you can do on the way to your main contract. Once you complete it, you can turn it into an adventurers' guild, and they'll pay you."

"Not the town or village?"

"No," she said, grabbing the posting and rolling it up before placing it in her bag of holding. "The guild protects people, remember? They cover it."

"Why are you only showing me this now? We've passed through a handful of other places already."

"None have had any contracts on their notice boards."

"Are they that popular?"

"It's not that, it's just that these towns and villages closer to the city don't have a lot of beast problems due to all the adventurers running around. It's the places far from the cities with low traffic that have the most postings."

"And I assume we're going to be taking care of it?"

With a smile, Akira held up a finger before pointing it at him. "You are going to be taking care of it."

Sighing, Lukas said, "And considering how you've already put it in your bag, I'm guessing you're not going to let me read it?"

"Correct."

"Will it at least be a fight? You said you wanted to use this outing to see what I could do. Haven't exactly been able to do that with the last two fights."

"I think this one will be interesting."

*

"You know, now that I think about it, I think it would be best if I handled this one."

The pair sat crouched behind a mound of boulders, peeking out over the top to look at a beast that had its back to them, minding its own business. It was large, about the size of a minivan and almost as wide. It had rough gray skin and similarly colored bristles covering its back, providing a decent amount of protection. Short and stubby legs made the beast slow, but they were thick, and the paws wide for digging and strong attacks. The aura it gave off was middle copper, although barely, hence Akira's hesitation to let Lukas take on the beast.

Badgermole – lvl 43

"No, I got it," Lukas said, standing from behind the pile of boulders.

"What? Are you sure you can handle it?"

Lukas waved off her concern. "I've fought beasts with similar strength differences," he lied casually.

Truthfully, this would be the strongest beast he'd fought since the fireborn drake. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to the fight. The fireborn drake had been a bad matchup for him due to its ability to cleanse his poisons, so he was excited to see what he could do in a more even fight. He hadn't really been able to get a good read on his combat strength after fighting the fireborn drake, as everything else was just so much weaker. Then again, he hadn't gained as much from that title compared to the previous ones.

That being said, Lukas still wanted more titles for the stats and percentage increase, no matter how small. If his guess was correct, the next title would come from fighting a beast 20 levels higher than him, so the badgermole was four levels off. It was disappointing, especially considering he'd more than likely gain levels from the fight, meaning he'd have to find even higher-leveled beasts for the next title.

Not delaying any further, Lukas pulled out his dagger and summoned another, covering both in one of his new hemotoxic poisons.

Turning back to Akira, he smiled under his mask. "Watch this."

***

The moment Lukas disappeared into the shadows, Akira pulled out a recording crystal, throwing it up to float over her shoulder. Not a second later, Lukas came shooting out of the shadows from beneath the badgermole, slicing his blades across its neck. The beast roared in pain, and in an instant Lukas was showered in blood.

He managed to get a few more cuts and slashes in before zipping away through the shadows, avoiding a heavy stomp that would've broken every bone in his body. Akira was surprised by Lukas' speed whilst in the shadows; he was almost moving twice as fast. However, if he wanted to use that offensively, he'd have to pop back out.

Doing just that, Lukas reappeared at the badgermole's flank, aiming to bring the tip of a starry short sword down on the beast's rear. Just before it could make contact, the badgermole shifted its front paws, and a pillar of stone shot up out of the ground, slamming into Lukas' stomach. Thrown backward, the short sword went flying from his grip before he crashed into a tree.

Akira watched with a mix of concern and interest as Lukas groaned in pain, trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of him. He struggled and failed to get back up right away, at which point the badgermole attacked once more. With another shift of its paws, a second stone pillar emerged, aiming to crush Lukas' head like a nut against the tree.

Ready to call it there, Akira prepared to jump in and save Lukas. She was halfway to her feet when he managed to slink back into the shadows, just dodging the pillar as it slammed into the tree, sending bark and wood chips flying while the tree groaned and its branches swayed. Any slower, and his head would have been turned into pulp. He moved slower than before but seemed to recover himself quickly as he went back on the offensive. This time, he'd have to be more careful not to stay in one place for too long.

The battle continued, and Akira observed from the sidelines, not needing to intervene, even if there were a few close calls when the badgermole's earth magic took Lukas by surprise.

Akira simply stayed quiet and took notes on how Lukas fought, this being the first time she'd seen him fight at full output. Quite frankly, it was terrible and mostly mindless. Granted, she saw and recognized many of the things she had taught him, so he was learning, but that only highlighted how bad things had been before. It was more like watching two beasts fight than anything, which made the fact that he could even take on the badgermole more impressive.

Just how powerful would he be if they were able to bring his full strength to bear? He was already punching above his weight class, but how much higher could he go with proper training and technique? There was so much potential there, and all it needed was to be brought out with a guiding hand.