The lord of life and death

Rain carefully pours the red color potion into vials. He pours very slowly, and at the last moment, he does not want to make any mistakes. He sighed in relief when he filled the first vial.

The next two more vials were required to be filled, and they were done quickly, as after filling the first vial, his worries about spilling disappeared.

After filling the potion in three vials and closing the vial, Rain looks in the direction of the timer and finds 15 minutes still left, for the test to end.

Rain observes the competitors around him and finds many have already finished. He looks to his left toward his mother and smiles at her. Then, he surveys the audience for Albus.

Albus starts making Rain worry. He would not worry about Albus who is an elite potion with his mind power can protect himself inside a city. The tree-spirit city is mostly safe. But yesterday, he smelled the scent of a follower of an evil god. This is not a concern at normal times, as large cities will have one or two evil god's followers.

But the situation of the city is not normal at the moment, the birth of the original tree spirit with the coming of Princess Narisa made the entire city a perfect place for an attack from the Evil God.

Rain stops worrying about Albus as he hears a clap. He finds the clap was performed by Great Master Solarius. Rain watched as she started speaking," Everybody stops." she waited for a few seconds. 

Rain observes everybody stop and Great Master Solarius continues," Those who failed to make the potion, can go back and wait at the stands."

Rain watch some people start to walk out. He finds that 25 of the participants of the test are out before the testing of the potion. All the failed participants walk out and climb up the stairs to the stand.

Great Master Solarius starts speaking again after the failed participants sat on the stand," Now whose potion vial will shine with green light they pass and those shine red light they fail and can go sit on the stands."

Rain watched in amazement as butterflies made of light flew from the hands of Great Master Solarius and sank at the potion vial of every participant.

Rain thinks seeing the butterflies made of light flew from Great Master Solarius" I thought profession with the blessing of Gods can only use extraordinary power inside Divine Continent. "

Rain watched as a butterfly flew toward him and sank one of his vials filled with the strength potion. 

Rain watches nervously what color will shine from his vial, and then his vial starts to shine with green light. Seeing this, Rain let out a breath that he did not know was holding and sighed he relief as he closed his eyes. 

He hears cries of joy and disappointment around him, at the same time. Rain opened his eyes again to check the other participant. How many fail to advance to the second round?

Found only 3 failed to advance to the second round. 

"With 25 fail to make the strength potion in time and now 3 whose potion is not a similar function of strength potion. So 28 people fail in the first round." Rain calculates in his mind," And the number of participants left is.." Rain counts the number of participants, "80."

"With me 81. 81 people will join the potion guild."

Rain's eyes went wide as he watched the vial shining with green light fly toward the center of the circle where Great Master Solarius and the other two Masters were. He found not only his but also other participants' potion vials shining with green light flying toward the center.

After all potion vial landed on a table. Rain watches as Master Grey steps forward in his hand a stack of paper. And the paper starts flying and one of them lands on his table. 

Rain picks up the paper and reading the header finds it's the second round potion recipe. And the recipe for the agility potion. Taking the potion increases the speed of running.

And finds there are two ingredients written in red. 

Rain rises toward Master Grey as he speaks," Everybody should have noticed that this time you all have to choose 2 alternative ingredients correctly to pass the second round." 

Rain nods, and Master Grey continues," Agility potion is slightly harder to make than strength potion and you all have to think of two alternative ingredients for the missing two."

"So, the time required for making the Agility potion is 2 hours 15 minutes.

"But, before you all start, I have to congratulate you all for joining the guild."

"And, there is a reward for those who will pass the second round."

"They will join the Elite Class." 

"Many people may not know about the elite class of the guild. In the elite class, you will be taught by a Master potionist for one day every week for one entire tree ring. So to quickly become an elite potionist."

Tree ring means 1 year in the Tree spirit language.

The participant erupted in joy. In the stands, their parents also erupted in joy. Before everybody thought only those who win the ranking from 1-10 will be rewarded.

However, the announcement from Master Grey will encourage many participants who were not confident to win the ranking to give their all to pass the second round. 

Rain hearing these did not draw his attention because he was leaving for Freedom City. His goal is to win the first rank and get the life seed. Other rewards are not attractive to him.

Master Grey continued after everyone's cheering ended," The 10 minutes for selecting the alternative ingredients starts now."

Rain after he receives the recipe already orders the Soul Chip to figure out the alternative ingredients for the two missing ingredients from the ingredients in the boxes.

----

A girl closes her eyes with her palm on a tree, standing still surrounded by people. Everyone in the surroundings has light green hair except the girl with a golden streak on her light green hair. 

While standing her lips move like she is talking with the tree. This is not the most strange thing happening. Because of the sound of a beating heart coming from the tree.

Everybody in the surrounding attention is on the girl. Nobody speaks or even moves their eyes from the girl. So that they do not miss any details.

Time passes which feels like an eternity but only 5 minutes pass, and the girl removes her palm from the tree. Before she turns around, one of the surrounding people, wearing a purple coat speaks," Princess is everything ok."

The girl without facing the man," Mayor Vesibius, Everything is ok with Loreal."

Everybody in the crowd and the Mayor sighs in relief hearing this. 

A smile also spread on the Mayor's face," Then when Loreal transformation is complete."

Princess turns to face the mayor," Three or Four days, Loreal cannot tell the exact time."

Hearing this another man from the crowd with a frown on his face," Princess, We cannot wait three or four days for Miss Loreal to transform."

Narisa's face turned into a frown and stared at the man wearing armor," Who are you?"

Before the man can open his mouth to answer, the Mayor interjects, "He is the commander of the guard of the city."

Narisa even without turning to the Mayor, "Did I ask you?"

Mayor bowing his head toward Narisa," Sorry Princess."

The man who the mayor mentions is the commander of the guard speaks, "Princess, I am Adrin, the commander of the guard of Torian."

Narisa nods at him," Why?"

Adrin with a serious face," Princess, there is increased activity of the followers of Evil Gods in the city. They must have come for Miss Loreal. So the less time Miss Loreal requires to transform the better."

Narisa is not surprised to hear the reason before she arrives in the city. She dispatched spies inside the cities and they reported to her after she arrived. But she acts as if she knows nothing with a frowning face," Do you know which Evil God followers are the most active?"

Adrian did not waste any time answering," God of Spores's followers are the most active and there is also some movement from the other two Evil God's followers."

Nagisa did ask for the name of the other two evil gods. She knows who are they. She opens her mouth to ask for further information to see if the commander's information matches with the information from her spies. She notices that the commander wants to speak further but his eyes stray together the Mayor as if asking for permission.

From the corner of her eyes, she found the mayor shaking his head as if to say no. 

Narisa stares at the commander and speaks with a tone that prevents anyone from denying her," Do You have anything more to say to me?"

The commander hesitates and his eyes move to the mayor.

Narisa says, in a commanding tone," Do not look at him; look at my eyes and answer."

The commander wants to mention this to the Princess, but the Mayor forbids him from doing so. Now, he has his chance because of his super-acting, which he learned in his 300 years of life. " Princess, the information is not confirmed, but a village on the outskirts of the Endless Forest disappeared, and only skeletons remain in the village."

Narisa," Hmmm." and nods to him to continue.

Aldrin," From the Villager's skeleton, we conclude that their dead are similar to those who are killed by the followers of Evil God of Insect."

Hearing the mention of the Evil God of Insects, a commotion started from the crowd which was mostly silent till now. Around the surrounding an uneasy atmosphere spread. 

Before the Princess can speak, a woman from the crowd speaks," Commander, Do you know what are you saying?"

Aldrin's eyes move to the woman and see what she is wearing. Aldrin bows his head in respect, "Bishop." 

Mayor," Bishop Maya, He is speaking nonsense."

Narisa interrupts the mayor," Why are you sure they are killed by the followers of the Evil God of Insects."

Aldrin then turns to a man behind him and sidesteps for everyone to see the man. Now everyone's attention turns toward the man beside Aldrin.

Bishop's face frowns seeing the man," What is an alchemist doing here?"

The Alchemist smirks," Maya, Why I cannot be here? Am I not a tree spirit? I do not remember Goddess mentioning that tree spirit alchemists are not members of tree spirit."

Bishop turns red with anger, " You.."

Narisa seeing the situation getting out of control stands between the two of them, " Alchemist Matius, How did you conclude by only seeing the Villagers's skeleton."

Matius smirks," There was no flesh on any bones of the skeleton of all the Villagers, and they are intact without marks and scratches."

" I check only the next day of the Villagers's died."

Maya," It's unique but you cannot tell the Villagers were killed by the followers of the evil god of insects."

Narisa also nods," Bishop Maya said right, there are many things that can dissolve a body leaving the bones untouched."

Matius, "I know so I checked the bones carefully and found that from the bones, the bone marrow is missing. And found needle size holes in the bones that sucked the marrow out of the bones."

Aldrin," And the guards found in and surrounding the village, insect's footprints."

Maya is now halfway to believing that behind the destruction of the village is the hand of followers of the God of Insects but she does not want to believe that the God of Insects is not dead," Matius, you should know God of Insects is killed by the four Gods."

Matius," I know many methods of dead coming back to life. I do not think a foreign god who raised his strength similar to the Gods of our world did not have a method to come back to life after his death."

Hearing Matius, silence fell upon the crowd many people were not alive during the turmoil but they heard about the turmoil caused by the God of Insects.

Narisa," Elder Bell." 

Then suddenly a person appears behind Narisa, and everyone seeing him bows to him not because of his status but because of his strength.

Elder Bell," Narisa, do you need anything?"

Narisa," Elder Bell, You have heard our discussion can you say anything?" Narisa called Elder Bell because he was alive during the turmoil of the God of Insects.

Elder Bell was silent for a few seconds," Even the destruction of the village is not done by the followers of the God of Insects but we should prepare that it's done by the followers of the God of Insects." after saying this he disappears again.

Narisa nods," Aldrin where is the skeleton of the villagers, I want to see."

Aldrin looked at Matius," They are in Matius's place."

Narisa," Alchemist Matius led us to your place where the skeleton is stored."

Matius nods.

Narisa before she starts following Matius," Bishop Maya, you stay here and command the guard with Loreal."

" Mayor, When the third round of potion test starts send someone to inform me" Narisa takes out a ring for her finger and hands it to Maya," Bishop, there are magic stones in the ring, I bought them for the birth of Loreal."

Maya nods and watches Matius leading the way, Aldrin and Narisa with her guard follow behind Matius. She watches till they vanish from her vision. After this, she walks toward Loreal and puts her palm on her bark.