Beastforged Bond

Three strands of ether coursed through the freshly harvested ether plant. The first strand was like a gentle stream. It carved a path through the ether plant, stirring its unique properties and impurities alike. The second strand was less gentle. It was faintly attuned to phoenix fire and surged through the plant, following the path the first strand had created.

The second strand sorted through impurities and properties, separating them from the ether plant. It withered as the life and properties that kept the plant alive were spliced by force, but I was nowhere near done. This was merely the beginning. The second strand guided impurities and unique properties alike through the withering plant, toward the tap to remove them.

But the third strand was the first to arrive. It picked up the energy that had been left behind and merged with it. As the strand accumulated more ether, it caught up to the fire-attuned strand, initiating the hardest part: purification. This step determined how many impurities would be extracted alongside the desired properties.

Some Beasters were efficient enough to purge all impurities and separate unwanted properties from the desired ones. I was nowhere near that level. Nonetheless, my ether control had improved greatly in the last nine months. That improvement also included my understanding and control of the Elemental Phoenix’s Fire Aspect. I was no longer the rookie I used to be.

As the third strand caught up with the second, they collided. The fire-attuned ether strand held tightly onto impurities and the plant’s properties, some tighter than others, and the third strand wanted everything. Controlling the strands simultaneously, I had to strengthen the fire strand’s grasp on the impurities while also loosening its iron-tight grip on the properties I wanted to extract.

Doing so required precise control. Most would struggle here already, and so did I for several months. It had been incredibly difficult, but months of practice and thousands of tips from an old phoenix and Master Beaster Bert helped greatly. I learned a lot, which included the Three Strand Purification technique. It was complex, very much so, but I actually liked the way it forced my mind to work on several tasks simultaneously. The pressure was welcome, as every practice run with the Three Strand Purification pushed me further.

Anyway, the third strand surged through the fire-attuned strand without hesitation. Even as they collided, the third strand did not slow. Instead, it carried the desired properties with it, merging them with the strand to reach for the exit. Under normal circumstances, it would require several circulations through the ether plant to pick up the required properties, but I was lucky today. I made sure to carry no impurities with the third strand while successfully pulling most of the wanted properties with me.

Not perfect, but good enough to move to the next step, I thought, and opened my eyes to a small azure-petaled flower wreathed in phoenix fire. It was no longer as bright as it used to be and withered before my eyes.

My eyes flicked toward a beak. It contained a sparkly liquid that had cooled down since I concocted it. A Basic Base. Volix did not like it in the slightest, but I was not going to revolutionize the process just because the phoenix wanted me to. Staying low-key was the goal. Or, at the very least, I did not want to attract too much attention. Handing out a few hints to stimulate Beaster Bert was fine, but that was about it.

More than that, and Grandmaster Beasters and Rulers would come knocking on my door to ask questions, to interrogate me. A young Blessed, a mere Apprentice Beaster, was not supposed to know what Grandmaster Beasters who’d lived for a few hundred years failed to comprehend. They’d ask unpleasant questions. Questions I couldn’t answer without exposing Volix.

The Elemental Phoenix chirped impatiently in my mind but went silent when my control of the Three Strand Purification technique nearly slipped.

I ignited a small flame beneath the beak to heat up the Base. It was important to heat it slowly or crucial properties would no longer bind with the reagent I was about to prepare. The small flame maintained a low heat for a few minutes. After that, the temperature would increase slowly, ensuring the Base was ready when I needed it.

My head churned, rattled by the multitude of processes happening simultaneously, but I smiled through the pain as Bert handed me a set of ingredients and a mortar. I started off by flooding the mortar with ether. Once that was done, I reached for the clean pipette and drew Silverstar Nectar from a small bottle. Exactly three droplets of Silverstar Nectar dripped into the mortar bowl before I placed the pipette aside again. I fished for the pliers to place exactly twenty-five grains of Taraqun in the mortar.

Then I crushed them and soaked them in Silverstar Nectar. Grinding and mixing Nectar and grains was a boring ordeal, yet it was necessary. It caused a reaction that dyed the grains violet. Soaked in Silverstar Nectar, Taraqun grain reacted to my ether and absorbed it, attuning to its frequency, doing exactly what it was used for.

Next up, it was time to extract the ether plant’s properties. Since I’d already spliced impurities and desired properties with the Three Strand Purification technique, extraction was simple. I retrieved a smaller beak and placed it beneath the flame-wreathed flower just as a droplet of liquid gathered at the onyx-colored tap. Droplets of viscous liquid flowed from the tap, unaffected by phoenix fire, of course.

The liquid was a mixture of pure ether and special properties, which also included liquid from the Glacial Flower. It was a necessary coolant to make sure the final ingredient would not burn the consumer from within.

The serum required exactly 15 droplets of the Glacial Flower’s liquid, but I extracted a total of 51. Only 15 were put in the mortar, whereas the rest were to be used for two more serums of the same kind, if Bert thought I did well enough with the extraction. The final result would decide that matter.

Back to attention! I chided myself and mixed the Glacial Flower’s liquid with the remaining ingredients. It took another minute before the violet grain reacted properly with the cool liquid, sensing my ether frequency within the mixture. That was a little faster than it should have been, but I was ready for the next step and reached for the small pyromantic crystal with tongs.

Even though it was the main ingredient for the serum, it was cheaper than the Glacial Flower. It was still too expensive to fool around with. And, in all honesty, both the crystal and the Glacial Flower were too expensive for me to test concocting with.

No pressure at all, right?

Discarding the thought, I struck the crystal with Gravity at full impact. The pressure tore through it, cracked it open, and converted it into raw energy as I charged the breaking crystal with a second, third, and fourth load of Gravity. To put it simply, I used Gravity to grind the fragile crystal into powder–much finer than I could have achieved by wasting precious minutes crushing it with blunt force.

That did not save me from spending another ten minutes carefully mixing the pyromantic crystal powder with the rest of the mixture in the mortar until the Base was finally at the right temperature. I retrieved several droplets of the Base with another pipette and mixed them into the paste. While doing so, I replaced the ether in and around the mortar with phoenix fire, increasing the temperature to match the Base’s own.

That was not necessary, but it helped accelerate the final process. I placed the paste into the beaker with the rest of the Base and stirred it slowly. Normally, it would take several minutes of silent watching to determine whether the Base reacted to the paste, but since I had already ensured compatibility with a few droplets, there was no need to worry. The paste and the Base reacted properly, dissolving smoothly into one another.

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Fifteen minutes later, the serum was done. My first unique serum.

Sure, it was only graded as a Basic serum, but it was also one I could give my Soulkins. The Ferronox Mantis, to be precise. That alone was a massive stride toward my goal of helping my Soulkins grow alongside me.

Nox sensed the serum was complete and appeared beside me, his eagerness contagious.

“Is the serum okay? Can I give it to him?” I asked Beaster Bert, barely turning toward my teacher as impatience bled into my voice. He studied the product sternly, then gestured for me to hand it over.

Nox screeched in defiance, but Bert knew the Ferronox Mantis wouldn’t attack him. After spending several weeks together, the Master Beaster knew that much about the deadly Soulkin.

“Wait a moment.” He dismissed Nox with a wave. “I think the serum is fine, but we want to be certain, don’t we?”

Nox cursed in my head, his impatience growing worse by the second, but Bert ignored him pointedly.

The Beaster’s hands glowed silver, and his eyes shimmered blue as he used several traits in quick succession. He poured the serum into a vial and placed it inside an ether device hidden behind a glass window, his attention fully captured by the holographic screens that flared to life. His eyes flicked rapidly as he took in the data the device provided, a small smile forming on his lips.

“He can consume it.” Bert retrieved the vial and handed it back to me for Nox to drink.

The mantis didn’t need to hear that twice. He severed the glass vial’s head without spilling a single droplet and emptied it in one swift motion.

Then he waited for the burst of fire – the churning flames meant to ravage his stomach, spread through his body, and consume him.

That never happened. Not after the first incident. That time, Nox had eaten too many elemental crystals. It had been as painful as it had been expensive. I did have the money to repay Bert, but that was probably the smaller issue. Nox had developed a liking for elemental crystals. He no longer devoured entire boxes, but he demanded a crystal every week.

His demands escalated quickly. First, one crystal every week. Then one every few days. At this point, Nox was being given one crystal every day.

The costs rose accordingly, but I could afford to feed my Soulkins. It would have been laughable if I had the means to spend hundreds of millions to fund the Rising Foundation yet couldn’t spare a few million for elemental crystals. Especially when Nox loved them so much. Taking that joy away would have been disgraceful. I had to nurture it instead.

As the days passed and Nox consumed more and more crystals, something about the Ferronox Mantis began to change. He did not grow stronger, not directly, at least, but the changes were undeniable.

“Elemental resistance,” Bert murmured as he approached Nox. He retrieved a lens, his glowing eyes locked onto the beast’s exoskeleton.

It was the second exoskeleton Nox had shed that week. Truthfully, there had been a lot of shedding, which consumed enormous amounts of nutrients and ether. A few strips of Monarch jerky resolved that issue, though Nox hated it even more than I did. He still ate it, his desire to grow stronger outweighing his hatred for salty jerky.

Red spots traced his exoskeleton. They were more pronounced than after his first shedding, and it was only a matter of time before they deepened further.

“Elemental resistance? Are you sure you don’t mean fire or heat resistance?” I asked, my eyes widening as I realized where Bert’s thoughts were heading.

“That’s not what I mean.” He didn’t even look up. “Do you really think we’re going to stop at that? That we’d stop with a minor fire resistance for your little troublemaker? No, the pyromantic crystals are only the beginning.”

Nox agreed wholeheartedly. A minor fire resistance was far from enough. He needed more.

“See that? Nox wants more than that. And so do I.” Beaster Bert looked up at last, lips pressed into a faint smile. “And knowing you, you want more for Nox as well.”

“His body is malleable. In tune with the modifications forced upon him. That should be more than enough to give him minor elemental resistance. I am sure of it,” he spoke confidently. “It might be a little tricky, but the serum worked as intended. The pyromantic crystal lost only a small portion of its potency to suffuse smoothly with the rest of the serum, which now spreads evenly through Nox. In a way, the process is similar to how some Blessed temper their bodies. Well, somewhat.”

Bert waved dismissively and turned back to the data screens. “Anyway, the serum is working as it should. We should concoct a few more and adjust the recipe to accommodate the other types of elemental crystals. That shouldn’t take more than a few months, which means the Ferronox Mantis should adapt to all the elements in half a year.”

The basic serums would not elevate Nox’s potential by a lot, but if he managed to acquire a Minor Elemental Resistance trait, we may as well push it further. Possibly advance it to a Major Elemental Resistance trait by increasing the serums’ dosage and potency. Though it would likely take an Intermediate serum, maybe Advanced, to reach the required level.

No matter how I looked at it, the Refinement serums would hurt a lot.

Nox was tough. He was durable and driven enough to endure the pain of constant elemental damage to grow. But that still left one question: would a Major Elemental Resistance trait be enough to evolve the Ferronox Mantis? Or would it stimulate a mutation that elevates his racial potential?

The latter was more likely. It was our greatest hope, since we didn’t know what a Ferronox Mantis could evolve into. Master Beaster Bert researched several powerful mantises at the Guardian Rank, but they were all very different from Nox. As for Overlord mantises, Bert hadn’t found any. Maybe they existed somewhere in Razarn, but most mantises were too aggressive and ended up entering territories of beasts too powerful for them to fight.

At least, that could not happen to Nox, except if I ended up in another powerful beast’s domain and we had to fight our way back to Razarn. That… should not happen anytime soon, though. I was more than just fine with the downtime I was offered.

“Fire was the easiest, as you know. His experience with fire-attuned ether allowed the first signs of a mutation. But now that the easy steps are over, we can only hope to use the mutation’s stimuli to guide the other elements. To accept them rather than repel them,” Beaster Bert continued, his commentary scattering the thoughts occupying my mind. “If the other elements are repelled, we will have to come up with something else…”

The Elemental Phoenix spoke in my head, sharing his own understanding of serums and his wisdom of the strongest resistance traits he’d come across in all his lifetimes. Even better, Volix told him how some beasts mutated from natural treasures. Invaluable treasures I could not afford. Not because they were so expensive but because no one in the Bastion sold them.

Still, the phoenix’s expansive knowledge was helpful. And appreciated.

Bert ruffled through his hair, studying the data screens once more. Then he pulled back into his own world of thoughts, duplicating the screens and pulling up other charts and information.

“Your serum’s efficacy was decent but not perfect.” His commentary startled me.

I was sure he’d spend the next hour deep in thought.

“A serum efficacy of 85% is acceptable. If we consider that it was the first time you concocted this type of serum, it’s quite good, actually. But you will have to work on that as we move forward. Getting complacent won’t help you, though I am pretty sure you know that already. You’ve been a great student.” He smiled, though it was hard to tell if his smile was directed at the screens or at me.

See, I told you he wouldn’t notice the Three Strand Purification technique. You worry too much, Adam.

Volix made a clicking sound. He clicked with his tongue? I didn’t even know he could do that.

He’s not wrong, though. The efficacy is low. It is honestly a disappointment that he considers it a serum. A proper alchemist would have discarded your mishmash of ingredients. 85% is too generous for that liquid nonsense you concocted. Then again, humans measure the efficacy of serums in a weird way. Why does a perfect serum have an efficacy of 200%? That makes no sense. But whatever.

A mental image of the Elemental Phoenix shrugging formed in my head.

It was like Volix didn’t care, but that couldn’t have been more wrong. The phoenix cared. He wanted me to grow, to become a better alchemist. Alas, his words stung.

Nox’s serum was my best product. It was the first time I created a serum with an 85% efficacy rate, only to be made fun of. To be told that the serum was worthless.

Sometimes, I really wanted to shake Volix. Twist his fiery plumage a little.

Couldn’t he be a little bit nicer?