I Tricked a God

A steady rhythm of work filled the workshop.

Above the long table, the metal saturation rings continued to rotate slowly, filling another batch of talismans with mana and producing a barely audible hum of energy. From time to time, it was joined by the scrape of a needle across parchment and the quiet clink of tools as Sierra moved materials from place to place.

The girl herself was now finishing another communication talisman.

Bent over the table, she confidently traced the final lines of the inscription, then froze for several seconds, checking the integrity of the structure. Once she was satisfied that everything was in order, Sierra carefully set the needle aside and moved the finished talisman to the large stack of completed pieces lying nearby.

In the opposite part of the workshop, the work was considerably noisier.

Kael stood beside an enormous stone mortar that looked more like a bowl reaching up to his knee.

In both hands, he held a massive pestle that looked more like a stone staff than an artisan’s tool. Its surface bore the marks of years of use, and its sheer size alone made one wonder how anyone used such a thing in everyday work.

After another strike, Kael exhaled and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

Then he reached toward the nearby table and picked up several dried green roots whose surfaces were covered in an intricate pattern resembling snake scales.

The roots fell into the mortar with a soft thud.

Adjusting his grip on the pestle, Kael lifted it without any particular effort.

To an observer, it might have seemed as though he held an ordinary feather in his hands rather than a tremendously heavy stone tool.

But the very next moment, the pestle came crashing down.

A dull thud echoed through the workshop.

The green roots instantly cracked apart, while some of the already ground powder jumped up inside the mortar.

At the sound of the loud impact, Sierra glanced in his direction and, smiling almost imperceptibly, teased, “Your magic is perfect for this kind of work.”

Kael raised an eyebrow as he once again lifted the massive pestle above the mortar.

“You might as well put me to work in construction...”

Sierra laughed softly without looking away from the talisman.

“Don’t be offended, Kael. I really am grateful to you.”

Carefully drawing the needle across the surface of the parchment and connecting another contour to the main magic circle, she paused in thought for a moment, then added, “To be honest, I hate grinding Serpent Root. Thanks for helping.”

At that moment, another root crunched into powder, while Kael merely smirked and continued working.

Shifting her gaze to the nearby stack of finished talismans, Sierra nodded in satisfaction and said, “Usually, it takes me five or six days to make as many as we’ve managed in two.”

There was genuine surprise in her voice.

Apparently, even Sierra herself had not expected an assistant to speed up the work so much.

Kael merely winked at her and, lowering the pestle into the mortar once again, replied, “It’s all thanks to your guidance.”

Sierra gave a pleased hum.

Still, the corners of her lips betrayed her with a slight twitch.

“Don’t flatter me,” she said, trying to maintain a serious expression. “That doesn’t work on me.”

Nevertheless, the girl’s mood had clearly improved even further. As she continued tracing fine lines across another talisman, she even hummed a pleasant melody softly under her breath.

Over the past two days, Kael had gotten to know Sierra much better.

Despite her constant absentmindedness and habit of suddenly jumping from one thought to another, she proved surprisingly easy to get along with. The girl understood jokes well, rarely took offense over trivial things, and, when the subject wasn’t inscription, found common ground with others fairly quickly.

So Kael merely smiled at her words and continued teasing, “I’m not flattering you; I’m just calling things as they are.”

Lifting the heavy pestle, he brought it down again, sending another dull thud echoing through the workshop.

“Still, the Captain and the others will be back from the mission soon, and I won’t be able to spend entire days hanging around here anymore.”

Sierra looked up from her work for a moment.

Twirling the inscription needle between her fingers, she gazed thoughtfully toward the cabinets of ingredients, then said quietly, “Well... You can always come by whenever you have free time. With your skills, you could make some decent money on the side.”

Shifting her gaze to the neat stack of finished pieces beside her, Sierra lightly tapped it with the tip of her needle.

“For these two and a half days, you’re due a reward of around a hundred MMP. And half of that will immediately count toward your rank advancement.”

Kael merely smirked and added flirtatiously, “For the sake of seeing you, I suppose I’ll have to neglect my training from time to time.”

Sierra immediately rolled her eyes.

“How terrible,” she muttered, returning to the talisman. “I’m afraid I can’t accept such a sacrifice.”

For several seconds, only the dull thuds of the pestle, the rustle of the needle across parchment, and the quiet hum of the saturation artifacts once again filled the workshop.

Then Sierra suddenly frowned thoughtfully.

Without looking up from her work, she said quietly, “It is a little strange that the others are taking so long, though.”

Shifting from foot to foot and settling into a more comfortable stance, she added, “Although, knowing our squad... They’ll be fine.”

Pulling another blank toward herself, she dipped the needle into the ink and resumed working at a noticeably faster pace.

“We should give it our all too,” the girl murmured.

Kael merely nodded, focusing once again on his part of the work.

Adjusting his grip on the pestle, he continued steadily grinding the Serpent Root as his thoughts returned to the observations that had been occupying his mind for the past day.

“Drying the roots, grinding them, boiling, filtering, then boiling them down again...” he went through the steps mentally, watching another piece of root gradually turn to powder. “We’re losing around thirty percent of its effectiveness...”

Bringing the pestle down once more, Kael glanced at an intact dried root lying on the edge of the table.

“The value of Serpent Root isn’t in its sap, but in the properties of its fibers...”

His gaze lingered on the plant’s cross-section.

“Drying and crushing is a decent method. But even that doesn’t break down the fibers well enough.”

Shifting his gaze to the racks holding dozens of different vials and ingredients, Kael’s eyes suddenly settled on the clear liquid in one of the tall vessels.

“Instead of drying it, the Serpent Root could be soaked in mana distillate...” he mused, lowering the pestle into the mortar again. “Then, during boiling, the fibers would begin breaking down from within, releasing significantly more of the active substance.”

Another dull thud echoed through the workshop.

The greenish powder in the mortar jumped slightly, while Kael himself continued staring at the clear liquid among the dozens of other reagents.

After thinking for a moment, he added in his mind, “That extraction method is more commonly used in alchemy, where Serpent Root itself is hardly ever used...”

Picking up another root from the table, Kael absently rolled it between his fingers, examining its patterned surface.

“Has no one tried borrowing methods from alchemy? Or is this method simply not well known in the Human Dimension?”

Thinking about the result such a method would produce, Kael involuntarily pictured the entire process from beginning to end.

In his mind’s eye, he pictured Serpent Root, pre-soaked in mana distillate, being placed into a boiling solution. Its fibers then began rapidly breaking down, literally dissolving from within and releasing all their beneficial properties.

“All that would remain is to pass it through a fine filter and then boil down the extract...” he continued in his mind, thoughtfully tapping his fingers against the shaft of the pestle. “And without the need for drying, the preparation time would be shorter as well...”

The more Kael turned the idea over in his mind, the more logical it seemed.

After hesitating for a moment, Kael cleared his throat lightly and said as though in passing, “Listen, Sierra...”

Without even turning around, the girl merely gave a slight nod, as if to say, “Go ahead.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from NovelPhoenix; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I’m also a member of the Alchemists’ Guild...” he murmured.

Sierra nodded again, continuing to hold the needle above the talisman.

Seeing the girl’s interest, Kael calmly continued, “Well, I read about an interesting method for extracting substances from medicinal herbs.”

Lifting the pestle, Kael brought it down into the mortar again, then continued as though nothing were out of the ordinary, “And for the past two days, I’ve been wondering why it isn’t used on Serpent Root...”

This time, the needle in Sierra’s hands froze.

The girl slowly looked up from the talisman and, turning toward him, asked with obvious interest, “What method?”

In response, Kael picked up one of the intact roots from the table and, running his fingernail over its patterned surface, said, “The structure and strength of Serpent Root fibers make them well suited to being softened with mana distillate. If you soak the root for about a day, it should reach a state where the fibers are on the verge of breaking down, but haven’t yet released their beneficial properties.”

As he spoke, he bent the root slightly between his fingers, as though demonstrating exactly what he meant.

“Wouldn’t we get more extract that way? And there’d be no need to dry and grind the root at all...”

And the moment the last words left Kael’s lips, Sierra suddenly froze.

Seizing the moment, Kael immediately feigned awkwardness, as though he had misread Sierra’s reaction.

As though trying to justify himself, he immediately added, “Um... But I suppose there are some obstacles to this method that aren’t obvious to me.” And with a good-natured smile, Kael added, “Sorry if I said something foolish.”

But in response to Kael’s nonchalance, Sierra trembled slightly, and her brows slowly began to draw together.

Without saying a word, the girl shifted her gaze to the nearby vessel of mana distillate, then back to the root in Kael’s hands.

Apparently, she was already trying to run through the entire ink-making process mentally from the beginning.

“Everything all right?” Kael asked cautiously.

But the next moment, Sierra practically exploded.

Slapping a palm against her forehead, she abruptly straightened and exclaimed, “Why didn’t I think of something like this before?!”

Kael, still feigning confusion, blinked several times and said uncertainly, “Don’t tell me it would actually work...”

“I don’t know!” Sierra immediately blurted out, her gaze darting rapidly from the vessel of mana distillate to the mortar to the root in Kael’s hands.

Frowning in displeasure, the girl irritably ruffled her hair and muttered, “To be honest, I sometimes try to find inspiration in other crafts. I borrow interesting methods from alchemists, artifact masters, herbalists...”

She fell silent for a moment, once again sinking into thought.

“But I’ve never heard of the alchemical method you described...” she murmured.

Biting her lip, Sierra stared at a single spot for several seconds before slowly adding, “But now that I think about it... Purely from a logical standpoint, everything should work exactly as you say...”

There was growing excitement in her voice.

Apparently, calculations, possible proportions, and variations of the experiment were already racing through the girl’s mind.

Kael raised his eyebrows in surprise, as though he himself hadn’t expected to hear such an answer.

A smile slowly spread across his face, and he asked eagerly, “Does that mean we have a new hypothesis to investigate?”

Sierra abruptly looked at him, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

“Not a hypothesis!” she exclaimed. “A whole experimental plan!”

And before Kael could say anything in response, the girl had already grabbed a sheet of paper lying nearby and begun writing something down.

“Great job, Kael!” she exclaimed again, not even trying to hide her enthusiasm.

Still rapidly making notes on the sheet of paper, Sierra immediately added, “Let’s finish this batch of talismans and try it!”

Already completely absorbed in planning the experiment, Sierra began thinking aloud, “We’ll take several Serpent Roots and soak them for different lengths of time. Then we’ll boil them down using the same method and compare the extract yields.”

Short notes and calculations appeared on the sheet one after another.

“If the results really are better, all that’ll remain is to determine the optimal soaking time.”

Pausing to think for a moment, Sierra tapped the tip of her pen against the table and added, “I think we should test several intervals. Six hours, twelve, eighteen, a full day...”

As she spoke, she barely seemed aware of her surroundings, completely absorbed in designing the experiment.

Kael merely nodded, watching her reaction.

“The ideal time is twenty hours...” he noted to himself, looking at the rapidly filling sheet of paper. “But it’s better to let her discover that herself.”

Sierra had already opened her mouth, clearly about to add something else.

But the next moment, a booming voice thundered through the workshop, carrying even through the closed doors: “Miss us, you slackers?!”

Startled, Sierra flinched and immediately looked up, relief appearing on her face almost at once.

“That’s the Captain’s voice. Looks like the others are back!”

Kael also smiled involuntarily and, stepping away from the mortar, said, “Let’s go take a look.”

Without wasting a second, they quickly left the workshop, stepped out into the corridor, and headed toward the building’s exit…

✦ ✦ ✦

Footsteps echoed loudly through the corridors, and the closer they came to the central hall, the more activity there was around them. The few members of the Doomgrin Squad who had not taken part in the battle for Whitewater Fort emerged from their rooms. Some looked sleepy, while others were already smiling after hearing the Captain’s familiar voice, but all of them were moving in the same direction.

As they approached the exit, the noise grew more distinct. Voices could be heard. Loud shouts mingled with laughter and groans of pain.

And less than a minute later, Kael and Sierra came around another corner.

Just beyond the wide-open entrance doors, the inner courtyard came into view, where several dozen of their comrades had now gathered.

But while Sierra and the other squad members who had come out to greet their comrades smiled, Kael instead tensed.

“What the...” slipped from his lips before he could stop himself.

The moment he took a closer look at what was happening in the courtyard, an unpleasant wave of cold ran down his spine.

Nearly every mage who had returned from the mission was wounded.

Some still had streaks of dried blood staining their clothes and armor darkly. Others were heavily bandaged, while some moved with such difficulty that it seemed they remained on their feet through sheer force of will.

Norvin was walking with his eyes completely bandaged, one hand resting on Elias’s shoulder as Elias silently guided him across the courtyard.

Up ahead, Kael spotted Morkroft.

A deep, ragged wound ran across the Captain’s chest, hastily covered with bandages that were already showing fresh scarlet stains.

But the worst off were those being carried.

Several mages Kael didn’t recognize had been laid on stretchers, and Magpie walked beside them. The usually loud and eccentric girl was now pale as a sheet, her lips moving constantly as though she were incoherently muttering something in a half-delirious state.

Kael’s heart gave an unpleasant pang.

Looking at the bandaged Norvin, the pale Magpie, and the fresh blood on Morkroft’s bandages, he felt as though he were seeing the front in an entirely new light.

“Now I understand why Morkroft said it was too early for me to take part in missions like this...” Kael thought grimly. “This is a real slaughter.”

But the very next moment, his gaze caught on something far stranger. Despite their wounds, no one around him looked dejected.

One of the mages, whose arm hung as though paralyzed, was animatedly telling a story to several comrades at once, gesturing vigorously with his other hand. Nearby, someone burst into loud laughter at another joke. Two others were arguing about something so passionately that it seemed they had returned not from a slaughter, but from a tavern.

Kael realized that even Norvin was arguing with Elias, irritably jabbing a finger in his direction.

Elias merely sighed wearily and replied, “Shut up already, or I’ll drop you right now!”

“Bet you won’t?” Norvin shot back with a laugh, already holding out his hand to make the bet, though he was slightly off target.

The longer Kael watched what was happening, the less he understood what he was seeing. A thought involuntarily flashed through his mind: “Even in a situation like this... Why are they all so cheerful? Is it because our squad is insane? Or is everyone at the front like this?”

But at that moment, Kael’s thoughts were interrupted as Morkroft stepped forward.

Despite the ragged wound across his chest, his bandaged shoulder, and the dried blood on his armor, he looked as though what had happened was cause for celebration.

Sweeping his gaze over the gathered squad members, the Captain grinned broadly and declared in a booming voice, “The enemy was mercilessly destroyed. We suffered no losses!”

For several seconds, silence hung over the courtyard.

Then it exploded with dozens of voices.

“Welcome back, guys! You did great!”

“Get to Veridan, quick! As soon as he patches you up, I want to hear everything in detail!”

“I’ll start making dinner! You’re not going to bed hungry or sober tonight!”

Several people immediately headed toward the returning fighters, helping support those who were barely staying on their feet. Some were already clapping their comrades on the shoulders, some were laughing, while others began eagerly peppering them with questions about what had happened at Whitewater Fort.

Sierra, standing nearby, visibly brightened as well.

“I told you they’d be fine,” she murmured with relief.

Kael silently watched what was happening.

At that moment, Kael felt a strange sense of admiration for the people around him. Admiration for how easily they continued to smile after everything they had just been through.

“When I was in the Divine Library... Could I have smiled like that?” Kael wondered.

And as he watched everyone support and believe in one another, he narrowed his eyes slightly and almost immediately came to a conclusion: “The mind is tempered in solitude. But the soul matures alongside others.”

With a slight smirk, Kael whispered almost inaudibly, “I still have a long way to go to make up for what I missed...”

Kael smiled and was about to shout something along with the others when a tall man walked past him, heading toward the group.

Almost immediately, a voice called out from nearby: “Oh! Veridan, you’re already here!”

Hearing the name, Kael involuntarily looked up.

Before him was a tall, slender man with short scarlet hair, a neatly trimmed scarlet beard, and an upturned mustache. Despite his healer’s clothes, he looked more like an experienced warrior than a healer, and even from a distance, Kael could distinctly smell blood on him.

“Veridan?” Kael repeated to himself, watching the man calmly walk past the gathered squad members. “He’s the chief healer of our squad...”

Running his gaze over him once more, Kael almost immediately noticed several familiar traits.

“More importantly...” Kael narrowed his eyes slightly. “He possesses an Imperial Bloodline.”

Stopping before the returning fighters, Veridan quickly swept his gaze over the wounded, lingering on those with serious injuries.

Only then did he look at Morkroft and say in a hoarse voice, “I appreciate you providing me with material for training, Captain... But you could be more careful.”

As he spoke, he swept his gaze over those gathered once more and added with a hint of displeasure, “Some of the guys got hit pretty badly...”

Morkroft merely grunted, his grin becoming a little less carefree.

“It wasn’t an easy fight.”

Then, completely serious now, he added, “If we hadn’t had the advantage of surprise... I’m afraid we wouldn’t have gotten off this lightly.”

As he said this, Morkroft suddenly shot Kael a glance. The familiar grin returned to his face, and the Captain gave him a barely noticeable wink.

Veridan merely sighed heavily in response and, clearly having no intention of continuing the conversation, ordered, “You know the order of priority. Everyone, follow me.”

With those words, he turned and headed back toward the building, while the fighters began lining up behind him without further questions. Those carrying the wounded on stretchers moved first, followed by the mages who needed help walking, and then the rest who required only superficial treatment.

Watching the bloodied, bandaged people calmly talking among themselves and even continuing to joke, Kael involuntarily remembered Morkroft’s words that it was still too early for him to take part in operations like these.

“You can’t let your guard down in war...” Kael thought, shifting his gaze from the stretchers to the fresh blood seeping through some of the fighters’ bandages. “No matter how strong you are, you’re never safe from death...”

Noticing how Morkroft, despite the deep wound across his chest, still carried himself as though nothing serious had happened, Kael narrowed his eyes slightly and added with far greater resolve: “I have to become stronger. Much stronger.”