『Alchemy』

"Oh-hoh, as I thought—we meet again in the finals."

"Right? It feels like that was just yesterday." She said, summoning gigantic air griffons.

The tournament was at its last stage, and as the crowds have predicted—the finalists were no other than the lord of Avery, and the leader of the Verdant Zephyrs, Alicia Cliffheart.

"I'm sorry, but nothing will still change." She flicked her hand.

*Boom*

A sudden explosion surges forth, making a spiral flame of crimson. If it were not for the formation that protected the stage from the audience—everyone would have probably died.

"I'm not sure about that!" She stepped forward.

"Alicia-sama is the only one who can contend with the lord!" The audience cheered.

"That's..."

"It's Aunt Alicia's specialty, she uses the air around her as her playing field—essentially making her invincible in that area," Astria commented.

It seems that she was unharmed by the surging torrent of flames—casually walking out of it. Afterward, she projected her Soul World—bringing about a surge of wind blades accompanied by the griffons.

"Heh, you have grown—Alicia. But-!" Alexandra retaliated, incinerating everything as she inched closer to Alicia.

The battle raged on, and the audience is totally here for it—who could blame them? Two cultivators of the Soul Chart are engaged in a no-barred all-out fight.

Meanwhile Naoki...

"I finally did it!" He celebrated, a pebble-sized ice rock in his hand.

"Peasant—no... an ignorant kid." Dorothy sighed.

"Oh? Your soul has already learned ice in just a few hours—that's impressive."

Astria praised, it seems normal cultivators take at least a full day to teach their Soul Nodes a Soul Skill—and for men, even longer.

"Hmph, it's nothing impressive. I learned mine earlier than that."

"..."

"I still need to practice it though—the output is still far from a Star Node."

He had used all of his Soul nodes to form ice—but resulted in him only producing a small one. It seems that his soul was still not used to it and had only inefficiently used his Soul nodes.

Supposedly, one can learn a Soul Skill from a scroll. They will then try to absorb it similar to fragments—essentially teaching the soul a "Soul Skill".

"Mhm, you're doing great—though be careful of overworking your soul," Astria warned.

"Soul Fatigue huh...?"

Naoki remembered that it was what had happened to Astria—she had tried so desperately to improve her soul to the point that it became fractured and unstable, leading to her almost dying.

The fight was drawing to a close and while the lord of Avery had won, the audience stood in shock—their lord was on their knees.

"Heh—who'd think you'd actually throw everything rushing at me...?" She praised, her opponent had been knocked down.

"Mother..."

"Aunt Alicia had always wanted to beat my sister—but to think she'd do a risky attempt."

The cast had announced the results, everyone had cheered ever so loudly—worthy of its reputation as the highlight of the Crystallite Soul Reunion.

With that, the night falls and the festival comes to a close. Everyone began to depart—enjoying the remaining festivities around town and spending the final moments of it basking in the gleeful cheer of the townsfolk.

<<----------->>

"Heh, to think you'd really come."

"Well—if I don't need sleep, I might as well learn Alchemy to grow stronger."

Naoki stepped into Leariz's Soul world, the scenery had changed to that of a luxurious house—with an extension to the side for Alchemy purposes.

Since Naoki's soul was special, he didn't need to worry about his Soul not getting enough sleep—as it can somehow cleanse itself over time.

"Before that—I've finally finished analyzing your soul. If you want to learn about it, this is the best time to properly ask for it and thank me for all I did." Leariz smugly said.

"...no."

"Right? Am I not the smartes—wait, why!?"

"..."

The two stared—seemingly wanting to murder the other out of annoyance.

"Hah... fine. Well, it's nothing that complicated anyways."

She explained, it seems that Naoki's Soul was a special type—though she might have said it as such, it is not that much different. It has the ability to understand the language of souls, a language that existed even before sounds and words existed—a primordial language. Though it seems that Naoki is still not able to utilize it outside his subconscious.

"-Well... it's nothing that special—since I can understand Soul Language too."

"You mean... this is how you read my mind?"

"That's right, once you understand the language of souls—you can understand everything about a person."

Afterward, Naoki had asked how to better control it—to which she had dismissively replied. It seems it was something to be trained on your own. Eventually, after talking about various stuff, they proceeded to the main agenda.

"Alchemy, in essence, should be performed with a clear mind—if you can't focus, it will reflect on the final product."

"What would happen if it fails...?"

"At worst, it can explode. Though there are times when it somehow becomes better—or turns into a totally different pill."

As she said that, she gracefully inserted the materials inside a furnace—closing her eyes.

"Every pill requires a base soul. It is recommended to use Pure Soul Fragments, though you may use regular ones if you can perform Alchemy before it expires."

"Afterwards, you mix in the other ingredients—this part will be the hard part."

Apparently, one can learn pill recipes if one consults an Alchemist—but it is not only limited to that recipe, there can be variations as well. One type of pill can have multiple recipes but still produce the same effect or one recipe can make multiple variations of a pill depending on the quality of the materials.

*Snap*

"This is actually convenient for you," Leariz said, bringing out the finished pill.

"Eh...? What do you mean?"

"By knowing Soul Language, you're already on the track to becoming an Ultimate Alchemist—just like me." She flicked her hand, throwing the pill at Naoki's mouth.

"..Guh!" Naoki groaned, he had accidentally swallowed it.

She further explained, it seems that everything has a Soul. From the leaves to the rocks, everything has fundamentally an "essence". If he could understand the language of Souls, he can identify which ingredients are of high quality and what their effects are. All of this was explained to Naoki who was now on the ground—clenching his chest.

"Wha-What... is this!?"

"It's a Pain Pill—it makes the person writhe in agony without doing any damage to the soul." Leariz softly smiled.

"You-!" Naoki charged at her but immediately stopped.

"Be careful~ It becomes more painful the more you move."

And so it begins, their Alchemy lesson was still far from done—but Naoki had already started on a high note. Tonight, it was Leariz's win—even if it was as bright as day in her Soul World.