Alchemy VS Magic Medicine (Part 2)

Aini couldn’t hold back his laughter. That was right. He didn’t even have any magic chords left and could only use Grade 0 magic or perhaps Grade 1 magic by force. Even if he had the thorough knowledge, he could only create some simple alchemy props.

"Saleen, I’m so sorry to have led you into danger," Aini told Saleen when no one else was around.

"Aini, things are already like this. Let’s think about how we’re going to live first. How about we do a comparison between your alchemy and my magic medicine to determine which is better?" Saleen decided on a friendly competition and surely enough, Aini was still young and immediately got worked up. His worries about the black mages faded.

"Sure, but there must be a prize." Aini scanned the bag on Saleen.

"Sika, stop touching things. This place is dangerous." Saleen stopped Sika from throwing a metal ball that she had just picked up. He was glad that he hadn’t brought Nailisi to the laboratories. If not, he wouldn’t have had the focus to create magic medicine.

"Then what should I do?" Sika was bored, tiredness flashing across her clear eyes. It seemed like she was of no help to Saleen despite having followed him.

"I am competing with Aini. You will be my assistant. When I ask you to do something, you will do it."

"Sure!" Sika smiled.

"Aini, even though a mage should not gamble, we are both mages. Between us, this is only a friendly competition to learn from one another. As for the prize, what do you want?"

Aini wanted the bracelet back badly, but he didn’t have anything of similar value in hand. He winked and said, "Do you have any black crystal?"

Black crystal was a type of crystal that could increase a mage’s control. At the same time, it was something a death mage needed to have. Black crystals could store death magic and among the gemstones that Aini had received, there were no such crystals.

Saleen laughed, Aini was a decent friend and would not make any preposterous demands. He nodded and said, "No matter the results, I’ll give you a piece of black crystal. I want to know, what is the criteria for this competition?"

"Quantity. The two of us cannot create any high-grade props or medicines. The best way to kill a black puppet is to create an arrowhead using alchemy. If this arrowhead also has magic medicine on it, it can instantly kill a black puppet. I will create an arrowhead while you create five grams of Magic Flame Medicine. If I lose, I will accede to one of your request."

Saleen couldn’t hold back his laughter and said, "You’re sure to lose this."

"We shall see." Aini lifted his eyebrows, a hint of pride on his sickly face.

Saleen did not think that he would lose either. Back in Ceylon City, he had created so much low-grade magic medicine that it had taken up almost all of his free time. Magic Flame Medicine happened to have been his main source of income and was one of the magic medicines that he had the greatest rates of success with. Even though the success rate was not a hundred percent, he had no problems achieving eighty percent.

"Anyone, anyone!" Aini started shouting. Very soon, a soldier answered at the door. Aini opened the door and said to the soldier, "Tell Baron Cook that I want to create a large number of alchemy arrowheads. He can send for how many arrowheads he wants."

Baron Cook rushed over excitedly upon hearing the news. He commanded the soldiers to bring the arrowheads over from the warehouse to the magic laboratories. Saleen felt that something was amiss. In creating his Magic Flame Medicine, he could produce at least five hundred grams each time. It should be able to be used on a hundred arrowheads. However, Aini’s alchemy was evidently not the same, as he was going to use premade arrowheads and modify them. If that was the case, so long as Aini had a fixed alchemy array, he just had to put the materials in and he was done. If his alchemy array was big enough, with such low-grade equipment, he would be able to make a few hundred of them at once.

The problem was that it took a very short time for the alchemy array to create props while his magic medicine needed more time and any small mistake would render the entire batch useless.

At this moment, Aini took out a metal box from his bag and opened it. Walking to the metal table in front of him, he started assembling it, and it was almost as if the alchemy tool had been taken from the table in the first place.

He had been conned…

Saleen was not familiar with alchemy, but he knew that no two alchemy arrays could be pieced together to form a new alchemy array unless the two alchemy arrays had been one piece from the beginning. This table was specifically used to create alchemy arrows and had just been missing its core. What was most surprising was that Aini had actually carried the core of the alchemy array that was used to create alchemy arrows with him.

Aini inlaid six magic nuclei on the holes around the table and started throwing materials into the alchemy array. Saleen could only gather the ingredients needed to create the Magic Flame Medicine from all the magic ingredients before separating and weighing them.

He chose an ingredient and handed it to Sika, saying only two words: "Crush it."

The competition between the two had begun. Aini held a magic nucleus in one hand, speeding up the alchemy array as he restored the elemental energy within his body. His magic chords had been destroyed by the curse, but he was still able to absorb elemental energy. However, a disciple grade absorption speed was far too slow and the amount his body could store was far too little. He had to use a magic nucleus to replenish it and it was definitely a big waste.

A few hundred arrowheads floated in the alchemy array. Countless golden streaks of light beamed into the radius of the alchemy array, carving out a rough magic array on the arrowheads.

These arrowheads were weapons used by the Qin Empire army and definitely had no problems in terms of quality. The arrowheads had a hole carved into them and a simple flame pattern was formed. After half an hour, hundreds of arrowheads had been completed. Aini rested for less than a minute before creating the second batch of arrowheads.

Aini looked at Saleen smugly. In the Qin Empire, when an alchemist had been called upon by the army, it was typical for them to do such mass production work. Such crudely fashioned alchemy products were usually made at the last minute and if not used for a long time, the magic patterns would disappear. Saleen was not from the Qin Empire and hence had no idea about all of this. No matter how good he was with magic medicine, he could not have been faster than he was.

"You’ve lost." Saleen started mixing the medicines, throwing different powdered ingredients into a crucible.

"Impossible. The most you can create at once is five hundred grams, and I can create three hundred arrowheads in the same amount of time. I’m thrice as fast as you," Aini said confidently. He held a magic nucleus to replenish the elemental energy that he had lost and almost could go without any rest.

Saleen smiled drily and said, "There’s a limited number of arrowheads in this castle. We didn’t set down a rule as to when this competition ends. Once you run out of arrowheads, I will surpass you."

"Ah!" Aini was distracted and almost lost control of his alchemy array, letting out the golden light. In his moment of agitation, he said, "Saleen, you’re going back on your word!"

"You’re the one who set the rules. How am I going back on my word?" Saleen continued smiling as he put in more ingredients and patiently created his medicine.

Aini didn’t know if he should laugh or cry, but he didn’t stop. This was not only a competition, but concerned the life and death of the people in the castle. As long as they had enough arrowheads, the threat of the black mage would be reduced tremendously, and at the very least it would prevent the soldiers from being involved in brawls with the black puppets. Nobody knew what a black puppet looked like, and if the numbers were too massive and the brawl too brutal, it would be a matter of hours before the castle fell.

After all, there were too few soldiers in the castle. The numbers of black puppets were counted in the tens of thousands.

Saleen admired Aini. Although using an alchemy array to create crude alchemy equipment was relatively easy, doing it for a long period of time required an enormous amount of focus to be able to control it. Measuring carefully, Aini’s focus might be even have been greater than his own. He was a genius mage as expected. If he hadn’t been cursed, he would probably have been one step away from being a grand mage.

The sky started to brighten as Aini and Saleen had not stopped to rest. The craftsmen in the castle were busy too, some of them fixing the alchemy arrowheads onto arrow shafts as this was something that they were familiar with and was easy to do. The rest of the craftsmen were dismantling the remaining arrows. This was a tedious job as no materials could be lost.

The arrowheads that had been dismantled were sent to the magic laboratory for Aini to turn them into alchemy arrowheads before they were fixed back on.

Everyone worked quietly but busily. The news of a black mage appearing was like a giant boulder pressing on everyone’s hearts. If everyone knew that this black mage possessed a double-headed eagle, they might not even have had the courage to fight back. A distance from the castle, many unusual shadows appeared under the glow of the morning light. These shadows had stiff movements, leaping closer to the castle. They were scarecrows that were commonly seen in the fields of the Phoenix Duchy.

Many of the scarecrows had facial features and four limbs. However, their movements were still cumbersome.

Tens of thousands of scarecrows started congregating towards the castle. The scene could not have been any creepier, as many of the scarecrows had fresh blood on their faces. It seemed the culling had already begun.

Behind the scarecrow army were hundreds of war horses. They trudged along slowly behind the scarecrows, the riders on the horses silent.

These riders were unable to make any noise even if they wanted to, for there were no heads attached to their necks. Black steam permeated the air above these riders. The majestic black war horses were covered in corroded armor, and a beheaded head hung beside their saddles.

These heads had ferocious looks on them, bearing tortured expressions. Some of the eyeballs were still moving, observing the surroundings.

They were the legendary headless riders who possessed destructive capabilities. These headless riders were controlled by black magic. The head and the body existed as two separate entities, and unless the black mage released them, these headless riders would forever live on in pain and killings.

Only by destroying their enemies would the pain alleviate. For these headless riders, there was not much of a choice.

On the other side of the saddle were the headless rider’s weapons. Hammers, flails, half-moon battle axes, heavy swords…

All of the weapons had been corroded by black magic and purplish-black blood stains were all over them. These weapons seemed to emanate a shrill cry whenever they clashed with the armor on the war horses. These were the souls that the black mage had imprisoned, and only by continuously absorbing fresh blood would these souls gain temporary peace.