Day 13

From the moment I woke up, I immediately went to Marian. He let me in and returned to sleep.

I had three books with me.

It was easy to find blood. The difficult part was to identify it.

'What tier this blood it?'

Actually, there was too much blood in Marian's room. I continued reading and discarded everything that was not red. Normally Tier 0 and Tier I creatures had red blood. Anything above could be of any color.

'But how I differentiate 0 and I Blood.'

I returned to my books.

After an hour I found the solution. 'I should measure the energy concentration!'

Beasts were able to naturally absorb and grow thanks to raw energy, so as they advanced the concentration of raw energy in their blood also increased!

I started to look for a set of Test Crystals: thirteen crystals that reacted only to the respective tier of energy.

Marian's room was a mess, so I had to shake him a bit. – "Hei, Marian, do you have some Test Crystals? Heei, hei, heeei…"

"…Let me…let me sleep…behind the door…just let me sleep, man…"

I immediately went towards the door and found them.

A few minutes later I put away the Tier I blood.

[…]

Since my flame was only a spark now, I used a catalyst to conjure one.

In the 'Introduction to Alchemy,' I found also a quick mental workout to start controlling the flames.

…I failed immediately. The catalyst exploded.

I restarted.

Failed.

Another time.

Fail.

Another time.

Fail.

Another time…

My head started hurting when the door suddenly was opened with a hit. – "Stop wasting your time! Also, it's time for training."

It was Vlad.

I've completely forgotten about my daily training.

As he was nearly dragging me towards the training field he said. – "Let me guess, you've exhausted your mental power after many failed potions."

I stayed silent. – "I guess that this is a 'Yes'." – He smiled. – "Alchemy is difficult. Don't worry. The best way to recover is to train your body. It requires zero mental power, so it recovers quickly."

"…Okay…"

I was still a bit down about all the fails.

[…]

"During the fight against the dragon-man you used the punch I described to you during our first training." – Vlad was staring at me.

"How did you do that?"

I recalled that whole situation. – "I…I don't know."

Vlad nodded. – "That's right! It would be surprising if you knew. The trick is punch directly through the surface, skin, without damaging it and instead of destroying the innards od the opponent."

"From now, after the basic training…" – I trembled afterwords 'basic training'. – "…you will train your punch and palm strike."

"Palm strike?"

"Yeah. As I told you the punch you used, has one main feature: damage and eventually shatter the opponent's guts. This can be done with the punch and with the palm. The palm is even better for our training in my opinion. Once you can do it with a palm you would be able to do it with any part of your body."

His face suddenly became cold.

"NOW. START. RUNNING!"

And so, the daily training began.

[…]

I punched hundreds of times, maybe even more.

And the number of times I succeeded was pitifully low.

Three times punching, and one palm strike.

Vlad said that my progress was already remarkable but then I asked him about his success rate that he started he coughed embarrassedly.

"Come on, tell me!"

"Well…I started practicing when I was nine years old, I had seventy percent hit rate…But I very quickly managed to get to perfect rate."

Seeing my depressed mood, he could only add. – "I'm pretty damn talented you know…"

"Yeah…I noticed."

I left the training field and returned to Marian's room. Vlad was right this morning: my mental energy recovered completely. I even felt that it became a bit stronger than before.

'Practice makes one perfect I guess…'

This thought eased my depression.

Marian was reading something then I entered.

He looked at me above the book. – "Will continue with Life Essence Potion? Tier 0 blood in on the table. Catalysts are on the shelf above the Tier 0 plants."

I found his room far more in order than before.

Anyway, I started the concoction.

'Use the catalyst to start the flame. Control the flame…'

Failure. The flame became one meter high and the catalyst exploded.

'Start the flame…adjust the temperature…nice…'

This time the temperature felt right.

"Lower it a bit." – Said Marian from the side.

I followed his instructions but failed and the catalyst exploded another time.

"Put away the blood for a second. You need to get familiar with the flame. Also, take the thermometer on the side."

I quickly found the thing I needed. – "Normally one doesn't need such a precise measure of temperature, but for training purposes it's perfect."

He finally stood up and went near me. – "Look."- He took one catalyst, started the flames. I observed the temperature. It stably climbed up and then stopped.

"Down ten grades." – Said Marian and the temperature went ten grades down. – "Up 13 grades." – The measure followed.

"Down 58…"

"Up 59…"

"Down 57…"

After a few more 'examples' he stopped. – "You don't actually have to be able to precisely control the heat up to a single grade difference. But you must be able to go up and within 5 grades of every single temperature."

[…]

Only after actually measuring I understood how difficult it was.

'This single thought I went from 65 to 126 and the catalyst exploded…'

'Forget about 5 grades…even 20 grades should be good for now…'

I still don't understand how Marian quickly went from 13 to 58 without the catalyst exploding in his face…'

[…]

I returned to my room when Marian already went to bed.

I managed to not explode everything immediately. There was some progress.

I began meditating.

The same problem reappeared and after a while a splitting headache made me stop but I noticed that I was able to progress a little on the Minor Circulation Path.

'My mental power increased…'