Spirit and Materials

He felt that he had a good grasp of the refining concept. So, he quickly read through the combining section. He didn't review the information or attempt to comprehend it yet, as he wanted to complete refining before attempting anything with combining. He had done this with tempering and discovered a lot in the actual practice, which made a lot of the refining process clearer to him. If he had attempted to read the refining section before practice with tempering, he wouldn't have understood most of what it was describing. This wasn't an introduction book, but an entire comprehensive guide, which assumes a basic understanding of Alchemy.

"FELDMAN!" Evan yelled. He didn't finish the book, but he didn't feel as if he needed to. He figured out that the only difference between each rank and sub-rank basically depended greatly on tempering and refinement. The better these two processes went the easier combining would be. And from what he read on the combining step, he concluded that it could only be practiced in order to gain proficiency.

"Already finished?" Feldman asked a little surprised. It had only been an hour since he started, and he never actually expected him to read the entire thing.

"No, but I don't think you wanted me to read it all. You just wanted me to grasp the concept, right?" Evan was sure he was right.

"Y-Yes, fooling you isn't easy." Feldman lied through his teeth. He never expected him to grasp the entire concept of Alchemy. "Elaborate for me, if you would."

"Of course. Well, the main difference between each sub-rank is the ability to temper and refine different graded materials to varying degrees. Refining is just using spirit to control a flame to target impurities and combining is creating a symbiotic relationship between varying materials in order to gain a desired effect." Evan was quite proud of his understanding.

"That is a perfect explanation." Feldman was slightly jealous, but also proud at the same time. This is his student after all. Evan had just simplified the entire Alchemy profession in just a few words. And he had done it better than Feldman himself could. This was largely due to the massive amount of Alchemical knowledge that Feldman had, everything was just too technical in his though process. He was extremely satisfied with the explanation.

His original intent was just to give a detailed analysis of the refinement process for Evan's next step in training. He intentionally made the task more difficult, just trying to test Evan's limits. He never expected this kind of result.

"Well, with that kind of explanation, I expect to be shocked with your next task as well. I want you to upgrade 10 non-ranked materials into F ranked materials. I will only tell you the names of the F ranked material, and you must figure out what exactly needs to be upgraded. I will give you until you go home for the night." Feldman tried to give him another impossible task, making it impossible to complete for someone who has never practiced refinement.

"Yes sir!" Evan was excited. This is exactly what he wanted. A chance to practice his refining.

"Okay, well there are only 3 materials that I want. I need 1 Violent Violet, 1 Effect Stone, and 8 Gum Weeds. I'll even give you a freebee." Feldman gave him the list of the F ranked materials that he wanted. He was going to teach Evan to create a low-grade strength enhancing elixir called Violent Burst. It was F ranked but Evan hadn't even gone through his ascension yet so he wouldn't be able to use it for years to come anyway.

Evan didn't respond, immediately running off to start while Feldman watched from the windows of his home.

Evan had just started looking when he realized his first problem. He didn't know what these materials were when unranked. He had one Gum Weed, so he knew what the F rank of this one looked like, but he had to refine them himself. So, he had to temper everything then refine it. It was only about 1:30 and he usually wouldn't go home until just before dark. This gave him approximately 5 and a half hours to find, temper, and refine all these materials.

'That asshole gave me an impossible task.' Evan was extremely discouraged.

*System recommend host to upgrade Spirit Search function. * The robotic rang in his ear. Making him slightly jump.

'How?' Evan asked the system quickly.

*Host must deepen understanding of spiritual energy. The more the host understands the energy, the more data that can be extracted. Unforeseen abilities may be added. Insufficient data. *

Evan knew that the system was nothing but a tool to make his life easier, so he took any advice that he got. He quickly sat in a meditative position and entered his spirit state. This was the state that he was most perceptive to spirit, so logically it was the best state to deepen his understanding.

As Evan watched his inner spirit slowly crawling through his pathways, he noticed that there were many points in his body that resembled the pathway exits located in his fingers. They were similar but they felt different. It felt like the dark spots he would find when tempering materials. It was solid, but soft at the same time. He could feel his spirit push against them and bounce back off.

He felt that this was important for himself to focus on in the future, but right now he needed to understand more about spirit energy in itself. So, he focused on the energy itself, watching it slowly. Several minutes had gone by when Evan noticed something about his energy. The energy itself was not solid, but wispy, like a gas. The energy wasn't flowing around his body so much as gently blowing. If he focused harder, he could see each speck of energy grouping around each other to look like a liquid. They would then jump sporadically in order to appear solid. It was moving extremely fast like this, but when moving through his body it was like a snail.

Evan noticed this and tried to focus on one speck of energy and force it to move forward instead of in sporadic directions. With just a small amount of willpower, Evan directed the speck around his body at an amazing speed.

*Spirit Refinement Technique Created. Please name technique. *

'Amazing, this is the third time I've found something like this. All just from toying with my own spirit.' Evan didn't know how incredible it was to create something like this. This is a way to drastically improve cultivation, but it can be dangerous to do before puberty (age of ascension).

As he focused on that individual speck speeding around his pathways at incredible speed, Evan noticed something new. If he could describe the way he could focus on this speck it would be like looking at a star through a telescope. But the longer he watched the more detailed and closer the speck would draw in. It was now like looking at mars through a telescope. Easily able to see the speck in great detail.

The speck was a perfect sphere, no dents or bumps anywhere. It was a white-silver color that radiated in color. Just under the surface of the sphere you could almost make out images. The harder that Evan focused, the clearer the image was becoming. Under the surface of this crystal ball like globe, Evan saw himself, as he was on Earth.

It clicked. Spirit isn't just energy for use. It's world energy, world energy that becomes a part of us. The energy of every individual contains a part of themselves. This means that I can gain any and all information about an opponent from their energy alone.

*Spirit comprehension updated.

Spirit Search (Level 2)- Ability to see stats, as well as track anything with a spirit signature. Deployable at will, can show health of opponent as well as weaknesses. Additional ability: Spirit Sense.

Spirit Sense is a sub-ability attached to the Spirit Search technique, allowing the user to spread an invisible aura of thin spirit over a small area, gaining data of all energy in designated area. (5 meters) *

"YES!" Evan didn't mean to but couldn't help but yelling out in excitement.