8 A New Profession

Alexander Rosenburg was a big guy, towering over six feet feet. His arms and legs were thick, like tree branches, and his stomach slouched over his upper robe. Yet, he was no slouch on his feet, gliding with each of his steps. Louis sat on his bed as he looked up to the man, almost akin to looking the peak of a mountain.

"Kid, let's make this simple. I'm a very busy man." Alexander took a thick book from the giant bag on his lap. "I don't have that much time to teach a kid who is still wearing his diapers." He threw the book to Louis, which Louis easily caught. "Instead, I'll give you this book. When you finally understand it, I'll actually teach you."

Louis placed the book beside him on the bed and spent a few seconds reading each page, before quickly flipping through the book. The book was high quality, no doubt, but it merely covered the basics, perhaps with more examples than the books he read in the library.

"Let's not waste my time with this basic information, either." Louis said, closing the book. He looked into Alexander's eyes. "I want to learn array formations, not to read theories I can find at the library." He tossed the book back to the Alexander. "Give me something worth my time, and worth your pay."

"Oh? You're certainly not the typical kid." Alexander said, looking at the book again. "Look at you, flipping through the book and making such bold claims." He shook his head and patted the book. "You must think you're smart, that you're ready. Just after reading a few books." He pointed at the book, tapping it. "But you're not. Reading a few books doesn't make you ready, let alone books with incomplete knowledge." He tossed the book to Louis. "Read it a couple of times, you'll find something new and, perhaps, you will realize just how much you didn't know."

Louis opened the book again, flipping to the end. "This is an one-star array: container. It's small but it can suck in debris and gases into it, either to clean an area or to trap something within it. It's easy to step up and can vary in size and strength, from something a single person can make to something requiring nearly a hundred people. However, it's easier to break from the inside and has many fragile points, making it nearly useless against anything sentient and a risk for anything alive. The qi requirement to sustain it is negligible at small sizes, but exponentially increases with size."

Louis flipped to the middle of the book, revealing another array. "This is another one-star array: cover. Like its name suggests, it creates a cover created from wind, mainly used to divert other winds away from the user and, given enough qi, can even divert objects hurling at the user. It's simple to make, using only twenty lines to put together, but it scaling the size, like the container array, doesn't increase its strength, only consumption and area of effect. It's great, almost essential, when travelling through the desert, but without another array to get air, the array can easily suffocate yourself while you use it in close promoxities. While this array can be activated and deactivated at any time, the initial cost - its biggest cost - is required each time it's activated, making it very expensive and not very efficient." Slamming the book, Louis looked up at Alexander. "Is this enough knowledge to start teaching me yet?"

Alexander sat there silent, looking at Louis. Whatever he was thinking, he hid it carefully. They looked at each other for ten minutes before he started speaking again. "For such a little boy," he said, finally. "You have such a big mouth and ambition."

"Surely," Louis said, pausing. "Not as big as stature nor as small as your mind and heart. Even if you have any ambition, will it come to fruition?" Louis threw the book back to Alexander again. "After all, you are the one resorting to teach a five-year-old to get by in your life."

The room became silent once again before Alexander left without a word.

Mother had returned to the room some time later. "How did it go?"

"Not great. He didn't feel like teaching." Louis said, plopping onto the bed. "Kept calling me a kid and a waste of his time."

"So what happened?"

"We threw insults back and forth, then he left in anger." Louis said, shrugging.

His mother sighed as she down beside him. "You're still young, even if your soul is as strong as an adult." She put him on her lap, so he faced her, and hugged him. "There's no need to rush things. Take time to enjoy life."

"Did something bad happen to you?" Louis asked, looking at her. She had a sad look in her eyes.

"When I was young, my sister and I wanted to cultivate, become as strong as our father and mother. They are the leaders of Rosenburg City, down at the southern part of Allyn County. We were both talented, until we reached the second realm, where my cultivation slowed and my sister only sped up. After a couple of years, I gave up, switching to music, instead of cultivation." She took a breath and placed her head on his. "But I lost many friends, adventurers I thought were friends but were after my skills, my status and my money, not my friendship and most certainly not me. Then I was married away." She straightened her back, then flicked his forehead. "So don't rush things and lose sight of what's important. You're smart and hardworking, but don't sacrifice your life and youth. Make some friends and relax more."

Louis looked at her. Like him, she was once a talented cultivator, stagnating in the second realm before adopting a different profession. It may have been harder for her, since she had more friends but none who stayed with him. Her sister was still in Rosenburg City, as the new leader, he recalled her saying once. His aunt did send him pocket money every month, especially on his birthday and at the beginning of the new year.

"You're still young. We still got time." Louis said, gripping onto her hands. He pour some of his wind elemental qi into his mother's body. "I can help you increase your cultivation speed." He released her hand. "Your meridians are fragile and your upper and middle dantian are clogged, so they need to be opened and cleaned."

His mother sighed. "I know, but they pills I require for my dantian are the upper tier six star pills, almost nobody can craft them and there simply aren't any wind element meridian strengthening pills."

"If you give me some time, I can concoct some pills to fix that."

"You don't have to lie to make me hopeful." His mother flicked his forehead. "I'm not so grieved that I need my son to cheer me up yet. I'm content with playing the harp, with people who understand and my children." She stood up, with him in her arms. "Now, it's time for dinner. I can buy you some ingredients later if you want."

The next morning, Silva brought his mother, sister and him to the medicinal store within the inner city, where the commercial and nobility residential areas began to intersect. The waterparks and other entertainment areas as well as shops for both the middle and noble classes were here. The quality was guaranteed, though much more expensive in this area than compared to the outer city shops.

Dry, warm air confronted everyone who took a step into the medicinal shop, Randel's Quality Goods. A heavy medicinal smell permeated throughout the shop with crates of herbs in four rows going all the way to the back of the store. At the back, shelves protected by glass held pills upon pills piled up into small little pyramids, all with their nametags and a brief description of its main feature.

"Louis dear, what herbs do you want? There's a 50 silver budget." Melissa said, looking at him. "There's quite a few ingredients here and I know very little about this myself, so choose wisely."

"Carry me." Louis said, holding his arms up. "That should be enough for twenty-five sets of one star materials."

Melissa brought him to the closest material and walked slowly down each row, so Louis could see each of the materials. Each row of crates held one element of materials, right to left: wind, water, earth and fire. The water materials were the most plentiful and the overall quality was higher, although just slightly. They spent ten minutes just so Louis could look each material on the first lap and another ten minutes on the second lap.

Louis spoke little, since he was the only alchemist among the four of them and he didn't want the shopkeeper to eavesdrop. He didn't ask questions and seemingly randomly chosen materials from the crates. There were a total of hundred individual ingredients in the shop and they could all be combined in various ways to create the one and two star alchemy pills. Three star ingredients weren't available on this floor, but the attendant promised there were better ingredients upstairs, though the price increased as well.

It wasn't until the third lap that Louis started picking materials. Twenty-five sets of ingredients seemed like a lot, but Louis wasn't the only one who need pills. His three sisters needed them too and he would eventually need to craft pills for his mother too. He grabbed five sets of qi replenishing pills for the four elements and one set of a theoretical meridian cleansing pill, which alone costed five sets of ingredients. Although he only needed two element for elemental replenishing pills, he wanted to try with the different elements, since this was his first time concocting in this world.

Once they were done, Melissa carried Louis and Silva carried Amelia as they flew back to the house.

"What you get?" Amelia said, stretching out of Silva's arms and reaching to the bag containing the materials. "Let me see. Let me see. I didn't talk at all and waited the entire time. It's no fair."

Louis reached into the bag and pulled out a set of earth element qi replenishing pills and threw it to Amelia. He probably didn't need five sets and god only knew what she would do if her curiosity wasn't satiated.

"It's for an earth elemental qi replenishing pill. It makes those with earth elemental qi regain their energy faster. The earth would already be earth element so it wouldn't need to be processed before being absorbed, making an efficient and effective but costly as well." Louis said, waving his hand, like an elder trying to inform his student.

"What does that mean?" Amelia asked, looking up from the ingredients. Have of the ingredients were already torn and reduced to waste within the few moments she looked away. "Easier words. Easier."

Louis sighed, his teaching spirit dying. "Those things you are holding make a ball, so a person with earth elemental qi can eat it. Then they can run around a lot, like you."

Amelia looked at the ingredients in her hand, then at Louis, before looking at the ingredients again. "Make me one." She handed him the ingredients back.

"You can't eat that one. I'll make one for you later."

"Promise?"

"Promise." Louis said, leaning over to her. "You can watch later if you keep it a secret."

Amelia cheered, then quickly covered her mouth with hands and looking around. The ingredients fell all over her clothes and some must have reached her mouth, since she started spitting them out.

"Icky. Bitter."

"They don't taste good raw." Louis said, checking what happened before closing his eyes. "They are like carrots, only worse if you don't cook them properly."

"I hate carrots." Amelia said, throwing the rest of the ingredients.

"Now, now, Amelia." Silva said, brushing the ingredients on Amelia's shoulders. "Carrots are good for you, so you must eat them. You can't get dessert until you eat them, alright?"

Amelia gave Silva puppy dog eyes but Silva wasn't having it.

"Carrots first, dessert second. Same as yesterday, same for today and same for tomorrow."