Arches

The head Spagyric blew some air out his nose before responding, "It would take a potion crafted by me personally if you're talking about here at the Academy."

"Of course. I heard that you'd have to be on the level of Soul Foundation to regenerate a limb naturally, so I figured as much." Saiph nodded along and replied calmly.

"There's also the matter of the ingredients involved. None of the ingredients involved in a 3rd Rank Potion, you know? Even if I wanted to help you, there's only so much I can do before taking a loss."

"I am also aware of that. I will procure most of the ingredients. Mr. Goth, honestly, I aspire to be the greatest Spagyrist under Heaven. I hope you can appreciate my conviction and allow me to make a loan on this matter."

"The greatest under Heaven, you say? What about once you reach Heaven?" The professor had a casual smile as he spoke.

"I have not made any conjectures of my own -- despite its popularity with people of all ages -- of what exists in Heaven. Thus, I won't be making a comment regarding the matter."

"...All right, then, how much research have you put into this whole recovery effort of yours?"

Smiling, Saiph replied, "Enough. I know I wish to make a potion of either Venerable Life Energy, Venerable Recovery Force, or Sun Woon's Life Potion. They are all slowly acting, enough that the extreme recovery energy won't turn me to ash."

Although, by his face, Mr. Goth was clearly impressed with Saiph's assessment, he was shaking his head.

"No, no. That won't due. Taking the former two, Venerable Ash, the base, is hard to come by. You won't be able to procure enough volume to be able to brew enough to recover your arm. The latter, Sun Woon's, is very difficult to brew even for someone such as myself. Although it's a Rank 3 potion, most likely only a Second Realm Mage would be able to brew it without months of practice."

Saiph nodded with the professor's assessment; everything that was said was something that Saiph agreed with. Unfortunately, he had run out anything else to work with, thus he was here to discuss the manner with this master of Spagyric.

"So," Mr. Goth continued, "what you want to start thinking about instead of a healing potion is a 'living' potion- a potion possessing some semblance of life. They are a better option than symbiotes since this potion is under your control. It won't drain more energy than your normal arm would. In fact, it might even be more efficient with better results."

Saiph took a few moments to mentally go over the matter. Although he was slightly hesitant to stick something onto his arm that wasn't biologically his, he had to admit that the living potion seemed to be the lesser of two evils compared to what was practically a parasite.

"Are there any living potions that Professor Goth would recommend?" he asked after a bit.

"Yes, there is. I would have to put forth the renowned Izkai Lightning Arm. It isn't too hard to procure its materials and it's just, in general, a great prosthetic. It has a low energy consumption, it's very durable, and it will increase your combat prowess. There are better living potion arms for Spagyric purposes, but the key feature of the Izkai Lightning Arm is that it will help your cultivation and slowly shift the nature of your Spirit to the 'Lightning' element."

Saiph slowly digested and processed the information that was thrown at him. He wasn't too well-versed in living potions in general due to his lack of formal teaching regarding the matter, so he didn't know of this Izkai Lightning Arm beforehand. However, it seemed very potent from what the professor said.

Having a lightning-based Spirit also seemed like an asset to him, not to mention the cultivation assistance. While apparently there were better options for Spagyric, focusing on his foundations as a Mage came first. More than anything, Saiph just wanted to Silence the Echo in his nonexistent arm, and this potion would be able to do that it seemed.

"Okay," he replied after thinking it through. "I like it. However, I do wish to know if it will be a permanent procedure or not. Besides that, what do I need to do?"

"It is not permanent. The living potion, as all living potions are, is a biological entity that can be killed. As long as a procedure is done, the prosthetic will come off and will be able to either be replaced or the arm will be able to naturally regrow if you are of such strength."

Saiph nodded, agreeing with the notion. If it could be removed, then, when he had greater strength, there would be more possibilities for an arm, like one focusing on Spagyric.

"As for what you need to do, stay here for a moment. I have a copy of its recipe in my collection." Mr. Goth got up as he said that, heading out through a side door.

Saiph patiently waited for the professor's return, pondering over the matter at hand.

After a bit of time, the professor returned with a large book in his hands.

"Here," he said, "look at this." He placed the book down on the large wooden table and opened it to where his finger was inserted as a placeholder.

Saiph walked over and looked at the page. It was labeled "Izkai Lightning Arm", as expected. He perused through the page and read through its description. According to this particular book, everything was just as the professor had said.

He looked up at Mr. Goth, signaling that he was done reading the page.

The older man nodded and flipped the page, revealing the lengthy creation process and list of ingredients involved.

"All living potions are like this," Mr. Goth explained. "The process of creating life is no simple task. Often times, just a single error in this entire list of steps will lead to complete failure. Well, I say 'complete' failure but it's not like the result is a puddle of goo. No, normally, the result will not have a natural telepathic link with its owner, resulting in some mishaps, typically.

"Digressing to the topic at hand, this is what I'll say to you. You want to become a Spagyrist, correct?"

"Yes, sir," Saiph replied, nodding.

"Then I'll pitch in my share. All I want you to do is gather these ingredients here for me," he said while marking off five items on the list.

"Thank you, Professor."

Saiph, inwardly, was thrilled. This was a great deal. Five ingredients weren't too many at all, only about a fifth of the whole list. On top of him creating the potion itself -- the hard part --, Mr. Goth had made Saiph's goal many times more feasible.

The two talked about some more details before Saiph set off, drawing up a plan for the young Mage to follow for the next year or so.

The first step of that plan was for Saiph to draw up a leave of absence and go to the 53rd world, Arches, and collect a Blood Requiem Essence from a lightning Chaos Beast.

This Blood Requiem Essence was the primary ingredient of most healing potions since in it there was quite a bit of life energy.

Both Saiph and Mr. Goth knew that he stood little chance against a genuine Chaos Beast, even with a few tricks. Thus, Saiph looked for help from his two closest friends in the world.

Velvet was easily won over. She would certainly go out of the way to help her little brother recover his lost arm.

Her being two years older than Saiph and possessing better aptitude led to her being quite a bit stronger than him, it turned out. Her being on board with excursion was thus a great relief to Saiph.

Of the five bottlenecks of the Magic Initiate stage, Velvet was at the 3rd: the heart, placing her above Saiph who was still trying to break through the 1st: the body.

Next, Saiph went over to his closest male friend: Enzo. Being a bit more fair to Enzo, Saiph bargained that on Arches there would be Essence Mana Crystals retrievable from the beasts that they killed.

Enzo, too tempted by the prospect of a boost to his cultivation, agreed to go along just like that. There was, of course, also the fact that he and Saiph were pretty good friends and helping Saiph out here would be the right thing to do.

Hence, the group of three Magic Initiates, one 12, one 13, and another 14, signed all of the necessary paperwork and started off toward the 53rd world, in the opposite direction from which Saiph had entered from.

This was a relief to the siblings; neither really had it in them to attempt a confrontation on their father.

Pushing through the 51st world was rather simple. Much like Orion, it was under the control of humanity and the Academy, so safe passage was all but guaranteed. If anything, it just took a while.

The situation for the 52nd world was similar. Both it and the 51st were completely subjugated so there would be no incidents like Saiph's trip to the 49th world, whose jungle was practically untameable.

At long last, a not-dismal fraction of a year later, the trio arrived in the forest world of Arches- the end of humanity's reign in the downwards direction of the Tower.