Practice

Evan worked all through the night in order to expel a small amount of energy out of his body. It was worth it though as he had finally finished just before sunrise. Evan was excited, no excited wasn't the word, he was ecstatic. He started dancing while sitting, pumping his arm back and forth in excitement. If it wasn't so early, he would have screamed.

Now that he had succeeded once, he wanted to try and see how much he could push out and control at once. Evan waited for his body to circulate the energy once again to the point that he could push it out. This was a long time as his energy moved so slowly, taking around 5 minutes of waiting. When he finally pushed the energy out it was once again, a small dime sized orb.

Evan thought that this process took too long, there was no way he could collect enough energy to put the kind of pressure on a material that the book was talking about. So, he had an idea. If he could push his energy out of his body through sheer willpower, could he also push it around his body faster?

Evan sat back down immediately. He entered his spirit state, and instead of just watching the small amount of spirit entering his body and circulating, he pushed it faster. He was pushing the energy when he realized that a certain amount was deposited at the center of his body and realized that this is how his spirit pool regenerates.

He pushed the energy as fast as he could around his body, he didn't stop and discharge the energy, but was trying to build energy up into a larger mass. In order to do this, he had to intentionally avoid the pathway that led to his spirit pool. He made around 20 revolutions in 5 minutes, this created a nice line of energy that started to swell, stretching his spirit pathways. This felt like someone injected lava into his veins, but he persisted. He didn't do this for Feldman, but to see how far he could push himself.

Feldman was just waking up at this moment. He may have destroyed his pathways, but after years of fine spirit control, he had very acute senses to released spirit. He felt in a minute that Evan was using spirit. This should be impossible though. Fortisians weren't able to use their abilities until their ascension, which would happen when they entered manhood at 13. Alchemists could expel pure spirit before this but without a master to teach you how, it was basically impossible to do.

Evan was pushing his energy out of his fingertips at this moment, condensing the spirit into a large basketball sized orb of invisible energy. Pure spirit energy couldn't be seen, but if someone was experienced enough, they would be able to feel it as if they could see it.

Feldman had just opened his door in time to witness Evan's spirit energy condensing in front of him. Evan hadn't noticed him yet.

Evan had his back to Feldman's door, so he couldn't see him. And he was so immersed in controlling his spirit that he didn't hear the door open. Now that he had the spirit, Evan wanted to attempt to temper something. There was a small window not too far from Evan, so he slowly walked over while keeping his orb intact, which was very taxing on the mind. He leaned out of the window, looking for something to temper, he noticed a small purple flower growing in a patch of grass.

Evan started reciting the process from the book. 'First create a dome above the material using the spirit first as a barrier, then fill in the area with spirit slowly.'

He created the barrier with ease. After all the minute changes in direction he had to control in his own body, creating a dome was super easy. From here he slowly started pushing his energy into the dome. The dome was full after only half of his energy had entered it, this caused Evan to use his willpower to force the remaining energy in. The difficulty increased tremendously after every little bit was forced in. He had only forced about 65% of his energy into the dome when cracks started to appear. Evan tried to reinforce the barrier, but it was too late. The barrier crashed.

Evan was able to temper the material 44%. That means that the material would be able to now take 44% of previous stress before the spirit energy inside would disperse. That translated to being 44% stronger against all physical and spiritual attacks. He was quite satisfied with this progress.

"Marvelous." A faint whisper was heard behind Evan's shoulder.

Feldman was shocked. A single word escaped his mouth, leaving his jaw slack and color draining from his face. As far as he was concerned, Evan was an Alchemical prodigy. This should be out right impossible. Not only was the kid able to release spirit energy on his own, but he even started tempering a material. All after one night and reading an incomplete book. There should be no way that this is possible.

At the same time Feldman spoke, Evan heard the familiar robotic voice in his mind.

*Alchemy Creative Art: Apprentice Download Complete.

Unlocked Creative Art.

Gained Creative Art Tool: Refinement Fire *

The notification came in, and as it did, he felt an immense heat rise up from the center of his chest. It was growing rapidly, starting in his spirit pool, and spreading through his spirit pathways. There was an explosive feeling of power bursting through. As the fire approached his pathway exits, they slowed down, surrounding the pathway dead-ends. The flames were slowly seeping into the barriers that create his pathways.

"Evan, did your father teach you this?" Feldman had grabbed Evan by the shoulders and turned him around to look him in the eyes.

"Sir, I haven't seen either of my parents in 8 days. I am a 4-year-old child who was on the verge of starving yesterday. Do you think my parents cared enough to teach me anything?" Evan's retort was cold and calculated, giving Feldman a bit of a shock. But it was understandable under these circumstances.

"Then, you are the most talented Alchemist I have ever met, and it would be an honor to teach you." Feldman was extremely impressed with the child. He himself was a very talented Alchemist and it took him 3 years to learn to temper properly and that was after his ascension. Evan had done it within 18 hours of learning anything about Alchemy. This was just obscene.

As promised Feldman would teach him. This started a very rough schedule for Evan. He was taught all of the chores with the animals. Many of which were simple enough but very grueling. The food was heavy, and he was regularly chased by the Clucks. The pens were disgusting, so he would shovel the largest piles, as fast as he could.

All other time was used strictly for Alchemy. Evan was progressing quickly, retaining every single tip and trick that Feldman would give. Within 2 days he was tempering materials to 3 times their previous strength. This was equivalent to 300% tempering. The average plant would need at least 20 times temper to withstand the refinement process. This was for a non-ranked plant to become an F ranked elixir, it would need to be tempered at least 20 times the normal sturdiness in order to withstand the refinement flames.