CHAPTER 19: Unexpected Encounter

Chapter 19: Unexpected Encounter

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After dismissing the attendant, Yan Mei got back to work. 

It had been several months since she had become a one-star adept, and she thought it was time to move to the next step: creating a mid-quality grade one pill.

To become a full-fledged alchemist, one needed to be able to create at least a low-level grade one pill. Grade one pills were the simplest to create.

Every alchemist, to advance from apprentice to adept, had to be capable of creating at least one low-level grade one pill.

Pills were divided into grades, and each grade was subdivided into three levels, indicating the purity of each pill.

Low-level pills had to have a purity of at least 25%, mid-level ones at least 50%, and high-level ones had to exceed 75%.

Creating a pill while trying to eliminate as many impurities as possible was challenging.

The higher the grade, the more difficult it became.

Eliminating the impurities contained in the ingredients was no simple task.

In fact, the highest purity percentage that alchemists had managed to achieve, even with grade one pills, was 99%.

No one had yet succeeded in creating a perfect pill.

Only masters and grandmasters could reach purity percentages exceeding 95%.

For anyone else, creating a pill that even remotely approached this value was already a source of pride.

Yan Mei, who had always considered herself extremely talented, intended to surpass this percentage and achieve perfection in a pill.

Therefore, she did not hesitate to use her family's substantial resources to practice alchemy every single day.

Today, for her, would be a day when she would take a step forward on the path that would one day lead her to her goal, a step that was interrupted by these two individuals.

She stared, stunned, at the chaos these two had created.

Recognizing one of them as the attendant from earlier, she could not help but say angrily,

"You... I hope you have a good explanation for me; otherwise, I'll make you both regret being born,"

she said menacingly, looking straight into the eyes of the attendant, who was getting up.

The attendant, still coming to terms with what had happened, felt a chill down his spine hearing the threatening voice from behind.

While the attendant was about to face Yan Mei's wrath, the true culprit of all this was still unconscious.

***

In an unknown place, devoid of anything, a boy lay.

The surface on which the boy was lying seemed to be a thin mirror of water, covered by a transparent layer preventing his body from sinking.

At that moment, the boy, who had been lying there for who knows how long, began to wake up.

Ethan, after being knocked out by the strange ball of light, finally woke up.

Struggling to get up, he carefully looked around, only to fail to recognize the place where he currently was.

"Where am I?" he wondered, trying to recall what had happened.

His head still ached a bit, and no matter how hard he thought, he could not remember a place like this or how he had ended up there.

At that moment, a voice echoed in the place. "I see you have finally woken up, human," said the voice.

Startled by the sudden voice, Ethan jumped in surprise and horror, quickly looking around for the speaker, but as before, he saw only an endless white, empty space.

'Maybe I imagined it?' he wondered as he began to calm down a bit.

"You didn't imagine it.

Look below you," the voice echoed once more.

Ethan, who had just calmed down, stiffened again and slowly lowered his gaze to the mirror of water he was standing on.

At first, he saw only his blurry reflection, but when he tried to look more closely, he saw something that completely shocked him.

Beneath him, beyond the invisible layer preventing him from sinking, a gigantic eye was staring at him.

The iris of the eye was a deep, luminous blue, as if the sky was contained within it.

The large eye had a long, sharp slit in the center that opened slightly.

It was so large that it surpassed Ethan's size. It was the pupil of the creature's eye.

The eye blinked once and then moved, disappearing gradually as a large white surface full of scales moved in the depths.

Ethan, seeing this scene, was petrified with fear. He began to sweat profusely, imagining the size of the rest of the creature's body.

'Yes, this is definitely a dream.

Wake up, Ethan,

wake up,

FAST!' he told himself as he slapped his face hard.

But when he finished, he saw that he was still in that place.

"Boy, I don't know what mental problems afflict you, but calm down.

I won't eat you, not that I could, as I am trapped here," said the voice of the figure.

Hearing what the creature had just said, Ethan began to calm down a bit but was still on guard.

Ethan did not know who this creature was or where this place was, but seeing that the creature had not made any move against him the entire time, he tried to calm his racing heart and attempted to speak.

"Trapped? How did you get trapped here, and what place is this?"

He asked, hoping to finally get some answers about where he was and possibly how to leave.

The figure was no longer visible after retreating into the depths of the water, but its voice still echoed in the place when it spoke again.

"What place is this, you ask? Do you really not know where you are right now?" the creature asked.

Ethan was unsure why the white creature was asking him this.

He was certain he had never been in such a place in his life, so shaking his head, he replied, "No, where are we?"

The creature did not respond immediately, and for a moment, Ethan thought it had left.

Then, after a few seconds, the creature spoke again.

"We are currently in your sea of consciousness."

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FRANK_LEE_JUNIOR: 

Here is today's chapter. I hope you like it. 

As usual, feel free to comment, criticize, or point out any errors present in the text. 

See you later.