Chapter 110 - Alchemy

*(mood song: "Imagine Dragons - Radioactive")

Erik walked to Crabinas room, checked the bathtub's temperature, and put her in, cozy in the warm water "well then... what should I tell you the story about?"

Crabina: "hmm I don't know, but not about crafting like mommy, those are boring"

Erik chuckled as he nodded, putting his hands up "I promise then, no crafting story, well then I will tell you a story from my land...

In a land on planet Earth called Cantabria where the bio algae farms stand tall like skyscrapers, there are stories of some witches called Anjanas, who have great powers and who reward the good and punish the bad. And there is also a species of sorcerers who only think of hurting people and are called Ojáncanos, because they have only one eye in the middle of their foreheads. The ojáncanos live in caves and are always enemies of the Anjanas.

One day, an Anjana lost a pincushion that had four pins with a diamond each and three silver needles with a golden eye.

A poor woman who was begging from town to town found it, but her joy did not last long because she immediately thought that if she tried to sell it, everyone would think that she had stolen it. So she, not knowing what to do with it, resolved to put it away. This poor woman lived with a son who helped her find sustenance, but one day her son went to the mountains and he did not return, because he had been taken by an Ojáncano.

Disconsolate to see that the days passed and that her son did not return, the poor woman continued begging and kept the pincushion in her pocket. But she did not know that the ojáncano had taken her son and she believed him to be lost and dead and so she wept bitterly for him since he was her only child.

One day while she was begging, she passed an old woman who was sewing. Just as the poor woman passed, the old woman broke her needle and she said to the poor woman:

"You don't have a needle by chance?"

The poor woman thought about it for a few moments and finally, she answered her:

-Yes I have, I just found a pincushion that has three, so you take one -and she gave it to the old woman.

The poor woman continued on her way and passed in front of a very pretty girl who was sewing and the same thing happened to her, so she gave her the second needle of the pincushion.

And later she passed by another girl who was sewing and the same thing happened and the poor woman gave her the third needle.

Then she only had the pins of the pincushion, but it happened that a little later she met a young woman who had stuck a thorn in her foot and the woman asked her if she did not have a pin to help her remove the thorn and, of course, the poor woman gave her one of her pins. And she still met another girl who was crying disconsolately because the skirt of her dress was broken, so the poor woman used the last three pins she had to put the skirt back together and with this, she was left with an empty pincushion.

In the end, her path led her to the river, but she had no bridge to cross it, so she began to walk along the shore hoping to find a ford, when suddenly she heard the pincushion tell her:

-Squeeze me next to the river bank.

The poor woman was surprised but did as the pincushion told her, and suddenly a solid log appeared crossing the river from side to side and the poor woman passed over it and reached the other bank. Then the pincushion said:

-Every time you want something or need help, squeeze me.

The poor woman kept on her path, but she had the bad luck of not finding any house where she could beg and she began to feel hungry. She then remembered the pincushion and said to herself: "What if the pincushion gave me something to eat?"

She pressed the pincushion and a freshly baked bread appeared in her hands, so she, very happily, ate it while she continued on her way. Then, in a short time, she caught sight of a house to which she went without delay to beg, but in the house, there was only one woman who was mourning the loss of her daughter, because she had been taken away by an Ojáncano.

Compassionate, the poor woman told her that she herself would go to the forest to see if she could find her daughter.

She immediately remembered the pincushion and, not knowing where to start looking for her, she squeezed it tightly and a deer with a star appeared on her forehead. The deer began to walk and the poor woman went after her until the animal stopped before a great stone and there she remained waiting.

Bewildered, the poor woman pressed the pincushion again and a hammer appeared. She took the hammer and struck the stone with all her strength, breaking it into pieces, and revealing the cave of the Ojáncano at the other side. Then she entered it accompanied by the deer and, although the cave was in the most complete darkness, the star in the forehead of the deer illuminated the way.

And they toured the cave in all its corners until in one of them the poor woman saw a sleeping boy and recognized that it was his son, whom the Ojáncano had stolen long ago, and woke him up as the two embraced with immense joy, and then they hurried out of the cave with the help of the deer.

They returned to the house of the woman who was mourning the loss of her daughter, but then the poor woman saw that she was no longer crying and she recognized by her bearing that she was an Anjana.

And the Anjana said:

-This is your house from now on. Don't let your child go back to the forest without a care. And now, squeeze the pincushion for the last time.

The poor woman did as she was told and squeezed it, and fifty sheep, fifty goats, and six cows appeared. And so, as they finished counting them, they saw that the deer, the Anjana, and the pincushion had disappeared.

The end, did you like it? was it better than mommy's stories?"

Crabina rapidly nodded as she said "yeah, daddy's stories are much better but... what's the moral of the story? other kid's always say they learn things from stories"

Erik smiled and tickled Crabina "the moral is simple sweety, be humble and do good things and good things will happen to you" he was about to stand up.

Crabina: "wait daddy, what about the Ojáncano then? won't it hurt them if they now live so close?"

Erik: "well, it's an old story after all sweety, but I'm sure the Anjana would deal with the evil Ojáncano herself, or call lots of her sisters to help her as backup, remember also this, it's important not to do things alone" he then kissed her forehead "now go to sleep, gotta go sweety" and stood up.

Crabina yawned "okay daddy, have fun" and submerged inside the bathtub, falling asleep.

Erik turned off the light and closed the door as he went to his workshop and connected to his avatar body, waking up on the empty bed as the Elder's waited by the side.

Inky: "jeez, what took you so long?"

Erik: "oh sorry, I was telling Crabina a bedtime story"

Inky: "...okay fine, I forgive you 'cause that's actually really sweet, so... what do we need to do today?"

Erik: "acquire their technologies and secure the names and aspirations of their important personnel"

Inky: "...what?"

Erik sighed "we will go to that alchemy school"

The elders nodded and they went out, finding the 30 Rose puppets outside just playing cards against each other while guarding the looted weapons and artifacts in the middle, talking and cursing at each other as they did, but all looked at them at the same time and "Ah!" exclaimed surprised at the same time.

Rose: [hey don't judge me, I can just divide my brain and it's like there were more people... (;° ロ°)]

Erik rubbed his eyes as he put his helmet on [...so sad..., we will play cards later with you, don't worry] telling the elders "let's go"

Rose: [it's a boring job okay?... but you promised, so let's play later (ง⌐▨ω▨)ง]

Coming out of the palace they passed the guars and when to the plaza, many more crab men walking around since the rebels had moved most of their people to the shadow claw tribe, conflicts seemed to be rare too with the threat of annihilation that was the Fire tribe so close.

Erik stopped a nearby patrolling guard then "soldier, what's the way to the alchemy school?"

soldier: "shall I guide you there my queen?"

Erik: "Yeah, that's easier, let's go"

The soldier saluted "as you command my queen, follow me"

Behind him his fellow guards whispering "what a lucky bastard, I also wanna guide the queen around... she's so sexy"

"yeah... hope he trips and looks stupid in front of her"

Erik's face twitched as he could still listen to them but decided to ignore it, looking at his avatar body with the armor and all, and thought 'well, I do definitely look imposing...'

Minutes later, the soldier pointed to a big building carved in rock and decorated with hundreds of glowing lamps of different colors.

Soldier: "that's the alchemy school my queen"

Erik: "thanks soldier, you can go"

The soldier did a reverence "thanks my queen, this humble soldiers name is-"

Erik sighed cutting him off "ambitious aren't we?... fine at least you have a good aptitude, tell your squad leader to put you in the vanguard army against the Fire tribe, if you survive I will reward you, what about that?"

The soldier paled as he quickly saluted again and ran away.

Erik chuckled seeing that, he couldn't show weakness or they would grow too confident.

Erik: "well then, let's go"

They approached and could see lots of people going in and out of it, some carrying rolled parchments of leather.

Erik: [seems like they have a written language... that's pretty advance]

Rose: [it is indeed remarkable]

As they crossed the doors, lot's of people kept stealing glances at Erik and the elders, inside there was a big plaza like room with big cyan white lamps hung from the ceiling, dozens of crab men and women discussing in groups all around, to the sides lots of doors could be seen.

They waited there and soon an old looking crabman came to receive them, giving a slight bow to Erik "I'm sage Beritkan, what might I help you with my queen?"

Erik: "well, let's start by a guided visit"

Beritkan: "understood" he made a sweeping motion with his right pincer and hand "as you can see, this is the central plaza where intellectuals discuss their ideas" then pointed to the side "and to the sides we have free laboratories and workshops for our citizens to use and develop their ideas, now follow me my queen" they went through another set of doors into an even bigger room full of rolled up parchments "these are documents from other now lots villages to documents retrieved from the demon city long ago, sadly no one has ever been able to translate them, there were several tries torturing some of those demons but records say even the young ones refused to give in so-" he noticed the queen and others had stopped and turned around "what's wrong? perhaps you would like to examine the parchments?"

Erik: "not now, maybe at another time" inside thinking 'we need to take all of this back to base, scan them and categorize them, or maybe I can just bring a scanner here... yeah that would be easier...'.

Beritkan pointed at doors at the sides "and the side rooms here lead to reading rooms, citizens can read peacefully" then they went through a side tunnel and into a room full of glowing worms "and here is the glow worm farm" he pointed at workers tickling the worms and rolling up their silk, "we extract silk from them and also their glow liquid for our lamps, they are also a delicacy in our village, you can eat one if you want my queen?"

Erik: "it's fine, but what about other parts? don't you use prey materials for potions too?"

Beritkan: "those are extracted in the building next to this one, all hunters carry their prey there and the butchers and then artisans deal with it, they also make the leather armors and weapons that we use, do you have any other questions my queen?"

Erik: "no, continue"

Beritkan: "very well... there are two more areas left" they went out through a side door and into a field full of dozens of kinds of algae the size bigger than a football field, with plenty of lamps hanging from the ceiling "and this is our herb field, verified alchemists can designate their apprentices or slaves to grow herbs for them here to use in potion making"

Erik: [this I like a lot...]

Rose: [well, if you didn't turn the greenhouse into a jail you can always take the jails out and put aquariums, I've finished turning all into puppets anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Erik: [well that's a good idea but only some of them, I still wanna keep some jails, we will need a lot of workforce after all]

Beritkan: "and if you follow me" they went again inside and down a long hallway coming to a circular room 2 floors high full of rooms carved in the stone and with carved bone doors on them "this my queen is a room only opened to the official alchemists my queen"

Erik: "and what are the needs to become an alchemist?"

Beritkan's eyes gleamed as he said proudly "...well, obviously not everyone has the talent to become an alchemist they are required to craft potions"

Erik: "what are the most common potions then?"

Beritkan: "those would be courage potion that erases pain, rage potion that makes you forget tiredness, regeneration potion that helps you heal faster, and there's also beast baiting and repellent, along with poisons, acid and ink screens, there's also exotic or failed potions too of course, that's one of the reasons why this place is so separated from the rest"

Erik: "just one? what's the other then?"

Beritkan chuckled: "that's easy, this place is isolated from the rest" then clicked his pincers, and armed crossbow soldiers came out of rooms, pointing the crossbows at them "the previous king was a fool and I could do as I wanted, but you seem clever so I can't allow you to live, you took the power by force anyway so I will just do the same and then-"

But he was interrupted by Erik and the elders loudly laughing.

Beritkan: "w-what are you laughing about?!"

Erik: "I guess you don't go out much, did you see the assault?"

Beritkan: "n-no I was bussy with a potion..."

Erik: "well then, I was fairly happy with your performance as a guide but what a pity... now I will have to tear you apart..." advancing to Beritkan with steady steps.

Beritkan: "n-no... shoot! shoot!"

*twang!* dozens of crossbow projectiles were shot and easily ricocheted on Erik's armor, not even leaving a scratch.

Erik: "so primitive... it's refreshing" and grabbed Beritkan by the neck and was about to kill him but then smiled from ear to ear as he thought of something better, and started pulling one leg after another, then its pincers, finally leaving him only his arms "oh, did you pass out already? that's fine too" he then looked at the terrified crossbow soldiers and said "surrender know or fight to the death, your choice"

The soldiers looked at each other and nodded, finally jumping down as they took out their weapons.

Erik just sighed though and took out his weapons "come at me then"

Beritkan's rebel soldiers were intimidated but still charged at him, the first two he parried with his pincerss and split in half with his chainsword, and then used their corpses held by his pincers as shields as more and more enemies kept targeting him, only for him to gracefully evade and chop them to pieces.

Meanwhile, Beritkan in the back was taking potion after potion, some bubbling and others that had a glow to them, thinking to himself 'it's a bit of a waste but with my new creations I will be invincible!' his limbs regrowing at an increased speed, but looking way weaker as other parts of his body thinned, as no one was watching him he crawled to one of the corpses and started devouring it fast, his body quickly digesting and assimilating the flesh as his body beefed up and grew muscle all around, quickly regrowing its limbs and soon towering taller than what Trutk had in the past.

By then all the other lackeys were dead though, and Erik turned and faced Beritkan again, his hands now razor claws while his new pincers now were mismatched, one being big and thick and the other long and sharp, like a set of sword and shield, and his head now had no neck, growing directly on the torso, tumors and pustules growing all over its body "wow... you got real ugly real fast... I'm even more intrigued now"

Beritkan scoffed its voice not guttural "some minor defects due to the high speed regeneration, my potions can solve them over time but... you will be dead by then, with this body nothing can harm me!"

Erik calmly grabbed the rifle in his back and charged it to maximum pressure, pointing it to Beritkan who covered himself with his thick pincer "we'll see about that"

*Bang!* the bullet penetrated into the pincer, but didn't go through, just as Beritkan was about to start gloating though "w-what?! it's hot! it's too hot! aaaah" *boom!* the Sodium blew up the pincer from the inside, the caparace still being soft could barely stop his bullets.

*Bang!* a second shot went into his other sharp pincer then "n-no! please no more! ahhhh" *Boom!* the other pincer also exploded, the pain seemingly too much for a weakling like Beritkan as it started rolling around in pain, Erik didn't miss the chance though, and quickly took his chainsword out, cutting off its claws and then legs again.

Erik: "so now you work for me, and since you went the hard way I don't care about what you might think, can you go back to normal?"

Beritkan: "...no..."

Erik took out a slavery collar and put it around Beritkan's waist "well, do you remember that burning feeling from earlier? if you are a bad slave, then this thing will pump that inside your body, bad things like trying to remove it or attacking someone, so... will you be a good slave?"

Beritkan's ugly mutated face quickly nodded as his face paled.

Erik lightly slapped his ugly face and said "good good"

Rose: [arriving with reinforcements (ง •̀_•́)ง]

Then Erik turned as soldiers flooded the room following one of the Rose puppets "are you alright my quee- ughh" soon noticing the disgusting monstrosity and growing nauseous.

Erik came close to Beritkan and taking out a dozen darts just stabbed them all into him, completely knocking him out near death, luckily he was now hard to kill, then turning to the disgusted soldiers, "tie this thing up and add him a lot of chains"

soldiers: "understood!" they all saluted and got to work.

Rose: [will you really spare him?]

Erik: [dead he's totally useless, first and foremost... all that treasure is heavy, and this monster should be able to barely carry them now which also serves as movement restraints, as for his knowledge we will extract all that knowledge, perfect it and then I might get rid of him, I do wonder what those potions would do to something like Trutk too... at least it would be big]

Rose: [yeah, we will squeeze him dry ┏('▀ω▀')ノ♬♪]