Chapter 5: The items, the magic, the work

A bright light flashed as the 3 covered their eyes, with the other hand reaching forwards and securing the items and books regardless of what was occurring. They may have been lost in thought, but their bodies instinctually grabbed them to keep them pinned to their chests.

The light dissipated, as they looked around the store was gone. They stood amongst trees inbetween the buildings where the store used to be.

"woh! Where did he go!" Yuki blurted out

Spectre looked around confused as well, but realized that the old man was a mage. What couldn't he do?

Apollo was wide eyed, that was like a waking dream! He was amazed at the mysterious powers and magics that the man displayed. He'd never seen anything like it, yet in that same regard neither had his brothers. People in his village had magical affinities for nature, for trees, to make crops grow faster, but it was a weak affinity for plants so being farmers was just right for them. This however was some next level shit he hadn't even dream of.

They each three looked at the tomes in hand and then down at the ground. They saw 3 rings each in front of them with a note next to Spectre's ring.

Drop a drip of blood on the ring. It said simply. They didn't know what it meant, but they bit their finger and did so. After they did, the ring on their fingers soaked it up. They felt a pull in their minds, and realized the use of the ring. It was a storage device! One that uses a separate space to utilize and extract objects in the real world to place them in it for use at any time.

So that's how the old man made the items appear! He had a ring too! They realized just how precious this was. They instantly hit the grounds with their knees and bowed to the earth thanking the mysterious man Nimbus. They couldn't understand why the store disappeared but he must be a travelling merchant and it's just what they do.

They stored the books inside their ring with just a thought. They could use this for all sorts of things! This would also lighten their load while walking here each day. They had brilliant smiles on each of their faces. They looked at the items layed in their hands as well, curled against a fast beating chest. What were these?

Spectre had a disk in his hand, Yuki had a jug, and Apollo had 2 items! Two dark earth colored bands meant to go around the arms. They thought for a second before dropping blood onto these items too. Apollo's bands slung up his arms and perfectly fit to his biceps. Spectre's disk floated a millimeter above his hand, but Yuki's gourd had no reaction much to his dismay. However he knew it was still precious regardless and slung it over his back with the leather strap connected just under the large gourds stopper and the bottom of it.

"Oh god….look at the sky!" Apollo pointed and shouted! Spectre and Yuki looked up and saw the sun was directly overhead. It was noon!

"Oh no!" Even the mild mannered Spectre called out in surprise!

"Run! I'll meet you afterwards right back here!"

They each glanced at each other and then stored their items they were gifted before smiling and waving goodbye . They full tilt ran at max speed at what a 6 year old could run. After about 2 minutes they each arrived at their separate destinations and took a step forward towards the new lives they would be leading.

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Apollo panting stopped in front of the grounds outside the main gate. The people who were training earlier had now fallen into a forward single file facing line. The martial teacher was standing 30 feet in front of them waiting for something.

Apollo slowly shuffled over and stood behind one of the trainees. The martial teachers hawk eyes already noticed him come out the gate. He simply said… "30 laps" and then proceeded to run in front of them along the perimeter of the grounds. It was 314 meters in circumference, 100 meters across; which was 942 feet!

Apollo followed behind everyone, moving step by step out of tempo to the rhythm they ran. At first, he went about 6 laps, but because he ran here he was already tired and not at his peak. Let alone the 20 mile jog just to here, he was already spent.

The teacher looked back, Apollo's eyes had deep determination to prove himself to his new teacher. The teacher noted this, before continuing back to running in front. After the 12th lap, multiple people were already dropping like flies. They were all about 10 years old and just aged ready to start training for martial arts.

However some here were new too, they began to fall with a deep bellow of breath and sides aching. Apollo dashed past these people. His side was aching horribly, and he was fighting back coughing and falling down himself. 12 laps were over with 11,304 feet, just over two miles!

The teacher wasn't even sweating a drop. Let alone his breathing changing what so ever. By the 24th lap of 4 miles, the boys in front behind the teacher had to stop too and catch their breath. Apollo dashed past these people too, his speed was slower then walking. He didn't stop though and kept the drive of his heart going, this kept him from blacking out from wheezing and his legs from collapsing. The teacher made lap after lap until he reached 30.

For those that stopped he waved his hands stopping them from getting up and then watched as Apollo walked at a snail's pace. Each step more horrible then the last. When he reached the 29th lap, he was crawling, taking few breaths as he did. Since he could use his arms, his legs dragged slightly as he shuffled and caught his breath while keeping in motion before he staggered back up. Going the extra last 100 feet while standing before collapsing at the 30th lap!

The teacher noted his perseverance, speaking aloud,

"This boy here is 6 year's old, with more drive then any of you 10 year old boys. You are all his senior and yet you failed where he succeeded! This cannot be let go, because from what I see. There is only one person worth teaching here and that is him! This is just running, not even lifting, squatting, push ups, or fighting. This is latterly the first step to it all! Until you each can run 30 laps, we have barely begun! Now, get up you dirt sponges and get moving until you complete the 30!!!" He said with a booming voice that got the heart beat racing.

Each boy picked up his feet and carried themselves forward, the martial teacher walked over to Apollo and picked him up. He walked over to a nearby water basin and placed him inside of it. The cool water instantly shunting down the heat his body was creating. The martial waited for the cooling process to finish, before thrusting his hand into the water and throwing water at Apollo's face.

"ahhh!" "What the hell was that!" He looked at himself sitting in a pool of freezing water and then looked up at the martial teacher. "Well done kiddo, you're my favorite so far"

"Really??" His look of praise was what he walked those last few steps for. After the magic shop incident with his brothers, his driving force to never stop was raised a level!

"You've had some rest, now since you finished first you will lead the rest in the next exercise…

200 PUSH UPS!'' His booming voice directed at the now last finished boys running.

"You may be tired, but you only used your leg muscles. You must equally use every muscle until you can't anymore! This is what limit training is! Pushing the boundary! Everyday we will increase the number by 5, it will be beginning tomorrow, 35 laps! 205 pushups! 205 sit ups! 55 rock lifts…" his list continued on for each appropriate muscle. Each new thing casting a big O on all the mouths of the boys hearing these hellish words.

As he looked back after finishing he saw Apollo was surprised, but training the body to its peak was just what he wanted! He will succeed, and he will become the strongest! He got up and stepped forward, flipped to the ground and urged his arms to lift his body up "1!!!" He yelled out, the other boys saw this and each one of them slowly but surely flipped down and pushed with all their might too "1!!" They each called in unison.

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As Apollo was going through the nine stages of Hell training his Martial teacher was beating them with… Yuki had just arrived in front of trees with peach blossoms, he smelled the fragrant air, before walking forward through them for about 30 meters before seeing an almost completely glass building 3 stories high.

He could see exotic plants all around the premises inside and out. Some in jade pots and some in regular plots of earth, each giving an aroma like no other thing had smelled before. He loved to eat plants, so this was like a large feast for him just presented by nature itself. He was a vegetarian by heart. It's not that he didn't like meat, he just found it drab and not worthy of killing farm animals to consume when plants were self-sustaining!

''Hmm? Ah! You must be the young lad that big chested woman that came by yesterday said she would like to work here. You sure are young, but if you like plants you could sure be useful…'' He dozed off after talking, this man was about 30 year's old, with a nonchalant and laid back spirit.

Yuki looked at him, then at the plants around.

"Make sure they are in order, there's a book that will tell you what they are… inside behind the desks in the back room. Don't touch the equipment *yawn*…" the man drifted back off.

Yuki really liked this guy, because he didn't react to him being late at all. Yesssss. Yuki thought to himself. He walked forward into the glass building, a rich and pure aroma of flowers and plants hit his nose. "Wow!" he silently exclaimed. There has got to be some good stuff in here he thought.

He walked forward past the desk, into the backroom the laid back man talked about. As he stepped through the door he noticed the equipment, it was glass tubes, bottles, grinding mortle and pestles, strange liquids as well as twisting tubes connecting to other bottles pouring juices of weird color and smell.

Coool. Was the first thought that came to mind?

He looked under the tables of the equipment and saw books lined on a 2 part shelf. He grabbed about 5 and then sat down at the counter to start reading. There was a whole encyclopedia of plants here! He noted each one, like the fire thistle that had fire indo energy within it. It was like grass that at the tip had a small ember, when it grew to maturity it would be a flame! There was also its counterpart, frost thisle. This would exclude a cold aura and when squeezed a drop of liquid would come out that could give frost bite to the hands upon contact or freeze a bowl of water!

Plants too could incorporate the other elemental energy of their environment. It was a natural adaption as well as combinance. Plants were a catalyst in nature to environments, this made Yuki think for a second. The old man said that he had a spirit of a plant that could merge with any element.

Yuki looked through a lot of the books skipping past the basic plants to the mighty plants. What he found surprised him, plants with multiple energies were rare. In accordance to how many they had, the rarity would in a sense be multiplied by that. A 1 element plant was common, one with 2 was 2x harder to find then one, one with 3 was 3x harder to find then one with 2. By 5 it was 5x harder to find the ones with 4! Just 5 elements was 15x harder to find then one with 1 element.

This might not sound like too many times as hard, but in frequency it was. A one element plant was likely to be formed in one environment of an element obviously. But the frequency specifically was almost a 1000 to 1, so for every 1000 normal plants one that was imbued with magic would be 1 in a 1000! This was astronomical, because for a 5 element plant which would be considered a heaven level plant, for each of them, there would be 15,000 normal plants! Do to the environment needing 5 of the elements in a perfect fusion, the likelihood of a place such as that was 1 in a million! Let alone finding 1 magical plant in 15,000 there!

"The world is a surprising place, Spectre would love to know this…" He continued to read for an hour, before finishing two books. He then proceeded to follow its directions and move plants or water to some other ones. There was a tool behind the desk that precipitated water at the top in a bowl, it was a focus of water magic and was very peculiar to Yuki. After water energy accumulated it would seep through tiny holes and create rain droplets.

If he flipped it over, it would pull in light and focus it onto plants that needed not water but intense heats to grow. This was a perfect tool for botany and it made perfect sense to have it on hand. He continued this until over a 1000 plants at the glass building were given their daily food. He then proceeded to walk back to the desk and read, every once in a while he would have a customer come by.

If it was for a plant, he could easily remember and find it for them. Follow the note at the desks instructions and weigh it to the 1000th and get the right amount of gold for the purchase.

After a while a woman came in.

"I'm here for potion 346, L." She set down a bag of gold on the counter.

"Potion?"

"uhm…yes?....Is the 'Alchemist' around?...'' she said hesitantly reaching toward the bag she placed. Yuki grabbed the bag and said confidently "yes! Sorry it took me a second to think of the one you were talking about, haha yes yes..."

"Uhm …okay. Well when can it be ready then?" she asked with an aloof tone of a noble.

"If you wait here for a while I'll go and get him to start now" Yuki again said confidently.

"Well alright, it's worth the wait of course as you know…" She said this as she walked outside and saw a man sitting down snoozing. With the fragrance of the slumber plant he was laying upon, which is a pant that releases a smell that helps with deep sleep, she too felt a little tired from her walk across town and so sat down and before too long fell asleep too.

Yuki waited for this, and then put on a cheeky grin. 'heh heh' 'wait…shit' if he wanted the gold from this he would have to make the potion himself. He looked at the door behind him. Stepping through it, he walked forward until he reached the equipment he had seen before.

He already read most of the books explaining what these devices did. They were meant for sifting, constraining, and purifying the essence of plants to be used in potions and concoctions of different uses depending on the plant used. Unlike magic, this was purely an art of mixing and tempering of the different catalysts and use of plants. Since he seemed to have a plant spirit, this may be useful in the future. He pulled out the mixture book of the proportions of plants and medicinal plants that needed to be used and how to prepare them for a potion.

He slid his eyes across the pages until he found it 'Potion 346, L.'.

It…hahahaha it's a love potion?! He couldn't understand why a pretty woman like that would need one, but hey? What a person wanted was what they wanted.

He began to walk around the glass building finding the plants he needed and then began to cut and pull the buds or pieces he needed from them for the potion.

For a 6 year old to be making love potions at an alchemist's lab alone…this was something anyone to laugh at until they died. He kept at it though as no one was around to tell him not to at least try.

After about 20 minutes, the dry ingredients were ground. The rest of the ingredients were prepared in certain liquids to ferment until essence extraction. He was ready! He grabbed a measuring spoon and got the exact sift needed almost to the grain. Using a compressing device to press against the body of a plant until its essence juices flowed out, it ran into a colander that caught the plant material before the liquid itself went into a bottle.

He then placed it on a stove to heat until turning it a red crimson liquid. Right when it did he pulled it off the heat, the instructions specifically say how long and what to do. Any longer and it would cause a volatile reaction or destroy the potions use. He slowly mixed it into the powder he had ground that then merged with the liquid until it was gone. Completely soluble to it.

He heated it again for half the time until it turned a lighter ruby red with a tint of lavender smell. He grabbed a bottle, poured it into it, and then grabbed a cork, he had the top of the cork in lavender water to give it a beautiful smell as it soaked it in. As he put the cork on, he felt happy and content with his creation. This may very well become a hobby every day at this lax abode.

He walked out of the glass building and slowly woke up the woman, she looked up and saw the well-made bottle with the sweet smell of lavender. "Looks perfect! Thank you!" She then strode off after receiving it in a mahogany box, with a note saying its use, dosage, and place to store it. Yuki even pinned a blossom to the box to make it look top class.

He looked over to the sleeping laid back guy, and then looked at the bag of gold.

*sigh*

He grabbed a second cloth bag from inside and placed it under the man's boots to prop them up.

He put half the gold in it.

As he walked back inside he heard someone ask "Potion 465, W."

"Huh?" oh a customer.

He walked over to the desk again.

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Yuki continued to create potion after potion, before even an 6 hours had gone by more customers came in saying they heard the alchemist here was brilliant and a perfectionist to the degree that the potions were never duds or weaker then intended. After a while he had a fat sack of gold sitting under his chair, he was about 6 inches taller because of the fat gold butt mound he was seated upon.

The mound under the man foot sleeping grew too since Yuki was splitting it with him.

The man would always prop one eye open when Yuki put gold under it and close it before he saw him looking. Every time he heard someone walk out of the building and saw a smile on their face, he knew he found the right apprentice to start teaching. However…for now he would let his apprentice keep practicing, for someone so young he had an easy understanding of Alchemy.

Gooood…..*yawn*