Second Realm Read online

“Very well then. I will show you how to use a magical flame first.” Tan Xue inspected the ore he had collected and then checked the furnace. She threw the ore in, increasing the flame’s temperature with a wave of her hand, personally supplying it with her own Mana. Once it reached the desired temperature, she tossed in some dust from a shelf beside the furnace.

  The roar of flames made it hard to hear but her eyes were focused on the iron. “The flames burn through the use of Mana and they do not have any carbon in them. That is black dust. It is high in carbon. Be careful to not use too much of it. It can replace the carbon that one would get naturally from coal or charcoal,” Tan Xue yelled over the flames.

  “Got it!” Rugrat yelled back.

  Tan Xue watched for some more time before she grabbed a set of tongs. She reached in, pulling out the porous metal, or iron bloom.

  She slammed it onto an anvil. Pulling out a large hammer, she started to hit the metal. “Turn it!” she yelled.

  Rugrat grabbed the tongs from her and turned the metal as she hit it with the hammer, driving out the molten slag.

  With the two of them working on the metal at the same time, there was no need to reheat it.

  The slag was driven out and cooling iron was left behind.

  “Your turn,” Tan Xue said.

  Rugrat nodded and put the iron off to the side to cool.

  He moved to the iron ore and found another few good pieces. Seeing Tan Xue complete the process made it a lot easier for him.

  He threw the ore into the furnace and grabbed some of the black dust. He placed his tongs on the iron ore as it was heating up. Using Simple Inorganic Scan, he could see through the tongs and the iron ore it was touching.

  He threw in some of the black dust; he could see as the iron started to change, absorbing it. He threw in some more, his actions slow and careful, not wanting to ruin the metal.

  Finally he pulled out the tongs and let the metal heat up, turning into a bloom.

  “Good!” Tan Xue said.

  Rugrat just watched the metal, his body covered in soot and sweat. It was a pretty simple process but it took nearly two hours each time to refine out iron.

  Rugrat pulled out the metal from the forge.

  ***

  Tan Xue was impressed with Rugrat. At first she had thought that he was just a playboy; then he had broken down what she was doing, showing he had some smithing talent.

  The sheer number of monster cores he had thrown out as if they were nothing left her a bit shocked. Either he had an incredibly powerful background or he had committed some kind of monster genocide.

  When he had studied the magical flame and admitted that he had only used charcoal and coal before, her heart softened a bit.

  People who only used coal and charcoal weren’t usually from high positions, but those who needed to save every piece of copper so that they could advance their smithing skill.

  Seeing the focus in his eyes and the way he didn’t want to waste the iron by limiting the amount of black dust he threw into the furnace, her thoughts were confirmed once again.

  There was a time that I was like him, trying to do everything to advance my smithing art, coming from a lacking background. She shook her head, not wanting to give rise to the bitter feeling she lived with day in and day out.

  He pulled out the iron and threw it on the anvil. He pulled out a hammer. A spell formation could be seen wrapped around his hand holding the tongs. His hammer blows were quick and powerful as they moved through the metal, methodically removing impurities.

  At this relaxed stage, Tan Xue wasn’t only watching him; she was looking for something else.

  She could feel the Mana in the air moving according to his hammer blows. Tan Xue even felt a slight pull on her Mana gates with the Mana that was drawn in with every breath, and then released with every blow.

  He should be able to make Mortal-grade iron without too much instruction. A small smile appeared on Tan Xue’s face as she watched Rugrat at work.

  She had taken up smithing because it was one of the only things she could do. She was naturally strong and doing labor all of her life wouldn’t help her family.

  She had done it for work at first, but after some time she had fallen in love with it—the solitude, the way she was able to leave everything behind and focus on just her project.

  That was the greatest thing about it to her.

  It might have been what led her to her current issue, but she couldn’t blame smithing for that.

  Rugrat finished with the iron bloom, turning it into workable iron.

  “Huh?” A girlish voice came from the door to the smithy.

  Tan Xue frowned as she looked over, seeing a young teenager there.

  “Julilah! I told you that I wouldn’t be your teacher! Go home!” Tan Xue said upon seeing the little girl’s face.

  “But big sister Tan Xue!” The little girl pouted and dropped her shoulders as she dragged out Tan Xue’s name.

  ***

  Rugrat looked from Tan Xue to the younger girl Julilah before putting the workable iron next to the piece that Tan Xue had finished earlier.

  “Go home, Julilah!” Tan Xue said with a tired voice.

  “But I want to be a smith like you!” Julilah batted those big, sad, puppy eyes.

  “You should be off playing with other kids, trying to go to school or learning a skill that’s actually useful to you,” Tan Xue said.

  “But it is useful to me! You’re the silver hammer smith of Kaeju!” Julilah said, a bit of hero praise clearly evident in her eyes.

  “Out!” Tan Xue walked over to the door and slammed it closed in Julilah’s face.

  Well, um, probably best to do nothing in this kind of situation. Rugrat stood there, looking at Tan Xue.

  She seemed to take a moment before remembering what was happening before.

  “All right, so you can make workable iron. But now you need to learn how to make Mortal-grade iron. To do that, you need to infuse Mana into the iron. When it’s being heated up, when you’re hammering it, your every action must pour out Mana into the iron, to force it to become a grade higher. To increase your chances, you must also use a Mana flame; with coal or charcoal, it does nothing to increase the Mana within the metal,” Tan Xue said.

  Rugrat nodded seriously as he saw a small head pop over the fence.

  She made eye contact with Rugrat before ducking down worriedly.

  He didn’t look over as Tan Xue moved to the forge.

  “I will go over the technique you must use when infusing your Mana through your hammer into the metal,” Tan Xue said.

  When her back was turned, Rugrat looked over at Julilah and winked.

  A big smile appeared on her face. She held two big thumbs up before ducking down again so it was hard to see her peeping over the wall.

  ***

  Erik had left Old Man Hei’s with a new problem. He had a bunch of different seedlings, cuttings, and bulbs, but he didn’t have anything to grow them in.

  First he went to different stores, buying plates, bowls, and other containers. Along the way, he found a few places that were looking for hides. He didn’t sell many at one location, hoping not to draw attention to himself as he went from store to store, slowly turning them into coin.

  When he’d sold all but three-fifths of his hides he’d made five gold and seventy-two silvers.

  Seeing it was getting dark and most of the places that bought hides were closing. Erik took a tour of the parks, gathering dirt.

  It wasn’t pretty but he knew that alchemy wasn’t cheap and he didn’t want to spend his money on dirt when he could easily get some from the parks.

  After collecting enough he found an inn to stay at. Paying for a few nights and telling Rugrat where he was through sound transmission, he went up to the room. He threw off his cloak and set to work. First, he pulled out one of the Mana gathering formation plates that Rugrat had made and given to h
im.

  He placed it in the middle of the room. It started pulling in ambient Mana and focusing it.

  Then the bowls and containers were dragged out and he planted all of the seeds, cuttings and other ingredients Hei had given him.

  He took his time. Just looking at the different plants, he could recall the information held in the book Hei had sold to him. He checked that information against his Simple Organic Scan and then planted them in the stolen park dirt. Three of the ingredients only grew in water. Why do I feel like he’s testing me and throwing in a bunch of curveballs?

  There were plants that interacted well with one another and ones that wouldn’t. He had to plant them all accordingly. He even added in the forest fennel he had taken from Alva Dungeon and hunter’s nettle. He had grown plenty of the two but had harvested them at the wrong times, or in the case of the forest fennel, at different time periods.

  After arranging them in their different containers, he used his Plant Cultivation spell. With the stolen dirt and the spell to increase the plants’ growth speed, it was only a few minutes before the plants started to sprout.

  Erik moved to the smaller forest fennel. Taking out a pair of shears, he cut off the parts of the forest fennel that would allow the plant to reproduce. If it wasn’t allowed to reproduce, then it would just continue to grow, concentrating and refining the Mana around it.

  Erik left the forest fennel that he’d stored untouched; if he needed more forest fennels then he could grow it more.

  “Grow.” Erik had been able to slim down the Plant Cultivation spell to just one word.

  Mana that was pouring into him now rushed into the fennel he was tending to. The Mana in the room moved to his command as the fennel started to grow at an increasing rate. As it grew, Erik used his Simple Organic Scan spell to see what was happening within the plant.

  The Mana was like adding rocket fuel to a fire. The plant eagerly accepted it, passing from its first stage into the second stage. Instead of pulling Mana from the area, it started refining it, feeding off the excess and the impurities.

  Erik repeated his actions with the other first-stage fennels. The Mana in the room became more refined as it passed through these plants.

  He was greeted by a new screen.

  ==========

  Skill: Alchemy

  ==========

  Level: 18 (Novice)

  ==========

  No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.

  ==========

  He quickly stuffed it into his storage rings so others would not detect the increase in Mana.

  ==========

  You have eaten Forest Fennel! Forest Fennel can increase Mana Regeneration!

  ==========

  “At later growth stages, it can help one recover Stamina. Maturation of the different ingredients creates different effects.”

  He moved to the hunter’s nettle, trimming off a few sections to be used later. He cut off the thorns and chewed on a piece of the leaf. It tasted like pine needles and energy drink mixed together.

  ==========

  You have eaten Hunter’s Nettle! Hunter’s Nettle can increase cold resistance!

  ==========

  Erik spat out the hunter’s nettle and took out his camelbak to swish around water in his mouth to try to get rid of the taste.

  Erik had tried out these plants before, but now he was starting to see how useful it was testing them out first. Not only did he get a clearer idea of the ingredient, he could figure out an effect of it as well.

  “So, here I am, tasting random ingredients.” Erik harvested different plants and started to taste them.

  Erik stood, chewing on some ingredients, and rubbed his hands together. He moved from plant to plant, using his Plant Cultivation spell on them and paying attention to how they were growing. New ideas started to flicker in the back of his mind as he thought of other ways to possibly raise the plants. He didn’t act on these thoughts, knowing that for now, it was best to do what he knew worked.

  Later, when he had a better idea of how the plants were growing, he might be able to test out some of his ideas.

  Erik continued to work through the small bedroom now filled with plants. With his Plant Cultivation spell, it was as if they were doing a week’s worth of growing in just a few short hours.

  Erik pulled out clippers and other harvesting tools. He had been harvesting the hunter’s nettle the entire time—it was hard to mess up harvesting it.

  He moved through the different plants, remembering the right way to harvest the plant. He used his Simple Organic Scan and Medical Sight as he harvested from the plants.

  The two spells allowed him to see through anything that was living, making it easy for him to understand the plants as well as humans. He made a few mistakes but he was learning from them.

  There was something incredibly calming that came with working with the plants, Erik found, as he moved through the plants, tending to them, harvesting them and doing the process over and over again.

  Erik only paused to eat and sleep. Even that was just pauses between tending to the plants.

  He didn’t notice Rugrat entering the inn, or collapsing on his bed and passing out, or waking up the next morning and leaving for the smithy once again.

  He only looked at the different plants he had harvested correctly. With the information inside his head, he’d still failed, but it was a lot easier than when he had gathered different ingredients in the Beast Mountain Range for Alchemist Tommins.

  Erik had grown plants in Alva Dungeon and now in the Second Realm. He felt he had a good handle and understanding of it now.

  Now he wanted to try the next step: preparation and formation!

  Chapter: Apprentice Alchemist!

  Erik was exhausted, but more than that, he was excited.

  He had returned to the Black Cauldron, when he was leaving Old man Hei offered to let him stay at the black Cauldron and use one of the alchemy rooms in the rear.

  It was a simple place with a bed, bathroom and alchemy workspace.

  Erik had set to work as soon as he entered.

  Before him there were forty-one boxes. Each of them contained Winter’s Bane powder.

  As he had gone along, he had removed more of the impurities and he felt that the powder was stronger. It was like his ability to figure out what level someone was: the more he leveled up and was around stronger people, the greater his baseline for knowing how strong someone actually was.

  He had only just been exposed to the world of Alchemy, so he wasn’t sure of the strength or the ability of his powders.

  It made him nervous and one of the reasons that he had spent so long making so many different powders. He wanted to increase their power so that they wouldn’t be a total failure in Old Man Hei’s eyes.

  He looked out of the window and saw that it was day time. He gathered up the boxes and cleaned up the area.

  Three days had passed since he had entered the Alchemy room, a full six days since he and Rugrat had advanced to the Second Realm.

  He checked his notifications and the new glowing screen that made him smile.

  ==========

  Skill: Alchemy

  ==========

  Level: 21 (Novice)

  ==========

  No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.

  ==========

  He had only made the Winter’s Bane powder. Though, like with any craft, because he had made it so many times, the progression of his skill had come to a halt and his Experience gain was slowing down as well.

  ==========

  75,231/195,000 EXP till you reach Level 16

  ==========

  The Experience gain was minimal, but with time Erik knew that it would increase.

  With a deep breath, he walked out of the Alchemy room and went down the corridor. There weren’t ever many people in Old Man Hei’s shop; few peopl
e could afford his wares and he didn’t like talking to anyone unless it was about Alchemy. If they were sent by some power to draw him to their side, he would tell them to buy items or leave his store.

  Erik had no affiliations and he just wanted to learn Alchemy.

  Which was why when Erik went up to the counter, Old Man Hei smiled.

  “I’ve been working to make a few powders. Could you take a look? I’ll pay for your evaluation,” Erik said happily.

  “You made some of your own powders already?” Hei looked back to Erik, pursing his lips and nodding slightly.

  “Hey, I’m smart!” Erik said.

  “Keep telling yourself that,” Hei said in a bare mutter, just loud enough for Erik to hear.

  Erik pulled out the powders and put them on the table as Hei walked back with books.

  “This one is advanced preparation, this one is basics on powder making, that one potion making and this one is pill making.” Hei pointed to each of the books, which were grander and better-looking than the last.

  “How much?”

  “Altogether, twelve gold, seventy-nine silver.”

  Erik passed over the gold. He had less than three gold left. Erik had been able to get some gold from all of the different beasts killed at Alva, but it was quickly disappearing.

  Spend money to gain money and increase my Alchemy skill.

  He needed information on Alchemy, which was not cheap because it was made up from alchemists’ experiences and countless ingredients being destroyed. When looking at the price, it was actually a deal compared to the losses the different people who had written the book had gone through. The basic books were coppers and silvers but the more advanced books grew more and more expensive.

  Erik opened the books and started to fill his mind with information. Old Man Hei’s products might be expensive but the knowledge contained within was pretty advanced and easily understandable, making Erik wonder just what Old Man Hei’s background was.

  “How are you able to get these books?” Erik asked as he finished with them.