Chapter 330

  Empty Success

  I was there, right at that sweet spot, the moment between creativity and actuality. For a moment I could feel the world pushing against my mind, telling me that I was nearing another breakthrough.

  It’s odd how familiar this feeling had become, this mental resistance to what was clearly being proven as scientific facts related to magical properties. Rune-Ulacrum and I had both proven the noted variables over and over, we had proven how these key elements worked together to form catalysts at key moments in the brewing process.

  Yet, the world still resisted.

  “Oh, she still does that cute thing with her tongue? I always thought she was just playing around when she did that,” the voice of Rob, or Robi as he now goes by stated. His words filtered into my mind and then going out. For whatever reason I always took that as something dirty that he tried to point out, but apparently, he was just referring to the fact that I apparently use my tongue while focusing.

  “Oh shit, we need to back up,” Gwen declared, a bit dramatically, but she did start herding Robi away, meaning I didn’t have to keep trying to filter out his words. Which meant that I would now have more time to focus. And that’s what I did.

  “Work, dang you,” I hissed low as I could feel the world and workings of Alchemy trying to slither away. Well not slither but pour. Yes, the idea of pouring away from a clenched fist is a better description of how it is to try to bend Alchemy to your will.

  Pain.

  There was a slight pain, as I apparently somehow bit my tongue during what was effectively my trying to encourage this stupid potion to change the way I wanted it to. Fortunately, my natural Regeneration was already at work healing the wound, but it did help me to realize I needed to focus.

  Which is what I did.

  I was nearing the end of my supply stash, for making a modified Extra Trait Slot Recipe. So far, I had tried and failed to modify the existing formula to make it a more improved version after dozens of tries. While I had managed to make the final version properly every time, creating potion after potion, I had still failed to create an advanced version of the intended potion.

  Poof.

  Yep, there it was, another mocking success of only being able to follow instructions. While the Perfected part was something I had managed to reach and maintain after the first few tries. I had yet to get beyond that marking.

  There it was, in mocking words, as if perfection was all one could achieve. In a way the system was correct, perfection was all that could be expected to achieve. Yet, I knew there was something more, if I just pushed a little bit harder, I could do something greater. The only problem was, I didn’t know what that next step would be.

  Tap, tap.

  Rune-Ulacrum chose that moment to tap me on the shoulder, at which time she took the completed potion and placed it on the completed potions table, before turning back to me and pointing to one word that she had written in her flowing script.

  There it was, the one word that instantly frustrated me, mainly because I couldn’t refute the claim.

  “Yeah, but what about it?” I protest, as I’ve clearly been at this for too long and either need to take a break, where I will lose this breakthrough, or I need to push through and force the change that I know is right there.

  Rune-Ulacrum just shrugs.

  “Is she arguing with herself?” Robi asks from a further distance away.

  Hearing him, I take a deep breath and try to calm myself down. Fortunately, Rune-Ulacrum is there and gives the angry glare at my STBF-Ex for me.

  “Yeah, and she’s losing, which only makes it worse,” Gwen adds, as if Rune-Ulacrum didn’t just give a death glare to that exact portion of the room.

  “I can hear you,” I add.

  “We know, but you might need a break at this point.” Gwen fires back.

  Hearing her, I want to protest, but then I realize she is likely right.

  “Gah, one more try,” I protest, then taking the potion we had just made, I alter the ingredients slightly. “We are so close.”

  Then like that we begin, well Rune-Ulacrum and I begin, while the others continue to comment in the background.

  “It’s never just one more try,” Robi declared.

  “This is the last try, before the next last try,” Gwen replied.

  Hearing their banter, I could remember how the two used to do this same exact thing to me, while I was trying out different crafts, or playing games as a family, or otherwise having what were seemingly great moments.

  Magical FLICKER!

  Rune-Ulacrum bursts in with magic, and pushes me away from the cauldron. I had gotten lost in my thoughts and had missed the moment when we added the stabilizing agent to the mixture to counteract some of the wild energies.

  Judging by her body language Rune-Ulacrum was ticked. I couldn’t blame her as I had nearly caused an accident by getting sidetracked with my own thoughts and memories.

  After the brew calmed down, I wanted to take over, but Rune-Ulacrum just held up a hand while she began adding in the ingredients in the same exact way we had last time. It was still going to fail, I knew it, everyone watching knew it, but I couldn’t’ quite understand why. We were missing something.

  Taking the time, I saw that Rune-Ulacrum had dropped her notepad on the ground. Seeing as she was taking over for my portion of the work this time, it would be all I could do to fill in for her.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  That was when I picked up the parchment and quill and began trying to see where she was.

  As I looked on and followed Rune-Ulacrum’s notes, I felt my jaw drop as I suddenly felt the tingling sensation of creativity come to me. For there in her, or rather my words was the final push needed to complete this stupid recipe.

  At first it was the same word, that she had pointed out.

  Yet, under that, were now different breakdowns that basically spelled out how I was being dumb and clearly missing the bigger picture.

  Seeing the words, I shook my head and realized I was being stupid, while Rune-Ulacrum was being exceptionally brilliant. Then pausing for a moment, I realized Rune-Ulacrum’s successes were still my successes and that’s when I spoke.

  “Oh my Gods, you, I, am a genius,” I exclaim as I lunge forward and first hug Rune-Ulacrum, before going forward and helping with the brewing process.

  After hugging Rune-Ulacrum I noted that I had a bit of ephemeral energy on my hands. For me there was no difference in the sensation, no tingling, or any other odd sensation as noted by others. But that didn’t mean that Rune-Ulacrum’s ephemeral energy from her own mirrored set of pixie wings wasn’t just as potent of a catalyst.

  I waited there, watching Rune-Ulacrum put in the modified list of items over and over. Then finally at the last moment, when the tension of harnessed energy began to swell up at its greatest peak, that’s when I acted. Moving forward, I lunged my ephemeral energy covered hand into the mixture and thought of the changes I wanted to exert in this mixture.

  Originally, I had been so lost in the idea of wanting to change for the sake of change that I didn’t have direction, as such the mixtures I made couldn’t materialize in the way I intended, because there was no true intent.

  This time though it was different, as I had a clear focal point that I wanted to focus on. Rather than doing something odd, like having one potion create two slots, effectively doubling the efficacy of the original recipe, I realized that would be too much of a singular change. Instead, I needed to create slow incremental changes that could eventually lead to such a drastic doubling of efficacy.

  That was why, rather than focusing on doubling, I in turn wanted the potion to empower or supercharge the Trait being learned. I could tell I succeeded when I felt a new system menu opening within my mind.

  There was a sound as if grinding forks in a garbage disposal that echoed in my mind. Once again, I was reminded that I needed to find a way to fix the problem with experience, but that thought was quickly removed as the remainder of the noted changes began pouring through my mind.

  Seeing the Title, I wanted to protest, but then realized I couldn’t refute the claim. I had done the equivalent of being a pegicorn who shaved off part of their horn or used a few of their feathers to improve an alchemical recipe. Not the smartest move, especially when I wanted to keep us pixies as untouchable creatures. Then again, the idea of being able to harness parts of my body for cash was not a bad idea. I mean there were blood donors who were saving lives or possibly feeding real life vampires, which could also be seen as saving lives with their incentivized blood donations. No wait, that is still a terrible idea.

  Fortunately, I was spared from that dark train of thought by the next portion that came to my mind.

  Wow, that was a long users guide that went on to tell me what I already kind of picked up about Alchemy. Namely, it can change based on minor variances in gravitational pull, and other anomalies at later stages. No recipe is truly a perfect method of achieving a singular result.

  I found the section on comparing the creation of Alchemical recipes to playing sheet music oddly enlightening. Maily that while multiple musicians can all play the same chords, but not everyone can play those chords in a way that produces music.

  Then finally, after going through pages upon pages of what were clearly AI generated notes on what Alchemy should be at its very core, I was given the ability to alter the Recipe I had been given by the system.

  Mentally, I knew that there should have been something deeper to this noted change. Something profound and grand about the gesture that felt like it should be the equivalent of me being given the keys to the family sports car, but it didn’t feel like that at all. Instead, all I was given was the base recipe, and then after the initial description there were standard sliders that I could mentally adjust as wanted or desired.

  The list went on, and it was once again shown that this was a once in a lifetime use only potion, meaning that fortunately people wouldn’t be hunting me down to sacrifice my body to mass produce potions, at least I hoped not.

  Still, this was interesting. The list of categories that could be improved upon was long and lacking in definition. Despite there being no true definition, I knew that this was part of the test at this level of potion creation. Again, the purpose wasn’t just to create things, but to create things with purpose. Meaning that everything I worked on would need to be directed towards one final and known conclusion. If not directly known, then it was clear that I should have a direction.

  While I could guess at the meaning of each Adjective available, there was still a slight margin of error that could be noted. For instance, I was almost certain that Learnability had to due with how easy the associated skill needed to learn the new Trait would be for the user. This portion of improvement would imply a deeper connection of the user and whatever Trait they were trying to utilize in the slot. Similarly, Adaptability implied that it would allow the user to be more creative with their uses of the noted Trait. Thus, a Strengthening Trait might be able to evolve to a form of flying, or maybe just falling with purpose. While Potency likely meant that the new Trait would be just that much more powerful. Rather than just being one times strength it would be 1.1 to 1.5 times stronger, based on the percentage I increased the Potency by.

  There were so many options. Similarly, there were seemingly few right ways to improve the noted recipe that would be beneficial overall. Particularly with just 50% to work with, meaning I could throw them all into one sort of universal category that would truly have an impact. Or I could spread out the effects to be more beneficial to more users.

  It was tough, and I had a feeling that after this one, I would likely have to alter the amount or type of ingredients entered the brew to create a variant that would have a logical change.

  In a way, it was amazing that this was the way I could cause even more changes to the guild and our future development. For a moment I thought about making one of these newer versions of Trait potions as rewards to my students who graduate on time, a sort of reward for them having to put up with me and all my quirks.

  That’s when I decided to make this a baseline support recipe. One that can and will be able to be altered relatively easily by me. Relatively being that I won’t have to spend hours or time researching the way the different reagents interact with each other and the different key steps of this recipe.

  That’s when I lock in concepts like 10% Increased Stability, 10% Increased Learnability, 10% Increased Potency, and finally the piece de resistance 20% increase to Resonance.

  Yes, from a teacher to student perspective on Traits this was perfect for Qi and Mana users both. It increased the Stability, or the ability to maintain the intended effect, the time needed to learn and strength of the Trait. Along with the ability to notice the Trait’s resonance and alter it as needed.

  Honestly, I think I went above and beyond with that last part. All my students will have to have a 60 in Spell Resonance, meaning they should already know how impactful this part of a new Trait can be. If used effectively, the student might be able to treat this as two or maybe three different Traits if they focus on similar effects. That 20% should be enough to take an average Healing spell, and have it transfer to healing Spirits, and possibly a type of elemental. Similarly, it could take a buffing Trait and have it enhanced to effect two other elements as well. The sky is the limit for an industrious student, and that is what I wanted with these changes. This was why I was slightly discouraged by the wording of the recipe.

  Poof.

  “Ohh!”

  The potion sprung to life, and suddenly everyone was made aware that we had in fact been successful in our co-creation.

  Looking up, I saw Rune-Ulacrum and realized I couldn’t have done it without her.

  “Thank you.”

  Then I took a moment to look at the recipe one more time and couldn’t help but wonder if I had been a little reluctant to fully commit to the new recipe, causing it to be a baseline effect of changes. Still, it was something.

  I was just contemplating these changes, when I heard an excited Penelope call out.

  “Just what do we have here?”

  At her words, I couldn’t help but shift my focus towards her, to see that the mischievous Umbra had apparently followed her here into our lab.

  Seeing the pup, I instantly wanted to get rid of it but then had the idea of using some of the beast’s hairs as possible reagents. An idea I quickly shook my mind, especially as I saw what happened next.

  “Get that out of your mouth, no wait, come here, what is that?”

  Gasp.

  With shock, I realized immediately what was in the Dire Phase Wolf Pup’s mouth.

  “Is that a human hand?” Gwen cried out, and she was unfortunately correct.