Chapter 18: Ki refinement.

  “Are you ever going to speak to the twins?” Baroness Fey asked as Ark dug into his morning platter of eggs and grounded kernel porridge, completely unaware of his night time excursions.

  No. Is what Ark wanted to say, instead he sighed.

  “They… make me uncomfortable,” Ark said, “They look at me as if expecting something but I don't know what.”

  “Well they're your responsibility. They tell me you were teaching them to read? Maybe you can finish teaching them?” Fey offered.

  Ark clenched his jaw, between running to the city at night, cycling his ki during the day, and pretending to be Loyd, his schedule was packed as is.

  “You could take them with you to the academy.”

  “I don't like owning slaves.”

  “Then they're free, simple as that,” Fey said before coughing into her napkin. “I’ll even pay for their enrollment. I don't like you being alone at the academy. Especially with…”

  Ark glanced up, his eyes taking in the woman's naivatie and touching concern. Freed slaves attending an academy of nobles and wealthy brats?

  A surefire recipe for disaster.

  Then again…

  It wouldn't hurt to make a statement.

  “You don't have the money,” Ark said, going back to his eggs.

  “Well, once we sell this estate we'll have a nice windfall! Then we can surely have you all attend!” Fey exclaimed with contagious enthusiasm before throwing up blood.

  “Shit!” Ark let out, snapping to his feet as Vermel came out with cleaning supplies.

  “Oops,” Fey said, giggling to herself despite her appearance being pale.

  “Are you okay?!” Ark said, finding himself beside the Baroness.

  “Oh I'm fine. Your concern is touching though,” Fey said, hugging Ark while Velmont cleared the table.

  “How is throwing up blood fine?! You have internal bleeding! You're -” Ark blinked repeatedly, calming himself from his elevated emotions that had taken over.

  “I'm fine, Loyd, please… just consider what I've said,” Fey assured before rising from her chair and scurrying away to her room with Vermel’s help.

  Ireliex… is there anything I can do to help her? Ark asked as he watched the woman leave.

  “I am not a healer, and neither are you,” Ireliex replied, the little chicken on the table eating his eggs.

  What about resetting her clock? Reverting her time like you did mine?

  “Given how long she's been in that condition, the resources required would be waste,”

  “Can you or not?” Ark asked, turning to face the chicken whose face was covered in porridge. “I thought you said you didn't like human cooking.”

  “Humans and their sentimentality…” Ireliex said, ignoring Ark’s comment. “You would waste years of effort just to prolonged-”

  “Yes,” Ark said, interrupting the phoenix with a glare, “The pursuit of my goals haven't made me blind to the suffering of others. Especially not to those who have been kind to me.”

  “You mean to your host, these people are all assets. Things to be used for the greater go-” Ireliex replied before tipping over the bowl of porridge and sending the container and herself flying across the room.

  Ark sighed.

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  ****

  After breakfast Ark sat in his shed he had once used to keep Karja contained.

  Inside, he eyed the box wrapped with satin that contained a number of ingredients that Mask had obtained for him.

  Bought in surplus, Ark had spent extra coin to buy a myriad of other items to cover his tracks for anyone looking into his purchases.

  From the outside looking in, it seemed Ark had bought a numerous amount of poisons and curatives in bulk, nothing out of the ordinary for an alchemist.

  But, hidden within the box were five important ingredients, potent poisons that ingested alone would kill a grown man. Fortunately, suicide wasn't on the menu.

  “I'm not thrilled about this,” Ireliex said, “If you hunted, you could use the system to gain power rather than resort to this… alchemy.”

  Ark laid out his ingredients.

  Arteria leafs, a red plum plant with leafs lined with veins that pulsed to the touch.

  Blood Rose, a rose-like flower with thorny stem that only bloomed in blood and would act as a blood thinner.

  Erd Root resin, secretions from a large tree commonly found in the southern hinterlands that would turn his blood solid.

  A night owl egg, a blue unborn night owl whose proteins would bind the ingredients together.

  And lastly, a bag of dead swamp-mosquitoes whose anti-clogging saliva would allow his impurities to flow freely.

  All common materials found easily if you knew where to look. Fortunately, Mask did.

  “Well if you haven't noticed, there isn't much to hunt around here,” Ark said, picking up a pestle and mortar taken from the manor kitchen and mashing up the mosquitos.

  Ireliex grumbled. Clearly unhappy.

  “Kent! Sain!” Ark called out, the pair opening the door to peak at Ark busy grinding up several herbs.

  “Yes sir?” Kent asked, eyeing the pot of boiling water and fire pit inside heating a pan.

  “I need you two to make sure I'm not disturbed. No matter what happens, what you hear, keep the door closed,” Ark ordered, discarding most of the acquired materials save for the five he needed.

  “What if Lady Fey-” Sain began.

  “No. If anyone inquires, tell them it is imperative not to disturb me. All I need is four days,” Ark said, pouring the boiling water into the metal box. “If I'm not out in a week… then come get me. But until then, don't disturb me.”

  “Yes sir,” The pair said in unison before shutting the door.

  “Are you sure you know what you're doing?” Ireliex asked, watching as Ark threw the blood rose and erd tree resin into the boiling container that immediately released a sickly aroma.

  “There is a reason you failed to kill me despite all of our encounters,” Ark said before reaching over and plucking the most important ingredient from Ireliex’s body.

  A phoenix’s feather.

  “Ow!” The chicken yapped, scurrying away. “Ask before you rip off a feather!”

  “Consider it payback for all my years of suffering,” Ark replied before tossing the feather into the pot and preparing the pan to fry the night owl egg.

  *CHEEP!*

  “You little thief!” Ireliex yelled, performing an angry hop as she realized why the man had proven So hard to kill, “So that's how you resisted my powers!”

  “Secrets out. Every run in with you was just another excuse to acquire more feathers. Jasper taught me the method, and Liliana made sure I didn't die… it took awhile but…” Ark said as he stared at the brewing tea of poison. “We perfected it.”

  Ark frowned, thinking back to the time he once thought he could be sent back to earth with his power intact…

  “Just hold on Roland, I'm coming for you…”

  Before long, Ark combined his materials into the boiling box, the sickly scent in the air now sweet as the chemical reactions took place and turned the once brackish water of festering poison into a steamy blood-like liquid.

  “Disgusting…” Ireliex recoiled as Ark dipped his fingers into the mosquito paste and layered his gums.

  “Trust me, it's no joy for me either, but this should elevate my recovery by leaps and bounds,” Ark said, on the verge of throwing up as he felt the twitching bug legs massage his mouth. “Let's hope I don't die.”

  Ark reached down, picking up a mug to take a cup of his bubbling special blend.

  “Ugh. I can hardly stand to look,” Ireliex said, the chicken gagging.

  “Bottoms up,” Ark said, downing the hot liquid in one go.

  ****

  Two Weeks later.

  “My head…” Ark grumbled, his eyes fluttering open to the sight of a familiar black haired girl sitting on his chest. Except, she wasn't a girl but a phoenix and roughly the size of a fairy, “Ireliex?”

  “In the flesh.”

  “Hell, how long was I out?!” Ark snapped, sitting up in his bed as he recognized his surroundings to be more than just a farmhand shed he had been using.

  “Two weeks.”

  “WHAT?!” Ark yelled, rising out of bed so quickly his body twisted, releasing a crack sound with pain shooting through his body as he hit the floor.

  “Hells bells…” Ark muttered, his head pounding with a new found headache as his brain tried to keep up with his strengthen senses. “Well.. at least the ki refinement worked…”

  Ark could feel his ki flowing, his inner magicil circuits churning with strength as they reinforced his body.

  “Loyd! My baby!” Fey exclaimed, kicking in his door with a loud bang and hugging Ark who was too sore to react.

  “Squeezhing! Squezzzin!” Ark mumbled, unable to resist the crying woman's embrace.