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Elana was unlike anyone I had ever seen before. She was human—she had eyes and a face and a nose and ears and all the other strange and wondrous features that humans have. Yet she was different. Her ears were slightly pointed, tastefully so to make her look cute, but not enough to take away from her womanly figure, which was, quite honestly, offensively perfect. She was wearing a purple cocktail dress that showed off an hourglass figure that princesses suffocated themselves in corsets to obtain and curves that were perfectly proportionate to her shoulders, arms, and waist. Most of all, her natural face was contoured and smooth like makeup, and foundation had been applied to it by default. She would seem like the perfect woman—

—if there was not something unnerving about her skin and bone structures. Her face seemed to correct itself, always presenting the most optimal shading for the lighting and distance, smoothly and hypnotically, as if it were constantly gaslighting you, making you think that all human faces did something that strange and alluring. The more I thought about it, the more disturbing it became until it was all I could think about.

"You see this?" Elana asked as she stared at my gobsmacked expression. "This is why you invest in beauty. It comes with respect and privilege deprived of those without it."

I blinked a few times, trying to comprehend that those were the first words she spoke to me.

"Well?" Elana asked. "Are you going to stare, or shall you introduce yourself?"

I lost my voice and stumbled and looked at her feet and a tree and her face but quickly looked away. "Uh… my name… is Mira. I… um. I like plants. Uh… I wasn’t exactly… meant to come here. And… I’m not an alchemist. But… I want to… learn?"

Elana scoffed. "Unbelievable. The work we must do for your presentation is truly devastating."

My stomach sank more than my rage flared.

"Listen, Mira. Power is established from first appearance. If you bumble around bandits, you will get yourself killed. If you freeze in business negotiations, the other party will wring you dry. Business. Relationships. Danger. Confidence and poise protect you. They aren’t "traits"—they’re skills. And we must master them before the Harvest reaps your innocence…"

Elana flicked her hand. The grime and chemicals and ingredients splattered on my shirt, sloshed off my body, and my skin gained an ambient glow. My rough, fraying hair turned straight and silky as if combed, and my hands looked moisturized. My clothing morphed into thick leather armor with black and gold accents, studded with arm guards.

It was fake, of course. Elana couldn’t use magic in this form. Despite that, she did it and created an illusionary mirror in front of me.

My eyes widened when I saw myself. I looked like a warrior, sporting leather that had been cut by swords but a strong crest on my chest and a bow on my back. Two daggers were on my waist, and I had the chains of a necklace hidden, threatening the unknown. I looked like a war general. Despite that—

—my face was masterfully contoured with makeup, and my hair was smooth and refined. Having a beautiful appearance didn’t make me seem less intimidating—it made me look more horrifying. It spoke of an upbringing with combat tutors and military service rather than a life of banditry.

"You see now?" Elana created another mirror and showed my actual appearance: hair dirty and greased with plant matter, Darwin shirt ripped—jeans a size too large and square.

I cringed.

"It’s clear that you have never taken interest or concern in your beauty," Elana said. "Since you’re talented, I shall blame that on ignorance. But for now on, you will spend a paltry fifteen minutes presenting yourself in a mirror in the mornings or I will refuse to teach you. I refuse to let my pupil show such weakness."

I took a deep breath, holding back a deep pang of rage. My initial reaction was to tell Elana to shove it. I was in a forest, fighting for my life, and the last thing I cared about was my beauty. I loved plants. That’s all that mattered. I didn’t care about business or people.

Yet—once I witnessed myself in tailored battle armor and saw how terrifying I looked, I realized the value of presentation. She truly believed that it was necessary to protect me.

Still—

"I…" I looked around me. "But we’re in the woods…"

The muscles in Elana’s face slackened into a deep frown and she looked at Kline, who was narrowing his eyes at her. "Are you blind?"

He growled.

"No? Are you stupid?"

He hissed.

"Then why does your companion think you’re incapable of judging?"

"Point taken," I said.

"Then try again. This time, tell me who you are as if I were a worm that you’re forced to meet for diplomatic reasons. Do not hold back."

I felt a dull throb in my heart, annoyance yet excitement, mixed emotions in a cauldron. Then I closed my eyes and lashed out.

"My name is Mira Hill. A week ago, this fucked up system brought me here after telling me that my love for plants was worthless. Now, I need a diamond level information suppression request to protect myself from the throngs of gods and humans fighting over me. Keep that in mind before you bully me around, as my love for plants trumps my love for alchemy or any other art."

Elana’s eyes shone with cold light, and I had to force myself to avoid recoiling.

"Good until your hesitation at the end. Practice before the harvest. As for me, I am your teacher and patron god and you will treat me as such. Keep that in mind."

I nodded. "Yes ma’am."

"Elana," she corrected.

"Yes, Elana."

"Good." Elana grabbed my cream with a slight smile and then looked at my mana syrup with a frown. It was a rollercoaster of emotions watching her judge me. Yet it wasn’t bad. I expected this meeting to be transactional, but she looked like she was proud and annoyed and really cared. She was different—but she cared. It filled me with strange emotions.

"It seems you have a scientific background, so there is no need to speak of compounds," she said. "Instead. Let’s talk about the portion you seem ignorant of. Tell me: what are the two categories of alchemic creations?"

I thought back to my hours of training with Lithco while making different substances and answered cleanly.

"Heximedica and enchantment," I said.

"What’s the difference?"

"Heximedica creates drugs—chemical compounds of active ingredients. Enchantments store spells inside the ingredients to use them. It’s a self-executing ’program’ that contains all the building blocks."

"Interesting analogy. Now tell me—which category does skin and muscle health restoration fall into?"

"Enchantment."

"Correct. Enchantments connect to your magical blueprint, the residual magic flowing through you. Were I to cut off your arm, it would continue circulating in that blueprint. During the period it lingers, a balm can fill in the areas that are missing like insulation foam, reconnecting muscles and skin before the body replaces them. It can also use kinetic spells to reconnect bones in complex ways you cannot fathom. Here’s my question: if we have enchantments and fillers, what’s the rest of this do?"

I looked at the ingredients, afraid to get the wrong answer. "It cleans the wound and… restores energy?"

"Amongst other things, yes. So your health balms are a collection of cleansing elixirs, antitoxins, and other ingredients. By the time you reach fifth-tier healing elixirs, they can fix any ailment and restore your limbs."

"That’s… seriously cool."

"Now that you understand that, you should be able to look at these ingredients differently. Cleansing. Strengthening. Energy. Filling." Elana pointed at each of the ingredients. "Once you know that, you can collect ingredients as you go, then later ask the Guide for recipes to optimally use them."

My heart pulsed. "But those’ll cost requests every time."

"Yes. But the more ingredients and knowledge you have, the less it costs. If you would’ve brought your substitutes together and asked for a recipe, it would’ve cost a bronze request. Same for high-level spells. It’s conceivable to buy a seventh-tier spell for a bronze—as you’re only looking for validation. And considering that you already have the rewards for your quests, you will get requests in its place. Given your available resources, I forbid you to make anything without Guide validation. I’ve seen such hubris kill thousands of pupils."

I shivered.

"Now then. What recipes can we make with these ingredients?" Elana rearranged them. "Cleansing elixir… antitoxin… and…" She pulled a certain combination, including the balm’s base, that needed to polymerize. Then she pulled out the chemical building blocks of a human being. Salt. Iron. Calcium. She pulled out an entire shelf of ingredients. "A liquid binder," she said.

"What’s that?" I asked.

Elana looked at my knife clipped inside my pocket. "Cut me."

"Uh… what?"

"Are you deaf?"

"No. It’s just…"

Elana scoffed. "It’s remarkable how much work it’ll take to get you to listen without question. I said… cut me. Pick up your knife, and slash any part of my body."

I did, unsheathing my knife and nervously cutting her arm. It spurted out realistic blood, making me stumble back. Yet a moment later, a crimson ooze came out of the arm, shutting the wound.

"W-What the hell is that?"

"What does it look like? Give me that." Elana took my knife and cut her finger off without hesitation, and that crimson ooze shot out of the stub, recreating the finger’s shape all the way to the fingerprints. Ten seconds later, the red area around the finger cracked off like candle wax, revealing a healthy finger.

"No way…" I whispered.

"Yes. You have most of the ingredients necessary to create this. Request this elixir. Say, give me a recipe with nearby ingredients that use these, verbalize each and their properties and what you aim to achieve with it. Then repeat the names of the following enchantments."

I did, repeating the names of the spells she gave me, and I got a recipe recommendation.

—---

Multiple recipes match your requirements. The best match:

Name: Thalyndra Elixir

Tier: 5

Description: Wow. Nothing spells trust issues like your teacher giving you a recipe for something you are nowhere close to being able to create. But unsurprise! It’s really cool. This elixir is made of remarkably simple ingredients and a boatload of high-tier enchantments. It automatically closes wounds and recreates your limbs using your magical blueprint and reconnects just about everything to the point you can be nearly decapitated and survive.

Cost: Bronze

—---

The description triggered a vicious, vindictive argument between my mind and heart, filling me with euphoria that I was being offered a fifth-tier spell for a bronze request—but making me hate life that I was nowhere near creating it. It was bittersweet and tart, nearly sour at the same time. What a trip.

"This’s…" I sighed. "I’ll be honest, I don’t get it. How can something this complex cost a bronze?"

"Because you don’t get the enchantments," Elana said. "It’ll tell you you need advanced equipment—even though you don’t have it. Remember—this’s a recipe."

I smiled wryly.

"So I can’t use it."

"No. But…"

I looked up.

"Verbalize that you just want the same thing, only something just to close wounds."

I did and got another message—this one surreal. It read:

—---

Multiple recipes match your requirements. The best match:

Name: Illyndra Elixir

Tier: 3

Description: Wheeeeeeew. That woman just crushed your hopes and dreams just so your hopes would peak. This elixir won’t recreate limbs, but it will automatically close wounds, plugging arrow wounds like a tire goo. Best of all, it uses minimal enchantments and is within your reach. With a little practice, you increase your survival rate by 10%. Just make sure you pay attention to purity and follow the directions. There are side effects and warnings befitting something this absurd. Obviously.

—---

I looked at Elana, who smirked at me. "You’re going to teach me how to make this?"

Elana rolled her eyes. I took that as a yes and joined her at the front while she taught me how to create the base for it, skillfully processing ingredients and showing me which spells could increase my efficiency, like a grinding spell. It took away much of the romanticism of grinding ingredients, but watching ingredients dry, chop, and powder themselves, moving around in flowing streams above her body, mixing and marbling, and creating perfect mixtures filled me with a sense of wonder.

She mixed the ingredients, adding sap and a catalyst that broke down the sap into a very thin liquid, nearly comparable to water. Now, it just needed a monomer that would turn it hard—but that was the complicated part.

"What separates the alchemic tiers?" Elana asked.

"I… don’t know," I said. "I’d say enchantments, but I just created a third tier creation."

"Astute observation," Elana said. "If you need higher level magic to create it, you will have higher grades attached to it. However, you can also get higher tiers from the volatility of the ingredients and compounds you use. Your Awakening Elixir was, in essence, a tincture, yet it was a third-tier creation because the ingredients were extremely unstable. You needed to use purifying spells and control the airflow and environment."

"I see…"

"So what do you suppose’ll be difficult about making this elixir?"

"Uh… creating a liquid that hardens when it leaves your body… I can’t imagine that’s healthy."

Elana smiled. "Exactly. To do that, we need to create a liquid that stays a liquid until it’s exposed to air. How does that work?"

"You use a monomer that rapidly polymerizes once exposed to air," I said. "Like… super glue." It was a strange answer, but it was true. Super glue is liquid in the bottle but rapidly hardens when exposed to air.

"Good. How do people make such glue."

"Removing moisture and creating air tight packaging."

"And how do they accomplish that?"

"With vacuum technology and distillation."

"How will we pull it off?"

"Magic."

"Correct. And we do that with what’s known as a domain—the most important combat and defense spell you’ll ever learn."