The Alchemist Path 5 The Journey
The carriage that her "family" chose for her to travel wasn't a grand one, nor was she the only one using it, they only paid for a seat, so the driver sold the others to young boys and girls such as herself, in total there where 6 people inside it, herself included, a guard for each child traveled along outside, as if they got enrolled in a school someone had to deliver the news and if they didn't there should be a warranty that they came back to "repay the kindness" of "raising them" till that day, a year of servitude for every year living with the family was the standard but most often than not, they stayed for life as it was all they knew.
The journey was gladly uneventful as these roads had high maintenance and regular patrols so bandits, beasts nor monsters appeared, they stayed the nights in the carriage as the "traveling fees" didn't include lodge nor meals, everyone was responsable for they own food.
It stoped roughly every three hours for toilet breaks, which became a new experience for Lazuli, as a modern age woman she was used to certain standards, even in her parent's farm there was a bathroom and lavatory so going in the wild took some time getting used to, no toilet paper, no water, just going between bushes n "cleaning" yourself with random leafs,
It took a toll in her.
She read the hole five books in the first day as more than books they were like graphic novels, full with diagrams and pictures and little content, like kids books to help them learn to read. She though Mina chose those to help her in her "amnesiac" situation, as it was not that she didn't remember it was just that it wasn't her that lived in the 16 years prior, her mind was full of knowledge but as how useful the use of a computer and cellphones would come in handy in her current situation well, let's say it shall be seen.
She was a normal every day office lady, got a bachelor degree in pharmacy but ended as a paper pusher in a pharmaceutical company instead of a developing team or quality control that was her aim, she was waiting for her transfer before tragedy occurred, her new boyfriend the one she wanted to introduce, was the head chief of the developing team with a PhD in chemistry, a little odd of sorts but sweet as honey with her, he was helping her in getting the transfer.
But that was in a life she could not return to as that body was surely cremated by now, as tears started forming in the corner of her eyes she willed herself to stop thinking about it and keep on "studying"
The path of the merchant was the easiest as it was basic introduction to math and the law of offer and demand.
The asura, inmortal and mage was mostly the same just in different styles, asura was the gain of power by stealing power of others killing them, drinking their blood, eating their flesh, refining their core or all of the above, then storing it in the body's core. Inmortal was the gain of power by strengthening their inner force by meditating and moving the force through the chakras in the body in a certain order then storing it in the body's core this was called cultivation. Mages did something similar to cultivate but instead of moving the force through the body's chakras they moved it inside a model construct of a spell in the mind s.p.a.ce, and stored "mana" in the body's core.
So basically the three paths where divergents paths with the same outcome: store power in the body's core.
But what was the body's core? When she asked that inside the carriage the look in everyone's faces turned in ones of disbelieve, astonishment and mockery, only one of the other had the heart to answer her.
"It's a bead that all living things has where power goes, humans have it inside their hearts, you must have surely feel it while meditating, that warm feeling spreading from your body to your chest it's the energy getting stored away" after that they must have deemed Lazuli as an idiot as they didn't bother to talk with her.
The magnificent Albanian Empire was different, as a history book it was really boring and thick, she just skimped through it, put emphasis on learning the part of laws and law enforcement and disregarded all else about it, as certainly historian wasn't a career choice she wanted to make.
So she spend the journey reading and cultivating, once she got the feel to it it was as easy as the time binding the ring. As the mage and the asura paths, well killing didn't sound appealing and she lacked a basic spell model that was compatible with her as she didn't even know her affinity element and the book said it was highly important to choose the first model carefully, she would like to try it at a latter time.
What she failed to realize was that people here failed to see the three paths as one, as people that had tried to advance using more than one never broke through the orange aura.
In this world how powerful you where could be measured by the power of your aura, in order of strength they where: Colorless, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, then it would evolve to white for immortals, black for asura and grey for mages.
Hers was currently colorless with stings of red, an indicator that she would soon make a breakthrough.
By the morning of the arrival day her aura turned red, as it usually was the case when one turned 16, people also awakened their innate talent at this time, Lazuli's manifested when eating her breakfast suddenly a lot of information found its way and nestled inside her mind:
Jerky
Type: preserved food.
Original source: Common rat
Barely nutritional, shouldn't be consumed for large periods of time as it'll cause health deficiencies. No special proprieties. If mixed with common gra.s.s probability of properties changing for the better: 90%
So apparently her innate talent gave her knowledge, explanations and tips on things she ate, not to shabby and well suited for the researcher in her heart, but not so much for adapting in this world where best regarded innate talents where those combat related, but she was happy none the least.
She took the tip an ate some common gra.s.s along the rat jerky.
Common gra.s.s
Type: plant
This n.o.ble resistant little one is almost always frown upon and disregarded.
Special proprieties: absorbs mana, inner power and baleful from the soil in equals amounts, good stabilizing agent, easily burned.
improved jerky: nutricional, add a little boost to inmortal, mage and asura cultivation, last 5 minutes. Can be consumed for long periods of time and help to replenish energy. No side effects.