Mage And Wolf
Chapter 143

Chapter 143: Chapter 143

Karl is being stubborn. He’s not accepting my apology for ’mauling’ him as he put it. I even had to meditate in the beanbag chair alone tonight. But he’ll come around eventually, I did heal him after all. Not that I’ll point that fact out, it would only make things worse.

Just after breakfast I hear someone approaching from where I’m searching the yard for surviving relics. Karl is downstairs, rebuilding the enchantments on the baths, so I guess I’m up as hostess.

The group of ten stops in the clearing not far from the barrier and sits down. "Sect Master said to sit and wait once we get to this spot. They’re expecting us and will come get us eventually."

Good man, he learned his lesson.

They all smell of alchemy herbs, and two wear green acolytes robes, so they’re almost certainly the disciples sent to learn pill recipes.

Now, to dress to impress, or remain in my regular black robes? No need to intimidate them, I’ll go as is.

"Greetings Disciples" I say, removing Shadow Meld and waking into the clearing. Nothing like a dramatic entrance. "I am the High Priestess Katrina, and your Elders have asked me to teach you a few alchemy recipes. I trust you all came prepared?"

They all nod, some are even wearing large backpacks while clearly also wearing storage rings.

"Excellent now follow me to the dorm rooms and we can get set up before we start." There are dorms upstairs in the former orphanage, with enough furniture to house the Disciples. In fact, it could hold a hundred more if needed, the orphanage was a large space.

They look suitably impressed at the accommodations, simple as they may be. I guess they were told it was a ruined cathedral, I see some of the backpacks have tents and bedrolls.

"There are cold showers at the moment, but High Priest Karl is working on repairing the spells to get hot water and the clergy baths back online." This brings a small cheer. With all the alchemy accidents, frequent washing is just a fact of life.

Fifteen minutes later I’m herding everyone to the alchemy rooms on the first floor. Now, I’m not sure what they originally were, but they’re big empty stone rooms now. Perfect for alchemy.

"Now, so I don’t need to test all of you on everything. So here knows all 4 essential tier 1 pills?"

"Which ones are essential?" Oh, we’re starting from there are we?

"Healing, stamina, Qi Gathering and Soul Condensing. The names change at different ranks, but they’re the essential four categories"

"But there is no rank 1 soul related pill" one disciple adds and many others nod.

"Who here knows the grade 1 soul condensing pill?" Nobody.

"Alright, who knows the other three?" Everybody.

"We’ll fix that in a moment. Who knows all four of them for grade 2?" Everybody

"And who can make all of them at grade 3?" Nobody.

"Which ones can’t you make?"

"Nobody knows the grade 3 soul condensing pill recipe. It’s a myth." The same disciple that told me about the grade 1 version informs me.

I take a Soul Forging Pill from my storage "They’re available all the way up to grade 5, as you can see"

"I think I peed a little. Is that a cursed pill Your Highness?" One asks me.

"Yes, a specialty of the Black Priesthood. Only those who cultivate Death Energy can survive making them more than a few times." I inform the group, who all look crestfallen.

I put it away and break out a stack of the most basic of basic ingredients. Those for the grade 1 soul condensing pill. Everyone gets a set and I write the instructions on the wall in chalk. There’s a black stone wall in this room, prefect as a chalkboard. Maybe it was a classroom?

"Any questions about the recipe?" I ask the group who are staring like guppies.

"That’s, remarkable. So complete and descriptive. Aren’t you worried someone will steal your recipe?" A young woman asks.

"Well, you see, I’m teaching it to you all, why would I hide anything?" Please tell me they don’t all have different self created methods of creating every pill due to some insane sense of secrecy.

"Well, our teachers tell us we’ve got to create our own technique, or we can’t make it work?" One says a a question.

"No. You just need to do it right the first time and it will work. Once you can make a pill properly I’ll teach you how to refine impurities to make it better."

"Make it better without adjusting the recipe? Are you the God of Alchemy?"

I’m so glad I’m not a blue Priestess, because I’m already about to stab someone for failing to teach these kids properly. And we’re not even an hour in. I say kids, but I’m pretty sure I’m the youngest one in the room except that one woman with the green scales and robes. And maybe not even older than her.

"Yes, it’s the final step of proper pill creation. If you don’t do it your product will be random quality garbage. Now start your creation according to the instructions."

It’s a very easy recipe, and I’ve made it as clear as possible. Every pill is usable, with purity from 75 to 82 percent.

"Good Job everyone. Here’s another set of ingredients. Now, when you get to the final stage before condensing the pills, focus on condensing the energy and pulling out anything that feels wrong."

Some of them look like they understand, that’s a good start.

Green lady and one other get it first try, both create pills pure enough for pill veins, causing a huge uproar in the crowd.

"Pill veins, real pill veins!" A middle aged man cries. "I never thought I’d see them again."

"Everyone calm down. It’s a grade 1 pill. Every journeyman should be able to do that if they’re not pushing for quantity."

"You can set the quantity?" Green asks.

"When you are forming your pills, focus on multiple smaller bundles of energy. You’ll get lower quality pills, even a whole grade lower than the recipe, but more of them. I’ll demonstrate with Qi Gathering pills everyone knows."

I dig out my cauldron and grab ingredients for the grade 3 Qi Gathering pills, the base recipe of my grade 5 cursed Core Forming pills.

It’s an hour long process and they’re carefully watching every fluctuation of energy in the way I create them, many with looks on enlightenment.

"Now, see how I pull the pure pill energy from the impurities?" I assume they nod as I don’t look up "Once that’s done, split the energy into smaller clusters, now split it again and a third time to get to grade 1 quality pills."

I pop my pill cauldron open and pull them out, an even 50 grade 1 Qi Gathering pills at just over 90 percent purity with faint pill veins.

"See how easy that is?" They’re all giving me dirty looks now, and frankly, it’s hilarious.

"Don’t bother trying with a grade 1 recipe, just repeat it until you can get pill veins every time. Then we can move on to teaching you something harder. We’ve got all day."

And all day we take. But by the end every one of them has created soul condensing pills with veins at least a few times.

"Congratulations, you’re all rich" I laugh. "Karl says the bath is ready, so gentlemen please go wash up. Ladies, you’re with me. I’ll see you all in an hour for dinner."

I lead the ladies to a hot spring in one of the out buildings, surrounded by boulders, so nobody will see in.

"Only one bath is ready so far, so unless you’re feeling frisky, we’re bathing here today" I laugh. There’s only three of us to the eight men, nine including Karl. The hot spring wouldn’t hold them all.

"Who complains about a hot spring", Green asks and the other nods rapidly. "We were told to expect the shell of a cathedral surrounded by rubble in the woods."

"They weren’t wrong. It’s surrounded by rubble in the woods. We just happened to get water working with magic this morning"

I make fried chicken with mystic cooking tonight, it takes only three minutes to bread and cook all the chicken once it’s chopped, way more efficient than frying small batches in the wok.

"This, is this what you made for the Sacred Thunder Inner Disciples?" one of the students asks.

"No, I don’t remember fried chicken" a portly fellow says frowning. "You didn’t make it for just the sect Masters did you?"

"No, I didn’t make it while I was there. Three days of dinners isn’t exactly my entire cookbook." I laugh.

We wash up quick after eating and everyone heads for bed. The cathedral gets dark quick, and we don’t have any lights working above ground. I head for the Orphanages Head Nanny suite and find Karl waiting there with the velour beanbag chair.

"Peace offering?" I say holding out a leftover piece of chicken and he laughs, taking the chicken.

"Stay and brush my tail? I promise not to bite"

He settles down in the chair with the soft brush out, ready for our evening ritual. It’s good to be back to normal again.