Mage And Wolf
Chapter 146

Chapter 146: Chapter 146

The date is set one week after Mica’s breakthrough to give time for all the full Priests of The Dragon clergy to come, as well as the influential Sect Leaders.

When they find out that Drakor has a new High Priestess, by rights ruler of their country, all objections to having a feast right after a festival are gone.

I’m a bit concerned about the location, but Mica assures me that holding it at the sect as neutral ground won’t offend anyone, as she’s not planning to rule the nation, just her own secluded Cathedral.

Two days to the feast, me and Karl are both feeling the incoming need to breakthrough. I can also feel a presence from the twin dragon totem, but I don’t think its gift will be with me this time. I’ll have to wait until I’m a bit more powerful.

I inform Karl of the fact, and we make plans to stay here as long as necessary, helping Mica get set up with a minimal staff now that any potentially incriminating documents have been searched and tidied downstairs. In fact, they’ve got everything ready down there, the two of them going all out to repair spells and replace essential items until the place is fully furnished.

Karl even made a replacement for our beanbag chair.

We inform Mica we will be in the much more secluded basement area tonight, and she smiles a knowing grin, offering to take the Nanny suite upstairs as her own to keep track of our guests.

They’re all doing fantastic. Very low on materials, they’ve all at least managed to create some of each of the requested recipes. Polymorphism, invisibility and grade 4 sensory enhancement that should, in theory, make their senses almost as sharp as mine for a while. Lacking only practice in using them.

"Two days to the feast, everyone. Tomorrow is a travel day, and you’ll be headed home after that, so write the name of one low grade mythical pill on this paper, and I’ll draw one at random for us all to make. Assuming we can gather the material, that is."

Everyone talks excitedly about legends, myths and even stories of the, no longer worshiped on this planet, God of Alchemy. After an hour, I hustle them along to write their desired recipes.

There’s laughter, giggling and serious faces as they place their nomination and I make a big show of shaking up the jar they’re in before having Karl draw a slip at random.

"And the winner is, drumroll please" I drum on the floor, making the alchemists laugh. "The amphibious breathing pill"

Groans go up, and one disciple calls, "Couldn’t you have picked something more fun?"

A teal blue robed disciple shrugs, "I live by the ocean. Do you know how cool it would be to breathe underwater? I could dive every reef, see every bottom hiding fish in the coral."

"You can do that with the polymorphism pill once you know what a mermaid looks like in person. But this pill is much easier to make. It’s actually a grade 1 pill."

"Wait, back up. Mermaids are a real thing?" Michelle asks, excited.

"They are, just maybe not in this world. A bunch have come to mine. Territorial I’m told, but intelligent and skilled craftsmen." I reply, smiling.

"But back to the pill at hand. Please find these six ingredients. They’re all grade zero non magical plants, so if you’re short, I can make up the difference."

Karl ends up making a large number of plants, as all were found, but not in significant quantities. One was even just a single plant I picked from the ruins while we cleared rubble.

"Alright, this takes four hours, so no live demo today. The instructions are on the board" I nod, and they all make notes to take to their alchemy rooms, so I settle down to make my own. Who knows when a long swim will be just the thing, right?

Today Karl and Mica, who have a reasonably decent talent in Arcane magic, are getting to the lights on the main floor. Setting them to go on and off with a clergy command, so she can control how much excess energy is burnt on lighting the place up.

She’s got a friend from the red junior clergy who runs an orphanage in the bad part of town, and she intends to bring them here with the children, as well as a total of four other clergy members to help look after the mountain. A total staff of six is pretty spartan, but she likes her quiet time quite a bit. Before considering her friend’s orphanage, she only intended to bring one other disciple plus Michelle.

"The kids can even help maintain the area." I agree with her plan to bring the orphanage here. "Teach them through their job skills apprenticeship and send them out into the world skilled and looking for work."

"Good idea. I’ll mix skills so we have someone who can do everything." She agrees.

Karl’s energy is beginning to become unstable, on the brink of a repressed breakthrough, so we retire downsides to the beanbag chair, where he immediately vanishes his robes with a thought but is still holding something in his hand.

Are those Mittens? Leather mittens that latch and lock at the wrist.

"Will you help me out? I suspect they’re impossible to put on or remove by oneself." I giggle, seeing how serious he was about not getting clawed.

I set the necessary pills on the table beside the chair before extending my hands. Karl gently works my hands into the mittens, designed with an inner form to keep your fingers curled. He fiddles with the position until they’re just right before latching them tight and locking a small padlock on them.

Hey, that wasn’t in the plan! Karl pulls me into a big hug, and I relax against his chest, taking in the flow of energy coming off him that has always felt so very good. There’s just something about his magic signature that my body can’t get enough of.

While I’m distracted by his energy, he takes the opportunity to clip my mittens together behind my back, smiling and kissing my cheek before settling back into the chair.

"Now that’s a thing of beauty," he sighs as I vanish my robes and stalk towards him, the feeling of impending breakthrough beginning to mix with something more primal.

The breakthrough lasts over an hour, pushing us through three ranks and almost to a fourth breakthrough before finally subsiding. Even the need to grab the pills from the side table with my teeth, for lack of available hands, doesn’t slow the flow of energy. The area disturbed this time was far more than a few inches from our bodies.

The breakthrough might have ended in an hour, but the cultivation continued until dawn.

"Fine, I’ll unlock the mitts so you can cook breakfast. The others will be up soon anyhow." Karl finally agrees as we head towards the recently remodelled showers, and I laugh. It’s not like I couldn’t just rip them apart if I wanted, but where’s the fun in that?

"I thought the prospect of a good bacon based meal might enlighten you," I giggle, enjoying this side of Karl.

The fact we both gained three levels in the Condensation Realm overnight is not missed by anyone present, the sense of awe palpable.

"At this rate, you’ll be Core Formation within the month and immortal within the decade." Mica sighs, thinking of the centuries she spent getting to that point.

"It is all about the Goddesses favour and just the right cultivation technique," Karl grins, winking at me, the inside joke lost on the crowd.

"Food is ready, everyone. Dig in, and let’s start heading for the Sacred Thunder Sect grounds. They’re bound to get busy by the end of the day, and I don’t feel like standing in line."

There’s a minor panic as everyone starts packing up their cauldrons and realizes just how many precious pills they’re carrying. Between us is the sort of wealth that few Sect treasuries can match in this knowledge starved world.

Speaking of which, "Mica, what have the Blue Priestesses been doing this last thousand years? How did so much get forgotten?"

The newly minted High Priestess sighs, "At the end of the war, the Blue, Black and White were all eliminated to the very last soul. Only a handful of red survived in the orphanages, and they hid their robes for many years, losing the favour of the War God. Silver and Green are the strongest at the moment, both with full Priestesses, but bronze and gold both decided to retreat to other worlds."

"If you see purple robes here, those are the silver dragons; they altered their robe colour many millennia ago to look more like Arcane energy," Michelle adds.

"They thought wearing silver cloth over silver scales made them look gaudy like the gold, so they changed."