Mage And Wolf
Chapter 162

Chapter 162: Chapter 162

There are quite a few cultivators on the road the next day as we had to the city. It seems Caledonia, the city we’re headed to is holding a skills competition. Not one of cultivation directly, but for the associated skills that go with it. Cooking, alchemy, Inscription and Spellcraft.

"Should we show off for these small town locals?" Elder Song asks.

"It would be good practice before the Open Tournament begins. I heard we might not have time for life skills competitions this year due to the change in schedule?"

"True, the Inner Court competition will be during the first half of the week this time, overlapping with alchemy and inscription." Elder Song says sadly. Me and Karl are both now in the Core Formation Realm, no way would the open tournament accept us as outer disciples. In most local Sects, we’d be close to, if not already, becoming Elders.

"I’ll win cooking and alchemy, you take inscription and spellcraft?" I tease Karl, making him and Elder Song laugh.

As we approach the lineup at gates, Elder Song lets a bit of his aura slip so that the people around him can sense his cultivation level. There’s a lot of pushing and arguing over spots in line, the outer Sect competition spots are limited and everyone wants a shot to compete. But none of their pushing reaches us.

"Divine one, if you’re here with your disciples to spectate, you can bypass the line." a guard comes up to inform us.

"No, I would like for them to compete in the tournament, two competitions each." Elder Song informs him and the man takes a good look at us with a bit of startled look, just now noticing our cultivation.

"Two for the Inner Sect competition? Right this way then." He gestures us to the front and the crowd parts.

"I would prefer to compete in cooking and alchemy." I inform the clerk with a smile and he hands me a pair of silver tokens.

"And I will take inscription and Spell Crafting." Karl says firmly when the clerk looks up at him.

"I must verify, you are a mage type cultivator?" The clerk says with interest. Mages are rare here, as it’s harder to cultivate than the similar mystic path.

"I am, as is our Elder." Karl nods, receiving his competition tokens.

"This won’t be an easy competition." an Elder in line informs his Inner Sect Disciples. "That’s the Shadowed Blade Sect. They dominated every single division of the Continental Open tournament last year. I don’t know what brought them here, they might just have been passing by, but it won’t be easy to beat them."

"The Mage I can understand having the skills, but who’s the wonder kid supposed to be? She’s what, maybe 14 years old and already in Core Formation. How much else could she know" his disciple laughs.

I notice he also registered for alchemy. No way am I letting him go without at least a little embarrassment. The format gives me the perfect opportunity for pranks too. Here, they set out the same ingredients for everyone to choose from and the contestants announce what pill they’ll be making. A little dig at his dignity shouldn’t be hard to manage, I’ll just be sure to line up beside him.

With Elder Song’s status, finding a suite is no problem. Tomorrow will be alchemy in the morning and spell craft in the afternoon, with the following day being cooking followed by inscription. The Outer Disciples will compete for the entire following week.

I dig dinner out of the tent and reheat it in the suites kitchen while the other two brainstorm what they’ll do for an original spell. I’m not understanding how that competition is judged other than success and failure, but that’s fine, I’ll see it tomorrow.

We turn in early because the alchemy competition is set to start an hour after dawn, entirely too early, but it leaves 5 hours to create a pill after the ingredient selection.

At first light, the Inner Sect Alchemists are all lined up, hoping to catch an early glimpse of the ingredients for the day. Even this early in the day, we’ve drawn a crowd. Everyone here is an expert in their own rights, and the alchemy aficionados don’t want to miss our announcements.

I’ve dressed in a pleated tartan skirt with a white blouse and blazer, a rich girl’s school uniform in both this world and ours. Karl thought it would be best to play up my appearance to mess with my competitors and prank the guy fun the gate. I’m still not the most strangely dressed here though. There’s a remarkably hairy man in a slinky black mini dress with green fishnet stockings on his arms and beads braided into his beard who definitely wins most outlandish outfit. Where do you even find neon green fishnets?

The selection turns out to be a variety of mundane and esoteric. I see clay root and spirit wolf fur and it gives me an idea, I just hope my target falls for the prank.

"Oh, look at the fur, it looks so soft." I tell the disciple who made fun of my age on the way in, using my best little kid voice. "Hi, I’m Kat, Young Miss of the Shadowed Blade Sect."

I can see tears in Karl’s eyes as the man smirks at me. "Well, Young Miss, I’ll do you the favor of showing you a true alchemists skill today."

He walks up to the stage proudly and picks a collection of ingredients. "As some of our contestants this year are lacking a dignified stature, I’ll gift them one of these Wiseman Pills I’m making." He glares not only at me, but also the competitor with beads in his beard and one in a very patched and filthy coat.

Wiseman Pills live up to their name, they’re a specialized polymorphism pill that gives you a dignified, but aged appearance. They’re a Rank 4 pill, pretty good for picking from random ingredients.

When he gets off the stage, I skip up to take my pick, almost losing my shot to the man in the patched coat. I guess he wasn’t happy about the glare.

"I heard a certain competitor has an unmentionable sort of fondness for stray dogs, so as a benevolent Young Miss, I shall gift him one of these Chimera pills upon completion. I’m certain their puppies will be lovely." I wink at obnoxious guy and saunter down to my station.

Patched coat guy goes up and picks out a variety of ingredients "I’ll make an amphibious breathing pill today. I’m not getting in the middle of that feud." He chuckles.

The others pick quickly, everyone eager to get to work. I set about purifying my ingredients, the chimera pill, like the Core Density pill is a grade 6 pill, even a little mistake can make a big explosion. Fortunately, Elder Song’s memories show me he’s made it hundreds of times, including substituting ingredients like I’ll have to do today.

I’m happier not knowing why he needed hundreds of these pills.

I can feel his intense attention on me as I start the creation process. This is my first real alchemy since the tribulation incident, and it feels good to flex my energy in the most intricate and precise of ways. The feeling is reminiscent of the first trip to the gym after vacation, stretching out muscles you haven’t used in a few weeks.

The change in my energy quality and control is noticeable after this most recent breakthrough too. The process is almost easy, it just takes intense focus to not make any mistakes.

We’re getting close to the time limit and today’s victim is standing smugly with his Wiseman Pills. They didn’t even have pill veins, so the quality was mediocre at best, I’m not sure why he’s so proud.

I put the final touches on the Condensation of my pills and the cauldron releases pressure and a gentle white steam. I let the collection judge pick the best of three batch and drop the others into a small bottle.

Come to think of it, these would be great for cases like my parents, or the Dragons. It lets the non human genetic material express itself and blend smoothly. The Dragons could have nearly pure blooded dragonewts even with a human.

The head judge receives my pill in its protective case and bursts into laughter. "The absolute Mad Woman really did it!" he chortles.

Elder Song floats over to the judges both and examines the pill. "Optimized for canine hybridization with Spirit Wolf fur, nice touch."

"Thank you Elder, I aim to please."

The winners will be announced after the Spell Crafting Competition, but I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.

Hall and 4 other men are it for the Spell Craft competition. Elder Song explains its entirely subjective scoring. They get a topic, and the best spell effect the judges don’t recognize wins. Powerful, flashy, amusing, it all counts.

Their topic is ’Nothingness’. A bit vague for my taste, but but they seem excited.

First up, a contestant turns everyone else’s clothes transparent. Karl immediately starts posing like it’s the Mr World bodybuilders competition, bringing whistles and whoops of joy from the women in the crowd.

The second contestant dispels all spell effects in the area, changing two other contestants appearance when their vanity spells are negated. The next is disqualified for a shadow field deemed not original.

The fourth contestant goes with a form of silence that seems to prevent all sound transmission in the area, not even another contestant clapping his hands makes a sound.

Karl makes a grand gesture and everyone starts floating and grasping at their throats as if they can’t breathe.

"A vacuum bubble with anti gravity." Elder Song laughs out loud.

The judges gesture to let everyone down and Karl drops the spell laughing.