Mage And Wolf
Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Chapter 92

"You really know how to make friends don’t you?" Elder Song wonders out loud as we walk.

The city is lively at night, like one huge night market. Shops have lanterns out, bright colors are everywhere, the streets while not as crowded as daytime still have a steady flow of patrons.

I take a moment and ponder that thought

"You know, it’s always been like that for me. I meet people, they’re nice, I make new friends. No matter where I go. Even here, I was technically kidnapped by Elder Po, but I can’t say I feel like a hostage, or that I even really qualify as one."

"I wonder if it’s an innate talent? Certain species have them and cultivation enhances them, I’ve seen it many times in other worlds."

"You might have a point. My Lycan family members were Omegas, the bottom of the pack, staff that helps keep everything running. Omegas are mostly invisible in the pack, but even for the hardest headed of warriors, it’s rare anyone stays mad at them."

"So it might be an innate talent to calm others or create a peaceful atmosphere, not a sense of friendship?" Elder Song ponders.

"If they’re not upset or holding a grudge it would be easier to make friends for certain. The Bunnies everyone just naturally loves."

"They’re adorable and soft, with the big cute ears, who doesn’t love Bunnies?"

"I meant the humanoid species called Bunnies" Elder Song clarifies.

"Yeah, me too. They make great secretaries and Adventurers Guild staff"

"Maybe it’s a side effect of the Death Gods blessing you hide under your clothes? Priestesses are naturally guarded against aggressive tendencies in some ways."

We walk in silence for a while while longer before we come across a bar brawl. Two injured cultivators are going at it in the street.

"What’s the cause?" I ask a bystander who has taken particular interest.

"Guy on top told the other guy he would have won if he’d had a group that soft"

Them are fighting words for sure. So we watch until the guy on the losing end’s friends haul the victor off of him.

"We should go out more often, this city is fun" I tell Elder Song, who laughs at my exuberance.

"Heavens forbid anyone ever gets you drunk if you like watching fighting this much sober." he laughs. "What’s your plan for tomorrow? They’re not going to be goaded into mistakes like the opponents today."

"I’m thinking fight while Shadow Melded, it’ll slow them down if nothing else. If they can’t see precisely what I’m doing it’ll be harder for them to counter."

"And if they repeatedly use area energy attacks when you get close? They should all be very good at it, being the winners of their groups."

"I’ll show you when it happens. Too many ears here."

Elder Song nods "As long as you have a plan."

The chaos of the city proves very good for my cultivation and I climb down from my pillow nest on the roof well rested and ready to face the morning. Something about the hustle and bustle reminds me of afternoon naps in the Pack House.

But that reminds me of missing Lala and the rest of the girls. This time difference is brutal, have I even been gone 2 days yet by their time? I don’t think so.

It’s now the morning of the 4th day, and that means top 10 alchemists get assigned a random prescription to compete for a bonus prize.

I make my way down, breakfast sandwich in hand from a street cart. Whoever thought onions and carrots would go in a spicy ham omelet sandwich was either a genius or an evil genius.

I will my robe on, hood up as I approach the arena. The crowd shouts and cheers for me even though they’ve not started calling numbers yet. I get to the front and wave back at the crowd, not wanting them to have a bad impression of me.

"Might as well just come up" the announcer calls when he sees me, before shouting 9 contestant numbers.

"Now we will draw a randomly selected recipe for our top alchemists to show their ability to adapt. None of these recipes are known to be available to the contestants, they’re all either a Secret Sect recipe from a fallen Sect, or extremely esoteric."

This actually sounds more fun than beating people up this afternoon.

"Time will be 4 hours, now if the noble Sect Master of the Divine Fist Sect will kindly come up to make the draw? As you all know Divine Fist Sect has won this competition 12 years straight. They got off to a bit of a rocky start this year, but they’re hopeful to take the championship again!"

The crowd goes wild for the tubby Sect Master, and he struts up like the king of the world.

"Thank you all, and I’m proud to be here to see the finest young alchemists in the nation compete. Without further delay... recipe number 16."

The announcer looks at the recipe for a moment and pales.

"The chosen pill recipe is the Dragon Fire pill. A long lost ancient recipe, none have successfully created this pill in centuries. Best of luck to our contestants."

We all crowd around to memorize the recipe, and I get a great idea. Cell Phone. I simply take a couple pictures of qceach page of it and return to my station, where ingredients for the pill are being handed out.

Looks like nobody noticed the phone, so I’m memorizing the instructions with it tucked in my sleeve and arms crossed, like I’m meditating waiting for my ingredients.

I write the procedure out on paper beside me, double checking it against the photos to make sure I got it right, staring over when I find a mistake. Third time is a charm and the procedure I wrote is perfect. Now I’m ready to begin.

The first item is a so called dragon scale, though I recognize it as a red drake scale. I hope that’s close enough. I look over the rest of my ingredients and they’re all correct, so I head over to the materials table and ask if they’ve got a replacement scale, as I’m unhappy with the quality of mine.

The attendant spreads out a collection of scales, and I find a tiny red dragon scale. I point out the one I would like, hand over the original and return to my station. A few others also go up, exchanging items they were unhappy with, but it seems nobody else wants to exchange their scale.

I didn’t see any actual dragon scales on the tables, but this world isn’t familiar enough with the miniscule differences to tell. Plus, they call drakes dragons.

I bring my lucky Drake Skull cauldron up to temperature and the scale starts to emit a happy buzz. In it goes, followed by fireweed, a fire elemental mana core and dozens of other herbs. The overall feeling is unstable, too much fire, so I add a bit of extra ice leaf and it calms.

The energy in the scale is resonating with the cauldron and the fire elemental core, getting stronger and stronger. There was no indication how strong this pill should be, I hope it doesn’t ruin my cauldron.

I like this one. I can tell already, this pill is going to be fun.

Finally, time is almost up, the explosions of failed attempts have quieted and it is time to condense my pills.

They’re just forming when I feel a slip of divine energy flow from me to the cauldron, enhancing the pills with a Dragon Gods blessing. That’s great, but not good. I can’t turn a divine pill over to the judges.

But the pills are formed and perfect, what to do? I quickly pull them out into my storage to cool and start condensing the leftover energy and ingredients. it’s far from optimal, but a small red pill forms, feeling strongly of Dragon Fire, with faint orange ripples that might be either veins or imperfections. It’s hard to tell with the smoke.

A judge comes over to collect my pill, looking it over with delight as time sounds.

"Well contestants. All 10 of you did your very best on this supremely difficult task. We have 3 compete pill attempts here. From the Herbalists Choice, Divine Cauldron and Shadowed Blade Sect?" He says the last as a question.

"The pill containers are numbered on the bottom with contestant numbers, and none of the judges know who made which, in the name of fairness." He finishes.

First up is a group of 6 light orange pills, it’s got some good fire energy to it and appears to be defect free.

The second batch of 2 are a darker red pill with black spotting, meaning imperfections. It’s likely more powerful, but less pure and may not be safe to use.

Mine is the third, giving off a heat even now that is pouring out of the opened stopper.

The judges spend about 5 minutes per pill, making notes, before sending the announcer up.

First up, from Divine Cauldron, an attempt that netted 6 grade 2 dragon fire pills at 88 percent purity. Excellent work disciple.

The second attempt is deemed a failure, impurities make these grade 3 dragon fire pills unsafe for use. Our apologies to the Herbalists Choice Sect on their unfortunate luck at this difficult task.

Last up, the attempt by the Cultivator of the Shadowed Blade Sect, a single grade 3 Dragon Fire pill at 91 percent purity. Congratulations disciple, might we see your face and have your image immortalized as this year’s Outer Sect Alchemy Champion?

I step up onto the stage to collect my award chest, turning to face the crowd before dropping my hood.

The cheers are intense, laughter, encouragement, anger from the defeated opponents, is all turned into one cohesive noise.

"Thank you gentlemen for your judgement. My sect will be delighted at the accolades, having not won an alchemy award in over a century. This means a lot to us." I use my best innocent voice, raised to ensure it carries and see Elder Po in the bleachers mouth the words ’you should have been an actress’.

The crowd is going insane, totally forgetting my status as an evil cultivator to celebrate to turn of fortune for a young woman’s Sect.