The last four days had fallen into a pattern for Nate. Breakfast in the hotel they were staying at, Nate refused to call it an ‘inn’ given the sizes of the rooms, the food always shared with Kiri and sometimes a couple of their friends. Then Kiri and Frick would leave to go take part in what was basically an underground pit fighting. Kiri hadn’t gotten a turn in the arena, despite a few requests, as none of the few Lesser Divine challengers were willing to face her. A wise decision from Nate’s perspective, even if the lack of imminent violence was making his sister a tad irritable. Thankfully Kiri had found another outlet in the form of betting on Frick and selling off a few of their no longer necessary supplies. Mostly Skill and Stat Orbs, though they had a couple rewards from their Dungeon runs to offload for the pristine marks that functioned as currency in the Dynasty.

While Kiri was out, Nate focused on creating his new Ocular Ability that would ultimately replace his Conceptual Insight and Conceptual Eyes of the Runic Artist Skills. After four long and grueling days, the first iteration was almost ready and Nate had taken to calling it Conceptual Sight. The first iteration was only really as good as his existing Skills and didn’t have the inbuilt channels for multiple Divine Energy pathways like his existing Skills did. That didn’t mean he couldn’t use Divine Energy to enhance the ability. It just meant that he had instead opted for a single reservoir for the Divine Energy which he could then use to further refine the ability.

Basically, his first cut wasn’t improving on what he already had, but that was fine from Nate’s view as it was more important to prepare for the removal of his Class Core than to focus on improvements. If he went down that rabbit hole, he’d be at it for months. Besides, he could start focusing on improvements after he had all of the remaining variations on his current Skills completed.

He wanted to perform a trial run before he engraved the ability into his Divine Vessel, his eyes specifically. Seeing the girl with what looked like enchanted or runic pathways in her pink eyes had been a light bulb moment for Nate. As someone cultivating a Divine Vessel, his body was far more attuned to Divine Energy than those who focused on The System’s path for advancement. As such, carving his abilities into his physical body, divine vessel, and soul energy, should make his abilities activate faster and with more efficiency than casting a spell could match. The downside of this approach was that all his abilities would be influenced by the Concepts imbued into his Divine Vessel.

Space, Creation, and Destruction could cover almost anything, as far as he was concerned. However, they’d lose efficiency the further they drifted from those core Concepts. Lower efficiency meant higher mana and divine energy costs. An acceptable trade-off in Nate’s mind.

All that was left now was to test his new ability. And to do so he had a very specific idea in mind. An idea that would strike two targets with a single action. Nate smiled to himself as he started using brute force to send his sphere of awareness through the enchanted walls of the hotel. A slight headache built up as the enchantments pushed back. Ultimately Nate’s mana control and potency won out and he found his target.

Using a tiny amount of his paint, he repainted his location in space before activating Life Imitates Art. Surprisingly, there was no pressure or resistance as he vanished from his room, appearing in the middle of Jemima’s apartment.

Enchantments against intrusion must focus on Space and Soul, he mused thoughtfully.

Jemima popped her head out of the alchemy room, clearly sensing his arrival, with her eyes widening in surprise and quickly suppressed fear.

“Did you require something, Lord Nate?”

Nate didn’t bother to correct her use of a title. He figured he would need to get used to it sooner or later and, honestly, he just couldn’t be bothered pushing back every time someone used a new title. They could call him whatever they wanted and he’d just keep on focusing on whatever he thought was most important. Which at this moment was…

“I’d like to watch you perform some alchemy.”

Jemima looked surprised for a moment before worriedly asking, “Why?”

“I am going to be competing in the Crafting Tournament, same as you. I know roughly how enchanters work and what they are capable of. I assume any weaponsmiths or armoursmiths will be relatively limited in terms of what they can accomplish and, as for runecrafters, well, I am extremely aware of their aptitudes. However, I know very little about alchemy and how it is accomplished. I also want to test a new observational spell.”

Jemima nodded, her eyes still looking worried, “Of course, come in. Make sure your barrier is keeping out gases. I’m about to start on a new batch.”

Nate followed Jemima into the room she had popped out of. It was well lit, and more importantly, well ventilated in the form of fume hoods and a large fan in the middle of the room. Wooden benches full of reagents sat off to one side with a large tube of what looked like water with a spigot for access sitting in one corner.

As Jemima busied herself preparing, Nate strolled around the room inspecting the enchantments. Forming his new ability took a little time but finally Conceptual Sight activated, settling within his eyes. The enchantments came to life as Nate could see the gentle flow of mana through the gem dust pathways built into the walls. More importantly, around the various hubs that seemed to be the control boxes of the enchantments, Nate could see how the mana and the Concepts interacted. Instead of a hum in his mind, he could interpret the flows and shapes formed within, reading the Intent embedded within the enchanted structure.

The main focus of these enchantments seemed to be on drawing all gases up into the roof while replacing them with fresh air from vents in the corners of the room near the floor. The flows of mana reminded Nate of the Concepts of Clean, Wind, and something else he hadn’t encountered. He could tell that Jemima was waiting for him but he kept his focus on the mana flows until he finally recognised the Concept at play. Vacuum was the final piece of the puzzle and with his realisation, Divine Energy flowed into him, adding to his stockpile for improving his vessel.

With his first question answered, he turned to Jemima, who looked like she had swallowed a lemon after witnessing his small epiphany and Reality’s answering reward.

“You could have started,” Nate added, trying to take a little of the sting out of it, even if he thought that was more than Jemima deserved.

Jemima went rigid for a moment, looking him straight in the eyes. Clearly she could tell something was different based on his Conceptual Sight ability, but, whatever she had to say, she visibly swallowed it and instead launched into the impromptu lesson.

“You wished to learn about alchemy. I thought I would talk you through it step by step.”

When Nate’s only response was a slight nod, Jemima launched into her explanation.

“I won’t talk about runecrafting, but enchanting is the art of taking Conceptually-aligned materials and putting them together to create an intended result. They usually use some form of Intent, which is just a Skill that uses Soul Energy to influence mana. It’s like building a house out of planks of wood. Fairly easy, right?”

“Right,” agreed Nate, even if he thought that people who built houses or enchantments might vehemently disagree.

“Exactly, because all they’re really doing is giving an existing Concept a little direction. It’s direct and rule-based. Arguably a science. Alchemy is less science and more art, which you might be able to appreciate a little more than most.”

Nate remained silent despite the ingratiating comment and Jemima coughed once before continuing. Stepping over to the tub of water, she took a thick cauldron made of dark metal and put it underneath the spigot before turning the handle. The sound of water impacting the bottom of the cauldron rang through the small room as Jemima explained what she was doing.

“This is Pure Water. It has been cleansed of all impurities, which involves a fractional distillation to separate water aligned with the Concept of Water. This part does follow some basic principles that could be considered more scientific. Water can, of course, adopt other Concepts, but these can usually be extracted via evaporation, sieving, magnetic stimulation, and finally the aforementioned fractional distillation. The result is water that can act as a medium for the resulting alchemical reaction without interfering with the other elements of the concoction.”

Nate frowned slightly, “Doesn’t water always carry the Concept of Water though? After all, it is a representation of itself.”

“You are not wrong,” Jemima hedged. “But that’s where the tier of the ingredients becomes a factor. It’s why you don’t hear of alchemical concoctions below Uncommon, and even those are relatively garbage. That’s not even talking about powders or pills, both of which require a greater than two tier difference between the water and the ingredients. So long as the water’s ‘tier’ is lower than the tier of the ingredients, it limits the effect water has on the result.”

Nate nodded his understanding and waved for her to continue.

“This Pure Water has been prepared by myself and is only Common tier which makes it a perfect medium for any alchemical experiment or undertaking. Once we have the water, we consider our ingredients and what we’re hoping to accomplish. Ultimately, alchemy is about combining Concepts to create a targeted result. Those Concepts come from the combination of the materials supplied which means we need to factor in a number of things. The amount of each ingredient, temperature of the water, time spent dispersing into the water, how the ingredient disperses, and finally how the ingredients and their Concepts will interact.”

“Which is why it’s more art than science, I assume,” commented Nate. “Concepts within materials, even the same Concept within the same material, can differ in strength. You’d have to make constant estimations and subtle changes if you were trying to achieve a standardised result.”

“Yes!” gushed Jemima. “Precisely. Most Alchemists have Skills that focus on measuring things like the rate of interaction, rate of separation, and rate of merging. Because if we’re doing more than just mixing some basic Concepts into water, what we’re trying to do is create Concepts within the mixture that do not exist within the materials.”

“Concepts through interaction. I am familiar with the idea,” added Nate.

Thinking through the explanation so far, Nate could see how his runecrafting had similarities to alchemy. He had to balance interactions between Sigils and mana and could also create new Concepts through the mana fields his runes created. Still, runecrafting was far more scientific in this case as he had far more control of the overall structure and interaction, though that came with an added reliance on the materials used if he wanted anything resembling a decent efficiency. Runecrafters and enchanters used far more materials for crafting, if he was understanding correctly, as he watched Jemima sprinkle in small amounts of powders and even a small stick of some kind of spice that emanated the Concept of Fire to Nate’s eyes.

Nate leaned over Jemima’s shoulder so he could watch with Conceptual Sight as the ingredients began to interact. It took him a moment to recognise the Concept of Body within the swirling powder that made a whirlpool motion in the cauldron. Jemima continued to gently stir the concoction, providing mana to the process that broke the materials down, turning them into particles within the Pure Water. Divine Energy flowed into Nate as his eyes, powered by his new ability, recognised the Concept at play.

Nate continued to watch the alchemical process as Concept of Body began to interact with Fire, the two Concepts fighting rather than merging. Then Jemima sprinkled in some sand in a perfect circle that followed the existing whirlpool. As the sand drifted down, passing between the interacting Concepts, Nate spotted two new Concepts. The sand clearly had the Concept of Connection embedded within it and, where it passed between Body and Fire, the two fused into a new Concept.

Nate’s ability empowered eyes read the mana flows and, just as the interaction was coming to a close, with the last of the particles of sand alighting on the bottom of the cauldron, he realised what he was seeing. Burning as a Concept.

Divine Energy flowed into him a second time and he could see Jemima tense before her shoulders slumped.

“That is the first step completed.”

“Burning?” asked Nate.

“Yes. A request by Lady Kiri. This is just the base. She wants targeted potions that will selectively burn parts of her body on ingestion. I’ll sieve this and use it as the base for the next few potions which will add in the targeting and mechanism of the burning before I try to empower it. That is the last part of any Alchemists Skills. Our own mana can be used to empower our creations but they take on characteristics of our affinities. In my case, toxins and poisons. Basically, I can’t empower any other type of alchemical concoctions.”

Nate smiled in understanding.

“I didn’t have anything else. Thanks for the lesson.”

He ignored the look of envy in Jemima’s eyes as he once more painted his location in space before vanishing back to his room. Nate began pacing in thought. The entire lesson had been interesting enough, and the Divine Energy would go to good use, but the main purpose he’d had was to learn more about how people used Concepts. To that end, his time with Jemima had been a resounding success.

As a runecrafter, historically he had crafted with rigid structures, often using wood, metal, or stone. Alchemy had shown him how he could do the same with his Divine Paint. In fact, the Concept that seemed to be at the heart of Alchemy was one that was close to Nate’s own Path. His Path, and his Divine Vessel. After all, Transformation was attached to both the idea of Creation and of Destruction. Now all he needed was to find a Divine Artifact that contained the Concept of Transformation within it and feed it to his Regalia. A Divine Artifact like the ring he took from Severen after defeating him.

He was just about to continue his planning and preparations when there was a knock at the door. Opening it revealed Felicia herself.

“Apologies for the interruption, Nate. There is a gentleman in the foyer who was asking after you. Said he had an invitation to deliver. He seemed quite certain you were staying here so I saw no reason to lie. Did you want to meet him or shall I ask him to leave?”

Nate gave his assent. A quick walk down a flight of wooden stairs that looked grown rather than crafted found Nate face to face with a tall and lanky Orc with grey skin.

“Greetings, Nathaniel Weber of the Risen Sun Sect. I am Marshal Hondo, of The Golden Tide. My commander, Grand Marshal Grommir of The Golden Tide, would like to invite you to dinner tonight to discuss a business arrangement.”

Nate heard Felecia gasp behind him as he pondered his reply.