When daybreak came on the Teardrop Isnd, Boursat was standing in the air, with a calm expression, as five figures slowly approached from the other side of the river. The leading figure was, of course, Kaipan, scanning the buildings and their pcement on the isnd, giving him a strange feeling, but he couldn't tell why.

  "Is this a formation? No… that would not be possible. I never heard anyone doing something like this…." He muttered, furrowing his brows, not knowing that his instincts were right; as all the summoned buildings were set up in a way, they created a formation, giving the first line of defense for the Sect if it ever got attacked. "Greetings." He said, stopping not far away from Boursat, who just nodded, until everyone else arrived and lined up behind their king.

  "Mm. I am called Elder Boursat. May I ask the purpose of your visit to our Sect?"

  "Elder Boursat?" Kaipan murmured to himself, not familiar with the name at all, "I am King Kaipan, leader of the Elroth family. We came because our men disappeared here."

  "King? I thought only one family dared to call themselves that." He smiled a little, gently spping his belly, which had grown back long ago; it was even bigger when he fought with Ren and her group, something he was apparently proud of.

  "We are called the Kingdom of Ten for a reason." Werebor said, "If you think only one line is deserving to be called a king, it just shows your superficial knowledge."

  "Ahaha, yeah, tell yourself that!" Boursat ughed but did not press further, and instead changed the topic. "So, King Kaipan. I presume you are here to retrieve those who trespassed on our territory. I am greatly saddened to tell you the bad news; they are all dead," he sighed, shaking his head.

  "Are you trying to provoke us?" Werebor stepped next to his father, challenging Boursat's gaze.

  "I could ask the same." He shot back, "We are willing to forget it as it was nothing major, but if you are here for an expnation, there is only one. Aggression against our Sect will not be tolerated."

  "I see." Kaipan nodded, and by his body nguage, Werebor knew his father was waiting for him to py out his role as the harsh son.

  "Are you sure you can back up those words?" Werebor's question had just nded when another voice immediately answered. Werebor asked as he and the rest of the warriors tensed up.

  "Yes, we are." Xendar and Dermitos arrived, standing side by side with Boursat, shooting up from below.

  Unlike the old blood general from generations ago, they were immediately recognized, and Kaipan quickly spoke up as he knew the two of them could mean trouble... He only wanted to see how deep their strength went and not send his son to his own death.

  "My son is slightly inexperienced yet; I'll discipline him ter." He said hurriedly, "Of course, I understand if they rushed into their deaths now. They were sent here only to look, not to engage; the responsibility lies with the Qun royal family for issuing the wrong orders. Now that we cleared this up, I have another thing."

  "We are listening." Dermitos smiled, knowing that the old King was indeed experienced.

  "We'd like to continue this at a more private pce if possible." Kaipan returned the smile with a friendly expression, and to his surprise, Dermitos only nodded before they were led down to the Sect's main hall.

  Hours ter, the door opened, and the group left the isnd, just as quickly as they arrived. Kaipan didn't even stop at the Qun's pace, going straight back towards their territory with haste, as if his bottom was on fire.

  "This is big…." He finally said while flying at full speed, "We need to gather the resources as fast as possible before others arrive and strike a deal with them!"

  "Yes, Father! I'll focus on it!" Werebor nodded, looking at a pill that was an early payment for them.

  They never expected that the so-called 'Sect Head,' whom they did not recognize yet, would be so marvelous as being able to produce a wonder medicine like this! A pill... Something they never even heard of, something that, when consumed, could restore the cultivator's spent energy to at least ten to fifteen percent. In a battle, it would be a potent trump card! In exchange for a long resource list that contained materials from even the most eastern part of the Kingdom, only found at the Storm Coast, they could get such excellent medicine; it was a steal.

  "Find all our merchant contacts and friends, and make them collect everything on that list as covertly as possible! Send out guards disguised as merchants to protect them and run dummy caravans to distract potential spies. Also, organize the military; I want the bandit camps cleaned out or bribed to raid the others' territories. I want nothing to stand in our way of making this deal! Who knows what other pills they could produce? This is a chance to rise above the rest!"

  They never thought this meeting would go so smoothly, even with such an opportunity, and by now Kaipan was happy that their people had gone ahead and fought with them. This was the best gift he had ever received.

  "Also, get the families of those mercenaries we lost. Pay them well; they brought us a great deal, and they ought to be rewarded!" Kaipan ughed as his son followed him, grinning to himself too.

  …….…..

  "When did you make those pills?" Xendar asked, watching as the five left, standing beside Dermitos.

  "Yesterday night. Sect Head is a harsh teacher." He moaned, rubbing his neck. "It is the most basic pills; he called them worse than bird droppings." He ughed, "But at least it was good for fooling those five."

  "Well, it did amaze me too." Xendar nodded, pursing his lips.

  "It's just an energy recovery pill. If it can be called a pill." Aerthus's voice came as he walked up to them. "It's the easiest to produce and doesn't require many materials. What they will bring us willingly is worth way more," he ughed with a satisfied grin. "Lucky us! Alchemy here is still nonexistent."

  "I read the recipes for the other pills in the library… honestly, I don't understand half of them…." Dermitos groaned, pinching his nose, "And I'm supposed to learn them all?"

  "Welcome to the party." Xendar snorted, elbowing his friend, "I have trouble reading the manuals on crafting artifacts. Anya is still sleeping; she was up until dawn, trying to help me organize it."

  "Stop compining, you two, and work harder!" Aerthus rolled his eyes, spping their backs, "Come, I'll give you a demonstration."

  He led them to the so-called Pill Hall, also functioning as Dermitos's new home. It was a big, three-story building with a golden cauldron as the emblem at the top of the door, the same symbol decorating Dermitos's shoulder cape.

  The first floor was spacious, with a bulletin board taking up most of the space, still empty, but soon it would be filled with requests from disciples and even elders alike. Next to it was a counter, ready for the time when people would flood this pce, exchanging pills to help their cultivation.

  After the trio climbed to the second floor, they found another exchange area. The shelves here were packed with various ingredients, put on sale, and anyone in the Sect could come up and purchase or exchange them if they wanted to concoct their own pills. Even if the Sect was still empty, it was already prepared... for the future.

  "We will need a lot of people running this pce," Xendar commented, as his own pce was built in the same way, the only difference being that it was focused on artifacts and different materials, promptly called the Artifact Hall, with a sprawling bcksmithing area to boot.

  "Yes. I pn to accept many more students from those who come to the first opening." Aerthus nodded, "Of course, those who have lower talent can only be outer disciples. They will be tasked with running everything here. After they are taught what they need to do... I expect some bumps but nothing major." He added, as he walked up the third floor, which was accessible only with permission from Dermitos or the Department, since the refinement would take pce there, and interrupting the process could be catastrophic.

  "Well, you already set up an Empire once." Dermitos joked.

  "Yes, this is essentially the same, only on a smaller, more focused scale." Aerthus agreed, walking into the main chamber.

  The top floor had nine rooms in total, all equipped with the same apparatuses for concocting pills. In theirs, a giant, golden cauldron stood in the middle, floating above the floor, decorated with a complex pattern. When asked about it, Aerthus only said the formation is something he does not understand... They should ask his son about it ter.

  But what he knew was that its primary function was to help the cultivator focus on pill formation. At the same time, it supplied the cauldron with the necessary energy on its own, taking a great deal of pressure off the one performing the concoction. The rest of the rooms had much smaller cauldrons and cked the formation, but for disciples and, ter, elders, it would be the perfect pce to train and refine their techniques, each room designed for different levels of difficulty.

  "This is a pretty good copy of the Sect's pill formation hall where Levictus is now." Aerthus expined, "Their elders can work together to produce top-tier pills. We can't do that with this, but… well, not like we could something like that yet."

  "Yet," Dermitos answered with a smiling face, accepting the subtle challenge.

  "What kind of pills are there, Sect Head?" Xendar asked.

  "If it were a list, I could be standing here, describing it for years. There are no actual numbers." He crified, shaking his head, "Recipes are being developed all the time, modified, and improved, so giving an exact number is impossible. There is a great variety of types as well; some work on mortals, or only on cultivators; maybe they affect the body, the soul, the mind, and affinity; there are endless combinations, and different effects could arise from different ingredients. But there is a definitive ranking system that has been developed and is universally accepted." He stopped, looking at them, holding out his fingers, "First, there are ointments. These are the easiest to make. Most of the failed concoctions could also be categorized here. Let's say the alchemist wanted to make a healing pill but made mistakes, resulting in a failed pill that left only a paste with healing properties. The second kind is the proper pills. Those have five different tiers." He stretched out his hand, holding two small, round pills about the size of walnuts. "Can you spot the difference? Both are the same pill; both are for energy recovery."

  As they looked on, the white pills, at first gnce, appeared identical, but soon they noticed that one had a faint glow. It could have been easily missed, especially if one only gnced at them.

  "The one on the left seems like it's pulsing," Dermitos said in the end.

  "Yes." Aerthus nodded approvingly. "The one without a glow is a Tier 0 pill. It is made by alchemy apprentices, it restores around 20% energy, and its effect does not stack. Quite the opposite, consuming one after another decreases the efficiency, and you need time to let your system clear it so they can take effect once again."

  "Eh.. so they are even more potent than what we gave out, huh? Am I not even at an apprentice level yet…?" Dermitos twitched his mouth, gncing at his ancestor.

  "You will get there, rex. I'll guide you personally every day." Aerthus chuckled, encouraging him, "This second one is called a Tier 1 pill. It can restore 30-40% of the energy the cultivator had expended. Still. Stacking it won't work." He said while producing two more pills. "This is a Tier 2 pill. You can recognize it by its easily visible, stable glow and ck of pulsation. This pill restores at least 50% of the spent energy. If the maker was an experienced alchemist, it could go up to 70%." He smiled proudly. "I can make these consistently if I have the materials. Sadly, these are also pills whose efficiency is decreased with repeated use... The fourth is what we call a Tier 3 pill. The glow is the same, the shape and the effects are the same."

  "Huh? Then what makes the difference?" Xendar blinked his eyes, but Dermitos immediately caught on.

  "Its effects can stack!"

  "Precisely!" Aerthus nodded with a smile, "A Tier 3 pill, in all honesty, is a perfected Tier 2 pill without the drawbacks. This is where most people get swindled and why alchemists are respected... They wouldn't trick you, or they would face the rest of the alchemists' wrath. You see, without an experienced alchemist to help you buy things, you could be screwed over easily by greedy merchants. Of course, the big pces wouldn't risk their reputation, but still… Money is everything, and many people would do anything to hoard more and more of it. I'm not there yet in producing them consistently, but if my luck holds, I can make Tier 3 pills once in a while. Of course, from only those recipes I am really familiar with."

  "What about the rest?" Dermitos asked.

  "Tier 4 are rare ones. I saw some... once." Aerthus muttered with a sigh, "If we stick with energy pills, a Tier 4 will replenish right up to 80-90% of your energy and can be used almost instantly. They can be easily identified: when a Tier 4 appears, it always has a strong, distinct, yet appealing scent and some kind of visual phenomena around it. I saw a Tier 4 fire resistance pill at an auction. It smelled like grass after a spring rain with small clouds rising from it. It looked beautiful, perfectly round and jade-green, shining on its own. Tier 5…" He stopped, shaking his head, "I never saw one, but I know that those types of pills can have an effect on even the Immortals."

  "Wait… they don't use pills?" both of them asked at the same time.

  "Not precisely," he shook his head. "What I tell you is what I was told. At the demigod level and above, they no longer have much use. Their bodies are in tune with nature. The effects are so slight that they no longer need pills. But... there are always exceptions."

  "Tier 5 pills are like that... What effect would it have on us?" Dermitos asked.

  "Hmm... A pill at that level would not just restore all of your energy; it would expand on it." Aerthus said, clearly only thinking out loudly, "If you were a jug in terms of how much energy you can store, then after consuming it, you would become a bucket." He ughed happily while they listened with awe. "Also, there is a third css. Drinks."

  "What?"

  "Yup. Some drinks can have different effects." He said with a smile, "It's… a controversial topic, to be honest with you. I don't see a problem with it, yet others don't acknowledge it as part of alchemy. Well, it's not a discussion we must concern ourselves with. Potions are just another form of pills." He shook his head, then floated upwards, "I'll craft a batch of energy pills now." He said that while summoning six different ingredients, as the formation below them lit up, and soon a bluish fme appeared in the cauldron, swirling like a cyclone.

  As he started putting in the ingredients, he slowly expined what they were, why they were chosen, which to put in first, what to look out for, and how to control the fme, melting them and creating a swirling, hot soup-like concoction inside the cauldron.

  The process took only an hour, and in the end, the creamy mass inside the cauldron separated and slowly formed five round shapes, as the fire, under Aerthus's control, died down, and the pills started to harden. When finished, he gently lifted the five Tier 2 energy pills with his powers and handed them to Dermitos.

  "Go and reflect on it and study the pills and the recipe. Every day, I'll supply you with ingredients I brought back. They should be enough until you can create Tier 1 pills yourself." He expined as he handed him the pill formu before leaving.

  "You are lucky." Xendar sighed, watching his friend.

  "Why?" Dermitos blinked his eyes, just now returning from the intense concentration

  "You have someone who teaches you… me? I need to fumble in the dark," he sighed again with a smile as it was a challenge he welcomed, making Dermitos ugh as they left the Pill Hall, which slowly fell into silence again.

  Corty