"Interesting..." Siderius woke up. It was already morning.
Pax wasn’t Lyara’s servant. He was Leona’s servant. A sister in the same clan as Lyara but they didn’t seem to get along that well.
He had a feeling that he did a favor for Lyara unknowingly. It was probably why Pax didn’t care about keeping Siderius alive and wanted to kill him. Lyara would never let a servant do that.
Her psychotic love wouldn’t allow it.
There was a sizzling noise outside. When Siderius crawled out of his shelter, Ashe was sitting beside the campfire and trying to cook something with an iron pot.
She didn’t leave her house with nothing. The apprentice brought quite a few stuff along, mostly necessity to help her survive in the new place.
Ashe straightened her back and her spine popped. She wasn’t familiar sleeping with her back on the ground at all. Her entire body ached.
"Cooking something, my apprentice?" Siderius sat down beside her.
"Yes, Master. I bring some food with me. I thought I could make you something nice."
The sunlight caused his eyes to sting. Siderius took out the brand new sunglasses and put them on. The shade made everything tolerable immediately.
Ashe observed the weird device.
"You’ve never seen a pair of glasses?" Siderius said.
"No, Master. What a particular object."
"It is simply an object to protect your eyes."
Siderius observed the exposed campfire and dancing flame. Ashe didn’t protect the fire and let the wind interact with the flame, making it much less stable. Updates are released by Nov3lFɪre.ɴet
"From now on, I’m going to teach you how to survive in the woods.
First lesson, do not let the fire be exposed to the wind. They will burn quicker and the heat won’t be concentrated."
Siderius brought over big pieces of rocks and placed them around the campfire. They shielded the flame from the wind outside.
The fire was no longer dancing around aimlessly and focused on the bottom of the pot, delivering more heat to it.
The stew was bubbling even more.
"Woah," Ashe’s eyes sparkled. She seemed to be easily captivated by any piece of knowledge. A good nature to be an Alchemist.
"How are your Truth-Seeking Path?" Siderius asked.
"I’m still trying to reach Silver, Master. But the process is slow. But I promise you I’m not lazy!"
"I know you’re not, my apprentice. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
Once you reach the first enlightenment rank, I will teach you more about Alchemy. But for now, all you need to do is focus on the Truth-Seeking Path.
I will also teach you survival skills on the side. Consider them your assignment for now."
"I understand, Master."
"Good. We will begin after the meal."
The most important thing to survive in the wilds was fire. Food you could hunt, water you could find, but the cold would take you away swiftly.
Fire allowed a survivor to boil water and cook food. It chased away dangerous predators. Most importantly, it kept the survivor’s mind from being consumed by the darkness of the woods.
Only with fire did humans stand a chance against nature.
Siderius first taught Ashe on how to gather woods.
"Remember to use dry woods only. They should be available everywhere in the forest but might take a bit of time to collect."
"I understand, Master."
"Dry woods are easier to ignite, burn longer and hotter. They also don’t produce a lot of smoke. However, if it’s unavailable, it is fine to use wet woods. Just remember that it will be much more difficult."
Ashe nodded. She followed Siderius around the forest. He taught her about different kinds of woods and how useful it would be for a campfire.
Siderius also showed Ashe the traits of dry woods so she could differentiate between the two.
After collecting the woods, Siderius then taught her how to build a fire and other related pieces of knowledge.
Building a fire wasn’t simple and it required much more knowledge and skill that everyone gave it credit for. Ashe experienced this first hand and struggled a lot throughout the lesson.
Once Siderius had taught Ashe everything she needed, he left her to practice. Making a good fire may take days to master even for a bright person. A few weeks if Siderius was dealing with an idiot.
Ashe was quite smart so he expected her to learn it quickly.
After that, he kneeled in front of the campfire and started his usual daily meditation.
"No thirst nor starved, nor craving’s fire
Shall take the heart of my desire."
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 48/125]
The psychosis lowered at the same rate as before. One point per four hours. He would need to meditate at least 192 hours to completely conquer the beast, around 8 days of straight meditation.
That was simply impossible as meditation lost its effectiveness the more you did it in a day. Spacing it out for four hours each day was the best course of action.
If meditating that way, Siderius might need more than a month to make the psychosis disappear. Given that the psychosis wouldn’t become harder to deal with.
In reality, it’d probably take even more time.
After the mutation, Siderius redirected his focus to the Truth-Seeking Path.
In his right hand was the dark red crystal, the piece of Malevirus he had extracted from Pax.
In his left hand was a ball of silver strands, the gratefulness and appreciation of Fate toward him.
He might have collected more Light Aether if he didn’t kill those greedy miners. But they tried to harm him and he would never let them walk free.
He’s very thorough when dealing with his enemies.
Inside the dark mind space of Siderius, the faceless being also held two things in its hands. However, their appearance was a bit different from outside.
The Malevitus was showing up at a ball of constantly changing matter. Sometimes it was solid, sometimes it was liquid, and sometimes it became a cloud of red smoke.
In the being’s other hand was Light Aether. They were strands of intangible silver lines that could not be touched by any means.
Even with smoke, when you hurled your hand through it, it would dissipate or change according to your movement. But not Light Aether.
The only being that could interact with Light Aether and control it would be the one who was given the Light Aether.
Even then, Siderius could not touch it, he could only move it with his will.
No mortal could reach their hand toward fate. Only gods.