There were three main ways to elevate your soul.
Learning the world as the Truth-Seeking Path.
Receiving blessings as the Light-Bearing Path.
And forcefully taking power as the Dark-Chasing Path.
An Alchemist took the Truth-Seeking Path as their main way of thriving. They could also make use of the Light-Bearing Path and Dark-Chasing Path. However, they must be too reliant on the Light and Dark Path, or else they would turn into something else. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoveIꜰire.net
Alchemists were Truth-Seekers at heart. Not Light-Bearers nor Dark-Chasers.
The notable Light-Bearers in Siderius’ old world were the monks. They practiced the way of Absolute Harmony, living in a karmic way to ensure fate would fall in their favor. They were on the good side in the world’s eyes and would do anything in their power to preserve the rules of the world. This allowed them to see their destiny and even shape it to an extent.
Dark-Chasers were a very controversial group up until Siderius left his world. Witches bathed in their desire to advance their power. A Dark-Chaser was much more methodical to their approach. They hunted down any magical beings to advance their power and used it in a specific way to craft their own style of magic.
A lot of Dark-Chasers chose to become Witch Hunter because of this fact. They could publicly hunt to advance their power.
The most popular profession of Dark-Chaser was Warlock, those who sought to use the power of magic by forcibly taking it from others.
Inside the dark mind space of Siderius, a handful of gold dust formed in front of his manifested soul.
The silver strands and dark matters flowed out of its hands and circled around the True Aether. They created a mini cyclone, flying around the gold dust in the middle.
And then, the strands and matters solidify.
A sphere of light and dark was created. It had both sides of reality, the malevolent and benevolent with truth—the golden Aether, acted as its core.
And then the faceless entity opened its mouth and swallowed the entire sphere.
On the outside, as Ashe was practicing on how to create a fire. She could see the two Aethers disappeared from Siderius’s hands. And then, he breathed out a mix of gold dust, silver strands and dark red droplets.
It was different when she achieved True Aether, which only caused Ashe to breathe out a cloud of gold dust.
In Siderius’ dark mind space, the sphere of Aethers lit brightly inside the stomach of the faceless entity.
The unique thing about Alchemist was they used True Aether as their main agent to absorb the Light and Dark Aether.
This made sure Siderius did not move away from his Truth-Seeking Path and retained his identity as an Alchemist.
As for a Monk and Warlock, they would have absorbed the Light and Dark Aether directly, similar to how Siderius absorbed True Aether directly.
Hours passed and Siderius continued to walk the Truth-Seeking Path.
Light and Dark Aether quickened the pace Siderius’s Soul was elevated. It was a great way to speed up the process of leveling Alchemist rank.
Dusk came and Siderius opened his eyes again. He needed more time to consume the Light and Dark Aether. The excess Aethers were still hovering inside the stomach of his soul, ready to be digested further at any time.
Siderius couldn’t know exactly when he would advance to the second level of Silver rank. The system unfortunately did not have a module to measure the strength of his soul.
There was a way to do this back in his old world. But he had limitations when transferring the system to this world. He had to leave it out to ensure a smooth transmigration.
But maybe he can add it into the system in the future. He could even modify it to become an actual weapon in combat. Another task to be added on the list.
Siderius stood up and dusted off his knees. He approached Ashe to check her progress.
There were quite a lot of burned tinder around her, showing that she had succeeded quite a few times. But Ashe still practiced lighting a fire. This intrigued Siderius.
"Still practicing?" Siderius said.
Ashe was holding a stick and using a rope to spin it, scraping its tip on a wooden surface. This was one of the most barbaric ways Siderius taught her how to start a fire. Along with many other methods.
"Yes, Master. I was able to produce fire with the flint and tinder. Then I was able to do it with a few pieces of rocks and ores. But as you said, Master, what if I don’t have those materials?
So I am making sure that I master every way to light a fire. Down to the most difficult method."
Beads of sweat ran on Ashe’s face. Her hands were sore and full of callouses. But she did not stop. She continued to practice despite it all.
Siderius nodded. He patted her head gently.
Ashe was really a catch for Siderius coming to this world. He had trained many Hunters and Alchemists. Few had her resolve and determination. If she could keep this up, she would be great some day.
Ashe shivered a bit when Siderius patted her head. She looked up with her big eyes.
"Is there anything wrong, Master?"
"Nothing." Siderius shook his head." Let’s take a break and eat something. It is important to rest as well. Practicing alone is not optimal."
"I understand, Master!"
They shared a heartfelt meal of grilled buffalo meat. The night was young and Ashe crawled into her shelter to sleep.
As for Siderius, he put on his scarf, covering his face, then venturing to Mucktown once more. He had received a small sum of silver coins and he intended to transform these coins into useful things.
Coins couldn’t help you much aside from filling the neverending hole of greed inside your soul.
Siderius was not that kind of man. He treasured strength above all.
Now that the world was trying its best to find him. He would hide away and grow his power. Until he was strong enough to enact vengeance, Siderius did not intend to show up again. Not in Mucktown nor the Rocky Pit.
This put a damp on things as Siderius needed to spend his coins. However, it shouldn’t be hard since he had already acquired the loyalty of the thugs.