Six months later, Alex had finished all the preparations for practical training, refining a pill.
In the garden, Alex and Firia were staring at each other. Around their feet were several medicinal ingredients, surrounded by an array.
"Are you ready?" Alex asked with a smile.
"Yes. We are refining a pill now." Firia nodded.
Alex then snapped his finger, activating the array.
Alex and Firia closed their eyes for a second and felt that the change in their surroundings. The garden remained the same, but they noticed that it had a certain degree of Spiritual Energy.
At the same time, there was no one living in this place other than them.
"We are going to refine Orthodox Recovery Pill. It can instantly close the wound and regrow a limb that of a mortal. For a God Rank Expert, this pill is still effective since the Divine Energy will slowly recover the mortal limb and turn it into a Divine Limb." Firia explained while waving her hand, lifting the medicinal ingredients to the air. "I will give you the demonstration first."
Alex nodded and retreated a few steps back, observing every single movement with his Spirit Eyes.
Firia snapped her finger as the Sacrificial Fire lit up. It gradually enveloped the ingredients to warm them up before she raised her flame temperature drastically.
The Divine Energy from the medicinal herbs fluctuated as the sign of them fighting back against Firia's flame. However, Firia quickly increased her fire ferocity before turning the fire into a star-shaped fire.
The ingredients split into those five sides with a Divine Monster Core in the middle.
"This is the Star Refining Method that I have taught you. This is perfect for eleven ingredients pills in which one of the ingredients is a Divine Monster Core. We will group the ingredients into their own characteristic and refine a pair of medicinal ingredients in one go.
"Well, you can say that this is the fastest method to refine eleven ingredients. If Alicia is here, I can turn this technique to another level. If I am not wrong, the name of that Array is Star Fire Array. It will separate each pair of ingredients even further and refine them one by one. This will allow you to refine them to the finest while having the speed of the original Star Refining Method."
"I see. I have understood the Star Refining Method, but I haven't tried it myself." Alex nodded in understanding. He had been learning many things from Firia, including a Refining Technique like this.
He realized that Alchemy wasn't just a matter of flame. It was true that his Godly Pure Fire could increase one's success rate by a huge margin, but he could still increase his speed, purity, and other things with this kind of technique.
That was why Alchemy became interesting again for him. He also couldn't wait for Alicia to teach him about Array that fit perfectly with Alchemy.
After refining them for fifteen minutes, Firia separated three pairs of ingredients that seemed to have finished first. She continued with the last two pairs refinement for another thirty minutes.
As soon as she finished, she tossed the refined ingredients back to the star before revolving the energy from the Divine Monster Core.
The green core released some kind of gas that flowed to each ingredient.
Alex could see it with his Spirit Eyes.
After enveloping the ingredients with that gas, Firia opened the furnace and brought them inside the furnace.
"Explode," Firia muttered as the star-shaped fire burst out, releasing a huge amount of heat energy. The furnace let out some of them while trapping some to do the last process.
"The ingredients are done. Normally, we need to expel the impurities inside the ingredients, but your Pure Fire is really too godly. I have never troubled myself with the purifying process anymore. You must be like that too." Firia shrugged.
"Ahaha… Isn't that good? Although I agree that we still need to learn it, it's better to not waste our time. I mean, it usually takes a third of the refining process, no?"
"True. It's a long process because we can't force them too much or it will ruin the ingredients as a whole. Using this fire, the impurities have basically been purified as time goes on. In fact, I had felt that the impurities had gone when I was refining them with the Star Refining Method." Firia nodded.
"Yes. I can see that." Alex confirmed it with his Spirit Eyes. He indeed saw the impurities had gone by the time she was in the middle process of the refining.
"By the way, I wonder if we can let Sherry give her Sacrificial Element to Evelyn? I mean, Stina, Kyle, and Ellen don't need this because they are directly related to you. And among your wives, only Evelyn has a Fire Element other than me. And if we take a look at the Contracted Beasts like Leka…I don't think she needs a Sacrificial Element, right?" Firia asked.
"That's a good idea, but everything will be in Sherry's hand. I will just give her a message, but the decision is her. Is that fine?" Alex smiled.
"Of course. You are a husband, not a dictator." Firia smiled before feeling that all ingredients had turned liquid. "Anyway, it's time for the next step."
Alex observed it with his Spirit Eyes and saw how the fire turned into a vortex, slowly merging the ingredients and turning them into a pill.
Firia began to focus when she entered this process because she couldn't afford a single fluctuation of energy that would disturb the balance of all ingredients.
The process itself was not hard to succeed, but to do it perfectly required patience and concentration.
Alex knew that and didn't open his mouth. He watched how each pair of ingredients fused together first before the five pairs turned into one.
"Once again. Explode." Firia shouted, forcing the vortex to explode. This vortex was made from the residual fire from the first explosion, so it still contained enough energy to create a powerful explosion.
However, Firia already sealed the lid with her Divine Energy while the body of a Rank 9 Furnace was strong enough to contain that explosion.
"It's finished." Firia smirked and waved her hand, opening the lid.
The pill flew out of the pill but soon got suppressed by Firia's Spiritual Energy.
"Shouldn't you erase the consciousness?" Alex asked.
"I have tried in the process, but it seems your Simulation World is not perfect. Well, this place is already a godly technique, so…" Firia scratched her cheek with an embarrassed expression.
"Sorry. I will try to perfect it when I have time." Alex apologized and looked at the pill. "I wonder if we will face a Lightning Tribulation when making a pill."
"There are a few records about that. If I am not wrong, there are three types of pills that will trigger a Tribulation. Firstly is an evolved pill that shouldn't be in that rank. For example, because the alchemists or the ingredients are too good, the pill leaps a rank. I mean, not a small rank, but a big rank.
"For example, a supposed Rank 4 Pill turns into a Rank 5 Pill. It shouldn't exist, so it's a kind of a process where the pill goes through a Lightning Tribulation to reach that next rank. Of course, the refiner will be the one challenging the Lightning Tribulation before the pill uses the energy to officially break through a rank.
"The second type is the pill that is refined in such an environment. I mean, I have heard there is a world that sends a Lightning Tribulation for a pill to a certain level. This world purifies the pill even further with its lightning, but there is no way I want to refine the pill in that world, considering it's already pure enough.
"The third type is an enigma pill. It's a type of pill that will disturb the norm of the world. Suppose you are refining a Rank 2 Pill in my original world, Agar World. In that case, it will send a Lightning Tribulation because a pill of this level can't exist in this type of Lower World since it will disrupt the balance between Energy.
"That's also the reason why a God Rank Expert like us shouldn't enter the world. Do you understand what I mean?" Firia asked.
"Yes." Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "This has become more interesting than I thought it would be. At first, I believed that the pill only needed flame and a certain degree of control. However, people really used their own technique and other things to improve the refinement process."
"That's right. It's fascinating, isn't it?" Firia smiled from ear to ear. "I was blown away when my Master taught me about Alchemy. Even Uncle Maxwell helped out during that time. After flying to a few worlds during the last mission with my master, I have seen many more types of Alchemy.
"However, I choose only those that will benefit me. I don't want to master them all because it might ruin my foundation in Alchemy Techniques."
"Understandable."
"How about you try it now? After one week, we will go to another technique. Let's test every technique and see which one suits you, alright?"
"Yes. Please guide me." Alex smiled and summoned the ingredients again.
He followed Firia's movement starting from the star-shaped fire to merging the ingredients. Although Alex messed up a bit due to the fact this was his first time, Firia was satisfied with the result, especially since he was even better than her first time.
The couple continued working their way with all techniques in possessions to check Alex's affinity. However, it turned out that Firia still underestimated Alex's potential and Godly Pure Fire. Out of twelve techniques, he mastered eleven of them, despite Firia could only do nine of them.
Alex also used this chance to talk about Alchemy and wondered whether they could add something to the technique.
On the contrary to their expectation, the techniques were considered perfect. They were the culmination of efforts from all great people in the past.
It had been improved again and again until it was in this state.
According to Firia, the last time they got improved was ten thousand years ago. With that kind of time span, she believed that the technique was already in a perfect state.
Unfortunately, as much as she wanted to keep going, Firia knew that it was time to switch. Alicia already returned from the Ice Phoenix Tribe, waiting for her turn in the garden.
"Alicia. How are you?" Firia smiled and hugged her.
"I am good. So, let me guess. He is a monster?" Alicia smirked while glancing at Alex with a teasing glance.
Alex didn't notice her for the time being. Instead, he looked down as if something was in his mind.
And Alicia's focus was on Firia, so the latter answered her instead of Alex. "That's right. As expected of our husband, he always surpassed us."
"Well, it can't be helped. Your Element comes from him while I am not good with Alchemy. Let me see if I am good enough to teach him about Array. I have a surprise for him with the new array." Alicia grinned.
"So, you have an Array that will surprise him?"
"Not an array, but a technique. Well, he was the one who brought it from another world. So, he might be better than me in this." Alicia explained before showing her right forearm. "Look at this."
"This…" Firia saw a tattoo in Alicia's hand. The tattoo had a round-shaped gem with six wings. "This is Eulja's symbol, isn't it?"
"Yes. Truly a simple symbol. One jewel that presents the life of the Spirit King with six wings which are the Six Elemental Gods. But I think this symbol is good." Alicia smiled.
"True enough. We will meet here again in nine months. How about that?"
"Sure." Alicia nodded. "I will bring him to our Research Centre. You can come if you need anything."
"Will do."
Meanwhile, Alex seemed to have found something not related to their talk. He looked at his fire and fell into deep thought.
"This…"