Everyone got up, and Falko had to admit that Damien was crafty enough to come out of this situation with benefits. He now had friendly relations with two of the five top families of the Xeton Empire, and he was sure that this marked Damien's advent into the world of supreme existences.
Damien left after exchanging farewell pleasantries and was on his way back to his villa along with Valentina.
Falko already left on his own and wondered why he was even there for the meeting in the first place.
All the limelight was on Damien. Despite being Leon Xeton's personal disciple, everybody forgot about him, which made him feel useless as he didn't even utter a single word.
He thought that he should probably spend more time in the outside world rather than staying holed up in his alchemy room.
Damien and Valentina soon reached their villa. He started thinking about how he should increase his cultivation within a month.
Before, he thought that he could rely on Misty to kill many powerful ethereal beasts and level up way faster. But his hopes were watered down when Luna said that things are not that simple.
She said that he needs a cooldown period each time he breakthroughs by absorbing life essences. Otherwise, his foundation would crumble down and might comprise his future cultivation, limiting his potential.
The same applied to Valentina as well, and that she needed to solidify her current cultivation before she attempts another breakthrough.
Luna suggested that he should hunt some Sky Ethereal Realm beasts and slowly absorb their life essences.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})But she said that he would only be able to store the life essences of one or two Sky Ethereal Realm beasts at most as their life essences were very potent, and Damien's current cultivation is too weak to hold too much of them in his ethereal core.
If he absorbs too much of them, then his ethereal core would collapse after trying to eat more than he could chew.
The gap between Spirit Ethereal Realm and the Sky Ethereal Realm was too big to be compared with the power gap between Nascent Ethereal Realm and the Earth Ethereal Realm.
Before when Damien was at the Nascent Ethereal Realm, in terms of quantity, he was able to store more of the life essences of ethereal beasts or humans at the Earth Ethereal Realm because compared to the life essence of a Sky Ethereal Realm being, it was way less potent and concentrated.
And also, because of that, he would need more time to absorb the life essences of a Sky Ethereal Realm beast and breakthrough.
But he was surprised when Luna told him that he should simply give Valentina the ethereal core of the Bloodthirsty Ape instead of using it to concoct a pill.
He never expected that Valentina could eat the raw, ethereal core and absorb the blood essence directly. But then he thought that it was not that surprising as she was a half ethereal beast.
"Valentina, from today onwards, prepare yourself for a breakthrough." He took out the red ethereal core and gave it to her, "Here, keep this with you. And you can just eat it and slowly absorb its blood essence. Don't try to rush it. Your ethereal foundation is way more important than a challenge."
Valentina took the red ethereal core from his hand and nodded with a confident smile, "Of course, Big Brother. I will make you proud."
Damien warmly smiled as he patted her head, "You already do."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})——-
It was the morning of the next day, and Damien was on his way to the Xeton Ethereal Foundation.
Yesterday night, he was in the Forsaken, getting himself familiarised with the core members of the group. And before that, during the evening, he taught the children how to handle basic weapons.
In the alchemy study hall, Damien was seated before a cauldron along with his classmates. Reva had already given them a task to concoct the simplest pill according to their cultivation.
For Damien, he was to concoct a Rank 2 Pill despite the recent breakthrough he had. Reva wanted to see if he could first concoct an Upper Tier Rank 2 Pill with his recently awakened Fire seed.
Damien arranged his herbs as he prepared himself to start concocting a Rank 2 Pill. Some of his classmates had expressions of ridicule as they expected him to fail again and embarrass himself before Reva.
"Everyone, focus on your own concoction!" Reva chided some of her disciples when she saw them paying attention to Damien instead of their own concoction.
Damien didn't need to concentrate much, and with a thought, bright amber flames manifested in his palm, which even grabbed the attention of those who were keenly concentrating on their concoction.
Everyone's jaw slacked when they saw the amber fireball on Damien's palm and wondered what the hell was happening.
Only a few days ago, they saw with their own eyes Damien manifesting a very poor version of etheric flames. If he already had an awakened Fire seed, why would he not use it on the first day instead of embarrassing himself?
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})But what they were most curious about was the color of his flames. They had never seen amber-colored flames in their life. A Fire seed should only normally give birth to either red or orange colored flames. And the intensity might vary according to how much affinity the practitioner has.
But they just couldn't make out the reason behind the amber-colored flames.
Damien smirked and activated Undying Wrath.
*SWISHHHH*
Suddenly the amber fireball flared up instantaneously like a volcano, and the ones sitting beside Damien stumbled backward as they got startled by the sudden increase in the intensity and heat of the flames.
Even Reva was surprised by how powerful the flames seemed. She sensed that the profundity of the flames had already crossed the Earth Ethereal Realm and could even sear the skin of a Low-Level Earth Ethereal Realm practitioner.
And that also meant that his flames were powerful enough to concoct at least Low-Grade Rank 4 Pills!
Usually, one who is at the Spirit Ethereal Realm can only concoct Rank 3 Pills at most, even if they are a genius.
She wondered how Damien had such a phenomenal talent that could let him transcend a whole realm in pure power. Even she couldn't transcend a whole realm, and it seemed impossible to her.
She had to admit that she was truly curious what Damien's real origins were. She didn't believe he was someone who was born in the Rong Empire.
Damien carried on with his connotation, and within a few minutes, he easily concocted a Rank 2 Pill and showed it to Reva, "How is it, teacher Reva? Is this to your satisfaction?" Damien asked with a confident smile.
Reva inspected the pill from a distance and raised her brows when she sensed that it was a Top Tier Pill with 99% potency, just a percent shorter than Supreme Tier Pills which only Alchemist Azrael could concoct.
"This is...excellent," Reva said calmly, but her words carried her appreciation and that she was impressed with his work.
She had never before seen any young alchemist concocting a pill at least above 80% potency no matter how prodigious they were. Even among the expert and scholarly alchemists she knew, only Leon Xeton held a record for being able to concoct pills with a maximum of 95% potency.
How could a young boy like Damien possibly already surpass the greatest alchemist in the continent in sheer expertise? The talent was not the only factor that determined the pill's potency. She already knew that Damien's potential was as deep as a bottomless abyss.
The more she learns about his talents, the more she was surprised to learn that there's even more to him. She inwardly sighed in amazement, thinking that not only was his ethereal talent monstrous, but even his talent in alchemy was unbelievable.
All the other disciples were surprised to hear the word 'excellent' from Reva's mouth. They had never heard her compliment anyone like that, even to the most promising disciples in her class.
They felt as if Damien purposefully made a fool out of them by not using his Fire seed during the first alchemy class. And now, to create a deep impression on Reva, he used his Fire seed.
Damien was also pleased with his amber flames as he didn't expect them to be this outstanding. After all, it was not like he had heavenly talent or affinity for Fire Laws.
Reva continued, "Now, I think you can even concoct Rank 4 Pills. Go ahead and try to concoct one."
