Siderius led Ashe to his secret hideout inside the woods.
Her identity was exposed to the miners and it was better to lay low for a while.
She must not be seen until Siderius was sure that Lyara didn’t want to go after her or that the miners didn’t sell her out.
"Is this where you live, Master?"
Ashe saw the campfire and the shabby makeshift shelter that Siderius had constructed from leaves and branches.
"A temporary hideout only. It will be where you’re going to live for the next few weeks."
Ashe froze. The corner of her mouth trembled a bit. She was familiar with living a hard life. But at least in Mucktown, there was a roof and a bed.
What Siderius suggested was on a completely different level of hardship.
"Any disagreement?" Siderius said.
"Of course not, Master!"
Ashe would do anything to gain power. These mild discomforts couldn’t stop her.
"Good. Then you can use my old shelter. I will make a new one for myself."
"I can’t let you do that, Master. At least let me build my own shelter."
Siderius simply shook his head. "You don’t have the skill to do so. Use the shelter for tonight. Tomorrow, I will teach you how to build one."
"I understand..." Ashe was a bit upset because of her uselessness. She crawled into Siderius’ previous shelter and tried to sleep.
The floor was hard and uncomfortable. Her back was screaming by simply laying down. But Ashe endured it and closed her eyes.
As for Siderius, he went out to gather a few materials to make a second shelter and a special kind of device.
There were a lot of leaves and tree branches around the foothills. It cost Siderius less than an hour to construct the second shelter.
Ashe was still awake when he finished. She squirmed inside the shelter and couldn’t sleep.
"Don’t overthink it. Just lay still and breathe." Siderius called out to her.
"I understand, Master." Ashe replied with a soft whisper.
After constructing the new shelter, Siderius kneeled down in front of the campfire and drew another alchemical seal.
This seal involved both sulfur and Mercury as material.
This was probably the last seal involving Mercury that Siderius was going to use in a long time. He would need to find a new source of Mercury soon.
If Alex successfully saved the miners, they would be of great help to Siderius.
"Activate Manual Mercury Overdrive."
[MANUAL MERCURY OVERDRIVE ACTIVATED]
[MERCURY EXTRACT: 8/150]
Eight points of mercury left. This tiny amount wasn’t going to be useful for anything except tiny transformations like what Siderius was doing.
Siderius dropped a pouch of sand into the middle of the seal.
This pair of Nocturnal Eyes had been bothering him for a while now. Limited his operating hours to only night time. It was an advantage at night, but it had become a weakness at day.
His sword broke in two and he needed a replacement. Siderius wouldn’t enter Mucktown for a while to avoid being caught. So he needed a new sword elsewhere.
The perfect candidate to help him was George. The missing blacksmith that had gone to Scalize.
For the ease of travelling, it would be better if Siderius could see in the day.
There were two ways to solve this issue.
One was that Siderius must create the Nocturnal Inhibitor Tonic, which he couldn’t make at the moment due to the lack of an important binding agent.
The second was simpler than that. He just needed to make a pair of sunglasses. Once he got through the Nocturnal Ocula and grafted a Cathemeral Ocula, this weakness should disappear on its own.
To make sunglasses, all he needed was glass and a way to darken it. This content belongs to n0velfire.net
By using this seal, Siderius could separate the sand out of the other impurities and transform it into a pair of transparent glass. Then, by slipping thin layers of obsidian in the middle of glass, Siderius could yield a good pair of sunglasses.
He still held on to the piece of obsidian that he had found from before.
Siderius put the piece of obsidian next to the pouch of sand.
The rest was simple. By conducting a combination of Sulfur Separation and Mercury Transformation, Siderius created two pieces of circular glasses.
With the remaining mercury in the seal, Siderius transformed the piece of iron that he had taken from the Rocky Pit and turned it into the frame for the glasses.
He slid the glasses into the frame and voilà, a pair of primitive sunglasses was finished.
There were a lot of things that could be improved upon. Obsidian was not the best material as it was opaque. The glass could also easily be scratched and had very little durability. But it should be sufficient for Siderius to use as a pair of daytime eyes.
Once he’s done, there was only one last thing left to do. Siderius took out the pouch that he had taken from Pax’s body and looked inside.
"What have we got here?" Siderius mumbled.
Twenty shining silver coins. Those were worth 2000 bronze coins. It could feed a commoner family for years and even let them live lavishly for a while.
Combining them with Siderius’ last eighty bronze coins. He had a total of twenty silver coins and eighty bronze coins. A small amount of useful wealth.
Siderius carefully put the coins inside his shirt then slid into his new shelter to sleep.
This time he dreamt. However, he did not meet the witch Lyara. Instead, he dreamt of being an owl. The feeling of flying through the deep dark forest at night, experiencing the cold wind blew onto his face and his wings. His feathers were the best kind of clothes that kept him warm and comfy.
The owl’s eyes were perfect in picking up lights and movement in the dark. Siderius was able to see a small squirrel jumping from branches to branches.
When the squirrel was in mid-air between the branches, Siderius catched it and took it back to his home. The small cage that Lyara had built for Fluff.
While he’s eating the delicious squirrel, he could see an argument happening between Lyara and her sister Leona.
"Why, sister, do you even waste your time with that circus boy?" Leona said.
In contrast to Lyara’s bright red hair, Leona had very soft pink-colored hair. The pink was faded, making her hair an off-white color. But contrast to that hair, Leona had the most insidious face a woman could have.
Pax was there too and he was on all four, acting as a chair for Leona. He did not have any clothes on him.
"See this good little boy I have. He loves me and he will do everything for me. Isn’t that right, dog?" Leona caressed Pax’s face.
"Yes, my love!" Pax said with happiness in his eyes.
"Call me master, dog!" Leona slapped Pax.
"Yes, master!" Pax didn’t look offended at all, he relished in the pain he received.
Lyara was laying on her couch with minimal clothing. She leaned on a masked man. His chest went up and down, proving that he was still alive. But his face was devoid of any soul.
"You don’t get it, sister." Lyara said. "Pain is our instrument. But love is our leverage. Only true sacrificial love can advance us to higher realms.
If you understand that, you won’t be stuck in the Lesser Rank for more than three years..."
"You arrogant bitch!" Leona was pissed. She stood up and took a good hard look at Lyara. It was obvious that Lyara had touched upon a sensitive topic. "I will keep my eyes open and see how far you can go, sister. It’ll be a joke if you can’t even become a Lesser Witch."
Then she stormed off the castle with Pax following her closely.
"We’ll see, sister..." Lyara didn’t mind anything at all and had already begun to play with her toy.