Another month passed since the activation of Enki’s second core, and Percy hadn’t stopped working on the regeneration pills in that time.
Now that the boy was free from the arduous task of clearing his channels, Percy had asked him to pay attention to what he was doing. After all, observing a trained alchemist at work with one’s own body was a unique learning opportunity. Enki would benefit a lot from feeling the mana flowing through his channels, getting used to the visual cues informing him of when he was meant to increase the heat on the concoction and so on.
Of course, Percy’s fumbling attempts with his shoddy equipment weren’t the most ideal teaching aides, but they would still save the boy years of study down the line. Something that was of paramount importance if Enki truly wanted to work as an alchemist after he was gone.
‘Is this going to be enough for the test though?’ the boy asked one day.
Percy’s success with the pills had been quite mixed. He had managed to brew them many times over, but his results were anything but consistent. Sometimes, he would end up with a pill nearly twice as large as what was needed, indicating a yield approaching 40%! In fact, he got really lucky once, retaining enough of the moss’s properties to split it into two pills of acceptable quality!
Then again, there were plenty of times when he failed the brewing process entirely, not even getting to 20%. If this happened during the test, they’d miss their opportunity. This was unavoidable, as he was brewing blindly, so a lot of it ultimately came down to guesswork and luck.
Still, Percy was satisfied with the experience. While he didn’t know if they would achieve their goal in the end, his practice here was bound to pay dividends down the line.
Back on Remior, he mainly relied on his eyesight to predict the concoction’s reactions during the brewing process. According to what Orin had told him, the best alchemists learned how to combine visual cues with information they glimpsed through Mana Sense, to act with even greater precision.
Now that Percy was forced to rely on Mana Sense alone, he had no choice but to master this auxiliary skill at an accelerated pace, which should have a positive impact on his yield in the long-term. Still, he wanted the Decree too.
In theory, they could have delayed it until he got even better. Unfortunately, he’d already spent way too long on Atlantis. The time of the lotus blooming was rapidly approaching, and he had no idea what had happened with House Tantalus either. For all he knew, his main body might need him back already.
Not just that, but there was no point in delaying much longer. His improvements had already slowed down to a crawl so, unless he got his hands on some better equipment, it would be years until he was confident in passing the test with any certainty. Suffice to say, their best option was to give it a shot right now, and hope they won the coin toss.
‘Alright.’ the boy spat. ‘I just wish we could try it more than once.’
If they could do that, they’d pass for sure. And, technically, there wasn’t a hard limit preventing people from retaking the test, though there were a few rules to make it more difficult.
For one, the test required a hefty entrance fee. Enki would have needed years to save up enough money for it by himself. Luckily for him, the multitude of regeneration pills Percy had brewed in the past month were barely enough to cover the expense, though they’d need another month for a second attempt.
Even worse, applicants had to wait 200 eruptions to retake the test after failing it – a period of time longer than 3 months according to Percy’s estimates. These rules were intentionally put in place to ensure applicants were serious about it, and that they didn’t take the test every other day just for fun.
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Enki swam towards a large stone building, approaching the singular window near the top. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be a queue today, so he made his way directly towards the guard.
“Here for the test?” the man gurgled in typical Atlantean fashion.
The boy just nodded, handing him a small pouch filled with some fingernail-sized fish scales, giving off a pale greenish sheen.
Accepting the money, the man asked to see his other possessions. Fortunately, he didn’t make him lift his skirt, but still frowned upon seeing the shoddy cooking utensil they planned to use as a makeshift cauldron.
“Kid, are you sure you don’t want to save up for some proper tools? You’re just wasting your money.”
“The tools are way more expensive than the entrance fee. I’d need over a thousand eruptions to amass enough scales.”
The guard shook his head, but didn’t say anything else. Still, he confiscated most of the moss, leaving only enough for a single attempt. Next, he moved aside, gesturing at them to enter.
As soon as they were inside, the man closed the gate behind them, leaving them alone in the room. It was a large circular area, with a single totem-like structure erected in its centre. Enki approached it, as both he and Percy marvelled at its beauty. ɽάƝỖ฿Ěṥ
It was seemingly built out of dozens of large pearls, each bigger than a watermelon. They were stacked together into a vertical column, with multiple faces carved into them. Percy was a little taken aback by their wild, toothy expressions, but he knew part of it was just due to how the natives looked. In any case, all the pearls had one important feature in common – they all shone in a deep crimson colour.
‘I bet this thing is full of mind mana.’
It wasn’t that surprising, considering that Ea’s Decree worked similarly to Phoebe’s. In any case, he was just glad his clones didn’t need mind mana for their second cores anymore, or things could have easily turned ugly.
‘Ready?’ Enki asked, taking him out of his thoughts.
Unpacking the cauldron and the moss, the kid laid them in front of them, as he waited for Percy to do the honours. As much as he would have liked to pass the test honestly, he knew he wouldn’t stand a chance as he was. This was going to be all Percy.
‘Might as well.’ the latter shrugged. ‘Wish me luck.’
Twisting the lid of the sphere off, Percy then tossed the portion of moss the guard had generously allowed them to keep inside. He also threw a sticky piece of yellow mud in there – this was what the locals used to counteract the sea salt. Next, he pulled a trickle of pure mana from his abdomen, pouring it into the pot too. This was how he’d compress the pill later.
Finally, he twisted the top of the sphere back on, as he gathered some fire mana to his fingers, passing it onto the metallic surface of the tool. He felt the sphere instantly rumble, as the ingredients began to bubble within it. Giving the tool a spin, he closed his eyes, letting his mind sink into the inner world of the concoction with his Mana Sense.
The whole thing shone in a dim Orange colour, but he could faintly discern – based on his experience – a few lumps clustering together here and there. Intensifying the flow from his sternum, he upped the heat a little, before spinning the ball the opposite way, to eliminate the pesky lumps before they had the chance to cause trouble.
Several minutes passed, as both Percy and Enki remained quiet, their attention glued to the contents of the sphere. The concoction’s hushed rumbles were the only thing softly breaking the oppressive silence of the vast chamber, as beads of oily sweat seeped out of Enki’s skin one after another, crowning his forehead.
At some point, Percy could have sworn he caught the totems’ many eyes flash a shade brighter than before. Evidently, the structure had begun observing their efforts.
‘I hope this is just an automatic response. I’ve had enough of gods finding out about the Moirais’ Decree…’ he smiled bitterly.
Though there was nothing he could do about it, besides diving back into the brewing process.
In the end, the entire session finished without any climactic turn of events, nor any impossible last-minute hurdle they had to overcome. It didn’t last any longer than his previous attempts either.
Of course, that was not to say that everything had gone smoothly – the concoction still presented him with its standard share of unfortunate surprises – each gnawing at the eventual yield a little.
But they wouldn’t know whether they had succeeded until they looked inside the sphere.
Carefully opening the lid, they gazed at its contents with bated breath, the verdict of their endeavour looming silently over their head. There, a single marble floated quietly. It was among the smallest Percy had crafted, and its condition wasn’t the greatest either. Its surface was full of cracks, though they didn’t detract from its undeniable green lustre.
Although somewhat imperfect, there was no mistaking it!
This was a lesser regeneration pill!
Lifting his head, Percy saw the totem staring at them with what he could only describe as silent approval shimmering in its countless crimson eyes.
Suddenly, the entire column flashed twice as brightly as before, a dense crimson aura radiating outwards, rapidly enveloping them. Clearly, their examiner had found them worthy and was about to grant them their prize!
‘Ea’s Gift! Finally!’