Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 202: Repaying kindness

Summer turned into autumn without Liam noticing or altering his strenuous routine.

Identical days followed one another, with many often failing to end at all, and Liam just went with the flow, or rather, he had no time or mental energy to think about anything else.

Still, there were undeniable achievements.

The combat and, especially, weapon training were finally starting to stick, expanding on what the Divine Cult had carved into Liam. The improvements were gradual but undeniable, and Liam often only noticed them once they had completely settled.

Liam didn’t know when exactly it happened, but he felt firmer on his feet while performing battle stances, as if those man-made techniques had finally become natural to him.

The same went for weapons, or at least the knife. Somehow, at some point, Liam didn’t feel weird wielding a short blade while practicing with the dummy anymore.

That was normal. After all, Liam was finally amassing subsequent months of uninterrupted training, working solely on honing himself without halting the process to join missions.

Of course, alchemy took the crown there.

After an initial rough patch, Liam saw his mastery grow exponentially. The first phase of that extreme training had featured nothing but mistakes, but they grew rarer and rarer until they almost completely disappeared.

That was the Alchemy Elder’s goal in the end. It was meant to fix each mistake permanently in ways that Liam could apply to the entirety of the alchemical field instead of specific concoctions.

And the gradually more cramped shelves in Liam’s cave acted as a perfect representation of his growing skills.

The first new addition to the shelves was antidotes. Liam now had a deadly poison in his hands, and, while foundation experts and level one magical beasts weren’t really his targets, it was wise to have a way to undo it.

After all, as the Elder had said, every alchemist worth their salt could undo their creations, and Liam was way beyond questioning that rule.

The elixirs came next. Liam had already learned to make Qi-Recovery ones, but there were many variants, and mastering them could work toward repaying whatever privilege kept refilling his stashes of ingredients.

Actually, the elixirs also had another purpose. They acted as a gateway for the dreaded healing field, a middle ground to ease Liam out of his comfort zone.

Then, the healing pills finally came, albeit with their fair share of struggles. Luckily, Liam’s mastery had improved enough by then to keep slumps to a minimum.

Also, the high-grade circulation technique helped a great deal there. Liam could release more Qi at the same time without risking running dry, overcoming some of the additional mental filters’ shortcomings.

Of course, the healing pills were merely the most iconic aspect of a wide field.

Liam also concocted ointments specific to flesh wounds, pills that could ignite the Qi to facilitate a dantian’s growth, elixirs that cleansed the meridians, and body-enhancing products.

Truth be told, even after Liam succeeded at that, he only felt he had scratched the surface of the alchemy. That field was immense, limited only by the alchemist’s imagination, available ingredients, and some relatively fixed rules, and new ideas flooded Liam’s brain with each success he added under his belt.

Then, it came the time for something Liam had been wanting to do ever since his punishment for killing Randall had ended, but he had taken an additional five months to amass the skills to attempt it finally.

Autumn was in full force now. Actually, it had long since crossed its middle point, not that Liam cared. It was night, and his feral gaze, now permanently afflicted by dark circles, was on a blue pill between his fingers.

The Pill was nothing more than a Qi-Storage Pill. It was also charged already, the energy it contained giving it that specific blue color.

Also, the pill featured something else that probably only Liam’s nose could pick up. The item radiated a faint but specific wet scent, one that he would recognize among thousands, one that even the rain might fail to stop him from noticing.

’Melissa,’ Liam thought, a beautiful face flashing in his view, his eyes closing to immerse himself in the cozy sensations it triggered.

That strenuous period hadn’t really allowed Liam’s relationship to progress. Still, Melissa had always been by his side, not missing a single day, never forgetting to remind him about her existence before he lost himself in concoctions.

It didn’t matter how tired Liam was, how heavy his mind got, or how much his incessant training made him stink. Melissa always managed to revitalize him, be it through a kiss, a tighter-than-usual hug, or even a smile.

What had once driven Liam crazy had now become his only tether to a fuller life. Melissa was the fresh air in his lungs, the bright colors in his dim cave, his pure joy, something he could only enjoy once a day and for a few seconds, but that kept him sane nonetheless.

Of course, Melissa still drove Liam crazy, but he had no time to dwell on those desires. Yet, he could now repay her. He was finally ready to express through alchemy just how much she had given him, or at least start to.

Liam reopened his eyes and placed the blue pill on the mat, together with the other ingredients. A blue flask and another pill, this one reddish, rested next to it, and he reviewed them for the hundredth time, checking for conflicts in that original recipe.

’Concentrate of Blank Leaves grown solely with clean water,’ Liam thought, ’The foundation. Qi-Storage Pill of the same nature but specific to Melissa as the main reagent. Qi-Igniting Pill at the end for power.’

Liam looked at his black cauldron next. That was a proper rank 1 item, something his Master had found who-knew-where, but that had accompanied him for the past months of incessant training.

More calculations happened at that sight. Liam knew the exact fractions of a second it would take his flame to push the item to reach the right temperature. Still, he simulated it in his mind, countless vivid memories helping the process.

Then, Liam placed his hand next to the log under the cauldron, which instantly lit up, its red flame already turning pale and blue under the careful application of his mental filters.

And Liam’s face remained feral, but his eyes seemed to lose focus, albeit deceptively. He simply didn’t just look at what was in front of him anymore. He wasn’t even Liam anymore.

Liam became the tool that the concoction demanded, the completely immersed and captivated maker of the product that could overcome his lover’s bottleneck.