Can't believe I actually figured out the fundamentals of using elemental magic. However, what's the reasoning behind this? Using lightning as the base for all elemental magic? It's just so bizarre as to why this is the case. There must be a reason for this, and I intend to figure it out.
From what I can tell from my findings, white lightning is, well, lightning. Your standard everyday Tesla Trooper's favourite weapon. And then, there is Lily's case, who's using blue lightning, which seems to be related to frost despitebeing lightning itself.
According to Byakko, he can only siphon elemental magic, fire lightning magic more specifically. Kirin's lightning is based on standard lightning, which was how the explosion took place. Both of them were bickering at one another and screwed up the whole siphon process. I took a gamble trying out Kirin's lightning with Tengu-kaze, but at least that led to my discovery of its secret.
I clarified with both of them whether they knew about this in the first place. They told me that they were not at liberty to discuss it. It was actually a cosmic secret that very few individuals were supposed to know, until I figured it out myself. Surprised to say, I'm actually the very few beings in this universe that managed to figure it out. Less than the number of fingers on your hand, according to both Kirin and Byakko. But hey, it was thanks to them giving me hints that I figured it out in the first place.
"We did not!" they screamed at me telepathically.
Alright, so now, what I need to do is figure out how to use fire spells. It should be red lightning, right? Please don't tell me it's pink; otherwise, it should have been pink flames instead. Don't give me different colours with different effects now.
Let's see, how do I even start with this? Figuring out the secret is one thing; turning it into a weapon coating with Alchemy is another. Should I just ignore the creation of using flame magic and focus on healing items instead? Only two days left before I need to depart. What can I even create in two days? Neither path is easy for any sort of breakthrough in such a short amount of time.
Seemingly undecided on which path to take, and instead of wasting time, I decided to search for my wife. Where is she, by the way? The sound of sweeping could be heard in the room where the explosion occurred. I took a peek and saw her cleaning the relatively empty room with a giant hole on one of the walls. I sneaked behind her and gave her a hug. A sniff of her hair pheromones usually calms me with its unusual, unique, pleasant smell.
"Onii-chan, do you want the whole world to see what we're doing? You do realise there's a giant hole right over there, right? Besides, I'm in no mood today," she sighed as she continued sweeping.
"Just to calm myself, dear. Not every physical touch has to lead to that," I told her as I continued sniffing her hair.
"Alright, that's enough. Got to get this room all cleaned up before the repairman comes over tomorrow. Hey, you madethis mess, come and clean it with me," she squinted at me.
I obeyed her command and took over the sweeping duty from her as I swept all the dirt and dust out of the giant hole. Judge me all you want, but I'm sure you'll do the same. Rose lifted a couple of boxes to another room as she didn't want it to obstruct the people who would be coming over to fix the hole. A small lockbox fell out from one of the boxes with a loud thud. I thought of helping her until I saw the lockbox. Yikes, I had completely forgotten that this was here.
"What's this? I don't remember we had a lockbox stored here. Is this yours?" asked Rose.
"Um— yeah. I store materials that I couldn't figure out their usage in there. I didn't want to remind myself of how much I spent on unknown materials the last time I was curious about Alchemy," I scratched my head.
She opened and took a peek at its contents. It wasn't locked since there wasn't anything secretive in it. It was filled to the brim with many different types of materials that I just couldn't figure out its usage no matter what combination I tried. And a few of them were expensive too.
"Wow, some of these looked—beautiful. You really don't have any use for these? I can think of many things I can do with these," she chuckled.
"You're thinking about turning them into jewellery, aren't you? I think gemstones would suit your purpose more so than these. Some of those materials you're holding are even more expensive than gemstones themselves. I just—couldn't figure out what their purpose is yet," I sighed.
"And this? Did you get conned into buying this? This is just an ordinary stone, isn't it? Just a jagged-looking stone. Ouch!" she dropped the lockbox and the stone she was holding.
It fell and rolled across the floor towards me. Did I just— saw some electric sparks on the emanating from the stone?
"You okay? Did you cut yourself?" I inspected her fingers for wounds, except there weren't any.
"I'm alright. That stone just— shocked me. What the hell was that?" she began massaging her fingers.
"That's— odd. I never knew such a stone existed. I thought I was duped by the old lady when she sold me this stone for a hefty sum," I walked closer to pick it up from the floor.
ZAP!
It was my turn to get electrocuted. What's going on? The stone had never acted this way before. I went to grab my leather glove to inspect it and touched it once again with my bare finger. Hmm, nothing. Did something trigger this stone to release the sparks?
I tried recalling what happened earlier for this stone to behave this way. Can it be? I tossed the stone on the floor again and once again saw sparks erupting from it. This—the stone reacts to impact. Can this be the discovery that I was hoping for?
"Rose, I love ya. You just gave me ideas and inspiration on how to start my next alchemy experiment. I'm gonna make love to you right here right now!" I hugged and lifted her.
"Wha— Hey! There's a giant hole there, Mr Hawthorn! And I told you that I'm not in the mood," she gently pushed me away.
"Didn't you say you wanted another child? I won't be around for a while in two days' time. Who knows whether I'll make it back after," I poked fun at her as I started smooching her neck and nibbling her ear gently.
"D—don't say that, please. Damn it, you. You really know how to get me all riled up. Fine, but we're not doing it here. I don't want the whole world to see what we're about to do," she gave in.
"Right you are, my princess. Allow me to carry you to your personal chambers," I lifted her up princess style and brought her to our room. Whatever happened in there, well, I'll just leave it to your own imagination.
***
"It's called a thunderstone," answered the old lady of the Pink Carnation store. She had to browse through her book of materials to find the stone in question. Even she doesn't remember what it is.
"And you didn't think of telling me this when I bought it from you in the first place? I've been keeping this in some reject box for so long without knowing its true nature. I even paid a pretty sum for this dumb piece of stone. Aren't I your precious regular customer?" I squinted at her.
"Look, kid, you bought a lot of materials from me. You can't expect me to explain all of them, right? Besides, I can't even remember what I had sold to you when you're the sole reason as to why half of my store's materials are sold out. Tell you what, you bring over those materials that you couldn't use, then I'll check them for you with my book. Least I could do for you since you're the one who made me rich. Haha!" she chuckled.
"Alright, guess I'm sensible enough to see where you're coming from. Tell me more about this stone. Where did it come from and why is it so expensive?" I asked her.
"Let's see. Says here that these stones are found near the coast of some areas where lightning occurs frequently. Over time, these stones began to emit lightning properties but only when faced with impact. Miners must wear extreme safety gear before even considering mining these stones, which are relatively few at the time of this writing," she explained.
"Guess that's why it cost a fortune for this. Is there any material like Firestone or stones with similar properties?" I asked.
"Sorry, kid, this stone is special as the Gods deemed it so. And I don't recall seeing any other stones with similar properties before. I can assure you that these are the only stones I have in my store. Even I took a gamble when I ordered this some time ago," she shrugged.
"Hmm, how many of these do you have in stock? Just in case I want more of it?" I asked her.
"Last I recall, I ordered about five of these when they were still at a reasonable price. I never ordered more when the price went tits up. You bought one, so I still have four, seeing as you're the only one who's actually willing to buy such an expensive material. No one else seems to have any interest in buying a plain-looking stone in the first place," she shrugged.
"Great. Keep them in stock for me until tomorrow. I'll be doing a little experiment on these when I get back. I wonder if this stone can even help me with my little experiment in the first place," I sighed.
"Whatever you're doing, kid, be extra careful. Lightning is the gift of the Gods. You don't want to do stupid things with their powers. Incidentally, do you wish to purchase anything today?" she grinned.
"What materials do you have that are related to fire?" I smirked.
***
I slumped on my chair. Despite finding something that might have helped in the creation of elemental magic, I can't get a breakthrough in creating one. Perhaps I should look at things differently. This stone requires impact in order to activate the lightning sparks, so I can't make it work like my usual wax coating. What if I coat the stone with something flammable instead? Will that work? Sigh, this blows. I just can't figure out how to replicate red lightning in the first place. What am I doing in thinking I can use it as a wax coating instead?
I sighed once again and pulled out one of my table drawers to search for something that might be able to help me with this experiment of mine. A bunch of stat scrolls rolled into view. Ah, it's been a while since I last checked my stats. How long has it been? Since I'm procrastinating right now, let's check my current stats for fun. I took out a scroll and blew on it, which caused dust to spread all over the place. Wow, *cough*. I really need to do some spring cleaning in my room.
Oh hey, my agility went up somehow. It's at sitting at a good number of 110. My strength remained the same though, at around 80. My constitution is still on the lower side at 60, but good thing I have my earring to boost it further. Now, let's see—oh—OHHH!! My skill is at 49 now! Yyyeeesss!!! About fucking time it went up. How long has it been since it got stuck at 48?
Just one more skill point, just one more, and I can unlock the last hidden spell for my gauntlets. Bloody hell, I had to fight two Vessels just to increase one? And I almost died a couple of times in both situations. Talk about ridiculous difficulty in levelling skill stats for me.
Damn, now I'm pumped. I can't wait to see what it is! It better be a fucking good spell after all I've been through. Just one more to go. So near, yet so far, sigh. I should get back to solving my little experiment on how to make elemental magics work; perhaps that might raise the last skill stat that I need. Damn it, stop making yourself too hopeful. You know very well that it's going to be a long time before it gets 50, but I just can't stop myself from being excited. Dammit!