When Siderius woke up, the first thing he said was: "Interesting…"
Pax wasn't Lyara's servant. He was Leona's servant. A sister in the same clan as Lyara and they didn't seem to get along that well.
He had a feeling that he did a favor for Lyara unknowingly. It was probably why Pax didn't care about keeping Siderius alive and wanted to kill him there. Lyara would've never let anything happen to him.
Her psychotic love wouldn't allow that.
There was a sizzling noise outside. When Siderius crawled out of his shelter, Ashe was sitting beside the campfire and trying to cook something with an iron pot.
She didn't leave her house with nothing. The apprentice brought quite a few stuff along, mostly necessity to help her relocate to a new place.
However, she didn't anticipate that she would be staying in the middle of nowhere with no roof on her head.
Ashe straightened her back and her spine popped. She wasn't familiar sleeping with her back on the ground at all. Her entire body ached gravely.
"Cooking something, my apprentice?" Siderius sat down beside her.
"Yes, Master. I bring some food with me. I thought I could make you something nice."
The sunlight caused his eyes to sting. Siderius took out the brand new sunglasses and put them on. The shade made everything tolerable immediately.
Ashe observed the weird device.
"You've never seen a pair of glasses?" Siderius said.
"No, Master. What a particular object."
"I will teach you about it later. But first, you need to learn some fundamentals about surviving in the woods.
First lesson, do not let the fire be exposed to the wind. They will burn quicker and the heat won't be concentrated."
Siderius brought up big pieces of rocks around the campfire and shielded the fire from the environment. He laid quite a few around in case he needed to use them.
The fire was no longer dancing around aimlessly and focused on the bottom of the pot, delivering more heat to it.
The stew inside was bubbling even more.
"Woah," Ashe's eyes sparkled. She seemed to be easily captivated by any piece of knowledge. A good nature to be an Alchemist.
"How are your Truth-Seeking Path?" Siderius asked.
"I'm still trying to reach Silver, Master. But the process is slow. But I promise you I'm not lazy!"
"I know you're not, my apprentice. I've seen it with my own eyes. Once you reach the first enlightenment rank of the soul, I will teach you more about Alchemy. But for now, all you need to do is focus on the Truth-Seeking Path.
I will also teach you survival skills on the side. Consider them your assignment for now."
"I understand, Master."
"Good. Let's begin with the fundamentals."
The most important thing to survive in the wilds was fire. Food you could hunt, water you could find, but the cold would take you away before you know it.
Fire also allowed you to boil water and cook food, chase away dangerous predators and most importantly, keep your mind from being consumed by the darkness of the woods.
Only with fire did humans stand a chance against nature.
Siderius taught Ashe how to gather woods, make tinder, create a spark by various ways and then how to keep the fire going.
These pieces of knowledge were simple in theory but took a lot of time to master.
Once Siderius had given Ashe everything she needed, he left her to practice. Making a good fire may take days to master even if you were bright. A few weeks if Siderius was dealing with an idiot.
Ashe was quite smart so he expected her to learn it quickly.
After that, he kneeled in front of the campfire and started his usual daily meditation.
"No thirst nor starved, nor craving's fire
Shall take the heart of my desire."
[PSYCHOSIS -1]
[PSYCHOSIS LEVEL: 48/125]
The psychosis lowered at the same rate as before. One point per four hours. He would need to meditate at least 192 hours to completely conquer the beast, around 8 days of straight meditation.
That was simply impossible as meditation lost its effectiveness the more you did it in a day. Spacing it out for four hours each day was the best course of action.
If calculating that way, Siderius might need more than a month to make the psychosis disappear. This was much quicker than an actual beginner witch hunter. A beginner may even take two to three months to calm their first mutation.
Siderius wasn't actually a beginner and more like a do-over. That was the reason for his quicker speed.
After the mutation, Siderius redirected his focus to the Truth-Seeking Path.
In his right hand was the dark red crystal, the piece of Malevirus he had extracted from Pax.
In his left hand was a ball of silver strands, the gratefulness and appreciation of the miners toward him.
He might have collected more Light Aether if he didn't kill those greedy miners. But they tried to harm him and he would never let them walk free.
He's very thorough when dealing with his enemies.
Inside the dark mind space of Siderius, the faceless being also held two things in its hands. However, their appearance was a bit different from outside.
The Malevitus was showing up at a ball of constantly changing matter. Sometimes it was solid, sometimes it was liquid, and sometimes it became a cloud of red smoke.
On the being's other hand was Light Aether. They were strands of intangible silver lines that could not be touched by any means.
Even with smoke, when you hurled your hand through it, it would dissipate or change according to your movement. But not Light Aether.
The only being that could interact with Light Aether and control it would be the one who was given the Light Aether.
Even then, Siderius could not touch it, he could only move it with his will.
No one could reach their hand toward fate. Not even an Alchemist.