As more and more elves began to notice, Abel was sitting on a grass weaved cushion in the center of the retreat room.
He felt coolness forming from the grass. At that moment, he noticed the cushion was entirely made out of soul calming grass, a type of grass only found in mana environments.
They could take up to 500 years to grow. Therefore, no human would sacrifice 500 years of mana to grow this grass, even though it had a clear calming effect on the soul.
Only a race that lived in nature while having so much love for alchemy would grow these grasses.
Also, the lifespan of elves made the wait seem a lot less daunting. At least they could see its harvest once in their life.
So, you can imagine how expensive it would be to make an entire cushion out of them. It was not something achievable just by spending gold coins.
Abel sighed at the generosity of the Alchemy Union and calmed his soul. He was here to become a Master Alchemist, after all.
There were many schools of thought inherited by alchemists. Potion making was only one of them, but all alchemy patterns were the same. It was the core of all alchemy skills.
In this world, Alchemists relied on their alchemy pattern to transform and purify their ingredients into their desired result.
First, he needed to return his Elite Alchemy pattern into its liquid form through his power of will. The strength of one’s power of the will was a defining factor.
Therefore, Abel took out the invisible cloak and put it on. The aura on the cloak doubled his power of will to 600 points. Suddenly, he had more power of the will than normal elite wizards.
However, this also required precise control of one’s power of the will. If a normal alchemist had their power of the will doubled in an instant, they might not even be able to get a hold of it, let alone control it with precision.
Abel had a huge advantage when it came to this. The world stone and his power as a rank 10 Wizard allowed him to maintain perfect control over his power of the will, even if it had doubled.
The soul calming grass cushion also helped him out a little. It allowed his mind to think even clearer.
The elite alchemy pattern slowly melted in his body. Unlike an intermediate alchemy pattern, it was tightly intertwined with the soul. Therefore sharp pain was unavoidable during the melting process. The pain came from the soul. Most of the elite alchemists failed because they lost control of their power of the will during this process, leading to the breakdown of their alchemy pattern.
Although Abel was drenched in pain as well, he had used a trick. He used his Druid soul to withstand the pain. The Druid soul was not conscious so that it couldn’t feel pain.
Meanwhile, his main soul kept slowly melting the alchemy pattern. Just like that, the first barrier of becoming a Master Alchemist was broken by Abel.
Under the effect of his power of will, his alchemy pattern turned into a golden liquid. In this state, he forgot about the passing of time, the presence of the external world.
A day had passed. That night, many elves in Angstrom City could not fall asleep. They all waited for one result.
“Master Bennett has broken the soul torturing barrier!” Master Peter lowered his voice and said.
Master Alfred and he were sitting on the floor outside of the retreat room without caring too much about their images. They had not left ever since Abel had entered.
Master Peter had done the most research when it came to the leveling up process. He knew the soul torturing process very well. The first 10 hours were the most painful. After that, the soul would slowly become numb to the pain.
Although it didn’t decrease the force of the pain, it could give the person a sense of hope.
“Yeah, it had been 24 hours. He should have passed the first step by now. I was not expecting him to make it this far” Master Alfred did not try to hide his thoughts since he was quite against the idea of Abel leveling up.
“Master Bennett is already better than 50% of those who tried to level up. It is almost unheard of for a person his age!” Master Peter nodded and spoke.
Both Masters were feeling quite different. Master Peter wanted to believe what Abel had suggested, and Abel himself was the best testimony.
Abel said that most elite alchemists had failed their level up due to a lack of courage. As Master Peter saw that Abel had passed the first barrier, and the hope in his heart grew.
On the other hand, Master Alfred felt quite sorry for Abel. A genius was going to disappear. All he could do was think about how he should comfort Abel when he walked out of the retreat room in disappointment. Maybe he would use his privilege to help Abel construct a better path for his future.
At that moment, the entire elite alchemy pattern inside Abel had turned into liquid gold.
His power of the will turned into a rune pen, and the Master Alchemy pattern appeared in his mind.
The rune pen absorbed all the golden liquid. Now, his task was to calculate how much golden liquid he would need to apply on each stroke through his power. The ratio had to be perfect, and he had to use every drop of the liquid.
This was the second challenge of the leveling process. If you realize you have applied too much golden liquid through your power of the will halfway during the process, your master alchemy pattern would be useless before you could even finish it.
If you did not use all the golden liquid, your Master alchemy pattern would fall apart due to a lack of energy supply when you ignite it.
Abel had the world stone to support him. Before he made his first stroke, his power of the will already knew exactly how much golden liquid it needed to apply.
Once he made the first stroke, he could no longer stop. Even if he paused for a split second, the master alchemy pattern would be damaged, and his level up would fail.
The rune pen made from his power of the will kept swirling around, and strokes of all forms began to emerge.
Halfway, Abel felt waves of pressure coming from the world. He realized why so many elite alchemists had failed.
These challenges weren’t too challenging for a genius. This world was not lacking in geniuses, and the elves were a lot more gifted than humans in the first place. It was hard to believe that no genius had ever finished these few steps in the past 1000 years.
However, when Abel sensed the pressure of the world, he changed his mind. Being a master alchemist was constrained by the world. Although this pressure from the world was not strong, it was enough to make countless elite alchemists lose control of their power of will.
Abel also felt the same pressure when he was trying to become an intermediate wizard, but that time it was a lot stronger. In comparison, this pressure was almost like nothing.
He continued to draw out the Master Alchemy pattern. Every stroke was still in perfect precision, just like the first stroke.
The pressure from the world did not increase. It seemed like a test for the alchemist, but this test was enough to make countless alchemists feel hopeless.
At that moment, his power of the will was pouring out like an upside-down bottle. Power of the will was the foundation for all his occupation. If it were completely drained, he would lose the power to do wizardry, knight skills, forgery, and most obviously, alchemy.
His power of the will was the core of his being. Suddenly, he felt his heart tense up.
