So... yeah, Jake really hadn’t known when he would get a Soulfla. With how the Cradle of Soul’s Kindling worked, it couldn’t guarantee anything but was effectively just a way to optimize gambling by giving one more chance to pull the lever while hoping to hit triple sevens.
Jake had made it a habit to check the item once a week or so, and while the Arcane Soulflas had grown steadily within, there still wasn’t a singular one that truly stood out, and seeing as he could only extract a single one, Jake chose to be greedy. However, he began to realize that pursuing a Supre Soulfla just wasn’t realistic.
As a reminder, Soulflas had the rarities of elentary, low-tier, mid-tier, high-tier, pinnacle-tier, and Supre Soulflas. Raising a Soulfla, a single rarity, was already a tall order, and raising it multiple tis would be incredibly difficult, as it got progressively harder the more one tried to improve one’s Soulfla.
Seeing as an Alchemist could also only ever have a single Soulfla, it was important to get a good one right off the bat. Okay, technically, one could separate from one’s Soulfla, but that was even harder than upgrading what one had. Due to the connection between a Soulfla and the alchemist’s soul, so level of soul damage was guaranteed during the separation process, making it far too risky to even consider for most. Jake included.
Despite not believing it was realistic for a Supre Soulfla to be born within the Cradle: and even if it was, Jake doubted it would happen before he reached godhood: there was still hope due to one crucial feature of the mythical item. One that Jake had already theorized when he read the description of the Cradle of Soul’s Kindling before.
[Cradle of Soul’s Kindling (Mythical)]: The Cradle in which a fla may be kindled as it awakens its own spirituality. Nascent Soulflas of hundreds of affinities burn within the internal space of the Cradle, experiencing a cycle of life and death as they struggle and absorb one another while growing in power. Waiting for one of them to ascend to the world outside. Only a single Soulfla can truly be born from the Cradle, the item getting destroyed upon extraction as all others beco fuel for the chosen one. The Cradle can be infused with energies to sustain and influence the internal world. The internal world of the Cradle cannot be entered by any being with a Truesoul, and any Truesouls born within will imdiately find themselves destroyed, their energies only nurturing the Cradle further.
Requirents: Soulbound.
The important part of the description was that it ntioned all other Soulflas within the Cradle being consud when he extracted his chosen Soulfla. The way Soulflas grew within the Cradle in the first place was primarily through consuming one another, so having a single Soulfla consu the others during extraction had to give it a good boost.
Of course, Jake didn’t actually expect it to absorb the energies from all the other Soulflas perfectly. If it could, he could have just dragged out a high-tier one, and going by how many Soulflas were within, it would have a good chance of reaching Supre rarity.
Even if Jake didn’t end up getting Supre rarity, he could totally live with just a Pinnacle Soulfla. As the na indicated, Pinnacle Soulflas were already more or less as good as they could be, and when it ca to how powerful a Soulfla was, there weren’t actually any differences between Pinnacle and Supre.
Instead, Supre Soulflas tended to have greater breadth in what one could use them for, primarily because of their superior ability to connect with their owner. While no Soulfla could ever be called intelligent, Supre Soulflas were about as close as it could get.
While they still couldn’t think for themselves at all, they could better interpret and adhere to the orders of the alchemist. In the simplest of terms, rather than having to direct every detail, a Supre Soulfla would passively do so of the more minor stuff all by itself as long as its user intended it to.
Anyway, as said, getting his Soulfla wasn’t sothing Jake had planned on happening, but it kind of just did. On that fateful day, a few months after he’d started his alchemy grind, he checked the Cradle and instantly noticed sothing was different from usual.
Under normal circumstances, the Soulflas were constantly moving about to consu one another, but this ti they were far more tightly grouped, without going after one another. Instead, they all seed to be expecting the arrival of a nearby Soulfla, which definitely caught his attention.
It was Jake’s first ti seeing a pinnacle rarity Arcane Soulfla, and he was imdiately in a good mood. What’s more, this Soulfla was moving toward this collection of over a thousand lesser Soulflas with a clear intent to consu them all.
Jake imdiately paused alchemy for the day as he watched on with interest to see what would happen. As the Arcane Soulfla got close to the collection of Soulflas with all sorts of affinities, both parties suddenly started moving toward one another.
Dozens of Soulflas were consud by the pinnacle Soulfla in an instant, unable to fight back against the superior fla. With fervor, the Arcane Soulfla consud over a hundred in rapid succession, but as it did, all the other Soulflas also started to nip away at it.
This was one of the reasons why it was so difficult for a truly powerful Soulfla to appear within the Cradle. The stronger a Soulfla was, the more potent energy it contained, making it appear more tasty to all the others surrounding it. Every act of assimilating and consuming another Soulfla took a bit of energy, weakening it and allowing others to take advantage.
Combined with Soulflas not possessing any intelligence or survival instinct in the slightest, they often just ended up getting themselves killed in situations exactly like this one. With such a tasty Pinnacle Arcane Soulfla, the other flas didn’t even notice one another, but were solely focused on trying to consu the big guy.
Jake watched on with so concern as the Pinnacle Arcane Soulfla fought valiantly, but it was clear that before the day was over, it would be consud, likely giving birth to a few high-tier Soulflas in the process, at which point there was a good chance those high-tiers would try to consu one another. Ultimately, this would only weaken them and, in the end, they would be consud by lesser flas shortly after evolving, effectively restarting the entire Soulfla cultivation process.
If this were an actual creature, Jake would have just kept looking on and allowed the Arcane Soulfla to suffer its fate, only wanting to take it as his own if it won... but this wasn’t a creature of any kind at all. Assigning any of his regular values to an Arcane Soulfla would be like watching the battle between flowing lava and a lake. It was just nature doing nature things... except in this instance, Jake chose to step in.
He allowed the Pinnacle Arcane Soulfla to consu as much as it could before finally making his move and activating the core function of the Cradle of Soul’s Kindling.
Imdiately, all activity within the internal space of the mythical item ca to a stop. So unknown energy wrapped itself around the Pinnacle Arcane Soulfla Jake had selected, and at once, the entire world within the Cradle started to collapse.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
As it collapsed, thousands upon thousands of Soulflas were caught in the process, instantly consud and turned into a wave of energy that surged into the Pinnacle Soulfla. It was like watching the end of all things, reality itself shattering and disappearing from all sides, with Jake’s chosen Soulfla in the middle of it all.
The destruction of the Cradle soon reached the surrounding Arcane Soulfla, destroying and turning all of them into energy that surged toward the energy-wrapped Soulfla. It greedily took in everything as it grew in power. Jake kept watching as this energy infusion continued, the process taking several minutes, as all he could do was trust the built-in functions of the mythical Cradle.
In the outside world, the Cradle started cracking all over. Jake felt pretty damn nervous as small pieces of it started breaking off and turning into motes of energy that reentered the Cradle, creating small beams of light.
With a final rush of energy, the entire Cradle caught fire. At first, it was a colorless fla, but very quickly it turned pinkish purple and began giving off a very familiar aura. The newborn Soulfla fully erged from the Cradle, consuming even the physical item in the process as the mythical item was no more, replaced with a fla that floated mid-air.
Jake simply watched it floating there for a few monts, feeling its aura. Soulflas weren’t particularly dangerous as they didn’t have any instinctive desire to attack people, but that didn’t an they were entirely harmless.
For an alchemist to claim a Soulfla required them to absorb it into their bodies and ta it, and should they fuck up too badly, they risked suffering extre soul damage or even death. As expected, the stronger the Soulfla, the more difficult it was to absorb.
Yet, as Jake approached the Soulfla, he felt no danger. Instead, the floating arcane fla moved ever-so-slightly toward him, innately attracted to his aura. Seeing this brief movent, Jake couldn’t help but grin as it more or less confird he’d succeeded, and a quick Identify on the Soulfla confird his thoughts.
[Arcane Soulfla (Supre)]: A Soulfla created from the arcane affinity of Jake Thayne. After having consud countless other Soulflas, it has reached the Supre rarity. Due to its nature as an Arcane Soulfla, its properties are mostly unknown and are to be discovered by its eventual owner.
Requirents: Jake Thayne’s Arcane Affinity.
The description was lacking, but it always was whenever dealing with an arcane affinity. Including spoilers in descriptions wasn’t sothing the system was a huge fan of. Not that Jake complained, he liked learning about his own Bloodline-based arcane affinity.
Seeing no need to delay the inevitable, Jake walked over to the Supre Arcane Soulfla and reached out his hand. The Soulfla slowly floated over to him and landed on his palm before rapidly spreading all across his body.
Jake caught on fire, yet he felt no pain as the flas consud him. Instead, he closed his eyes and focused on absorbing the Soulfla into his body and soul, truly making it one with him.
Other alchemists would have likely chosen to use a ritual or sothing to ensure the assimilation of the Soulfla went as smoothly as possible, but Jake believed he didn’t need it. He was trying to absorb an Arcane Soulfla based on his own Arcane Affinity, and the biggest risk when absorbing Soulflas tended to be the soul, and in that departnt, Jake had no fear. Especially not after his training session with the First Sage and laying eyes upon the Gate of Enlightennt, an experience that had improved his soul in ways Jake knew he couldn’t even fully comprehend yet.
All Jake needed to do was accept the Soulfla into himself while using his Alchemical Fla to fully assimilate the item into his soul, fusing it with the skill in the process. Alchemical Fla was a simple skill Jake had never really bothered improving much, and in truth, he barely even used it anymore outside of heating his cauldron when doing alchemy. Even then, he didn’t always need to heat it, and the cauldron had the ability to heat using the formations inscribed upon it, with this feature often proving faster and more stable than using his Alchemical Fla.
Outside of producing heat, the only other thing the Alchemical Fla was good for was breaking down environntal mana. Stones or tals Jake couldn’t even leave a mark on using his strongest Arcane Powershot could be lted easily by an Alchemical Fla due to unique concepts of the skill. This unique concept was also why Jake even needed a fla in the first place, as he had to use it here and there when breaking down particularly annoying ingredients.
His current affinity-less Alchemical Fla had gotten the job done, albeit not super well, but with an Arcane Soulfla becoming his new Alchemical Fla... Jake was already looking forward to the result.
Minutes passed as the fla continued to consu Jake’s entire body while slowly seeping through his skin, into his Soulshape, and all the way down to his Soulspace. With his eyes closed, Jake focused and entered his Soulspace to see how things were going there.
Appearing within his inner world, Jake looked toward the arcane-filled sky and saw a new object forming in the world that was his Soulspace. Breaking up the sky was a celestial object: a sun made from his Arcane Soulfla, created as it broke up the otherwise endless sky of crackling arcane energy.
Jake didn’t even have to try to absorb or assimilate the Soulfla. Rather than taking in a foreign item, it was as if he were rely inviting it ho, where it had always belonged.
Raising his hand, Jake focused on the Alchemical Fla skill as he sought to rge the Supre Arcane Soulfla with the skill. This process was the only part Jake had been a little concerned about, as the Soulfla would begin to slowly disperse from his body and soul if he didn’t fully make it part of himself using the Alchemical Fla skill.
Fortunately for him, once more it proved far easier than he’d first imagined it would be. All it took was so ntal effort and Jake leaning into the research he had done on Soulflas in the past, and, alongside the unique properties of a Supre Soulfla, which can assist its user, it truly felt effortless compared to what it could have been.
He smiled as the notification appeared, Jake seeing that he’d just gotten the biggest rarity upgrade to a skill ever in one go, with it even potentially being his easiest upgrade to date.
[Alchemical Fla (Common)]: The fla of an alchemist is one of the most critical aspects of the crafting process. The fla itself is affinity-less and not polluted by the impurities of burning a catalyst. You have just embarked on the path of refining your alchemical fla, and may your path towards the pinnacle be swift. Allows the alchemist to create a moderate alchemical fla, emitting heat. Adds a small increase to the effectiveness of Alchemical Fla based on Wisdom.
-->
[Alchemical Fla (Mythical)]: Any good alchemist has a capable Soulfla, and you? You aim to be among the best. Allows the alchemist to create an Alchemical Fla carrying the properties of a Supre Arcane Soulfla. The Arcane Soulfla is a paradoxical fla, capable of displaying both pure destruction and absolute stability. Control and usage of the Arcane Soulfla are dependent on the abilities of the alchemist. Adds a significant increase to the effectiveness of Alchemical Fla based on Wisdom.
Looking at the new skill description, Jake couldn’t help but smile. Alchemical Fla was truly one of those core alchemy skills that never really changed much, and even after reaching mythical rarity, it still had a very basic description with lacking flavor text or details of any kind. It was a lot like Concoct Poison and Brew Potion in that regard.
Nothing else in the new skill’s description really stood out to him or was a surprise. In fact, the only surprise was that he actually got experience from assimilating the Soulfla.
You have successfully assimilated the Supre Arcane Soulfla. Experience Earned
’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 347 - Stat points allocated, 35 Free Points
’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 348 - Stat points allocated, 45 Free Points
It was just one level, sure, and one Jake had gotten after crafting for months without getting one, but a level was a level. Compared to upgrading a Malefic Viper Legacy skill, it definitely didn’t do much, but Jake hadn’t expected it to either.
Not that he had much intent to think about it, as Jake was too damn giddy to try out his new Arcane Soulfla.
Opening his eyes in the real world, the flas had long subsided as they were now part of him, and raising his hand, a purple-ish arcane fla quickly sparked, flickering and lighting up the room as a mad grin flashed across Jake’s face.
Man, did he have so ideas about how to use it already... he’d read so many damn books about different Soulflas and how they were all unique and all they could do, and all that stuff. Now that he finally had it, it was ti to figure out what a Supre Arcane Soulfla was truly capable of... and hopefully his alchemy lab would survive the experintation.
No promises, though.
User Comments
0 comments from readers