Chapter 308: Falsehoods, everywhere
‘Compatibility test? I’m familiar with the procedure, but what kind of reagent would an alchemist provide for a non-alchemist like Frederick?’ Professor Zelini thought to himself as he watched their expedition sponsor walk up to the pool of Scared Beast Essence.
The thing about alchemy is that while anyone could technically learn the art, not everyone had the mental capacity to do so.
It’s one thing to remember a few key herbs for treating wounds and illnesses, it’s another thing entirely to understand how much aether to infuse in said herbs while using the saliva of a specific second tier aether beast bird to bind it altogether, and then remembering to throw it into a vat of electrified tar when the solution is a specific shade of lavender, not a purple.
And that’s considered a tier 1 recipe for a pill that cures toothaches.
(Un)fortunately for Professor Zelini, he was going to get his answer shortly.
“Now let’s see here…,” Frederick mumbled as he pulled from his clothes a single glass vial stopped with a wax seal.
It only took a moment for Frederick to undo the seal, but when he did, a very very strange energy accompanied by a strange smell came flowing out of it.
“Ugh, what’s that smell? It’s like…bitter almonds covered in rotten guts and eggs?”
“What are you talking about? I’m smelling freshly baked bread.”
“No, I’m smelling fresh cut flowers?”
“Forget that scent stuff what the hell is this energy?!”
The students of both the Alchemy and History division let out a chorus of questions as they tried to determine what it was that Frederick was using to “test” this essence. However, there were exactly three people who were silent at this action, but this silence were for very different reasons.
‘What is in that vial? It’s like a… contradicting liquid? What in the nine hells?’
The first was Professor Zelini.
As a learned man, he discovered that while asking questions all the time is well and good, sometimes one can learn more about one’s actions and intent based on silent observation.
People tend to act very differently when they think they’re alone or completely focused on something. Plus, he was trying to figure out what kind of liquid essence fluctuates in not only color, but smell and texture all at the same time.
‘Why am I getting a terrible feeling in my stomach about this?’
The second was Belios Fetoni.
The thing about fear and dread is that even if one knows something bad is about to happen, there is a chance that the situation is so overwhelming that one’s ability to come up with a plan of action let alone process it becomes rather difficult. In the case of Belios, he felt like something awful was going to happen but he didn’t know how to stop it or even if he could.
As for the last person, well…
Let’s just Professor Festeroy had a rather odd smile, slowly creeping up his face.
With the bottle now open, Frederick began to manipulate his aether in such a way as to extract a surprisingly miniscule amount of Essence from the pool before him and into the aforementioned bottle.
“Why…do I hear buzzing and hissing?,” a student asked aloud as the essence mingled with whatever was inside that glass vial.
Most testing reagents would only change color or emit a smell when combined with an item in question…this one began to solidify into a nail-like shape an emit a weird sound…one that caused Frederick to smile and let out a rather weird laugh.
“Hahahahaha! Looks like you were right after all,” Frederick chuckled, “and now I can finally shed this fragile form of mine. Thank you, Professor Festeroy.”
“Is no thing, young mazzzter…,” Professor Festeroy replied with a very inhuman voice, “it’s always a pleasure to help someone with potential…evolve.”
“Master Anterio? Professor Festeroy, what are you two talking about?,” Professor Zelini asked, while subtly gesturing for his students and the History division students to get the hell out of the room.
“Ah, ah, none of that!,” Professor Festeroy stated as his arm suddenly mutated in an unnatural manner and blasted the only exit with a strange sticky web-like substance, effectively trapping everyone inside. A couple of the more bull-headed students attempted to cut or burn through the webs with their arts, but strangely enough, their attacks sorta fizzled the moment it made contact.
A reaction that made no sense since there was no aether coming off of the webs.
“What is the meaning of this?!,” Professor Zelini protested at this aggressive behavior.
However, Frederick ignored the obviously hostile tone of the question to just answer the meat of it all.
“Apologies, Professor Zelini but I can’t have anyone running away and telling the world about my ascension. Lest it somehow reaches the ears of my father and he tries to stop me.”
“Wait, what?! But I thought-”
“Oh right, the sob story I told about him being crippled and his filial sons searching for the means to cure? Hah! Its sad to say, but that was a complete fabrication on my part,” Frederick said with a smile, “but you’d be surprised by how many people are willing to participate in life or death situations when it’s for a noble cause. Helping a hurt war hero, hah! Can’t believe you all fell for that.”
The students stood and shocked as they realized they had been lied to not once, but twice, by the same guy. The History division was even more shocked, as they were also lied to by their professor on top of the sponsor.
It didn’t help that their professor was starting to look less and less coherently humanoid by the second, and more and more uncanny.
“Pleazzze stop monologuing yung mazzzter,” Festeroy said as his head became insect-like in all the wrong ways, “the reaction won’t last long.”
“Of course, of course,” Frederick nodded while holding the vial before like a champagne flute.
“Well then…bottoms up!”
*Gulp!*
Frederick proceeded to down the contents of the strange vial in an instant, swallowing the strange nail like it was cheap booze.
“Mmm! Deli-HRK!”
Before Frederick could say anything further though, he suddenly doubled over while clutching his stomach, and his aether expression had suddenly become very…chaotic.
“Yezz, yezz, the transformation beginzzz!”
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‘Hey cool, you guys are talking again. Why is there static?,’ Zhen Liu asked while stepping away from the door and focusing on the sudden verbal interaction. Normally he would continue with whatever he was doing while talking to Logos and Pathos, but the fact they told him not to do a specific thing was worrying to say the least.
‘What the fuck?’
=Ok, give me that!=
*BOOF!*
=Milord before we can explain further, we need you, the kaijin and the girl to get out of that spider corpse right now.=
‘Okay, the fact that both of you are telling me to bail is probably good indicator that we need to-.’
*Click.*
‘…’
=…=
<...>
*Creeaaaak…*
=Was that…the sound of that door we said not to open…suddenly opening?=
‘Yup, and it’s releasing a very familiar aura that I’m pretty sure was exclusive to me and the kaijin, so I have questions.’
‘Wonderful.’
________________________________________________
[Did…did that door just open by itself?]
[Yup.]
[And now it’s leaking…]
[The same kind of aura that we do, but in a very distorted manner, which is weird because we are technically Chaos incarnates? Yup.]
[Well…shit….wait…”incarnate”?]
[Picked up a dictionary.]
[Ah.]
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‘I have never been here before, right? So why does this place seem so…familiar?,’ Nausicaa asked herself as she stared at the looming door.
Zhen Liu had just stared at the door for a couple moments before suddenly turning about and walking to nearby wall, perhaps he was thinking up a plan.
Meanwhile, the ones known as Nepherage and Hurricroak were just staring at the door with their guards up. They were sensing something unnerving about the door, or at least what was behind it, but Nausicaa couldn’t sense what it was in the slightest.
With a sigh, Nausicaa was just about to sit against a different part of the leg-tunnel in order to rest, when all of a sudden, the door opened by itself ever so slightly.
“What the fuck?”
“On your guard, now!”
Immediately after the door’s opening, Zhen Liu and the two kaijin took up a battle formation of some kind, as if waiting for an incoming horde of insect beasts or at least one very large one to come rushing out and attack them all.
Instead…nothing happened.
For a solid minute or so, nobody made a move.
Not a single sound was made by any of them, until…
“Naaausicaa…”
“Huh?”
From behind the door, a strange voice that sounded as smooth as marble echoed outward, calling out for the wild child hunteress.
“Naaausicaa…why aren’t you coming inside? Don’t you miss your old man?”
“Okay, that is definitely a trap,” Zhen Liu pointed out,”so I suggest we turn right the fuck around and-”
“Pa…pa…?”
“Of fucking course.”
Zhen Liu couldn’t even finish saying they had to go before one of their members got hypnotized.
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New Isekai Rule#30
Expect mindfuckery, plan ahead.
