AK - The Alchemy Kingdom Chapter 21: Winter’s fire

Year 1, Winter, First Month, First Week

Diana woke up late, but she didnt hurry to get up. It was Winter and the villagers didn't have many tasks. So kids would even sleep through most of the day, but not because they were lazy.

In Winter, the villagers couldnt plant anything and the food wasnt enough for everyone, hence they would sleep more and conserve energy. Unfortunately, even doing so wouldn't prevent deaths from the cold or sickness.

Diana and Chief Oro could sleep more, but they would have to get up eventually to check on the villages condition. This was also true for several other villagers, they would need to fix decaying huts, build and repair tools.

The first month of Winter was the ti when the working capable villagers could construct, repair, and do other odd jobs. Once Winter advanced and the second month ca, it would be too cold to do anything.

A couple of hours late, Diana finally got up and joined her grandpa for breakfast. He was enjoying his ti thinking more than properly eating. She gave him a warm smile and said:

Grandpa, Winter is already here but we still dont have villagers dying from cold. Do you think is because of the at?

She was happy because it was the first ti they did sothing effective to lower the villagers death rate.

Oh, Diana... Sadly the deaths will still co. Winter just started and the villagers are stronger because of the at. But, they dont have proper clothing and constant nutrition. Im afraid that by the second month of Winter will see the deaths increasing again...

Dianas mood dived after she rembered the horrors of Winter.

Chief Oro was also happy with the results of the year but he needed for her to understand that they were just starting the changes. They couldnt stop with only these changes, the villagers lives were still very bad.

So, he was trying to keep the fire of change burning as bright as possible. Hope was a powerful fuel, but hate, indignation, and desire for revolution were even more powerful.

Diana liked the feeling of hunting and bringing ho helpful things. For the first ti in her life, she stopped being powerless against the problems that made the villagers lives miserable.

While growing up, her grandfather taught her many subversive things. Although he always talked about their limitations and how they were unsupervised slaves of the nobles, he also taught her how to think, fight, and always dream and plan for true freedom.

Therefore, she was always frustrated for not doing sothing against the hateful nobles.

Fortunately, her life was changing. In her opinion, the turning point was when she joined boys and ford the hunting team. At that ti, she kept her hopes low, she thought they were crazy, irresponsible, and utterly naive.

But when Karl started to craft more magic tools, she felt that the chance which her grandpa always talked about was here.

From that mont, she started to truly believe that change was possible. A lot of feelings she buried deep inside started to surface. She want to be part of the change, she want to lead them to change, she want to be the sword that would make the Kingdom bleed.

But for now, she was only Diana, and after she listened to her grandpa talking about the upcoming deaths, she decided to look for Karl and see what they could do.

She swallowed the soup in one gulp and left eating the bread, only saying later to the Chief. Oro looked at her leaving back and thought to himself:

I raised her right, Sony would be proud... Shes like wildfire, If you try to extinguish it, it will only grow stronger...

.........

Youre sure that they'll et us here? It looks like we're about to get ambushed.

Stop talking and keep your guard up...

Before the Fighter could complain about the unfair treatnt, a spear flew straight at them. The leading Fighter reacted by using his sword to deflect the spear, which just scratched the complaining Fighter.

If wasn't for the leading Fighters reflexes it would have skewered him.

Several spears followed and rained down on the group. The wind Mage reacted by extracting a large amount of wind energy from his ring and forming a rushed Wind Shield. The weak wind spiral flowed from his hands and circled the Mages, barely deflecting the spears.

The other Fighters either dodged or blocked the attacks. Unfortunately, one Fighter misjudged the spear strength and failed to block it. It went through his chest, ending his life instantly.

Lew concentrated on finding the attackers. He directed the magic energy to his eyes and tried tracing the trajectory of a spear.

They were circled by trees, plants, and stones, which made it difficult to find the origin of the attacks. Any harsh movent would also mark them a target for multiple attacks.

With the sight improvent, he saw sothing moving on the branches of a tree. He turned to Mages group and asked them for cover. They agreed and he didn't hesitate to move forward.

Lew moved energy to his legs and sprinted towards the tree. The wind Mage circled the wind currents around his body and directed it to Lews sides, forming a Wind Tunnel around him.

Multiple spears appeared from the trees targeting him, but the Wind Tunnel deflected them, allowing Lew to proceed in safety. The Tunnel was aid to cover his sides but ended up affecting him. Fortunately, it pushed him forward, increasing his speed.

Lew prepared for the contact with the target tree. But instead of colliding with it, he used the energy concentrated in his calves to make a jump.

Already in the air, he kicked another tree for further impulse went towards an upper branch.

The scared Beastman attacker didn't expect to be located by Lew and could only try to flee by jumping between branches. But Lew wouldn't allow it, instead of slowing down he kicked another branch and slashed at the Beastman.

The sword made a deep cut on the back of the Beastman, who fell to the ground. Lew only jumped to one lower branch before going down, the magic energy on his legs softened the impact.

The other Beastn tried to save their screaming comrade but were blocked by an earth wall that ford around Lew and his enemy. Lew didn't waste ti and used his energy powered arms to throw the Beastman towards his group before following him in a sprint.

The hurt Beastman was a Squirrel Beastman. His face resembled both a human and squirrel face, his body was small like a human child but look stronger. His body was covered in more hair than a usual human and his fingers seed longer and more flexible.

He scread and cursed:

Damm humans... Kill them... Kill all of them...

At this ti, Lew was back and the fire Mage was ready. She circled a small Fire Ray around the group.

Her eyes shined red and she made the Flas grow stronger, burning the trees surrounding them.

The other Squirrel Beastn that were ready to increase their attacks, could only flee for the ground or further trees, so even got burned. They were enraged but couldn't do a thing.

They lost their advantage and couldn't attack from this distance. Either they flee or attack the group in the open.

The Mages, especially the fire Mage, were ready to press the attack. But the leading Fighter asked them to stop while walking forward to et a newly arrive Beastn group.

Hello, friend... Can you let the Squirrel Tribe go? Theyre unpleasant and used to stealing, but they do an important service keeping scouts out of the Tribal Lands... We apologize for this inconvenience...

The leading Fighter looked at the fire Mage to see if they would agree to stand down.

Humph...

She made a contempt snort before extinguishing the fire around them.

.........

Diana made her away running until Karls hut. In Winter, if one took much ti to walk in the open, they would freeze. But she only found Karls parents. Surprisingly, they told her that he went earlier to grandma Marlens hut.

She quickly left in the direction of Marlens hut. While running she couldnt help but think:

How is it that he is always up to sothing? How doesnt he stop? After Carions death, I thought he was too depressed to continue his projects, at least for now... But I was wrong, hes already doing sothing else... He should have looked for earlier.

While thinking this, Diana blushed a little.

Arriving at Marlens place, she noticed that Karl and grandma Marlen were in the shaft built for dealing with the beasts at. Karl was talking excitedly while drawing sothing on the ground.

Even in Winter, Karl didnt change his studying schedule. He would wake and sleep at the sa ti but he mostly stayed in his hut studying and training under the supervision of Master Al.

Previously, when Marlen told him about the existence of chefs specialized in cooking elental at, he was curious about it. Master Al explained that starting from the MQ at it would beco increasingly difficult to extract all possible benefits from it. So, the nobles would pay a lot to guarantee the right processing and preparation.

For the LQ at that the villagers previously consud there wasnt much to be done besides using the right cooking thods.

However, from MQ to better quality ats it beca complicated to extract all the magic nutrients of the at and prepare it to be properly absorbed by who ate it. Of course, one would also have to consider if the person could handle eating a certain quantity of magic-infused food.

The first point was that each elental energy had specific characteristics and thus it would infuse different nutrients in the at. Similarly, to successfully extract different types of elental nutrients one would need to take different approaches.

The wind nutrients would help improve reflexes, thinking and hearing. The earths nutrients would improve body constitution, muscles and body developnt. While fire nutrients would help with disposition, overall energy and stamina. Finally, water nutrients would improve body flexibility, elasticity and eyesight.

Even though the approach should fit the quality and origin of the at, there were general rules that could be followed to make better use of each type.

For fire at, it was better to only barbecue it directly on the fire, while the water at would be better boiled in low temperatures or eat it raw. The wind at should be roasted in hot air, and the earth at should be cooked in contact with a stone or a mineral.

However, the truly difficult part was to control the heat and other cooking elents during the preparation. For example, when barbecuing the fire at, if the fire was too strong the at would be burnt, while if the fire was too weak the magic properties wouldnt be stimulated properly.

This was also true for water temperature, quantity, and ti of cooking. In wind cooking, one had to take notice of the quantity and temperature of circulating air. And for the earth cooking, the temperature and width of the stone.

To make matters more complicated, while serving one should tailor the quantity and side dishes to help who ate it absorb the nutrients. But, since the village didnt have a variety of vegetables available, they could only focus on the plants that would fit each type of at.

We should cook half the salamander now and keep the rest for next month. The MQ at shouldn't be eaten in excess... Seeing Marlen's complicated expression, Karl added:

I know you're concerned about the cold... I'm working on sothing to make the village square warm. It can take a month to finish it, but let's not wait and cook half of the salamanders at now...

Karl said it almost jumping from excitent.

When he talked about his ideas, Diana was always amused by it, how could a simple village boy have so many ingenious ideas.

However, she wouldnt get surprised anymore, Karl inventing sothing new had beco a normal daily event for her.

.........

Master AI, the MQ fire crystal should be enough... But how can I draw sothing big enough to cover the whole square? Should I draw it over the ground? Can I draw it on the ground?... Once the snow starts to fall, how will I draw it?

-- You can imprint the Arrays anywhere, but drawing on the ground would be impractical. You are not the first to encounter proportion or application problems. These challenges might be overco by using Alchemy modules. --

-- Alchemy modules are Arrays that can be separated or united to execute a task. You can draw them separately and join them later, the only requirent is that they need to be connected perfectly otherwise the magic energy will not flow through them. You might even go as far as using different materials to draw the Arrays. --

Karl started to consider several situations. He would often smile or express surprise like he was enlightened. After half an hour of talking to himself, he asked:

Can I draw one Array in separate modules? I want to separate one Array into several small parts...

-- Yes. However, you need to draw it entirely in one go. You can not imprint half a concept. But once you have drawn the Array you might separate it into different modules. --

Karl smiled and started to work on his biggest creation.