Aaron landed on the first floor after far too little time to cross three floors, but it had still felt like he had fallen into darkness for ages. He walked down the corridor towards the prison and nodded at the few prisoners that opened their eyes when he walked in. Modestus cell had its blue curtains opened and the man himself was pacing up and down in front of the mushroom as he was muttering to himself. Strange instruments had joined the glass dome and the glass itself had been worked on to create small formations carved right into the glass. It looked like Modestus had quite some trouble on his hand understanding whatever it was he was researching on. Aaron did not have the faintest clue what.

He stopped in front of Modestus large cage and cleared his throat. Modestus snapped around to him with a frown.

"Silence! Can't you see...oh, its you… Did you bring the rock?" he said, his face turning from wrath to surprise to eager anticipation.

"I have, yes." Aaron said and carefully extracted the big fragment of rock out of his bag and held it up for Modestus to look at. The Alchemist stared at it with wide eyes, his pupils turning like they were artificially made and he stepped a few steps closer.

"Yes! Give it here, quickly!"

Aaron pointed at the steel bars of the prison.

"How? This is too big for the opening in between bars."

"Go over here, come on. No time to waste." Modestus snapped and walked quickly over to a box like opening that Aaron had seen before at the other prisons. He followed the alchemists instructions and placed the rock inside, but he hesitated before closing his side.

"What?" Modestus snapped angrily.

"What about my reward?"

"Reward? Are you daft? You want me to use precious time right before a discovery to make trivial pills for the Qi Refining realm? Get out of here! Come back in a year, then I'll have something for you." he said dismissively and put pressure on his side of the box. But the boxes were made to withstand cultivators and it did not move while Aaron's side was still open.

"That was not the deal, Alchemist." Aaron said coldly and pulled the rock out of the box with a frown. "Guess you can have this in a year then."

"WHAT?!" the alchemist bellowed.

"You…" he paused and then stared towards the giant prison of the great master.

"Do not interfere old man! No!….I am not trying to do that… How am I supposed to concentrate on mundane alchemy with these magnificent specimens? Tell him to give me the rock!" Modestus said in a whiny tone of a petulant child. There was another pause and Aaron tried to listen in what the great master was saying, but he heard nothing. Even with his hearing it seemed like Modestus was talking to himself.

"FINE!" Modestus shouted loud enough to make Aaron wince. He gave Aaron a hateful look as if to say, happy now? And then stomped off to the back of the cell vanishing behind some curtains. Aaron was about to ask what was going on when Modestus came back, his arms full with ingredients and a giant bronze cauldron was floating behind him. It was not a normal cauldron, but had quite a lot of modifications. There was still a lid, a deep round metal cauldron at the bottom, but halfway down the sides of the cauldron, a plethora of tubes had been forged into the cauldron, made out of the same metal as the cauldron itself. Each of the tubes was bend upwards with complicated looking valves on top of them. The lid also had some of these valves and Aaron was reminded more of a very exotic pressure cooker than a medieval witches cauldron.

With a wave of his hand Modestus pulled empty boxes from somewhere in his cell and they floated to land in neat rows in front of Aaron on the other side of the iron bars separating them. Then the alchemist threw up the ingredients he carried and they landed all slowly in separate boxes. Dark volcanic looking rocks rolled out of another partition and set themselves up in a circle. The dark rocks sliding together until it looked like the formed a solid rock basin where Modestus deposited the giant bronze cauldron. The man kept grumbling to himself before he went back and got more ingredients from shelves, grabbing them, inspecting them and then throwing them into the air after which they drifted to the boxes next to the cauldron.

When Modestus was finished he had seemingly calmed down. His face was not as red anymore and he looked much more focused and busy. He checked over each and every box next to the cauldron, inspected the cauldron and the volcanic rock underneath it, before he turned his attention to Aaron.

"We made a deal." he said with a sigh and then a small look towards the great master.

"I apologize for my rude manners, I was too exited. As recompense for my lack of manners and respect for the work you have done for me, I will teach you some basic alchemy." The man said and sighed deeply again.

"Really? Will I be able to do alchemy in the tower and without a flame like you can conjure?" Aaron asked and Modestus looked pleasantly surprised.

"You remember my flame?"

"Of course. I also know that creating anything cultivation related is extremely difficult with ingredients from the tower."

Modestus nodded along and then gestured Aaron over to the first box in the row.

"You are right, for any ordinary alchemist this would be impossible. But I am a peerless master and I have been stuck in this damned tower for too long. I categorized, studied and created new ingredients for true alchemy out of sheer curiosity and boredom. Besides this is basic stuff. Things we teach children who are interested in alchemy. You don't need a flame for that. Not that you could get one in the Tower to begin with. True alchemy will always be barred for you. At least for the higher ranks." he explained and then pointed down at the materials in the first box. Bundles of herbs with long narrow leaves laid in the box.

"This here is Swordweed. It grows along rivers on the first and tenth floor. The first floor variant is weaker because of the lack of mana flow, which means you need to take 10 times as many as the recipe says."

"What does it do?"

"Alone? Nothing. But we will get to that soon. Lets go through the basic materials for basic alchemy first."

"These are Scorpion poison bladders. A gland found in their stinger that produces their distinctive poison." Modestus pointed to the next box. "And these a rainbow boa's poison glands, both ingredients come from the second floor and are abundant. But the low mana density on the second floor means they are rather difficult to work with as you have to use a lot of the materials to get these magical poisons to have any meaningful potency required for alchemy."

Modestus continued while Aaron looked at the poison glands of the two creatures and asked quickly.

"Rainbow boa's are just simple boa's that have a rainbow sheen to them?"

"Yes, they have created a very curious mana poison, which is why they are useful to us." Modestus pointed at the next box, where another familiar ingredient welcomed him.

"Magical Kelp, the kind growing in abundance on the third floor. The magical attributes in these plants are incredibly dense and complicated. They are ideal ingredients for Alchemy." he said and then pointed to the next box.

"Crystal Dust. The hallucinogenic properties of it are not entirely physical, but magical as it turns out, but you need a prohibitive quantity to extract what you need. Luckily its rather easy to get because tower alchemists use it for mind altering drugs, so climbers bring tons of the stuff from the fourth floor." Aaron nodded, both of these ingredients he was more than familiar with.

"A broodmother's egg gland." Modestus said and pointed at the rather milky looking organ that was almost the size of a medicine ball. "You find those on the fifth floor, but they are hard to come by on the open market. I usually have to bribe the army to get me some of those. But they have remarkable magical properties and are very useful in many recipes sadly."

The next box looked like it was filled with stones and just stepping into the vicinity made Aaron shudder it was that cold.

"Icehearts." Modestus explained. "7th floor parts that allow the very common polar bear to withstand incredible negative temperatures and inflict them upon others as well."

"And last but not least. Harpy Eggs." Modestus said pointed at the last box of rather dark eggs that were bigger than ostrich eggs. "The eggs are quite common and funnily enough the shell is more important for many recipes than the egg inside, but its also quite useful and rather cheap to get. They are harvested by many passing climbers on the 8th floor."

Aaron blinked at the ice hearts and the harpy eggs with curiosity. He knew nothing about the 7th and 8th floor, but this gave him a first hint about the environments they were set in. Modestus returned to his cauldron and Aaron followed him.

"So these Ingredients are all magical in some way and if you combine them with fire usually they start to interact with each other. This reaction is where a true alchemist like me turns these magical ingredients into Qi essences." Modestus explained and then waved some of the Swordweed and scorpions poison glands to his cauldron and deposited both ingredients into the bronze bowl.

"The heat acts as a catalyst to make stable magical ingredients interact with one another." he said and Aaron peered into the open cauldron to see. Modestus sent his flame below the cauldron until it burned merrily on pure air and the volcanic rocks. Inside of the cauldron the bladder began to sizzle as the entire cauldron heated up perfectly evenly. The swordweed released some of its water and together they released a rather unpleasant smell of offal and way too strong herbs that smelled faintly like petroleum of all things. The poison gland started to release its venom and the venom itself interacted rather violently with the swordweed getting fried in the cauldron.

"This is a typical magical reaction. It transforms one magical property into another, this is where I add some Qi of my own to the mixture to create an essence." Modestus explained and put his hand above the bubbling, sizzling ingredients. Suddenly the violent reaction slowed and the ingredients began to melt away, wilt and became charred remains in the span of a few seconds.

"This is the most delicate and most difficult thing to do. It relies upon very good control over your Qi and the ability to perceive the magical reaction and take control of it by skewing it one way. In this case I turned the essence from the fire aligned poison of the scorpion to the water aligned Swordweed while amplifying the healing qualities in the weed." In the bottom of the cauldron a shimmering bit of clear blue water like liquid emerged from the charred remains of the other ingredients and gently Modestus separated the detritus and the pure blue shimmering energy liquid.

"This is a water essence attuned to healing properties. Essences are mostly an obsolete understanding of alchemy, but helpful in understanding what I am doing here for a novice. I used some of the magical properties in the ingredients and added Qi to it to turn them more potent. It became an essence of rather pure high density Qi liquid. All essences are like that, concentrated Qi with some special properties. Its not entirely the truth, but good enough for basic alchemy." Modestus looked up at Aaron and pointed at some of the intricate carved formations on the cauldron.

"These formations isolate the cauldron from the outside world. This allows these essences to remain stable. Because the problem with this process is that in the Tower, magic is everywhere and magic would react to this Qi essence. Which means without isolating the inside of the cauldron the essence is extremely volatile and unstable. Now Alchemy begins here. By layering different essences we create something entirely new. But we can also just enhance what is there. It entirely depends on what you want to do. In this case we will enhance the healing properties."

Modestus turned the cauldron and deposited the essence into a small jar with a similar formation on it before he set it aside. "Since we have to make many different essences to combine into a proper pill recipe these containers are essential. No pun intended. You will have to ask Mortag to make you some if you want to practice alchemy in the tower, as well as a cauldron. For now I have not used my flame in any capacity other than a stable heat source so don't worry about it."

Modestus then repeated his actions with different ingredients, combining two or three ingredients with each other, using heat to make them react to one another and then induced Qi to create an essence. Finally he poured the different essences into the cauldron. They were two water essences made from swordweed and the magical kelp as well as a combination of one of the broodmothers egg glands that turned into what Modestus called earth essence.

"Essences combine and interact with each other in a rather complicated way but the most simplistic method to remember it is the nurture and destruction cycles. Water nurtures wood, wood nurtures fire, fire nurtures earth, earth nurtures metal and metal nurtures water. This is a false and incomplete set of understanding that is entirely enough for basic alchemy. But remind yourself that its not the whole truth. Ah yes, the destruction cycle is like this: Water destroys fire, wood destroys earth, fire destroys metal, earth destroys water, and metal destroys wood."

Modestus pointed at the cauldron. "In this case we are using earth essence to destroy some of the properties of the water essence we do not like, which in turn will heighten the essence's medicinal potency. This is a rather common use of destructive essence interactions. The other thing that could be done if we wanted to enhance the water essence itself is to add metal essence. But that is not necessary in this case."

Aaron peered into cauldron where the earth essence, a dull brown soupy looking liquid, was burned away by the clear blue liquid leaving behind an almost transparent liquid that smelled slightly herbal to his oversensitive nose.

"Now that we have finished layering essences and enhancing the properties we like we need to form the essence into a pill. Theoretically you could drink this liquid directly as a sort of potion, but that would diminish not just its potency, but also its shelf life. Remember that essences like this are very volatile and reactive with outside environments. Even if you keep it in a jar like those we used to store the essences temporarily. They would lose their potency exponentially over time, which means they are entirely useless if not consumed right now basically."

Modestus waved over a bag of what looked like sugar to Aaron's surprise and poured a half cup into the cauldron.

"Sugar or flour are the best ingredients to use to make pills."

"Really?" Aaron asked with a chuckle and Modestus shrugged.

"Of course. In real alchemy we would use something that would enhance the medicinal potency as the pill itself, but nothing like that exists in the tower unless I produce it and that would be far more complicated than this simple stuff. Flour will create simple dough balls that can be dried and are in the end entirely stable. Sugar is difficult to get but the shelf life is much better and the taste of the pill as well."

"So you are making candy." Aaron said, trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Modestus seemed entirely unaffected by Aaron's mirth.

"Yes, making candy is a great way to store pills" He turned the cauldron gently with one hand and the sugar in the center caramelized and absorbed the essence slowly. Then by continuously turning he formed a small round ball of sugar that he then flicked out of the cauldron and the pill floated towards a nearby shelf where it rested.

"Once cooled down it can be used without any potency loss for around 10 years. The dough variant is stable for around one year. I know both of these times are ridiculously short for pills, but this is all I can do with the restraints of material."

"That is plenty of time I think. What does this pill do in the end?"

"This is a Regeneration pill. Its based on the health potion like the one you carry around on your hip." Modestus said with a haughty sniff when he looked at Aaron's belt.

"Really? How effective is it?"

"Its a pill created by me. You can hack off your arm, take that pill and it would regenerate within five minutes. Granted it would be painful, but still."

Aaron stared wide eyed at the pill and his eyebrows rose. Now that was a potent pill.

"Of course if you were to make it yourself it would be far less efficient or potent. It would probably take a day for the same effect."

"That is still...incredible."

"Oh please, parlor tricks. Simple alchemy is nothing that the towers own Alchemy can not create itself, just that pills are far more potent and compatible to a cultivator."

"What else can simple alchemy create?" Aaron asked and Modestus paused.

"Right, I wanted to give this to you." he said and gestured a roll of parchment over he threw towards Aaron, who caught it and unrolled it.

"That is a list of pills you can make yourself from these ingredients."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Aaron stared at the list and read through it as quickly as possible. Some pills were rather useless, like night vision or sensory enhancements, both of qhich would be more of a detriment to him with Sensory Harmony, but others looked insanely useful. The highlights were the Regeneration pill Modestus had already shown him because it would enhance his own regeneration and make any injury basically a non issue, but only when combined with another pill called simply Painkiller.

"What does the Painkiller pill do exactly, except you know stop you from feeling pain?"

"Ah, yes. It will not take away your pain or make you not feel any pain at all. It works by reducing the strength of the signals your body sends to your brain. So instead of an incredible pain it feels like a small cut. Very useful for fighting meatheads like you, I would assume."

"Absolutely." Aaron said with a chuckle. This was the solution to Sensory Harmony's downside of incredible pain when he got injured! So this pill was absolutely something he wanted to make as fast as possible. He had no idea things like that could exist. The recipe for the pill required mainly crystal dust and poisons from the second floor, but also a bit of magical kelp. Which meant it was entirely available to him.

"So are there any downsides to any of these pills, like being addictive?"

"What? Why would you want to make them addictive?"

"Oh I don't want them to be, its just that where I come from most pain relief medication is addictive almost by default."

"No, a Painkiller pill is not addictive. What a ridiculous notion. Why would you ever even consider creating something so stupid?" Modestus asked absolutely flabbergasted.

"Alright, alright, stupid question." Aaron said, but he remembered the alchemists wording. 'Why would you make them addictive.' Which meant he probably could make something addictive fairly easily. Which was rather dangerous if he thought about it. But in the end he had no choice but to trust these recipes and the work Modestus did.

"Can you make me some of these Painkillers?" Aaron asked and Modestus frowned and sighed.

"Sure, but I will be fairly busy preparing the real reward for that rock."

"Which will be?"

"A Breakthrough pill, or rather a Foundation pill, a breakthrough pill designed for the foundation realm breakthrough. Its a rather high ranking pill that requires a lot of work and liberal use of my flame to purify and increase the potency of the ingredients. It will take me a whole damned week to make. But I promised, so I will make it." the man said with a glance to the great cage of the great master.

"Thank you so much, Modestus." Aaron said and bowed his head, because he figured someone like Modestus would be quite open to flattery and shows of respect. Modestus sniffed, but did not say more. Instead he started to work on a Painkiller pill.

There were a few other useful pills on the list that interested Aaron and while he watched Modestus work, he scanned the list of the other recipes.

"The Detox pill is against poison and alike? There isn't really a description of what it does."

"No, well yes. It detoxifies your body and gets rid of impurities. Its quite beneficial to you. But yes, it also gets rid of any poison this tower can conjure up, probably."

"Wait Impurities like during a breakthrough?"

"Yes, exactly. If you take a detox pill and go through the purification process you will have a much smoother breakthrough."

"This is fantastic, why has nobody told me this stuff existed?"

"Because its a waste of time for me to teach you this stuff." Modestus said with a sigh, but he shut up when he glanced towards the great master.

"But I changed my mind and I am willing to help you now."

Aaron did not comment on the man's sudden change of heart, but he was glad for it. He probably had the great master to thank for that.

"There are two more pills that seem interesting. One is the Hunger pill?"

"Yes? It is a pill that will give your body nutrients etc. Its mostly used by children during long treks in the wilderness."

"How much food, like how many nutrients?" Aaron asked patiently.

"Depends on the potency of the pill. But enough food for a week. It slowly dissolves in your stomach, allowing you to focus on other things. Standard training aid."

Aaron took a deep breath. If he had this pill from the start so many logistical issues would have been so much easier. But he guessed it was better now than never. Sadly it required harpy eggs anyways, so he won't get to make any himself any time soon.

"Okay the last pill is just called Amalgamation pill. What does it actually do?"

"A classic Amalgamation pill will allow you to absorb Qi from the environment faster, but this is the tower version. It basically purifies Qi out of beastcores and turns it into pure Qi. Its incredibly inefficient and you will get more out of directly using the beastcores, but the Qi created in the pill is pure Qi. Another breakthrough aid." Modestus explained while he finished the painkiller pill he was working on. The man was super humanly quick and efficient doing alchemy. It was both awe inspiring and unsettling. It was not mechanical, but it felt like the pills were creating themselves more than Modestus made them. It was a similar feeling to the one he had before during his small trance.

"In the future you should try and use a detox and an Amalgamation pill before each breakthrough to acclimate yourself to their usage. This will be very beneficial for your foundation realm breakthrough." The soft voice of the great master said into his ear and Aaron turned to him and asked:

"Is the breakthrough to the Foundation realm really that difficult?"

"Yes. It is your first major breakthrough. There is no real way to train for it. Its a transformative process. You will turn your internal Qi into something more and your body will be purified and remade. In a stable Qi environment this would be a fairly simple thing, but here in the tower it is extremely difficult and perilous. Magic will interfere with the process so I have to insist you do it here under our watch and with as many aids as possible. But we can talk about the logistics of it once you have reached the required cultivation rank."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense." He turned back to Modestus.

"What exactly do I need to practice alchemy myself?"

"Like I said, you need a stable source of heat, a manastone burner is probably the easiest to get, then you need a cauldron forged by Mortag, inscribed with formations by Nemu, as well as at best 7 essence containers. Maybe a ladle forged and inscribed again to interact with essences and or ingredients." Modestus hesitated and then nodded.

"That...that is a lot."

"Not really if you consider that the barrier of entry for alchemy is usually a cultivator's flame. All you need is tools and follow the recipes. But then again these are very simplistic recipes for novices created by myself, of course they are significantly better than anything else in existence." Modestus boasted, but in a way that Aaron was fairly sure he was also telling the truth.

For the next hour Aaron watched Modestus create a whole batch of pills, at least one of each of the pills he had given him the recipe for to demonstrate the way to do it. It was a dizzying display of essences created, clashing, fusing together and in the end turning into perfectly round sugary spheres. When Modestus was done he had a whole plethora of pills for Aaron resting on a nearby shelf.

"Could you, I don't know, carve a sign in the pills so I know what they do? They look all the same to me."

"You should be able to feel the difference in the Qi composition inside of the pill, but sure that does not cause any effort." Modestus waved his hand and symbols carved themselves into the sugary balls. Aaron blinked, but he could read the symbols fairly easily. It was not the tower script though, which was interesting.

"Now." Modestus said after he looked over the whole batch and placed them in a small bag. He looked over to the great master. "Does this suffice?"

"If you remember your vow to make a Foundation realm pill, then yes." the great master said allowing Aaron to hear his response.

"Yes, damn you. I said I will make it and I will. Just not now. That bloody thing takes a week to make. I will have it ready by the time Aaron is able to breakthrough. That will take months. Should be simple. So please…"

"Fine. You can place the rock into the exchange box, Aaron."

Aaron nodded and put the big volcanic rock into the box, Modestus placed the bag with pills into it and they exchanged the contents. Modestus looked like a child in a candy store when he had the rock in his hands.

"Yes! The mushroom's mycelia seems to be intact, there is even new fruits that blossom. I wonder…" Modestus looked at Aaron and then at the great master.

"Nice working with you, Aaron. Bring me any interesting materials if you would. Keep the bag and the pickax, I am feeling generous today. But for the next week I am busy. You can bother me afterwards." He said and with a wave closed the curtains of his cell.

Aaron chuckled, studied the contents of the small bag of pills, a few regeneration pills, a few detox pills, almost 10 painkiller pills, 3 hunger pills and only 2 Amalgamation pills. Overall a really good haul. While he was here he could get some questions answered and ask Mortag and Nemu what they would want for their services. Then he could finally go and explore and train on the fifth floor.

Mortag was Aaron's next stop and the grumpy man was already waiting for him.

"Come to give me more work, eh Aaron?" Mortag said in his Scottish sounding drawl.

"Indeed, I would like to order a cauldron for alchemy that can be easily inscribed I think is the word?" Mortag nodded. "Inscribed by Nemu, as well as a few containers and a ladle to interact with essences."

"That's no problem. The best material in the tower for a cauldron would probably be copper and tin that I will forge into bronze. You won't need a big Cauldron, so a small, pot sized one will probably suffice. Which means I won't need much base material. But the containers will require some material as well...soo lets say a few kilograms each would do."

"You know what a kilogram is?" Aaron asked with raised eyebrows.

"Nah, but I did not say kilogram, that is just what your translator told you, remember laddie?"

"Ah, right. Okay, so copper and tin. I will see if I can get that for you in the Town."

"Good, maybe bring me some other materials as well. I might be able to make a proper alloy with better properties than bronze."

"That sounds good, although it will take me two weeks until I can get the metals."

"Two weeks don't matter much, no worries. Oh, and don't bother talking to Nemu, he is deep in some sort of experiment. The great master will wake him up when I got the cauldron finished for the formations. The inscription work should be easily done in half an hour by someone like Nemu."

"Great, thanks for the heads up. But I do have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"I recently lost two of my memory cores, don't worry I know where they are and I will get them back soon. But apparently a normal human without any powers was able to activate the memory cores. Is that normal...or?"

"Oh, huh. Aye, its normal alright. Its a built in feature for kids."

"Kids?"

"Aye, memory core are a teaching device. So I made them how I would always make them. Children usually have no signature at all before they get awoken to become a cultivator. But they still might want to train or access information in the most basic rudimentary fashion. Its sort of built into the core itself. I honestly forgot that was a thing. Did it cause any trouble?"

"A bit yeah. But I guess a normal person, or anyone who is not a Cultivator can't learn the heavenly kata or Wind Steps?"

"That I don't know. Wind Steps for sure, but the kata is outside of my knowledge, laddie. Sorry about that."

"Not your fault. I should have been more careful and not lose the cores to begin with."

"Ah, also there is a child-proof feature on the cores, now that I think about it."

"A child-proof feature? Like what?"

"It basically restricts access to any Qi related topics from the cores and only allows for other, more mundane topics to be read without a Qi signature. But what exactly is restricted depends on the creator of the memories of the core."

"Oh, that is good to know, I will ask Sylus and Mei about it then."

Mortag shook his head and snorted. "Hope you get em back, laddie, but if you don't. Its fairly simply to make the cores if you bring me some beastcores."

"Thank you Mortag. That was all I wanted to ask about."

"Good, good. Remember for the cauldron, bring me any metals you can get your hands on."

Aaron nodded and went back to the front of the prison and the great master. His second question was one directly to the ancient transcendant.

"I have a question for you, great master."

"Please ask Aaron, I am always happy to answer questions."

"While I was training with Wind Steps like Mei taught me, keeping my stride even and concentrating on perfectly modulating my movements as well as my stride while changing the distance traveled, something happened to me." Aaron hesitated and was not sure how to explain.

"It was like a trance. Suddenly everything besides my internal workings and my Qi vanished from existence. My Senses focused to a degree I only ever otherwise experienced during total sensory deprivation, but that was not the case this time. It felt like I could hear, I could see, I could feel everything inside and outside of me and through my focus everything just...clicked. I moved, I changed my stride in Wind Steps knowing exactly what would happen next. I...It felt like it was preordained. Like it was inevitable to follow the path I envisioned. I even fought some scorpions on the second floor while in the trance and the Heavenly kata sort of flowed into this as well. It felt like...It felt like everything I have learned, every technique you all taught me worked together in perfect Harmony."

There was a pause while the great master and Mei as well as Sylus listened attentively. Then the great master's soul floated closer and stopped in front of Aaron. The ancient being said with a smile in his voice:

"You wish to know what that was, yes?"

"Yes." Aaron said with a nod. "And if this was your intention from the start. Is that state why you insisted I learn these techniques?"

"In short. Yes. It is called a Harmonic state, a state of, as you said so well, perfect Harmony where your techniques work together in seamless concert. From the fiend-god art to Sensory Harmony every technique you have learned, except the modified Soul Stealer of the Demon, has been selected so they would work together in a harmonious whole. What you experienced is brought by tremendous focus and will be difficult to replicate I fear. It will come back to you, when your focus is not on getting back there, but on your training. Eventually once you have achieved greater mastery in all of the techniques I have given you and you are planned to receive, you will be able to enter this state at will."

Aaron opened his mouth and then closed it again, trying to process the information.

"So...what exactly is this Harmonic state?"

"What you described is the unconscious version of it, an imperfect version that allows you to synchronize everything you have learned and make the sum of its parts more than the whole. Eventually you will be able to enter this state at will and you will be conscious while doing it. It will make every fight, every step, everything you do qualitatively better. It will not just make you stronger, but will allow you to display more power than you posses by using everything you have learned to the utmost perfection. In the end the Harmonic state will become part of you and if you are very lucky will be your permanent state of self. I am the very concept of Harmony. I hope very much you will get to that state of absolute Harmony with yourself in due time. It will be very beneficial to you and to all of us by helping you get out of the Tower."

"You are the very concept of Harmony?" Aaron asked fearing he had misheard.

"Ah, yes. I was when I was alive as a Transcendant. I was the avatar of Harmony. All of us who get to this illustrious realm of power have taken aspects of reality as their truth, as their path, as their Dao. Mine is Harmony. The balance of all things within oneself and of the multiverse in total. A Transcendant embodies that concept, but its not important for now how or why or what."

"Then what is?" Aaron asked slowly.

"Important is that yes, the state of Harmony was intended to be available to you, yes it is beneficial to you and no, you should not try to search for it again. Let it come to you. One does not force Harmony, Harmony becomes a state of things on its own when the conditions are right."

"I...I am not sure I understand, but alright. I will focus on my training, not on chasing that trance again. It just...felt really good. Not in a physical way, it just felt right."

"Progress on your path, conquer the minor realms of Qi Refining and I promise you, you will be one step closer to Harmony once you reach the Foundation realm."

"I will, thank you, great master."

The soul beyond the great barriers of the prison nodded and dissipated. Aaron was left feeling what? Ambitious? Yes. Anxious? Absolutely. He felt unnerved that the ancient being beyond his understanding had planned things to allow him to enter a state like this. But at the same time he felt also comforted by it. He was not flailing around. As long as he kept up with his path he would progress, he would become stronger, would become more. There was a certainty to it that felt calming. It was the assurance that as long as he did a good job, he would be just fine. It was a rather novel feeling he had never had before and so Aaron was frowning when he went the few steps to talk to Mei.

"I am sorry, Mei, I have lost your memory core temporarily. I fear I have to ask what is available to see from that core to normal humans."

Mei blinked at him and then frowned. "Humans without any powers?"

"Yes."

"Ah, like children. They will only see the stretches, nothing more. Why is that important?"

"Just making sure nothing of true importance is spread around in the Tower. An associate of mine is analyzing these cores for the district. Mars, their boss is curious about them, but when I am back from my training I will retrieve them."

"An associate?" Mei asked with a raised eyebrow.

"A former courtesan that works as a go-between between me and Mars."

Mei did not say anything, she just studied Aaron for a long moment before she shrugged.

"It should not do anything. No mortal can follow the stretches without seriously injuring themselves. Its pointless for them. I would warn your 'associate'" her eyebrows were raised again." that the contents of that core are potentially harmful."

"I will, thank you."

Mei nodded and looked Aaron straight in the eyes.

"Just keep a better eye on your possessions. I would not want the hassle of making another core for you."

"I will, it was a stupid mistake born from complacency."

"Someone in Qi Refining should never be complacent. But I am looking forward to your progress. If you were able to enter a state of Harmony, you should be able to make great strides in your Mastery of Wind Steps."

"I will do my best." Aaron said trying to temper her expectations.

Mei nodded and closed her eyes. Aaron waited a moment for her to say anything else before bowed to her. Then he turned and walked over to Sylus who was leaning against his prison with a smirk on his lips.

"I must say I have never experienced anything like you describe, but well...I would not need it." he said cryptically and when Aaron raised an eyebrow, Sylus just smirked.

"Did you lose one of my cores as well?" he joked and Aaron winced slightly and nodded. Sylus was not as relaxed as Mei hearing the news, no he tensed and stared at Aaron with a dark look on his face.

"Which one?"

"The Rejuvenating Fist core."

Sylus grunted and then sighed.

"Could be worse. The heavenly kata can't be truly learned without Qi. But I do not like anyone seeing the contents of the core. That said I am not as proficient in memory manipulation, so most of the core should be accessible." he said with a nervous chuckle and a look towards the great master's cage.

"That is not good news." Aaron said with a frown.

"It is not. I should have foreseen something like that. Oh well, what can you do. Just promise me this, if anyone truly learns the Rejuvenating Fist, kill them."

Aaron blinked, surprised and slightly alarmed by the man's request. But Sylus was serious, the same deadly seriousness he always displayed when teaching him.

"Why?" Aaron asked cautiously.

"The Heavenly kata is not to be spread around. Me teaching you is already a breach of my clan's laws and while I find most of their blasted rules to be insufferable stupidity, I concur with this one. The kata stays between teacher and student. You either make them your student or kill them if they manage to learn the kata."

Sylus eyes were hard and suddenly the affable man with the quick witted tongue looked quite a bit bigger. He was actually quite a tall man if he did not slouch and he was except for Krish and his overtuned lizard physique, the most muscular of all of the prisoners. Aaron's sensitive ears heard a deep thumb that seemed to originate from the center of the earth underneath Sylus feet and Aaron nodded quickly.

"Of course, if it is this important to you, I will do what you say. But I doubt two weeks is enough to learn from the core."

"It should not be, not without Qi. But stranger things have happened. Be sure."

"I will."

"Good." The invisible pressure that had enveloped them vanished and the deep thumping of the earth vanished when Sylus smiled again. Aaron was once more reminded that these people, his teachers, were extremely powerful cultivators that probably had no equal in the entire tower except Emnu himself. They were all so many realms of Cultivation above him that they were functionally immortal. Sylus had mastered the entire Heavenly Kata. He could not even begin to imagine how strong the man was. Not that he could harm Aaron from inside of his cell. But Aaron would not risk his ire for something trivial. He really hoped Iris would not learn much from the Rejuvenating Fist core.

Aaron said his goodbyes and slowly made his way back out of the Prison on a rather somber note. But as soon as he left the oppressive darkness behind him and he stepped back into the first floor, he cheered up. He would cross the bridge of what to do when in two weeks when he got there. For now he could finally focus on just getting to the fifth floor and train against some actually challenging monsters for once.

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