The Immortal Kobold

Xing Lei paid little attention to Osilliaice's curiosity, he was too focused on refining the herbs floating in his alchemical fire. His yellow eyes narrowed as his breathing stilled, fluctuating the fire floating above his palm, guiding thenpowders and liquids together slowly while baking them in the air. He wished he had a cauldron, doing this in this manner wouldn't produce much medicine, in fact alot of material would be wasted as the infused qi leaked into the air, the fact the cabin smelled like medicine was a clear sign to him at least his concocting was wasting far more than it was producing.

Still he continued guiding the materials together, focused on the powder being encased, the liquid solidifying u der the heat. Several semi spheres began to float in his flame baking under his fire. Only at this point did he dare look to his mate with a tired smile, "How is she doing?"

Osilliaice pulled the limp Al.u.s.triea back in, her pale cheeks were almost as green as a goblins arse. The poor elf was listless in her friends grip having felt the better part of her guts evacuating between her lips into the roiling sea below. Still Al.u.s.triea tried to smile but shook her head and w.h.i.n.ed softly, "Can we go back to the forest? Hell's, I'd take the desert again..."

Xing Lei shook his head, hand flexing as the flame winked out and half a dozen semi round pillars dropped into his hand, rolling them around on his palm while they cooled and lifted up to inhale their scent. According to what he smelled in the past these should do the trick. Looking to his mate he tossed one of the spherical pills over to Osilliaice. "Stuff this in her mouth."

Osilliaice grabbed it out of the air looking at the little off yellow pill that smelled alot like the plants used for potion making, shrugging she lifted the elf's head who was muttering something about just letting her die already before the pill was popped between elvish lips. Al.u.s.triea blinked as it dissolved almost immediately, her eyes flying wide as she took her first deep breath since they set sail... "By the gods what was that?"

Osilliaice turned and pointed to where Xing Lei sat in meditation, a small clay bottle sat on floor behind him where they could take it easily. Not bothering to rise he explained, "My alchemy allows me to create pills, powders and salves. What you just had Al.u.s.triea was the [Seven Seagrass Medley], though strange enough, it doesn't contain even one, I used different plants and still produced the pill. While alternate recipes exist for that sort of pill, none of them included the plants and herbs I used. Anyways, the bottle has five more, if you feel unwell again take another pill."

Xing Lei closed his eyes and exhaled, "Though only the first three pills should work, if the fourth is still effective do let me know."

Al.u.s.triea smiled rubbing her belly, it almost felt like she had drunk one of thos high quality potions yet hearing her lovers words her head c.o.c.ked, "Why only the first three?"

Xing Lei sighed and turned picking the bottle up and underhanded tossed the little clay jar to Al.u.s.triea, "Pill resistance. From what I know, most pills only work so often on the body, some high rank pills can only be used once or twice, a very low rank healing pill can be used a few thousand times. This pill in particular however should only work thrice but where it's made from completely different herbs than normal, the resistance build up might be longer."

"The other side of it is pills are made from cultivation resources and thus as more pills are injected the more impurity that you take into your bodies when you. When you breakthrough those impurities will eventually have to be forced out, if you hit a bottleneck in your training the more impurities your body takes in, the harder it will be for a breakthrough to occur so most cultivators only like using pills when they must, never go reliant on them." Xing Lei continued with his explanation slowly, when they reached Tol-Vatal he meant to take the time and investigate the recipes he knew and see if the same rules and restrictions applied here as they had there.

Al.u.s.triea cradled the small clay jar, hearing the pills shifting inside, "When do I take the next one?"

Xing Lei shrugged, "Depends on you Al.u.s.triea. If your body rejects the medicine you will eventually feel sick again, take a second pill then. You might never feel sick. Technically its suppose to fix that sickness, but every so often a constitution comes along where the pill is rejected. Though never heard of it being rejected twice, it's still a possibility."

Shocked the elf looked down at the bottle in her hands being all the more careful with it now, "Do you realize what such a medicine could be for port towns and adventurers?"

The kobold laughed lightly shaking his head, "As an alchemist Al.u.s.triea, I know full well the value of pills, it's what I plan to do once we're at Tol-Vatal. Stalking off into the jungle hoping we stumble across Destorianaxe and our tribe would be foolish, better to establish ourselves in town. We'll see about your tempering and down the road we'll see if Destorianaxe won't welcome our help."

Osilliaice looked over, "Well what do Al.u.s.triea and I do while you play shaman?"

Xing Lei looked to his mate and shrugged softly, "I would expect that you wouldn't want to sit idle, joining the exploratory forces might be an idea. While my proposed pill shop should easily afford buying what you both need, it never hurts to supplement with what you hunt yourselves. Of course there is basic expenses as well to consider. I still have a fair bit of those shiny metal bits Al.u.s.triea uses for currency, but purchasing or even renting a workshop will likely devour it before we even consider getting a roof over our heads and food in your bellies."

Al.u.s.triea was still looking at the bottle but jerked her head up, "We're actually staying in town again for a period? Then no more lizardman smash the area routines you two!"

Xing Lei and Osilliaice laughed at the demand but the latter quickly stated, "No promises." While Xing Lei swallowed his laughter. That night had made him realize his mate had been holding back while they were together lizardess and kobold. When his body loomed over hers something inside her just snapped. In truth he had only meant to make noise that night, as they tended to do when together. When he had become a Lizardfolk for her she had went wild, it was more like a wrestling match than lovemaking that reminded him greatly of his time with Destorianaxe.

His thoughts drifting to the dragoness he considered next time Osilliaice wanted to wreck the building maybe instead of a Lizardfolk he should polymorph in to a dragon-man and see if she was still so wild. Smiling inwardly he shrugged helplessly at Al.u.s.triea who was frowning at her shameless friend, Osilliaice suddenly chimed in, "Well if you ban him from becoming a lizardman then when he's with you he has to stay natural."

Al.u.s.triea looked shocked, her formerly green cheeks grew beat red, "Hey now that's going too far!"

Xing Lei looked from lover to mate and back again lifting his hand, "Hey now, don't I have a say in this...?"

Both females turned from their glaring contest and said in unison, "No!" "Not at all!"

Xing Lei blinked lowering his hand to rub the bridge of his snout as the two went back into negotiation mode with each other. Thinking his two lovers a touch scary at the moment he wisely decided to go into silent meditation keeping any further opinion to himself at least until those two calmed down a little. Right now the pair were like a pair of lionesses arguing over the same lion. For the lion in question, for a situation like this, best he play the strong silent type to best ensure he kept his mane.

Ignoring the bargaining, threats and pleading going on behind his back, Xing Lei focused on more important matters. His alchemy flame had managed to last an entire pill cycle which was a far cry from years ago when just manifesting it drained him of everything. When they made port, he'd have to see if any smiths would be up to the task of forging a cauldron, he knew specifics but without a craftsman of his old world would they be able to get the finer points down?

Without a pill cauldron his plans would be alot harder, not impossible, but a cauldron made the whole process less taxing on the alchemist. It was still alot of work but rather than a measly handful of pills he could have produced scores with the materials he had used. Such was simply the difference of using a pill cauldron to containing the medicinal energy. In his old life he did alright as a low teir alchemist, but that was due to starting late in his path, with a second chance he meant to start earlier.

Providng pills to this world would hardly be anything world shaking, from his own research, alchemists here relied on liquid concoctions for much the same effect, though Xing Lei scoffed at the notion that those bottles of colored water could match his products. Ultimately it would depend on the new place providing what he needed, it would take experimentation of course but he had time while he cultivated. Dismissing the thoughts of business from his mind, his head c.o.c.ked, the sounds of dispute had oddly stopped behind him during his inner reflection. Glancing back he noted the two sitting much as he was and he looked at them curiously, "What are you two up to now?"

Al.u.s.triea and Osilliaice looked back at him, their gazes almost boring a hole into the kobold. Seems they had come to a decision and either were waiting to tell him or they had gotten themselves excited and needed attention. From the way Al.u.s.triea was squirming and Osilliaice was barely holding herself back, the latter seemed most likely. Never let it be said he'd ignore his women but what they had debated was pure silliness, he should be meditating, still if it kept his companions happy...

Hours later Xing Lei sat on the rail of the ship, looking out over the night time sea, his yellow eyes scanned the distant horizon not seeing a hint of land yet, but that was no surprise. The voyage was slated to take weeks, at minimum a month to reach the distant land. This had only been the first few days, it would be some time before any of them saw land. Glancing aside, several sailors were giving him the stink eye, an understandable reaction to the noise they made earlier. Al.u.s.triea, had forgotten to silence the room and in truth he preferred it that way. The spell was handy for situations where too much noise was bad but being able to hear and respond to them was a good thing... just not for every sailor on the boat who wouldn't see a woman for weeks.

Rubbing the bridge of his snout again, a reflex he noticed he was doing more often these days, the kobold pretended that those jealous and hateful looks didn't exist, he and his lovers would just have to be more careful in future and he fully expected more since there was little for the two to do other than play their little game of tug a kobold between each other. He'd have to talk to the captain, see if he couldn't get the lot of them assigned duties, learning the ways of the ship would not be time wasted, and if they were working at least he could focus on his cultivation, he wanted to be nearing the end of the foundation stage before they made landfall...