NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter-115 Element Bath
Since his casual presence at the slave market could present a problem for his plans, Ewan met Kidd the next day and made him a liaison between him and Cork. The boy was prudent enough to dodge the spying eyes and ears and was sensible enough to complete the business deal—he fit the role.
‘A non-native Staron’, the order stiffened Kidd and his eyes widened, but he still bobbed his head and took it back to Cork. Ewan waived any limitations on the price, so unless an unforeseen obstacle hindered him or Cork lacked the product, a positive answer should knock on his door. Even if he had to pay an inflated price, he planned to agree. Necessity birthed desperation, and desperation bred helplessness after all.
Indeed, Kidd returned a while later with Cork’s compliance. He also accommodated Ewan’s need for secrecy and set Kidd as the trustworthy messenger for any future businesses.
As for the current trade, both Ewan and Cork had their terms ready.
Five hundred Novas coins and a week’s time—Cork added the terms.
No lower-level limit but must be red-blooded—Ewan added his terms.
Kidd raced back and forth for confirmation, and once they accepted the conditions, Ewan and Cork signed the contract with Airadia as the witness. Ewan paid Cork two hundred Novas coins as advance payment and Cork wrote him a receipt with his bloodied thumbprint.
The first part of the deal ended, Kidd went back, and Ewan shifted his focus to the ‘Elementalist’ modification.
…..
Temperature rose by the day as Greenbirth gave way to Flamecrest—the months of growth. The sun burned brighter, it lingered longer. The warm wind, the swaying vibrant trees, the active ecosystem, they all recited the euphoria of nature. The life Greenbirth breathed into the world thrived with the onset of Flamecrest.
Yet, the beauty of it couldn’t smother the slight concerns it brought him. As with the potion phase of modification, the second layer also had side effects—mild but they still existed. If he completed the fire-element bath during high temperatures, it could amplify those side effects. Though far from fatal, the soaring temperatures could hurt him and hinder his other tasks.
His main elements for now were fire, ice, blood, and mystic. So, he couldn’t postpone the fire bath for the whole Flamecrest either. Mystic aside, if he did ice or blood right now, he would either have to wait for the end of the season for fire, or do it at peak temperatures…
Since he had to jump, it was better to curb the fall damage. The current temperatures were still well below what could hurt him. If he took precautions, he could push that limit even further. Now was the best time to settle the fire bath, any more delay could create problems. Thus, Ewan went from thinking to acting in a jiffy and built a makeshift bathtub out in the yard, etching the relevant spell circuit for the second layer at the bottom. The open space gave him more room to maneuver and also protected the house—in case something went wrong.
The equipment was ready, the next part was shopping for blood, lots of blood. The potion phase was already expensive for any non-rich Severynth, but this was the real resource gobbler.
The completion of a single element bath needed hundreds of liters of Astylind blood. The higher the level, the less repetitions it would take. Even if Ewan used the highest level possible in Step-0 though, it would still take him about half a month to check off one element, plus half a month of rest. When he calculated the total Novas for fifteen blood baths, his head throbbed. This was just one element too, he had to repeat the same for eleven elements.
He wasn’t the old Ewan anymore, living in Obria with only the Novas his Pa left him. His business boomed and he earned over a thousand Novas per day in pure profit now. Though the completion of second layer of ‘Elementalist’ modification would bite a huge chunk off his balance, he could afford it. Nonetheless, the damage pained his heart. Those profits didn’t come easy, he worked his ass off each day to procure them.
If the result didn’t match the resources burned for it…. The surging cost also pushed his expectations of the ‘Elementalist’ subtype. The returns must match or exceed the investments. If not, he wouldn’t be able to justify his losses.
His optimism battled his skepticism as he bought about a hundred liters of Astylind blood from the hub and poured it in the bathtub.
The spell circuit in the tub needed no trigger. It resonated with the complete spell circuit inside Ewan’s heart as he stepped in and ran on its own. The blood bubbled, the Fire-Anima in the surrounding gushed in. They formed a swirl with the wind.
Ewan lay in the tub, naked, submerged in the boiling blood. He only brought his mouth out to breathe at times and went back in the next moment. The process was slow and gradual, the modification happened over time—unlike the first layer. His body adjusted to the overload of Fire-Anima at first. Then came the acceptance. Bit by bit, the Fire-Anima saturated his body. When the tingles and the burning sensation went away, Ewan opened his eyes—the first bath was over.
The damage he expected never came, Frost must’ve maintained the temperature well, the fact brought a smile to his face. Yet, the world outside stunned him as he emerged from the blood. He entered the tub when the sun hadn't even reached its peak. And here he was, at the end of the bath, looking at his favorite night sky filled with stars.
Losing his sense of time during the second layer of modification was an exaggeration, he thought—a figure of speech. He never imagined those words in the book, they were literal.
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