Chapter 75: Grinding

Eren stared at Celeste’s back as she walked away from him, carrying the stack of sunspores she got from selling potatoes.

She’s the only one who noticed me picking up broken sunspores. She doesn’t know how I’m replenishing them, she just knows I’m able to do it.

Celeste was inquisitive. She was curious. Level-headed. And she had the physical skills to back it up.

He saw how Sierra and the others acted during the Quicksand Burrow. They were panicky and completely helpless. By his estimation, they should have died.

But they didn’t. He had a feeling that Celeste had a huge part in their survival. The small bit of mastery in her Martial Manual told him that her talent wasn’t any lesser than that of the elite fighters amongst the examinees.

All in all, she had all the qualities that Eren needed for a dependable ally.

But that was exactly the reason why he didn’t trust her. She was one of the few people who he couldn’t solve. Hard to read.

Her reasons for sticking to him were dubious at most.

But like Pang Cai, he needed Celeste. Her usefulness overpowered his suspicions of her.

Soon, he watched as Celeste returned to the rest of the group, who celebrated the new influx of sunspores in their inventory, as well as their successful passing of the First Test of the License Exam.

Eren didn’t join them. He excused himself, telling Celeste that he would take an early rest back in his dorm. Exhaustion was his excuse. Sierra and the others wouldn’t question it, especially with what he had to deal with.

He was only telling half the truth. He just wanted to be alone by himself and finally do something he’d been waiting for all this time. The more he delayed, the less potent the Physique Accelerant paste would be. After all, the recipe’s requirements were very strict.

Before he left for the dorms, he did a few more errands. He visited another seller within the camp. A young man by the name of Goyle.

He had a certain talent of molding stone. The Martial Manual [Hands of Nature] allowed him to Reinforce his hands to shape and sculpt stone as if it was made out of soft clay.

Examinees bought their stone bowls and utensils from him. It was widely used by the rest of the camp for food and cooking.

In exchange for 20 sunspores, he made Eren a simple mortar and pestle, which was a necessary equipment for the concoction of the paste.

I only have 160 sunspores left.

He wasn’t worried. The expenditure of sunspores would continue to go up. Meaning, more for him to scavenge and replenish. It would fund any kind of material he would need in the future.

If all went well, he’d keep using the Physique Accelerant Paste to awaken all 12 of his Primary Meridians in an extremely short amount of time.

He walked away from the campfire, towards the tiered cliff faces that used to house the Burrows.

Now, only dorm rooms remained. The doors were made out of steel, completely modernized with lightbulbs illuminating the entrance.

The United Governments have full control over this place. They can shuffle and change its terrain at their own will.

He found his nameplate easily, along with the other Examinees with a last name starting with the letter ’G’.

It still felt weird. Eren Grayson. He had no last name back in Immoræ. He cast it away the moment his parents abandoned him.

But back here on Earth, he regained a name he’d long thought was gone. It was the legacy of his parents. After all, he was now the only person in the world bearing this surname.

He resolved to mark that name in history, like all cultivators who’d changed the world.

It was the least he could do. Their remaining inheritance did pay for his 10 year coma. If it weren’t for them, he wouldn’t even have a body to come back to.

>>>

>>>

>>>

Eren opened the door and found himself in an austere living environment. Single bed, one lightbulb overhead, a desk, and a cabinet with freshly ironed battle suits on hangers.

It was the same dorm room back in the gymnasium.

He sat on the floor and laid out the ingredients he bought from Pang Cai.

The main focus was the Skyward Herbs. The others were secondary. They were just a way to ensure he could process the essence of these yellow, star-shaped leaves.

And all he had to handle it was a mortar and pestle. Even in the medieval-ages technology of Immoræ, this would be considered primitive.

Distilling a substance down to its most basic form required a lot of precision.

In modern Earth terms, it was the same as processing a sugar cane to extract sugar. It would be done by industrial machines requiring exact measurements from quantity to temperature and moisture.

But when it came to materials imbued with the properties of Ræzoň, it required much more than precise equipment. It was often mystical in nature, requiring rituals and ceremonies and to complete.

Ræzoň were fickle, after all.

If Eren were to extract the Skyward Herbs back in Immorae, he’d have to do it at the eve of a night where the two moons have appeared through a thin slit in between the clouds, creating peering eyes for Ræzoň to oversee the whole process.

But fortunately, those rituals and ceremonies only simplified the process and increased the yield. They weren’t necessary.

Eren could still extract the Skyward Herbs using good, old fashioned, elbow grease.

He’d just have to do it a lot. He’d have to process hundreds of Skyward Herbs leaves to get a few drops of the necessary extract. In comparison, he’d need only one leaf with the ritualistic process.

There was nothing he could do. He was limited by his environment.

Instead of worrying about it, he turned his focus to the task at hand. It was simple. He just needed to grind down these leaves until they were nothing but liquid slurry.