The mountain range east of Boar Hollow stretched far. It snaked its way through regions, bordering the sea at one point but holding one important facet of Tero’gal. The Throne of the Dreamwalker was the planet’s source of power. It held a combination of energies between the planet itself, the Dreamwalk, Theo’s own will, and the Realm of the Dreamwalker. Theo and Tresk approached the large temple resting atop the range of mountains, looking up at its majesty. They didn’t need to come as a pair, but the marshling was feeling needy.

“I’m gonna go sledding,” Tresk said, producing a pot lid from their shared inventory. “But I’ll be close. Just in case you blow yourself up.”

Theo grunted a noncommittal response and entered the massive temple. Interested, he noticed that there were sometimes people here, but now it was entirely empty. As he strode through the absurdly spacious foyer and wove his way between the columns, he finally settled in a quiet corner that had a window facing the light. He placed three items before him on the ground. Two of which were worth an incalculable price.

The Soul Bloom was absurdly rare, and tricky to work with. Combined with the fragments of Balkor’s Throne, he planned to make something interesting. If they weren’t facing the end of the world, he wouldn’t consider brewing something so life-altering. But with the reset looming, and his desire to test something for himself bubbling, the alchemist couldn’t help himself.

The idea here was very simple. Theo was going to use the concepts of a Suffuse Potion to bind the properties of the Soul Bloom and a Lightning Poppy together. He would deviate from the normal recipe by using a piece of the throne to bind it all together. The difference here should be massive if his instincts were correct. Normally, this combination would create the intelligence of the soul potion, which would eliminate the barrier created by the system. It was something the system called the "meta-barrier," which had already been removed. Instead, he expected something else entirely to happen. His hope was that he could force his willpower on the potion until the expected result became reality.

But first, he needed to render each reagent into its untamed essence form.

The Lightning Poppy was easy enough to bring into its essence form. It felt much like the others he had worked on and dissolved with a combination of his mana in a flask. The resulting solution was a crackling liquid that seemed to jump as though it wanted to reach the top of the flask. The alchemist put a stopper in the top and set it to the side before regarding the Soul Bloom.

Even before starting with the second reagent, Theo could feel this one would be trouble. Reaching out with his senses, he felt it pushing back even before he began. After introducing his mana to the glittering flower, he felt something slam into his chest. With nothing and nobody nearby, he had to assume it was the conceptual weight of the flower itself, resisting being transformed into something that went against the will of the system. Although he tried, the alchemist backed off for now.

There was an interesting concept with alchemy. After Theo had unlocked his willpower and gained a few classes that took advantage of that hidden attribute, he found a recursive way of doing things. From his inventory, he withdrew a plant that had been quite useful in the past. Throk’s weed was a combination of the corn-like zee, grown in Broken Tusk, and Earth's wheat. The plant made decent bread and was indeed considered a weed among the farmers. However, its third property was the Aura property.

When brewed with normal alchemical means, it produced the Aura Potion. The description was simple. It increased the power of the imbiber’s aura. For a normal person, that meant a handsome increase. For Theo, that meant he could move the heavens.

Unlike the Soul Bloom, Throk's Weed dissolved with little effort, melting into the flask after he infused it with his mana. The liquid boiled in the flask as it became an unrecognizable version of the aura potion; however, the alchemist had followed all the same steps. He was certain he had created a new version of that potion. Pressing his senses into it confirmed that to some extent, but a lot of this new form of potion making was experience and instinct.

Holding the flask to his nose, Theo took a sniff. It had the same metallic fragrance as the normal version of the potion. With no hesitation, he downed it.

The ground beneath Theo's feet rumbled without his command. His aura sprang out. He felt it cover part of the mountain range, and then it pushed further. It felt like an entire river pouring from his chest, overwhelming his senses and sending his danger sense tingling. His aura continued to spread and diluted, encompassing the region and then the continent. Before long, he felt it crest over the curvature of the planet until Theo's aura encompassed all of Tero’gal. The planet pushed back with uncomfortable recognition, unsure what it should do.

“Come on.” Theo strained, clenching his teeth as he reigned in his aura. He pulled it back, clawing every bit of his out-of-control aura back into his chest. When it rushed over the landscape outside of the temple, it came with a hurricane-strength wind. The alchemist’s aura was now the size of a pea, nestled in his chest but bursting with potential.

“Hey, what was that?” Tresk asked, sticking her head around a column. “You dead?”

“Not yet,” Theo said, straining to keep his aura inside. “Accidentally made a powerful potion. Think I found an exploit the system is gonna hate.”

“Oh, cool. As if the system wasn’t mad enough at us.”

“We should be good,” Theo said, taking another steadying breath. “I’ll need to focus on this next part, though. It might take a while.”

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“Should I go back home?” Tresk asked. “Are we talking a few hours or days?”

“I’m not sure,” Theo said. When he considered how long it would take to get the two pieces of his potion to work together, he had a stupid idea. “Actually… I think I have a better idea. If you don’t mind spending time away from the mortal plane.”

“Time dilation?” Tresk asked.

“Yeah,” Theo said, grinning to himself. “Time dilation.”

***

Theo didn't think he would ever return to the paper world, but the more he considered how difficult it would be to combine the two parts of his potion, the more he needed the time dilation. Since he couldn't take advantage of that in his own world to a great extent, he needed to go elsewhere. Tresk stood sentry as the alchemists sat upon a rock, staring off into the desolate landscape and shaking their heads in disappointment. His aura shimmered around them, protecting them from the mentally damaging effects of the world.

“Wow, this place sucks a lot,” Tresk said.

“It sucks more when you’re not in my overpowered aura,” Theo said.

“And you’re sure we can get out?”

“Yes, it won’t be a problem this time. Now I just need to focus.”

“Okay, okay,” Tresk said. “I won’t be weird. I promise.”

Although Tresk was weird immediately after the statement, Theo had expected it. This wasn’t a sprint, though. It would take a long time of focus, and the occasional distraction wasn’t unwanted.

Turning the Lightning Poppy into a raw essence rich with the Increase Intelligence property was easy enough. But extracting the Soul property from the Soul Bloom was a nightmare. Theo fell into practiced focus, and time fell away. It was only a matter of pressing his increased willpower into the reagent, adding his mana, and holding firm. He would come back to his senses occasionally, and Tresk was keeping time. But she didn’t share how many minutes had passed.

When the Soul essence was finally distilled, he didn’t break his stride. Instead, the alchemist made more of his bootleg Aura Potion and got back to it. This was the tricky part. Theo placed a fragment of Balkor’s Throne at the bottom of the flask, adding the Lightning Poppy’s essence first. As expected, there was no reaction. When he then added the Soul Bloom’s essence, he watched as the two acted as oil and water. They didn’t want to mix, but it was his job to force them.

“Good luck,” Tresk said, patting Theo on the back.

Theo probed the mixture. Locked within the fragment was unimaginable power. The two essences wanted nothing to do with each other, but the fragment would act as the bridge. He forced his considerable willpower into the mix, finding that combining the entire thing at once would be too hard. Instead, he picked small segments of the whole, trying different approaches until he finally had success. Three fragments, one from each essence and a tiny chunk of the throne, slammed together. They created a fourth thing in the mix that floated away from the others, rising to the top and bobbing there.

“That wasn’t so hard,” Theo said, wiping sweat from his brow. “How long has it been?”

Tresk nodded to a nearby paper log she had etched time into. “You don’t wanna know.”

There were at least 50 marks, and Theo didn’t want to know what they represented. Instead, he turned his focus back to his work. Breaking out of the paper realm had been difficult the first time. The alchemist had feared the realm would be destroyed during his breakout. But as he felt the world around him, he realized it was more stable than it should have been. There must have been some object of power holding it together.

Shaking those thoughts from his mind, the alchemist put his entire focus into creating this new potion. Every drop he smashed together was arduous. It felt like fusing two rocks together by rubbing them together as hard as he could. But more of the potion combined as time slipped by. The resulting potion shrunk in size as more of the throne’s chunk vanished. Just as Tresk was getting to work on marking her third log, the alchemist was done.

“Two vials,” Theo said, blinking away the stupor. “Two potions. One for me to test, and the other for the winner of the combat games.”

“What is it?” Tresk said, pulling one vial up and holding it to the light.

The contents were a swirling mix of blue and purple. Visible bolts of lightning rushed through the mixture. When the marshling unstoppered the top, the scent of ozone and sweet flowers filled the air.

“I poured everything I had into those,” Theo said. “And I’m not completely sure what it’ll do. I have an idea, but there’s only one way to find out. How long did it take?”

Tresk counted her markings on the various logs. “Just under a year,” she said.

“You sat there for a year?” Theo asked, mouth hanging open.

“No. I left your bubble,” Tresk said. “Which made the days feel like seconds. According to what happened last time, only a few minutes should’ve passed outside.”

“And yet, this place is only so useful,” Theo said. “I didn’t get a single point of experience.”

“Yeah, I was trying to get me some exp points. But nope. Just stood around like a zombie… wait, am I a year older?”

“I don’t know,” Theo said. “Our attributes make that hard to judge.”

“Well, hot diggity dog,” Tresk said. “Go on and drink that potion. I wanna see what happens.”

Theo smiled, wrapping them both tightly in his aura. With a better understanding of the way this place worked, he folded the void on itself and appeared in the manor back in Broken Tusk. With the system out of reach in the paper world, he didn’t want to risk the potion not working.

“To your health,” Theo said, holding the vial up and winking at the marshling.

Tresk watched with anticipation. Theo downed the vial in one big gulp, feeling the lightning race down his throat. It burned all the way down, jumping around his insides. He gritted his teeth as the potion went to work. The burning started in his stomach, but worked its way up. Before long his mind was on fire, every synapse of his brain firing simultaneously. Right before he blacked out, a system message appeared.

[Unknown Potion Consumed]

Calculating effects… Unknown effects… Finding nearest…

Intelligence attribute increased by 250.

You may not consume another of these potions until the cycle resets.

This permanent effect can only be granted once. 4 more Celestial Potions of Intelligence may be consumed in this sector. Reset in 20 cycles.