WIEDERGEBURT Chapter 8

There was only one way to cure Spiritual Poisoning—at least, one way that I knew of. After returning to Nevaria, I traveled to the library, which I knew had some extra parchment, quills, and ink in storage. I wrote down a list of the ingredients she needed. After which, I gave her my address and told her to come over the moment she had them.

The ingredients were, quite fortunately, items that could be bought at the apothecary I’d gone to previously. I would have bought them myself. However, not only did I have to prepare my room to receive her, I only had around 12,500 valis left from when I sold the A-rank Spiritual Lightning Technique and couldn’t afford to spend that much money.

Fay had been wearing clothes made of silk. While there were plenty of more expensive fabrics, I could tell from a single glance that the silk of her clothes was made from the high-quality threads of a Silk Worm, an F-ranked Demon Beast that was harmless and often used to create fabrics for clothing. Silk made from a Silk Worm was expensive. That meant she came from a noble family or a successful merchant family and had more money than me.

Upon arriving home, the first thing I did was tidy up. My room wasn’t messy, but I also wouldn’t consider it clean, so I carried out a few basic tasks like sweeping the floor, dusting off my bookshelf, and airing out my mattress. Once I felt the room was at least somewhat suitable for a female presence, I began filling the bathtub I had bought with water.

Filling the bath was a pain. In. The. Ass. There were no pipes that carried water to this place, so I had to rely on slowly filling the tub manually. I carried a large bucket to the stream, filled it up, and then dumped it in the tub. It required over 130 trips to fill the tub up just once. That was enough to make me wonder if buying the bath was even worth it.

With the tub filled, all I could do was wait. I sat down on my bed and began going through basic circulation exercises, basically speeding up and slowing down the Spiritual Power running through my Spiritual Pathways. It wasn’t the most effective exercise to do. Still, it helped stave off boredom and still let him do at least some training.

By the time evening rolled around, I began wondering if Fay was going to come at all, but just as this thought crossed my mind, a knock sounded at the door.

It was Fay.

“Um… I’m here,” she mumbled in a soft, delicate, and embarrassed voice.

Fay had changed clothes. Instead of a tunic, she was wearing a dark green robe that contrasted with her hair and matched the color of her eyes. The robe was made from high-quality silk like her tunic. Patterns danced along the surface in glittering gold. I recognized them as runes, but it didn’t look like these runes served any purpose other than decoration.

“Come on in.” I opened the door further and allowed her to step inside. She did so after several seconds of hesitation. As I closed the door behind her, I asked, “Do you have the ingredients?”

“Y-yes, I do.” She held out several bags to me. I took them from her and looked inside each bag, nodding only after I had confirmed that she had everything I needed.

“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “You can sit on the bed if you want. Preparing these pills are going to take awhile.”

“Pills?” Fay’s eyelids fluttered. “You mean alchemy pills?”

“That’s right.” I moved over to where my alchemy set was stored, undid the latches, and began setting everything up. “There are several steps that we must do in order to cure your Spiritual Poisoning. The first step involves having you ingest a pill called a Spirit Cleansing Pill. What it does is travel through your pathways and breaks up the Spiritual Power that is clogging them. Well, I say it ‘breaks up the Spiritual Power’, but it’s more like it loosens the power clogging your pathways, which will allow me to break it up for you.”

Fay had already moved over to the bed, where she sat with her knees together, hands on her lap. She was staring at me with an expression of fascination. This was likely the first time she’d ever heard of a pill like this. From what I understood right now, Alchemy was considered something of a joke to the people of Nevaria.

“I’ve never heard of a pill that could do something like that,” she murmured. “What is the next step?”

“After the pill takes effect, I will use my own Spiritual Power to remove the rest of the Spiritual Power that’s blocking your Spiritual Pathways.” Fay opened her mouth, but I spoke before she could say anything. “The method for removing the clogged Spiritual Power is not something that just anyone can do. First, it requires someone who understands everything there is to know about Spiritual Poisoning. Second, the method involves massaging the affected area and pouring my Spiritual Power into you through skin contact.”

“S-skin contact?” Fay’s cheeks flushed a deep red, and I understood that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

“There’s still time for you to back out,” I said softly. “If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to do this. However, if you want to live, I recommend never using your Spiritual Power again. If you don’t resolve this issue now, even attempting to use your Spiritual Power will eventually end with you being either crippled or killed.”

I hadn’t said anything about the process of curing her because, to be honest, I hadn’t been thinking about it at the time. The only thing on my mind had been helping her. However, now that we were here, at this stage, I knew that what was required to cure her might be too much. All I could do was give her the choice to refuse.

Fay was silent for a long moment, and then, slowly, she shook her head. “I can’t afford to do that. I need to get stronger.”

In the face of such determination, all I could do was nod. “Okay then. I’m about to begin refining the pills we need.”

“Alright. I’ll try not to disturb you,” Fay said.

“Thanks.”

My alchemy set was all set up, so the first thing I did was fill the 500 mL flask halfway with water. Then I lit a fire underneath it using a ceramic plate and some flint to bring the water to a boil. Once that was done, I grabbed one of the ingredients, Wind Raccoon Bone Shavings, and set them into the flask. I waited several seconds for each of the shavings to become fully submerged in the water before inserting another. Five shavings were required for this.

Once that was done, I grabbed another ingredient. A monster core from a C-rank Demon Beast with a water element. It looked like a blue orb with ripple patterns on it. Setting the core on the mortar, I grabbed the pestle and began the process of breaking it down. The core cracked with each strike of my pestle. Finally, after about two minutes, it shattered, allowing me to grind the core up into a fine powder.

By this point in time, the bone shavings had completely dissolved into the water, turning it into a bright green liquid. I took a pinch of the monster core powder and sprinkled it inside of the flask. Then I did it again. I did this until all the powder was gone, and then mixed the two ingredients together in the water. The liquid went from bright green to a palish cyan.

As I worked, I noticed Fay staring at me with unbridled curiosity.

“You look like you have a question,” I said, not stopping my work even as I spoke. Timing was important in alchemy. If you let the ingredients sit too long, it would ruin them. “Are you curious about how Alchemy works?”

Fay seemed startled at first, but then she nodded. “I’ve never seen someone do Alchemy before. While I’ve never been very interested in it until now, watching you work has made me a little curious, especially if this can truly help cure my Spiritual Poisoning.”

“I suppose I can understand your feelings.” I stopped talking for a moment, filled up the 250 mL beaker to about a quarter full, and then brought the water inside to a boil. While I was mashing up the next ingredient, nirnroot, I began talking. “Alchemy is all about learning how different ingredients correspond with each other, and then finding the right mixture to create various effects. These effects can be wide and varied. For example, the Spirit Cleansing Pill I’m making for you.”

“What kind of other pills can you make?” she asked.

“A lot.” I laughed. “Too many to name.”

I would never consider myself an expert alchemist. It wasn’t something I had studied in depth, so my knowledge would be considered at the intermediate level in Midgard. That said, I’d probably be called a master here in Nevaria.

“However, to give you an example, I recently created a Three Way Spiritual Widening Pill. You see that bag over on the shelf? Take a look inside.”

Fay glanced curiously in that direction, and then, finding the bag I had mentioned, she stood up and wandered over to the bookshelf.

During the moment she had gone over to look at the pill, I poured the ground nirnroot into the beaker and began stirring. The color of the liquid quickly turned a muddy brown as it mixed into the water. Nodding once at the color, I added in the last ingredient. Fire root grass. It was a red-colored grass that grew in certain parts of the Demon Beast Mountain Range. I didn’t even bother grinding this stuff. I just dumped it into beaker and let the boiling water take care of dissolving it.

I checked on the cyan liquid as Fay came back with a small, bead-like pill in her hand. A light fragrance was drifting up from the flask opening along with some steam. That told me the ingredients were done mixing.

Once I smothered the fire, I removed the flask and slowly poured the contents into the cauldron. Like last time, there was not enough to fill the cauldron, but I only needed the one pill this time, so it was okay.

Grabbing the sides of the cauldron, I poured my Spiritual Power into the liquid. Lightning crackled from inside of the cauldron as the liquid bubbled, and several popping sounds issued from it. Seconds passed as it slowly morphed, growing smoother and rounder as the liquid condensed, until it transformed into a cyan-colored pill.

“Do you mind if I ask what this pill does?” Fay asked as she studied the pill in her hand.

“It heals Spiritual Pathways that have been ravaged by overuse. Not only do the Spiritual Pathways heal, but they grow wider as a result, allowing someone to channel more Spiritual Power through them,” I answered as I stored the pill and cleaned out the cauldron. Most of the ingredients had been refined into the pill, but there was always residue leftover. It was important to have a clean cauldron when refining, especially when someone planned to refine two completely different pills.

“I could see how this would be useful,” she said with a fascinated sparkle in her eyes.

“I use it for training.” Already knowing what she would ask, I went ahead and elucidated. “Spiritual Pathways are a lot like muscles. The more you use them, the more they grow. When you use Spiritual Power, the pathways are damaged. Over time, they will heal, becoming stronger and wider than they were before, which allows Spiritualists to increase the amount of power they can wield at any given time.”

“Yes, I know.” Fay smiled at me. “They teach us this at the academy.”

“The academy? Ah. You mean the Spiritualist Academy.”

“That’s right. I’m a student there.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that.” I finished cleaning the cauldron, and then looked at the beaker. The liquid had turned a burning red color and a faint smoke filled with a heady scent wafted from it. It vaguely reminded me of cinnamon. “Anyway, the Three Way Spiritual Widening pill heals the Spiritual Pathways, cutting down the time a Spiritualist needs to rest before they can exercise their Spiritual Pathways again, which is why it’s useful for training.”

I grabbed the beaker and poured it into the cauldron. It only filled about one-third of the cauldron.

Nodding, Fay admired the pill for a moment before looking at him. “I imagine that would accelerate your training quite a bit.”

“Yes. It can accelerate a person’s training several times over. Imagine someone who can only exercise their Spiritual Power 45 days a month because their Spiritual Pathways need time to recover suddenly becoming able to practice every single day. If you consider how many days are in a year, that really adds up.”

I stopped talking again to focus on refining the pill that was involved in the last step. Sweat poured from my brow as I willed the smoking red liquid inside of the cauldron to change. Fire Root Grass was stubborn. Since I didn’t have full control over my Spiritual Power, it took almost 30 seconds to fully refine it. Sadly, I was going to need more than one of these, and because of the nature of Fire Root Grass, I could only refine one pill at a time, unlike when I had refined the Three Way Spiritual Widening Pill.

I refined a total of 63 pills. Including the one we’d be using here, she had enough to last for one month if she used one of them a day. I put them in one of the bags she’d used to store the ingredients she bought from the apothecary.

“I’m done,” I announced, taking a deep breath. “Let me clean up first, and then we can begin the second phase.”

Fay’s cheeks immediately turned red upon mentioning the second phase, but she gave me a resolute nod. “Okay.”

After washing out the cauldron, flask, beaker, and mortar and pestle, I put them all back in their box and clicked the latches shut. I stored the alchemy set away. Then I turned to Fay.

“Take the pill now please,” I instructed as I handed the cyan-colored pill to her in exchange for the Three Way Spiritual Widening Pill she had been studying.

Fay didn’t bother asking questions as she popped the pill into her mouth and chewed while I put the Three Way Spiritual Widening Pill back into its bag. She grimaced a bit as the pill broke inside of her mouth and liquid gushed forth. The outer shell of a pill was just a small hardened layer of the pill ingredients. The rest was liquid. Right now that liquid was probably rushing down her throat and traveling into her Spiritual Pathways.

“I don’t feel any different than before,” she said.

I almost rolled my eyes. “You shouldn’t feel any different. All this does is break up the Spiritual Power that’s clogging your Spiritual Pathways, which will make it possible for me to clear it out with my own power. Speaking of, how far as the Spiritual Poisoning spread?”

Fay only hesitated for a moment before sighing. “It’s covering most of my body. The last time I checked, it was beginning to reach my collarbone.”

I took a shuddering breath. “I had assumed it was bad, but I didn’t realize it was that bad. This is going to be harder than I realized.”

“You will be able to heal it, right?” Fay asked, worried.

“Of course. Just leave everything to me.”

Since the Spirit Cleansing Pill would take awhile to circulate through her body, I spoke with Fay about non consequential matters, asking about school and family and anything I could to take my mind off what would happen next. Fay was obviously embarrassed by what needed to be done. However, I wasn’t much better. The only woman I’d ever seen naked was Kari… and I guess Kayli too, but dealing with a naked two-year old running around the house was different than this.

“The pill should have run its course. It’s time.” I saw the sudden embarrassment permeating Fay’s face and gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. While I can’t do anything about the cleansing part, I can at least look away while you get undressed.”

“T-thank you,” Fay muttered.

I turned around on the floor and closed my eyes, but then I immediately opened them when I heard the sound of rustling clothes. Closing my eyes only enhanced the sounds. Worse still, it made me imagine her naked.

“I’m done,” she announced.

I turned around and saw a naked girl standing before me.

In any other circumstance, Fay would have been considered the epitome of gorgeousness. The delicate curve of her waist, hips, and breasts were alluring in ways only a few women ever managed to achieve. Her breasts weren’t massive, but they weren't small either. Firm and soft in appearance, they looked like a pair of peaches sitting perkily on her chest, capped with small inverted nipples. Her stomach was smooth and contained the outline of abdominal muscles. Then I looked at her legs. There was a trim patch of soft red hair at the V of her crotch, just above her nether lips. The gap between her thighs would have made any straight man grow stiff, but it was her legs that garnered the most attention. I didn’t think I had ever seen a girl who had more perfect thighs and calves then her. They contained a perfect muscle to fat ratio, giving them a look that was strong and soft at the same time.

Yes, on any other occasion, Fay would have easily been a beauty that few could match.

But this wasn’t any other occasion.

Marring this beautiful figure was an ugly blackness that resembled a bruise. It was easy to tell that this was not natural. Not only did the black spot undulate as though alive, several glowing blue lines stood out in stark contrast to her skin. Those lines were her Spiritual Pathways.

“Lie down on your back please,” I said.

“M-mm.”

Fay wasn’t able to speak as she laid down on the mattress. She grimaced a little. I imagine this hard, lumpy mattress wasn’t something she was used to.

I moved over to her and knelt next to the bed. Studying her skin, I honestly found myself a little thankful. If her Spiritual Poisoning hadn’t been this bad, I was sure I’d have an erection. Her condition pretty much killed any possibility of putting me in the mood.

“I’m about to begin,” I said. “I’m told people feel different sensations when they’re Spiritual Pathways are being unblocked. I felt overwhelming pain. This may hurt, but please bear with it.”

Fay nodded, but her nod was quick and a little panicked. I tried to offer her a reassuring smile. However, I didn’t think it worked.

“Okay. Here I go.” I inhaled a deep breath, held it for three seconds, and then began.

I decided to start with the most important area first: The heart. Because that was the most important organ within the human body, both in terms of how important it was to a Spiritualist and the fact that humans couldn’t live without it, unclogging the pathways there took precedence over everything else.

The heart was located just behind and slightly left of the breastbone. I found the corresponding Spiritual Pathway that led to the heart, and then placed my finger on it. Applying pressure, I slowly drew my finger across the glowing blue line on Fay’s skin. Her breathing immediately picked up. It hitched several times as I channeled my Spiritual Power into her, and then turned into a series of soft pants as her chest rose and fell. I ignored that in favor of healing her.

Getting rid of Spiritual Power that had grown strong enough to block the Spiritual Pathways was not an easy task. It required directly willing my power into Fay, sending it through her Spiritual Pathways, and then breaking down the Spiritual Power so her powers could freely flow through her pathways again. Since my control still wasn’t that good, I enhanced the effects by using the water element, which was well-known for its healing properties.

I could see that my “spirit massage” was working. Every section of skin my finger left became a little bit lighter. The darkness didn’t go away completely, but her skin color would only return to normal after she completed the third phase, which would take an entire month.

As I continued working, I noticed that Fay was clenching and unclenching her toes. Sweat covered her body and trailed down her skin, leaving soft rivulets in their wake. Her breathing had turned into heavy pants that didn’t sound like she was in pain. What’s more, her cheeks had lit up in a bright blush.

I frowned but kept unclogging her pathways. I followed the glowing blue trails, which took me up her chest and around her breasts. A woman’s breasts held a dense number of Spiritual Pathways. This was mostly because of breastfeeding. Spiritual Power was an important nutrient for babies, or so Kari had told me.

“Ha… ha… ahn…”

I paused when the nipple of Fay’s left breast slowly stiffened despite being inverted. I could see it trying to poke out of her areola. The reason I had paused wasn’t because of that, however, but due to the sounds she had produced.

“Fay…” I was hesitant to ask, but… “Are you aroused?”

I thought Fay’s face had been red before, but upon hearing my question, it burned so fervently I wondered if it might be possible to use her face as a stove. She turned her head and said nothing.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “You don’t have to answer that. I was just… shocked.”

“S-so was I,” Fay admitted with something like a combination of wry laugh and embarrassed giggle. It was kind of endearing, but I could tell she was only releasing that sound to hide her shame.

“I’m going to continue. Is that okay?”

“Yes. Please continue.”

I kept this up, following the blue lines as they moved along her shoulders, down her arms, hands, fingers, and across her stomach and legs. It seemed Fay had a very sensitive stomach. Her breathing picked up after I began channeling Spiritual Power there. It was the same response as when I had been unclogging the pathways around her breasts. The greatest response I received, however, was when I began unclogging the Spiritual Pathways in her legs.

“Ahn!”

I stopped what I was doing when Fay grabbed one of her feet with the other foot and clenched her toes. Her thighs quivered. A small amount of perspiration broke out on her skin as her heavy breathing stuttered and hitched.

“Do you want me to stop?” I asked. Fay’s only response was to shake her head. I assumed she couldn’t talk right now. “Okay. Let me know if it becomes too much.”

She nodded, and I began again. I traced the lines around her thighs, dipping down to her inner thigh before swerving back up when I reached her calf. Throughout it all, Fay bit her lip to keep herself from crying out. That said, she couldn’t stop her body from quivering. I finished at her feet, which were just as black as the rest of her skin. Her right foot was darker than her left.

Releasing a sigh, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and looked at her face. “Okay. We’re done with the front. Roll over onto your stomach, and I’ll do the back.”

Fay whimpered but nodded. I honestly felt sympathetic. If I was in her position, I think I would have preferred overwhelming pain to arousal and pleasure. No matter how desperate for a cure she might have been, it couldn’t have been pleasant to have a man she didn’t even know touching her so intimately.

Her back was a little easier than her front. It seemed she wasn’t as sensitive there. I managed to efficiently unclog all the Spiritual Pathways on her upper back, shoulders, arms, and lower back within just a few minutes. It was enough to make me think I could finish this without further complications.

Then I began working on her butt.

“HRN!”

Once again, I stopped as Fay responded with an extremely loud and throaty moan. It was incredibly sexy, reminiscent of the moans Kari used to release once she and I completely lost ourselves to passion. As she moaned, her buttcheeks clenched and her toes curled. A heady scent filled the air, and I noticed that her nether lips had become glistening wet with her intense arousal.

“I’m really sorry about this,” I said to Fay. I didn’t let her know exactly how miserable I felt. Whatever guilt I had was nothing compared to the shame she must have been feeling.

“It’s fine.” She clenched her teeth. “Just… hurry up and finish it…. Please…”

“Right.”

I did my best to ignore every groan, moan, and grunt that Fay admitted as I methodically unclogged each and every one of her Spiritual Pathways. By the time I was done, Fay’s body was covered in a layer of sweat and her breathing was ragged. Having slept with Kari plenty of times, I was at least smart enough to recognize that Fay had probably orgasmed toward the end.

It made me feel a little sick.

“I’m done,” I said softly. “You can cover yourself up now.”

Fay immediately did as told, grabbing the blanket on my bed and wrapping it around herself. Even though I tried not to look, I couldn’t help but notice that aside from her face being burnt red, there were also tears pricking at her eyes.

Great. I made her cry. Now I felt even worse.

I turned away from her and grabbed one of the blood-colored pills I had created, walked up to the tub, and dropped it in. A few seconds later, the tub had turned a blood red color. Then steam began rising from the surface. I took a gentle breath as the scent of relaxing fragrances filled the air and nodded.

“The next step is to take a bath using the substance from the Spiritual Reinforcement Pill that I just added to the water,” I instructed her. “I’ll be right outside this door, so if anything happens, please let me know.”

I didn’t receive a response for the longest time, which made me wonder if perhaps she was mad at me. Just as I was about to leave, I heard a slight rustling sound as Fay sat up, though she kept the blanket around her body.

“I understand,” she said in a soft voice that I could just barely hear.

“Good,” I said for lack of anything better to say. “I’m heading outside now.”

I opened the door to my room, walked out, closed the door, and then pressed my back against it. Sliding down until my butt hit the wooden floor, I took a deep breath and pressed the palms of my hands against my eyes. Guilt slammed into me like an S-rank Spiritual Technique.

I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever felt so ashamed of anything I’d done in my life. It didn’t matter that I had done this to save her. What happened in the last few minutes between Fay and I still felt wrong.

In an effort to switch mental gears, I tried to think of something else, and that was when I realized something.

“Son of a bitch, I can’t believe she’s using my bathtub before me,” I muttered to no one in particular.