Prior to the rising of the second sun, Pike and Velana woke and made a tactic agreement before leaping down from the boughs of their camp-tree, leaving Troy in charge of the camp and the three still sleeping bodies within. The paper talisman's around them still fluttered in the wind, the fragile material holding on against the element, but they were joined by a couple of small wooden charms, simple pieces of cut wood about the size of a large copper coin with unusual markings carved into them. Roman's scholarly curiosity had been piqued and he discussed the runic symbols with Leon in some length before they finally succumbed to much needed sleep. Needless to say that this pair were last to wake.
Thanks to the conversion of dry vegetables into an aromatic soup, Leon had become responsible for their meals, so set up his stove to once more cook the same soup for breakfast. Only this time, meat appeared upon the table; Pike and Velana as well as her fox partner, had been hunting.
It was by luck that their venture had borne fruit. The guardian beast should still be lurking awake in his watery hole, thus no large groups of beasts came near and they might not for several hours yet. However, just as not all beasts lived naturally in packs, not all beasts would be able to remain within them either. Old, weak and injured beasts were often left behind in favour of the survival of the majority. But in the case of the Cockateal they killed, it was likely just stupid.
Cockateal's were lesser kin of the Cockatrice family, but their serpent fangs were not poisonous and their four feathered wings were too stubby to allow them much flight. These ground winged serpents tended to eat large beetles, larvae or eggs, which just happened to include their own when they were starved. However, Cockateals were covered in tiny brown feathers rather than scales so their serpent bodies were often hard to spot and they made even less sound during movement than other slithering serpents making them excellent spies and messengers especially while small and young, so they had their place amongst beast tamers. No helping this older specimen with a sparrow's brain however.
The beast had nestled beneath the roots of a tree with its eggs, deciding to lay them while its pit of brethren were migrating to other scavenging grounds, thus had been abandoned. The fact its eggs had yet been found by other scavengers was likely a miracle or as Velana suggested; just because they were laid only a short while ago. The silly serpent itself had decided to crawl from its nest to find a meal or be forced to devour its own offspring and the sharp eye of the tri-coloured fox had caught the tiniest of movement as well as its scent. It had died beneath the jaws of the vulpine and its eggs became spoils for the students.
The creature had laid ten eggs, but only three were fertilised. They placed these in the interdimensional bag after wrapping them in a piece of cloth with a protective talisman upon it, while giving the rest to Leon for cooking, along with the cockateal body. It tasted like chicken.
Ordinarily, the interdimensional bag cannot hold living things, however there were some ways to subvert this general rule. For instance, if the interdimensional bag was of the highest quality, usually made of Astral Spider Silk and with the clearest and purest of Mage crystals woven into its structure. The 'living' entity had to also be in some sort of stasis, such as an egg, but a whole uprooted plant could also exist unharmed within its timeless depths. Thus no harm would come to the cockateal eggs and these would definitely improve their overall score at the end of the challenge.
Leon wrapped some of the oily meat within some leaves, intending to use it as a snack later after finishing his soup as the next part of their venture was discussed.
The lake would soon be surrounded once more with life and facing this abundant amount of beasts would be suicide, so it was not wise to remain too close to the lake during this time. However, if they left the leafy boughs too soon, they would surely come across some travelling herds or packs which also could be dangerous to them. So it was planned that just Velana and Troy scout for the time being, as well as make a few traps a reasonable distance from the tree. Then, once they were certain of the surroundings, they could bring the rest of the team down to explore. After all, it would be good to have the expertise of Roman and Leon as well as the emergency firepower of Caelus in a pinch.
Before the pair left, Leon called out to them and handed both some healing pills and a Hidden Fog Pill. This latter pill would completely hide their scent from some of the beasts that might be wandering around and reduce it a bit from some others. This would reduce the chances of them being discovered as they scouted the area. They took it gratefully, not dismissing anything that increased their chances of returning while and healthy as anything could happen in wild and unknown territory after all. Receiving their thanks, Leon hesitated for a moment before handing them both two more pills.
"I d-don't kn-know if these will b-b-be helpful," he said, almost shyly.
Troy looked at the unfamiliar Pills, both of which resembled a Burning Blood Pill a bit with their cracked and pearlescent sheen, but not completely and asked curiously; "What are these?" The others gathered around, when hearing the question. Velana showed the pills to Pike more clearly, who picked one up with widened and excited eyes.
"Um, Sm-mouldering B-blood Pill," he pointed to the deep, burgundy one, before indicating the fiery red one. "B-bursting Blood p-Pill."
There was a momentary silence as the names were digested. Caelus was the first to speak and unsurprisingly in question; "Wait, don't you mean those new pills, Smouldering Energy Pill, Bursting Energy Pill?" He shook his head, certain that he was correct in his assumption that Leon had made a mistake. "They won't do much for non-primary Cultivators, so I've heard."
Pike turned to Leon, there was an almost unrestrained energy rippling through his aura as he did so, causing Leon to step back half-a pace. "You... you made these?" To understand his excitement, one had to understand the current understanding around the mystery of the variant pills.
For several lunar months, Smouldering Energy Pills and Bursting Energy Pills had been available to purchase at first just in Julip town and then in other stores, usually small Treasure Pavilions, that just happened to be secretly run by the Institute to aid their finances. Naturally there were other sects who would seek to figure out the makings of the two pills including the reputable Heaven Arts Medicinal Sect, renown for their abilities in alchemy circles. And just recently, it was rumoured, that the latter had some success in finding just how the pills were created. It should be mentioned that they could not be completely blamed for the length of time that it took to figure out the inner workings of the variant pills, after all their ingredients really did not seem to differ from the original; the Burning Energy Pill. Plus, Leon had been working hard to try and actually improve his original recipes, but that's a matter for another time.
But while all attention was upon these little variant pills, another pair of variants were dribbling slowly upon the market via auctions. These could be considered much, much harder to get hold of and thus hoarded by those who'd paid small fortunes to purchase them; not one person had managed to calculate its exact recipe causing the price of the elusive pill to actually rise rather than fall. After all, there were many Cultivators stuck beneath the first bottle neck upon the path so many more people would these two appeal to than the others. However, in the scrambling for any of these variants, a minor fact had been somewhat overlooked; that all of these pills first appeared on the market at the same time.
Only the people who had been a part of that first auction knew this, though some had forgotten once the weaker pills appeared more abundantly and of easier purchase so long as you knew which shop to head to first. Also those same people, amongst others having discovered the little known shop owned by a married couple in New Julip Town, might not necessarily share this information with anyone. Of course, it would not be kept silent for long, but by that time, the pills also showed up elsewhere distracting those seeking the first source.
To conclude, it really wasn't surprising that despite knowing that Leon had become a core student due to some new recipes, thanks to his Teacher sharing the information that Pike might look out for him better and strengthen their friendship for potential mutual benefits later on, he really had no idea that the stronger pills were Leon's doing as well. He'd thought, like many others, that a mysterious and advanced alchemist had taken the idea of the lesser variants and advanced the knowledge to work with Burning Blood Pills, which was why this was not as readily available as the weaker ones and harder to reproduce.
Pike gloated inwardly as Leon nodded. He really was correct in his belief that Leon was very reliable and quickly pointed this out to the originally sceptical Caelus. The Mage could only gawk for a while, then decided to cheer for his own luck thanks to Luchus' ignorant and foolish decision back then. This group really was proving itself interesting.