The Strongest Spellblade

“Justin, I have had an idea, and it is an interesting possibility,” Healer Melon said.

“Oh, what is it?” I asked curiously, since Healer Melon rarely proposed anything. He seemed content to let me make my own decisions.

“I know you want to continue resistance training. It is less effective through a potion regimen than through a chamber and we are trying to get rid of all your Alchemical Toxicity and other concerning factors,” he said, and I nodded at this. I was getting slightly concerned since this was a lot of buildup. “Non-Alchemical potions. It is something that is being pioneered at the College.”

“Non-Alchemical potions, that is seems like oxymoron. How can you have a potion that isn’t Alchemical?” I asked.

“That’s the real trick. They make the potion Alchemically neutral looking at purely physical properties. There have been a lot of failures, but guess what, most of them count as poisons. I heard this from the other healers,” he explained.

“Can you even train safely consuming weird potions? Want about cross interactions or residual components left behind?” I asked.

“The ones I would have you use have been tested for side effects. While it is a niche field of study, the College is about to open up wide scale testing for these items for Poison Resistance training,” he explained.

“And the other resistances and Poison Immunity?” I asked.

“Nothing. It is still a very new field of study. Specifically looking to create potions with no Alchemical Toxicity. I can monitor you after you take them. The main issue are the side effects.”

“Which are?” I asked.

“Nausea. Headaches. Digestive issues. It would make it harder to focus on other classes, but most of what you are taking are auxiliary classes.” It was an intriguing idea. It was very hard to train resistance skills. “The cost is subsidized by the College, since I will need to collect medical information over the time period you take this specialty potions.”

“I will let you figure it out and make the arrangements. I trust you with my health,” I told Healer Melon who nodded. That was why this place was considered the premier institution in the world for centuries. They were always investigating new possibilities.

The idea of a Non-Alchemical potion of any kind contradicted the very concept of a potion. One could see the research as mostly a failure, since they only had made progress in poisons, but that still advanced poison resistance training. There were probably other applications as well that I couldn’t think of at the moment.

There was no Mana in these specialty potions, which meant they had to have been made from very select ingredients with careful preparation and harvesting requirements. No, that would still be impossible. They had the Mana consume itself or cancel other portions of Mana out to create something perfectly balanced. Balanced in terms of Alchemical ingredients, not the end result.

The next day, Healer Melon brought over several potions. I drank the first one slowly and noticed my healing points rapidly going down. “I will have to monitor you several times a day. But stick to a tenth of a bottle every hour. We can double that once you are done for the day and more in the morning,” he said.

“Thanks, I wouldn’t have known about this if it wasn’t for you,” I said.

“I do want to see you succeed Justin. I can’t actually do much. But getting to maximize Poison Resistance over the next year or so should be doable with these Non-Alchemical poisons. We will give them a rest two days out of every week to allow your body time to fully recover and ensure there is no lasting damage,” he said.

“What about the rest of my resistance training?” I asked.

“Chamber training is still the best option.”

“And immunity training?” I asked. Healer Melon let out a sigh at that question.

“You have asked that before and there is no good way to train an Immunity skill, since they only advance when they fail. And when they fail you receive a large amount of burst damage. Such things are slightly unpredictable and highly dangerous,” he explained.

“But there has to be a way? They have a Poison Immunity and Fire Immunity course,” I asked.

“I will look into them. But my understanding is that they use very carefully calibrated capsules and take into account as many factors as possible to break your immunity skill over and over in a controlled manner. And since it is controlled the leveling is very poor. Those are also tier 4 skills, so it makes it even worse,” he explained.

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“But it is possible. Couldn’t you figure something out with these Non-Alchemical potions?” I asked.

“For Poison Resistance, yes. For Poison Immunity, absolutely not. It is too easy to make a mistake and you have Alchemical Toxicity and Healing Resistance. There is no margin for safety or recovery. I am sure the training methods for immunity type skills will get better over the years and you will get more healing points. But for now, the risk is too great,” he replied.

“It just seems like a waste of an opportunity,” I said.

“I will double check. But I saw the same course catalogue you did. You would be spending a lot of time for very small level gain. It would be better to focus on spell skills or other useful skills,” Healer Melon pointed out.

“Any other resistance skills out there?” I asked.

“You have all the major ones including Arcane Resistance, Social Resistance, and Soul Resistance. You also have the major elemental resistances. There really is nothing left.”

“It would be nice to block a lot of damage,” I replied. “And yes, I know not to depend on them, since that is a good way to be overconfident and die.”

“I am glad you understand that. Too many people see the word immunity in their skill list and lose all common sense. I will also see if there are other Non-Alchemical potions that can be used for resistance training. They might still be in the testing phases which I will need to look at,” Healer Melon said.

“Thank you,” I replied.

“Despite what your mother may say, you do work incredibly hard. If I had worked as hard as you while becoming a Healer, I might be sitting at the top of the Five Star Institute of Healing,” he said.

“Really?”

“I won’t deny that the soul fruits and other stuff you have gotten has helped you, but you are working intently at improving yourself. While I might not agree with all your decisions, you aren’t slacking off either,” he said, and I felt a sense of happiness. It really was a struggle to constantly work on so many skills all the time.

I was lucky that the information from the skills was imprinted into my soul, making recollection much easier compared to information that wasn’t based on a skill. That was why creating new things and certain business practices were more challenging in some way with no direct skill supporting certain activities.

If the System wasn’t helping me out, all the knowledge would have flowed right out of my head. There was an entire research institute here at the College devoted to researching questions like this. How much did skills help with memory retention? There were countless questions that the research institute here at the College investigated.

“I am glad to hear that. It hasn’t been easy, that is for sure,” I replied.

“So, any idea what you plan for your next semester as your main courses?” Healer Melon asked me.

“Next semester I will be focusing on Elven skills. Then next year Demonic, High Vostner, and Low Voster skills. At least after Elven there are no etiquette skills. Then focusing on the various script skills to build the foundation for rune skills the following two years. After that, I will focus on spell skills,” I said.

“Not going to focus on runes here at the College?” Healer Melon asked me.

“No. It isn’t that I don’t want to. But I plan to go into the dungeon after graduating for a long time for several years,” I replied.

“It would be very hard to track you once you are in the dungeon, especially if you entered at an unexpected location,” Healer Melon said, and I nodded at this.

“Runes can be studied during my downtime in the dungeon. The spatial pouch my mother left me is far too useful. I can stock up on training methods and textbooks before leaving. Mana Manipulation should be more than high enough for work on spell skills by that point,” I replied.

“You are only focusing on the skill once a week, for a tier 3 skill that is nowhere near enough training to maximize a tier 3 skill. And you will need Mana Manipulation maximized to get the most out of spell skills. It is listed as a prerequisite for a reason,” Healer Melon pointed out.

“I will put more focus on that skill in my auxiliary classes,” I replied and he nodded. While he wasn’t my Advisor like Melody was he had a lot of practical insight and I trusted him. Melody would be happy as long as I kept up my high level gain, but didn’t care that much about the process itself.

Healer Melon was focused on me as an individual and wanted to make sure that I succeeded. “The real challenge will be when that egg hatches. Raising a monster is no simple task.”

“Just feed it my Mana every morning and evening and it should be fine,” I replied.

“And you will have to carefully watch it. If it attacks anyone, it will be put down. I will help, but it is still a monster and may behave unpredictably. You need to be ready to spend a lot of time with it,” he replied, and I nodded at that statement.

“That is fine. I don’t mind,” I said.

“As long as you are aware.”

“Anything else I need to be worried about?” I asked.

“I have already arranged for monster meat that is normally fed back to monsters to have a higher quality portion separated out for your monster once it hatches. It will also be difficult since a Winged Serpent specializes in Alchemy and related skills and you don’t,” Healer Melon said.

“I just need to train it up. Also, I am hoping you can help teach it healing,” I said.

“Teach a monster healing, really?” he gave me a look like I was one of those crazy political people in Genoa, saying something absurd.

“I mean it. Healing and Alchemy for support. It should be capable. If it is smart enough to perform Alchemy, it should be smart enough to handle healing skills,” I replied.

“Because it is innately born with knowledge of Alchemy and alchemy related skills. Monsters are completely different from people in that regard. And there is a risk it could turn to Dark Healing.”

“It would use Alchemy for combat,” I countered.

“I will consider it. I need to write to my superiors in the Five Star Institute of Healing and get permission before attempting such a thing. No known monster in the dungeon uses healing. Even Dark Healing in the dungeon is beyond rare. Only seen below the 20th layer and even then a monster with such skills rarely appears,” Healer Melon said.

“I really want it to act as a support and be able to protect itself. Not break any taboos,” I said.

“That is what all people say before things get messy. Like I said I will ask for permission,” he replied.

“Thank you,” I said with a smile.