Inflame (The Completionist Chronicles Book 6) by Dakota Krout (best romantic novels in english TXT) 📕

no matter what it did. The heat started to rise rapidly, but to its apparent surprise, the elemental couldn’t heat it up even a single degree. Joe could, and did, by controlling the cauldron to absorb the heat in specific patterns. Feelings of amazement came from the elemental, and Joe grinned cockily.

“To create an alchemical ritual, I need alchemical reagents. Potions. To make potions, I need to use this cauldron and the required aspects. Let’s see here…” Joe opened the information on one of his Ritual Orbs and wrote down the recipe needed for making a binding potion. “Okay… I need to make a potion at the same rank as the spell if I want to use it at full power. Or I can make weaker potions and use the spell as a weaker version of itself, like I did when I made that ritual for spraying acid. My skill level for alchemy is at… Beginner three. Do I have any spells that I could use at that rank?”

Joe perused his skills and spells, finding two spells that would be a good fit for his first attempts. Both Cone of Cold and Corify were perfectly situated in the Beginner ranks, and the thought of automatically using them as on-hit effects was just… exciting. “Right… to make a Beginner-ranked potion, a Draught, I need to use…”

He glanced at his crafting sheet to double check, “Common aspects are the highest that would need to be in there. That should be pretty straightforward, since I have lots of those.”

Joe formed an oversized spatula-bucket thing using Common aspects, nearly instantly holding a bright white… implement. He was sure it had a proper name, but, oh well. The aspects flowed down the tool, and he used his knowledge of alchemy to coat the cauldron in specific places. The aspects reacted to the cauldron exactly as he would expect standard components to do: burning, sizzling, becoming aromatic. It was odd, because he was working with aspects of Trash, Damaged aspects, and finally Common aspects; but it smelled like frying rosemary and garlic.

He followed the recipe exactly, and over the next forty-five minutes, the aspects began to congeal. Joe’s attention to the heat didn’t waver, and as the newly-formed liquid condensed, he began removing the heat entirely. One second, two… and the liquid flashed white. Joe scooped it up and poured it into a large bowl, eyeballing it carefully. “I have enough here for two portions, easy.”

Reductionist class experience gained: 100 (50 x2).

Skill increase: Ritualistic Alchemy (Beginner IV).

Profession experience gained: 101 (Ritualistic Alchemist).

“Nice! Now to draw out the alchemical rituals.” Joe pulled the cauldron into his ring, against the complaints of the Slag Elemental, and started sketching the ritual diagram that was displayed in the information panel of his orbs. “Two circles for a Beginner-ranked ritual, already have my inscriber…”

Joe muttered to himself for the next hour as he drew out first one entire ritual, then a second one. He checked them over carefully, finding no issues. They were perfect copies; both of each other, as well as the original diagram. “Let’s do this!”

An orb went into each one, though he only poured the potion on the first, as well as placing a Common Core on the edge. With an outpouring of mana, the first ritual circles lit up. The pressure mounted, and Joe stared at it for almost a moment too long. Luckily, there was a built-in prompt.

Cast the spell you want to assign to the orb directly onto the orb!

“Corify goes first.” Joe held out a hand and cast the spell on the first orb. He blinked as the knowledge of how to cast the spell vanished from his mind. It was a sickening, invasive feeling to have the thoughts scrubbed out of his head so completely.

Spell successfully assigned! Use a Ritual of Unbinding or break the Ritual Orb to regain personal usage of the spell! Remember to add a Core or Mana Battery to the orb so that it can cast the spell!

Joe held up the newly spell-assigned orb, noting that a small, glowing blue square had been etched into it. “Okay, that’s super cool. Totally forgot about making mana batteries, though. Maybe I should hold off on assigning Cone of Cold…? Nah.”

Repeating the process of ritual activation with a side of alchemy, he assigned the spell to the second orb. This time, a white swirl of wind and snowflakes was etched into the orb, and once again, the spell was removed from his mind. Joe admired the orbs in his hands, already plotting out the next steps.

“I need to assign characteristics to these, but first, I really need to figure out the battery situation.” Joe sat on his sleeping bag for the next while, writing down the next steps he needed to take to make the weapons more powerful. He leaned back against the wall with a satisfied sigh, storing his notebook away. “Now to-”

Just then, the entire room shrank. The Slag Elemental was scooted closer; so close that it burned off Joe’s left eyebrow before he could turn his head away. The human screeched as his skin began to blister. “Slag! Get as far away as possible!”

The Elemental did its best to comply, roiling to the far wall and squishing itself against it. Though it left a trail of molten rock on the ground, the heat directly impacting the Reductionist lowered enough that Joe wasn’t literally dying by the second. Joe reactivated all of his protections and shielding, which he had taken off to ensure he had plenty of power for the rituals, and looked over to thank the elemental for following the orders so quickly. They were now in a four hundred square foot rock cave, and if it had hesitated any longer, Joe might have melted just like the wall was.

“Wait…” Joe squinted at the stone wall behind the elemental. “Rock shouldn’t melt away as completely as whatever that is…”

Carefully making his summon move in time with him so that