A Theory on Godhood: An Overlord Story

Chapter 38: Hidden in Plain Sight

Aellai's Dojo, Academy of Hermetis

Nfirea struck quickly and deeply with his emerald staff, keeping a steady rhythm to his strikes against the shoggoth training partner he was assigned. The faceless, well-dressed creature blocked each one with its arms, preventing any real damage to itself.

Lady Aellai stood off to the side, walking a perimeter around the sparring duo and throwing out tidbits of advice every so often.

"Make sure to keep your knees bent and your grip firm but loose," she said, "Inhale and exhale with each hit, strike at the vital areas, and keep your center of gravity straight."

At first, the young alchemist opposed the idea of martial training. He spent nearly his entire life working as a pharmacist and filling out medical orders for would-be customers. What business did he have learning the ways of a warrior?

But the strangely armored teacher of his insisted on it, stating that "No matter what your lot in life, you should always know how to defend yourself. Even if you're vastly out skilled, you can still try and give your opponents some hell."

The staff was just the latest iteration of that philosophy. She initially began with basic hand-to-hand combat, and then taught him how to use a knife, and then a sword, and then a myriad of weapons.

Most he did not take to, at all. More often than not, he floundered with whatever weapon he was given and had to have it quickly taken away without hurting himself. It was because of these failures that Lady Aellai ultimately let him use the staff exclusively.

Not that he was complaining, at least not anymore. He found the emerald staff that his stylus transformed into was balanced to him perfectly, feeling like a natural extension of himself. The original wand-staff that Enri gave him suited him, even if it had been absorbed into the emerald stylus. There was still a piece of her with him.

He continued with his rhythmic pace of attacks and dodged, when the shoggoth deemed him worthy of a quick jab or two. He was able to block sometimes, but often walked away with new bruises to his next set of courses.

Over the span of the two months he spent in the academy, he felt his knowledge broaden considerably and his skills increased somewhat. His teachers began granting him access to more and more occultist and dangerous forms of information, which would curdle the mind if they weren't prepared for it.

When he got the chance to reproduce the same types of potions that his teachers used, he found he was able to produce lesser versions of them through great effort and reinventions of his techniques. He'd even created a stronger version of a health potion that was purple, rather than the traditional blue.

Eastern Alchemy stressed the importance of knowing the functions and nuances of the human body, to better let natural energies flow through him and improve his life. Western Alchemy showed that creation and transmutation could be done not through just potions, but magic and strange, dark rituals involving the subject matter he'd slowly absorbed.

Artifacts of all varieties were presented to him, relics of bygone ages and of the homeland from which his teachers hailed. Besides the Emerald Book and Stylus, perhaps his absolute favorite was a hand cannon that, rather than using ball bearings or the more advanced "bullet", was able to be fitted with an alchemical potion as ammunition.

It looked much like a regular hand cannon would, except for the fact that where the cylinder would be for the ammo to be placed in, there was an open slot and nozzle for the glass to be slotted into.

A lever at the bottom of the weapon allowed it to break open, to more easily allow the potion to fit inside. When Master Hermetis presented it to him and explained its function, he was ecstatic.