56 Secret in the Basemen

A bright light appeared in a large field. The area was surrounded by wooden fencing, and in the center was a mid-sized house. It had a few windows, and seemed to be quite short, which indicated that it most likely did not have a second floor.

Arnin's looked at his surroundings a smiled with satisfaction. The place was quiet, and the field was large. Although there was still some grass around, Arnin felt that he would be able to get rid of it in a day or two.

He walked towards the house while inspecting the field on the way. Other than the grass that needed to be removed, the field was in great condition. The ground was soft, and the grass was very green and healthy, which let him know that the ground had plenty of nutrients and of water.

The door to the house was normal, and was made from wood that came from the surrounding forest. Arnin grabbed onto the handle and turned the knob, slowly opening the door.

*CREAK*

The door made a sound when it was opened, however Arnin didn't mind. When he entered the house, he was very surprised. Unlike the houses he had in the residential area for Moth students, this one had no furniture. It was bare.

The first floor was quite big, with four rooms in total. The main entrance led into a open room. Two bedrooms were to the left, while a kitchen was on the right. Arnin walked around the house and found that there really wasn't a second floor, however, he did find a basement. The stairs to it were located in the living room.

When Arnin walked down them, what he felt was very surprising. The first floor felt completely normal, as if he was back in his house in Talonton village. There was little essence, and everything seemed quite normal, however the basement was quite different.

Just the stairs were made from from extremely hard wood that looked somewhat purple. The side walls also seemed to be made from the same material. Not only that, but the further Arni went down, the more essence he could feel. Plus, there was an herbal scent which continuously got stronger as he neared the basement.

Finally, his feet landed on soft, fluffy ground. It didn't feel like grass, or dirt, rather something much softer. Arnin looked down in surprise and saw that the material looked exactly like dirt, and even had some grass on it. This made him somewhat confused, as he hadn't seen a material like this before.

Arnin squatted on to the ground, and tried to scoop out some dirt, but regardless of how much force he exerted, the dirt just wouldn't budge. He then tried to pull a piece of grass out, however Arnin was unable to do that either. The 'grass' was tightly stuck in the 'dirt', as if they were molded together. Arnin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

'Interesting. Seems like I need to do some more research on the materials used in Afloria.' Arnin's knowledge was still very lacking when it came to the materials that were unique to Afloria. He was already lucky that the herbs were the same as the ones he knew in his previous life, plus they were even named the same way, but that was only because herbs were mysterious in general due to their conformity, regardless of where they grew. Materials for buildings, formations, and many other things were different on each planet. He remembered that he once visited a planet where there was almost no cultivation. It was a land ruled by humans who believed that cultivation and magic were fairytale creations. The animals there were also extremely normal.

Although the planet was very weak in strength, Arnin found that the humans there were very curious about the world, and had discovered things about it that other species in the universe hadn't. He entered that world for a few hundred years to understand their knowledge, and couldn't help but praise their knowledge.

Arnin, who was considered the strongest, and also one of the most experienced people in the universe, felt that the humans of the planet 'Earth' were extremely remarkable. He would usually destroy the world's he visited, but he had left Earth intact because he found that group of people very interesting, and wanted to manipulate their intelligence for his own benefit.

Arnin was not omnipotent; he did not know everything. Every world had something unique about them, and Arnin did not know about them all, and Afloria was one of those. Although he created the whole planet, the weird power also made its own alterations that Arnin was unaware of.

The flooring in the basement was extremely weird, but Arnin decided to figure out its properties later. He began to walk deeper in the narrow passageway that had began after stairs ended. As he walked, he discovered that the basement was much larger than the main house. He found many vacant rooms as he walked through the passage, and the smell of herbs also got stronger. Arnin began to wonder if anyone else knew about the wonders of this basement. It seemed different from a normal house, and he didn't expect other houses to have something similar.

Once Arnin finally reached the end of the passage, in front of him was a large, metal door. There seemed to be a lock around the handle, and it was even tied using chains. Arnin laughed at the sight and broke the lock with his fist. It was extremely weak, which made him wonder why it was there in the first place. Slowly, he loosened the chains and threw them onto the ground. He grabbed onto the cold metal handle and slowly pushed.

*ERRRR*

The door began to make a weird sound that resembled creaking, but also the roaring of thunder at the same time. It was so loud that even Arnin began to frown.

'What is it that they locked here?' Arnin's interest was piqued. The lock was very weak, meaning that the thing or whatever that was inside was either also extremely weak, or it was just a warning to outsider to them tell them not to enter.

The door swung open, and a strong smell attacked Arnin's nose. It was astrange mixture of the aroma of herbs and the stench of blood. Arnin's eyebrows slightly twitched, but he moved forward.

The room was very wide, and he found that in it were ten doors. What made Arnin happy was that in the middle of the room was a large cauldron. It was much larger than Fasona's, which he had used for the Orange Alchemist test. It was about the size of a small bathtub, able to fit three people the size of Arnin, or one full grown man.

Around the cauldron was the same grass that he found in the narrow passage. Plus, there also seemed to be various herbs that even Arnin didn't know about. He swiftly walked over to the herbs surrounding the large cauldron.

He crouched down, and pulled an herb off the ground. Surprisingly, it came out without much struggle, almost as if grabbing a pebble off of the ground, no resistance.

*WAHHH*

Arnin's eyebrows rose slightly when he heard the sound. It wasn't coming from the herb, rather it came from one of the rooms. Arnin looked up to see where the banshee-like wailing was coming from.

*WAHHH WAHHH*

He got up and walked towards one of the doors. The door he went to was the first one on the left, because it seemed as though the sounds were coming from inside. He walked over, and placed his ear onto the door.

*WAHH WAHH WAHH*

The closer he got, the louder and more frantic the sounds got. Arnin nodded his head and began to think about something.

'The sounds seemed to be related to the herb I picked up. The closer the herb is getting, the louder the sounds seemed to be.' Arnin made this hypothesis because of the correlation of the situations, however he wasn't exactly certain that was the reason. It might have been because he was inside the room, or maybe it really was just a coincidence that all the events happened simultaneously.

Arnin saw that the door had a small hole on the top, however because of his height, he wasn't able to look through it when he was standing on the ground. Arnin decided that he might as well open the door.

Arnin didn't have many fears. He had seen too many things, making him fearless towards almost everything. The sounds in the room, the smell of herbs, and even the marks of blood didn't really frighten him, rather they made him even more curious.

Arnin grabbed onto the rusty metal door handle. "Hot!" Arnin couldn't help but exclaim.

The handle was extremely hot, almost as if he was touching a smelted weapon that had yet to go into water for cooling.

Arnin thought of his Flames of Neutrality and they appeared on his hand. He had decent control over his flames, or at least enough to wrap it around his hand like a glove.

When the flames had enclosed his hand, Arnin grabbed the handle once again. He didn't feel any of the heat this time, and was able to turned the handle easily.

*CLICK*

A clicking sound resounded in the quiet area when the handle was completely turned. Arnin pushed it open and squinted his eyes.

Inside the room was a chain that hung on the wall. There was also a large black ball that had a chain coming out of it as well. In the right corner beside the entrance, Arnin found a stack of herbs that looked exactly like the one in his hand.

The leaves were green, with black petalled flowers. They were similar in shape to sunflowers, however the black petals looked like rocks. Even the pistil was slightly different. Other than it being purple in colour, Arnin found that the pistil was also a liquid, rather than a solid.

Arnin walked over to the herbs, the herb in his hand began to tremble. Arnin looked down weirdly, and was somewhat shocked that the herb was able to tremble like a sentient being.

*WAHH*

The sound came once again, but this time Arnin felt as though the sound was right beside his ear. He turned his head and found that there was nothing screaming into his ear. The whole room seemed a little weird, but the weirdest thing was not the flowers, or the chains, rather it was the extremely black spot in the front right corner of the room. It looked out of place, but what was inside the black spot was even weirder… a dead body.

Arnin walked over to the body. His eyes slowly inspected it and found that the body lacked five fingers. Replacing those missing fingers was the same type of flower that was in the room, and in his hand.

The body lacked eyes and just had empty sockets. The mouth was wide open, showing yellow, crooked teeth. It didn't show signs of decay, which made him think that the it died recently, however, Arnin couldn't feel anything coming out from the body. There was neither death aura, nor even life aura.

When a person died or was near death, they would begin to release a death aura. Once they died, the aura would linger for a week or so, before disappearing completely. Since the body in front of him had no aura, it should have been dead for at least a week or more, but there was no decomposition of the body, not even a little, which Arnin found to be unbelievable. Even high realmed cultivators would decompose very quickly.

Arnin decided to leave the room for now, and decide what to do next after inspecting the other rooms.

He walked out of the room and closed the door. The banshee sound was completely gone. He couldn't hear it anymore, but suddenly, he felt his hand become a little lighter. He looked down and discovered that the herb was gone. Not only did the herb vanish, they was also a stain on his hand.

He lifted his hand, and found that the stain was of the purple liquid. He smelled it, but found that it was odorless. Arnin tried to wipe his hand onto his robe, but he noticed that the stain was not going away.

'Who lived here before me?' Arnin was curious as to who lived in the house before him. It didn't seem like anyone knew about the basement, or Fasona wouldn't have showed it to him.

The basement resembled a small torture chamber rather than a pill making basement. Arnin shook his head, and continued to the second room. He opened up the door, and saw something similar to the first room. Chains on the wall, a dead body, and a stack of herbs.

This time, the body was of a female who had three missing fingers. The type of herb was also very different. It didn't look like a flower, but instead like an apple, but the exterior was like a pillow, very soft and cushiony. The herb was snow white, however Arnin felt that the inside might be a little different.

Arnin picked out one herb from the batch, however before he could do anything, the herb began to wither away. It resembled burning paper, making for an extremely weird sight.

Arnin walked out the room, however this time he didn't head over to the other rooms. He walked over to the cauldron. Around the cauldron, Arnin found that other than the purple flower herb, he also saw the white apple herb.

He didn't touch any of them, and went straight for the cauldron. Arnin reached it after a few seconds, and then looked inside.

He was shocked to find skeletons and a variety of herbs inside the cauldron. The herbs were dry, but Arnin could tell that each of them were the same herbs as the one surrounding the cauldron.

There were plenty of bones, but they were very small, which gave him the impression that this was the skeleton of a child.

He didn't feel any sorrow or hatred for whoever put the child in the cauldron. He only held some interest. He had done many heinous things as a Demon Lord, many that even Zhaik didn't know about, so putting a child in a cauldron didn't make him feel shocked, or anything really.

'What was this person trying to do? Was he trying to make a pill using humans?' Arnin had heard of many pills that used humans, or other species as ingredients. Not only that, but many high ranking pills needed a living being as an ingredient.

When he was a Demon Lord, he commonly used Dragons, Phoenixes, and even other demons as ingredients.

Arnin stopped looking in the cauldron and began to inspect the room for anything other than the doors. He would slowly go through the other doors at a later time, but for now, he wanted to see if there was anything else.

Arnin looked around, and found a small table hiding in a corner. He walked over to the chair when suddenly,

*WAHHH WAHHHH WAHHH*

Screams began to sound. They were terrifying screams that would cause any normal person, or cultivator to shiver, and even faint with fright. Arnin didn't flinch and became much more curious.

He made his way towards the table while the screams got louder and extremely frantic. Finally, he reached the table, and the screams vanished. Arnin raised both his eyebrows and found two items. There was a piece of paper and small vial that had three purple pills. Arnin grabbed the page and and began to read the contents:

-------------

I became an Orange Alchemist at the age of forty. My talent was low, so many people avoided me, and soon I became isolated from all the Alchemists in the Alchemist department. I found this house, and thought it met all my needs, so I moved far away from the rest. Years passed, and I finally became a Pink Alchemist at the age of eighty.

People often made fun of my talent, and some would even come to my isolated home to make sure I knew of this fact. One day, I discovered a secret manual, deep in the forest. This secret manual allowed one to transform and obtain a special body, the Human Pill Body.

This is a legendary special body that would allow one to transform and become the greatest Alchemist in history, however obtaining the body had too many sacrifices.

The formula forced me to use children as ingredients, however a problem occurred. The sacrificed humans would turn into different types of herbs, not allowing me to create the pill.

After years of research I found the hidden problem behind the formula. This land, the Alchemy Dimension, it is not from the human world. No, it isn't from any of the continents we know about. This piece of land is from the two hidden continents, so I am heading over to these unknown lands to find the complete formula. I will obtain the legendary Human Pill Body.

--------------------

Arnin read the letter and couldn't help but scoff at the person who wrote it. Human Pill Body? Arnin had heard of a body like that, however it was an extremely rare, and demonic body. Although it allowed one to have unmatched pill creating skills, there was a catch. The body would slowly begin to turn into a pill, thus the name 'Human Pill Body'.

He looked at the page and tried to see if there was anything on the pills. Luckily, there was something written on the back.

---------

The pill bottle contains pills that are extremely heaven defying. They came with the formula, however after taking one, I found that taking another one do harm to my body. I ate two of the pills, but now I hear wailing and laughter. I leave these pills here and hope that whoever finds them will only take one pill.

The name of the pill was on the formula sheet. The name given to this heavenly, yet demonic pill was, Body Return Pill.

-------

Arnin's face suddenly warped into a sinister smile. His hands trembled as he looked at the pill with greedy eyes. His face flushed, as he began to laugh out loud in a sinister manner.

"HAHAHA!"