Ball of Nothing

Chapter 295 Recreation Magic 2

The negotiations went well for Zero and the chefs were willing to prepare meals daily for Zero to be collected by a household golem from Arabesque. Compared to the usual demands of a buffet whenever Zero came by, a dish from each restaurant to be sent daily was more affordable. No business owner would pass up on such a good deal.

Once that was settled and Zero had eaten his fill, he visited the apothecary. There was only one apothecary in La Boutique owned by an eccentric gnome. The shop was small and not very well maintained due to the lack of customers. Most people who visited La Boutique knew that there was a healing Spring of Vitality that healed just about anything. There really wasn’t a need for medication in Heaven.

Wii also found it odd that the young doctor would visit the apothecary himself. Couldn’t he make his own medicine? What did Zero want to buy from there?

Her questions were soon answered after Zero entered the shop.

\"Welcome, lad! How can I help you?\" the gnome greeted enthusiastically.

Zero smiled and returned the greeting warmly. \"I’m looking for some vitality pills of the best kind. Also, anything that would rapidly help to replenish qi and mana will be good.\"

The gnome raised a brow. \"Replenishing vitality, qi and mana at the same time? That’s an odd request. Are you looking to resell them or use them yourself?\"

Zero smiled. \"If I said that this is for personal consumption?\"

The gnome laughed. \"You’re surely an odd one. These pills don’t have any effects when consumed together. Nobody can practise cultivation and magic together. Also, vitality pills are normally used for warriors who possess a talent for neither. As one of the best apothecaries in heaven, why don’t you tell me what you require so that I can make something especially for you? Buying all three pills won’t have the effect you desire.\"

Zero nodded in satisfaction. \"I knew I made the right decision to look for you. I came here by a recommendation of a friend, I’m not sure if you still remember her. Tanya the Queen of Dryads.\"

The gnome’s smile froze. \"T-Tanya? Did you just say Tanya?\"

Zero nodded. The apothecary blinked multiple times and released a short exhale. The strength in his legs left him and he fell into a chair, tears collecting in his eyes.

\"What’s your name?\" he asked.

The young doctor paused. He knew that there was some kind of history between this gnome and Tanya. The queen of Dryads also looked sad when she told Zero about him. The gnome’s name was Zeffery and from Tanya’s story, Zero understood that he was her lover before the curse happened. Unable to join her in the Elemental Plane, Zeffery could only set up a small shop after he died and ascended to Heaven in La Boutique hoping that they can meet again. With Tanya becoming the Queen of Dryads and Zeffery just a humble medicine gnome, they were the epitome of star-crossed lovers.

\"Zero,\" he replied.

Zeffery removed his goggles and wiped his tears. \"Tanya sent you?\"

Zero smiled. \"We are in frequent contact, she’s a good friend of mine although we’re more like pen pals at this stage. If you have a message you’d like to pass on to her, I can help.\"

The gnome laughed. \"No need, lad. It’s good enough to know that she’s still doing well. This meeting was slightly unexpected but not in a bad way. So Zero, what can I do for you? If Tanya sent you here, you must not be a simple person. That request of yours is slightly odd.\"

The young doctor grinned. \"I’m currently apprenticing with Merlin and he has tasked me to create unique magic of my own.\"

\"Oh?\" that caught the gnome’s interest. \"What do you have in mind?\"

Zero dismissed Wii and smiled. \"I want to harness power over the void. We’ve recently discovered that the chaos energy reacts with mana and qi. I need to find a way to master both qi and mana before I can help my teacher seal up the crack at Titan’s Cliff.\"

Zeffery looked at Zero with wide eyes. \"Can you really do something like that?\"

Zero didn’t nod. \"I can only try,\" he told the gnome.

Zeffery looked unsure. For such a young boy to become the wizard god’s apprentice, it must mean that he is special. Yet, the gnome had a difficult time believing that somebody could pull off such a thing. \"How sure are you that the void wouldn’t consume you?\"

Zero wanted to laugh when he heard that question. He couldn’t tell Zeffery that he was the void in a way and that the void would never harm him. However, he decided to go with a half-truth. \"I have a special constitution that allows me to be invulnerable to the void. However, in return, my body is hollow. I cannot produce mana or qi of my own. Think of it as a container that can store just about anything.\"

Zeffery frowned. In his long life, he’d never heard of such a thing. then again, there will always be special exceptions and things that nobody understood in this world. Miracles happened and fate predominated everything.

\"In other words, you’re looking for a medicine to allow this container to constantly be filled with qi and mana?\"

Zero smiled. \"Close. I don’t just want to fill this container with qi and mana. I want to fill it with everything that possesses energy. The unique magic that I am attempting to create is called Recreation Magic. It’s a skill that only I can master thanks to the unique constitution.\"

\"Recreation?\" Zeffery mused. \"How does it work?\"

Zero explained that recreation was the ability to take in all sorts of energy and convert them into a different type in order to make it usable for different situations.

\"For example, I can take in an entire ocean into my container-like body and then transform that into a mountain. Or I can convert that ocean into mana or qi. Maybe I could convert that ocean into a small planet? Something like that. Of course, it becomes more complex transforming it into a form with higher complexity. For instance, the ocean would mostly be water so turning it into ice would be easier compared to turning it into a mountain. The size of the mountain wouldn’t be as large as the ocean because it is more complicated.\"

The apothecary nodded and listened carefully. He understood what Zero was talking about. Gnomes were rather advanced in science and inventions. Zero might not understand the law of energy and conservation but he explained it rather well through his personal experience and examples. It made the gnome wonder if Zero was someone really capable of creating miracles. The power of recreation was something that could rival even the creator’s if it was mastered.

\"Can I understand more about your body’s condition? I see that you have both fully awakened chakra channels and meridian networks. Do they not clash with each other and cause you discomfort? Pills that hasten recovery of qi or mana usually dilate these vessels. I’m only afraid that giving you something to dilate these vessels will cause you harm.\"

Zero paused for a moment. \"To be honest, everything that enters my body eventually ends up at one point. I don’t really feel discomfort when it happens. Maybe in the beginning stage when I was creating these networks, I felt intense pain. However, I’ve never had difficulties using either magic or qi. In fact, I’ve been able to use them simultaneously.\"

Zeffery requested that Zero demonstrated how he could use his powers. Zero was more than pleased to agree. He demonstrated his ability to use more than one kind of magic at any one point of time simultaneously and switched it to qi. Then, he used qi and magic simultaneously and stunned the gnome to silence.

\"Zero... that ability of yours... How can you use it without any side effects? I don’t understand. Everyone who cultivates can only do so because of something called a cultivation core. Anyone who practises magic can only do so because of chakra networks and mana affinity. When you demonstrated that earlier, I sensed neither core or network being used. Who exactly are you?\"

Zero blinked. \"I don’t know... I’ve always been able to use qi and mana like this. It’s something like an energy storage system in me that I withdraw from whenever I use mana or qi. The network and channels are merely points for me to direct where I want them to go. They don’t actually flow within my body all the time.\"

Zeffery frowned and got off his chair to grab some spare paper and a pen. He scribbled something and shoved it at Zero. \"This is what it looks like in a normal cultivator and magician.\"

Then the gnome drew another diagram. \"This is what I see in you. Where do you store all your mana and qi?\"

Zero compared the drawings. The cultivators kept their energy in the dantian area while the magicians stored them nearer to the heart. Zero blinked. He didn’t actually store the energy in his vessel.

The young doctor picked up a pen and drew an arrow out of the man’s figure on the paper and pointed it at a box he drew outside of the man before drawing a circle around that box. \"I keep mine here.\"

Zeffery looked at the drawing and raised a brow. \"What’s this supposed to mean?\"

Zero shrugged. \"I don’t keep it in the dantian or the heart. After all, this is my second body. As I grow, I’ll need to change bodies to keep up with my abilities. The first body didn’t have any chakra networks or meridians. I created them with Tanya’s help and Buddha’s help for this vessel.\"

Hearing that, the gnome laughed. No wonder Tanya sent this boy to him. He was special. \"I understand now. You’re probably a soul abnormality. Tell me, do you have memories of your past lives?\"

Zero thought about it. He had memories of Solo’s past and some memory fragments of a few divine entities. \"I guess you can say that. I don’t recall everything but I will eventually.\"

Zeffery nodded. \"I guess no normal medicine would suffice now. our powers come not from the vessel but the soul. Thankfully, you’ve come to the right gnome for this. Souls might be Tanya’s speciality but I know a thing or two about it. I may not be as skillful when it comes to piecing broken soul fragments or mending them like the gods but I have supplements.\"

The claim piqued Zero’s interest. \"Supplements? Does it mean I can recover qi and mana at the same time?\"

Zeffery shook his head. \"Not exactly. The soul is not particular about energy types. It feeds on mana, qi, sins, anything that possesses life and I think you’re the same.\"

Zero didn’t say anything and allowed the gnome to search. he was deep in thought about the gnome’s words. The young doctor knew that he didn’t have a soul. It was relatively different but it wasn’t too far off the mark. Zero fed on anything that was living. He was the void. However, it never crossed his mind that he could use mana and qi simply because they broke down to a simpler form of energy that’s consistent.

While Zeffery dug around trying to find some pill samples, Zero troubled Lily to search something up for him using the system.

\"Lily, can you find out if there is a way to convert mana and qi into energy? Can everything in my inventory be converted into energy? Also, what can energy be converted into?\"

The flower fairy worked quickly and came back with an answer that made Zero thrilled. Recreation magic might be easier to use than he expected.

\"According to the system, energy is the base value of anything that you want to store. Anything that exists in your storage will lose their form and special abilities when converted into energy. It is the reason why the system chose not to liquidate everything. The clothes that the Great Gods gave you can be converted to energy just like the seawater. However, the properties of the blessings and enchants on the clothes would be lost once it becomes energy. The same goes for the seawater, it will no longer possess the imbued properties of Sedna’s life energy and purification.\"

Zero’s mind worked in overdrive. Sins were unique as well which is why the system stored it separately. Why didn’t he think about it before?

\"What about chaos energy and miasma?\" he asked. \"Can I convert them to energy if I can absorb and store them?\"

Lily paused and searched the system for an answer. \"Theoretically you could. However, the vessel might not be able to withstand the miasma and chaos energy for prolonged periods of time.\"

Zero grinned. There was no problem. If he didn’t use his vessel and used something like a spare golem or actually created an armour of mana or qi around him while he absorbed the miasma and chaos energy, Zero would be able to resolve the first problem in inventing recreation magic.

\"Found it!\" Zeffery cried out in triumph. It had been way too long since somebody actually visited his shop to purchase something so it took him a while to find this pill.

Zero ended the private call with Lily and turned his attention back to the gnome who revealed something in a glass jar.

\"What’s this?\" he asked and pointed at the floating orb in the glass jar.

Zeffery looked proud. \"This is something I created for the soul. It’s a supplement that is created by condensing all kinds of energy into a living soul fragment. Unfortunately, due to the intense time and effort required to make even one of it, this is the only soul supplement that I have. It’s been declared as a highly dangerous object so I couldn’t sell it but there was no way to destroy it either so I’ve been letting it collect dust in my shop. Not even Gods are able to use this thing because of how potent the effects were. However, I think it’ll be fine if it was you.\"

\"What kind of effects does this supplement have?\" Zero asked out of curiosity.

The gnome smiled. \"Nothing you’d need to worry over. However, I won’t give it for free. You said that you were pen pals with Tanya.\"

Zero nodded. \"What would you like me to do? Also, this soul supplement you said was created by condensing all kinds of energy. Can you elaborate a little more about the kinds of energy that are in here?\"

Zeffery grinned. \"Short of chaos energy, everything else is in there. I travelled to different planets and planes to make this. It’s something like a hobby. I was hoping to be able to use it to help Tanya break free from the curse of her position but it’s too strong even for her. Tanya said that this pill could even rip the soul of a God to shreds because of how much energy is inside it. Many broken souls and spirits in the Elemental Plane were attracted to it but they perished as soon as they touched it so we had to seal this away.\"

Zero nodded. \"Understood. This might be just what I needed to understand the principles of energy for recreation magic. What’s the price for it?\"

Zeffery smiled. \"Won’t you help me find a way to contact Tanya? Even for a short while, I’d like to hear her voice again.\"

\"That can easily be arranged,\" Zero said and told Lily to extend a friend’s invitation to Zeffery.

The gnome was startled by the strange window that appeared before him but didn’t hesitate to accept it. Zero then asked for an object that Zeffery used often. the gnome passed him a pen and Zero started drawing runes on it to turn it into a device that allowed the gnome to contact Tanya whenever he wanted to.

\"I programmed this to use mana for activation. There’s only one caller on the list so it should connect automatically to Tanya. You can give her a call now to try. I’ll be taking this with me.\"

Zeffery nodded and activated the pen that was now transformed into a communicator. It startled the gnome when Tanya picked up the call. Her voice directly connected to the gnome’s mind and Zero smiled, knowing that it worked. The star-crossed lovers should have a lot to talk about so the magician’s student took the soul supplement bottle and waved to Zeffery before taking his leave.

Now that his errands were settled, it was time to return to Arabesque and analyse this soul supplement for different types of energy.

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