In an underground room with no lighting, 50 shadows sat cross-legged grouped into multiple rings surrounding one another. Each of them held their hands up pointing towards the core of the several rings.
As one, they started to chant a complex and long chant. A white glowing light appeared covering their hands dimly lighting up the dark and cold underground stone room.
The light grew brighter the longer they chanted, revealing five furry figures sitting in the smallest ring closest to the core center. Two of the five were Klyn and Grand elder Hegir.
In the center of the multiple rings, Fluffball lay on a raised platform that had a blanket placed underneath him to block some of the cold from his small shivering body.
The light grew brighter as the chants continued but a dark mist appeared and covered all of those sitting in the rings and dimmed the glaring light for those outside of it.
That holy light from each of the 50 shamen was shining towards Fluffball''s small body.
The light only surrounded the body and ever so slowly started seeping in. As more time passed the light could be visibly seen getting sucked into a small whirlpool of light and entering Fluffball''s body near the gash on his stomach.
The chants grew faster as this happened, with even more light shooting forward keeping up a constant stream as it was sucked up by the whirlpool and sent into the wound.
On Fluffball''s body near the wound, a soft glowing white light started to spread out and cover his entire body.
When his body was completely covered in a glowing light it resembled that of a glowing white silk cocoon which only got brighter as the seconds passed.
Not only did the light grow brighter but the cocoon started to expand out and up. When ten minutes of chanting had passed the cocoon had just reached the ceiling.
From then on it stopped growing larger and began to slowly shrink back to the size it had started but with a condensed and greater power.
20 more minutes passed. Several of those chanting in the outer rings had large beads of sweat falling off their foreheads as they continued to use all of their willpower to stay focused and continue chanting.
Ten more minutes passed with no change in the size or brightness when...
BOOM!
A blinding light as bright as the sun exploded out in a ring, like an erupting star.
The force from the light knocked all 50 of the shamen over as it passed them and slammed harmlessly into the stone wall before dissipating.
They were all stunned for several seconds. Their vision was nothing but blurry white. Even for those who managed to close their eyes they still saw a bright white light.
Akira fought to clear his vision, blinking several dozen times. When his blurry eyes finally cleared up he received a system message.
Ding!
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Fluffball has mutated a second time!
He has broken through the choke point and is now a level 80 young adult!
Mutation... Holy Ice!
All attacks now have holy power imbued in them.
Frost attack has now been upgraded to Ice attack!
Fluffball has gained the new skill Holy Ice armor!
Fluffball''s body has gained high resistance to all corruption poison and dark attacks. With his Holy ice armor active he is immune to all corruption.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
The bright white cocoon was now quickly dimming and revealed Fluffball who was floating in the air supported by the disputing light. As the rest of the light dissipated his body gently fell back onto the blanket.
In Akira''s rush over to the platform, he had to step over the several shamen that were still struggling to sit up and clear their vision.
The unconscious small body of Fluffball lay on top of the platform. His entire body was covered in a blue crystal-like ice armor that was emitting an extremely cold aura. The ice armor made Fluffball look as if some artist had carved him out of a large blue diamond.
Akira used the blanket to help turn Fluffball onto his side so he could inspect his stomach. He could just barely see Fluffball''s stomach through the frosty ice armor. No matter how hard he looked he could not see the corrupted wound.
“Did it work?” asked Klyn. He, along with Grand elder Hegir, walked over to Akira. Klyn was breathing heavily trying to suck in large amounts of air.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
The three other elderly shamen that had been part of the front ring joined them to inspect Fluffball.
“I''m not sure... all our other attempts failed to cure the infected,” said Grand elder Hegir. He wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his robe, drying the sweat that had formed.
The rest of the 45 shamen still lay on the ground panting heavily from exhaustion.
Their faces were pale and full of sweat, each of them feeling as if they had just finished running a marathon.
“It sorta looks like it?” said one of the three elderly shamen standing around Fluffball.
Ding!
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Hidden sub-quest of Branch 2 completed!
You have found a way to keep someone who has been infected in a stasis mode!
Depending on how much energy is used, will determine how long the stasis lasts. It can last longer if it is supplied with energy every day or week depending on the strength of the power.
Reward: 100 gold, 50 Main quest activity points, +5 fame!
You are currently in the first place!
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Akira shook his head and answered the shamen, “No, the holy chant did not cure him.”
“What? How do you know?” asked another Shaman.
The Five shamen all looked to Akira waiting for his explanation.
“Before Fluffball was injured he reached a choke point in his growth. But with your holy light that entered his body, he was able to mutate and breakthrough forming a resistance/immunity to whatever was trying to corrupt his body. Check for yourselves you should be able to sense the mutation,” said Akira.
The five continued to inspect the small ice armored Fluffball. They soon found what was different about him other than the obvious ice armor.
“The holy light is gone... but such a strong holy power is still being emitted from his body...” said Klyn.
“My guess is if it were not for his mutation... Fluffball would still be covered in the cocoon in a stasis mode,” said Akira.
“From what you and Klyn told me about what happened on the ship and with the information of our experiments and tests, I believe you are right,” said Grand elder Hegir. He and the four others continued to inspect Fluffball.
“Does that mean we failed grandfather?” asked Klyn.
“Yes and no. Yes, we failed to find a cure with our current chants. But we also discovered an important way to keep someone safe until we find a cure. We may have reached the end of this one-path of experimenting with the chant. All we can do now is work on how to make it stronger. But right now I still believe we should focus our main strength on the study and creation of a new potion to cure the infection completely.”
“Grand elder Hegir is correct. The current chanting is too draining, at most right now we could only keep two people in stasis.”
“Grandfather, I suggest we use the demigods'' red potions as a main ingredient of the new cure. With its power, it was able to stop the bleeding. If we find a way to further strengthen it or mix it with other ingredients we might have found a cure.”
“Right, we will need a large stock of those potions. We will also have to search for as many different healing plants and herbs as we can. We''ll have to start buying all the different ones we don''t have from the merchants and those from the Yukionnas southern greenhouses. If we have enough resources we could brute force our way through to figure out what works...”
Ding!
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Announcement!
The First stage of branch 2 has been completed by blank!
Branch 2 Stage 2 [Building a strong Foundation] start!
Based on your understanding of the main ingredient that you have chosen, pick a combination out of these 5 ingredients to support and create a strong foundation for further potion concoction at the future stages!
(1: Dark moonlight Lilly) (2: Burning daylight sunflower) (3: Firestone) (4: Ice crystal ore) (5: 1000 year Sap)
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
The First stage of branch 2 has been completed!
You have picked your first viable main ingredient from one of the many different paths that are able to create a cure.
Reward 200 gold, 100 main quest points, +10 fame!
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
“Uh... now I think I remember hearing something about this when we were at Jerora''s auction. Something about some rare plants and minerals that were part of an ancient potion,” said Akira.
“What really? What were they?” asked Klyn excited at being able to try and pinpoint what they needed.
Akira listed off the five ingredients everyone stood there thinking for a long time.
“I have never heard of them before,” said Grand elder Hegir with a shake of his head.
“Which ones do we need? How do we prepare them? In what order do we add them into the potion?”
“I am not sure. All I know is that some of those ingredients are supposed to be combined as a foundation for the potion. They have to mesh well with the main ingredient, which is the Red potion.”
“We''ll have to contact those who know more about this land''s plants, stones, and ores,” said Grand elder Hegir.
“Who?” asked Klyn.
“The merchants and the Yuki-onna for the plants and the Dwarves for the stones and minerals.”
***
On both continents, the Demigods all received a notification that the first stage of Branch 2 had been completed.
“What! Someone completed it already?”
“Look at the gold and the main quest points they got!”
“Quickly find out which guild finished the first stage!”
“There was no name! How can we find out?”
“What main ingredient is it talking about!?”
“What are these ingredients? I have never heard of them.”
“How are we supposed to start this stage if we don''t have the main ingredient! Quick keep searching for the main ingredient!”
“What about the other ingredients!?”
“Look for them as well. If you find any of them, buy them immediately!”
Many such conversations were happening in each of the Demigod guilds and groups that were participating in the main quest.
This caused a large frantic buying of all types of potion ingredients in their local area in the hope that one of the items was the main ingredient that had been mentioned in the announcement.