Aarav had been at it for over an hour and made frustratingly slow progress. The Slime knew the result required and was ready to start. The difficulty wasn’t so much in the mixing or portions. It was in the actual mechanical movement of his limbs. With these annoying paws, he couldn’t hold anything properly. Even with four of them, progress was excruciatingly slow.

If only I have actual hands, damn it! “Taler, hey, could you come over here? I just need a little help.” Aarav raised his paws in explanation. “Want to use those hands of yours!” Of the three, he was the most likely to be willing to help. The weakest link in the chain, you might say. I’m sure I have said that before about him. “Please.” Taler came over at the last word. I guess someone told him to mind his P’s and Q’s. He must come from a lovely nuclear home.

“O…of course, Resh.” Taler began organising all the ingredients in neat rows. Apart from water, the two components that Aarav was using, he put in pride of place to be easily accessed. Aarav noted the relative positions of everything—this guy.

“Taler, that’s okay. My arms are smaller, so I can’t reach everything, and you can’t do stuff like this for me. Otherwise, I won’t learn. I am the kind of person that needs to do something to understand it. I just needed your help with pouring the exact measurements. I am struggling with these.” there was no need to say more. “So can I tell you how much to pour, and you can follow my direction? I know you probably know all the measurements and such, but I just need to learn this for myself.”

Taler nodded in agreement and took a stance like he was about to wield a spear, knees slightly bent, and Weight centred. “What are you doing? It’s Alchemy, not a battle!” Aarav questioned the odd man, and he blushed.

“Just ready for action Resh!” now, Aarav felt bad for calling him out on it, not least because he had freely acquiesced to his request. Rion stood sniggering without facing them while Marteen remained overly silent in his corner. They all knew of Taler’s quirks, but he had every right to them.

Aarav inclined his head-body towards Taler, “Sorry, just irritable about the potion making process and these stupid paws that stop me from performing most tasks. It’s not you.” The skinny man smiled back and waved off the apology in a happens-to-everyone gesture.

“Okay, let’s begin. What are we starting with, brain?” Aarav smiled at that.

“Okay, I want to make a series of trials, so ten vials with increasing amounts of leaf ground down to the finest powder. I have ground up some, but I can’t get enough torque with these to make it into an actual powder.” Taler complied and further ground down Aarav first and hopelessly incompetent attempt at making powder. Next, and at Aarav’s prompting, he precisely added to the ten vials in the varnished wooden rack until they had incrementally larger quantities of ground up herbs.

“Next, we add the sand, incrementally smaller amounts so that all of the vials have the same amount of material once you’ve put sand in all of them.” Taler looked like he was about to say something, but that seemed to think better of it. Aarav sighed. I’m already getting this wrong. Well, if I go, I’m going down swinging. Taler went ahead and added the sand before stepping back; he had some sort of measurement Skill because the vials were too precise in their filling.

“Finally, please fill the rest of the vials up with water so that there is enough space to shake it with the cork in.” And Taler seemed to want to say something. This time, the expression was decidedly more so than before. Things are going wrong. Is this going to blow up in our faces? I wonder what Haemish was thinking, assigning me this without direction on portions, method, or anything!

Just as Taler was about to add water to mix with eyes shut for some reason, doesn’t he need to see what he is doing? “Wait!” Aarav didn’t miss the relief on the young man’s face. “Taler, were you about to blow us all up? Are you kidding me? You know you can correct me if I am completely wrong! I am going ahead totally blind here, man!”

Taler nodded, “Not blow up, per se…but it would be a bit of bang with the combinations here. You must add the Mana and water simultaneously; otherwise, you get a different reaction. Also, none of these combinations will work, making it doubly likely to cause a bang instead of doing what you want. Mana can be explosive at times.”

“Okay, well, I thought I could add it later; there are so many variables here! I need some direction if I am going to do this. Is this really how he taught all of you?” If that was the case, no wonder Taler was willing to experiment! He likely set of explosions all over the place while testing mixtures. He seemed like a closet-pyromaniac. For all Aarav knew, being an Alchemist involved being intimately familiar with explosives. Like scientists in World War II.

“Okay, let me take –“

“Taler!” The aggressive shout came from behind. “Aarav, you are supposed to be doing this yourself!”

“I know, but my paws! I can’t hold anything!” Aarav protested, attempting to defend himself and, by extension, Taler a little as well.

“Well, if you are going to do this, then you need to get used to using the tools at your disposal. That was the whole point of the exercise!” Haemish wasn’t angry, just irritable.

“Master Haemish…” Aarav was a little surprised he had fallen into calling the man that so quickly, but it seemed to please the older man, so he ploughed on. “I can’t use these paws like hands, and they are too difficult. They can’t hold anything properly.” He hated how whinny he sounded. No one gave you anything just because you whined about it, so why bother.

“Yes, about that…can you tell me how your ability works? You can copy body parts from other creatures?” Aarav’s eyes widened. This guy had evident experience, to have worked out something like that so quickly, it had only been a day. He had hidden the subtle nuances of his Skill from everyone so they would not be able to read it, especially when his stats were illegible. And yet, this man had been able to read it from his actions and appearance. The rest hadn’t, as evidenced by Taler’s surprise and Marteen and Rion finally turning from their work.

“Sort of…” Aarav wasn’t sure how much to give away; this was the crux of what made him powerful. Could he just impart that knowledge?

“Okay, so can you copy one of our hands? That would make the process easier?” It felt like Haemish was testing him, so did he not know how the Skill worked? He had surmised some of the Skills capabilities but not the other part.

“Uhhh….not unless you need them.” Aarav laughed nervously at this. Haemish just continued to stare him down, confusion blossoming on his face for a few seconds only to be replaced by understanding.

“You need to ‘eat’ the part, don’t you? Consume it completely, and then you can use it?” and just like that, the most significant source of his power laid bare for everyone to know. Aarav found it hard to regret the information leak. If he were going to get stronger, people would eventually find out. These people were the most likely to be understanding of it and perhaps even experiment on his body to help him gain more capabilities and experience. They would do it in the form of experiments and understand him, but what did he care for the reasons behind it? It was enough that they would make him stronger.

“Can bones work?” Haemish asked suddenly. He said it distractedly as if deep in other thoughts.

“Ummm…” Aarav could only respond with uncertainty. A part of him that he was finding very hard to control suddenly lurched with excitement at the prospect. What would happen? He had never tried just bones, and it had always been flesh and bones, and then the whole paw or eye or ear was Assimilated. There was a greater chance of success with his species boost to Assimilate and replication.

“Wanna try it?”