Alchemy did not belong to any of the three major arts, but it was still a popular choice for wizards.
Alchemy included many different fields. Alchemists in ancient times divided alchemy works into those that “improved one’s own body” and the ones that “improved other objects”. Today, there were only two simpler classifications: Apothecary and Tooling.
Apothecary, as the name suggested, majored in brewing potions. For example, the glass of Potion of Austere Night held by Angor was a product made by alchemists who mastered Apothecary. Here, “potion” did not only refer to drinkable liquid. There were also special branches, such as Leona’s Perfume Brewing, which was also considered Apothecary.
Tooling mainly referred to crafting alchemy items. Dave’s propeller flying machine, for example, was alchemy machinery created using the art of Tooling.
The principle of alchemy was “conversion”. The core of making potions or tools both followed this principle. This was why both Tooling and Apothecary wizards were called alchemists.
But still, Apothecary and Tooling had different working processes and asked for different materials. That was why Dave asked Angor which path he would follow so that he could prepare the correct materials.
“They both required great talent. You earn similar benefit out of them. But technically speaking, I personally believe that Tooling is harder,” said Dave when he saw Angor hesitating. He explained his own idea.
“I’m going for Tooling,” Angor said.
“You sure? You know, you’ll be able to earn money fast once you learned how to brew a potion. But Tooling… not so easy.”
“I’m sure.” Angor already made this decision before. The alchemy books he recorded in the Nightmare Realm contained both Tooling and Apothecary knowledge, but he did not plan to try making potions for now. The garden of purification was an urgent goal to him. Otherwise, he would not think about studying alchemy so early in the first place.
The world was always changing. The information about the garden of purification triggered Angor’s motivation. To reach the top level of a Sky Tower and win a ticket to the garden, Angor had to find a particular approach. And he chose to try out alchemy.
“Okay then. It’s your own decision. Don’t regret it.”
“I won’t. If I can’t learn Tooling, I’ll just switch to Apothecary instead.”
Dave chuckled. “We’re on the same boat then. Maybe we can assist each other. Here are some books that describe the materials used in Tooling. Take a look. Tell me what you’re interested in and I’ll get them from the storage, at market price,” said Dave. He took out several piles of books and dumped them in front of Angor.
Magic Material Encyclopedia , Illustration Collection: Neutralization & Smelting Materials , Catalyst Collection …
Dave presented all of these dictionary-sized books to Angor with the hope of discouraging him. Dave had been acting all friendly to Angor, but in his mind, Dave did not hold a positive idea about Angor’s ambition. He would like to be Angor’s friend. But when it came to alchemy, Dave would think otherwise. To him, the art of alchemy was more important than anything else.
In Dave’s view, alchemy was not something that random stragglers should learn. When Angor made up his mind and showed off his wealth, Dave got a feeling that his beloved subject was being joked at.
It was a complicated mindset. Dave would not have felt as bad if Angor chose Apothecary. Yet Angor went for Tooling, the same subject Dave was studying, and such a decision tipped the scale in Dave’s mind.
Dave did not say anything about the books. He only looked at Angor with a smile, waiting for his choice.
Angor noticed none of Dave’s thoughts. He carefully selected several books and read through them quickly, then listed the materials he wanted in a short time.
“Mystic Fog Strings, 12 standard units. High Bronze, 7.8 grams. Hairy Orchid Gravel, 11 cups. Ice Glue 349 grams. Starfrost Gold…”
Dave saw Angor’s careful choices and realized Angor already had a plan in his mind. None of the materials were tiered ones, but they all shared connections with each other. For example, Ice Glue and Starfrost Gold appeared to be two completely unrelated materials, but Dave once heard Master Prome speaking with another master alchemist that if you dissolved Ice Glue in the heat for five minutes and added some catalyst powder to it, it would become the best adhesive for Starfrost Gold. High Bronze was usually used in machine alchemy as an ideal material for forging junction parts such as gears, and Mystic Fog Strings were often used along with the gears as a flexible transmission belt.
Angor obviously went through some careful planning to come up with his choices. The other materials he chose contained heat-resistant ones, ductile materials, and energy amplifiers. Dave already saw the basic frame of an alchemy machine out of these.
The uncomfortable idea in Dave’s mind had vanished. He was now confident that Angor did not regard alchemy as mere entertainment, and that was enough for him to highly regard Angor’s decision.
Angor picked many different materials. He made these choices for a number of theories he already developed in his mind – theories for making an alchemy weapon.
“That will be 17 types. According to the amount you wrote down… 1,321 merit points. I’ll remove the cents, just pay me thirteen hundred,” said Dave as he glanced at Angor’s material list and worked out the final price quickly.
Thirteen hundred, about 13 magic crystals. This was quite a fortune to apprentices. Angor only paid 500 points for his rent for a full year.
Still, he could afford the price for now. Besides, he just earned a thousand points out of Leona’s favor.
Angor took out his bone card and paid the money.
Dave felt so jealous again at Angor’s wealth display.
The two crystal balls on the table began to shine. Dave glimpsed at the objects. “The information you asked for is sent. I’ll go get the materials. Do you want to carry them yourself or have them delivered?”
“Delivered, of course. I don’t have a space storage to hold them.”
“Alright then. Ten merit points.”
…
After leaving Prome’s Alchemy Shop, Angor went to the Sky Tower again. Nausica’s match was already over. She was resting in the lounge room. As they expected, Nausica defeated Monarch of Eternal Freeze easily without using her weapon at all. Several punches and kicks were more than enough.
Nausica did not plan to stop here. She wished to keep fighting, taking the chance that there were only weaker opponents in the tower.
Angor wished her good luck and headed back to his house in apprentice town.
Upon reaching the villa, Toby immediately returned to the attic to practice a new chapter with its Echo Flower music band. Meanwhile, Angor sat in the garden and listened to Toby’s terrible “concert” as he waited for Dave’s delivery.
Time always flew by fast when in a relaxed mood. Half an hour later, Dave reached Angor’s front door while commanding two pairs or four bulky-looking guys who carried several sealed wooden boxes. The four of them were all mortal residents in town.
Angor asked them to place the boxes in his basement. After confirming that the materials were correct, he sent them on their way.
“Four mortal laborers, ten merit points from me. You’re smart, you know that?” Angor spoke behind Dave with a dark expression.
Dave blinked in an innocent manner. “Well, you don’t have any space storage, and neither do I. Those things are for wizards, we shouldn’t think about them. And of course, I have to ask mortals to carry stuff. Is there another choice?”
Angor waved him away impatiently. “We both know how much you earned out of it. Now off you go.”
When Dave was gone, Angor took some time to sort out the materials in the basement. When he was finished, the moon was already high in the sky, casting a silver aura over the Tree of Eternity.
Angor dragged his tired body to his bed and fell on it. He did so many things today. Everything ended well. With his already tensed up spirit, he only managed to cover half of his body under the blanket before falling straight asleep.
In the next morning, Angor washed himself up and went into the soundproof room.
The residual condition of magic backfiring on him still troubled him, so he had to give up on meditation and spell training for now. But he could still carry out his study plan. Angor planned to start learning alchemy today.
Previously, Angor regarded alchemy as something similar to the subject of chemistry because chemistry also involved conversion between elements. But after reading some books from Sunders’ collection as well as those from the Nightmare Realm, Angor realized that the two subjects only appeared to be related, but they were actually two completely different concepts.
The conversion process in alchemy was facilitated using a “mystic” energy. This energy participated in every alchemy conversion. Even alchemy machines needed this energy as their main power source.
Besides, studying alchemy also required knowledge about Runecraft. Runes could be used to trigger the mystic energy hidden within supernatural materials. It could also be used to build perfect material combinations. Also, there were particular alchemy approaches that used runes as the core materials while ordinary materials acted as a supplement.
Angor felt a headache after reading the alchemy theories. He thought several alchemy spells were enough, but now he found that he had to study Runecraft too. This was also an extremely complicated subject. Anyone who learned it well could earn big money by selling magic scrolls.
Angor sighed in frustration. In order to make alchemy weapons in a short time, he had to start by learning something from the scientific technologies on Earth. Alchemy machines sounded pretty similar to science, but they were still essentially supernatural products who had completely different fundamentals than actual science.
Angor’s current plan was to apply wizardry alchemy methods to a blueprint of a weapon from Earth. He wanted to see if he could make something that would be effective against apprentices.