Alchemy is defined as magic that processes materials to create something else.
One very important thing is that the quality of materials greatly impacts the finished product.
Read textbooks and reference materials, go to an academy, have a famous master.
Much like magic, alchemy places a lot of importance on these three things.
Alchemy uses recipes born through conception magic. These recipes are the general term for the materials and process needed to transmute, and conception magic is useful to create them.
Unlike regular offensive or support magic, the recipes differ greatly depending on who creates them. It’s magic that materializes the user’s own systems, so it’s very easy for the user to influence it.
For example, my bahamut bombs have a different recipe from other people’s.
My junior suggests we check our recipes. I don’t really care either way, but it’s a chance for her to see the skill of a chronicle rank alchemist, so I accept.
We activate our conception magic, and reveal our recipes.
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■ Bahamut bomb
Originator: Ruby
◆ Necessary materials (495 level of materials)
《King bo-bomb》, 《flame spirit chemical》, 《seidel gold ore》
◆ Transmutation process (difficulty level 5)
Up up down down down
◆ Final score: 500
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■ Bahamut bomb
Originator: Soteira
◆ Necessary materials (45 level of materials)
《Bob-omb》, 《flame spirit grass》, 《seidel copper ore》
◆ Transmutation process (difficulty level 15)
Up up down down left, right left right orange yellow, left down right red yellow
◆ Final score: 60
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So her name is Soteira. It does sound familiar.
Still… Her score is so low…
Sixty is embarrassing. Is my five hundred amazing?
I really am a genius. I can’t control the grin forming on my face.
The transmutation process is long, and I’m sure a beginner would have a hundred percent fail rate.
A command has to be done within a second, so the more complicated, the higher the risk of failure.
I’m getting sidetracked, but the yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and green colors are input with one’s magic energy, and the directions by moving the oar.
“Oh…?”
Soteira looks at my recipe, and seems puzzled.
“I don’t have the materials your recipe calls for.”
She says while pointing to a two meter long box.
She shows me the container, and I see low level materials gathered from Area Two.
She takes a bob-omb, flame grass, and seidel copper ore from it, and the low level of it all makes my face twitch.
“Do you want to use my recipe?”
She asks with a smile.
“Are you crazy!? Why would I use the recipe of a junior!?”
“S-sure. Sorry. I was out of line. Then let’s consult this textbook. That wouldn’t provoke your haughty pride, right?”
She says while walking to the bookshelf.
Scholars and researchers call recipe compilations textbooks or reference materials.
These textbooks have a lot of recipes thought of by alchemists throughout history.
But I’m not too good with them.
Soteira brings me one, and opens it on bahamut bomb recipes.
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■ Bahamut bomb
Originator: Hecate
Time: Year one hundred and twenty of the Mel calendar
◆ Necessary materials (45 level of materials)
《Bob-omb》, 《agni grass》, 《seidel copper ore》
◆ Transmutation process (difficulty level 25)
Left down right red yellow, down right red yellow down, right up red yellow down, left red yellow, up up, down down left right left
◆ Final score: 70
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■ Bahamut bomb
Originator: Ridea
Time: Year three of the Mel calendar
◆ Necessary materials (45 level of materials)
《Bob-omb》, 《oshen copper ore》
◆ Transmutation process (difficulty level 20)
Left down right red yellow, down right red yellow down, right up red yellow down, left red yellow up up
◆ Final score: 50
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■ Bahamut bomb
Originator: Totomi
Time: Year fifty-six of the Mel calendar
◆ Necessary materials (30 level of materials)
《Flame grass》, 《aizen copper ore》
◆ Transmutation process (difficulty level 20)
Red red red left down, right red yellow down right, down right red yellow down, down right down yellow down
◆ Final score: 50
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All the recipes here are between fifty to seventy points.
Looking at it gives me a bad feeling.
But I shake it off.
I have materials, so it’s important to use them to get that score up at least a little.
Surely. I haven’t used another’s recipe in a while, but that’s how I feel.
“Hm, hm. I think considering the materials in the container, Miss Hecate would be the best. I’m pretty sure you admire her too, so how about using her recipe as reference?”
She says, about the most difficult one of the bunch.
“Y-yes…”
I check the transmutation process.
Left down right red yellow down… I can’t remember all this.
“Hum, can I check this book while transmuting?”
“Sorry, of course. I know, I know, I also tend to stare at textbooks while transmuting.”
《The great book of transmutations even a goblin that doesn’t know alchemy can do》
Is the book Soteira is handing to me.
Is she making fun of me!?
Dammit dammit dammit!
Screw you!
I just want to hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you hit you .
My face twitches, and I decline.
“I don’t need it! I already have the process memorized!”
“Eh? Really? You really are great, Alchemia♪. Of course a top alchemist would instantly memoriz a recipe after seeing it just once♪.”
“O-of course!”
But a transmutation won’t work if I don’t remember the process well enough, and I fail.
Dammit, this shouldn’t be…
“H-hum… I feel kind of bad for riling you up. If you don’t remember it, you can just look. This 《The great book of transmutations even a goblin that doesn’t know alchemy can do》book is thorough in its explanations, so I’m sure you’ll like it!”
She’s saying I’d like a book with a title that’s basically looking down on people?
Screw you!
How much more are you going to mock me!?
I was wrong to count on her.
There’s no doubt she’s feeling superior after watching me fail.
I’m pissed.
“Shut up shut up shut up! A sixty pointer has no business running her mouth to me!”
“…!”
“Dammit! I’ll use my own recipe!”
“…!? S-stop!
“Don’t touch me!”
Bam!
I push her when she tries to stop me, and get the cauldron.
Like my recipe could ever fail. Let’s use conception magic again.
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■ Bahamut bomb
Originator: Ruby
◆ Necessary materials (495 level of materials)
《King bo-bomb》, 《flame spirit chemical》, 《seidel gold ore》
◆ Transmutation process (difficulty level 5)
Up up down down down
◆ Final score: 500
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I can’t do it without these materials.
Enraged, I throw bo-bomb, flame grass, and seidel copper ore into the cauldron, and move the oar up up down down down.
Puff! The cauldron explodes into a failure.
Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Dammit! Why won’t it work!?
I try again. Then again. And it all fails.
And I kick the cauldron a few times.
“Alchemia, please stop!”
“Quiet! You’re ruining my concentration!”
“That’s enough! Stop stop, stooooooooooo!!”
This time, Soteira pushes me away. I crash into a round table, and fall with it.
Soteira is breathing heavily.
“What are you doing!?”
I get up and move towards her.
“You’re ruining the materials they got!”
She yells angrily, not scared at all.
“Alchemia, that’s enough. If you can’t transmute, sit on that sofa and be quiet.”
“Screw you! Don’t put the blame on me! It’s your fault for having a container full of trash…”
I can’t finish, because Solteira slaps me.
The sound echoes in the transmutation room.
Soteira is shaking, and yells while pointing at the container.
“Those materials! Were gathered! By my friends who risked themselves to collect them! If you can’t treasure materials, you don’t deserve to be an alchemist! This is awful! I’ll give you a bahamut bomb, so just get out of this room!”
She’s really angry.
I can’t say anything back. How humiliating it is for a chronicle rank alchemist to be lectured by this nobody.
Later, I’m given a bahamut bomb and a silver coin, and thrown out.
“You can have those, but that silver coin is my payment to get rid of you. Don’t come to my atelier ever again!”
She then closes the door.
Money and a weapon. I have what I came here for, but I don’t feel better.
In fact, dark emotions are swirling inside me.
A few minutes after leaving the atelier, I remember the last thing she said, and I’m enraged.
“Unforgivable… Loyd, the queen, Iris…! All those people making fun of me! It’s Loyd’s fault I suffered such a great humiliation from that nobody! If you didn’t leave the atelieeeeeeeeer!”
I yell as my anger explodes, and hold the bahamut bomb while cursing the world.
But then something unexpected happens.
“Now! Get Lord Alchemia!”
“Eh?”
Knights emerge from the thickets.
I can’t react in time, and I’m pinned down, dropping the bahamut bomb.
It rolls, and one of the knights looks at it with shock.
“T-this girl is holding a bomb!”
“What a terrifying…”
“Lord Alchemia, you were thinking of terrorism…”
The knights look at me like I’m something frightening.
“N-no! I’m not a terrorist…! This was made in that atelier! What’s wrong with making a bahamut bomb!?”
“Quiet! Leave those dirty excuses for the queen! Get her on the wagon!”
The knights throw verbal abuse as they take me away.
“Noooooo! Let go of me! I am Lord Alchemia! The greatest alchemist! It’s Loyd’s fault! I did nothing wrong! I’m right!”
I resist, but the knights are strong, and throw me into the wagon.
It’s dark, almost like it’s hinting at my future.
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