ALCHEMY GENIUS

Amidst the trees, some straight while some crooked, next to a large, uneven stone embedded deep in the ground, four figures were sitting. Of the four, one was a monkey who had extremely sorrowful expression on his face. The reason for that was his tail – Lynne had tied it into a deep knot, and refused to untie it no matter what. In addition, he had shaven all of monkey’s fur, and forbade him from regrowing it. So, the current monkey had a truly sorry sight.

However, Lynne himself wasn’t laughing in joy. In reality, he was crying. Tears streaked down like rivers, and he didn’t bother concealing them or wiping them away. In addition to crying, he was also concocting pills while muttering in low voice. He was even in a sorrier sight than the monkey himself.

As for the other two, they were naturally Anna and Elynal. While they weren’t in a sorry state, they were frozen stiff like statues, unable to move an inch. Their eyes were wide open, jaws agape, expression of utter disbelief on their face. As the matter of fact, they’ve been like this for three hours – ever since Lynne began concocting pills.

The two of them have seen many Alchemy Masters concoct pills. They had even seen Alchemy Grandmasters concoct pills. Yet, today’s experience was wholly different, and they simply had no means of describing it properly.

Eleven herbs floated in front of Lynne, while extremely beautiful golden and blue flames danced separately beneath. To call all eleven item herbs, though, would be a stretch, as one of those items was practically a stone, while another appeared to be a horn of a beast. Regardless, they were ingredients for a pill, and people usually referred to them as herbs. At the moment, all eleven herbs were burning, but not on the whole; rather, the flames beneath them were so meticulously controlled that they only burned the tiniest parts that contained unwanted impurities

Usually, Alchemists – regardless of rank – would use three different tools to fully extract impurities and retain only beneficial parts of the herbs: furnace, grinder and extractor. Yet, Lynne used nothing. Even if they were seeing it happen before their very eyes, they still didn’t dare believe. After all, this broke all preconceived notions they had about Alchemy.

Alchemy is a very ancient art, so ancient as the matter of fact that most people believe it is older than Mages themselves. Throughout the grand history of the world, there had been countless Alchemists that had shaken the world with their immense talent and ability. To differentiate Alchemists, even separate ranks were created, much like how Mages were separated. Alchemist ranks go, from lower to up, as such: Novice Alchemist, Junior Alchemist, Adept Alchemist, Master Alchemist, Grandmaster Alchemist, Dao Alchemist, Celestial Alchemist, Imperial Alchemist and Divine Alchemist.

They are divided in the 3-3-3 notion, whereas first three all fall under Beginner Alchemist Realm, middle three fall under Grand Alchemist Realm, and last three fall under Godly Alchemist Realm. However, ranking is still rather abstract, as a lot of things go into deciding where one would fit in; for example, even if one were able to successfully concoct pills of Rank 5 and higher, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve entered the so-called Grand Alchemist Realm.

In addition to practical abilities, knowledge was also immensely important; the number of herbs and natural treasures one is able to recognize, the number of valid recipes one knows, the quality of those same recipes and so on. Thus, one would have to go into one of the capitals within Kingdom and enter Alchemy Association Guild to be given official rank. Thus, even if one could create the highest quality pills of Rank 14, they were still considered Novice Alchemist if they hadn’t undergone evaluation.

However, regardless of the rank, regardless of the muddled waters between the Realms of Alchemy, regardless of the skill and strength countless Alchemists possessed, neither Anna nor Elynal had ever heard of anyone doing what Lynne was doing at the moment – creating pills without any external tools.

Now, naturally, such thing was never considered an impossibility; it is just that majority, if not all, Alchemists agreed that it was simply a huge waste. After all, even Celestial Alchemists – currently the apex of Alchemy on Alloy – would need around four hundred attempts to concoct a simple, worthless Rank 1 pill using their innate flames and nothing else.

Yet, in these three hours that Lynne was working, he had successfully concocted twelve pills in total. What’s more, the worst of them was a Rank 5 Mana Refreshment Pill, while the strongest was Rank 7 Breathless Pill. Although none of the pills were refined any further, was it even necessary? The quality of the base pills alone was above some trice refined pills by experienced Alchemists. With this, one can imagine just why the imperial duo was so stunned they couldn’t even speak.

What’s worse, it appeared as if Lynne’s heart was absolutely not in it, as if he was simply doing it as a side activity while he was mainly wailing over the amount of gold he had lost. Both Anna and Elynal had finally realized how their Master could just so casually accept Lynne as a disciple while the two of them had to undergo numerous tests and trials beforehand. Ignoring his nigh legendary-like battle prowess with spells, his talent in Alchemy alone would land him at the top of the world.

One must know that usually only Grandmaster Alchemists and above were able to create Rank 7 pills, and even that was with great difficulty and lengthy effort. Yet, here was this brat, who was just casually throwing one after another as if he was making cooked eggs for breakfast. They had met many so-called geniuses of Alchemy, yet, when compared to this guy, all those geniuses were worthless.

“H-heavens…” finally, after almost four hours of utter shock, Elynal regained some of his senses as he muttered. “This is…”

“Yeah…” Anna simply nodded, unable to say anything else.

This was truly an Alchemy Genius, a title they so often heard of back in Imperial Magus Sect. Forgetting people their age, even those monsters who have lived for hundreds of years still paled in comparison. With this simple scene, Lynne had managed to crush whatever preconceived notions they had about Alchemy and those who practice it.

Finally, after five hours, Lynne had burned and used all herbs that the monkey collected. However, unlike before, Lynne hadn’t given a single one to the poor creature; instead, of the sixteen pills that he had concocted, he gave six each to Anna and Elynal, while he kept the last four. Because he was unable to concentrate, in the end, the strongest pill he had concocted was Rank 7 one. However, if he was to tell them that, if he truly tried, he perhaps could even concoct one of the Rank 10, one could imagine just how shocked the imperial duo would be.

“Brother Lynne…” Elynal suddenly muttered, staring at the six pills in his hand. If he were to sell them, they’d probably fetch hundreds of thousands of gold. Rather, only complete morons and fools would even think about selling pills of this quality. “Y-you… you are truly remarkable…”

“How did you get so good?!” however, unlike the Prince, Princess was much more straightforward, as she immediately asked what was bothering her.

“Ah, listen to my woes, my good brother and sister~” Lynne said as he softly sighed, and then began narrating everything: from how he met the monkey to how he spent hundreds upon hundreds of herbs to concoct a single, crappy Rank 1 pill. Throughout the entire story, he never once stopped crying. It truly appeared as if he was mourning the loss of love he could never replaced. You idiot!! He doesn’t even know just how much these pills could be sold for!! Monkey, you truly are shameless!! After listening to Lynne’s story, they realized that Lynne still believed that his pills were nothing special, but rather that everyone can concoct them, more so now that he realized that majority of Alchemists actually use tools.

“Ha ha Brother Lynne, don’t be so dispirited,” Elynal suddenly said, as flash of brilliance passed through his eyes. “How about this? I’ll give you twenty gold coins for each pill you concoct for me!” SHAMELESS!! UTTERLY SHAMELESS!! Anna screamed internally.

“REALLY?!!” however, on the other hand, Lynne’s eyes suddenly sparkled, as drool began falling from the corners of his lips. His depressed atmosphere dissipated immediately and was instead turned into one of absolute joy.

“Naturally,” Elynal said calmly, ignoring the hateful stare of Anna. “What’s more, like monkey, I’ll give you any and all herbs I find along the way. Deal?”

“Deal! Deal! Absolutely deal! Ha ha,” Lynne suddenly burst out in laughter as he bent his back slightly, looking at the sky. “I’ve finally struck it rich! Ha ha! Thank you Heavens, for giving me a true Brother like this brat Elynal! Ha ha!” Idiot! Absolute moron!

“Heh, not to be outdone, how about this Lynne,” Anna suddenly joined in, unwilling to let Elynal be the only one to benefit from this. “As long as you’re willing, the two of us will purchase absolutely all pills you concoct. However, you must never tell anyone you’re an Alchemist or how you concoct pills. If you do that, we’ll even be willing to purchase pills of Rank 5 for thirty gold, while for each higher rank we’ll add ten more, huh?” Brilliant! Sister Anna, you’re absolutely brilliant!

“Y-you… you really mean it?” Lynne’s eyes nearly popped out of his sockets; he was satisfied with selling every pill, regardless of rank, for twenty gold, but now that he had found out that he’d be given even more, and all he had to do was keep this matter a secret, he felt like all luck in his life was used at this very moment, but he didn’t regret it. As he began imagining the rivers of gold, he naturally began drooling.

“Of course. And just like Brother Elynal, I’ll also give any and all herbs I have and find in the future.”

“Beautiful, truly beautiful! Come,” Lynne exclaimed in absolute delirium of joy as he suddenly tapped his waist, whereupon three gourds of wine appeared before him; however, when he looked at Anna again, he carefully put one gourd back, while keeping one for himself, and handing one over to Elynal. “Let us drink! Drink till we are blue in cheeks! Ah, Sister Anna, unfortunately, you are but a flat child, and I cannot bear the consequences; you can join the monkey and enjoy the atmosphere.” the little guilt she felt because she was scamming Lynne immediately disappeared as she heard his words. Humph, rejoice now you bastard…

While the sun was slowly rising up through the sky, Lynne and Elynal were drinking wine without stop, while the previously depressed monkey was now snickering alongside Anna; they looked at Lynne as if he was a supernatural treasure, something that the rest of the world can never see or know of, lest true calamity befalls them.