Chapter 39: The Career of a Lifetime

Chapter 39: The Career of a Lifetime

Alchemy, that most wondrous and sacred art, was first pioneered by the alleged First Brewer of Life, Death, Earth and Sky, the legendary Old GoddessSalverria. It was her efforts which are widely regarded to have formalized the common practice of potion-brewing and unified it under the broader scope of Alchymie, dividing it into four primary branches in accordance with the Three Attribute theory of the body. First and foremost among the disciplines there was Alchymie Vitae, corresponding to Health, and concerned itself with the creation and manipulation of True Life. Second was Alchymie Essentia, concerned with the matters of Mana, and in the extraction and manipulation of the true essence of an object. Thirdly is Alchymie Practicum, associated with fundamental Stamina and is accordingly associated with enhancements upon other substances.

Salverria herself was legendarily an Alchymist Vital, and it is said that she was responsible for the creation of the Manticores, Chimeras, and even the noble Griffon, among others. More information, along with speculation for the required rituals and methods needed can be found in Section 5: Impact of Alchemy. According to Salverian tradition, she was also responsible for the creation of vortithal, salverweed, talsanenris, shoriven, watergrass, and even wheat. However, as she has faded somewhat into the role as a creator deity for said peoples, the tales they tell of her prolific creations may be mythological. Still, these creations, if truly hers, would fall into the purview of Vitae as well. It is the view of this author that Salverria most likely was a real person, however with recent.

Though drier than even his history textbooks, Edwin found the Grimoire endlessly fascinating. Sure, he was pretty liberally skimming it, but it was fantasy science! It was the coolest thing ever! He was learning so much! Also, he didnt have to memorize it for a reading quiz at 8 AM! Ah, tests. He was so glad to never have to deal with those ever again.

Vital Alchemy, or Alchemy Vitae, was the biology of Alchemy, as it dealt with everything pertaining to life. Herbology, animal crossbreeding, and some medicines (though there was overlap there with Practical Alchemy), but above all the goal of creating life itself, which was allegedly even possible, and not even hard for simpler forms of life. It required successfully bringing anything more complicated than a slime to life to unlock the Vital Alchemist Path, as apparently a slime wasnt hard enough to warrant it!

The Path itself was really cool, as there were all kinds of Skills which could result from it. When combined with Alchemy, it would give the rather uninventive Alchemy Vitae, but its effects, focused as they were on the creation of life, were nothing to argue with. Eat your heart out, Miller and Urey. Turns out all you need to make life is to give a beaker full of organic chemicals a good shake with Alchemy Vitae.

Combining the Path with the Medicine skill gave Vivificant, which let you transfer life from one creature to another? Sheesh. If the description were even close to accurate, wait, how did that... A combination with an Eating evolution gave Vitachemical Infusion, which allowed you to directly absorb substances through your skin to take on their properties. Alchemists Physique yielded Vital Alchemists Mastery, which let you give yourself the traits of absorbed creatures at will- claws, scales, quills, feathers, muscles, and more besides.

All in all, it was an absolutely bonkers branch of alchemy, and yet it was somehow the one which Edwin was least interested in or excited about.

Essential Alchemy enabled you to take the properties of one object and apply them to another. The book listed examples of making steel as transparent as water, or liquid water the solidity and structure of steel. Also removing the melting point of ice to perpetually freeze it, or giving lead the weight of air, or the strength of mithril to cloth, or the temperature of fire to a rock, or well, there were a lot of possibilities, suffice to say. It seemed like Zosiman didnt have much experience in that field, though, as the chapter on it was disappointingly slim.

Practical Alchemy concerned itself about two types of creations, namely Elixirs and Concoctions, both enhancements to either organic or inorganic matter. Elixirs were proper fantasy potions, pretty much just magic in a bottle, including everything from invisibility, flight, super-strength, magical healing, and those were just the examples from the introductory page! Concoctions were more what Edwin had experimented with, explosions and objects with inherently abnormal properties, like liquids which ran uphill or metals which exploded on contact with water (Edwin was pretty sure the latter was just an alkali metal, but that just brought up the question of what a Mana-Infused version of that would look like. Terrifying.).

There was even a section on Alchymie Ascendia, towards the end, which talked about solidifying abstract concepts, like spinning moonlight into thread (for invisibility cloaks and potions), bottling sunlight (for fighting vampires), or forging the tranquility of a forest glen into an actual shield. Edwins brain just wasnt able to wrap around how that was supposed to work, but he supposed thats why it was magic, and not science yet.

Any magic distinguishable from technology is insufficiently advanced. Edwin couldnt help but grin at the thought.

All of the Ascendia was incredibly challenging, and the book even advised the alchemist to wait until their alchemy level was in the hundreds before attempting it because of how badly it could backfire if you didnt succeed on your first attempt. Scary. Unfortunately, while Zosiman was a fastidious historian and excellent chronicler (the herbology chapter was quite detailed and comprehensive, so far as Edwin could tell), his experience as an actual alchemist was limited. There were loads of details about alchemy-related Paths and Skills, as well as tips on how to apply Skills to alchemy in non-obvious ways. Some of the tips, like how Knives helped with chopping ingredients, were obvious. Others, like using Breathing as a filter for gases, were less so (and in that instance, kind of reckless).

Thats not to say that the book had no tips on how to actually perform alchemy, just that the Formula for Salve of Aided Recovery listed off a half-dozen ingredients with no indication how they were supposed to actually combine.

Ah, Ive got a potion for the bulk of his skin, this was more just to teach you! Don you feel enlightened?

I mean I guess, but it seems like a lot to go through if you already had the potion. Also, doesnt that mean that the salve is optimized for me? And its less useful for you in general?

Niall waved a hand, Don worry about it! Its my thanks to you for being a good student, an to start you on a path of Medical Alchemy!

Well thanks, I guess. Edwin awkwardly accepted the tub of salve, putting it in his belt before digging it out a second later so he could actually test it. Fortunately, Niall was digging around a disorganized chest filled with all sorts of vials, so he didnt notice Edwins actions.

It only took a minute for Niall to find what he was looking for, and red phial in hand, the alchemist duo descended two floors, to where the dormitories were. While normally Niall had the nicest room claimed for himself and the other three were home to his five minions, Edwin had been given one of the nicer rooms for his own use. It wasnt there that they were headed, though, instead visiting the former living room, now communal sleeping room which took up half the floor. Minfour (yes, the man had a real name, but Edwin didnt know what it was) was sprawled out on a pad off to the side, clutching more than a few nasty blisters and third degree burns.

At Nialls prompting, Edwin tried rubbing a bit of salve onto the back of Minfours hand, and watched as the blister sank away and the redness slowly faded to reveal unburned, uninjured skin. It took a while and a few applications, but that was apparently just the inefficiency at work. On Edwin it would theoretically fix the same injury with a mere drop of salve, and in seconds no less. Magic! Gotta love it.

What was really impressive, though, was the potion which Niall had his minion drink. Over the course of mere seconds, starting from his throat and upper torso, a wave of pink flesh spread across the mans entire body, a faint trickle of blood being forced out of the skin as layer upon layer of skin was pushed up from below, replacing where it had been burned away and making blisters wither away in moments. Now that was a proper magic potion! Instant skin graft for the entire body, with no rejection! It had to have been a dedicated skin potion for that level of speed on a non-primed individual. Heck, that was practically at the level of a regeneration potion, which regrew the tissue wholesale.

And regeneration potions needed a sample of the body part being targeted.

...Oh great.

Man, Edwin had such high hopes for Niall. They were getting along so well, too! He really hoped he wouldnt have to put pretty much the entire tower to the torch. Okay, well, maybe there was a completely reasonable answer to this dilemma. Maybe Niall was just harvesting his own skin and using regen potions to get it back, with large enough batch sizes to make it a net positive? Would that even work? No need for his backup supplies to be random people wandering down the road, right?

So, ah, Niall, where did you get the ingredients for that potion? Seemed like youd need a lot of human skin for that quick of a regrow. Edwin asked, with a fair bit of dread, Please dont be a serial killer, please dont be a serial killer.

Ah, some passing resupply, Niall waved his hand, studying the fresh layer of skin on Minfour. He got too close and sneezed suddenly, interrupting his statement. He recovered quickly enough, though, and continued his inspection, A courier or whatnot. Nothing particularly noteworthy, just a good source of materials.

Edwin closed his eyes and breathed out slowly and carefully. Great.