Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

"First things first," Wulf said, "we need to get you a storage pendant."

Kalee nodded. "Nothing massive, though. I don't have a ton of equipment, like you."

"You you need to carry around supplies too," Wulf countered. "And you need a place to craft your constructs."

"Are we doing the same method you did to make yours?" she asked.

He nodded. "There should be something around here…"

They searched the lab, looking through the waste bins, until they found workable half-finished constructs.

It was the same process as usual from there: completing the runes, folding them over enough, and eventually, finding the exactly right one. Once they'd finished it, Wulf held it out to Kalee. "Here you go." He dangled it on a chain.

"First time a boy's given me jewelry," she said with a soft chuckle. "Thanks."

"You did most of the work anyway." He paused. "But you're welcome. It's the first time I've given jewelry to anyone."

They shared a smile, but there were footsteps in the hallway outside. They both ducked down behind a lab bench as a janitor prowled past, sweeping the hallway floor outside. After a few seconds, Wulf whispered, "All clear."

"Now, for your constructs," Kalee said. "Did you get what we needed?"

"Sort of." Wulf pulled his green gold ingot out from the storage pendant. "I need to finish transmuting it." A second later, he hauled out the spirit he'd captured. "It shouldn't be long."

He set the ingot down on a glass dish from the lab, a neutral surface which wouldn't transmute easily, and set to work. Using his scissors, he first transmuted the ingot to its next stable intermediary phase, about five hundred units of order and chaos each.

It required more chaos to shift stone to metal, especially toward an arcane intermediate, when he started from a brick. In this case, he shifted it toward a substance called swirl-gold, which he hadn't studied the properties of.

He then added a thousand units of order, and another five hundred of chaos. The substance shifted again, forming a stable, property-less intermediate. But though it wasn't arcane, it was still orichalcum.

Orichalcum, not the tier, but the material itself. It was a faint gold, it glowed, and it made his head swim just looking at it.

Though…probably as not as much as if he'd been a lower tier. It didn't seem as mysterious or unique.

But orichalcum wasn't as far as he could go. He turned to the captured spirit. It pushed against its bonds, trying to break free, and snapping at him. Like most weak spirits, it was just trying to hurt him, however it could.

He wedged his scissors through the gap between the cauldrons, then drew the essences out into his scissors. First, he started with chaos, and the beast shank to about three quarters of its original size. Then he drew out the order, and it shrank again, until it was simply a little glass bead.

Earth spirits almost always contained more order than chaos, which was exactly what he needed.

"How'd you get that little guy?" Kalee asked, once Wulf had finished harvesting it.

"To be honest? Still working out the specifics. Something to do with the immense power of my potions. Well, alright, that sounds pretty self-aggrandizing, but like, something to do with the power they give off."

Kalee scratched the back of her head, and Wulf shrugged. He turned back to his now-orichalcum ingot, then tapped his scissors against it. He'd been practicing over the summer, and now, he could feed both types of essence into it at the same time. Since both halves of the scissors didn't touch, he could dump both chaos and order into the ingot at the same time.

It sped up the transmutation process, and it reduced the risk of landing on an unstable product.

He wrapped his scissors around the ingot, like he was going to cut it in half, then exhaled, imagining he was breathing out the fundamental essences of the world, shaping the ingot as he pleased.

It shifted. It didn't get any less difficult to look at, and the air around it seemed to bubble. Then it cracked, like trying to look through a broken window. Wulf winced, trying not to look away. He continued pouring out the essences.

It was hard to tell how much was actually left in his scissors, but he planned on dumping all of it. He could feel that the scissors were almost empty, and he just needed one last push.

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Finally, with a pop, the air went back to normal. The ingot had shifted colours to something shiny, silver, and vaguely bluish. He blinked, but looking at it made him feel like he'd just had the worst night of sleep ever, like he couldn't concentrate.

Galactum.

He didn't pay close attention to it to spare his mind. He tapped it with the tips of his scissors. "There we go. Now…"

"But didn't you say you were going to transmute the old constructs?" Kalee questioned. "Not just a brick?"

"I did…" Wulf breathed. "But I figured I'd get all my essences in place first. Now we can use them."

"Alright…" she said.

Besides, the field hadn't given him a reward for completing the project or transmuting a 'substance of significance'. It didn't see it as complete yet, either.

He laid out the three old storage constructs on the table.

"But won't you…get stuck on an intermediary phase, or something like that?" Kalee asked.

"That's what I was worried about, too," Wulf replied. "But I think I had an idea."

"You think?"

"Alright, I did. Which I still need to test." He placed all three storage constructs on the glass plate beside his galactum ingot. For a few seconds, he froze, aware of how precious the mineral he was dealing with was. As far as he was aware, it could only be formed deep in the planet's core, and required millenia to rise to the surface. In the time that took, it'd usually get consumed by some hungry earth-dwelling monsters.

But it also had no special effects, except for its incredible ringing property. He tapped it with his fingernails, and it chimed like a bell—except it held its tone for a few seconds, and was awfully loud. Much louder than it should have been. He leaned on it with his sleeve, silencing it, before it drew too much attention.

Of course, it was also powerful enough to resist mana, to hold high-concentrations without crumbling apart, which all metals above it could do as well.

He took his scissors, clasped both sides of the ingot again, then arranged the old constructs in a circle around the scissors, so they were touching. One side of the orb-circle connected with the chaos-storing half of his scissors, and the other side connected with the order-storing half.

"Alright, let's give this a try…" he muttered.

"What are you doing?" Kalee whispered.

"I saw this in one of the old textbooks. I think…I can get it to transmute them all at once. It might be a bit dangerous."

Kalee raised her eyebrows. He half expected her to protest, but she simply stood still and stared at him. After a few seconds, she shrugged, then said, "Worth a shot."

Wulf began. He inhaled, then pushed with will and intent, activated every transmutation Skill and flooding all his Marks with mana.

Chaos jumped the gap first. He willed it across, and sent it spearing into the orbs, infusing all of them with it. At the same time, he urged order to cross the gap on the other side, using his scissors as a tool to pull on the essences.

It lasted for seconds or minutes. He couldn't tell. His world shrank down to the experiment plate, where he sent bolts of fundamental essence racing through the orbs. They ascended the transmutation ladder, shifting quickly between intermediates, changing through a rainbow of metallic colours. The air trembled, and sparks drifted up. A cloud of mist surrounded them, and a tiny bolt of lightning crackled through it.

Wulf's hands trembled. He began breathing faster, and the effort made sweat pour down his back. He didn't feel tired, but his legs were beginning to buckle.

But if he stopped now, he was going to ruin everything. They'd get stuck on some salt or powder, and everything would collapse into dust.

"Wulf, I think someone's coming," Kalee whispered. "Can you go faster?"

He couldn't reply. The air thickened, and then finally, when he'd drawn everything out of the galactum ingot, it condensed and let off a slight boom. The windows to the hallway rattled and the door shook, but the ingot had been reduced to a glob of primal material. There was only a nugget of galactum left.

The mana storage constructs, however, had become spheres of galactum—they had about the same overall volume of material as the ingot.

It was perfect. Wulf, arms weak, with specks floating in his vision, scooped up the orbs and dragged them away from the primal material.

Then Kalee tugged him down behind the lab bench. They both ducked down, and just in time. The janitor returned. He pushed open the door and looked around inside the lab, but no one was there—at least, that was how Wulf hoped it looked.

Wulf held tight to the scissors in one hand, and held the orbs in the other, but Kalee had nearly pulled him down on top of her, and it was taking all his strength not to fall on her. He held his breath, but his arms were trembling. He didn't realize he'd locked eyes with her until the door finally closed and the janitor left. Wulf pushed to the side just in time, and landed on his shoulder beside her.

"Now," he whispered. "Do you want to finish up these constructs?"

"I'd love to," she whispered back. "Can I keep that nugget?"

"Of course."

For the next hour, they scampered around the dark, empty lab. Wulf didn't know what he was doing with this part, but he helped anyway. The Field still didn't register his task as complete, so he figured he still needed to help with the crafting portion.

Finally, when Kalee had all the components ready, she assembled them into a cylinder.

"Is anyone going to notice that we stole metal and stuff from the labs?" he asked.

"We've been taking it from all the different drawers," she countered. "They won't notice a thing. They don't do inventory until the end of the week, so unless there's a huge discrepancy, no one will notice that materials are missing. Now, let's finish putting these together. I just need a hand for the finishing touch. For the outside runes—are you ready to try out the strategy you described to me?"

"Always," he replied. "Though most of it's on you."

"I hope these come out well…" she whispered. "A lot of work for these little devices."

"I think they'll give us the leg up we need," Wulf replied. "I hope…"