Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

The insect draugr looked like any other draugr Wulf had seen throughout his life—on the outside.

It stood in a pool of mud, and was covered in mud from head to toe. Its flesh rotted, filling the chamber with a beached-fish-stench that made his stomach churn. If he hadn't been inside the cockpit, it would've been worse. Through the communication construct, he heard Irmond retch a few times.

"You alright?" Wulf asked.

"I…I can see why this wasn't part of anyone's route," Irmond moaned.

"Just be quick," Seith said.

"That can be arranged."

Wulf raised his swords and settled into a fighting stance. The draugr held an enormous battle axe with a rusting head, and it rose as tall as Wraith, if not a little taller.

But they were here for its armour. It wore a hauberk made of millions of tiny chainmail links. Each one glowed a faint brown—it had a runic inscription along its edges. It would've taken centuries of work to make alone, but the Field had made them in a matter of years. And since it made them, it would be less cautious about tampering with the rings.

Wulf charged forward, targeting the draugr's rotting head. Poison wouldn't work on it, but he had a different plan. "Kalee, can you spare a moment?"

"Yeah, what do you need?"

"Can you take my scissors and slot them into Wraith's core?"

"Got it," she replied. She pulled herself out of the harness for a moment, then tugged the scissors off his back and rammed them into the old hole he'd carved in Wraith's core. It lent the right amount of chaos.

Wulf charged forward. He ducked under a swipe of the draugr's battle axe, then sprang up and drove the blade he held in his demon hand into the draugr's neck. "Hold that for me, please," he said, then rammed his hand into the beast's forehead. He triggered the hand's Skill, [Black Hand of the Alchemist] and Marked the draugr. A glowing green handprint sprang up in the center of its head.

If he couldn't poison it, he'd need to do all the damage he could.

Then he ripped the blade out of the draugr's neck, dragging it to the side. It would've been enough to kill any normal Low-Gold, but the head barely moved. It shifted to the side slightly, teetering dangerously, and a puff of black mosquitos surged out the side instead of blood.

From his vantage inside Wraith's cockpit, the mosquitos looked like dust, but in reality, they were about the size of a wolf.

"Irmond, keep away from them!" Wulf shouted. "Keep yourself safe!"

"Understood!" Irmond shouted. He and Speckles zipped across the room, pursued by a column of bugs. He fired arrows back at them, skewering them out of the air. "At least I'll rack up some mana from this!"

Then there came the issue of actually beating the creature. Fire would've done the trick, but they didn't have an easy way of making any.

[You don't?] Wraith said. [You are telling me that your blue, mouse-hating friend does not have the ability to strike steel against stone and make sparks.]

"You think we can set that on fire?" Wulf skidded to a halt on the other side of the room and whirled to face the draugr. A tidal wave of mud surged up behind him. "It's covered in grime."

"It'll dry soon," Kalee said. "We can speed up the process, and the Mark you put on it should make the fire catch quicker, right?"

"You think you could drag the muck off it with a pulse of gravity?" Wulf asked her.

"I could try. But we need to get it up on the shore, so I don't pull it back down into that mudbath."

"That can be arranged," he said. "Come here, you big oaf!" Wulf shouted, though the draugr wouldn't hear him. He waved around his sword, beckoning it closer. "Seith, you got the plan?"

"I'm ready!" she replied. "I'm moving to your left hand, and I'll carve some runes to help the fire catch better."

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Already, the insects inside the draugr's body were knitting it back together, pulling strands of dead flesh back over its neck. It bulged, like it had a goiter, but there was no sign that Wulf had nearly just ripped its head off. As it approached, swinging its axe, he ducked to the side and slashed its arm with a dagger, angering it. It slammed its axe into the ground, then chased him up the shore, following closer behind.

"Kalee, now!" he called. There was no time to try linking their minds, and they still weren't perfect at it.

They whirled around, and Wulf held out his hand. Kalee trapped it in a circle of increased gravity. It fell to its knees, and its loose flesh slumped. Waterfalls of wet mud pulled off its flesh, like a wax sculpture melting.

When it was dry enough, Wulf charged forward, aiming a punch at its face, and shouted, "Seith, ready?"

"When our fist hits, I'll set it aflame!" she shouted.

Wulf's fist collided with the draugr's face, and Kalee cut off her spell Skill at the same time. Sparks rushed across the gap, catching on the beast's skin, and the glowing green handprint flared brighter.

A blaze of flames erupted across the draugr's face. They spread to its limbs and body, and it had the wit to charge back toward the pond at the center of the room, trying to put itself out. Blazing mosquitoes surged off its body, but they burned to a crisp midair.

Wulf kicked it first in the knee, stopping its escape, then punched it once more in the face, sending it flying back into the wall. It stopped trying to run and simply writhed.

After a few minutes of squirming, it finally fell still. Any insects that hadn't burned must've been bound to its form somehow, because they stopped moving as well. Irmond flew back and settled down on Wulf's shoulder.

"Please tell me you're not going to make potions out of any of that," he said.

"By the Field, no," Wulf said. "But we're taking the chainmail—that didn't burn. Kalee won't need all of it, and I think we can make an excellent cloak out of it. The sooner we get it off the draugr, the sooner we can find a room with water to clean it, and the sooner we can get back to the surface."

~ ~ ~

When they left the dungeon, they waited for Athllas at the entrance to the second level. He was a half-hour later than them, and he carried his own pouch of loot over his shoulder.

Moving together, they climbed back to the first level of the dungeon and retraced their steps. When they emerged, Dr. McGemmild interrogated them about how they both had accumulated so much loot, to which Wulf replied, "Some of the rooms had two monsters in them."

The faculty might have pre-scouted the dungeon, and they might have set some routes in advance, but they wouldn't know the particulars of what monsters were in every room.

McGemmild sighed, regarding Wulf suspiciously, then said, "Keep your loot in your hangar bay, then. And don't make me call the department head over—if I see anything too suspicious, I will."

"Thanks, ma'am," Wulf said.

Over the course of the next few days, Wulf worked on the materials they gathered. Seith had brought equipment from her office down to their hangar bay, and the four of them sat at the Wraith's feet, all working on their individual projects.

Wulf began by using Wraith's fingers to shatter the emerald golem's core. It was a shame to destroy something so beautiful, but he needed the shards, not the entire core.

He wanted to know how small he could make a codex, and if he could, in theory, build one that could fit inside a storage pendant. If he could have access to all the alchemy knowledge he could ever want, right at his fingertips…? Or not even about alchemy, but knowledge in general.

He arranged the crystals into different sizes and shapes. He wouldn't have enough shelves to store them on, but he could leave them on the ground. It was going to be a project that took many days.

After all, he'd never practiced carving the runes he needed before. Kalee and Seith could help with some of the more intricate patterns, but he had to finish the uncommon, codex-specific runes.

The ones that linked them together, forming a net to gather and store information within the Field itself.

As he worked on his crystal shards, Kalee modified her staff. She detached individual chain-links from the chainmail. Each was slightly too wide to fit perfectly to her staff, but she modified the rune lines and bent them slightly until they bit into the wood.

Their runes had originally been to make it lighter. Apparently, the Field didn't think its insect draugr would be able to lift such a heavy article, so it'd given them something that manipulated the very fabric of the world. When fuelled with mana, they would become lighter.

That was easy enough for Kalee to modify into a storage ring and link together with another ring. She'd need a touch of alchemy to finish it, though—which would involve Wulf slightly melting the wood to better attach the rings and keep them in place permanently.

Then there was Irmond, who worked on carving out a twig into the right shape for his next bow. He might not have been a crafter, but working on his own bow would produce the best result—and the one most aligned with his build.

Seith spent her time working on a new bracer to mount her enchanted parchment. She carved hers out of metal, which always worked the best for an Artificer.

On the evening of their second day of work, Dr. Blyke walked by. He asked, "Mr. Hrothen?"

"Yes?" Wulf asked.

"Dr. Arnau would like to speak with you."

Wulf tilted his head. "Will do, sir. I'll be there." It probably wasn't anything bad, but it seemed important.

"It's odd," Blyke said. "I don't usually see the entire crew working on crafting equipment together. Perhaps the influence of an Alchemist as a Pilot." He gave Wulf a wink, then marched off down the hangar hall.