Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

Wulf flinched, but he didn't turn away. Years of bracing for impact, of getting charged at by monsters and demons, all felt like it came to this one moment. He clenched his teeth and his gut.

He expected some kind of thud, some kind of force, but there was nothing. Before it hit him, the spirit turned to dust. A stream of vibrantly glowing breen dust, but still dust. It rushed into his chest, illuminating mana channels in his body, before surging down to his gut and ramming into his cores.

Then the pain came.

It wasn't as bad as he was expecting. It was a similar experience to splitting his core, except now, the two orbs pulled together.

He cast his perception inward, envisioning the two cores.

At first, the larger storage core bounced off the smaller main core. The spirit, with all its strength, was trying to pull them together. Or maybe it wasn't even trying. With such a powerful spirit, it very well could have been a natural behaviour.

But whatever it was, Wulf's storage core seemed to lose its realness. After a few pushes, and when enough of the vibrant green dust got inside it, it blended effortlessly with the main core.

The main core grew, his storage core compressed slightly. They reformed, swirling together in a single vortex, before turning into a glowing neon green sphere in the center of his gut.

Wulf fell to his knees, and slowly, the pain faded away. He hadn't realized it, but he'd been biting the sleeve of his coat.

Blinking, he looked down at his bracer, only to remember that he'd left it in his storage pendant. He wasn't supposed to be an Ascendant. But the Field was swirling around him, tingling on his fingers, and it wanted to tell him something.

As quickly as he could, he retrieved it, then strapped it onto his wrist. He slotted in the piece of enchanted parchment and read the words that scrawled across it:

[By intaking a Orichalcum-tier spirit, you have acquired the necessary arcane matter. Advancement progress: 103.5%]

[You have increased your Tier to Low-Gold.]

[You may select a Class Evolution.]

Wulf was about to stand up and move on—he could deal with a Class Evolution later—but the moment he tried to move, the tingle of the Field became pinpricks, like he'd sat on his leg too long and it fell asleep, except all over his body. Black specks whirled in front of his vision.

The Field insisted:

[Select your Class Evolution.]

"Fine, fine," Wulf whispered. The Field wasn't going to let him go unless he did, so he may as well get this done now.

He concentrated on the bracer, narrowing his eyes, and focussed on the idea of a Class Evolution.

That, he did know about. At Gold, your class shifted, adjusting to something much more aligned with your current Marks and build. Overall, it was difficult to say what it did, because on paper, it was only a change to the name of your Class. But it would alter the Marks and Skill upgrades you earned in the future. It would align them more to your new Class Evolution's purpose.

Three options writhed across the sheet:

[Poison Weaver] An Alchemist evolution that relies on poisons to enhance himself, his team, and deal all damage. Your ability to make poisons is vastly improved.

[Destiny Alchemist] An Alchemist evolution that focuses heavily on altering the fundamental principles of the universe around him, looking deeper than the Field.

[One Man Fortress] An evolution that improves the user's connection with Oroniths and stone, while favouring fighting on his own instead of in a team.

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Wulf grimaced. This looked more like a test than a choice. Immediately, he ruled out [One Man Fortress]. It wasn't close enough at all. Maybe in his past life, he would've taken it, but he couldn't accept that now.

The Field needed him to make a choice about himself, too.

[Poison Weaver] would work. It would probably be fine, and was a natural upgrade, given how he'd been advancing lately. But it wasn't the most powerful. It wasn't what would let him take on the demons and change the fate of the world.

[Destiny Alchemist] didn't sound too different from [Fate Alchemist], but that wasn't what it was about. Fate was what happened to you. Destiny was what you did. He'd heard plenty of different ideas about the concept of destiny.

People said Fate was your circumstances of birth, the way you grew up, and what lay ahead in the future for you. Destiny was pretty much the same, but something about it was more focussed. A single purpose.

[Fate Alchemist] almost sounded like he was fated. But something was different about [Destiny Alchemist], like he could modify destiny itself.

He moved to select the Class Evolution with a push of will, until he realized that [Destiny Alchemist] had already been selected. He'd done it subconsciously.

He chuckled, then stood up. This time, the Field let him move. He didn't feel different, despite having a nature spirit ingrained in his core, but that strain on his core, feeling like advancement was on the tip of his tongue, was gone. He'd broken through a bottleneck, and now it was full speed ahead to Ruby.

But then he lifted his arms and looked down. Instead of a glowing blue Spiritmark, matching his veins, a coat of shimmering green light ran over his skin, forming gloves around his hands. Just gloves, running halfway up his forearms. Pine needles made of glowing green light swayed like patchy fur.

It was clearer than any other Spiritmark he'd seen so far, but that wasn't saying much. It seemed most people hid theirs.

How…exactly did he do that?

He chewed his lip for a few seconds, then masked himself. The glowing pine-needle gloves disappeared, blinking out of existence.

Did he have to mask himself all the time?

But when he released his mana, letting it flow freely around his body once more, the spiritmark didn't come back. It must've been like a toggle.

There was no time to keep experimenting. He ran out of the hallway, then took the spiral staircase up to where Kalee's spirit was waiting. They nearly crashed into each other in the hallway.

"Did it work?" he asked. "You get your spirit?"

"I got it," she replied with a nod. "You?"

He nodded too. "You masked your Spiritmark?" He couldn't see anything different about her.

"Yeah," she replied. "Any idea how to make it show up again?"

"No clue. But we need to get out of here. Seith turned off the pumps, and if we don't get moving, our escape route is going to boil us alive."

"I can store about three of these cages in my staff," Kalee said. "One for Irmond, one for Seith, and one to consume for a massive spell. Preferably, we'll take one without a spirit still in it for that one."

"Take the cage you just emptied for your spirit," Wulf said.

She ran back down the hall, then tapped her staff against the open door. She must've figured out how to get into the holding cell just like he had. The staff lit up orange, vibrant amber light filling every crack of the wood, and the tiled walls inside the cell disappeared.

"One down," she said. "Any idea what would be good for Irmond and Seith?"

"There was a wind spirit in here and a water spirit," Wulf said. "Even if they aren't in touch with themselves enough to bind it like we have, they can still consume it."

"They're still young," Kalee said. "Don't expect miracles."

"Even if they do just consume it, an Orichalcum spirit has to help."

"And they might even get a Grand Mark."

"You think so?" Wulf asked. "If we didn't from this…"

"You didn't?"

He raised his eyebrows. "You did?"

"Yeah," she replied. "For bonding with an Orichalcum spirit."

Wulf was almost jealous for a moment, until he realized that Mantri wasn't here to deliver it or make a ceremony of it. Quickly, he pulled up the main status on his Bracer, and sure enough, at the bottom of his status, there was a new Grand Mark. It read:

[Grand Mark – Poison Binder] You have formed a mutual bond with a poisonous spirit, even if it lacks control and has surrendered its will. By fuelling this Mark with mana, you can activate it like a Skill and grant one ally complete poison immunity for a short time.

His other lesser Marks had condensed into a nested Mark called [Treasures of the Middle Ascent] as well.

While he'd been assessing that, Kalee ran back through the vault, absorbing two more constructs into her staff and storing them away for later.

"I need to get Mantri back up and running…" Wulf muttered. Then, louder, he asked, "You got them? The Spirits for Seith and Irmond?"

"Got them!" she confirmed.

Wulf ran down the stairs until he reached her, then rushed to the end of the hallway, where a massive pipe snaked up the wall. It was wide enough to fit a horse across its diameter. The metal was hot to the touch, but not hot enough to burn yet. He reached out and placed a hand on the wall, then said, "Time to go."

He activated [Slither], boosting his strength, then gripped a chunk of the pipe and ripped. The metal bent beneath his hand, and with a high-pitched shriek, a chunk of pipe's side ripped off.

He ducked his head and jumped inside.