Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

The first few weeks of the semester passed in a blink. Everyone went about their tasks, getting used to their schedule, and with Wulf getting his feet under him, he had no major alchemical breakthroughs.

Until the third Seventhday, that was. It was their day off, but there was still meal service, and that meant the chefs were in the kitchen. After trimming his newly sprouting spring-thyme, he carried a handful to the kitchen, taking a back route through the hallways. Spring-thyme was hardy, and could handle a little trimming even early in its life cycle, and Wulf really needed to get his supplies rolling again.

He arrived in the kitchen in time to catch the chef he'd intercepted earlier. She was just starting her shift, just walking in the door. After a few seconds, she spotted Wulf and turned toward him. "I didn't think you'd be back, boy."

Wulf shrugged, leaning back against the outer wall of the kitchen. He was staying out of the way. "I have what you asked for." He held out a leather pouch. "Fresh spring-thyme."

"Fresh?" the chef exclaimed.

"Fresh."

"How? It's late summer, verging on autumn." She stepped closer, dodging out of the way of a scurrying non-Ascendant chef. "I was expecting dried spring-thyme, summoned through some illicit smuggling ring."

"I have my ways," Wulf said.

"Ah, so you're a middle-man?" the chef asked. "Want to keep your source for yourself?" She gave him a smile. "Fine, keep your sources. But let me check it."

He tossed her the leather pouch, and she opened it up, revealing a pile of small green leaves, almost circular. Each was crisp, and had a distinct fresh flavour that couldn't be found in any other plant.

"This is the real deal," she said. "A little young, perhaps, but it'll do the trick. What did you want for it, again?"

"A bottle of vinegar, and a tablespoon of phoenix dust."

"You got it," she said. "I'll be right back."

She darted away into the kitchen, set the pouch on a shelf, then disappeared into a back room. A moment later, she returned carrying a cloudy glass bottle filled to the neck with vinegar, and a different pouch.

Wulf took the bottle, sniffed it, and recoiled. "Yep, that's vinegar." He peered into the pouch, and sure enough, there was a pile of glowing orange-gold dust inside. "And phoenix dust. Wonderful."

The chef held out her hand, and Wulf shook it. "Good doing business with you," he said.

"What's your name?"

"Are you going to report me?" he tilted his head.

"I want to know who I should look for if I need more."

Wulf chuckled. "Hrothen. I'm a second year."

"Chef Pellow," she replied. "Say, you bring me some more fresh spring-thyme in a few weeks, and I'll get you the same trade."

"It's a deal," he said, then shook her hand again.

~ ~ ~

With that out of the way, he could finally begin making tinctures again. His goal was to push a potion through the Silver tiers. With one of those, he could start punching up against the professors. It might not be enough to poison them, considering how old many of them were, and how many Marks they'd have, but it could begin to even the odds.

And that was only if he absolutely had to.

He started by watering his grasses with the luck potion he'd made earlier. It was the least important of the potions, and it wouldn't kill the plants. Luck wouldn't help him much, except when it came to the results of potion-making, but he didn't have anything in particular in mind.

While he let the plants absorb the mana and arcane essences of the luck potion, he distributed his vinegar among the vials and refilled the burn-box with phoenix dust.

Though the grass wouldn't be at its full strength yet, he used the last of his earlier clippings to make one more potion—this time for Seith. She was facing her brother in two days, and he couldn't afford to wait for all of the potion's power to absorb into the grass.

He did consider for a moment that it might not exactly be fair, but considering her brother had a year at the Centralis Academy, recipient to the better mana-water and supplies, he surely had a leg-up on her. If this was purely about skill, that wouldn't be a fair fight without a potion. Wulf was giving her a way to even the odds.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

To use the grass on its own wouldn't create a useful potion, so he had to hope that it transmuted into something good. Given the quality of his ingredients, plus his stirring ability, and the fact that he'd made it into a tincture, he estimated there was about a seventy percent chance of the result being non-poisonous.

After a half-hour of dissolving, extracting, stirring, and infusing with mana, Wulf had finished a potion:

Leopard's Breath Potion (Middle-Silver Quality)

Increases the user's strength proportional to their dexterity for an hour, then inflicts slowness for a day.

Decent luck, Wulf figured. He'd gotten a mostly positive effect, and a minor detrimental effect. When Seith went to sleep, he could use [Deadline] to temporarily stall her, but then the slowness would seem like it was gone instantly when she woke up.

With the potion in-hand, he stepped out of his void pendant and sealed it up, then left the dorm room. It was mid-afternoon, and the others were hanging out in the common room. He'd better join them.

The common room in the west wing was much larger than the Istalis Academy's common rooms. He guessed it was about thirty paces by thirty paces, with a high, arched ceiling. Though it was located at the very center of the dorm wing, with no windows to the outside, shafts had been fitted with mirrors, which funneled outside daylight into the room, simulating daylight.

There was a brazier at the center, but it was unlit. In fact, there weren't any candles lit in the common room. Chairs and couches were scattered around the edges, and there was only one other group of students—a cluster of girls sitting in the corner and gossiping.

Wulf found Kalee, Seith, and Irmond sitting around the unlit brazier, talking about their weeks.

Wulf sat down on a chair facing the other direction and looked toward them. First, he handed Seith the potion. "For your tournament fight."

Seith took the potion and looked down at it, then, with her bracer, assessed its strength. Her eyes went wide. "Wulf, this is incredible. I can't…"

"Hey, consider it a reconciliation for, well, me beating you up the first tournament. You'll do amazing."

"With this, I sure as hell will," she said. "But…is it fair?"

"I've already tossed the morality of it around in my mind." Wulf shrugged. "If you don't want to use it, that's up to you. But something tells me you've been behind the rest of your family all your life, and that you could use an opportunity to catch up."

"Yeah…" she muttered. "This should synergize well with my…Artificer-y-ness. Temporarily converting dexterity to strength? Did you do that on purpose?"

Wulf shook his head.

"Do I get a fancy potion for my fight?" Irmond asked.

"Do you want one?" Wulf tilted his head.

"Well…kinda." Irmond crossed his arms. "But just once. I don't want to get reliant on potions or you, no offence."

"None taken." Wulf nodded. "But we still have a couple weeks until yours, so I'll make it closer to the date."

Irmond grinned. "Sounds good, roommate."

"Now, as for you, Kalee…" Wulf began.

"Please, no," she whispered. "They taste so bad. Not that I didn't appreciate what you made for me last year, but I should have this under control."

"Understandable."

"But I'll help you if you need," she said.

"How so?"

"You need constructs, or anything?" she asked.

"Well, I've been thinking about what to do with the storm spirit's core," he whispered. "I know I need to do something with it, but I just have no ideas." Wulf crossed his arms and leaned back. "Clearly, the Field can manipulate time."

"How do you know that?" Irmond asked.

Both Wulf and Kalee stared at him incredulously.

"Oh." He cleared his throat. "Yeah. You two."

Wulf rolled his eyes, then reached into his haversack and pulled out the glassy storm spirit core from an inner pocket. "Don't stare into it too long, or you'll go into a bit of a trance. Part of me thinks it's…altering time, somehow. It only feels like seconds pass, but in reality, minutes have gone by."

Already, Seith didn't listen, and was staring into the swirling clouds in its center. Wulf pulled it away and tucked it into his sleeve. "You guys don't listen very well, do you?"

"Sorry," Seith muttered.

"What if you crushed it up and used it as a powder in your potions?" Irmond asked. "It'd probably make a decent ingredient."

"It's Low-Ruby," Wulf said. "I could probably get that potion up to Orichalcum if I really tried, but it'd only give me one or two potions, and then it would be gone. I'd rather use it for equipment."

"You're the one taking Dr. Arnau's spirits class," Kalee said. "Have you learned anything interesting about spirits?"

Wulf pursed his lips. "Not really. We've been going over the different types and classifications of Spirits. Which…it's not been super useful, but I understand why. But there are some spirits which get used in enormous constructs like the Oroniths. They're mountain spirits at their very core, and technically, they have their own cores, just like this one."

Kalee rubbed her chin. "I suppose there are plenty of constructs that benefit from spiritual aid. But it's usually as a power source or a structural source, taking a different type of mana and injecting it into the device." She crossed her arms over her stomach. "Or, like golems and Oroniths, allowing it to form a budding relationship with a user, like you."

Wulf nodded. "I see. I'll keep thinking about what they can do." He ran his thumb along the surface. Manipulating time, if it took the very last of the Field's strength, must have been a very rare—and nearly impossible—ability. Even if he could do it, he wasn't sure if it'd be worth it, considering how much of a strain it would be on his mana, probably just to rewind a few seconds.

But there had to be something this core could do. He wasn't giving up on it yet. Just…it wasn't a problem for this week.