Chapter 232: Basics of Alchemy - Markets and Multiverses

“Let’s start with a quick definition of alchemy. Then, I’ll show you what a trained alchemist can do,” said mister Delmont.

“There are two basic types of alchemy: Affixation and Transmutation. Affixation is also occasionally referred to as ‘enchanting’ in modern times. It allows you to bind concepts to physical matter. For example, you might bind the concept of ‘strength’ to a pair of gloves, making the wearer stronger. Affixation is harder than transmutation, and is often used to help maximize the effects of potions.

"Transmutation is the art of turning one material into another by binding physical objects to other physical objects. The specifics of how that works is hard to explain, and we'll get more into that later. For now, remember that affixation binds the physical and the conceptual together. Transmutation binds the physical and the physical together."

Then, he took an ordinary rock out of his pocket, before he held it up so everyone could see it.

“Today we’ll focus on transmutation, because it’s simpler and easier to understand. Once you understand how matter works and get better at using binding essence, here's what you can do.”

Mister Delmont set the rock down in the middle of an empty tub. Then, took out a few different flasks of liquid, and started pouring them into the tub one after another. Finally, he placed his hands into the tub of liquid.

I felt a binding essence trickle out of his hand and into the tub, before the liquid started bubbling.

A few seconds passed by, and the rock started to change. The liquid from the tub flowed into the rock, as if it were a sponge sucking in the surrounding liquid. Moments later,, the rock started to glow. The liquid from the tub continued to flow into the rock, until after about a minute, it settled down.

Mister Delmont picked up the rock and held it out for us to see. Instead of ordinary stone, he was now holding a small hunk of silver.

Mister Delmont smiled.

“That is what a proper alchemist can do. Of course, the reagents that allow the creation of gold and silver are pretty expensive. You lose a bit of money every time you do this. But the heart of transmutation is turning materials into other materials, just like that rock. It involves a lot of chemistry and physics... but we're going to learn that by the time you graduate." He grinned at us, as several of the children oohed and aahed at the magically-produced chunk of silver.

I joined in.

Even though it might not be cost effective, the man transforming an ordinary rock into silver was pretty impressive. And transforming materials into gold or silver held a lot of potential. Even if something wasn’t cost-effective in this world, it might be incredibly profitable in a future world.

“Why does transmutation involve so much knowledge of chemistry?” Felix asked, his eyes shining with curiosity.

“Well, the key to this has to do with the nature of matter. You see, every piece of matter is actually made of smaller and smaller chunks of matter. At their very smallest, we call these little  building blocks of reality 'granules'.”

I blinked.

Granules?

“Granules are essentially tiny building blocks of matter. But the way that these granules connect to each other changes what they are. Transmutation is about messing with the chemical bonds formed between granules. Of course, some things are harder to break apart than others, so transmutation can become very convoluted very quickly. And living things resist transmutation, so getting useful chemicals from plants is difficult. Machinery has made this much easier, though. We'll get into the specifics later..”

“Really?" asked Felix, glancing at the tub of chemicals again. "What about bacteria? Even the simplest item should have lots of bacteria on it. If all living things resist transmutation, how do we handle that?”

The teacher opened his mouth, as if he was going to answer Felix's question, before he glanced at the rest of the class. “You know what, we can talk more about this later in the year if you want. We’re getting a little bit into a much more complicated subject, and we're going to learn it later anyway. The quick answer is that the first liquid I added to the rock gets rid of most bacteria. We'll talk about the way granule bonds work much later in your education.”

Felix reluctantly nodded, but I could see his eyes were still shining with curiosity.

He seemed even more excited to learn alchemy now. Meanwhile, I was really starting to suspect that this magic system wasn't for me. Granule bonds sounded very, very complicated.

<It’s kind of like those ‘atoms’ you were talking about back in our first life, Miria,> said Sallia. <I remember thinking that the concept was unusual when you first mentioned them. But it seems quite applicable here.>

I paused. <You’re right, actually. Maybe ‘granules’ are atoms? Or perhaps they’re the sub-components of atoms.> I said. Once I thought of it that way, it seemed less intimidating.

<The exact nature of granules might be different, though,> said Felix. <Don’t forget, the exact details of physics can change from one world to another. Granules might be this world’s version of atoms, but there might also be key differences in how they work. Don’t get too caught up in the concept of ‘atoms’ until we know more.>

I nodded. Felix was right. With how much the underlying physics of a dimension could change, I should be careful. It would be very easy to get stuck with a conception of reality that was totally wrong if I wasn't careful.

Mister Delmont cleared his throat, and returned to what I assumed was his lesson plan.

“Now, a lot of teachers wait until the second week to teach you this, but I think you kids can start a little earlier. One of the biggest hurdles an aspiring alchemist needs to overcome is learning to sense matter using their binding essence. After all, transmutation works by manipulating the smallest pieces of matter. It's very hard to sense those without any help. We have a lot of exercises we’ve developed over the centuries to train our senses. Today we'll start with one of the simplest ones. I’m going to give each of you a bowl filled with oil and water. I want you to try to sense the oil floating on top of the water. Then, I want you to inject some binding essence into the oil. It’s a special kind of oil that will change colors when it comes into contact with binding essence.” Then, the teacher grinned a bit more widely at us. “But be careful. The water also has something added to it to make it change to a different color if you add binding essence to it. If you have one color in your bowl, it means you succeeded. If you have two colors in your bowl, you need to try again. Injecting binding essence into the liquid should be instinctive for you. After all, it's the exact same thing people use to handle prosthetic limbs. It's not very difficult. But if you have trouble with it, ask me and I’ll help you.”

After that, mister Delmont poured two different kinds of liquids into bowls before handing them out.

I stuck my hand into the bowl, and spent several minutes trying and failing to use my essence-senses in the bowl of liquids. I had an easy time using my essence senses to sense the liquid in the bowl. I had a very hard time distinguishing the oil from the water.

Finally, after fifteen minutes, I thought I had sensed the oil but not the water. I tried injecting my binding essence into the bowl… only to get a bowl filled with two differently colored liquids. I had messed up.

<Did either of you get it already?> I asked. <I messed up.>

Felix grinned, and showed me his one-color bowl. <Got it after only a minute,> he said.

Anise nodded. <It only took me five minutes. Sensing the oil was a bit hard, but I got it after a bit of trying.>

I sighed. <Can you help me? I'm having a hard time with it.> I asked, as I got a replacement bowl of liquid.

<Sure. No problem,> said Felix. Despite Felix's help, I still spent another ten minutes struggling before I got it. I was one of the last people in class to complete the exercise. Which led me to wonder if there was such a thing as ‘awful’ talent for handling some kinds of essence. The four of us were exceptional at handling one kind of essence. Was it also possible for the reverse to be true?

Once the entire class finished the exercise, mister Delmont gave us all wide grins.

“Well done everyone. We’ll keep doing basic sensing exercises for a while, until you get more used to using your senses. Don’t worry if you messed up - it takes longer for some people to get used to it. But as you can see, your essence senses can act as a kind of ‘second pair of eyes’ if you use it well. This is the foundation for transmutation.” He took our bowls of oil and water and dumped them into a waste container, before he returned to the front of the room.

“All right, let’s do some basic addition and subtraction now. This won’t be immediately useful for alchemy, but you need to know it if you want to do real transmutation.”

From there, mister Delmont moved into more basic school subjects. Addition. Literacy. Things that were useful for anyone to know, but which the three of us were already quite capable of. Mister Delmont rounded out the lesson with a few tidbits of history and geography. I saw Anise perk up a bit when Mister Delmont mentioned the Zelyrian empire, although he didn't go into much detail.

“That’s all I wanted to cover today. I’ll see you all again tomorrow,” he said, before packing up his supplies and herding us out of the classroom. A few moments later, he ushered us to the front of the school, and then waited there. It took me a few minutes to realize that he was waiting with us until our parents to picked us up. 

Which was something I hadn't thought about.

I had forgotten most seven-year-olds weren’t independent enough to walk to and from school on their own. The four of us were able to protect ourselves, and we could assess threats pretty well. I had forgotten regular children couldn't do the same. Just another thing that made me bad at mimicking regular children my age.

I sighed, and rubbed my forehead, before I decided to ask Old Mo to pick us up next time. I told Mister Delmont that we lived right next to the school, and we walked home for the day.

<Did you have fun?> I asked Felix, as we walked away from the school.

<I enjoyed learning the basics of Alchemy,> he said. <I hope we move past addition and subtraction quickly. I already know basic math, so this is a pretty boring topic. But I like the teacher's teaching style. And I'm sure we'll get to the fun stuff after we have a foundation of knowledge to build on.>

I smiled. I was glad to hear that Felix had enjoyed his time in school.

<How about you, Anise?>

<I had fun. Showing Sallia everything was interesting!> she said.

I smiled.

There had been a few hiccups in my first use of binding essence, but our first day of school had been a success.

Author’s Note:

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