"What? You need to wear a protective suit while working here. Alchemy can be very dangerous sometimes." Nicolas clarified.

Magnus and Ragnar took a sigh of relief and followed his further instructions.

"To be successful at alchemy, one needs to understand the value of an item. To understand how it would be worth in another material. You should know what each item in your alchemical formula consists of in exact quantities.

"To create something out of alchemy, you need to give it something in return. It could be something small but expensive, or it could be something in large quantity but worthless.

"The next main component of Alchemy is the transmutation patterns. These patterns are like a circuit in your muggle electrical appliances. These circle's each line and curves define what is going to happen to the item you place on it. How much it's going to be combined with the other substance, what is going to be the end result, all of it is controlled by these circles.

"I was told that you two have a great memory, so I will give you two books to memorise all transmutation circles I know of. You will have till tomorrow morning to remember them." Nicolas handed them two thick books.

"Next, I will demonstrate to you how to produce gold," Nicolas said and started preparing his alchemy table.

Magnus's eyes shined as soon as he heard gold. This was a very good motivation to learn alchemy even better. Ragnar was the same to some extent. But his gold lust did not go as deep as Magnus'.

Both of them flocked to Nicolas' side to see every single move and record it in their minds.

Nicolas started giving them the lesson, "Creating gold was the driving factor of the earlier alchemists. But, creating gold can be more accurately explained in muggle science than magical, as the magical method sounds more occult and unbelievable as compared to the scientific one."

"Wait, you studied muggle subjects?" Magnus asked in shock.

Nicolas nodded and showed him some pictures, "Of course, I have had one on one conversations with Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Nikola Tesla, Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci and many more. Many of them were wizards themselves."

This was a real eye-opener for Magnus, this meant Nicolas was like the best of both worlds.

"That's amazing, professor. Most wizards are too proud to even talk to muggles, let alone study their science." he praised.

"Haha, thank you. Ah, let's continue. To make gold, you need to understand how gold came into existence in the first place, and this takes us to the origin of the planets, stars and their eventual deaths.

"Gold, like most heavy metals, is forged inside stars through a process called nuclear fusion. In the beginning, following the Big Bang, only two elements were formed: hydrogen and helium. A few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the first stars were blazing away with their nuclear fires. These nuclear fires forced lighter elements together to make slightly heavier elements, and these nuclear reactions released a huge amount of energy.

"Gradually, these early stars began making elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen — working their way up through the periodic table towards iron. But there was still no gold in the Universe. Once these earlier stars ran out of light elements to burn, they kicked in on the heavier ones.

"Finally, as they burnt silicon to make iron, they exploded as a supernova, and for a few short moments, each star would release as much energy as all the regular stars in that galaxy put together. In that cataclysmic explosion, for the first time, atoms of gold were manufactured and then hurled out into the Universe, along with the other debris from that explosion.

"On Earth, gold finally reached us some 200 million years after the formation of the planet when meteorites packed with gold and other metals bombarded its surface. During the formation of Earth, molten iron sank to its centre to make the core.

"What we must do today is replicate that same process, but on such a small scale that the gold produced will be of no use. This is the only reason why not all alchemists are rich with gold, and why so many tried to create a philosopher's stone.

"The truth is, the philosopher's stone is the only tool that can help you create gold in large quantities. Let's proceed now."

Nicolas drew a transmutation circle on the granite tabletop. "Concentrate on this now."

"We will use all the things necessary to make gold and put it on this transmutation circle. After this, all you need is a power source for this reaction. Now, you can not use your own magic for this, because that is unstable.

"For this, you will need another alchemical creation, called the magic crystal. You can make this by taking a silicon crystal, adding some oak root ash and your own magic in it.

"Put the magic crystal in the middle of the circle and give a tiny push of your own magic to start the reaction. Now, watch the reaction." He gave clear instructions and then finally stepped back.

Magnus and Ragnar noted something happening on the alchemy table. Slowly, the items on the circle started hovering an inch above and disintegrating. It looked so magical to see even by magical standards.

All of it was going directly into the magic crystal in the middle. The magic crystal started glowing soon after. A while later it started emitting a blinding light.

"This is the peak of this reaction," Nicolas spoke.

*BOOM*

With a sudden burst, the light disappeared, and with it everything on the table also vanished.

"What happened to the granite tabletop?" Magnus asked.

"Gone. This is why not everyone can practice alchemy, as it's very hard on one's pocket." Nicolas said.

Ragnar quickly went close to the table, but he only had confusion written on his face, "Professor, what happened to the gold? Where is it?"

Nicolas smiled, "Haha, you can't see the gold with naked eyes. You need a magnifying glass. Look."

Magnus and Ragnar looked through the glass. There were 3 tiny specks of gold dust.

Magnus rubbed his head in frustration, "Are you joking with us, professor?"

"No, why would I? I told you, the price of creating gold is too much for it to make anyone rich." Nicolas reminded them.

Disheartened and quite possibly bamboozled, they accepted this simple fact. They accepted their fate that there was no quick way to get rich.

"Here I was thinking of making gold every day." Ragnar sighed in disappointment.

*Pat Pat*

Nicolas patted their shoulders and laughed, "Don't be sad, my students. There are many ways to get rich, the sky is the limit."

"Huh, then tell us a method," Magnus asked seriously.

"I already told you, the sky is the limit." Nicolas blurted.

???

There was confusion on Magnus and Ragnar's faces. Ragnar then asked, "What do you mean, professor?"

*Sigh*

Nicolas took a seat and showed them a document, "Look at this. I found this from a scientist friend of mine not long ago. There is this asteroid orbiting around the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Unlike most asteroids that are made up of rocks or ice, scientists believe that Psyche 16 is a dense and largely metallic object thought to be the core of an earlier planet that failed in formation. This means it could be fully filled with precious metals, gold included."

"HOLY GORGEOUS MERLIN'S TITS! It is estimated to be worth 10,000 quadrillion dollars." Ragnar exclaimed at the top of his lungs as he read about it.

"GODDAMIT! I DON'T HAVE TITS! Stop cursing in my name." Merlin screamed from the side, while Arthur laughed. But they were promptly ignored.

But then Ragnar's shoulders fell, "Ah, its dimensions are 279, 232, and 189 kilometres. It's too big to bring here."

However, he was intrigued by the silence of Magnus. He turned to look at his brother, but what he saw scared him to the core.

~OH NO! This face... I have never seen such a greedy face on him before. GOD SAVE THIS ASTROID NOW!~

*BAM*

Magnus put the documents aside, his eyes shining in gold. "IT'S DECIDED! Let's not worry about storing it. Let's reach this BAD BOY FIRST!"

~He's totally going to store it somewhere.~ Ragnar read through Magnus' face.

*Sigh*

"Ah! Youth." Nicolas muttered from the side, not having even the slightest doubt about Magnus' crazy ambitions because even he has made a crazy trip to the sun in the past while creating the Philosopher's stone. But that was a tale for another time.

[You can see the gold and the astroid on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

GIVE GORILLA SOME LOVE! THROW STONES PLES!

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You can read 14 advance chapters or my Naruto fic, and more at -patreon.com/misterimmortal.

Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely* *Franklin Walley*